LAKE FOREST, Ill. — It’s time for Caleb Williams to deliver.
The quarterback taken with the No. 1 pick in this year’s NFL draft makes his highly anticipated debut when the Chicago Bears host the Tennessee Titans on Sunday in the 2024 season opener for both teams.
“I’m excited to see him,” Bears coach Matt Eberflus said. “And I’m excited to lean in and lean on his teammates. Because that’s what you have to do with a quarterback. He’s got guys around him that have played a lot of years.”
The Bears are one of the NFL’s “it” teams at the moment. With the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Southern California behind center and several other major additions on offense, they were an easy selection to be featured on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” this year.
Williams is widely viewed as a generational talent who could solidify a position that’s long been a sore spot for the founding NFL franchise. He will also try to buck a more recent trend among quarterbacks drafted with the No. 1 overall pick. The past 15 were a combined 0-14-1 in their first career starts, beginning with Carson Palmer of the Cincinnati Bengals in 2003.
It’s not just Williams’ arrival that has the Bears eyeing bigger things after going 10-24 over their first two seasons with Eberflus as coach and Ryan Poles as general manager.
They traded for star veteran Keenan Allen and drafted Rome Odunze with the No. 9 pick to form a potentially explosive trio of receivers with the returning DJ Moore. Throw in a defense that came together after a midseason trade for end Montez Sweat last year, and the Bears have their sights set higher coming off a 7-10 record.
The Bears would like to build on the momentum they had late, when they won five of seven games before closing with a road loss to the Green Bay Packers, an NFC North Division rival. The finish came after an 0-4 start that was part of a 14-game slide dating to 2022.
Tennessee’s Brian Callahan, meanwhile, will make his head coaching debut. He was hired to boost one of the NFL’s worst attacks after spending the past five years as Cincinnati’s offensive coordinator. The AFC South’s Titans ranked near the bottom of the NFL in total offense, passing and scoring on the way to a 6-11 record last season, which led to Mike Vrabel’s Nashville tenure ending after six years.
Two-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons missed the last five games of the 2023 season, which didn’t help Vrabel. The Titans kept Simmons on the sideline in the preseason this summer, but now he finally gets to chase quarterbacks alongside tackle T’Vondre Sweat, the 6-foot-4, 366-pound, second-round draft pick from the University of Texas.
“All I’ve been thinking about is how dominant I can be this game? How effective I could be this game? And just how can I help my team win this game?” Simmons said.
As for Tennessee’s offense, some might see having three receivers who could easily be the top guy at their position on any other team as a challenge. Not Callahan, who has worked with players in similar situations many times.
Now he has five-time Pro Bowl selection DeAndre Hopkins alongside Tyler Boyd, Calvin Ridley and Treylon Burks, the fourth guy in line despite being the 18th overall draft pick in 2022.
“You make sure the primary is on what they’re good at. You move them around the formation. You put them in spots to catch the ball,” Callahan said. “It’s a process, and we work really hard at it. We spend time on where we’re putting guys and what we’re asking them to do.
“So that part is not new, it’s something that I’ve done for a long time, and I feel pretty confident that we can get guys the ball. And again, I love that.”
Hopkins sustained a knee injury on July 31 and returned to practice this week in a limited fashion. He leads the NFL with 928 receptions for 12,355 yards since being drafted in 2013, and he’s also first with 642 catches for first downs and is tied for third with 78 touchdown catches.
Titans quarterback Will Levis worked enough with the veteran last year and during the offseason that he’s not worried about their timing.
“Just great to have him back and can’t wait to have him,” said Levis, a second-round draft pick in 2023 who took over as Tennessee’s starter behind center at midseason.
The Bears’ Allen insisted he’s fine with being part of an ensemble rather than the clear-cut No. 1 receiver, even in a contract year.
“Yeah, I mean, I’m not looking to make $35 million,” he said, laughing.
The 32-year-old made six Pro Bowls in 11 seasons with the San Diego and Los Angeles Chargers before the Bears acquired him in March. He is in the final year of a four-year extension he signed in 2020.
The deal for Allen was Chicago’s second trade for a top wide receiver in as many years. The Bears acquired Moore from Carolina in 2023. With Odunze and tight ends Gerald Everett and Cole Kmet, Williams should have no shortage of targets.
“It’s going to be balanced,” Allen said, “and I think it’s going to be good.”
That’s certainly the goal.