Caleb Williams has been a focal point of NFL training camp coverage as the second-year Chicago Bears quarterback continues learning the offense under Ben Johnson. Despite some people’s concerns, Bears general manager Ryan Poles isn’t one of them.
Poles appeared on Wednesday’s edition of “Mully & Haugh Show” on 670 The Score and spotlighted the growth that he’s seen from Williams heading into Year 2 as the Bears’ starting quarterback.
“For a young quarterback, you can see his progress that he’s made throughout training camp and really over the last two years—night and day—just in terms of the operation,” Poles added. “And there’s still room to improve. But he’s taking ownership of that, being open to being coached hard, and he continues to get better.”
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The 23-year-old’s most notable moment during training came during a fast-paced throwing challenge, where he had to hit targets in a net. Williams struggled with accuracy, and his emotional reaction quickly drew attention from the national media.
While there’s been chatter over how Williams has looked in training camp or displaying his emotions as a sign of frustration, Poles isn’t worried about that and notes that this is all part of the development proccess their young signal caller must go through.
“With young players, it’s usually two, three steps forward, maybe a step back, two, three steps forward, step back,” Poles added. “We’ve gone through camp. But I love to see him continue to improve with the operation. And he’s got an opportunity to do that here in this first preseason game that he’s going to play.”
Heading into Year 2 under a new head coach, Williams faces pressure to take the next step in his development, especially with an offensive-minded coach like Johnson. He and his teammates will need to keep working through the challenges of learning a new offense during practice and the preseason.
