Caleb Williams made his preseason debut for the Chicago Bears on Saturday, leading a pair of first-quarter scoring drives in a 33-6 win over the Buffalo Bills.

After Chicago opted to sit its entire first unit in its preseason opener against Houston, Bears fans were left waiting to see the No. 1 overall pick in this summer’s NFL Draft. Williams threw 7 pass attempts, completing 4 of them, and scrambled for a key third-down pickup on his second possession. The Bears offense looked to be in a groove, and Williams totaled 95 yards through the air with 13 rushing yards.

“I felt good,” Williams said after the game. “There’s just a sense of control — I guess — a sense of progress, a bunch of different things that when you get into games, the comfort level and all of that normally skyrockets.”

When Williams left the game, Chicago held a 6-0 lead. Williams didn’t get the offense into the endzone, but both of his possessions moved the ball and ended with field goals.

Williams fired incomplete on his first pass of the game. A second-down holding call set him up with a third-and-12 right off the bat. He found wideout DJ Moore for 12 yards to move the chains.

On the very next play, Williams flicked what seemed like a no-look pass to tailback D’Andre Swift for a 42-yard gain. “I did see him,” Williams said. “It wasn’t a no-look. I wish I could claim that it was, but it wasn’t.” Just some of that patented Williams flair he exhibited in college.


The drive stalled out after 3 straight run plays and Chicago settled for a 30-yard field goal.

Williams began his second possession in the shadow of his own endzone. After a penalty gave Chicago its first first down of the possession, Williams got into a groove. He hit Moore for 15 yards. Tailback Khalil Herbert ran for 14. Then Williams fired a laser on the run to tight end Cole Kmet for 26 yards.

Chicago pushed all the way to the Buffalo 18 before the second drive stalled out. This time, it was Williams firing incomplete on second and third downs, leading to a 31-yard field goal.

“There’s an understanding that it is preseason. Everybody’s not going to show their looks and what they would do versus us, and vice-versa. But, it definitely feels good to get out there,” Williams said. “Last time I was out there on the field, other than practice, it was Nov. 18. You go that long without something it’s tough.

“It’s been great. The guys have made it fun. They’ve made it easy on me. They’ve been great from the beginning until now. … To get out there and have the confidence we had out there, it’s only going to get better and we can’t wait.”

There was good and bad — as should be expected of any rookie in a preseason game. The throw to Kmet was a Williams special. Those who watched him at USC and Oklahoma saw that on-the-move, eyes-downfield laser countless times. Williams was also almost intercepted on his second possession, a flat-footed third-down throw deep in Chicago territory that was rendered inconsequential because of a Buffalo penalty.

For the next week, 2 possessions from an early-August preseason game will be dissected ad nauseam. There’s so much excitement around the Bears’ rookie quarterback right now. And though they seemed like fairly run-of-the-mill plays by an NFL quarterback’s standards, Williams’ splash plays were reminders of where the Bears have come from.

To see the alley to Swift with pressure bearing down on him and to actually get the football out accurately and on time was encouraging. To evade pressure, keep his eyes downfield, and fire an accurate ball to Kmet was encouraging. For all Justin Fields’ strengths, his ability to diagnose what was in front of him, work the pocket, and deliver the necessary throw at the appropriate time was a topic of constant conversation in Chicagoland.

Williams was asked if he’s giving Bears fans a pass to show some excitement. He just smiled and said, “I mean, the Bears won.” They only did that 7 times last year and 3 times the year prior. Of course, this one doesn’t officially count as a win, but Chicago will take what it can get. Right now, the Bears are 2-for-2 in the preseason.

“There’s certainly positivity there. We’re not going to squash that,” coach Matt Eberflus said. “But I do feel like we have a lot of work to do and a lot of things to accomplish as a football team.”

Williams is the favorite to win the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year Award by a wide margin (+140 at ESPN Bet), but the Bears aren’t expected to win their division. Detroit (+140) is the favorite and Green Bay (+300) is the closest challenger. Chicago’s win total is at 8.5.

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Might another (longer) positive preseason outing lead to a flood of money on the Bears? It’s possible. There’s plenty of excitement about Williams.

And Saturday was a good first step.

“It’s good for him,” Eberflus said. “It’s the fruits of his labor. He has been working his tail off in practices and even before that, all throughout the summer. It’s good to be able to say that, ‘Hey, all this drill work, all the things I’ve been doing, it’s paying off and I can see the improvements.’”

Chicago plays again next Saturday, this time at Soldier Field against the Cincinnati Bengals. Coverage begins at 1 p.m. ET on NFL Network.