‘Reps, reps, reps’: Bears to start Caleb Williams, first-team offense, defense vs. Bills

After watching Ben Johnson’s first game as head coach from the sideline, the Bears’ entire first-team offense – including quarterback Caleb Williams – will play Sunday in the preseason against the Buffalo Bills at Soldier Field.

As for how much time Williams gets, that’s still to be determined. The Bears and Bills practice together on Friday. The defensive starters will also play in the preseason game.  

“We’ll talk about that,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday at Halas Hall. “We’ll see how the joint practice goes and reassess. There’s things that you kind of have in the back of your head when you make the plan for training camp and as you go through training camp, things change.”

Backup Tyson Bagent played the entire first half against the Miami Dolphins in the preseason opener before being replaced by Case Keenum. Williams worked out with receivers DJ Moore, Rome Odunze, Olamide Zaccheaus, tight end Cole Kmet and running back D’Andre Swift three hours before kickoff. They also practiced with the rest of the players who didn’t play against the Dolphins on Monday. 

“I’ve been pretty consistent with the thought of reps, reps, reps are the most important thing to get (Williams) up to speed,” Johnson said. “And by the plan that we had a week ago, we were able to get him probably somewhere between 80 and 100 more reps than we would’ve been able to do had he played in the game. This week, it’s a different schedule. Different length of time in terms of in between games and all that.”

But getting reps for the starters isn’t the only motivation behind the decision to play the full lineup on Sunday.

“Family Fest, we stayed at the hotel, and then getting to the stadium early and going through that process and then now, it’s a night game, and so it’s a little bit different procedure,” Johnson said. “And it doesn’t matter if you’re a rookie or if you’re a 10th-year guy, I think going through those steps with a new staff, I think that those are already critical components.”

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