Real Head Turners to Start Bears Camp

Every training camp has its share of surprises.

Those at the early portion of camp stand out, just like the early surprises do in preseason games.

First impressions are always deep.

The Bears have finished what coach Matt Eberflus refers to as a four-day stack. That's four days of work and then a day off. They'll follow with three-day stacks, and that includes the first padded practices starting Tuesday.

Here are the surprises from their four-day stack, the opening of 2023 training camp.

Terell Smith vs. Tyrique Stevenson

This has been an early battle and a surprise to some. There was an indication in OTAs it could be this way because Matt Eberflus had said one thing he regretted was not getting the opportunity to watch Smith more. It showed Smith had piqued their interest with early OTA work, but then had had some type of injury which wasn't disclosed.

That injury has healed and the Bears have looked at both Smith and Stevenson extensively as starters at left cornerback, or right cornerback when Jaylon Johnson gets moved to the left side to cover a standout receiver who is lining up on the right side of the offense.

"I think they're getting better each and every day," slot cornerback Kyler Gordon said of both. 'They keep gaining more knowledge and knowledge kind of like how I was when I was a rookie.

"So I try to go out there and tell them as much as I can. Back when I was having my troubles back then and give them tips I had when I was a rookie, give them all the advice I can and try to help them grow as fast as possible."

Stevenson has been beaten a few times deep by DJ Moore but then again, who hasn't. He's run a good route and gotten behind everyone at Halas Hall except the media corps.

ALBERT BREER'S TAKEAWAY FROM HIS HALAS HALL VISIT

Defensive coordinator Alan Williams said not to pay attention to who lines up where but that's one of the most preposterious asks ever. People are watching practice and are going to pay attention. This isn't OTAs or rookie camp. It's training camp. If the Bears are putting players out there just for you-know-what and giggles, then someone needs to have their resume in order at Halas Hall.

This matters because it's getting too late to be messing around, and it's a battle.

Maybe an even bigger surpise than the battle between these two for a starting spot is how fast veteran starter Kindle Vildor has been swept aside. He saw a rep or two one practice with starters, but that's it.

Pro Football Focus had put out projected starting lineups in advance of training camps and had Vildor listed No. 1 at left cornerback. Uh, not so much.

Jack Sanborn's Lack of Participation

Sanborn's ankle injury last December was characterized as one that was severe enough that he should go on IR with only three weeks left on the season. There just wasn't time enough for him to come back. The implication of this is it wasn't overly severe but enough that he couldn't play in three weeks time.

He was still being held back by trainers this first four-day stack. However, it appears this will begin to change. Sanborn finally had extensive work with the first team in the base defense at strongside linebacker on Saturday after getting a little play on Friday.

That really was one severe non-severe injury.

In the meantime, fifth-round rookie Noah Sewell played strongside. Sewell's play was listed by SI's Albert Breer as one of the real bright spots so far when he visited cmap on Saturday and it has been unusual to see a fifth-round rookie step into that role right away with starters.

However, it's apparent Eberflus likes Sanborn, who is a heady player who hits and actually probably fits this scheme more at the strongisde position where he'll play this year better than he did the middle linebacker spot last year. He isn't really quick enough in the backpedal and in open space like better middle linebackers in the scheme. He can challenge tight ends, backs and fullbacks, though, and that's frequently the challenge for strongsides.

Darnell Wright's Regimen

It's not common for rookie tackles to lose 16 pounds and come into camp with the conditioning a wide receiver would have. But when Darnell Wright mistakenly did the off-season conditioning work on his own meant for wide receivers, well, it never hurts a 333-pound guy to run 200 yards in the 20-seconds. Wright admits he never really got to the point where he was being timed like a receiver but he did do the work for receivers.

The better conditioning definitely can't hurt.

Elijah Hicks

The 2022 seventh-round draft pick has had extensive playing time in off-season when Eddie Jackson was rehabbing a foot injury and on Saturday played with starters with Jackson getting a veteran's day off.

Hicks was definitely not impressive with coverage last year in limited play but he has been solid so far in camp. It's uncommon to see him vicitimized deep and he appears well-suited for the deeper safety role.

It seemed strange when the Bears did not sign special teams ace/veteran safety DeAndre Houston-Carson back to the roster in the off-season but they apparently saw something in Hicks indicating he can be a third safety in his second year, and he's stepped up in camp.

The Cole Kmet Extension

It's not a surprise Kmet got extended but the timing of it at the outset of training camp proved a bit startling.

It's a different GM regime but in the past the Bears seemed to focus those extensions on the last week or two of preseason. GM Ryan Poles said they'd been working on this since spring. So you have to wonder who else is in the works -- Darnell Mooney or Jaylon Johnson?

It's Poles' first extension and now there is a precedent for such things under him early in training camp.

The size of this extension Kmet got, for $50 million over four years and $32.8 million guaranteed, is not the head-turner as much as the fact the Bears barely nicked their cap space. They still have $28 million available for this year, most in the league, and can get something done while also adding some help.]

Rapid Justin Fields/DJ Moore Connection

The skeptics will want to see it in games and that's their perogative.

Not seeing it every day at training camp, their doubt can be understood. After all, Justin Fields wasn't among the league's passing leaders. But this connection is real and it has developed far faster than even the most optimistic could have anticipated. It's easy to understand why it happened at this speed, when Fields had neither of his other two top receivers available over the final three weeks of spring practices. He had to throw to Moore and build that connection.

In a way, it was almost a plus that these two were thrown together in the off-season.

"So as we continue to grow and things start to get a little bit more complicated with the looks that you're going to get (from defenses) and the offense we have in, we've just got to make sure that we continue to keep that pace," offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said. "But they spent a lot of time together in the offseason and the summertime, too, so I feel good about where they're at."

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