Where It Will All Start for the Bears

The Bears report for training camp two weeks from Tuesday with a goal every 3-14 team should have.

They need to get better.

They need to do it in every way possible and it all starts with an emphasis on problem areas or lingering issues.

Regardless of what GM Ryan Poles did to bolster the roster in the off-season, they still need to target their work for success at practice.

Here's the Bears 2023 training camp checklist for the start of training camp.

1. Building the Connection

Nothing is bigger than getting Justin Fields and his main three wide receivers in sync. By now, much of that should have been done at off-season work.

No Chase Claypool for the final three weeks of four weeks they worked. No Darnell Mooney all off-season. The only connection established at this point is Fields and DJ Moore, although it shouldn't take much work for Mooney considering how much he has worked in the Bears offense since 2020.

2. Passing Fundamentals

They worked at this until everyone was tired of hearing about it during minicamp and OTAs, but the footwork Fields displays is critical because it's a determining factor in where many of his throws can go. The ball must come out faster than the 3.12 seconds per pass that NextGen Stats clocked Fields at, and he thinks he'll be set up to make sure it happens. They'll work on this every single practice during individual drills and even in some team scrimmage.

"This footwork that we have now, the first year that we were using it was last year," Fields said. "So yeah, if you're comparing it from now to last year I would say it's a big difference."

It's not just Fields, either. Backup PJ Walker needs to work at this plenty since it's his first exposure to this offense.

3. Red Zone Passing

They scored points on only 82% of their red zone incursions and only five offenses in the league were worse.

Without pads on to start camp, they'll go to the red zone passing work again immediately. They left off there at minicamp and it's important to improve consistency and accuracy between Fields and receivers there.

"The closer you get the tighter the throws are," coach Matt Eberflus said. "So you gotta be able to put em low and away sometimes. Sometimes you gotta put em high and outside. It's really important. The accuracy down there is so important, and being on the same page as the receivers."

If you look merely at percentage of completions in the red zone, Fields would seem better than all right. He led the NFL among starting QBs in red zone completion percentage at 68.75% (22 of 32). Ironically starter from last year with the second-best percentage was former Bears QB Andy Dalton at 65.96%. The reason this is an area the Bears need to work at is because Fields was completing passes inside the opposing 20 but wasn't getting it into the end zone. Even though he was No. 1 in completion percentage there, he only threw 12 TD passes and that ranked 15th.

Of course, it might help if he was able to throw more in the red zone. They didn't get there enough for him. He was 30th in red zone attempts, which helped prop up his completion percentage.

Will Justin Fields take the leap in Year 3? pic.twitter.com/QRCf2gndt9
— PFF (@PFF) July 11, 2023

4. Offensive Line Cohesiveness

They already made great strides in this direction by identifying the starters early, even before the drafting of tackle Darnell Wright. This let those in new positions work at the proper techniques.

Teven Jenkins called this critical or his ability to step to left guard for the first time.

Now, it's even bigger to keep those players at these spots and let them build a strong cohesive unit at camp.

The memory of all the switching lineups on the line last year still haunts them. They switched to a different starting group nine times.

5. Backs Pass Blocking Drills

One-on-one with blitzing linebackers against running backs will be of extreme interest for Bears coaches considering the lack of experience in the backfield in this regard. The Bears always could count on David Montgomery's pass blocking in the past.

Travis Homer has a reputation as a decent pass blocker. He has blocked 136 times according to Pro Fotball Focus and was above average at it. Khalil Herbert was PFF's 29th-graded running back at pass blocking while D'Onta Foreman was 60th. Neither has done it much, as Herbert has pass-blocked 70 plays and Foreman 50. Although Roschon Johnson is a rookie, he has a reputation as a strong blocker. Trestan Ebner barely got exposed to the offense last year and it's anyone's guess how he'll do. It's wide open for the backs to impress coaches in this regard. The running part of it will become more apparent in preseason games because even in pratices with pads, there are limits to the amount of contact they'll have.

Making quite the impression in Chicago 💯 @idjmoore (via @UnderCenterPod) pic.twitter.com/Rmg3w7af6g
— NFL (@NFL) July 10, 2023

6. Pass Rush Pressure

Although it's tough to gauge how the interior run defenders are doing in practices do to limited contact in many practices, this isn't the case with pass rush pressure. Defensive coordinator Alan Willliams says he has seen better pass rushing in the non-contact practices, for what that's worth.

"We keep a chart of production and their production is up different from last year, specific guys," Willams said. "The understanding that they have of the defense, so all those things are better than they were last year. So that leads me to believe that we'll be better."

It can get a lot better with one more addition as a free agent or in a trade.

7. Position Battles

The roster battles will develop later but the starting position battles of interest will be watched throughout and those are Jack Sanborn against rookie Noah Sewell at strongside linebacker and Kindle Vildor against rookie Tyrique Stevenson at left cornerback. Also, they need to watch the punt return group to see if Velus Jones Jr. has developed a knack for fielding the ball, which he hadn't last year.

8. Avoiding Soft Tissue Injuries

These plagued the Bears in minicamp and OTAs, although the coaching staff wouldn't specifically say which absences resulted from those beyond possibly Chase Claypool. It isn't so much poor conditioning as it is reaching beyond their conditioning level too far, because almost all players would be in the proper shape by OTAs after the off-season conditioning program held in April. At camp, their continued conditioning on their own since the end of minicamp should be such that they're ready.

These types of injuries can be huge, especially for younger players. The rookies get too far behind when they already are far behind the veterans in knowledge of the offense or defense, or just how to play at this level. Last year Velus Jones Jr. blamed many of his troubles fitting into the offense on his hamstring issues from camp.

Perhaps it's Eberflus maturing or learning as a coach, but he wasn't crowing about bringing their track shoes to training camp the second time around. Instead, he was talking about the need for players to condition on their own so they aren't trying to climb too step a hill so to speak, when they start running at camp.

"When it's too steep at times you get soft tissue and those types of things," Eberflus said.

Then you get players who can't practice and no one benefits.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven