As the Chicago Bears wrapped up their mandatory minicamp, attention now turns to training camp which will kick off in roughly five weeks.
For some players, the next five weeks will be an opportunity to relax, go on vacation and unwind before the grueling work begins.
Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams still plans to work, though, and Bears fans have to love it. The guy is preparing to come into Year 1 as ready as he possibly can be. Part of getting himself ready for the regular season, too, will obviously include the preseason.
But, it's only June, and at the moment, we aren't too sure just how much he'll wind up playing in the exhibition games. To no one's surprise, neither is head coach Matt Eberflus. After Wednesday's practice, the head coach answered a question about Williams' preseason playing time:
"That’s a process we’re going through right now. I think it’s something we have to look at and talk about and it’s what we’ll be doing here in the next couple days. I’m not going to forecast out exactly what it is right now because I haven’t made any decisions yet."
Matt Eberflus will likely use recent rookie preseasons as a measuring stick for Caleb Williams
Eberflus went on to talk about last year's rookies, like C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young and Anthony Richardson, using them as an example for what we might end up seeing from Williams in his preseason debut.
"You look at last year’s reps," Eberflus said. ", , , they all got between 45 and 65 reps in the preseason. So you look at those things and you look at the past and we’ll be looking a little deeper than that and go back a few years. So you’re always looking at that and gathering the data."
One thing we can assume is true, beyond anything else, is that Williams likely won't play in the Bears' first preseason game when they take on the Houston Texans in the NFL Hall of Fame Game on August 1. Typically, you won't see any notable players in that game. Therefore, we'll probably have to wait until the Bears take on the Bills on August 10 before we see Williams take the field for the first time.
For the Bears' three main preseason games, they'll get to see the likes of Josh Allen, Joe Burrow and Patrick Mahomes if all teams decide to give their starting quarterbacks some run. That'll be a fun test for the defense, and for Williams to square off against some of the elite passers in the league.