Caleb Williams would have been a full participant in Wednesday’s walk-through if the Bears had held a regular practice, a sign the quarterback is moving forward after the hamstring injury he suffered in Week 2 against the Vikings. Even so, the Bears still have not decided whether Williams, Tyson Bagent or Case Keenum will start Sunday against the Falcons in Atlanta.
That uncertainty is the reason the NFL tonight game chatter around Chicago has stayed centered on one position. Ben Johnson said the situation remains fluid and that the Bears will figure out what is best for the football team, while making health the No. 1 priority for all three quarterbacks. He also said the offense has lacked consistency in the three games Williams has missed, a problem that has left the Bears searching for more than just a healthy arm under center.
The timing matters because Wednesday was the first practice setting in which Williams would have been listed as a full participant since the injury, a useful marker even if it did not settle the bigger question. Williams has now missed three games, and Johnson said the offense will need a back-to-basics approach when the Bears return Sunday for the Falcons in Atlanta.
There is also no clean answer on the other side of the ball. The NFL suspended Montez Sweat for two games without pay after a policy violation, and Austin Booker has been asked to absorb more of the load. Booker leads the Bears with 4.0 sacks and has played 58% of the defensive snaps this season, evidence of how much the team is leaning on younger options while the pass rush is short-handed.
That strain increased again when Dayo Odeyingbo exited last weekend’s game in Green Bay with a quad injury. Johnson said Odeyingbo is likely to miss some time, but the injury is not expected to send him to IR right now. He said the team does not yet know how long Odeyingbo could be out and that it does not feel serious enough to require IR, though it will still leave the Bears thinner in a week that already hinges on the quarterback call.
For Williams, the next step is not complicated. The Bears want to see whether the progress he showed Wednesday carries through the rest of the week. For the Bears, the unanswered part is the one that matters most: whether that progress is enough to put him back in the lineup Sunday, or whether the offense has to keep moving without him for one more game.
