Rookie receiver Zavion Thomas ended his first week of training camp on a high note.
In the final period of Saturday's rainy practice, Thomas and quarterback Tyson Bagent connected on a short pass down the left sideline, where the rookie extended the ball across the pylon for his first touchdown of camp.
"Just a nice call by coach Ben," Thomas told reporters Saturday. "That's all it was. I had to do what I had to do to put my team in a position to win and make a play. That's what I did."
Through the Bears' first four practices, Thomas has embodied that do-it-all mentality, taking offensive reps with the first, second and third teams — catching passes from quarterbacks Caleb Williams, Bagent and Case Keenum — while also practicing returning kicks and punts.
"I think that speaks to how dynamic he is as a player," fellow receiver Rome Odunze said about Thomas. "You can't keep him off the field. Obviously, we have a lot of weapons, but he's just another piece to that puzzle who's going to get his share as well … Whenever he's on the field, he's trying to make a play, and I think he's doing a great job of carving out that role for himself."
What Thomas is experiencing is what offensive coordinator Press Taylor described as "the firehouse method," which has become the main philosophy that Ben Johnson and the offensive staff have used for all their young offensive weapons.
"Let's throw a ton at him and see what he can handle and see how he can bounce back from mistakes," Taylor said, "whether it's mental errors or physical errors throughout the day, how he's going to bounce back the next day and what they can handle, because we're okay with guys failing through practice. That's a big part of this thing.
"We have plenty of reps. We have plenty of walk-throughs throughout the course of it that will get it corrected, and then you'll get your opportunity at the next go-around to see if you've responded from it, learned from it, what you can handle."
Although the firehouse method is challenging, Thomas isn't shying away from it.
While Thomas has made his fair share of plays early in camp, he's also experienced the growing pains every rookie endures. On Friday, Thomas didn't execute a play correctly pre-snap, and Williams got on him about the mistake. Those miscues, however, are exactly what Taylor was referring to and allow for productive conversations between Thomas and Williams.
"I know it's coming from a good place," Thomas said. "We've all got the same objective. We've all got the same goal. We wanna win. So if I'm not doing the right thing, anybody — tell me. I know how to take coaching."
Thomas also understands the importance of a strong relationship with Williams and the type of opportunities a quarterback with his skillset presents for Bears receivers.
"When we first got here at minicamp, he had made a throw to Rome, and I'm looking back at the other receivers, and he's scrambling this way and threw it like 60 yards the other way," Thomas said. "I looked; they looked at me. They were like, 'Get used to it.'"
When it comes to settling into camp and diving into his playbook, Thomas has leaned on the veterans around him as well as receivers coach Antwaan Randle-El.
"It's been fun," Thomas said, "just being around the guys that I'm around. A lot of young guys in the room, they help me. Every time I have a question, I go to the older guys. I can go to Rome, I can go to Kalif [Raymond], everybody in the room. They make me feel comfortable, so everything is good."
Raymond, an 11-year veteran who signed with the Bears in March and played for Johnson in Detroit, has quickly become Thomas' go-to guy for questions, advice and everything in between.
While the pair has developed an organic relationship over the past few months, Thomas said it was Johnson who first pointed him toward Raymond. Since then, the rookie has been following in Raymond's footsteps — literally.
"Kalif is a guy that, he does everything right," Thomas said. "When I first got here, I was talking to coach Ben, he was telling me about him: 'You have a guy named Kalif. I want you to follow him around. I want you to do everything that he does.' So that's what I've been doing. I've been staying on his hip."
