The Bears conducted their first training camp practice Wednesday at Halas Hall, a 90-minute non-contact workout that was open to the media. Here's what transpired:

The defense set the tone early, with veteran linebacker Tremaine Edmunds intercepting a pass over the middle on the first play of 11-on-11 drills.

"It was awesome," said fellow linebacker T.J. Edwards. "It was a great way to start. Obviously, that's what you want. That's what you talk about doing, so for him to go out there and do it, it was awesome. Go score and everything, it was a great way to start."

Edmunds returns for his third season with the Bears and eighth in the NFL. Since arriving in Chicago in 2022, he has started all 32 games he's played and recorded 223 tackles, eight tackles-for-loss, 1.0 sack, five interceptions, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.

First-year defensive coordinator Dennis Allen has high expectations for Edmunds, a 6-5, 250-pounder who was voted to back-to-back Pro Bowls in 2019-20 while spending his first five NFL seasons with the Bills.

"I'm anticipating him being an exceptional playmaker for us," Allen said. "He's got size, he's got range, he's got speed. It's hard to throw over him. He's got a lot of length there in the middle of the field. I'm excited to see what he can do. That was a good start, but we've got a long way to go."

A day at camp

Undrafted rookie receiver JP Richardson produced the play of a day with a diving one-handed catch of a pass from Tyson Bagent deep down the right sideline … Running back Roschon Johnson also made a one-handed grab of a swing pass out of the backfield from Bagent … Caleb Williams connected with tight end Cole Kmet on back-to-back plays in a 7-on-7 drill, threading the needle in traffic … Cornerback Shaun Wade broke up a pass along the sideline.

Building the culture

After players finished stretching at the outset of practice, the offense began individual drills while the defense headed to an adjacent field to do up-downs—an exercise that consists of transitioning from standing to a push-up position.

"It's all part of building the culture of what type of defense we're going to be," Allen said. "You have to pay the toll. You have to pay the price. It's a privilege to be on this defense. We've been doing that on every defense that I've been associated with since 2009.

"It's a way to mentally train players to be tough and push through adversity. Training camp is going to be difficult, and we have to be able to overcome when we're tired. How do we focus? How do we concentrate? How do we dig down deep inside, rise up and make plays in critical situations of the game? A lot of times, that comes with being tired. As much as it's about training them physically, it's about training them mentally."

The up-downs reminded Edwards of middle school.

"It took me back to like seventh, eighth grade a bit," he said. "It's funny because I was talking to [safety] Kevin Byard. I was just checking my tempo a little bit and your head is kind of straight down the whole time. He was wearing green cleats and out of the corner of my eye were his cleats and I was making sure I was going the same as he was.

"But it was cool. Obviously, when you're in it it's not that cool, but when you get done and you all are kind of a little tired and then you go out to practice, it's kind of what you want. It's that grimy camp start, but it was a good time, for sure."

A consummate professional

Allen does not have a ton of concern about the absence of Pro Bowl cornerback Jaylon Johnson, who is expected to miss the first few weeks of camp with a leg injury he sustained while training.

"I know Jaylon's going to do everything he can to get himself back and get himself ready as quickly as possible," Allen said. "He's a consummate professional. I feel good about him being ready when his body's ready to go."

With Johnson unavailable, fifth-year pro Nahshon Wright lined up with the No. 1 defense at cornerback. Wright signed with the Bears April 8 after spending his first four NFL seasons with the Cowboys (2021-23) and Vikings (2024), appearing in 33 games with three starts and generating 37 tackles and one interception.

Allen cautioned against drawing any conclusions about playing time in camp.

"I look at the depth chart right now as just a starting spot," he said. "I really don't look at it as anything set in any sort of concrete or anything like that. Throughout the course of training camp, you'll see guys moving around, switching around. Sometimes, we might want to see a guy who has been running with the 2s, we might want to see him against the 1s to see against a little bit better competition how they respond. That's just part of what we do throughout the course of training camp."

One day at a time

As training camp begins, Allen is focused on making incremental progress and not worried about the big picture.

"We're not going to get too far ahead of ourselves in terms of where we expect to be six weeks from now," he said. "Our focus right now is just to get a little bit better every single day, and that's really what we're doing.

"Training camp is like a long, dark tunnel, and there's no light at the end of it. You've just got to focus on one day at a time, one rep at a time, one practice at a time. I know that's cliché, but that's the truth and that's what I want our guys to do. I don't want them to focus on the results right now. I want them to focus on the process and things we're going to ask them to do to get better.

"I thought today for the first day out there was pretty good. I thought the retention from what we did in spring to what we saw out there today, I was pleased with what I saw there. And yet we still have a long way to go. We're going to keep working every day, continue to battle, and continue to improve and get this defense better."

Tight end tandem

Kmet enjoyed practicing with fellow tight end Colston Loveland, the Bears' first-round pick in this year's draft.

"It was great," Kmet said. "I know he's got a little bit more to go, but excited to see where he goes and see where he can fit into the offense and those type of things. [He's] a great athlete. Got great size. Really fluid in his routes. Got great speed, too. Looking forward to seeing him develop this training camp and how he's going to help us this season."

No worries

Allen is not concerned about how Ben Johnson will manage games in his first year as a head coach.

"He's incredibly intelligent," Allen said. "He understands the game, and I think really from an offensive standpoint there's a lot of game management that goes on within play-calling as an offensive coordinator, so I think he's had a lot of experience in that regard. Certainly, there's some veteran coaches on his staff that can help him in that way. There's some other guys within the building that he's got in place that can help him there. I wouldn't concern myself with that too much. He'll be just fine."

Vocal leadership

Edwards is pleased with the addition of veteran defensive tackle Grady Jarrett, who signed with the Bears this year after spending his first 10 NFL seasons with the Falcons.

"His vocal leadership's been awesome," Edwards said. "He's a guy who's been doing that since OTAs, been here every day locked in and ready to go … He's got so much juice in him and he's just ready to go."