Caleb Williams Gives Himself Thumbs Up But Bears' Will Have Last Word

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — All of the nitpicking and worrying about how Caleb Williams reacted to his hamstring injury against the Vikings and subsequent criticism he has had of media for the way reports about his injury were handled are entirely inconsequential.

What matters is what the Bears quarterback can do and can't do now as he gets ready to try and face the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. He went through a full practice Thursday and was positive about his chances of playing, although he's not going to get the opportunity if the team decides at the last second to hold him out.

"I mean, I can move, I can run," Williams said Thursday at Halas Hall. "I hit a top speed the other day, one of my high speeds I've ever hit and so I can move, I can run, I've got strength.

"It's like I said, just going through the stress test because obviously fibers and things like that in your hamstrings and things like that in your hamstrings and muscles have to connect back together to be able to go out there and play a 60-minute game."

It's a risk now or later

It's going to be a risk playing him, but it would still be a risk in a few weeks.

"A hamstring of any person doesn’t fully heal after three weeks, four weeks, five months," he said. "It takes a while, but there are certain parameters that allow you to go out there and play.

"There are certain parameters that clear you to go and lower the risk of reinjuring, and obviously just being smart with it throughout the week. And then obviously in game it’s game and you gotta go play, you gotta go make plays for the team."

Come Sunday, Williams will have had four full weeks since he was injured. It's possible they'll finally announce Friday he'll start, but they could give it the full game-time decision treatment. That wouldn't make much sense when he's getting all the first-team snaps now.

The time has let him recover and the team has gone 2-1 without him.

Offensive coordinator Press Taylor admitted there is an uplifting effect to having Williams at practice. The Bears could use this after a 31-7 loss to the Packers when Tyson Bagent struggled as the replacement and Case Keenum wasn't much more effective replacing Bagent as Chicago had five turnovers.

“You certainly feel his energy when he’s around," Taylor said. "He’s got a big personality to begin with. People respond to him, people look to him just as a leader of our team, as a captain, so you sense that from him."

For Williams, it's going to be a satisfying moment if he can get out there.

"I want to be out there and so, you know, it's frustrating but I mean we went 2-1 in the time that I was out and we'll see how this week goes," he said. "That'll be three or four weeks or three or four games that I miss depending on how this week goes, and so we're still right on track. We're a 3-2 team going into this week. And this is a big week for us."

And it will be satisfying for him to get back on the field after sitting around listening to critics who found his reaction on the field to his hamstring injury a bit of an exaggeration, considering it didn't end his season. He was carted off like someone who had a knee injury or something more severe.

"My character has been attacked since, for a while," Williams said. "It's just another motivating factor when I get out there and get going again."

Whether it's Sunday is the question, but at this point after a full practice without aggravation, it would seem his return to face Atlanta is inevitable.

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