Bears

Bears QB Caleb Williams spoke about coming into his own as a team leader and how he has grown to become comfortable in his role as the franchise quarterback in Chicago.

“I wasn’t having the best practice, so I got really frustrated and [WR] Kalif [Raymond] came up to me and said, ‘Everybody is looking at you,'” Williams said, via Courtney Cronin of ESPN. “That really resonated for me because that’s been something from my first year to now, I want to be as stoic as possible, good, bad or different. Not be too high or too low for the guys. So when he said that to me, it stuck with me and it bothered me. So, just every day having that type of mindset. Be as stoic as possible, strong as possible for the guys because they are looking at me.”

Williams’ growing pains in HC Ben Johnson‘s offense were headline news last summer. This year, it’s been smoother.

“It’s a hell of a lot more fun for me than it was last year just because it was, ‘Dude, I feel like I was drowning trying to breathe or stay alive and wait for a boat to come around last year.'” Williams said he told RB coach Eric Studesville. “Now this year it’s being able to start where we finished last year, playcalls and words and verbiage and speak the same language and now it’s being able to grow more from an earlier stage than maybe doing it a little bit earlier in the season or halfway through the season, speaking on things that really help throughout the year. That’s the advantage. That’s a part of growth. Being in the position, you don’t just get those nuggets and things like that just because of the position. You’ve got to work hard, you’ve got to grow and you’ve got to go win games on Sundays, and I’ve said that before. That’s always my mindset: Win games on Sundays, be the same guy every day, come in here and work, do all the things right that I’m supposed to do. If there’s extra that I need to do, if it’s sitting down and talking to them, if it’s on the field and we’ve got to yell and get them back to the huddle, any of those little things, it’s whatever it takes to get to the end goal.”

“I think it comes with the comfort level in terms of knowing what’s being asked in terms of the offense,” Johnson added. *“We’re all aligned on what we want a certain route to look like, where we want the ball to be thrown and so, you know, routes on air he can go out there and tell the receiver, ‘Hey, you’re missing your depth,’ or ‘Expect the ball to be at this spot.’ Whether we’re out there in a practice setting or he likes to keep those guys out there after and work a little bit more after practice. I think...