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The Chicago Bears have just three more days of practices left in this offseason before training camp begins in late July. This will be the last opportunity to hear about these players in action (albeit without pads) before training camp fires up in 6 weeks.
As today’s practice wrapped up on the first day of mandatory minicamp, there were several positives on one side of the ball, but not too many on the other. According to the Bears’ beat on site, the defense outplayed the offense and it didn’t seem to be too close.
Unfortunately for the offense, it wasn’t the first team defense that outperformed them, it was the second team defense.
First, to be fair to the passing game, keep in mind that Darnell Mooney will be ready for training camp but is not currently available and Chase Claypool sat out once again.
Minicamp is without pads, so there’s no reason to overreact to any of it, especially along the offensive and defensive line, but this is what was observed today.
Darnell Wright had some rough reps:
First day of #Bears minicamp has wrapped up.
— Brad Biggs (@BradBiggs) June 13, 2023
If it was an open training camp practice, there would be buzz about Terrell Lewis, who the team picked up last December.
Lewis blew past RT Darnell Wright on 3 snaps in an end-of-half series, creating 2 sacks.
It was a good day for second round pick Gervon Dexter:
Fields overthrew Cole Kmet during 7-7 and was picked off by Kyler Gordon.
— Josh Schrock (@Schrock_And_Awe) June 13, 2023
The second-string defense won the day against the first-team offense in the two-minute drill, with Gervon Dexter creating a ton of pressure against Teven Jenkins and Cody Whitehair, including one sack.
As for the Fields interception in that tweet, Mark Grote reported on The Score that Kmet slipped and fell, causing the interception. But Fields did apparently have a couple other interception-worthy throws.
Noah Sewell also dropped an interception on a quick out from Fields to Kmet.
— Josh Schrock (@Schrock_And_Awe) June 13, 2023
So while it wasn’t a great day for the offense, Justin Fields still did have some highlight worthy throws, one to rookie Tyler Scott.
Bears rookie receiver Tyler Scott shined during practice today, including an impressive diving catch deep down the sidelines. He's going to be an interesting player to watch throughout training camp.
— Chris Emma (@CEmma670) June 13, 2023
But everyone on the beat seemed to be in agreement that the play of the day was a beautiful ball from Justin Fields to Dante Pettis.
Play of the day: Justin Fields threw a deep strike to Dante Pettis down the right sideline. Pettis was blanketed by Jaylon Johnson but Fields put it in a perfect spot and Pettis came down with the snag.
— Josh Schrock (@Schrock_And_Awe) June 13, 2023
Otherwise, it was a tough day for the first-string offense.
Summarizing some of the other tweets from the beat, the Bears seem to be being extra cautious with Chase Claypool and that he isn’t really nursing an injury right now. Justin Fields may have had an up and down day, but he continues to build some great chemistry with DJ Moore. The Bears had full attendance today according to Matt Eberflus. That doesn’t mean everyone practiced, but everyone appears to have been on hand.
Media is expected to be at practice on both Wednesday and Thursday so barring any changes to the schedule, we should hear more about the team’s performances over the next couple of days.
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