The Bears head coach smiled and almost seemed on the verge of laughing when the subject of training camp interceptions came up.
"Right now, I don't care about interceptions," he said. "I truly don't. I love the fact that he's trying to learn this offense and make throws. I'd rather him do that than take the 5-yard check-down. I need him to test it right now."
The coach wasn't Ben Johnson and he wasn't talking about Caleb Williams. It was Matt Nagy talking about a day when Mitchell Trubisky threw three interceptions at training camp in Bourbonnais in 2018 amid the rash of interceptions he was throwing.
Trubisky would go on to post his career-high passer rating as a starter and the Bears would roll to a division title in his second year.
Camp is not a precursor to anything. The next year at camp, Trubisky had a day with four interceptions and had a poor season when he complained he wanted TV sets at Halas Hall turned off to block out negativity.
There is just no way the naked eye can equate interceptions in training camp to throwing them in games. There are too many variables entered into all of this.
Jay Cutler in 2015 was being checked closely by coordinator Adam Gase because of a reputation for throwing too many interceptions. He went 11 training camp practices until throwing his first pick in practice during mid-August that year. It went to Shea McClellin. Then Cutler went on to post the second-best interception rate of his career, although 2.3% isn't necessarily a great rate as he threw 11 picks.
There is no rhyme or reason to this.
If a QB is that big of a complet failure, he'll end up cut like P.J. Walker.
Coaches look at different things and practices are controlled so they can see specifics. They’re not just looking at the end result of a play but the how and why of it all.
Of course, no one wants a quarterback running around throwing a pick every other pass, but this doesn't happen and hasn’t. Well, at least it doesn't happen with quarterbacks not named Mike Glennon.
At Bears camp, Williams has not thrown an inordinate amount of interceptions in relation to his total passes because he has thrown a lot of passes.
When he does throw a pick, it gets immediately reported on Twitter. If it’s a closed practice, then it gets reported after practice. People react then and overreact.
The picks support the narrative that he isn't succeeding the way the team wants. It's the instant thumbs up or thumbs down fans like but it's not really valid. Or if he isn't throwing them and has a good day, everyone parties over what is essentially nothing different than the day when he throws a pair of interceptions on back-to-back passes in the red zone, like Friday.
Neither of those picks he threw Friday were bad decisions, which is good. The execution was lacking–according to Johnson it was Williams' fault on one for not throwing it higher toward Rome Odunze at the back of the end zone and more so DJ Moore's on another when it was deflected up into the air.
Errant snaps or dropped ones have also occurred in practices but not all of them were even to Williams. One was to Case Keenum. These happen and no one is panicking.
There will be mistakes made and they aren't a huge issue at this point, as Johnson tried to tell everyone. He's installing an offense, they’re going through an amazing volume of plays at a very rapid rate during each practice. It's pure rapidfire. It won't look crisp until the play reps have begun to pile up.
That's the coaching side of it, and it's not simply a lie to placate the hysterical masses. It’s the coaches' view and they run the show.
There is also another truth to all of this.
If Williams is throwing interceptions, why is he the only quarterback in camp doing it?
Tyson Bagent, Keenum and even Austin Reed–when he's allowed to throw a pass–don't have Dennis Johnson's No. 1 defense swarming receivers. Then again, they also aren't throwing to the top four wide receivers or top tight ends the way Williams is.
They're running plays and Bagent has had a few very efficient practices. Keenum had a few moments, as well. Neither is throwing interceptions.
It's just a thought, but don't take it to mean it really is time to get on social media and join all the screaming meemies.
In 2020, another quarterback trying to run a new offense with a new coach started out his first two practices with three interceptions and had the fan base in a state of utter despair.
Then Tom Brady took the Buccaneers to the Lombardi Trophy.
Training camp interceptions really don't matter much as long as there is progress made and so far Johnson seems pleased there has been.
For now, that's all we can go by until there is more serious supporting evidence one way or the other.
