Chicago Bears Training Camp Recap: First Padded Practice

Apparently for all the depth the Bears suddenly have at wide receiver, they may find themselves needing it.

• Devin Hester sat out Saturday's practice with an ankle tweak suffered battling for a pass with Major Wright. Alshon Jeffery took his place with the first team. According to Lovie, Hester should be back for tomorrow afternoon's practice.
• Brandon Marshall left practice briefly with a minor leg injury, but came back and made several deep receptions. Alshon Jeffery also had a big touchdown catch, but according to Brad Biggs, "got absolutely stymied" by Kelvin Hayden.
• Joe Anderson was carted off with an upper body injury that was later called "sickness." One wonders, however, if he was down with it.
• Shea McClellin's been going against the second-team offensive line, and while he's been struggling once the tackle engages, he does have a solid burst off the line. He got knocked back by Kyle Adams on a run play and tipped a Jason Campbell pass at the line of scrimmage.
• Chris Williams and J'Marcus Webb alternated with the first team with Webb starting out. Only fair, as he's the incumbent. According to Bob LeGere and Mark Potash, Webb got the majority of first-team snaps. Tice still put in some work with Webb. One of Sean Jensen's colleagues reported Webb playing well against Julius Peppers in one-on-ones.
• The Bears won.

• Chris Conte also was looked at by the training staff, and Brandon Hardin stepped into the first team in his place. Conte was able to come back, however.
• New acquisitions Jeremy Ware and Brian Price both sat out practice tonight.
• Evan Rodriguez has apparently made some big strides since rookie camps, even though he's catching from Jason Campbell and Matt Blanchard. But according to Matt Bowen, the Bears are creating a role for him. Further from Bowen, Rodriguez was used on intermediate routes and inside verticals.
• Apparently Jonathan Wilhite can't stand up to Brandon Marshall. T'row dat bum outta heah!
• Interesting moment - prior to Anderson's removal, he dove to tackle Greg McCoy on a kick return. Darryl Drake yelled at him: "Joe, calm your ass down."
• In pass-rush drills, McClellin had a good speed rush against Webb, and Gabe Carimi evened the score with a stop against Israel Idonije. At least that's what was tweeted of those two. James Brown, the Troy rookie, has been Carimi's right tackle backup in the non-padded practices.
• So apparently, a goal post came down.
• Sean Jensen listed Cutler, Marshall, Rodriguez, Josh McCown and Kellen Davis as players that impressed at practice.
• Also in the above-linked Biggs article, Stephen Paea was able to get some pressure up the middle, as was free agent DeMario Pressley, and Corey Wootton has so far responded, looking "explosive" on the left side.
• Haven't found anything from anyone on how the running backs performed, so sorry for the incompletion here.

So from the impressions that I got from not being able to see the practice myself, seems like there's plenty to be excited about here. McClellin's struggles are mildly surprising, but some of the more athletic plays are encouraging for a versatile player, and Bowen did say he saw some decent counter moves deployed, so McClellin just might have a decent developmental base.

I'm not sure what to make of Webb beating Peppers - is Webb developing, or is Pep just taking it easy on him?

If Cutler, Marshall and Jeffery are able to make the big plays they made in tonight's practice, maybe the offense will be pretty damn fearsome. And it sounds like Rodriguez is trying to carve himself into the team's plans by force. If he can, not bad for a fourth-round rookie. Paying attention, former fourth-rounder Corey Wootton?

The team has another practice tomorrow at 2 PM CT, and like today, we'll have an Open Thread and an instant recap for you. What did you guys like or loathe about tonight's practice?