Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus has confirmed that Caleb Williams will be the starting quarterback for the 2024 NFL season.
The Bears kicked off their rookie minicamp on Friday, following an eventful offseason where they strengthened their offense through free agency, drafts, and trades. The team picked Williams as the first overall choice in the 2024 NFL Draft, followed by receiver Rome Odunze at No.. 9.
Odunze joins a promising offense that includes Keenan Allen, DJ Moore, and running back D'Andre Swift. With many predicting Williams to lead the offense, Eberflus quickly made it clear to the former USC quarterback about his role.
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"No conversation," Eberflus stated. "He's the starter."
Eberflus was firm in his statement as anticipation grows around the Bears and their future with Williams in charge. However, he acknowledged that the franchise - which has never had a 4,000-yard passing season from a starting quarterback in its over 100-year history - has several milestones they expect their rookie starter to achieve before full training camp begins.
"Full understanding of the concepts: run, pass, checks, and his fundamentals," Eberflus said. "The fundamentals that we have in place for him, which, he's really good fundamentally, but we have some things we want him to work on and improve as well."
Eberflus' expectations were hardly a surprise, given that Williams is a former Heisman Trophy winner and was selected first overall. The Bears were the only NFL team Williams visited during the draft process, and the Chicago coaching staff had frequent discussions with him about their offense even before commissioner Roger Goodell announced his name at the draft in Detroit last month.
Caleb Williams is impressing players and staff throughout the Bears organization after arriving as the first overall pick (Getty Images)Eberflus has already praised Williams for his leadership skills, which he has shown during his early days with the team. He took the initiative to work with private quarterback coach Will Hewlett on the fundamentals of the Bears offense before minicamp.
"You always want to get ahead if you can, and so with those things that they gave me, I would take it to my QB trainer and we would use the cadence," Williams said. "We would use the drops, we would use all those things so that's not something that's on my mind throughout the process of when I actually got here."
Eberflus shared that he provided Williams and Hewlett with a foundational understanding of the offense, including key terminology, play layout, starting signals, and huddle management strategies. He believes this has been instrumental for their progress, as the 22-year-old confidently declared: "Right now I feel pretty good."
"Obviously we'll go out here today, and we're going to have a few mess-ups, probably, and things like that, working to do, eliminate those as fast as possible. But you need those things to grow and progress throughout the time and years and things like that. So excited, but I feel pretty good right now."
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