Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears’ first-team offense may not have scored a touchdown during their preseason debut against the Buffalo Bills, but it was enough to generate even more excitement about Williams’s potential.
The first-team offense led two scoring drives that ended in a field goal by Cairo Santos and the takeaway for Williams was the highlight throw he made to Cole Kmet.
While the Bears’ offensive line did thrive during pass protection, there were some struggles in run protection. That could be tied to the fact that Ryan Bates and Nate Davis were sidelined on Saturday due to injury,
On the side of the defense, Gervon Dexter and Dominique Robinson both found themselves with stops in the offensive backfield. Dexter, who is primed for a big year in his development and offers high upside as a run defender as we saw in his college days at Florida should be a player to keep your eyes on if you are a Bears fan. Jaylon Johnson appears to have picked up right where he left off, almost picking off former Bear, Mitch Trubisky on a play where he had receiver Keon Coleman completely blanketed and would’ve picked it off if it weren’t for a great “defensive play” by Coleman.
See, it’s not just a training camp thing. #Bears.
— Bear Goggles On (@BearGogglesOn) August 10, 2024
At the end of the day, it is preseason, and fans should not overreact. However, Bears fans should continue to look forward to the future of Williams after a very solid debut. If there is any real takeaway it should be the interior offensive line and their run blocking in particular. On paper, the interior offensive line is still well below average at best, and their preseason debut more than confirms that notion. Due to the nature of the weak interior line, I will boldly predict that the Bears will not come close to a top-20 rushing attack this year.
