Physical Bears Rookies in Their Element

The Bears made their first two draft picks with the idea of making the team more physical, and they'll get a better idea how well they did now with pads coming on.

Pads are on Tuesday morning at Bears practice and it's the first real chance for the team to show it's better in an area where they were probably most disappointing last year.

They weren't physical enough.

Sure, they led the league in rushing and their run-blocking was solid even if stats say 670 yards came on quarterback scrambles and not designed runs behind blocks. However, they've given up 58 sacks the last two years and it's the part of the reason they drafted Darnell Wright first, at No. 10 overall.

The defense gave up yards in big chunks on the ground, finishing next to last stopping the run. They needed an interior presence and Gervon Dexter was an ideal pick at No. 53 in Round 2, their second pick.

Now the two will get their first chances to step into the spotlight with pads on, and if what their teammates say is right then they should impress.

"Oh yeah, Big Dex, that's a man right there," Jones said.

Considering Jones could would up losing his job to Dexter eventually, it's a fairly solid compliment.

"He's good," Jones said. "He's a good player. I think once he really understands the Xs and Os outside of just D-line, line understanding the whole defense and how offenses come and try to attack certain styles of defenses and certain styles of play, I think he’s going to be a real dominant player in this league."

Physically, its hard to argue with a 6-foot-6, 312-pound defensive tackle who can play nose or three technique. He ran 4.88 seconds in the 40, which can help in the pass rush besides making him a physical presence against the run.

"I mean he benches like 500 pounds," Jones said. "I don't know what to tell you. He's a big, strong guy.

"I mean he's manhandling guys. I mean, you can't even coach that obviously. Obviously you can coach him on technical things but the physicality he brings you can't coach that. That's just natural."

It isn't all physical.

"When he has questions he will ask me, but he's a really smart player," Jones said. "He takes really good notes. He absorbs a lot of information, so that's a really good thing. I do feel like he's going to play a long time in this league."

Jones had to smile at the thought of pads coming on and Dexter getting to be physical.

'We get pads on tomorrow," he said Monday. "So honestly, I would expect something huge out of him because he's a real physical dude. So he's going to be good."

Wright's physicality was why they were attracted to him in the first place, especially after they put him through a rigorous predraft workout.

Center Cody Whitehair hasn't seen anything to make anyone think they overestimated Wright's ability.

"Darnell, he's a really athletic kid. Big guy," Whitehair said. "I think the thing about him, for a big guy, he's got really good feet. And he plays really long. He plays with good extension.

"We were watching 1-on-1s in meetings a couple days ago and he's so strong, his strike and the way he moves his feet has really impressed me. So really looking forward to seeing him in the run game too. Big guy, he can move people off the ball for sure."

To Whitehair, maybe Wright has already accomplished the most difficult aspect of playing the line and it isn't necessarily physical. Wright was doing well in one-on-ones at practice because he was using the techniques he'd been taught.

"Yeah, any time you see a guy that is striking guys in one-on-ones and doing what he's coached, I guess the biggest thing is taking the individual to a situation like that where it's more of like a team setting where you're going against the defense," Whitehair said. "So that's awesome for a young guy to come in and be able to take your individual and what we do in individual and our technique and stuff and translate it like that.

"We talk about that all the time—that's what we're striving to do is take our fundamentals that we learned in our individual drill to team and the one-on-one situations like that to help us get ready for Sunday."

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