The Chicago Bears have decided to not play Caleb Williams in the AFC-NFC Hall of Fame Game, the annual NFL preseason opener, on Thursday, Aug. 1. The story attached to that decision is that the Bears are playing none of their starters in that game. They’re going entirely with backups to give them work and see how their depth chart looks with an eye toward the roster cuts every NFL team has to make during the preseason.
Bears Wire has more on this development:
Head coach Matt Eberflus told reporters that starters will not play in the Hall of Fame Game, which is a bonus exhibition contest. That includes rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, who on Monday expressed his desire to play as much as he can in the preseason. But he also understood that the decision is out of his hands.
“I always think there’s more pros than cons, if anything, especially for a young guy like myself,” he said. “Reps are always paramount for a young guy like myself.”
The decision to not play Williams is debatable, but at least he’s being held out of the game because the Bears aren’t playing any of their other starters. It would have been far worse for Caleb to not play while the other starters played. This decision is a lot more reasonable and makes perfect sense.
The one problem with all of this remains, however: Why did it take this long to arrive at such a decision? If it had been made two weeks ago, various players would have known exactly what to expect, creating the clarity any coaching staff should want in a locker room environment.
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