Keenan Allen’s Justin Herbert experience will be vital for Caleb Williams, Bears originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Keenan Allen has been around the block in the NFL. The veteran wide receiver, who is entering his 12th season, started his career catching passes from surefire Hall of Famer Philip Rivers before becoming the favored target of Justin Herbert when the Oregon product burst onto the scene as a rookie in 2020.
Allen saw special in Herbert even before the big-armed signal-caller took the Chargers starting job from Tyrod Taylor early in the 2020 campaign. The talent and intangibles were evident early on with Herbert, and Allen played a pivotal role in helping develop the young quarterback and prepare him for stardom.
The Bears expect Allen to play a similar role this season with No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams.
“He’s obviously a guy who has tremendous talent, but it’s going to be a work in progress,” Allen said of Williams last week at Bears mandatory minicamp. “He just came out of college. The huddle call, having new terminology. For myself, some of the plays are the same but the terminology is different. So you hear one word, and you automatically go back to what I was hearing last year, but you have to transfer it to this year. So it’s like same play, different word. So you’ve just got to mix and match it, and he’s going to have to grow to it. It takes a while.”
Mastering the cadence is Priority 1A on Williams and the Bears’ checklist. The 2022 Heisman Trophy winner hasn’t worked with a verbal cadence since high school. He used a clap cadence during his three seasons in college at Oklahoma and USC.
Cadence issues are common for rookie quarterbacks, given the clap cadence’s prevalence in modern college football.
Allen watched Herbert deal with it and eventually master it. Patience is the key.
“Absolutely,” Allen said when asked about similarities between Herbert and Williams at this stage. “You’ve got guys, like I said,…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/keenan-allens-justin-herbert-experience-161343347.html
Author : NBC Sports Chicago
Publish date : 2024-06-10 16:13:43
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