All Signs Point to Caleb Williams Returning Sunday in Atlanta — and the Bears Need Him

By Previously Staff, Previously

October 13, 2026

All signs point to Caleb Williams returning Sunday in Atlanta: out since Week 2 with a Grade 2 hamstring strain, the former No. 1 overall pick is trending toward a Week 6 return at the Falcons — and the Bears need him, one week after their backups were overwhelmed in Green Bay.

The Chicago Bears have spent three games holding their season together with backup quarterbacks. That stretch looks like it is finally over. Every signal coming out of Chicago this week points the same way: Caleb Williams, the former No. 1 overall pick, is on track to return Sunday when the Bears visit the Atlanta Falcons — and after what happened in Green Bay, his return cannot come soon enough.

The report that changed the week

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported Monday on Good Morning Football that "all signs" point to Williams returning in Week 6 at Atlanta. That is not a guess pulled out of thin air. According to the reporting rounded up by Sports Illustrated and Bears Wire, Williams worked out strenuously before Sunday's game against the Packers and, by all accounts, looked like himself doing it. He had already returned to practice on Friday in a limited capacity, the first real step in a ramp-up the Bears have been managing carefully for weeks.

The timeline fits, too. Williams suffered a Grade 2 strain in his right hamstring in Week 2 against Minnesota, and the original recovery window was put at three to four weeks. He has now missed three games. Head coach Ben Johnson, speaking after Sunday's loss, said Williams is on track and acknowledged it will be close whether the return happens in Atlanta or a week later. By Monday, Johnson's tone had warmed further: Williams is progressing well, he said, and is itching to get back on the field. NFL Network's Mike Garafolo added that Williams himself is pushing to play next week. When the player, the coach and the calendar all start leaning the same direction, that usually tells you where this ends.

What Sunday in Green Bay exposed

If there was any remaining argument for patience, the Bears' backups made the opposite case on Sunday. Chicago lost 31-7 at Green Bay in a game that was never really competitive, and the quarterback play was the biggest reason why. Tyson Bagent, who got the start, finished 12-of-21 for just 87 yards with two interceptions. Case Keenum came on in relief and went 11-of-19 for 108 yards with an interception of his own. Combined, that is 195 passing yards, no rhythm, and three turnovers from the position Williams was drafted to transform.

To be fair to Bagent and Keenum, the fill-in stretch was not a disaster overall. The Bears went 2-1 without Williams — Keenum started a 27-7 win over Philadelphia, and Bagent started a win over the Jets — and at 3-2, Chicago's season is very much alive. Veteran competence kept the ship afloat. But there is a difference between staying afloat and going somewhere, and Sunday showed exactly where the ceiling sits with a backup under center. Against a good defense, on the road, the Bears' offense simply had no answers and no explosive element to fall back on.

The player Chicago has been waiting on

It is worth remembering what Williams looked like before the hamstring gave out. In his two games this season, he threw for 407 yards with two touchdowns and one interception, and he added two rushing touchdowns on the ground — the dual-threat element that makes defensive coordinators lose sleep and that neither Bagent nor Keenum can replicate. Sports Illustrated noted those numbers in its Week 6 preview coverage, and they only underline the gap between the starter and the substitutes.

Williams changes the geometry of the whole offense. His arm stretches the field vertically, his legs turn broken plays into first downs, and his presence alone forces defenses to defend differently. Chicago drafted him first overall to be the franchise's answer at the most important position in sports — a position this franchise, frankly, has been searching for an answer at for generations. Every game he misses is a game of development lost, and every game the backups tread water is a reminder of how much of the Bears' plan runs through him.

The market noticed immediately

You do not need to take the insiders' word for it — just watch the betting line. As Sports Illustrated reported via DraftKings, Chicago's Week 6 matchup at Atlanta swung dramatically as the return news spread: the Bears moved from 1.5-point underdogs to 3-point favorites. A swing of more than four points on injury news is the market putting a hard number on a player's value, and it is saying Williams is worth a lot. Oddsmakers do not move lines like that on vibes; they move them because a starting quarterback's return changes the expected outcome of a game in a measurable way.

The opponent matters here as well. Atlanta fell to 2-3 in Week 5, and this is not a Falcons team that has looked unbeatable at home or anywhere else. For a 3-2 Bears team trying to keep pace in its division, a road game against a sub-.500 opponent, with the franchise quarterback back in the huddle, is precisely the kind of opportunity that has to be converted. These are the weeks that decide whether January football is a realistic conversation in Chicago.

The one real risk

None of this makes the decision automatic. Hamstring injuries are notoriously treacherous, and a Grade 2 strain is a genuine tear, not a twinge. Rush a quarterback back a week early and a three-week absence can turn into a season-defining one, especially for a player whose game leans so heavily on movement and improvisation. ClutchPoints and FTW, in their coverage of the week, both flagged the same tension the Bears' medical staff is weighing: the strenuous pregame workout in Green Bay was encouraging, but a workout is not a game, and the final clearance will come down to how Williams responds through a full week of practice.

Johnson's careful phrasing — on track, but close — reads like a coach protecting both his player and his options. If Williams suffers any setback this week, the Bears can pivot back to Bagent with the loss in Green Bay as cover for caution. But every indication, from the limited practice Friday to the workout Sunday to the reporting Monday, says the trajectory is pointing up.

The bottom line

The Bears survived the Caleb Williams absence. They did not thrive through it, and Sunday's 31-7 humbling at Green Bay was the bill coming due. Now the reinforcements are almost here. All signs — the reporting from NFL Network, the coach's warming tone, the player's own eagerness, and a betting line that flipped Chicago from underdog to road favorite — point to Williams taking his offense back on Sunday in Atlanta. For a franchise that has waited a very long time for a quarterback worth this much fuss, that is the best news of the season so far.