NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Bears’ secondary finally showed some bite in the last period of their joint practice with the Titans on Thursday, but it was too late.
And dirty.
Titans quarterback Cam Ward threw down the middle of the field to wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson, and Bears safety Xavier Woods broke up the pass with a blindside hit that dropped Robinson and started a sprawling skirmish.
Titans offensive coordinator Brian Daboll rushed toward the scrum immediately and yelled, “That’s [expletive] [garbage],” at Woods, who continued yelling at opposing players from the sideline afterward.
Titans coach Robert Saleh’s only response to it was, “Cheap,” and he added that Robinson was being evaluated for a possible concussion. Left guard Peter Skoronski said of Woods’ hit, “It looked pretty much like Teach Tape 101 of what not to do … You can’t have that.”
Woods, though, has quickly endeared himself to the Bears by playing aggressively and physically. He signed about three weeks ago and immediately jumped into competition for a starting job.
“We practice a certain way, the way we want to play ball,” defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said. “Nothing is done with malice, but we’ve got to play our style of defense the way we want to at all times. Sometimes things happen.”
It’s possible Woods also had a little extra energy going against the Titans, who cut him in February after one season. He wasn’t available to reporters.
It’s also possible that a frustrating day in the heat bubbled over for the Bears’ secondary.
That unit already was down starting safety Coby Bryant and nickel cornerback Kyler Gordon, the former being out for the season and the latter’s status seemingly unknown even to the team. Then top cornerback Jaylon Johnson got hurt in the first hour of practice with the Titans.
Johnson appeared to injure his right arm and was testing out by pushing against a trainer on the sideline, but he kept grabbing his elbow and shaking his head. He didn’t react dramatically to it and was high-fiving teammates with his right hand late in practice, so it didn’t look like a major issue.
It did, however, magnify how shaky things are in the Bears’ secondary.
Their first-string safeties against the Titans were predominantly Dillon Thieneman (rookie), Cam Lewis (a part-time starter most of his career) and Woods (out of the league entirely until the Bears called).
At cornerback, it was Tyrique Stevenson (benched late last season), Terrell Smith (six career starts) and Josh Blackwell (mostly a special teams player) on the outside and Malik Muhammad (rookie).
That’s quite a dropoff from Plan A in that department.
Titans rookie wide receiver Carnell Tate, the No. 4 overall pick, feasted on that group for one of his best practices as a pro. He had a touchdown catch with Smith trailing during red-zone work early in practice and another long catch against him up the right side shortly after. He had long catches on Stevenson, who came off with an injury but returned, and against safety Skyler Thomas.
Muhammad had one of the Bears’ few successes against Tate by breaking up Ward’s pass to him in the end zone, and Lewis probably had the best day of the safeties vying to start alongside Thieneman with an interception on a deep ball that Ward sailed over tight end Gunnar Helm.
Bears coach Ben Johnson seems to be warming to the idea of Muhammad, a fourth-round pick, at nickel. He has said next to nothing about Gordon’s rehab, but said before practice he was “really pleased with the path [Muhammad] is on right now” despite some expected rookie struggles.
One rough practice in August isn’t cause for alarm, but it’s concerning in the secondary’s overall trouble. And since the start of training camp, there haven’t been enough answers popping up to the growing number of questions.