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Training Camp - Week 2 Recap: Bears defense punches back vs. offense | Chicago Sports Tonight
Devan Kaney and Herb Howard from The Bigs Media recap Week 2 of Bears Training Camp. How are the injuries and war of attrition impacting the Bears? Also, did the defense win the week against the offense? Plus, Herb gives us his Bears Ballers of the week, including one unexpected player from the defense.
As practice began, the Bears were without D’Marco Jackson, Jaylon Jones, Terell Smith, TJ Edwards, Montez Sweat and Braxton Jones.
The report got longer after Saturday’s practice.
Here’s what we saw from practice on Saturday, and what we make of the injuries that are hitting the Bears.
What we know:
Injuries are piling up for the Bears, and on Saturday it hit both sides of the ball.
It especially wasn’t a good day for the Bears’ secondary. Injuries the starting defensive backfield yet again.
First, Tyrique Stevenson and Luther Burden III got intertwined on their one-on-one rep in one of the first periods of practice. Stevenson fell to the ground and banged his lower back and hip against the turf. He was slow to get up.
Burden landed awkwardly, too. He had a slight limp as he walked off the field with the trainers. Stevenson would return and play through his injury in team drills.
"It’s a balance in taking care of yourself, and putting your best foot forward," Bears defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said. "When you’re hurt or you’re injured, it’s a different story."
The most alarming was safety Cam Lewis, who was injured late in practice in situational red zone drills. He was favoring his left leg and limped off. Skyler Thomas replaced him for the final situational red zone drills.
Lewis and Burden didn’t return to practice. Lewis was carted off. It was impressive that Stevenson gutted it out.
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Big picture view:
The latest injury updates particularly hit the secondary hard.
Jaylon Jones was already playing first team nickel cornerback with Kyler Gordon rehabbing his injury. Terell Smith was backing up Jaylon Johnson and Tyrique Stevenson. Both missed practice on Saturday. Coby Bryant is out for potentially two months.
So far, the Bears have already made some moves to re-add depth to the secondary.
The Bears announce they've signed defensive backs Brandon Hill and William Wright and waived defensive backs K.C. Eziomume and Gervarrius Owens with an Injury designation.
It remains to be seen if Stevenson or Lewis will miss practices going forward now, too. The Bears might get Smith and Jones back soon.
However, the Bears might also need to see who can play safety next to rookie Dillon Thieneman.
LAKE FOREST, ILLINOIS - JULY 29: Dillon Thieneman #31 of the Chicago Bears looks on during Chicago Bears Training Camp at Halas Hall on July 29, 2026 in Lake Forest, Illinois. (Photo by Geoff Stellfox/Getty Images)
Lewis was playing well on Saturday. He had a few pass breakups at the safety position, and covered the Bears' receivers well.
How thin can the defensive back room get? It’s a question the Bears would rather not ask at this point.
Next man up:
With Jones, Smith, Stevenson, Lewis and Bryant missing first-team reps, Malik Muhammad took reps at the nickel spot with the first team. Muhammad also bounced outside when Stevenson missed a few reps, while Josh Blackwell also took nickel corner reps, too.
With Braxton Jones out, Jedrick Wills took all the first-team reps at left tackle on Saturday. With Sweat out, Dayo Odeyingbo and Daniel Hardy took first-team reps on the defensive edges opposite Austin Booker.
Devin Bush ran with Jack Sanborn without Jackson and Edwards at the linebacker spot.
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Plays of the Day:
It was a pretty lackluster practice all around.
The defense won the situational drills by just limiting the offense. There weren’t any eye-popping plays until the final period, which was where the Bears practiced end-of-game situational drills in the red zone.
The first-team defense harassed Caleb Williams into throwing a Hail Mary interception that Thieneman picked off. With the second-team offense on the field, Tyson Bagent fired a great touchdown pass to Jahdae Walker to win the situation.
The final play of practice took the cake, though.
The offense practiced a gotta-have-it situation, down seven starting at the 17-yard line with just 24 seconds left.
Williams snapped the last play with about 12 seconds left. He shifted around and bought time before slinging an absolutely perfect pass to Rome Odunze in the back of the end zone for a touchdown.
The pass had the perfect amount of power and was perfectly accurate. It floated over two defenders and landed right where Odunze needed it in the end zone. Odunze made a good catch, but Williams placed it where it needed to be.
It was the best exclamation point seen all camp long.