The Bears’ meeting room seems packed to Bears coach Ben Johnson, whether he’s speaking to 90 players or 69 of them.
“I honestly don’t even notice the fewer guys …” the Bears coach said last week. “The train just keeps rolling on.”
It will pull out of the station Tuesday when the Bears hold their first practice since they trimmed their roster from 90 to 53 players. Tuesday morning, they’ll make their 16-man practice squad official, signing many of the players who grinded through what Johnson called a “nice, healthy, long, camp.”
Camp is over, but there’s plenty of work left to do — and a lot of time to get it done. When the Bears ended their last official training camp practice on Thursday in Nashville, they marked 30 days since veterans reported — but still 16 days until their season opener Sept. 13.
Some of those days will be a league-mandated rest. The Bears will practice Tuesday through Thursday this week before breaking for Labor Day weekend. When they return, they’ll dive into preparation for Week 1.
Here’s what the Bears have to accomplish before they play the Panthers:
Caleb must keep growing
Johnson plans to spend this week focusing on situational work. For quarterback Caleb Williams, that means red zone work, two-minute drills and short-yardage plays. For a coach that believes his team becomes what he emphasizes, that’s an important insight into where the Bears think Williams needs to improve.
Williams will continue to focus on his accuracy — Johnson is demanding a 70% completion rate — as well as his footwork.
After getting off to slow starts last year, Williams has been cognizant of his own energy at the start of practices and games. The Bears were sloppy early in their joint practice against the Cincinnati, making pre-snap penalties that enraged Johnson. They were much better early on during the Nashville practice.
“Just working on execution, the flags …” Williams said. “It’s leading from the head of the snake down to the tail. When we come out with good energy and we come out and we’re executing and we’re not having penalties as first team, it trickles down to second team and third team and just having that energy. … We’ve got to be able to start like that throughout the year.”
Williams struggled in the second half of Thursday’s practice.
“We’ve got to come out [of halftime] better, obviously, than we did,” Williams said.
Williams’ growth doesn’t stop just because the games start, either.
“There is no end line here,” Johnson said.
Answer lingering questions on D
Who is the Bears’ starting safety opposite rookie Dillon Thieneman? Who’s going to start at defensive tackle after the team traded Gervon Dexter on Monday?
Will cornerbacks Jaylon Johnson and Tyrique Stevenson be healthy enough to play Week 1 after leaving practice Thursday? Who will play slot corner: safety Cam Lewis, rookie Malik Muhammad or newcomer Clark Phillips?
Those are the types of questions that the favorite to win the NFC — and the team that knocked the Bears out of the playoffs last year — doesn’t have to answer. On Monday, the Rams pulled Aaron Donald out of retirement and added him to a roster that features, for the first time in NFL history, both the reigning Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year. Their defense is terrifying.
The Bears’ defense, meanwhile, has issues — if not outright holes — in half its starting spots. Both Johnson and Bears general manager Ryan Poles will be asked about them when they meet the media Tuesday. The truth is, the Bears might not know the answers to the above until they get closer to the Panthers game.
Bears coordinator Dennis Allen was quick to recognize that a league-high 33 turnovers last year papered over a defense that, after giving up the fourth-most yards in the league, needed to be remodeled. The Bears rebuilt the unit in his image, adding speed in safety Coby Bryant, linebacker Devin Bush and Thieneman. One, Bryant, is out for most of the season. The other two need to be part of the solution.
Get healthy
Bryant hurting his knee during the first padded practice cast a pall on the rest of training camp. For the next two weeks, it seemed like every practice featured a new, scary injury. Left tackle Braxton Jones hurt his knee Aug. 6. Receiver Luther Burden hurt his groin Aug. 8. Running back Kyle Monangai injured his knee Aug. 16. Defensive end Austin Booker hurt his groin Aug. 20.
And then there’s slot cornerback Kyler Gordon, whose baffling offseason calf injury has kept him from practicing during camp — and will cost him a minimum of four games. His extended absence —and his head coach’s curt responses to an inquiry about it — is downright odd.
Tackle Ozzy Trapilo, whose patellar tendon injury could have been career-threatening, has practiced on a limited basis but is on a unique recovery timeline and is unlikely to play early in the season.
Of the group, only Jones returned to full practices — just in time to win the starting left tackle job. Burden is right behind after Johnson said he looked 100% during pregame workouts Saturday.
The rest have 12 days to get healthy after a training camp when the opposite often happened.