Different Use of Players for Bears Camp
It's one step at a time for Bears coach Matt Eberflus in his first season making the big decisions coaches must all make.
Eberflus on Thursday dismissed the Bears for summer break, one that ends in the final week of July with the second training camp to be held at Halas Hall.
It's a camp that could look different than some others in recent years under former coach Matt Nagy, and the preseason could as well. However there is nothing written in stone yet about how they'll use players in the three preseason games: Aug. 13 at Soldier Field with Kansas City, Aug. 18 at Seattle and Aug. 27 at Cleveland.
"Yeah that's obviously been discussed several times and we have not come to that conclusion yet," Eberflus said about preseason player usage. "We want to see the development from the players and it might be on an individual basis to start that off."
Using different players with different groupings in preseason would be a drastically departure from what Nagy did. The last Bears coach had one preseason when he didn't use starters at all.
"So we'll see and I'll visit with the other head coaches (they play) to see what they're doing and go from there to see if we can pair it up the right way," Eberflus said. "So we'll talk about that."
When it comes to daily practices, the look might be different, as well. It might be drastically different.
Nagy used a first team, second team and third team aproach. Quarterback Justin Fields worked only sparingly in training camp last year with starters, and it immediately affected the passing game when he had to play due to Andy Dalton's knee injury.
Ebrflus will consider testing players individually in practices against different levels of competition, particularly those younger players who have flashed some talent against the lower part of the roster at camp.
"I'll pair him up so this is what we're thinking, this is what we'll do during training camp," Eberflus said "We'll get the matchups the right way. So I have Player A that I think is on the rise. I say 'OK, let's put him against our best guy so I can see it.' So he's playing against a pro player, a really good pro starter. Now I can see what he can do.
"And we'll match those up all the time. It's not just roll the ball out there, Ones against Ones, Twos against Twos. No. Let's match these players up so we can see them because a lot of times what happens is if you have, for example, you have a rookie that was playing with the Twos and he's going against the second group of receivers or even some of the thirds, well, he doesn't get that exposure. You know, he needs to get that exposure to see where he's at and in the end really to gain his game and make it better and better by going against better talent. So we'll do that all the way through—the line and the perimeter all the way through."
Eberflus left his players with a message they already heard, and another the veterans have heard repeated by many coaches at this time of year.
"Obviously I left them with, 'Get your track shoes on,' like I started my first press conference, because we're gonna be running once we get to training camp," Eberflus said. "Training camp's not to get in shape. You should already be in shape. You should be ready to go for training camp because we are blowing and going from Day 1. That was my main message to them.
"And then to be safe, be safe. Be careful who you hang around (with) and be mindful of that and where you are and to be safe during the vacation, this little time off, this little break we have before training camp."
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
