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Cassie catches up with Ben Johnson at Chicago Bears training camp
The pads have come on for the Chicago Bears, and that means it's the next step in camp for Bears head coach Ben Johnson. He caught up with FOX 32's Cassie Carlson.
LAKE FOREST, Ill. - Chicago Bears head coach prefaced the eighth day of training camp with foreboding words.
"I told the team last night, ‘this is where we'll get a great chance to evaluate just who's here to survive through training camp and who's really wanting to thrive and become king of the mountain,’" Johnson said in his opening statement Thursday. "We'll see who's out there to compete. It'll be long, it'll be hard."
Thursday was the Bears' longest practice of the summer so far. It went a little late as the team tried to fit everything in, too.
In the end, it was perhaps the best day for the offense so far in training camp.
"Today was a long one," rookie offensive tackle Ozzy Trapilo said. "It was definitely physical, it was good."
Big picture view:
The offense has had success in training camp. There were signs that the unit was putting it all together last week, but success was still sporadic and inconsistent.
On Thursday, the worst offensive drill was the situational football drill near the end of practice. The offense was forced into a fourth down, and quarterback Caleb Williams threw a desperation pass that Jaquan Brisker intercepted to end the drill and win it for the defense.
Other than that, the offense shined.
On a long day, the offense got a chance to put each of their starting left tackle candidates in with the first team in different team drills. There was a lack of pre-snap issues, too.
The most egregious mistake was a delay of game where the offense got the play call in with 20 seconds left on the playclock, but the pre-snap motions and reads took too much time. The offense got flagged for a delay of game, and Johnson made sure Williams heard about it.
Williams responded to that with a quick slant he was able to complete to DJ Moore.
It still feels like it's too early to say the offense is turning a corner. A few days like this strung together would be a much better indicator of that.
Thursday's camp standouts
Caleb Williams:
If Johnson is setting a goal for Williams to have a 70 percent completion percentage in practices, Thursday was the day he came closest to that figure.
Williams was on target with throws to DJ Moore, Olamide Zaccheus and Rome Odunze. He was in command of the offense, and was intentional with where he wanted to go with the ball. He read his progressions well, too.
There was patience on display as Williams was comfortable waiting for his receivers to create separation with their routes.
Williams was humming in the middle team drills. There were only a couple incompletions, and he was able to show off his playmaking ability, too.
Williams had a moment where the pass rush was bearing down on him during 11-on-11 drills. He was able to spin out of that pressure, and complete a deep pass to Zaccheus for a long gain.
Later, during more situational drills, Williams was able to use his cadence to get a free play. He hit Odunze for a long gain on a pass between two Bears defensive backs that had some touch but still got to Odunze promptly.
This has been the next step of the Bears' process of getting Williams up to speed. A lot of it was because of Williams' ability to learn the offense and put it together during camp.
"He knows what's coming and we're getting to the point now where I don't even have to say anything as much. He's as hard on himself as I'm being on him," Johnson said. "He's getting to that point where it's more self-correction and we're off and running from there. So, I'm really excited about where he's at mentally."
Luther Burden:
If Williams was dealing, the receiver Luther Burden was one of the beneficiaries of the offense that was in sync today.
"Today was a great day," Burden said. "A great day to play football, a great day to compete."
Burden only returned from his soft-tissue injury this week. He missed mandatory minicamp, OTAs and the first week of training camp. Still, after just three days of practices, Burden doesn't look like he's behind at all with the offense.
Burden shined in one-on-one drills between the wide receivers and defensive backs. He beat cornerback Shaun Wade for a long touchdown, and won his other matchups.
In the 11-on-11 drills, Burden competed with the first and second teams. He made an acrobatic catch from Williams, and made another contested deep catch from Tyson Bagent. Burden is running his routes well and with speed that's impressing the coaches.
"The play speed stood out to me yesterday," Johnson said Thursday morning. "I was really impressed with that, he’s still working on the alignment and the details as you would expect for a young player, but the play speed jumped off the tape to us all yesterday."
Earlier this week, Burden was struggling with alignments and other pre-snap details. Johnson pulled him aside during the drill because of that, and Burden hasn't made the same mistake since.
"I’ve got to know my stuff," Burden said.
Burden will have to compete with Zaccheus, Moore and Odunze for targets, but Thursday was a sign the Bears can trust him. What helps is that Burden has been learning every receiver position in Johnson's offense.
That means more chances to make plays.
"I want the ball every play," he said.