After a day without work, the Chicago Bears resumed apply in pads Friday at Halas Corridor.
Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and a number of other gamers spoke with the media afterward. Listed here are 4 issues we realized.
1. Tight finish Cole Kmet mentioned apply was one of many hardest during which he has participated.
Kmet mentioned the tempo, velocity and physicality — and the expectations from coaches that gamers transfer shortly from drill to drill — added as much as a apply that gamers needed to grind by way of.
His teammates agreed.
“Immediately was a day, for certain,” vast receiver Darnell Mooney mentioned. “I used to be specified by the locker room after at the moment.”
“You undoubtedly felt it at the moment,” security Eddie Jackson mentioned. “Me and coach Alan (Williams) had been on the sideline, speaking like … ‘You are able to do two issues. You possibly can both faucet out and cease and cry and complain. Or you possibly can simply step up.’ And while you get by way of stuff like that, that exhibits what good groups are fabricated from.”
Getsy mentioned coaches got down to problem the gamers’ conditioning from the beginning Friday, and he plans to regulate who fared properly — and who didn’t — when he watches movie.
“That will probably be one thing I’m going to concentrate to, see who misplaced their focus and who misplaced their self-discipline and stuff after they acquired challenged at the moment,” Getsy mentioned.
The Bears offense performed fairly a bit in opposition to their scout group protection to supply a brand new look.
“We’ve acquired two groups in our division that play a three-down, and our protection doesn’t,” Getsy mentioned. “Whenever you’re speaking in regards to the large guys up entrance, every little thing adjustments in your guidelines and assignments when you may have three-down. So that you’ve acquired to combine that in.”
2. Eddie Jackson mentioned he's ‘comfortable with every little thing’ as he enters his sixth season with the Bears underneath a brand new teaching workers.
The Bears veteran security and defensive chief has talked about how Eberflus let him know this season was a contemporary begin. And Jackson mentioned he’s coming into that section feeling good mentally, bodily and emotionally.
“You’re at peace and simply snug with the group we've, the way in which we’re working, the scheme, every little thing we’ve been by way of to this point, the coaches,” Jackson mentioned. “I’m simply getting that really feel that everybody’s snug and simply able to work, man.”
Jackson was open about not being comfortable along with his manufacturing during the last couple of years. That included no interceptions in 2020 or 2021 after he totaled 10 in his first three seasons. And so he made the choice to embrace the brand new workers slightly than be irritated he needed to begin over with one other set of coaches.
“I simply really feel just like the years I had, I wasn’t happy with them, didn’t reside as much as expectations and requirements that I set for myself,” Jackson mentioned. “So to go on the market this 12 months is sort of a complete new begin, complete new season, complete new group. I really feel like a rookie coming in once more, simply studying, absorbing this recreation, man, and main my guys the way in which I work and the way in which I do issues.”
3. Getsy didn't accompany Inexperienced Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers on his ayahuasca journeys.
Rodgers went on the Aubrey Marcus Podcast this week and talked about how his expertise utilizing the psychedelic drug ayahuasca improved his psychological well being the final two seasons.
Getsy, who was Rodgers’ quarterbacks coach in Inexperienced Bay, laughed when requested if he had accompanied Rodgers on the journeys.
“I used to be not invited on these journeys,” Getsy mentioned. “I didn’t know all that stuff. … No matter it takes, I suppose.”
In fact, Getsy spent extra of his time speaking about Justin Fields and the way the Bears quarterback is managing the ups and downs of studying a brand new offense.
“This can be a course of, proper? And we stress each single day that we’re a process-driven group, and our unit is identical manner,” Getsy mentioned. “And it’s all about ensuring we get higher each single day. Whether or not the main target is on getting higher at our safety changes or our scorching changes or throwing scorching routes — no matter that adjustment is or no matter that emphasis of the day is, we simply have to verify we’re getting higher at it.
“After which the situational stuff, he can’t get sufficient of that. You’re speaking about what makes the good quarterbacks nice. It’s simply that have in coping with all of the totally different conditions.”
4. The Bears practiced with out 4 of their cornerbacks.
Thomas Graham Jr. will probably be out for some time with a hamstring harm, Eberflus mentioned earlier this week. However Bears cornerbacks Kyler Gordon, Kindle Vildor and Duke Shelley additionally sat out Friday, watching apply from the sideline. Eberflus received’t deal with the media till Saturday to probably clarify their absences.
Offensive sort out Teven Jenkins and defensive finish Robert Quinn had been among the many different gamers lacking from apply.
The Bears signed cornerback Davontae Harris and defensive lineman Trevon Coley earlier than apply and launched defensive again Jon Alexander and defensive lineman Auzoyah Alufohai.
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