CHICAGO — When Garrett Bradbury joined the New England Patriots for a season last year, he had a built-in bonding mechanism with quarterback Drake Maye — the center temporarily crashed at Maye’s place.
There has been no such living arrangement with Caleb Williams since Bradbury joined the Chicago Bears this offseason, but they’ve had at least one shared experience: bowling.
“Yesterday we ended up having a team event and it was actually bowling and he was right next to me and so we were competing throughout that, laughing and joking,” Williams said. “So being able to connect off the field and on the field, we’ve had stuff in OTAs and things like that that we’ve had where he’s been able to show up and be around and we’ve been able to hang out together.”
“It was good,” Bradbury said of bowling with Williams. “I tried to get competitive with him. He was a much better bowler than I thought he was. I think he bowled a 190 in one of the rounds, and I was trying to talk smack and I didn’t have much to back it up.”
Team activities are one thing, but it will be all for naught if Williams struggles to make a connection on the field with his new center.
The stakes are high for two positions — quarterback and center — that interact on every snap and must learn timing, cadence and each other’s tendencies.
Williams built such a solid relationship with Drew Dalman last season that Dalman was selected to his first Pro Bowl. But he unexpectedly retired in early March.
That created a need so dire for the Bears that they traded a 2027 fifth-round draft pick to the Patriots for Bradbury. The Bears doubled down at the position by drafting Logan Jones in the second round, No. 57.
Naturally, the Bears have been reluctant to trust such an important role to a rookie, and Bradbury has taken the majority of first-team snaps in training camp.
He comes with a wealth of experience.
Before supporting Maye in what became a second straight Pro Bowl season for the QB (and MVP runner-up finish), Bradbury played six seasons with the Minnesota Vikings. He snapped balls to Sam Darnold in what was equal parts a breakout campaign and a redemption arc, and snapped to Kirk Cousins before him.
Coach Ben Johnson likes the level of communication Williams and Bradbury have established so far in camp.
“That’s the beauty of having a guy like Garrett that’s been around a few different offensive systems now,” Johnson said before Tuesday’s unscripted practice. “Extremely sharp. Phenomenal communicator. I mean, he’s loud, he’s clear, he’s decisive. Love where he’s at with all that.”
What Bears coaches have asked from Bradbury is a little more than what his responsibilities were for other teams, helping get the linemen, tight ends and running backs in alignment.
“There’s a lot of ownership,” Bradbury said. “I’ve had coaches say in the past, ‘You get the keys to the car.’ You get to take that ownership and make a lot of calls. I kind of love that piece of the game. Sometimes it’s a little bit like a puzzle, and you’ve got to solve the puzzle right before the ball is snapped and then you’ve got to do your job.
“I relish it. I love it. I think it’s fun to play in. That’s where the film study and all the meetings and the coaches preparing you for certain looks all come together.”
The responsibility for protection and pre-snap operations is shared between Williams and Bradbury.
Johnson said, “The more reps we get, whether it’s protection-wise, run game-wise where Caleb can help, (Williams) might see things that Garrett doesn’t see, and vice versa. So we are all aligned and in the best position to execute the play.”
“There’s a balance,” Bradbury said, “There’s certain plays where I can’t do anything unless he wants to, and vice versa.”
No matter what the call is, it comes down to being in sync.
“Coaches always say, ‘If we’re on the wrong page together, we’re on the right page,’” Bradbury said.
Eleven practices into camp, Williams said communication with Bradbury has gone well but improved recently.
“The first couple days we were rolling … and then we had a couple off days where communication may have been a little off, or cadence or things like that,” Williams said. “These past couple days we’ve gotten better with it and being more conscious of some of those small mistakes that show up and that happen.
“And so we have gotten better. And then, yeah, that’s my guy.”
The admiration is mutual.
During a two-minute drill Tuesday, Bradbury saw Williams’ “competitive fire, a fieriness to him. He wants to win. He wants to get it done. I mean, even just bowling yesterday, like, he’s not taking ‘no’ for an answer.”
So it stands to reason that Bradbury wouldn’t make Williams’ bowling team any time soon.
Bradbury played coy when asked his bowling score during that team activity.
“Uh, not 190,” he said.
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