Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson started his prepractice press conference by saying how excited he was for practice and that it would be their longest and hardest one yet.
“I told the team last night, this is where we will get a great chance to eval just who is here to survive through training camp and who is really wanting to thrive and become king of the mountain. So we will see who is out there to compete.”
Johnson was asked if that means they should have a better idea of how some of the position battles are shaping up.
“You know, we go back to day one of the spring to when we left for summer break to day one at training camp, and I think the message has been really consistent that camp is about competition. It’s about earning your spot on the 53. It’s about the guys that make the 53, what your role is going to be this year, at least to start the season. That always changes as the season goes on, so that’s just another step in the process right there.”
“Well, we should have eight practices in, three of which have been in pads, which is obviously the biggest indicator for offensive line play, how well they play in their pads. So hopefully we will have a lot more clarity on who’s starting to separate themselves. And that’s why once again today is such a big day for us.”
He also said they hope cornerback Jaylon Johnson is back for week one, calling that their “target” date.
He said that rookie wideout Luther Burden III was “Still working on the alignment, the details, as you would expect for a young player, but the play speed jumped off the tape to us all yesterday.”
Fellow rookie Zah Frazier is still away tending to a personal issue.
Johnson went on to say he was “pretty disappointed” with his offense’s execution yesterday, but took responsibility for it as well.
“I’ll fall on the sword on that one. I didn’t do a good enough job of installing those plays for them to come out and look the way that they looked offensively.”
Check out the full press conference here for more on the coaching staff, why he likes moving tight end Cole Kmet all around the offense, how Dennis Allen is sharing his head coaching experience with him, what he expects from his left tackle, and more.