While last season’s main attraction in terms of position battles was at kicker, this training camp features several high-profile competitions including at sports’ most important position: quarterback.
The quarterback competition and battles in the secondary will certainly draw headlines, but there’s a battle in the trenches that will be under the watchful eyes of head coach Matt Nagy.
Chicago’s offensive line returns four starters from a season ago with Kyle Long the only player not returning. Which leaves a starting right guard spot up for grabs, which will be one of the featured competitions once the pads go on Aug. 17.
Nagy praised free-agent addition Germain Ifedi and defensive-lineman-converted-offensive-lineman Rashaad Coward, noting that the team is confident in both of those guys — especially with new offensive line coach Juan Castillo taking the reins.
“We just see that as a competition where you’ve got a guy with a lot of experience in Germain Ifedi versus a guy with not as much experience [in Rashaad Coward], but two really good guys that we have a lot of belief in with an offensive line coach in Juan Castillo that believes heavily in both of them,” Nagy said. “Competition across the board for them, just like other positions, we’ve got to be really detailed with how we give reps and with how we evaluate that position.”
Nagy spoke highly of Ifedi and Coward, which is good for them and not-so-good for Alex Bars, who the Bears offered extra money to maintain on their practice squad last season rather than join the New England Patriots. Bars was later activated to the 53-man roster, but it doesn’t sound like Bars is in the mix right now, which is certainly surprising.
While Ifedi is the favorite to lock up that starting right guard job, Coward will certainly challenge him, especially considering he started 10 games at right guard a season ago.
