Top overall draft pick Caleb Williams will make his preseason debut on Saturday when the Chicago Bears face Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, N.Y.
Bears coach Matt Eberflus said Thursday that Williams will join the team’s other healthy starters in competing in a “range of plays” in the exhibition game. Eberflus, however, stopped short of noting exactly how many snaps Williams and the others will play against the Bills.
“We want to see a good flow and a good rhythm to it,” Eberflus said.
Williams did not play in last Thursday’s Hall of Fame Game against the Houston Texans. Eberflus, however, said Thursday that he feels Williams is ready to take the field.
“He’s right where he needs to be right now,” Eberflus said. “He’s having some good days, some good periods, and then some other ones that he’s learning from adversity and a setback. I told him to just lean into that. When you have a setback or have adversity, don’t shy away from it. Lean into it and then learn from it and then get better from it.
“A lot of people want to hide and shrink away from adversity. That’s not what we do. We lean into it and get better from it, invest our time, grow and improve, and that’s what he’s been doing. He’s got some moments out there today that he’s gonna need to do that in today’s practice, and I’m sure he’s gonna have some in the game.”
Williams, 22, was the first of six quarterbacks drafted during the opening round in April.
Live repetitions are impossible to simulate in the NFL, which is the reason Bills coach Sean McDermott plans to put Allen and most of Buffalo’s starters on the field Saturday.
“It’s an important step, hard to simulate the speed of the game and so getting that in preseason is important, going through warm-ups and the energy that comes with playing a game in front of fans, and being able to manage that. So, there’s a lot of reasons for it, like I said, it’s just another step,” McDermott said Thursday.
Allen sat out the preseason opener in 2023, but the Bills are getting the offense up to speed with a number of new receivers. Rookie Keon Coleman projects as a top-of-the-depth chart option for Allen following the offseason trade of Stefon Diggs to the Texans. No. 2 wide receiver Gabe Davis left for Jacksonville in free agency.
“There’s a number of new faces on our offense also, including his receiving corps, and so some of that is baked into this,” McDermott said.
Allen said Wednesday that he is happy with the “guys we brought in,” a cast of new options with veterans Curtis Samuel, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Mack Hollins, K.J. Hamler and Chase Claypool among them.
The receiver Allen has the most reps with is third-year wideout Khalil Shakir. He averaged 15.7 yards per reception on 39 grabs for 611 yards with two touchdowns in 2023 after a 10-catch rookie season in 2022.
McDermott identified Shakir as one of the offensive standouts in training camp.
–Field Level Media
