Expect the Unexpected from Some Bears

Surprises in an NFL training camp can come in all shapes and sizes, little playing experience in the league and a good amount.

One place to look is second-year players. As Lovie Smith reminded every single season, the greatest improvement in a player is from first year to second. The biggest improvement in a team for a season is Week 1 to Week 2. Look at second-year players for some surprises.

Rookies can be surprises if they're taken later in the draft or if they're buried on a draft chart when camp starts, no matter where they're taken.

Veterans picked up off the waiver wire scrap heap always can surprise but few really have staying power. In the end, even those who do stand out for a short time succumb both to the fact players competing against them were invested in by the team as draft picks and also because the problems they had as players elsewhere come to light the more they compete for jobs.

The Bears had their eyes opened by a few players in off-season work at Halas Hall, although they might not indicate it. In some cases they do.

Here are potential suprises when camp begins July 22 for rookies and July 25 for everyone else. Don't confuse this with potential surprise players from preseason games. Often, players stand out in preseason games who never really showed much in practices and then every fan who watched preseason games wonders why the player gets cut. Coaches count practice reps more than a few reps in a preseason game, mainly because there are more plays to examine.

DE Trevis Gipson

Where will the Bears ever find an outside pass rush? Gipson is a very good place to look. The jump he made from Year 1 to Year 2 was huge, going from a rookie inactive on game day and practicing largely with the scout team to starting in place of Khalil Mack his second year for nine games and making seven sacks. Then he regressed last year with his numbers. Considering how different the Bears had him playing last year than when he broke into the league, the step back should have surprised no one. And did he even really step back? ESPN put him down as sixth best run-stopping edge in the league last year. He actually had one more pressures (18) when he had three sacks last year than he had in 2021 (17) when he had seven sacks and five forced fumbles. The difference was closing out plays. The extra half second or few tenths of a second caused by playing now in a single-gap front, from a new down position can make all the difference from closing out the play and not closing it. If Gipson has made the adjustment now, like he did coming out of college in a foreign system, the Bears could already have the edge rush help everyone says they drastically need.

WR Tyler Scott

Some would suggest this wouldn't be a surprise if the Bears immediately found they had something in Scott. To hear some on Bears social media, Scott is assumed as a player who will take a job or roster spot from Velus Jones Jr. or Equanimeous St. Brown or Dante Pettis. Regardless, it would be a surprise if he excelled immediately at his first camp. He's a Day 3 player. There have been 65 wide receivers selected on Day 3 of the last four drafts and only 10 of them have averaged as many as 20 receptions for their team. Darnell Mooney is one of those great exceptions. Is Scott? The Bears saw some really encouraging signs at OTAs and minicamp to suggest he could be. He has some of the traits receivers often lack who fail, and that's knowledge of route running and how the passing game works. It makes his speed so much more effective in that case. He will be buried initially at camp behind St. Brown, Pettis and Jones because he hasn't been in a camp, but based on his off-season work so far, he could be that surprise Day 3 receiver who emerges a success.

CB Terell Smith

Initially in the off-season work, Smith showed more than you'd expect from a fifth-round cornerback. Then he suffered an injury. The Bears normally don't talk about the type of injury until the regular season, but it was more precautionary that they held him out.

"I wish I would have saw Smitty, the corner, more," Bears coach Matt Eberflus said. "I was really excited about where he is and he's going to get back to where he needs to be, for sure."

Maybe Smith is beyond where you would expect a fifth-round cornerback. It could be bad news for another fifth-round cornerback they have, Kindle Vildor, or for any number of undrafted backup cornerbacks they had on the roster in the spring and also last season.

C Doug Kramer

Anything Kramer does might be a surprise since he was drafted in Round 6 last year and then didn't get a chance to go through a training camp as he wound up on injured reserve with a foot injury. In off-season practices and early in training camp, he had been given some work with starters. It was mainly done because he was a new player and they were a new coaching staff trying to see what they had at the position. The former Illinois player will get his chance now.

DE Terrell Lewis

This is your scrap heap player with the best opportunity to do something. The Bears incorrectly list him at linebacker on their roster because when they signed him late last year he was playing outside linebacker in a 3-4. He is now a defensive end and has practiced with the defensive line position group all through the offseason, not with the off-ball linebackers. Lewis was an explosive pass rusher for Alabama and went through two knee injuries. It derailed his career. He had six sacks in 30 games and seven starts for the Rams in three years, but was never on the field 50% of the defensive snaps and will try it from the edge now in a different type of scheme. His role would be situational edge rusher, so he wouldn't necessarily need to be coming out of a down stance. A team without edge rushers could find a way to use this trait and he'll have camp to make a statement.

"Yeah, I think he can do that," Eberflus said. "I really think that’s what his trait is, is his ability to get off on the football and rush the passer. We'll see how far it goes during training camp and see how far he goes with it."

DE Dominique Robinson

Another Year 2 guy, and he had every opportunity to show what he could do last year as a fifth-round pass rusher by playing every game and starting seven of the final eight after Robert Quinn's departure. Saying he showed nothing would be an exaggeration—a very slight exaggeration. After Week 1, he had no sacks, no QB hits, 14 solo tackles and one tackle for loss. Considering Ryan Poles' success with picks early in the draft and with Braxton Jones, it's safe to assume there is some talent as an edge rusher within Robinson somewhere. He was a project as a converted wide receiver who had just two years of defensive experience in college. So maybe it takes time. Time waits for no one and he needs to make progress. With pads on finally at camp, he'll get the chance to show at camp where his season of training took him.

WR Velus Jones Jr.

The second-year jump could be a factor. It happens with receivers. Certainly, Jones has the athletic ability to do it. He's the fastest player the Bears have. His 4.31 seconds in the 40 was a legit time measured at the combine and no one on offense or defense was faster for the combine. It didn't work right away last year and this isn't the first time this type of thing has happened. Donovan Peoples Jones and K.J. Osborn are examples of players drafted and slow to come around, but then suddenly they pick it up into another gear. The problem with Jones is he better do it soon because there is little patience league-wide with wide receivers drafted in the first two days who fail to make an impression in their first two seasons. In his first season, Jones was on the JJ Arcega-Whiteside route. Arcega-Whiteside had 10 rookie catches. He never made more and was traded by the Eagles to Seattle after three seasons. The Seahawks cut him. Jones has the speed and power and showed it as a return man last year, and also on a couple of offensive plays. Does he have it figured out now? Can he avoid a hamstring injury like he had last year that took him out of the loop in training camp and into the start of the regular season? Are those just excuses? You might not to include Jones in a list of camp surprises because success should be expected from him. He did so little last year to justify third-round status, it would be a surprise if he shows up to a great extent at camp.

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