Chicago Bears Position Battle Updates After First Week of Training Camp

The Chicago Bears have officially wrapped up their first week of training camp and there are some updates to share on key competitions up and down the roster.

Those key position battle come at left tackle, center, cornerback and wide receiver, with cornerback having two key battles going on in the slot and on the boundary.

In case you missed anything from the first week of training camp, we have you covered with every single recap linked below. Now, here's all the information we've gathered on key positional competitions based on beat writer observations.

Week 1 camp recaps -Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Left Tackle

Chicago Bears offensive tackle Braxton Jones (70) after the game against the Dallas Cowboys at Soldier Field. — Chicago Bears offensive tackle Braxton Jones. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Braxton Jones dominated first-team reps at OTAs and minicamp, and over the first two days of training camp, but the Bears have started mixing in other guys.

First, we saw Jedrick Wills get a brief look on Thursday, and then Kiran Amegadjie got the vast majority of first-team reps on Friday. Then, Wills was back with the first team and received the majority of the reps on Saturday.

Safe to say, Jones remains the favorite to win the job, even though he wouldn't say as much, but things did at least get a little more interesting as the week closed out.

"Like I said, it's a competition," Jones said. "Ben said it the other day, jobs are going to come down to the most consistent player. Whoever is the most consistent, and that’s what I’m working on, is being the most consistent and doing my job all the time, knowing when and where to be."

"Like I said, too, we’re all a brotherhood," he added. "We’re all trying to go after one thing. So whoever is the best to go take us to a Super Bowl is going to be the left tackle. And we’ve just got to protect 1-8 (Caleb Williams)."

Center

Chicago Bears offensive lineman Jaren Kump (L) and Garrett Bradbury (R) train during Minicamp. — Chicago Bears offensive lineman Jaren Kump (L) and Garrett Bradbury (R). | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

It's still early, but there hasn't been anything to indicate Garrett Bradbury is in any sort of danger to losing the starting job to Logan Jones.

By all accounts, the veteran has been getting all the first-team reps, and based on how general manager Ryan Poles spoke of Bradbury at the start of training camp, it sounds like the Bears intend on rolling with him to begin the season.

"You have a guy with a ton of NFL experience that just played in the Super Bowl," Poles said of Bradbury. "I think he's one of those glue guys for the offensive line that brings everyone together. He has a ton of knowledge and wisdom on how to play the position, especially with a young quarterback behind him."

The only real interesting nugget on Jones has come from Patrick Norton of CHGO Bears, who reported that the rookie has had a bit of an issue with low snaps.

Wide Receiver

It has been the Kalif Raymond show over the first week, with the veteran routinely standing out above most of the rest of the Bears wide receivers. The highlight play of the first week came on a 54-yard strike from Caleb Williams to Raymond.

Jahdae Walker had some big-play connections with Tyson Bagent on Friday, and Zavion Thomas has made some plays, although he did see some struggles with drops and a fumbled exchange. That's the kind of growing pains we expect to see, though.

When it comes to the No. 3 wide receiver job, Raymond is firmly in the lead. We would put Walker ahead of Thomas for the No. 4 spot, but there's still plenty of time for Thomas to move up.

Cornerback

There hasn't been much information about the CB2 competition, which is supposed to be between at least veteran Tyrique Stevenson and rookie Malik Muhammad.

We know Stevenson was the victim on the aforementioned score by Raymond, but that's about all we've heard on the cornerback other than defensive coordinator Dennis Allen saying he thinks Stevenson can be a starter if he can be more consistent.

Again, there's not a lot about how much, if any, reps Muhammad has gotten with the ones on the boundary, but we do know he has been getting looks in the slot, along with Cam Lewis, Jaylon Jones and Josh Blackwell, all of whom are vying to be the first man off the bench if Kyler Gordon, who is currently on the pup list, has injury issues during the regular season.

Jones and Lewis appear to be getting the most opportunities, which is not surprising because Jones was getting heavy work there in the spring and Lewis has nearly 500 career snaps there during his career. Consider them the top competitors for now.

Long Snapper

Who doesn't love a good long snapper battle?

Beau Gardner and Luke Elkin have been rotating reps over the first week. The only semblance of an indication one is doing better than the other came from Zack Pearson of Bear Report, who reported Elkin had one snap on Thursday that was high.

Other than that, it appears to be a neck-and-neck race between the two youngsters, neither of whom have ever played a snap in the NFL.

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