Football is back this weekend, baby! Thank goodness!
Since it’s impossible for us to know what players & teams are working on during camp sessions, “evaluating” the videos we see from practice (especially the videos from practices without pads) feels rather silly. Thus, after reading Training Camp reports for ~2 weeks, I’m ready to watch downs where the stats get recorded.
The Preseason may not count towards the Bears’ overall record, but it’s full of:
- Padded Reps
- In a game-like setting
- Where we can assume that players all over the roster are going to try their best to win each down (as opposed to workshopping new techniques that they haven’t yet readied via practice)
That’s not a perfect recipe for glimpsing the future of the 2023 Bears’ season, but it should be more than the scraps we get through Twitter X on the day-to-day.
The players seem to take the preseason seriously (well, as seriously as you can take a team you aren’t game-planning for) as evidenced by the comfortable play of QBs like Patrick Mahomes preseason (222 yards and 3 TDs while completing 18 passes on 26 attempts), Tua Tagovailoa (179 yards and 1 TD while completing 15 passes on 16 attempts), Geno Smith (256 yards and 0 TDs while completing 39 passes on 45 attempts), and plenty of other QBs where strong preseason showings very quietly signaled good things to come.
Don’t take the above paragraph too seriously, preseason performance certainly isn’t a sure thing, but this time of year is all about fun anyways — let’s have some this weekend!
I can’t wait to see what surprises Saturday afternoon has for us. Will Chase Claypool carry his camp dominance into the game? If the starters don’t play, does that mean multiple series of Tyler Scott, Ja’Tyre Carter, and other young guns? At which position (and when in the game) will Terell Smith get his first reps? My mind is racing just thinking about the possibilities.
To Help Pass The Time…
I dug a bit more into Tremaine Edmunds’ 2022 film and stumbled upon what must’ve been his best game of the year — the Vikings spent the entirety of the first half trying to attack the middle of the Bills’ defense, but Edmunds consistently pushed Cousins off of his 1st read and forced the ball into harm’s way on multiple occasions.
The first clip involves Edmunds creating an INT by taking Cousins’ first read away, and the rest of the reel only gets better from there. His size is obvious, but his instincts shine when he’s scouted his opponent well and he’s got athleticism to boot when ‘running the pole’ in a Tampa-2 defense.
If the Bears’ DL can stop the run at a reasonable rate, Edmunds should be a problem in coverage when teams look for free lunches over the shallow middle of the field. For a Bears’ defense that was constantly victimized in that area, Edmunds is a much-needed addition that I can’t wait to see suit up for Chicago.
I can’t wait to see Tremaine Edmunds in action for the #Bears‘ defense — he personified the ‘big man in the middle’ when in coverage last year.
This reel starts with Edmunds forcing Cousins off his 1st read (and into an INT) and includes multiple PDs all from one half. Awesome. pic.twitter.com/2s1Wcpl8ap
— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) August 7, 2023
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Your Turn: Are you excited for Preseason football? If so, what do you want to see?