Chicago Bears vs. Buffalo Bills: 4 storylines to watch as Caleb Williams makes preseason debut

Quarterback Caleb Williams and most of the Bears’, starters will make their preseason debut against a Super Bowl contender Sunday night. The Bears will host the Buffalo Bills at Soldier Field in Chicago.

Bears head coach Ben Johnson didn’t announce how long Williams will play in Sunday’s game. He said the snap count will be determined based on how Friday’s joint practice against the Bills went. Bills head coach Sean McDermott hasn’t announced if quarterback Josh Allen will play Sunday.

There will be plenty to watch, no matter how much the starters play. It will likely be the lone time the starters play before their season-opener against the Minnesota Vikings on Sept. 8.

Here are four storylines to watch Sunday night.

1. How does Caleb Williams command the offense?

There’s little doubt that everyone will be watching to see how Williams and the offense look in a game setting in Johnson’s offense. While everyone would be happy with long passes and touchdowns, it’ll be important to watch what happens before the snap.

The biggest point of emphasis during the first part of training camp was how Williams handled the pre-snap process. Can he receive the play call from Johnson and effectively communicate it to his teammates?

That’ll be important to watch as Williams does it in a game setting for the first time under Johnson. The offense, in general, has still struggled with pre-snap penalties three weeks into camp. The first-team offense was called for numerous false start penalties during Friday’s joint practice and will need to fix that to see progress.

“There are elements of that that are, you know, it’s preseason,” Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said. “But that’s an excuse. That has to get right, and that’s something that we need to address right now.”

2. Taking a lead at left tackle

The battle in the left tackle competition took a turn this week.

Second-year offensive lineman Theo Benedet joined the mix of returning starter Braxton Jones and Kiran Amegadjie. Rookie Ozzy Trapilo started working at the right tackle spot this week after spending all of camp working at left tackle with Jones and Amegadjie when he’s healthy.

That trend continued during Friday’s joint practice against the Bills. Benedet received most of the left tackle snaps with the first team while Jones took snaps during a red zone drill. Jones did replace Benedet during the final team drill.

It’s become clear that no one has taken the lead halfway through camp. Sunday will be another key opportunity for someone to prove themselves.

“We’d like to see someone go ahead and make it clear to us that he is that guy, and we just haven’t seen that yet as a staff,” Johnson said. “There’s been too much up and down.”

3. Pressuring the quarterback

Second-year defensive end Austin Booker stole the show in the Bears’ preseason opener against the Miami Dolphins with three sacks. Now Johnson will see whether his starters can create the same sort of pressure, regardless of who the Bills quarterback is.

It’s a major question for the Bears heading into this season. The defense failed to create much pressure last year. Opposing offensive lines focused in on Montez Sweat, who wasn’t at full strength toward the end of the year, while the rest of the line didn’t generate much pressure.

The pressure has looked good at times during camp. Sweat has consistently been hard to stop, while Dayo Odeyingbo and defensive tackles Grady Jarrett and Gervon Dexter have supported him well.

The Bears failed to generate much pressure in Friday’s joint practice. They’ll try to do it again Sunday.

4. Who steps up in the secondary?

Whether Allen plays or not, the Bears will use Sunday’s game to continue their evaluation of their secondary depth. Johnson told reporters earlier in the week that cornerback Jaylon Johnson (leg) was progressing well, while cornerback Kyler Gordon (hamstring) is considered week-to-week.

The group proved that it can handle its own during a joint practice against the Dolphins. Safeties Jaquan Brisker, Kevin Byard and Terell Smith swarmed to the ball and had strong hits during drills. Meanwhile, cornerbacks Tyrique Stevenson and Nahshon Wright continued to disrupt passes.

Can that continue in a game, especially if Allen plays? The secondary started Friday’s joint practice against the Bills well during 7-on-7. But Allen showed why he’s been an MVP candidate the past few seasons and found pockets to exploit during team drills.

The Bears added to their secondary this week because of injuries. Sunday will be another important moment to see how deep the secondary really is.

“We’ll have plenty of numbers and it will give those new guys some opportunities to get some reps and compete,” Johnson said. “Schematically, we’ll be smart and keep it fairly simple in the game so that they can go out there and they can play ball. But I think we’ll be just fine in terms of getting the reps we need to get over the next couple weeks.”