It's Clobberin' Time for Bears with Pads On
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Despite all the hand wringing among Bears fans over the way the team started training camp with the Teven Jenkins Drama II, it's really a case so far of no harm, no foul.
The veteran offensive linemen recently acquired will soon step in full time and by the time the regular season begins they will have center Lucas Patrick back. In the meantime, they are fortunate to have a center who started 24 games the last two seasons in Sam Mustipher and a promising rookie from Illinois in Doug Kramer.
Nothing much else came from the first four days of practice except one great positive—Justin Fields is unquestionably in total control as the leader of the offense and their playmaker. The offense is obviously being groomed to his strengths, as is evident from the great number of sprint-out plays and bootleg passes or the counter passes to these—swing passes or quick screens.
The Bears will get every ounce they can out of Fields' natural ability in this attack until he also is able to operate within it as a veteran would with all the options available.
An example: After a rather negative series of red zone plays earlier in a practice, offensive coordinator Luke Getsy lined up the attack at the 25 and they ran an RPO. It had the defense befuddled as they hadn't shown much of this before but were using plenty of bootleg action all along. So the defensive ends froze and Fields executed perfectly, leaving only Trevis Gipson on the edge to stop him as he faked to David Montgomery and ran wide around the right side for 20 yards before they could swarm to reach him at the sidelines.
Why the Bears didn't make better use of Fields' legs and capability as a sprinting passer until after he struggled through five starts last year one can only ask Matt Nagy. After all, Fields had twice as many yards rushing in his last five games than in his first seven. Getsy won't make his mistake.
Defensively, the only real negative is Roquan Smith's absence. Sure, that's like saying you'd look perfectly normal except for the fact you cut your nose off shaving this morning. They need him in, but look at Smith to solve this more than the Bears.
Smith needs to realize he's holding none of the cards in his hold-in. If the Bears are so far away from market value for him in talks, then it will come out and they will look foolish and cheap—and who hasn't said the Bears are cheap over the year? But it hasn't.
So it would seem Smith must be quibbling over a few sheckles.
The Bears don't need to sign him at all. He has a contract. If he decides he's sitting out, he won't get paid this year. What will that hurt the Bears when everyone from NFL Network to the Food Network thinks they're finishing last, anyway. Smith should digest this: If you can finish last with him, you can finish last without him. In other words, this is the free season for Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus as first-year coaches. It's a throwaway, and Roquan Smith's contract situation is caught going upstream when the flow is entirely downstream.
The Bears can have Smith play or he can choose to sit it out without pay. Then next year he can be franchised and the following year he can be franchised. And by the time he's 28 he might finally be able to walk away on his own, perhaps with a couple years of his prime still left. See Allen Robinson.
Settling up and coming to practice might be the best thing for him considering he isn't a household word in the league as someone who hasn't been in a Pro Bowl and who was rated the 62nd best linebacker overall by Pro Football Focus. He did make All-Pro two straight years, but on the second team.
From the Bears' standpoint, they need to realize they can be more forthcoming with cash for him anyway. After all, it isn't like they've thrown money around at talent this year.
All of that aside, the really important stuff comes this week for the Bears offense.
So far all of the offense has been pretend. They're not padded, they're not really hitting, the defense knows it's usually a pass play and can cheat this way.
The key to the Getsy offense is the play action, the movement of the front and the receivers combined with the run and threat of it. It's hard to run play-action when no one is biting.
The pads come on Tuesday and things ramp up. There should be a more significant measure taken of where they are at offensively at this point. Here's who to highlight heading into contact week at camp.
1. David Montgomery
The poor guy dies all offseason to get in some hard runs with tacklers coming at him. Everything to this point is touch football. A physical back who runs through tacklers cherishes this chance.
"I thnk any form of running the ball, whether inside or outside whatever is being ran, when it involves the quarterback getting the ball to a ball carrier to run for positive yards, you need pads on to get good looks," Montgomery said. "So yeah, the tempo will go up and it will be exciting to see the rooks go but also excited for me to get my feet wet again."
2. Cole Kmet
All the tight ends become important. Kmet's sees himself as a clasical Y type of tight end, a guy on the line who can be physical and explode out of that physicality. How does he explode without a launching point? Now he'll have one and see where they are exactly in the offense.
"Well, we can hit people next week, so we'll know pretty soon," Kmet said. "What I like about it is you can do a lot of things off the run for the pass, and I think that sets up well for tight ends and receivers. And you get guys on their heels. You get guys running and you're getting off the ball. It's a fun run system.
"You can see that with San Francisco, how Minnesota's been running it, so definitely friendly not only for tight ends, but the offensive line as well, and it can help receivers get open in the pass game."
3. Velus Jones, N'Keal Harry
Two bigger receivers and especially one with speed in Jones, and they can begin to show the type of capability they have for this attack. Harry calls it the ability to be dominant. Considering where he's come from in his career, merely being productive would suffice. Jones has been a terror on deep balls when matched against rookie Kyler Gordon already. Now, with physicality involved, it's possible he could start to show up in the medium and shorter range stuff as he bullies DBs a bit.
4. Khari Blasingame
Their fullback has been like a steak eater without his dentures. What on earth can a physical fullback do without being able to hit? There was one brief glimpse in the first practice when they threw a short sideline pass with a few wide receivers as screen for him on the outside. He picked up speed and without pads on no one wanted a piece of the runaway train going down the sidelines.
"Just having him in front of us, I’m real confident in what we’re going to be able to do running the ball," running back Khalil Herbert said. "When we get these pads on I’m excited to see what he can do, because he’s been itching for it."
5. Justin Fields
Sure, they're not going to tackle the quarterback in practice unless they want to get benched for the rest of the year and fined. However, padding up means live looks from the defense and it's going to benefit Fields seeing downfield with a real approaching pass rush and contact going on just a few steps away.
Also, with defenders more worried about the blocking, the physical play, they can't be as focused on Fields even in their zone drops. The running game and this passing attack are so closely tied in this offense that trying to do one without the other in practice is really rather useless.
A more accurate depiction of what Fields is capable of within the attack will begin to emerge once pads go on.
"These helmet practices are great because you get timing and rhythm and stuff like that but this game is a feel game and the only way you get the real feel is if it’s the real thing," Getsy said. "So, these reps that will be coming down the road here will be super important for him."
6. Man-Up
The best action of any training camp is the man-to-man pass blocking and it doesn't really start until pads are being worn. The veteran offensive and defensive linemen know how to handle it.
With young pass rushers like Dominique Robinson involved for the first time, and with four rookie offensive linemen in Doug Kramer, Zachary Thomas, Ja'Tyre Carter and Braxton Jones, it's going to be trial by fire with pads and live hitting. There is no hiding from anyone in these drills.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
