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Bears Rookie Finds Out the Hard Way Receiving Can Mean More Than Passes

A physical practice involving fights also had one of the loudest reactions by players to any hit in any drill all camp and it was made by a little-known player.
Gene Chamberlain|
Bears rookie tight end Sam Roush hauls in a pass against Cleveland Saturday. On Tuesday at practice, he was on the receiving end in another way.
Bears rookie tight end Sam Roush hauls in a pass against Cleveland Saturday. On Tuesday at practice, he was on the receiving end in another way. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears

One of the longest and most physical of Bears practices at training camp saw tackle Kiran Amegadjie leave with an injury after blocking on a running play away from the ball.

It also had a couple of skirmishes, including Cole Kmet getting his helmet yanked off while in a tussle with Austin Booker.

However, none of that compared to the sheer physical brutality of what Jeremiah Martin did to third-round rookie tight end Sam Roush during a special teams blocking drill.

With players from the entire team surround them, Martin made a run like a tackler on punts or kicks coming downhill fast and hit Roush with enough force to knock him straight backward into the air before he sprawled on the ground. The hit had hollering players from the defensive side jump forward shouting as they surrounded Martin, an edge rusher from the Bears practice squad last year who is 6-foot-3, 267 pounds. Martin led the wild celebration immediately after the play.

The drill went on with the same two players eventually matching up again, and once again Martin totally destroyed Roush, whose forte coming out of Stanford is blocking. Roush hasn't looked like a poor blocker at all during camp but trying to hold off a charging player in a kick or punt coverage type of situation is different entirely than blocking for a run on the line of scrimmage.

Jahdae Waliker's play during the drill also had players fired up, including none other than Caleb Williams, who wasn't participating but charged hollering into the middle of the celebrating.

Old time football

The drill produced all the excitement the Oklahoma drills of old used to generate in former days at training camps, before the league made those illegal. This one was physical but definitely not over the top.

Martin, a former Packers and Browns player, had already caught coaches' eyes with one of the team's three sacks in Saturday's preseason win over Cleveland. Now he'll definitely have the eyes of special teams coordinator Richard Hightower.

Another play eliciting a great response from players was backup linebacker Joe Rhattigan making a big hit while tackling running back Salvon Ahmed for a loss of yardage. Rhattigan even got in with the first team for a few reps Tuesday and replaced Jack Sanborn at strongside linebacker.

Bears defensive end Montez Sweat described the reason for all of the hollering and celebrating by players after hits in the practice.

"It's football. That happens every year," Sweat said. "After a while, hitting a teammate every other day, day in, day out, you get those reactions."

The fighting isn't surprising now.

"I think there's a time and a place for everything," Sweat said. "Obviously some periods are live and some aren't. We like to just the lead of the coaches on that.

"Ben has a good idea of how he wants us to practice and how he wants us to transfer it to the game. Just follow the lead of the coaches."

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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.

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