The Chicago Bears held their first joint practice of training camp with the Cincinnati Bengals earlier today, and there’s a lot to get to! Ben Johnson is a big fan of joint practices, and he outlined why with reporters before practice here. “They’re controlled reps here,” Johnson said via the team site. “It’s exciting because we know there’s ground rules to stay away from the quarterback. We’re thudding up and things of that nature, and so we can just make sure it’s safe, it’s controlled, and yet the competition goes up, the intensity goes up.”
After poor play in the first preseason game by Jedrick Wills Jr. and Kiran Amegadjie led Ben Johnson to shift both players over to right tackle, Theo Benedet was featured as competition for Braxton Jones at left tackle. Ben Johnson noted that Benedet is an asset in the run game but that he is “a little behind” in pass pro. That weakness was on display in practice today. It reportedly did not go well for Benedet in today’s live practice period, and Braxton is the frontrunner to win the LT1 job.
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Adam Jahns of CHGO observed that it was a “bad finish to practice” where “Caleb Williams was sacked twice by Myles Murphy. Second one for a safety.” Jahns noted that Murphy beat Theo Benedet on both sacks.
Beat reporters took note of a poor ending to the practice for the Chicago Bears offense against the Bengals defense. Nicholas Moreano of REKAP reports that there were no passes completed by the Bears first-team offense in one of the 11-on-11 sessions. Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times noted that the Bears offense was dominated in the last drill of practice. The last play of the practice was a Caleb Williams interception by Jalen Davis over the middle. Adam Jahns reported that Dexter Lawrence was a “serious problem” for the Bears offense.
Dan Hoard, the radio voice of the Cincinnati Bengals, observed that “Dexter Lawrence was a force, consistently collapsing the pocket and tipping a ball to himself for an INT.” Here is Hoard’s tweet with video of the interception:
Patrick Finley gave some attention to the battle between Jaylon Johnson and Ja’Marr Chase at practice today. Reportedly, Ja’Marr Chase was “fuming” over the lack of targets in practice due to Johnson’s blanket coverage. Finley reported that Chase complimented Johnson after practice. Chase remarked, “Real good corner. Pretty aggressive on a couple plays.” Dillon Thieneman had the play of the day for the defense when he picked off Joe Burrow, according to Adam Hoge. “Burrow forced it into tight coverage, and it went off Gesicki’s hands. Thieneman was right behind to snag the ball.”
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Hoard acknowledged that the Bears offense had success early in his observations of the practice. Adam Jahns said the Bears offense scored three touchdowns during the red zone drill. Larry Mayer called it the “highlight of the day,” noting that the first of those touchdowns came when tight end Colston Loveland high-pointed a ball with safety Jordan Battle “draped all over him.” Jahns believes that Kaden Davis is going to make the team. Mayer reports that Davis made a diving TD catch just inside the front right pylon of the end zone during the red zone drill. Rookie Zavion Thomas got in on the touchdown action, catching a pass in the right corner of the endzone from Case Keenum.
Summing up the practice, Kelley Peter of blogintheback.com noted the best news that comes out of practice – despite an early scare when Kromah had to leave practice briefly – there were no serious injuries suffered during the practice by either team.
A few other nuggets from the day.
Bears head coach Ben Johnson chatted with Bengals head coach Zac Taylor before practice:
The Bears saw the return to practice of both Tyrique Stevenson and Terell Smith, according to Alyssa Barbieri of USA Today’s Bears Wire in her 9 takeaways from the joint practice:
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Geoff Hobson, the senior writer for Bengals.com, reports that Bengals linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr remembers the Bears’ last-minute comeback win this past November as a “dagger in the heart” in his quick hits.
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And a few videos from the day.
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