Bear Digest

First rule of Bears fight club? Ben Johnson likes a physical practice

The Bears went after each other in Tuesday's most physical practice of this camp or any recent camp and four skirmishes broke out after Ben Johnson told them how it would be.
Gene Chamberlain|
Roschon Johnson carries at Bears training camp practices. It was his goal-line runs and fight later that set the tone for physical play.
Roschon Johnson carries at Bears training camp practices. It was his goal-line runs and fight later that set the tone for physical play. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

After Monday’s walk-through practice, Ben Johnson took the full Bears team in the afternoon on a fun field trip to a beach for an afternoon of fun in the sun.

Tuesday’s practice, then, was anything but a day at the beach. It was hell in the heat and humidity.

Johnson told players how it was going to be beforehand, and it wasn’t for the squeamish.

He wasn’t kidding.

It’s been a long time since they held a practice at Halas Hall with as much full-contact hitting and intensity as the one the Bears had Tuesday. Maybe you’d have to go back to the Mike Ditka-Dave Wannstedt eras when teams normally did extensive hitting in every practice.

This training camp has had more live play in it than any recent Bears training camp and Tuesday’s was dialed up about five or 10 notches beyond any of those. The end result was four skirmishes broke out and big hitting occurred all over the field. Backs and receivers were tackled to the ground practically every play, which rarely has been done in the Lovie Smith era and later.

“I feel like that's what we should practice like every day,” cornerback Tyrique Stevenson said. “That's the message the team shot to us, the coaching staff and everybody, that's what we need to see out there every day to be a championship defense and championship offense. Moving forward, that's what we want to say at practice.”

The offense started it out with a full contact goal-line drill and Roschon Johnson barreled into the end zone twice.

From there, the physical play kept coming. Johnson was involved in one skirmish with Jonathan Owens and tackled the safety to the ground. Another involved Rome Odunze and Jaquan Brisker. 

The biggest battle was easily the Braxton Jones-Austin Booker fight. It ended with Jones knocked to the ground by Gervon Dexter, players from both sides piling in and then spawned a separate Andrew Billings-Theo Benedit spinoff with shoving.  No one messes with “Big Bill” for very long and it ended quickly.

Maybe the most physical play didn’t involve a skirmish or shoving. Tight end Joel Wilson caught a pass near the sideline and floated toward the boundary but really fast. Safety Major Burns let him know he better get out quicker than he did by laying on a huge hit that sent the former Packers player sprawling a few yards to the turf out of bounds.

It all more or less evolved into physicality.

“I think coach Ben this morning kind of brought it out of everybody and he kind of told us the offense was going to come at us,” Stevenson said. “It was good to see those guys get after it and we got after it pretty well really the whole practice.

“We only had one live period (scheduled), but once it was going every period became live.”

About the only situation when there wasn’t tackling to the ground was punt return. There even was a 7-on-7 that became full-contact.

Cornerback Nahshon Wright played with both Dallas and Minnesota and called it the most physical practice he’s experienced in the NFL.

“Coach is kind of demanding physicality,” Wright said. “That’s going to be our identity.”

There was actual play, like the bomb Caleb Williams got off to Rome Odunze for a touchdown in 11-in-11 over Wright. But even during scrimmage there was a chippy tone. Running back D'Andre Swift got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after one carry up the middle.

The message before practice said it correctly.

“He told us exactly what was going to happen,” Wright said. “I mean those guys are tough guys. We all play football, so they’re tough. We kind of expected it. It was fun.

“It just brings out the best. It’s a dog-eat-dog world and you’ve got to go out there and compete.”
The offense definitely didn’t back down on this day and it made for the free-for-alls.

“Yeah, I think we should do it every day,” Roschon Johnson said. “I’m all for it. I don’t care. We can do it.”

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.