LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Chicago Bears will not become an offensive juggernaut overnight.
Nor will it be a one-week process to master what first-year head coach Ben Johnson and his staff are trying to install.
Judging by Monday morning’s practice, the first padded session of training camp, the growing pains aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. While the sky might seem like it’s falling for the Bears’ hopefuls craving competency, the calendar hasn’t flipped to August yet.
“We’re not frustrated at all,’ Johnson told reporters over the weekend. ‘We’re right where we need to be. In fact, I told the unit last (week) to see where they came from in the springtime to where we’ve been.’
With an emphasis on the pre-snap operation, quarterback Caleb Williams rarely fired downfield during his limited passing attempts in 11-on-11 team drills, which mostly focused on the second-year signal-caller operating under center.
“There is a line of, you’re in the season and it doesn’t go the way you want, you’re feeling a little different,” offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said. “This is the first time we’re out there seeing what we’re seeing with the new install for training camp. I think the biggest thing is that we come in and we get it corrected.”
As of the weekend, the team had installed only one third of the playbook, according to Johnson. The former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator — highly coveted in each of the last two seasons on the head-coaching circuit for the success he had there with quarterback Jared Goff — finds comfort in not needing to coach the basics, from how to line up to the standard that is expected.
What can’t be excused are procedural penalties and sloppy center-quarterback exchanges, both of which presented themselves again Monday.
“That’s that ‘High School Harry’ stuff that we have to get out of,” Johnson had said Saturday.
Second-year wideout Rome Odunze said he feels comfortable with what has been installed thus far.
“I know Ben’s offense isn’t just something that you’re going to completely and totally be encompassed in or have a full understanding of in year one,” Odunze said. “It’s something that takes a little bit of evolving to get there.”
Practicing learning helps in NFL (really)
Bears center Drew Dalman, part of the revamped offensive line charged with protecting Williams after last season’s unit came up woefully short in that department, was with the Atlanta Falcons last season during the first year of a new regime led by head coach Raheem Morris.
Now experiencing the same thing with Chicago, Dalman said last year taught him how to learn more efficiently — and he’s putting that into practice as he picks up another new playbook and builds a rapport with another new quarterback.
As the left tackle battle continues (with Braxton Jones and Ozzy Trapilo fighting for the spot), the rest of the line is mostly set with Joe Thuney at left guard, Dalman at center, Jonah Jackson at right guard and right tackle Darnell Wright.
Like Dalman, Thuney and Jackson were offseason additions. When it comes to the front five being on the same page, Dalman said, there is no set timetable for it all clicking.
“There’s a meshing of communication and vision where everyone’s seeing the same things and alerting each other and giving each other information seamlessly, and that’s something that is better than it was when we started,” Dalman told USA TODAY Sports. “And I think it’s more of a continuum of it just gets better and better rather than it crosses some threshold and it’s like ‘Now you have a cohesive unit.’ You can always improve.”
Lethargic in Lake Forest?
Even if hitting at game speed is not permitted, the first day of full pads is a chance for teams to dial up the intensity during training camp. The Bears’ two-hour practice Monday didn’t deliver on that front.
On top of the early-morning call time (practice started at 8:15 a.m.), the humidity helped keep the energy low and not much work was done at full speed.
Other observations and notes
It’s easy to see why the Bears took Colston Loveland 10th overall in the draft this year. Even from afar, he is every bit of 6-foot-4. He’ll be a massive target for Williams in the middle of the field. Loveland leapt for a pass down the right seam and came down with the ball for one of the offense’s better reps of the day.
Fourth-year defensive lineman Chris Williams flashed during linemen drills with some aggression against the run and a nifty pass-rush win.
Rookie wide receiver Luther Burden III, the team’s second-round pick, practiced for the first time (in a limited capacity) since injuring his hamstring during rookie minicamp in May.
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