Windy City Gridiron
Ryan Poles, Ben Johnson and Grady Jarrett met with the media today at Halas Hall to open Training Camp. We share some takeaways here.
Football. Is. Back.
With the Chicago Bears’ season officially underway now that the first day of training camp is upon us, we got to hear from some leadership at Halas Hall.
First was Ryan Poles, who expressed excitement for everyone returning to Halas Hall. He then mentioned Jaylon Johnson on the NFI list due to a leg injury sustained during the offseason and lauded Braxton Jones and Colston Loveland for their offseason work. Both are back and will be ramped up in the early part of camp.
Poles mentioned the team has signed DE Tanoh Kpassagnon and DB Trey Flowers - more to come on those two.
Next was Ben Johnson, who brought immediate energy upon arrival - almost as if there is another human on this planet as excited for football as all of us here at WCG.
Coach reported that players “have taken the summer seriously” and have come to camp in shape and are excited about the competition throughout the roster and “bringing the playbook to life.”
He highlighted the novel opportunity this is for himself and the whole team and how critical these next few weeks are towards building trust and getting ready for the season. The next 6 weeks are about them coming together - trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. When asked what he is looking for from his team, he mentioned “dependability, consistency and production on a day in and day out basis, not only players but the coaches as well. Looking forward to getting better day by day, brick by brick.”
That said, he realizes “it's not linear - there’s gonna be bumps, ups and downs, and easy to have a bad day or two and get all panicky. That’s not gonna be us.” Coach was asked specifically about Caleb and any benchmarks, and he responded with a 70% completion percentage goal. Something to monitor, no doubt!
As we all expected, coach admitted his staff was by design when it comes to the amount of experience throughout and said he plans on leaning on his coaches with experience all around him.
Coach talked about the identity being both something that will come organically based on the players, staff, and how they all come together and perform, and highlighted that on offense, it's about being explosive and detailed, and on defense, press the edge and stop the run. He repeatedly mentioned the importance of joint practices in evaluating players, establishing identity, and learning from each other as a team.
Asked about the Left Tackle spot and the competition multiple times, Coach highlighted it is wide open and how everything each player does will matter. They plan to know by week 1 who the starting five will be - if it takes 3 weeks, great. If it takes 6 weeks, great. But Darnell Wright will be sticking...
