Caleb Williams’ preseason debut with Ben Johnson as his head coach will not come this weekend.
Johnson told reporters in his Friday press conference that Williams and about 17 of the club’s other starters will not play in Sunday’s exhibition matchup against the Dolphins. Chicago is having a joint practice with Miami on Friday, which will largely be a substitute for those in-game reps.
“I think we have about nine on O, nine on D,” Johnson said of starters who won’t play. “We’ll see how the day goes, maybe that number will change. So, we’ll make it through the day, and we’ll make those final decisions when we get there.”
Johnson, however, added that starters are likely to see some action in August.
“I would suspect that we will have them play at some point, yeah,” Johnson said. “But that’s to be determined.”
For this week, Johnson noted that Williams and the team’s pass catchers will go through an extensive workout before the game on Sunday. They’ll also be able to get reps the day before and the day after.
“[T]he guys that aren’t playing, they’re going to be getting a substantial number of reps that’s actually higher than the guys that are playing,” Johnson said. “So, we’ve talked about it as a staff, we feel very good about this plan going forward, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
At least for this week, Tyson Bagent is set to start against Miami and play for the first half.
