Bears player says nice things about teammate

The Chicago Bears made a few players available to the media after today’s practice at Halas Hall, and one of the player’s comments were picked up nationally and blown way out of proportion considering this is the second day of them practicing with the pads on.

“He actually looks like a whole new player this year,” Cordarrelle Patterson said about fourth-year quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. “I see it in his eyes and everything. He’s got that fire in him.”

With the Bears having an open competition at the most important position in sports, any remark about the quarterbacks is bound to get everyone’s attention. Fans are dying for any news about who’s leading the battle, and since the coaches and players aren’t about to give us the 411 on the QB1, we’re forced to interpret what is said.

But a player saying pleasant things about a teammate isn’t it.

Especially at this point in training camp when it’s all sunshine and rainbows for all 32 teams.

Now if a player or a coach goes negative, then that would be some interesting news, but Patterson isn’t about to share anything but good vibes.

“That’s what we need out of our quarterbacks,” Patterson continued. “That competition. It brings the best out of everybody, so I’m excited. We’ll see what him and Nick can do competing for that job. It’s going to be a good year.”

Later in the presser, Patterson was asked to elaborate on what he’s seen specifically that was different from Mitch from 2019 to this offseason.

“It’s only my second year with him, but I can just tell,” said Patterson. “I’ve been in the league a couple years, and just seeing how he’s grown from Year 1 to Year 2 with me. The way he’s handling things. I feel he’s been more of a leader. Last year I didn’t feel like he was that guy, but this year he’s taking over. He wants everybody to know that he’s that guy and we can come to him when we need something. He’s doing a helluva job with it.”

Since Patterson spent some time talking about Trubisky, it was a given he’d be asked about Foles too.

“Obviously Nick’s been in this league a long time, and first thing when I saw him, like, F***, he’s big. I thought I was big, I was like, ‘He’s a big human,’” the 6’2” Patterson said of the 6’6” Foles, “But Nick’s been in the league a lot of years, so he’s smart. He knows the offense, I feel like he picked the offense up within the week we’ve been here.”

Yesterday it was Trubisky that got the first run with the ones and today it was Foles starting, and them alternating each day is the plan this offseason. At some point one QB will distance himself from the other, and at that point the Bears will have their QB1.

For all of today’s Bears’ press conferences, with head coach Matt Nagy, Foles, Patterson and Trubisky, you can watch this video here;

Here are a few other things reported on about today’s practice.

• The tight ends had a nice day, especially Jimmy Graham who was a bully in one on one drills.
• Graham and safety Deon Bush got into the first skirmish of the year (fyi Bush started it).
• The wide outs and tight ends got the better of the defensive backs on Tuesday, and there’s now a championship belt that goes to the winning position group.
• Ted Ginn Jr. has had a nice camp thus far.
• Patterson indeed was with the running backs.
• Cornerback Artie Burns tore his ACL and is done for the year.

The Bears put out a highlight video from today’s practice on their YouTube channel.