Colston Loveland's top priority: Takeaways from the first day of Chicago Bears Rookie Minicamp
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LAKE FOREST, Ill. - Before the Chicago Bears are officially back for OTAs, they need to find out which rookies they'll keep in the future.
Here are our takeaways from the first day of the Bears' rookie minicamp.
Evaluations began much earlier for Ben Johnson
The first wave of camp practices came and went from 10:30 to about 11:45. Bears head coach Ben Johnson began his rookie evaluations long before that.
"Anytime you get the opportunity to be in a building, just like now, you're always being evaluated," Johnson said. "It doesn't matter if you were a draft pick, if you were undrafted signee, if you were a tryout guy this weekend, we're taking everything into account."
Johnson knows how important it is to evaluate every player possible. The 2024, NFC North-winning Detroit Lions had three undrafted free agents make the team's initial 53 man roster.
It's a fantastic story when an undrafted player makes a roster, however the players need to earn it.
When the players earn it, the coaching staff has to make sure they properly see it.
"They earned one opportunity," Johnson said. "We talked last night about now you got to earn your next opportunity, and so the door's wide open."
Loveland has a priority: Get healthy
Plenty of players are doing their best to show they deserve a spot on the Bears' roster.
First-round pick Colston Loveland has a different priority as he recovers from surgery on his AC Joint.
"A priority for us is getting him back healthy," Johnson said. "The sooner he gets healthy then we get the full speed reps and that's where it really all comes together."
Loveland was limited to watching from the sidelines in his first day. He had his helmet on and was intently listening into the drills.
"I'm working out, I'm running," Loveland said. "We're just taking that day by day, stacking bricks and getting better."
It's a slow and steady part of Loveland's offseason, but he's confident he'll finally get back out to the field and play the physical style of football the Bears drafted him to play.
"It's all protocol," Loveland said. "I'm listening to the PT and the training staff. But for sure, I'm interested to get out there."
Trapilo is staying prepared
Second-round choice Ozzy Trapilo is prepared for anything that might come in his rookie year. He's been adjusting for most of his football career, so he's taking every lesson to heart.
"Every coach is going to have their slight tweaks to the technique," Trapilo said. "It's all slightly different with every coach. Every guy has got their own way of doing it. I just trying to adapt to that."
The Bears are configuring a new offensive line and need to figure out if they'll move right tackle Darnell Wright to the left side, or keep him where he's been for his two NFL seasons.
Whatever happens, Trapilo will be prepared.
He was moved from left tackle to right tackle entering the 2023 season when right guard Christian Mahogany returned to the starting lineup after recovering from a season-ending knee injury in 2022. The Eagles wanted Trapilo and Mahogany to team up on the right side, and it paid dividends for two seasons.
But, Trapilo knew he might have to move to the other side in a pinch, so he would stay after practice at BC and take left tackle reps to make sure he could play both positions.
As Trapilo put it on Friday, he's "making sure I'm the most available that I can be in all times." That will serve him the best his rookie season.
Burden has the motivation he needs
Day 1 for Luther Burden III was a simple one.
While everyone was smoothing over pre-camp jitters, Burden left that behind. Jitters are not in his vocabulary.
A big reason is because he's confident in himself. Burden was an All-American and All-SEC receiver at Missouri. He's walked the walk on every field he's played on and that shouldn't change at the NFL level.
He added some extra motivation in the past month when he was selected in the second round of the NFL Draft as opposed to the first round.
"Everybody who passed up on me gotta pay," Burden said.