The Bears conducted their eighth training camp practice and third in pads Thursday at Halas Hall. It was also their longest workout, lasting more than two hours. Here's what transpired:
The No. 1 offense concluded practice with an impressive two-minute drill, capped by Caleb Williams' 3-yard touchdown pass to Luther Burden III across the back of the end zone with :14.2 remaining.
The offense started the drive at its own 35, trailing by three points with 1:41 to play. Williams, who helped the Bears rally to win seven games they trailed in the final 2:00 last season, completed 6 of 6 passes for 53 yards to five different receivers.
After D'Andre Swift ran for 16 yards around left end on the first play, Williams connected with Colston Loveland for five yards before completing passes to Kalif Raymond on back-to-back snaps for gains of 23 and seven yards to the 14.
Austin Booker knifed into the backfield and dropped Swift for a four-yard loss, setting up third-and-seven at the 18. But Williams responded by hitting Rome Odunze for eight yards and a first down. The third-year quarterback then connected with Swift for seven yards before finding Burden in the end zone.
Raymond felt that the drive was a success due to the offense's attention to detail and communication.
"It doesn't matter if the defense knows what we've got," he said. "As long as we know what we've got, everything will work. Also, with the time left, we can run a little bit too. So got a chance for that, [to] kind of implement some run game, and then some guys get physical because they're running the ball. I think we threw a bubble [screen] at one point and Rome was blocking his butt off, so you've just got guys doing a lot of stuff."
The Bears opened practice with a physical 9-on-7 inside run period that excludes receivers and defensive backs.
"Shoot, we love it," Booker said of the drill. "That's our mentality this year. We're getting off the ball. We're being aggressive and getting in the backfield."
Still gathering info
Speaking to the media before practice, coach Ben Johnson revealed that the team is still in the process of determining how much time safety Coby Bryant is expected to miss with the knee injury he sustained Monday.
"We're still in the information collection phase on that in terms of the timeline and the extent of it," Johnson said. "We should have more information here within the next few days."
Replacement plan
Veteran free-agent acquisition Cam Lewis continued to work in Bryant's spot with the No. 1 defense. Lewis had been splitting time at safety and nickel back but started to focus more on the safety position after Bryant was injured.
"It's been going good," Lewis said. "I've been playing safety for four or five years now. I like the position, but [I'm] just learning the defense here, the communication, running the show back there, just getting adjusted to it."
Asked about the biggest difference between playing safety and nickel, he said: "A lot of things happen faster in the nickel: run fits, playing a lot of press man-to-man, but on the back end … you get a chance to see everything and routes develop and looking at different concepts and just coming downhill and breaking on the ball."
Lewis signed with the Bears in March after spending his first seven NFL seasons with the Bills. He was primarily a special teams contributor in Buffalo but also occasionally started in place of injured teammates. In Chicago, he has enjoyed working with defensive coordinator Dennis Allen.
"He's very passionate about his defense and that's what you want out of a defensive coordinator," Lewis said. "You don't want a defensive coordinator to be passive, soft. He wants to attack. That's what you want in this league. You want teams to fear your defense: 'Oh, we've got Chicago on the schedule. It's going to be a headache-type of game. Their defensive line is going to come off the ball. DBs are going to break on the ball.' Our linebackers are going to play downhill and make some plays. That's the type of defense we want and that's the type of defense we're striving to be."
Rookie on the rise
Lewis is paired at safety with rookie first-round pick Dillon Thieneman, who is making strides in his first NFL training camp.
"It's funny, someone made a comment to me from Tuesday's practice, 'that looked like his Oregon tape,'" Johnson said. "It's hard to say that; it was our second day in pads. But you can see that play speed start to show up.
"He is thinking a lot and the way he's wired is he wants to be on every little thing, so when you are like that, you can potentially in your quest to be right every single time, slow down. It's just a matter of getting enough reps to where he can let loose and get after it. But really pleased with where he's at.
"[Assistant coaches] Al Harris and Matt Giordano, they're doing a phenomenal job getting him up to speed. We're only a week, week-and-a-half into it right now—we have a long ways to go—but really like where he's at right now."
Hard work pays off
Johnson praised right tackle Darnell Wright for putting himself in position to sign the four-year contract extension he inked Tuesday. Last season, the 10th pick in the 2023 NFL Draft emerged as one of the best players at his position, earning second-team All-Pro honors.
"Proud of Darnell, all of the hard work that he has put in," Johnson said. "He's really earned it and it's a credit to him and the people around him to make that happen."
Asked what young players can learn about Wright's journey, Johnson said: "It's a prime example that potential and talent gets you into a building, but then how you work, you go about your business, how you grow every single day, that's what gets you a long-term contract like he's got right now.
"He really embraces what we're trying to build here. I've been here for a year-and-a-half and I don't know that I've seen a guy improve as much as him—more so from a consistency standpoint than anything else. He's always had it in him in flashes, but the way he played a year ago, it was no secret that we really relied on that right side of the offensive line for our run game engine to go and he was a huge part of that. And the way he's attacked this offseason, what he's looked like so far in camp, I think the future is really bright for him.
"That's the message that the young guys get."
Welcome back
Johnson was happy to see linebacker T.J. Edwards activated off the non-football injury list and return to practice Wednesday. The eighth-year pro had been sidelined by a calf injury he suffered working out on his own before training camp.
"It was good to have T.J. back out there yesterday," Johnson said. "We'll continue to get him more involved and ramped up. You can certainly feel his presence and hear his communication out there on the defense, which was good to see."
