How Getting Through 3-14 Helped

When the Bears report for training camp July 25, they'll have a mix of players coach Matt Eberflus and staff find easier to coach.

They're not necessarily nicer guys, more intelligent or have better football IQs, as coaches like to say.

Instead, it's a group of players who largely know what to expect day to day, hour to hour, and who know the offensive and defensive schemes. There are 48 who went through at least part of the season last year and know all about the HITS principle Eberflus goes by, and they know about Luke Getsy's Green Bay style of offense. They know how defensive coordinator Alan Williams handles issues and the same with special teams coordinator Richard Hightower.

Last year, this was essentially an expansion franchise. They had some players back from the previous regime and those players knew the building, the city and aside from a few players like Al-Quadin Muhammad and Matthew Adams, the entire rest of the group had to be taught the offense and defense by coaches.

"I think it has been beneficial this second year because we can have our players help with that," Eberflus said.

It's a better mix.

"Yeah I feel good about it," Eberflus said. "I think you look at the draft picks from last year, the draft picks from this year, that's a young group."

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They are the fifth-youngest team in the league but it's a group full of leaders. The players who have been through the system already for one year can lead the rookies and free agent additions. A year ago, no one could lead them in how it all would work except coaches, but now they have more than half of a 90-man roster capable of assisting players who need extra help with a twist to a play or other assignment or who simply have been through it all before with this team in tough times.

"There is a great group of leaders that were already here," Eberflus said. "So we're just gelling that with the guys that we signed this year, and we signed the right kind of guys and we drafted the right kind of guys in terms of they love football and their make up is right and their team ability is really good.

"And they really have been working on their relationships and that is a big part of this offseason, but that's leadership too."

The mix could go beyond helping coaches. Bears defensive tackle Justin Jones sees it as a group far more committed to the HITS principle, Eberflus and his staff than players brought in last year to fill out a roster on one-year "prove-it" contracts.

"It's a whole different locker room than it was last year, I'll tell you that," Jones said. "Oviously, after the season's over we got a lot more guys who are more team-oriented vs. themselves.

"When you've got a bunch of guys that are on one-year deals and they're all worried about what they're gonna be next year, it's kind of hard to build a tight group. But when you've got guys that are going to be here for three years, four years, two years, guys who really want to come in here and win, that's when you really start cooking with fire because now you've got talented players and you've got guys that want to be here and want to play for the Bears. It's gonna be a good deal."

Last year Eberflus called it setting up the culture and now players like Jones, Justin Fields, Darnell Mooney, Cole Kmet are mixed with new free agents like Tremaine Edmunds, T.J. Edwards and DJ Moore. The foundation and culture are set.

"Justin, Mooney, Cole all those guys–Justin Jones–they can all help with that culture and teaching the guys," Eberflus said. "You bring guys in that love football and guys that care about their teammates–like Tremaine, T.J., all the guys that love the game, DJ, it's pretty easy to bring that culture along and it's really about building the relationships with the guy next to you."

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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