Bears-Bengals Preseason Takeaways: What to make of Caleb Williams’ lone preseason drive and more frustrations at left tackle
Preseason game #2 is in the books for the Chicago Bears and Saturday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals included a brief on-field stint for Caleb Williams and other noteworthy takeaways to discuss.
The Chicago Bears wrapped up their second preseason game against the Cincinnati Bengals, and the result of this game matters far less than the evaluation tape from the first-half.
With the final week of the preseason ahead and 53-man roster cuts looming, several position battles took significant turns during Saturday night’s game, but there’s still a lot of pressing questions as well.
Quarterback Caleb Williams, left tackle Braxton Jones, and defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg, all provided plenty to discuss coming out of the second week of the preseason.
Understanding what we actually saw from Caleb Williams’ first, and maybe only, drive of the preseason
Ben Johnson followed the same blueprint from last year, getting Williams heavily involved in joint practices before giving him a couple of plays in a live game setting in the second preseason game.
The early returns were promising. Williams rolled out on his first pass attempt and hit Rome Odunze for a big completion, then found tight end Colston Loveland for a quick 10-yard gain. Running back Roschon Johnson ran with the starting offense, with D’Andre Swift sitting out, and had some solid carries (more on him later). However, the drive stalled after that strong start. Braxton Jones drew a holding penalty, and Williams followed it with three straight incompletions to end the drive with a field goal.
The first incompletion was an overthrown ball to Loveland up the seam. Williams tried to place it outside of Loveland to avoid the safety, which was a sound decision and would have been a touchdown, but the throw sailed. In Williams’ defense, the Bengals sent a safety blitz that went completely unaccounted for, and a free rusher was barreling straight at Williams. If this were a regular-season game, I believe Williams waits that extra beat and delivers a catchable ball, even if he gets hit. In a preseason game, he rushed it and that’s a non-issue in my eyes to avoid taking a big hit in a meaningless game.
The second incompletion was tipped at the line of scrimmage, a sight we’ve becoming accustomed from Williams once in a while, and the refs may have missed a holding on the third incompletion. To me, nothing from Williams’ brief appearance raised any red flags worth worrying about.
Braxton Jones failed to shut the door on the left tackle competition. So what comes next?
This game was supposed to be Jones’ chance to solidify himself as the starting left tackle. Theo Benedet had a rough ending to Thursday’s joint practice, so Jones got the nod with the first-team offense. Beyond the holding penalty, Jones had a bad rep in which he was bull-rushed back into quarterback Case Keenum on the second drive. He just didn’t capitalize on this opportunity like I thought he would.
I thought the only way Jones could have lost this competition was through injury, because it seemed like he had every advantage heading into today. Off the first glance, this game was not great for Jones. It wasn’t any better for Benedet and don’t even get me started on Jedrick Wills Jr. or Kiran Amegadjie being in this conversation.
The best-case scenario for Chicago might be Ozzy Trapilo ramping back up and getting in for some team drills Tuesday. It might be a long shot to think that’s possible, but Trapilo has already proven doubters wrong once. Right now, he might be the Bears’ best remaining chance at having adequate left tackle play heading into Week 1.
Jordan van den Berg is becoming impossible to ignore
Most of the starting defense played in this one, with the exceptions of linebacker T.J. Edwards and defensive tackle Grady Jarrett. Jaylon Johnson and Montez Sweat were both out there, linebacker Devin Bush played, and edge rusher Dayo Odeyingbo generated good pressure off the edge while mixing inside as well. One notable absence was Austin Booker, something worth monitoring to determine if he’s dealing with an injury.
Despite all of these veteran starters playing, the two most impressive defenders to me were two rookies. Safety Dillon Thieneman looks great. He still wasn’t challenged in coverage but his speed and closing ability are evident after posting two tackles on the opening drive.
The player who really impressed was Jordan van den Berg, yet again. He played a ton of first-half snaps and was all over the field. He is an absolute freak, blowing up plays and causing havoc on every snap. His contributions won’t show up on the stat sheet, but he frustrated Josh Johnson consistently, and his motor had him running people down all the way to the sidelines.
There’s a whole lot to love about van den Berg’s game right now, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he ends up pushing either Dexter or Jarrett for regular-season snaps on the interior of this defensive line.
I might have cracked the code for the RB3 situation
With Monangai out week-to-week, Chicago needs to sort out its running back depth. Roschon Johnson has eaten a ton of early carries in both preseason games and has looked strong with some decent runs. He profiles as the logical choice to fill Monangai’s role as a bruiser style back to complement Swift if Monangai isn’t available early in the regular season.
As for Salvon Ahmed, the speed and vision are evident. He can slash, take a screen pass to the house like the first preseason game, and today he had another big run during the end-of-half drive (averaged 6.0 yards per attempt!). His game resembles what the Bears want from Swift.
The smart move to me is stashing Ahmed on the practice squad, where he can continue developing and stay ready if Swift were to miss time. Chicago wouldn’t lose that speed factor by simply calling Ahmed up in that scenario and then you can keep Johnson as the RB3 on the 53-man roster as Monangai’s early replacement until he returns. That’s at least how I’m looking at things after this game.
