LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Bears head coach Ben Johnson was clear about a trend that developed during the offseason program. The defense was regularly getting the better of the offense during situational work in OTA practices.

That was the case again on Tuesday during the first mandatory minicamp practice. Not so on Wednesday, when the offense was crisp and cleaner than any other session open to the press.

That was especially clear on a one-minute drill, where Caleb Williams led the offense on a 90-plus-yard touchdown drive with no timeouts. The Bears quarterback connected on a big gain with Olamide Zaccheaus and another to Cole Kmet before giving Kyle Monangai a leading pass with room to catch and run into the end zone.

“It was good to see the offense stack a few plays together,” Johnson said in a press conference. “That’s a very tough situation. I think it was 90-plus yards in under a minute with no timeouts, so it was cool to see them stack some plays. See Caleb really … what we thought about him was when the lights are brights, that he was going to show up and it felt like the game slowed down a little bit for him and he was able to just go out and find an open guy and get a completion. So that was good to see.”

Johnson conducted a more competitive practice on Wednesday that was designed to test what players have learned to this point. They ran situational drills of all types, generally in 11-on-11 situations.

The biggest part of it: those sessions were unscripted.   

“Really everything that had been installed over the last few weeks was up, and we’ll see the tape to see who handled it and who didn’t,” Johnson said. “Some guys (did) better than others. You could tell out there. But it was good to see. It felt more like football even though we don’t have the pads on.”

While Williams and the offense had some strong moments, Johnson also admitted that there were some clear sacks in there that would’ve muddied some drives. Montez Sweat would’ve had one on third down in a four-minute drill that would’ve forced a field goal, but the offense got a fresh set of downs and scored on a Zaccheaus touchdown catch. It sure seemed like Gervon Dexter — who looks huge after gaining significant lean mass — would’ve had a sack on the drive mentioned at the top of this story, too, but it wasn’t called.

There was lots of quality play across units, a positive sign considering this practice doubled as a offseason-program progress report.

Caleb Williams’ teachable moments

While the second-year quarterback was better on Wednesday, he still threw two passes that Jonathan Owens should’ve picked and made a few other timing mistakes. Johnson has no problem correcting them in the moment.

One such instance occurred on Wednesday, when Williams was late checking it down. Johnson said that Williams is all ears in those moments, especially while learning this new system.

“He’s doing a great job. He’s very coachable,” Johnson said. “It’s like anything — it’s a new play so we’re just communicating what the expectations are and we want to see it show up on the tape.”

Participation report

Linebacker T.J. Edwards returned to practice after missing some time with a soft-tissue injury, but he didn’t participate in team drills. Defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo seems to be on a similar plan, without participation in team sessions. That left Dominique Robinson in line to get first-team reps for a second straight day.

Kyler Gordon, Colston Loveland, Zah Frazier, Terell Smith and Luther Burden were among those who did not practice. Also, Jaylon Johnson and Elijah Hicks were considered excused absences.

More practice notes

Tory Taylor did some live punting on Wednesday and was booming volleys as he’s known to do. The Bears had Devin Duvernay, Olamide Zaccheaus, Maurice Alexander and Rome Odunze back catching and returning punts. …Ozzy Trapilo was the first-team left tackle, continuing a rotation at the position with Kiran Amegadjie. … CB Nahshon Wright continues to see tons of first-team reps with Johnson and Smith out.