Bears offseason workout, practice schedule released

The NFL released the offseason workout schedules for all 32 teams Monday.

The Bears will begin their offseason workout program April 15, just two weeks from today.

Their minicamps will be May 20-21, 23, 28-30 and June 3-6 and their mandatory minicamp, the final practice before training camp, will be June 11-13.

Courtesy of Around the NFL, here is what each of these ‘phases’ consists of:

Phase One consists of the first two weeks of the program with activities limited to strength and conditioning and physical rehabilitation only.

Phase Two consists of the next three weeks of the program. On-field workouts may include individual player instruction and drills as well as team practice conducted on a “separates” basis. No live contact or team offense vs. team defense drills are permitted.

Phase Three consists of the next four weeks of the program. Teams may conduct a total of 10 days of organized team practice activity, or “OTAs”. No live contact is permitted, but 7-on-7, 9-on-7, and 11-on-11 drills are permitted.

Reminder that line play and the running game can’t really be evaluated much, or really any of it for that matter, but at least there will be the all-important “rapport” building between QB and receivers.

It’ll also be a decent chance to see how players coming off of injuries are rebounding (think Anthony Miller, Adam Shaheen and Trey Burton).

For us starved football fans, it will be a welcome sight, even if real football is still months away.

The dates for the Bears rookie minicamp, which must be held one of the two weekends following the draft, will be announced later, according to the above article.

If you really want to read about the rules of the programs, when they can be held and the extra practices that new coaches get and voluntary veteran minicamps, read the whole article here.