The rookie already looks better than those who came before him.

You can say that NFL preseason games don’t mean a lot, and you won’t get much of an argument here or anywhere, other than in a coach’s darkened film room.

But even though exhibition games don’t solve the world’s problems, they can tell you things you already know, good and bad. They can reaffirm.

Caleb Williams’ sizable abilities were on display Saturday in his preseason debut as a Chicago Bear. If he wasn’t everything the team and its fans had hoped for, he was a lot of it. All of the hope that has been bound up in him by a quarterback-needy city found a celebratory outlet in a very good performance against the Bills. He completed four of seven passes for 95 yards and had a 101.8 passer rating. He ran one time, a scramble for 13 yards.