Where Time Is Working Most Against the Bears
The 2020 schedule for the Bears comes with its share of challenges.
It's not the opponents they need to worry about most when they report to start training camp in three weeks on July 28.
The real opponent of concern is hanging on their wall and it's talking. It's saying "tick" and "tock."
Time is working against every NFL team in a big way during this training camp and preseason, and teams trying to rebound from 2019 problems have to worry more about it.
They didn't have on-field work in the offseason. So much work will be crammed into so little of a time period.
The Bears have undertaken several offseason personnel changes or projects and three in particularly are most affected greatly by a lack of time.
3. Swapped Out Secondary
This is the second straight year the Bears have changed their starting secondary by 40%.
They've let two starters leave and are trying to plug in players, presumably from outside the team. But there are options from within the team, as well.
There has been too much personnel movement and not enough settling in to play over the last two years in the secondary. The secondary which produced 21 of the team's 27 interceptions in 2018 had been put in place for the full 2017 season and was ready to go when they dominated in coverage. Communications lines were well established and all was ready to roll.
This won't be the case now for the second straight year at training camp.
Veteran safety Tashaun Gipson and rookie cornerback Jaylon Johnson are the favorites to take the two vacant spots.
A year ago the Bears brought in Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and Buster Skrine to fill vacated positions but at least both of those players had plenty of NFL experience. In this case, Johnson has none.
Gipson has experience but still needs time to fit what the Bears are doing. He said himself during a conference call with NFL media that most of his work has been done as the deep safety and not playing near the line of scrimmage. He'll have to do both with the way the Bears work their scheme.
2. Offensive Line
There are limits to full-contact work in training camp but the Bears might need to push them. It normally makes little sense to risk injury from full contact in a practice but without at least two of the preseason games and possibly all of them, the Bears' could use the hitting. It's the offensive line which needs preseason games more than anyone else, including the quarterbacks.
The Bears averaged 3.7 yards a carry last year and in 2018 their running backs averaged only 3.8 yards a carry. Last year their pass blocking caved in with 45 sacks allowed, their most since 2011.
There had to be change to improve this. The big change is trying to conduct a right guard competition between Germain Ifedi and Rashaad Coward under the auspices of new offensive line coach Juan Castillo.
As it is, the CBA prohibits padded practices the first few days anyway, so eliminate those practices off the top and now the amount of time available for contact in practices before the regular season must be completely maximized.
1. Quarterbacks
The great Bears nightmare would be if Nick Foles doesn't have the time to get fully in tune with what coaches want to do in this offense.
It could mean Mitchell Trubisky wins the starting job and where are the Bears then? They'd be right back where they were when last season ended. Unless some drastic and unanticipated improvement in Trubisky occurs, they'd be headed nowhere again.
It is true preseason games are overrated when determining who wins the starting quarterback spot.
There are far more practice reps than there are preseason reps for quarterbacks even in a regular preseason, and when the preseason is cut down like this one it is even more true. Also, the defenses quarterbacks face in preseason are not trying to be as deceptive because they don't want to tip anything off about their scheme before the regular season begins. A team in practice can test its quarterback more to this extent than an opponent will in a preseason game.
Foles might have experience in the Bears' style of offense from years past in Kansas City and Philadelphia but he does not have experience in this Bears offense.
Besides understanding the offense more, the quarterbacks need to work on timing in pass routes with their individual receivers. Foles is at a complete loss with this because of no offseason program.
The Bears need the time to work him into everything they do, and they won't have it.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
