Bears coach Ben Johnson revealed Thursday that quarterback Caleb Williams and other first-teamers will not play in Saturday's preseason opener against the Browns at Soldier Field.
"We'll end up sitting a number of our starters as we view it on both sides of the ball," Johnson said. "There will be a handful of guys that aren't participating in this matchup, and yet I think we're going to get some good evals of the guys that are out there and make sure that we have enough to go win this game."
Johnson added that backup quarterback Tyson Bagent "will start the game and probably play a half."
After starting all 17 games and both playoff contests last year in Johnson's first season as coach, it's unclear how much, if at all, Williams will play in the preseason.
"I don't know that I need to see game snaps," Johnson said. "What we're trying to assess is the volume throughout the week and making sure we're hitting our benchmarks to make sure our team is ready to go for a 17-plus game season. That's what we're looking to do.
"Next week we can address when it gets there. But we have a plan in place of the reps, the workload we want to get as a team between the joint practice with Cincinnati and the game reps as well … But do I need to see Caleb Williams in the preseason? No, I don't. I see him every single day in practice and I know what we're going to get come the season, and yet there is a workload and there is a number of reps that we want to hit as a team, so [we will] make sure we even that out whether that's game reps or not."
Saturday's preseason opener will provide an excellent opportunity to evaluate the competition for the starting left tackle position. With Braxton Jones sidelined due to an injury, the Bears plan on playing Kiran Amegadjie in the first and third quarters and Jedrick Wills Jr. in the second and fourth periods.
"Hopefully [we'll] get an equal number of snaps right there for those two guys and we'll continue to reassess where we're at at that position as we go," Johnson said. "We just want to see guys compete. We want to see guys playing fast. It's all of it. It's run game. It's pass game. We want to see consistency, level of play, and see guys go out there and compete to win the game."
Chosen by the Bears in the third round of the 2024 draft, Amegadjie played in six games with one start as a rookie and spent most of last season on injured reserve.
"I've seen improvement from last year, and yet there's still glimpses of where we need the consistency to be a little bit better," Johnson said. "I love where he's at though. He's working hard. He's got a better understanding of the offense. That's clear, and you can tell his confidence level continues to rise each practice he's out there."
Saturday's preseason opener will be the first game action for Wills since Nov. 3, 2024, when he started for the Browns. Selected by Cleveland with the 10th pick in the 2020 draft, Wills was a regular starter his first three years in the league but has since been hampered by injuries and sat out all of last season.
In his first year with the Bears, Wills is still in the process of learning the offense.
"We're working through that right now," Johnson said. "You see with Jed, you see the talent. You go on to one-on-ones and he does as good as anybody taking a set and punching and keeping guys away from the quarterback. That's the balancing act is how much does the talent outweigh that 'oh shoot, there's a couple things there, had a couple false starts the other day, things we've got to clean up because he's thinking about it.' So he's in a race right now to get comfortable."
