UA-59049186-1 Chicago Bears Training Camp Report: August 3, 2021 - Good if it Goes
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Chicago Bears Training Camp Report: August 3, 2021

[The past, present, and future of Chicago Bears QBs. Also a “what might have been” – that’s Kurt Warner at the bottom. Photo Credit: Me.]

Soldier Field welcomed fans back for the first time since the end of the 2019 season on Tuesday for the Bears’ annual family fest. Given the limits on attendance at Halas Hall, this was the best opportunity for many to view camp this year. This was also the team’s first day in pads. The excitement was palpable – anything Justin Fields did elicited raucous applause from the fans in attendance. Even hand-offs. Seriously. They cheered his hand-offs. It was like the talent show episode of SpongeBob where the crowd goes nuts for SpongeBob cleaning up after the show after they had just watched a collection of dopes doing various ridiculous garbage on stage. So, yeah, the cheering of hand-offs was understandable.

After getting a chance to watch Fields up close, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate myself on how correct I was with my post-draft evaluation of the Bears’ first-round pick. I will link to that here. I highly suggest you read it, because, seriously, I nailed it. Let’s get this out of the way – he could really use a year to get adjusted to the NFL. He held a few balls too long and those plays become sacks against live ammo. Otherwise, he had a really impressive day. He throws a great ball and largely kept his misses out of trouble. One pass thrown into triple coverage (that was still somehow almost caught) and one near-interception by Teez Tabor that was a result of a great play by the DB rather than a screw-up by Fields were the only really dangerous ones. He’s the real deal. Here’s a taste:

This day was a far cry from the day I went to camp in 2017 and saw Mitchell Trubisky outplayed by Mr. Buttfumble.

Fields should get that year to prepare, though, because Andy Dalton is for real. I had seen reports from the first few days of camp that Dalton had been looking good and, camp reports being what they are (this guy’s great, that guy’s great, everybody’s great), I was skeptical. Mea culpa, Andy. He looked strong running the offense, made all the throws he needed to make and a handful of really nice ones, and took care of the ball. I talked to Kurt Warner at the end of practice – he’s a big believer in Dalton and thinks this can be a 10 or 11-win team. I’ll go one step further – if this Dalton is the guy we get for 17 games, the division’s in play. I don’t think they’ll be able to beat out Green Bay, but they’ll at least make them earn it. Dalton is playing like a man who knows his future prospects hinge upon him being able to hold off Fields and he’s doing just that.

Allen Robinson played like a man who wants his money. Darnell Mooney looked like he’s going to be a problem for opposing defenses this year. Marquise Goodwin’s play made it clear why the Bears felt comfortable moving on from Anthony Miller. Damiere Byrd looked like he can contribute. His speed will frustrate DBs. On the down side, Riley Ridley showed why he couldn’t beat out Javon Wims for playing time last year, even after Wims’ bonehead ejection. Ridley’s route running left a lot to be desired and had a couple drops.

The run game looked like it could be pretty good this season. The interior line is going to give teams problems. Sam Mustipher bulked up this off-season and it showed. He held his own one-on-one against Khyiris Tonga, who is no small man. We saw last year that Mustipher had the mental side of the position down; if he’s gotten stronger and can stand up to very large men one-on-one thus freeing up Whitehair and Daniels to go kick butt at the second level, look out. Both David Montgomery and Damien Williams had some nice runs. Even more encouraging is that the run game looked as good as it did with the Bears down their top 3 tackles. The bad news is that they were down their top 3 tackles, which is starting to get a little concerning at this point.

Overall, the defense looked ahead of the offense, an encouraging sight as Sean Desai enters his first season as defensive coordinator. Big plays had to be earned. It took perfect throws to beat defenders deep. Teez Tabor in particular stood out, making a handful of really nice plays in coverage. This was a really welcome sight as the team looks for someone to start across from Jaylon Johnson. Marqui Christian was also rather noticeable. Duke Shelley had a couple very nice plays and looked capable of handling an outside role. Josh Woods looked like he could be serviceable should he be needed.

Twitter: @KSchroeder_312

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