Darnell Mooney Must Prove His "Maddening" Speed

Throughout the two years wide receiver Taylor Gabriel played with the Bears, he and Tarik Cohen had a running feud about who was the team's fastest player.

They feuded on Twitter, they talked trash at training camp and they did it in the locker room, laughing the entire time.

So with Gabriel gone the Bears drafted speedy Darnell Mooney in April and somehow a fifth-round pick was given the third-highest overall speed rating among the rookie class receivers by the Madden game makers, and fourth-fastest for acceleration. He's the fastest Bears player according to Madden, although not necessarily a good target in the game.

“Very accurate. Very accurate," Mooney said of the speed rating.

It's a rating Cohen was sure to know about.

"I just got done talking to him about that in the locker room," Mooney said.

If Cohen's past with Gabriel remains consistent, he's sure to disagree. That is, unless Mooney really is much faster. A 4.38-second 40-yard dash at the combine says so. It's .04 faster than Cohen ran and was third-fastest at the combine among receivers.

Does Cohen agree with the rating?

"He didn't give me the 'yes,' but I feel like he does, though," Mooney said, laughing.

Mooney is going to need more than the glint in Cohen's eye to confirm this.

He might be able steer Cohen into his column easier with a few long touchdown catches and displays of speed in training camp.

However, it's difficult for Mooney to get behind defenders now because word of his speed has spread faster than he actually is.

"It's been benefiting me," he said. "A lot of people are bailing back on me a lot and respecting my speed, but it's more so of getting out of the huddle and then looking at the coverage is the speed difference for me, just recognizing that."

So while defensive backs cheat back to prevent the big gain, they'll leave room underneath.

What they might not know or remember is Mooney considered his greatest strength to be route running when he was drafted, and he said then he had been told he ran strong routes by several coaches at the combine.

Proving it to his own coaches is obviously more important.

After pads came on, practices were shorter and there were fewer opportunities for younger players to get in play reps. The practices gradually are expanding in length according to the league's COVID-19 plan, and so Mooney will now get more of a chance.

"So I think the biggest thing for him is going to be the transition here over the next couple weeks when we start going against the guys out there in full pads where it's longer days," receivers coach Mike Furrey said. "Now your technique, you gotta continue to remember what you're doing, the verbiage of the playbook continues to stack.

"And so that's where it's really going to be now from a development standpoint is how much can he handle that and continue to go out and produce the way he did when he didn't have pads on. And right now that's something I'm looking forward to evaluating."

Mooney has made it a point to be on top of the offense and playbook.

"I mean, if you know the plays, you don't have any type of confusion or discomfort with it," Mooney said. "If you know what you’re doing, you just go out there and play ball. Like I said, (it's) just reading the coverage and finding out your assignment with the coverage."

Mooney also feels comfortable with pass routes, in part, because just prior to camp he went to work with Allen Robinson II and Javon Wims.

"I was in Alabama just running routes and doing anything I could do just to stay in shape, running trails," Mooney said. "I went to Florida with A-Rob and Juice (Wims) and we had a workout there."

There is one other aspect of his play in Chicago Mooney needs to grasp.

It's getting used to his three quarterbacks: Mitchell Trubisky, Nick Foles and Tyler Bray.

"My biggest thing is coming back to a right-handed quarterback from a left-handed quarterback," said Mooney, who chased the throws of lefty Justin McMillan at Tulane last year. "That's my biggest change that I've had to get back to."

Well, that, and also needing to prove his speed to one specific teammate.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven