The official DBB talking points when it comes to the preseason are well established. These games are glorified practice sessions. The “schemes” are vanilla. The intensity is non-existent. The value is nil. But the 2022 Chicago Bears find themselves in an interesting place as they begin their preseason calendar tomorrow. Here are a few things worth looking at as the Chiefs come to Soldier Field.

• Braxton Jones. The new regime is not repeating the mistakes of the previous one. They have spent the early days of camp trying to firmly establish a starting five across the offensive line. That line looks to be Jones-Whitehair-Patrick (Mustipher backing up)-Schofield-Reiff. But with young tackles waiting in the wings (Borom, Jenkins) Jones can ill afford to lose the confidence of his coaches, or quarterback, in the weeks leading up to the regular season. The job is his to win. A few stable efforts in these practice games should achieve that.
• Darnell Mooney’s Reps. Calling the Bears thin at wide receiver would be a massive understatement. They have Mooney, a rookie with significant potential (and speed) and a bunch of fourth options. Oh, and most of the fourth options are dealing with injuries. Any significant injury to Mooney would relegate this position group to worst in the league status. And not just worst WR group. Worst position group, period. Flus and Getsy are playing with fire if Mooney has pads on tomorrow.
• The Opening Drive on Offense. Doesn’t it just feel like this group could use some points to start things off? They don’t need a touchdown, even, just a nice 30/40-yard drive and an easy field goal. Get some first downs. Develop some rhythm. Don’t get the quarterback hit. Something. A start.

Coach Flus has said the starters will receive substantial playing time tomorrow. So, as always, the most important part of this ball game is the Bears coming out of it as healthy as they go into it. With the season still a month away, it would be difficult to argue for the importance of much else.

Thought #Bears QB Justin Fields had his best day today in terms of decision-making and getting rid of the ball quickly. Progress is evident.

— Larry Mayer (@LarryMayer) August 10, 2022

No practice for the Bears on Monday. So here are some things I wasted time reading on Monday.

• The Jahns and Fishbain practice report at The Athletic seems to suggest an order is forming along the offensive line and that order has Braxton Jones at left tackle and Riley Reiff at right tackle. If Braxton ultimately wins the job, and is on the blindside come opening day, he immediately becomes one of the two or three most interesting players on this roster in 2022.
• It feels like the drama surrounding Teven Jenkins has come to an end and the focus will now be back on the field. (Courtney Cronin details the whole ordeal here.) If Braxton is one of the most interesting players heading into this regular season, Teven is THE most interesting of the preseason. When will get into these games? Where will Getsy and Morgan play him? How will he respond?
• Unsung Tweet from Brad Biggs: “#Bears DC Alan Williams praises LB Joe Thomas – saying he is leading that group in takeaways. He has a shot to compete for strong side job and has been a previous core special teams player in the league.”
• With N’Keal Harry’s comeback derailed by what looks like a serious injury, I wanted to read more about the kid. Sometimes we fixate on the football player without paying any respect to the human being. Harry seems a very, very good young man. From a blog post by Bernd Buchmasser in 2019: “[I want to] give back in any way that I can,” Harry said during the photo op and Q&A session inside Gillette Stadium yesterday. “Definitely help my family, help some people on the island. I feel like with this platform I’ve been given, it’s my duty to do something good with it. God has blessed me to be in this position. So it would be a disservice if I didn’t give back and if I didn’t show appreciation, so that’s my biggest goal.”
• Somehow, I missed the report that Nicholas Morrow, and not Roquan Smith, would be the signal caller in the new defense, as that duty is exclusively handled by the middle linebacker. (Somehow = I didn’t look.) Patrick Finley in the Sun-Times wrote about this about a week ago. From the piece: “That’s a pretty standard thing, I think,’’ Morrow said. ‘‘I think the biggest thing is making sure we’re all on the same page and we’re over-communicating. Sometimes you get those young guys in there, and there are certain calls where it’s gotta be communicated consistently. Just getting that together is probably bigger than the calls, I think.’’
• ACTUAL BEAR NEWS: “Danvers residents are being asked to take precautions after a bear was spotted in the Massachusetts town on Sunday. A Danvers resident shared video from her Ring video camera that showed a black bear roaming across her driveway Sunday morning. The bear ended up scaling a short stone wall before moseying along.”
• Per Alex Shapiro at NBC Sports, the Bears coaching staff thought they’d get pushback for their H.I.T.S. program. But that hasn’t happened. “…the team’s response to Eberflus’ demanding philosophy got its challenge over the weekend, when the team was put through two long padded practices, with plenty of running around, in the hot sun. Cole Kmet said it was the toughest practice of his life. Khalil Herbert said players were “laid out” in the locker room afterwards. Yet, by all accounts, the players gritted through it.”

I wish people would go back and look at what the “camp stories” were in years past and notice how none of them correlate to anything that subsequently happens in the regular season.

• Teven Jenkins said, “I want to be here in Chicago, so I’m playing wherever they want me to play.” This is absolutely the best-case scenario for the team. Jenkins is talented and the Bears don’t have a ton of talent along their offensive line.
• Liked this Tweet from Kevin Fishbain: “Bears OC Luke Getsy on rookie LT Braxton Jones: “You get into the pads and there was zero intimidation. Going against Robert Quinn your very first one-on-one pass rush, right? It’s an intimidating thing. He stepped up and did a great job. He’s answered the bell.” If the Bears are going with their best five up front, Braxton will be in that group.
• Injuries to N’Keal Harry and Byron Pringle. Not good. The Harry injury sounds somewhat serious. (I think it was unlikely Harry was going to play a significant role in 2022 anyway but he at least provided something to watch in the practice games upcoming.)

Thoughts on “Man Caves”

I don’t get ’em. Never have.

The way I understand the man cave is you take a room of your house, usually in the basement, put a bunch of televisions in there, cover the walls with your memorabilia, and that’s where you go watch sports.

My first question is, why is this necessary? Why can’t you just watch sports on the same television you watch Turner Classic Movies? And what happens to the room when sports are not on? Is it the room empty? Isn’t that a massive waste of space?

But my other problem might be that I don’t have any memorabilia. I find memorabilia, quite honestly, stupid. Other than the original Super Bowl Shuffle album and my childhood Jim McMahon shirt, every other thing I have with Chicago Bears on it was given to me. I couldn’t fill the shelf in a linen closet with memorabilia, let alone a cave.

If you have to create a space in your house to get away from other people and just watch sports, why not just go to a sports bar? At least then you have someone else serving you the beer and food and there’s no clean up. Hell, you might even meet another likeminded human being and strike up one of those friendships people keep talking about.

Even the word “cave” denotes the neanderthal, man at his most primitive, reducing the (male) sports fan to his most base self. I must have own room to yell about football. Woman, you stay upstairs! One of the things I have cherished about my years at Josie Woods with Maciej, Reverend Dave, Steph, etc. is the conversations in the commercial breaks about soccer, politics, food, movies, whatever. If I ever had a “cave” in my apartment, I’d use the massive television to screen The Umbrellas of Cherbourg for my friends.

Hands down the best thing I learned at #BearsCamp yesterday was David Montgomery is no longer battling depression and that he is in a much better place both mentally and spiritually.

That’s more important than anything on the field. No question about it.

— Will DeWitt (@Wi11DeWitt) August 4, 2022

The best ways to spent $50 at Billy Goat Tavern and Old Town Ale House is sitting right there.

— Ross Read (@RossRead) August 4, 2022

Start at Billy Goat.

8 Old Style bottles ($3.50 each = $28. But with buy backs on fourths it’s $19. Yet we are still tipping buck a beer so let’s call it $30.)

2 double cheese. ($6 each = $12)

Total at Goat = $42.

Then Uber to Old Town Alehouse.

$20.

Old Town.

5 tall PBR cans. ($4 each = $20)

Great night out. $82.

The Drills.

Justin Fields in first team drill today: 2-for-4. It includes drop by Kmet, big gain to St. Brown, a near-interception by Gordon and a short throw to Mooney.

— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) August 3, 2022

Justin Fields in second team drill today: 3-for-5. It included a quick, short one to Mooney (possible hot read) turned into good gain, a PBU by Brisker (well behind Kmet), a scramble shovel to Harry, a short completion to Mooney and an out-of-bounds deep miss to Montgomery.

— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) August 3, 2022

Justin Fields in third team drill: one completion. It included a sack where he slipped, two busted screens (call them wins for the D), a step up and scramble up the middle and a checkdown to Herbert on 3rd and 13.

— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) August 3, 2022

Justin Fields in fourth team drill: 5-for-7. Ball moved with gains. He capped it with a short TD to Mooney on fourth-and-1 inside the 5 (after a timeout, too). Best passes when to St. Brown during drive. Got a key 3rd-down conversion when Kmet caught deflected pass by Brisker.

— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) August 3, 2022

Justin Fields in fifth team drill today: two big completions to Kmet (tough one through traffic) and Harry (3rd-and-10). It was a two-minute situation. There were sacks. But it still ended with 3 points from Santos.

— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) August 3, 2022

• Injuries, injuries, injuries. Coach Flus today confirmed that Thomas Graham will miss time. If it’s a hamstring issue, that’s usually 3-4 weeks conservatively. Again, this is an injury that is manageable on August 1 and less so on August 21. Hamstrings can nag all season if the player is rushed back too quickly. If Graham doesn’t play the opener, it isn’t the biggest deal in the world.
• Early Justin Fields Update:
  • Leadership qualities off the charts. Even ownership feels he’s taken control of the team.
  • Mechanics/fundamentals are coming along. Delivery looks far more compact. Decision to deliver still needs to quicken. (Offensive coaches thought a few of the practice “sacks” on Monday could have been avoided.)
• Al-Quadin Muhammad is having a very strong early camp. Does that mean anything? Not really. But the Bears need multiple guys to complement Robert Quinn in the pass rush department.
• From Courtney Cronin’s Twitter: “…Khari Blasingame came away with a highlight play for the offense, roughly a 35-yard leaping catch down the sideline during the team period. Impressive play.” Don’t be surprised to see Blasingame utilized a ton in the passing game.
• An excellent piece detailing the coaching foundation of Eberflus, by Colleen Kane in the Tribune.

• Injuries, injuries, injuries. Lucas Patrick’s injured right thumb might seem minor but it’s hard to imagine a more significant malady for a team’s center. There are still 42 days until they start keeping score, so it’s a good thing the injury happened early, but Justin Fields will need time with his center before the 49ers arrive at Soldier Field on 9/11.
  • My guess at the starting OL for the opener: Reiff-Whitehair-Patrick-Schofield-Borom.
• Training camp practices are always a double edge sword. If one position group is thriving, it must mean the position group facing them on the other side of the ball is struggling. There is very strong reason to believe Ryan Poles has rebuilt the secondary in a single draft. Kyler Gordon and Jaquan Brisker are not only making plays, but also carrying themselves like they belong. So much of secondary play is about swagger and these kids have it. But this wide receiver group is not very good. Darnell Mooney is a top player on the ascent. Velus Jones Jr. has the potential to be a versatile, exciting tool. But Byron Pringle, N’Keal Harry, Equanimeous St. Brown are all basically fourth options. It would be worrisome if this group were consistently winning on the practice field.
• Teven Jenkins is severely trending in the wrong direction. No player on this roster needed to prove more during these practice sessions. His unavailability is disconcerting.

Camp Tweet of the Week

Courtney Cronin is killing it on the Bears beat and she’s 100% right about this. Teams are getting comically paranoid.

Teams are taking this “don’t create a competitive advantage for our opponents” stuff too far. It’s the FOURTH day of practice. They’re not even in pads. Want to run a bunch of trick plays in practice? Wait until the session is closed. This is bordering the line of lunacy. https://t.co/pAzRyj74za

— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) July 30, 2022