Chicago Bears coordinators Dennis Allen, Declan Doyle get an eye on pieces to their puzzle in rookie camp
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LAKE FOREST, Ill. - The Chicago Bears made it clear they drafted players at positions they needed depth at.
That mission was accomplished. Incoming to Halas Hall: Ruben Hyppolite II, Luther Burden III, Zah Frazier, Ozzy Trapilo, Colston Loveland, Kyle Monangai, Shemar Turner and Luke Newman.
That's eight pieces to the puzzle Bears' offensive coordiantor Declan Doyle and defensive coordiantor Dennis Allen get a chance to piece together now.
Declan Doyle wants kick-start the uncomfortable process
First-year head coach Ben Johnson was adamant the Bears would be comfortable being uncomfortable. They would do what they needed to do in order to be prepared when the going got really tough.
Offensive coordinator Declan Doyle is kick starting that process now in rookie minicamp.
He's seen what Burden and Loveland are able to do. Now, he wants to prepare them for when he asks them to do more.
"We're exposed to a couple of them in Luther and Colston," Doyle said. As we get into OTAs, that's where we're going to really explore what these guys can do, where we see the direction this offense going, starting to ask them to be a little bit outside of their comfort zone."
This goes for all the offensive rookies, whom the Bears want to be able to do multiple things.
The best way to start that is to just throw the rookies into the deep end. The Bears want to see where they shine.
"Give them a lot, see what they can handle rather than, 'Hey, narrowly you're going to be doing this and we're going to pigeonhole you,'" Doyle said. "We're going to ask you to do a number of things and we're going to see if you're good at it."
That process has one goal in mind, which is to be ready come this fall to decide where this staff wants the rookie's skills to be on the offense when the regular season begins.
"Let's get them competing, just like everybody else is competing," Doyle said. "When it comes time in the fall, if that's when we're going to decide who's going to touch it and who's going to give us the best chance to have success."
Dennis Allen sees the best character trait, and wants to use it now
Just like the Bears' offense selected players who can do multiple things, the Bears' defense added a character trait off the field that can benefit them the most.
For the defense, it's maturity.
The Bears added 24-year-old Frazier, 23-year-old Hyppolite and the 22-year-old Turner. These are all players who played multiple years of college football.
"(General manager) Ryan Poles and his guys did a great job of identifying guys that had a mature mindset and guys that fit kind of the culture that we want to try to build here," Allen said. "All those guys that we brought in specifically on defense I think fit those things."
Turner is a player that has to reign in his competitive fire, but he's shown discipline in learning multiple positions on the defensive line.
Frazier and Hyppolite are two players that showed the Bears they take care of business off the field in order to be focused on it. Now, the Bears need to put these players in a position to be successful.
With Frazier, he brings the physical parts. He has the size and speed, and how it's about his development.
"He's got a lot of things that he's got learn, but again, he's got the tools for us to work with," Allen said. "Who better to work with him than Al Harris, a guy that's got kind of a similar frame and played a long time in this league and had a lot of success."
Hyppolite is someone the Bears saw as mature right away. For Allen, that's a boon when it comes to starting the football lessons.
"He's very business-oriented," Allen said. "He's got his life together off the field, which is going to allow him to be able to focus on the field with the football. So there's not going to be a lot of outside distractions with this guy."