Caleb Williams has been studying Chicago Bears offense for weeks

There was little drama with the first pick of the NFL Draft. The Bears didn’t hide their interest in Caleb Williams. And the former USC quarterback even wore a custom blue suit for the festivities.

Also, by the time Williams put on a Bears hat and stepped to the stage in Detroit, he also had a good grasp on the new Chicago offense. It seems he’d been practicing the likely Bears plays for weeks.

Williams, the 2022 Heisman winner, works with private quarterback coach Will Hewlett. And Hewlett explained in an interview this week how Williams had worked on the concepts of Chicago offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s playbook. As other top prospects were traveling and talking to teams that may draft them, Williams spent the past six weeks as a de facto Bears quarterback.

“I have pieces (of the playbook). I don’t have the plays,” Hewlett said during an appearance on Chicago’s 670 The Score. And “I could have the plays and would that really help because there’s so many other layers that go into having a successful football play work? But we have the basic route concepts in terms of depths and timing, and then how that matches together.”

Hewlett added: “The NFL is somewhat of a copycat league within the systems that are run. So there’s stuff that we were already working on that it was just given a different name, instead of a pivot route, it’s a thunder route, or whatever the case may be … I have Shane Waldron terminology.”

Hewlett also made an interesting observation. He said the quarterback is “hungry for structure.”

Like Williams, Bears offensive coordinator is also new to Bears

The Bears hired Waldrop earlier this year after Waldrop spent the past three seasons as Pete Carroll’s offensive coordinator with the Seahawks.

Meanwhile, Williams was so confident that he was going to the Bears that he invited several Chicago receivers to Los Angeles before the draft for some throwing sessions. D.J. Moore flew to LA and met new Bears receiver Keenan Allen. Plus, Rome Odunze, who ended up going to the Bears with the ninth pick of the first round, also joined the group.

“I went there. We had a good throwing session,” Moore said in an interview with The Guardian. “We were bouncing off ideas from each other, how we’re gonna do things and stuff like that. It was a good one.”

All this preparation should impress Bears coaches when the team conducts its rookie minicamp May 10-11. OTAs will be held between May 20-31. Mandatory mini camp is June 4-6.