Here’s how Chicago Bears veterans will help QB Caleb Williams navigate his rookie season

LAKE FOREST – Chicago Bears training camp was a marathon.

Thanks to an invitation to the Hall of Fame game in August, the Bears started almost a week earlier than most years. What ensued was six weeks of endless hype surrounding No. 1 overall draft pick Caleb Williams.

At long last, Bears fans will get to see Williams in a real game this week.

The Bears open the season against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday at Soldier Field. Williams will make his long-awaited debut. A new-look Bears team hopes to show fans that this group is different. The Bears added significant talent around the rookie quarterback.

Keenan Allen, Rome Odunze and D’Andre Swift were brought here to help Williams. Plus, the Bears invested in two new centers and added Gerald Everett as a second weapon at tight end behind Cole Kmet. None of that, however, will matter if Williams isn’t the franchise quarterback the Bears so desperately need him to be.

There are going to be bumps and bruises along the way. There are with every rookie quarterback. As a rookie, the Bears simply want to see Williams be a facilitator.

“We all know what he can do in terms of his arm talent,” Bears head coach Matt Eberflus said. “In terms of throwing on the move and those types of things. But in the early parts of the game and early downs, he’s just asked to play point guard, have a great operation, play a point guard, get the ball to our skill [players], either by handing it off or throwing it to them, and letting them do the running and moving around and gaining the yards.”

In the early parts of the game and early downs, he’s just asked to play point guard.”

—  Matt Eberflus, Bears head coach

Bears general manager Ryan Poles echoed that last week, noting that Williams needs to “lean on” the veterans in the room. Poles has taken a measured approach while watching Williams work throughout camp. As the GM, he can’t allow his inner fan to take over.

Still, Poles has as much invested in Williams as anyone. Poles was part of a Kansas City front office that drafted Patrick Mahomes in 2017. Williams’ situation is different from Mahomes’ rookie season, when the future MVP sat behind veteran Alex Smith.

But what stood out most when Mahomes did take the field was that the moment was never too big for him.

“When the pressure went up, he was calm,” Poles said. “Then when it was time to do something special, he was able to do it and connect. But I also think – we probably don’t talk about it enough – he really gave opportunities for special players to be special. I think that’s what took it over the edge.”

The 2018 Chiefs already had Pro Bowl targets in Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce when Mahomes became the starter. In 2024, Poles knew he needed to give his rookie quarterback weapons. That’s why he added Allen and Odunze to a wide receiver group that already included DJ Moore.

The NFL season is longer than any other level of football. Rookies never played 17 games in college or in high school. As Kmet noted last week, “the rookie wall is so real.”

Kmet said he felt it in December of his rookie season in 2020. The NFL season is a grind for everyone, but especially for the first-timers.

“It happens to, I think, everybody at a certain point whether someone wants to admit it or not,” Kmet said. “You just don’t really know when that will hit and you can kind of get through it a little bit, but it’s going to hit and it hits hard.”

The Bears have a particularly tough schedule late in the year, too. They don’t play an NFC North matchup until Nov. 17. Six of their final eight games are against division opponents, plus they have a December road trip to San Francisco.

Williams and Odunze will hit a wall at some point. That’s where vets such as Kmet and Allen come in.

“They don’t need to be babied or anything in that sense, but we’re going to be here for them, for them to lean on,” Kmet said. “We’ve got a good receptive group of veterans, I think, and I think that’s the luxury of when you’re a rookie and you come into a situation I think that we have, you can lean on other guys.”

It’s time to see just what type of environment the Bears have created for their rookie quarterback. On paper it looks good. But what’s on paper goes out the window on Sunday when the season kicks off for real.