Bears Training Camp Notes: Caleb Clicking, Burden Back (But Behind), More ...Middle East

Chicago Bears training camp turned a week old today. Head Coach Ben Johnson celebrated the occasion by ratcheting the intensity, telling reporters this morning before practice that they would hear the pads cracking more today.

Multiple people in attendance today confirmed that the cracking of pads was indeed heard, including Greg Braggs Jr., who tweeted that rookie wide receiver Luther Burden III took a big hit from linebacker Noah Sewell early in team drills—which Burden finally participated in today.

But football noises weren’t the story of the day in Lake Forest; it was the quarterback, who, by many accounts, had his best day of practice thus far.

Caleb Williams Shines as Growth Continues to Become Evident

With video recording not permitted at training camp practices, we don’t have many video highlights that weren’t shot by the team’s social media team and edited for their social media accounts. Here and there, you’ll get a video from a rogue fan on X, and this video that surfaced from today’s practice is so good.

DOT BY CALEB. PI on Kyler pic.twitter.com/pRXCHZLmXL

From under center, and in play action, Williams uncorks a beautiful deep ball that would have gone for a catch if not for Kyler Gordon’s blatant pass interference. All those things are on the shortlist of focal points for Williams this season, and all three were executed to perfection by the rookie quarterback on that play.

Also impressive on the play, was the Cole Kmet and Colston Loveland deployment, which featured both tight ends lined up next to each other on the left side, and them double-teaming edge rusher Austin Booker before Loveland leaks out into a designed route on the other side of the defensive line, a clear safety valve for Williams if the deep look isn’t there. We’re seeing more and more of Ben Johnson’s offense taking shape, and that’s a design I enjoyed watching this morning.

Speaking of designs, here’s a play that appears to have D’Andre Swift and Loveland running a pick route, which created some confusion for the coverage and allowed Loveland to get open on the other side of the chains in a third-down situation, which Williams connected with him on to move the chains. Also of note in this play is Ozzy Trapilo winning against a good swim on the edge, with a great second effort to give Williams the time to get to Loveland in the read and convert.

Caleb converts on 3rd down connecting with Loveland pic.twitter.com/rmY0xPQIyA

If you’re not impressed yet, perhaps I can interest you in some fabulous pocket presence and a cross-body completion to Rome Odunze?

Romeeeee pic.twitter.com/sTyOW3Spfl

Alright, last one I promise:

There we go DJ pic.twitter.com/iVCcMiZEvi

In that clip, we’re under center, again using play action and pre-snap motion to create a route package that features D’Andre Swift and DJ Moore running routes to the sideline open at two separate levels. Williams is clean and on time and delivers a good ball to Moore for a completion.

I don’t know what was more impressive today: Williams’s work on recently installed concepts, Johnson’s concepts and designs, or X user Sam’s work in getting us these looks.

Between the commentary from those in attendance and the video evidence, which was aplenty today, I’m feeling real good about giving Williams the nod in that one. With the second-year quarterback looking as good as he has during camp and perhaps as good as we’ve ever seen, I’ll end the Williams portion of this story with some comments from Ben Johnson this morning, said before Williams went out and had his best day yet.

“I probably just see growth. He is so much more comfortable right now. Even yesterday, the walk-through, in terms of moving around. We go from gun to under to the tight ends are moving, the receivers are moving, we’re adding more every day. I told him this on the player’s day off: His process is really clean right now. I’m talking about how he’s preparing. I’m really pleased with it. He is doing the work behind the scenes that no one else is seeing and we’re starting to see the dividends being paid from it.”

MORE: BEN JOHNSON SPEAKS — JULY 29, 2025

More on the Offense (Including Colston Loveland, Rome Odunze, and Luther Burden III):

Let’s start with Burden, who made his first appearance in team drills today and confirmed Johnson’s concern with the time he’s missed. He appeared noticeably behind the offense before eventually being bounced from a series during team drills due to not being lined up correctly.

Burden’s pre-snap/alignment issues weren’t exclusive to today either, according to Johnson, who said before practice this morning that the rookie wideout had problems on Monday during the walk-through portion of practice:

“It shows up already. I mean, we were in the walk-through yesterday afternoon, and the misalignments – we have to re-huddle, we have to start it all over again. He’s a little bit behind right now,” Johnson said.

To be clear, I don’t see any reason to think Burden won’t iron out these issues, but Johnson cautioned all of us that the rookie wide receiver’s time missed during OTAs and the start of camp would lead to this learning curve, and (my read, not Johnson’s words) that might affect his role in the offense in the early weeks of the season.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is rookie tight end Colston Loveland, whom Johnson praised this morning before practice.

“It’s shown up from the get-go,” Johnson said of Loveland’s football instincts. The Bears’ head coach highlighted a play from practice that featured Loveland winning a blocking rep at the line of scrimmage by anticipating a spin move from the rusher.

Loveland has looked good in the passing and blocking game thus far, and from the snippets we’ve seen, will have a significant role carved out for him in Johnson’s offense this season.

Speaking of Johnson’s design, he offered this interesting tidbit this morning regarding second-year wide receiver Rome Odunze:

“To me, he fits that prototypical X receiver where you can line him up outside the numbers, and provided he gets that one-on-one with a corner, he’s going to win most of his matchups.”

Other Bears Training Camp News and Notes

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