What I'm watching with Caleb Williams as the Chicago Bears start practice with full pads Friday

LAKE FOREST, Ill. - We now move to the padded portion of our training camp.

The Chicago Bears will put football pads on this Friday for the first padded practice with active hitting, which adds a different element to practice.

Pass rushes will be live, and the heat is now turned up on the Bears' offensive line, as well as rookie quarterback Caleb Williams.

But, I'm not expecting Williams to succeed right away. What I will be looking for, though, is for him to have that first wow-ing performance in practice.

He did it in the offseason programs, and began stacking those kinds of performance and throws from there.

Once he does it in training camp, then he'll have a chance to turn the corner in his training camp development.

Again, I'm not expecting this to come immediately. It didn't come quickly during mandatory minicamp, OTAs or rookie camp. It came near the end of the Bears' offseason programs.

"He definitely has that 'it' factor," Bears tight end Gerald Everett said. "You can see his confidence build day in and day out."

That "it" factor was certainly there at the end of minicamp. Williams was throwing touchdowns to DJ Moore between multiple defenders. He was hitting Rome Odunze in stride.

It was a benefactor of getting a hand on the Bears' playbook before he was drafted.

Some of that work has been manifesting so far in training camp. It has materialized in how Williams conducts the offense.

"He's got great poise," Everett said.

However, making the transition to padded practices shouldn't change anything when it comes to what Williams is focusing on, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus said.

Everything Williams needs to put together a great day of practice, he's already been focusing on.

"Run game, footwork, then in the walkthroughs making sure he controls the pace with him in and out of the huddle," Eberflus said. "Making sure all those reps are good."

On Thursday, Williams showcased how he's working towards that kind of practice to stack. In the 7-on-7 period, Williams looked fantastic. He completed two touchdown passes in the left corner of the end zone. 

Later, however, he couldn't get a first down in two tries during Thursday's two-minute drill. The pass rush was the biggest difference for Williams, but, again, playing against an established, top-half-of-the-league unit with an offense that's still in install mode begets these kinds of performances.

As long as Williams is making progress, that's a good thing. Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron noted he's seen that growth.

"I think just the overall operation, getting in and out the huddle," Waldron said on Sunday. "We know that for all of our guys that transition as rookies into the NFL, there's so many different systems that guys we were part of. There's newness to everything that's involved. A new system here, a new way of doing things. There are a lot of similarities and carryover, but you had converted verbiage, and the faster you're not converting it every time and what we say means exactly this. Then you're playing that much faster when you're getting out of the huddle."

With the play sequencing improving, it stands to track his performances in general will improve.

Especially once he gets comfortably enough in the offense to make his patented improvisation plays. He showed off some of that talent in the offseason programs, too.

"His accuracy is really good," Eberflus said Thursday. "Not only in the pocket but on the move, so when you get the off-schedule throws like you do a lot of times in the redzone across the league, those are really important that those are accurate balls and he’s able to do that for sure."

Once Williams' comfort level grows, so will his performances. It stands to note the Bears don't seem too concerned about his two-minute drill performances from Thursday. He's had better days, and worse days.

For now, just finding success in days to stack up is the one aspect of camp I keep coming back to. Once he did it in the offseason, he made the forgettable days feel like a faux pas.

Part of it is the preparation he's already made come to life. Other parts are simply how Williams is happy to be the starting quarterback for the Chicago Bears.

Williams' teammates, on both sides of the ball, are starting to see the latter, too.

"He's happy to be the quarterback of the Chicago Bears," Stevenson said.