It’s been a busy week of training camp practice for the Chicago Bears this week. While the Bears didn’t practice in pads on Friday, it was still an eventful practice, especially as the quarterback derby between Mitchell Trubisky and Nick Foles continues.
We heard from Bears safeties Tashaun Gipson and Deon Bush, who are both competing for that vacant starting job. There were also some notable injuries during this fourth open practice, some minor and another season-ending.
Here are five takeaways from Chicago’s practice on Friday:
1. Mitchell Trubisky continues to impress more than Nick Foles
While it’s early, there’s a trend that’s been developing at these training camp practices with the quarterbacks. Trubisky put together a third straight solid practice, which has become the norm this week. Foles, who won Monday slightly, hasn’t been as impressive during these early practices.
To my kinda-trained eye, Mitch Trubisky looked better than Nick Foles today. Which continues a trend. https://t.co/dFLlpdZ5Yk
— Patrick Finley (@patrickfinley) August 21, 2020
Reports out of Friday’s practice were that Trubisky looked sharper, especially his accuracy. After a critical error on Thursday, where he ran out of bounds and took a sack, Trubisky threw the ball away in the same situation on Friday.
Foles hasn’t looked bad, but he hasn’t exactly impressed either. Foles and Trubisky have been praised for his decision making, but Foles didn’t match Trubisky’s accuracy in 7-on-7s on Friday. Although he was taking more chances down the field.
But it doesn’t mean anything at this point. It’s still early. We’re just three padded practices into this thing. Matt Nagy and quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo have stressed the importance of situational football, which we haven’t heard too much about. But once the situational stuff cranks up, that’s when these practices are going to start mattering even more.
2. Both Tashaun Gipson and Deon Bush are confident they’ll win starting safety job
Lost in the hype of the Bears’ quarterback competition, there are several other crucial battles taking place during camp, most notably in the secondary. One of those is the starting safety spot opposite two-time Pro Bowler Eddie Jackson, where Gipson and Bush are battling.
Bush was the presumptive starter following Ha Ha Clinton-Dix’s departure in free agency. But once the Bears brought in Gipson, he soon became the favorite to lock down the starting role.
The Bears have insisted that this safety battle will be a wide-open competition, and both Gipson and Bush are happy with where they’re at in camp. And their confidence is at a high.
“Listen man, everyone’s confident in themselves,” Gipson said. “I’m sure if you ask Deon, he’d say the same thing. I absolutely believe that I’m still a starting safety in this league, that I’m a productive starter in this league, so I would like to always bet on myself vs. anybody, no matter who I’m in competition with. And I’m sure if you ask Deon the same thing, he should say the same thing, so obviously it’s what you do out there.”
3. Akiem Hicks quad injury isn’t a big concern
The loss of Akiem Hicks to injury last season was something that was felt on Chicago’s defense throughout the year. During this first week of open practice, Hicks has been back to his dominant self, which can only mean great things for this defensive front heading into 2020.
But Hicks did miss Friday’s practice with a quad injury. Although Nagy doesn’t believe it’s anything to be worried about.
“We’re kind of turning it into some of these vet days, we’re getting close to that so it kind of falls into that,” Nagy said. “So we don’t want to make anything worse than what it is.”
Inside linebacker Josh Woods also sat out of Friday’s practice with a groin injury. The Bears also lost another player with tight end Darion Clark sustaining a season-ending shoulder injury.
4. Rookie WR Darnell Mooney has impressed with his maturity
There have been rave reviews from Chicago’s rookie class during these training camp practices. Receiver Darnell Mooney is the latest rookie to impress his teammates and coaches. Nagy has been impressed with Mooney’s maturity and ability during camp, which he said reminds him of another Bears receiver, which is certainly high praise.
“He practices the same way that he plays, whether it’s a rapid practice with Coach (Mike) Furrey or a regular practice or 7-on-7,” Nagy said. “He reminds me a lot of (Allen Robinson) in the meetings. He asks really good questions. He’s very calm, cool and collected. I just like where he’s at. I just think he has a bright future, and no one is getting too high or too low.”
Mooney, a fifth-round pick out of Tulane, has an opportunity to bring some speed to Chicago’s offense this season. But he has a lot to learn if he wants to earn that opportunity. It certainly helps that Mooney spent time with Allen Robinson and Javon Wims in Tampa this offseason, which has helped him with his comfortability in this offense.
“If you know the plays, you don’t have any type of confusion or discomfort with it,” Mooney said. “If you know what you’re doing, you just go out there and play ball. It’s just reading the coverage and finding out your assignment with the coverage.”
5. Tight end is now a strength for this team
Following a disappointing effort by tight ends last season, the Bears completely overhauled their tight ends room this offseason. They brought in a couple of veterans in Jimmy Graham and Demetrius Harris, as well as used their top draft pick to take Cole Kmet.
But I don’t think anyone expected to hear how much these tight ends have been performing in training camp. To the point where Nagy called tight end a strength of this team, words that Bears fans probably didn’t expect to hear.
“It’s a good mix right now,” Nagy said. “That group of tight ends, from top to bottom, I really think that that tight end room is a strength of ours right now. We like that. That’s very important in this offense. You have to have tight ends. And so, right now, the way that they’re developing at the pace that we want to evaluate them, they’re picking this offense up pretty well and they’re making plays.”
While the entire tight end room has performed well in camp, it’s been Graham, Kmet and Harris that have really stood out, which is certainly a good thing. Those three tight ends have excellent size, which is why both Trubisky and Foles have shown a liking for them in training camp practices.
“You look at these guys, they’re all 6-5, 6-6, 6-7,” Nagy said. “That’s an extremely friendly target to the quarterback.”
