Bears rookies reported to Halas Hall for training camp on Tuesday, kicking off a month that will see the offseason winners put under the NFL microscope as they begin a new era.
Quarterback Caleb Williams and wide receiver Rome Odunze both agreed to sign their four-year rookie contracts after arriving (Odunze inked his but Williams has yet to put pen to paper), setting up a drama-free start to training camp.
While the rookie contract question no longer exists, the Bears still have several unknowns to deal with during the next month.
Here are five questions they need to answer during a highly anticipated training camp that will have the “Hard Knocks” cameras in attendance:
What’s the deal at RG?
During mandatory minicamp, Eberflus said he expects incumbent starting right guard Nate Davis to again man that post this fall.
Davis, however, was a limited participant throughout the offseason program, which caused the Bears to use Matt Pryor and Ryan Bates in that spot with the starting five. When Pryor was filling in for Davis, Bates usually played center. When Bates played right guard, free-agent acquisition Coleman Shelton took the first-team center reps.
It illustrates the depth Poles added during the offseason and the uncertainty that remains on a unit that has had 18 different starting combinations through two seasons of the Eberflus era.
“Yeah, don’t know yet,” Eberflus said when asked how the situation at right guard will resolve itself. “I really don’t know. We’ll see. We’ll see how it goes. I’m just thinking through my head a bunch of multiple combinations. I really don’t know exactly. Sure, we had Bates there. He’s played there. Shelton has played at center, of course. Davis has played there. [Teven Jenkins] has been on the other side. Pryor has been in and been out. The versatility there has certainly been helpful. Ryan did a really good job of having those pieces in there so we don’t like last year or prior years, you know, a guy goes down and we’re like, ‘Oh, what are we going to do?’ At least we have that flexibility at the O-line position.”
The Bears signed Davis to a three-year, $30 million contract last offseason. Davis missed time last offseason and during the season for a family matter. He started 11 games last season, allowing one sack and 29 pressures in 384 pass-blocking snaps. Davis’ 47.9 pass-block grade from Pro Football Focus ranked 52nd out of 58 guards who took at least 600 total snaps in 2023.
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The Bears have a great supporting cast around Williams, but the question mark at right guard needs to be solved quickly in camp.
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Facing a top-10 defense
Williams and his development will obviously be storyline 1A, 1B, and 1C during training camp.
The No. 1 overall pick had rocky moments against the Bears’ defense during the offseason program while also showing off the arm talent, accuracy, and precision that caused many to label him a “generational talent” coming out of USC.
The Bears wanted Williams to test his arm and take chances against their vaunted secondary, believing that the mistakes made on the backfields at Halas Hall would serve him well this fall.
“We could do things differently where I say, ‘Hey, we’re going to have the ones go against the twos and the twos go against the ones,’” Eberflus said of Williams’ progress against the first-team defense. “But I don’t like that. I don’t like it. I think that Caleb is a talent. A very good talent. His game will go to where it needs to be. I want him to see that in front of him, the windows closing, the variation of what we do on defense, and I want him to see that day in and day out so that when he gets to play somebody else it will look, ‘OK, I’ve been there done that.’ That’s how we’re going to keep it.”
The challenge will ratchet up during camp, especially when the pads come on and Williams faces more of a pass rush.
All the talk during the offseason focused on the supporting cast the Bears will put around Williams to begin his career. But their most important asset might be the defense he will face every day in practice – one that plans to have him primed and ready to go for Week 1.
“Make it as hard on him as possible,” safety Kevin Byard said of the defense’s responsibility in Williams’ development. “Going out there showing some swag, talking trash, doing all that stuff because at the end of the day he’s going to have to lead us there. That’s kind of how it’s gonna be. I said something to him at the end of practice: Keep going, we’re gonna keep making you better. Not necessarily saying that he had a terrible day, but like days like this are gonna make you better. So that’s our job.”
All eyes will be on Williams in camp. Every pass will be carefully charted, every mistake scrutinized. But what matters is how he responds to rough patches and how quickly the rough days disappear.
Use your voice
Of all the things the Bears worked on with Williams during the offseason program, two stood out: cadence and verbiage.
Williams hasn’t used a verbal cadence since high school, so the Bears spent the offseason program getting him to perfect the cadence and getting his offensive line to understand the inflections in his voice. It was a clear work in progress during the spring. Eberflus was not pleased with the number of pre-snap penalties the offense had as they worked to dial in the cadence.
“Just finding the green line,” Williams said of the challenge of perfecting a verbal cadence. “It’s right in the middle of where we need it so everybody can be on the same page. That’s the biggest thing, so that the center can hear me, the right tackle, left tackle, right guard, the back, left guard, wide receiver, everybody can hear me. It’s just finding the balance between it all, not being too loud on certain plays and things like that, not being voice too low, so just working practice-wise, just working through it.”
The Bears also spent a lot of time working with Williams on learning the verbiage for offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s scheme and getting him used to hearing the call, digesting it, and relaying it in the huddle.
The Bears didn’t hold back during the spring. They gave Williams almost all of the offense so that both parties could gauge what the young quarterback was comfortable with and what, if anything, needed to be adjusted before camp.
Cadence growth will be an important topic during the early days of camp, and Williams’ ability to understand the verbiage, digest it, and properly relay the call will be top of mind throughout the preseason.
Special teams
The new kickoff rules should add another secondary item to monitor during camp.
Not only will the potential returners – Velus Jones Jr., Khalil Herbert, DeAndre Carter, etc. – be noteworthy, but the new rules could also change how the Bears construct the backend of their 53-man roster.
Special teams coordinator Richard Hightower is excited about the different variations his unit will take under the new rules.
“There are so many different forms of people that you can put out there,” Hightower said when asked how the rules will impact roster construction. “The imagination is going to take over. The creativity is going to take over, so it’s going to be fun, and we’re all excited about it. So, we’ve toyed around with a lot of different body types and techniques, and we’re using still some of the same type of techniques, but it’s just happening at a different point in the play. So, with the running start out, it’s happening a lot quicker, like it’s on you right now. And that’s what we’re realizing and going through. So, it’s been fun as heck.”
The return competition will still be important.
The Bears believe the new rules will work to Jones’ advantage. Jones averaged 27.2 yards per kickoff return last season and is expected to get first crack at the kick returner gig in camp.
How does the pass rush look?
Many expected the Bears to sign a veteran pass-rusher before the start of camp to give the unit more juice.
As of Wednesday morning, they have made no such move.
That leaves DeMarcus Walker and rookie Austin Booker as DE2 and DE2 behind Montez Sweat.
Before Sweat's arrival, the Bears’ pass rush was relatively lifeless last season. The star defensive end freed up Walker, Yannick Ngakoue, and defensive tackle Justin Jones, which allowed the Bears’ defense to go on its late-season surge.
Jones left in free agency, and Ngakoue remains on the market after breaking his ankle last season.
The Bears believe Sweat can take his game to another level, but they will need production from Walker and Booker on the opposite end.
But more importantly, they need second-year defensive tackle Gervon Dexter to become the game-wrecking three-technique Eberflus’ defense relies on. If Dexter doesn’t take the expected leap and the Walker-Booker combo is lackluster, the Bears’ defense will have a difficult time reaching the high bar they’ve set for themselves.
Dexter reshaped his body during the offseason, and the Bears are pleased with his work and growth. That work will be put to the test when the pads come on in camp, which will give us our first indication of whether or not this Bears’ pass rush will have the teeth it needs or if Eberflus will have to get creative with his pressure packages once again.
