LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Chicago Bears wide receiver Keenan Allen had his first practice against his teammates on defense, and he saw — and heard — the confidence.
“They look like a top-five defense. They sound like a top-five defense, too,” he said. “Defenses are annoying, especially at practice. You just hear them every time they make a play. It’s, ‘Hooray, celebration.’ These guys are running up and down the sideline. So it’s annoying.”
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Allen saw a lot of that during a two-minute drill. Caleb Williams was forced into a throwaway on first down, then had his pass batted at the line on second down before a checkdown on third-and-long.
On the next attempt for the starting offense, cornerback Tyrique Stevenson swatted away a pass, and after a completion, Williams’ third-down pass fell incomplete.
Lots of cheers from the defensive sideline.
“It’s exciting,” defensive end Montez Sweat said. “I think to play football, you’ve got to have maybe a screw or two loose. When you’re out there having fun and talking smack, it makes it so much more fun for everybody around you.”
Williams did have plenty of success earlier in practice in 11-on-11 drills and seven-on-seven, often connecting with Allen, DJ Moore and Rome Odunze.
Highlights included a jump-throw to tight end Gerald Everett, a deep over with pinpoint precision to Odunze, a strike to tight end Cole Kmet over the middle and another laser to Moore, hitting him in stride.
“(Williams) had some really good throws in there today, as you guys saw,” head coach Matt Eberflus said. “Had some good conversions on third down. Had a couple nice throws to DJ in there.”
While we’ve seen moments where it’s apparent that a veteran defense is winning against a rookie quarterback and a new scheme, Eberflus doesn’t see this as your typical situation of pacing things properly because of a rookie QB.
“It’s a good thing that our quarterback’s highly competitive and he’s of high character, so he’s gonna be pushing that ball down the court,” he said. “So I don’t think we have to worry about that. I really don’t.”
Jumpman, Jumpman, Jumpman pic.twitter.com/QjIu0cSotM
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) June 4, 2024
Talking the talk
Williams’ work on his cadence continued on the first day of minicamp. It’s been a topic since rookie minicamp last month. Some level of patience is required with it.
“It’s kind of like you’ve got to find your own voice when you come to the league,” Kmet said. “It’s so interesting because in that position like taking a snap under center and saying a cadence is something you would think would be so normal. But most guys aren’t doing that until they get to the league now. Most guys are doing the clap, you look to the sideline and you see the play. It’s no different than a receiver doing it. All those operational things are things that you don’t do now until you get to the league.”
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Eberflus said he saw half a dozen times when someone on offense jumped before the snap during Tuesday’s practice.
“We’d like to get that cleaned up,” he said.
That’ll be a focal point the next two days and during next week’s voluntary OTA, which likely will be only for rookies — vets aren’t required or expected to attend.
“Just reps. Honestly, it’s just reps,” Eberflus said. “You just have to get the reps and get it right. You have to use cadence as a weapon on offense. You can’t just go, ‘Ready. Set Hut.’ the entire time. Right? So, we got to do double counts, we got to do triple counts, we got to do dummy counts, we got to do silent counts, we got to do all the counts that everybody else has in the NFL.
“We have to use that as a weapon to hold those defensive linemen at bay a little bit and to get them offsides a little bit. I mean, (Tyson) Bagent had a couple free plays today where they jumped offsides. Shoot, we won a game last year doing it. It’s important that we continue to work on that because it needs to be a weapon for us.”
Allen expects the cadence issues to be more of a May and June thing than something that could trickle into August.
“By the time we get to training camp, he’ll be well oiled on what we got going on and spending time with the offensive linemen, with the OC and like you said, just understanding his voice and how he wants to say it, his rhythm, how he wants to go through it,” he said. “By the time we get to training camp, probably a week or two in, we should be solidly ran.”
Late night golfing
Williams’ competitiveness kept his teammates up late recently — at Top Golf. Kmet, third-string quarterback Brett Rypien and some rookie receivers were there. Williams’ team was trailing Kmet’s.
“They were like, ‘It’s 1 in the morning, we’ve got to get out of here,’” Kmet said. “So they shut off the game and his team was up (to golf) and then we couldn’t get the points loaded back on because it was already too late. (We) ended up getting it back on somehow.”
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Kmet’s team still won. He had Rypien, a scratch golfer.
“You don’t really know somebody until you meet them,” Kmet said. “Getting to know him over the past couple months now has been pretty fun and you realize how competitive he is.”
Kmet also has learned some of the pre-draft concerns that were expressed about Williams — especially in the media — aren’t true.
“Obviously, you hear a ton of things and you don’t know what’s true and what’s not,” Kmet said. “You hear the Hollywood diva-ness, which is kind of funny because he’s only spent a year or two in L.A. He’s not even from L.A., so that’s kind of funny. Definitely after when I first met him and going on forward, you definitely get a different perspective and you really wonder where those things kind of come from.”
Learning from the INT
Eberflus didn’t need to be asked about Williams’ interception during a long seven-on-seven period against the first-team defense. He mentioned it during his opening remarks. Veteran safety Kevin Byard picked off Williams’ overthrow over the middle. It was a blemish during an otherwise solid practice period for Williams.
“Those are the experiences that he has to go through,” Eberflus said. “He has to go through his progressions, which he did. He was right on his progressions. Then he took a hitch, and the ball should have came out, and he took two hitches, and it was late over the middle. That’s always dangerous when you do that. But that’s the learning experience in the process that a young quarterback has to go through, you know.
“That’s just experimentation. We’re just doing a really good job of getting experience. Get him exposure. Let him experiment with his arm talent and the receivers that he has. Eventually, player development happens and the evolution of a quarterback happens. That’s the process that we have to go through, and that’s what we are doing right now.”
Glad we listened 👀 pic.twitter.com/iFEaCuTCVS
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) June 4, 2024
Sweat’s return
As expected, Sweat returned to Halas Hall for mandatory practices. But he didn’t take part in full-team periods with the rest of the starting defense.
“Build a chemistry with the guys is kind of the main thing for me,” he said. “(It’s) just getting to know everybody around me, looking towards the future and seeing how we’re going to work together on the field.”
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But he already has a good idea of what’s ahead. With his trade in the past and a lucrative, long-term contract extension signed, Sweat knows that future is with the Bears. He won’t join the Bears in the middle of the season. The chemistry is already there.
“Yeah, definitely,” he said. “We brought basically the same defensive staff back and we’ve got a lot of guys on defense back, so it’s definitely some familiar faces, familiar calls, of course, and all that type of stuff. (It’s) sort of kind of pick up where you left off.”
Allen’s future
Allen’s eyebrows raised when he pointed out that the wide receiver market “just got reset, so …”
The veteran receiver is in the last year of his contract — and he certainly took note of the contract Justin Jefferson received Monday. At 32 and coming off a 1,200-yard season, he has no plans on how much longer he’ll play.
“I’m going to play as long as I can,” he said. “As far as an extension, I’m going to let the play speak for itself, and if they offer me something that I like, we’ll go from there.”
While it might’ve been tough for Allen to agree to a new deal with his first “new” team since joining the NFL, especially in Chicago when his family is in Los Angeles, he’s gotten enough positive vibes from his time with the Bears to feel good about that option.
“As far as I’ve been here, it’s been nothing but love,” he said. “It’s been beautiful. The golf is amazing, which I love to do. And the guys are amazing in the locker room, as well. So it wouldn’t be hard to adjust to a city like this.”
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Quick hits
The Bears had perfect attendance for the start of mandatory veteran minicamp. Rookie offensive lineman Kiran Amegadjie remained sidelined, as expected. Wide receivers Dante Pettis and Collin Johnson did work off to the side.
Sweat and right guard Nate Davis did not participate in team drills, but Eberflus expects Sweat to ramp up Wednesday and get some team reps “as we go.”
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The Bears announced six Bill Walsh coaching fellows for training camp, which includes Michael Bellamy II, who went to Kenwood Academy and College of DuPage before a brief time on the Bears’ roster in the 90’s. Yale offensive line coach Stefon Wheeler, who coached Amegadjie, will also be with the Bears’ coaches this summer, along with Angela Rowe, who runs the flag football program at Huntingdon College.
Kmet on “Hard Knocks” coming to Halas Hall: “Obviously, we’ve got to keep the main thing the main thing there. But definitely something cool to have as we grow older and eventually when we’re all done with this game (it’s) kind of something to look back on for our kids and grandkids and so yeah, definitely gonna take advantage of it and soak that all in.”
(Photo of Caleb Williams: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)