Bear Digest

HBO's Bears on Hard Knocks: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Analysis: Caleb Williams' comment about never getting nervous wasn't the only positive aspect of the Week 3 version of the Bears on Hard Knocks.

Gene Chamberlain

Tory Taylor punts in pregame warmups at Soldier Field,.
Tory Taylor punts in pregame warmups at Soldier Field,. / David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
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When Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was taking some of the blame for three consecutive three-and-outs, it turns out he didn't deserve it either.

An old Bears nemesis reared its ugly head in the very first home game for Caleb Williams in the preseason opener, and it was brought out in this week's third episode of Hard Knocks,

Yes, it's faulty helmet mic, back for another Bears season.

Justin Fields, Mitchell Trubisky, Jay Cutler and even Nick Foles all complained of this thing happening one time or more during their time in Chicago.

HBO announcer Liev Schreiber pointed out at the start of the show how Johnny Lujack was the last All-Pro quarterback they Bears had. If they had quarterback mics back in 1950, Lujack would have had a faulty one too. They didn't even have facemasks on their helmets then so that would have been interesting to see how long a Bears helmet mic would actually last then.

It appears Caleb Williams was baptized into the Bears quarterback tradition of standing in the huddle waiting for the play from the offensive coordinator, only to get the play call from Waldron cutting out in his helmet.

Can't the Bears get some type of actual functioning equipment? They can pay out $110 million contracts to receivers and can't get functioning helmet mics.

Amazon might have something on it. Best Buy. Somebody. Radio Shack is long gone but the Bears' tradition of faulty helmet mics lives on.

THE NEW MATT EBERFLUS MAKEOVER IS FOR HIS DEFENSIVE SCHEME

ONLY KEVIN BYARD REMAINS OUT AMONG BEARS STARTERS

SWEATING OUT THE NEED FOR A COMPLEMENTARY BEARS EDGE RUSHER

RUST NOT PERCEIVED AS PROBLEM AS BEARS SAY STARTERS WiLL SIT

This was by far the ugliest moment of the week on Hard Knocks, even uglier than QB Austin Reed's rendition of Keyshia Cole's song "Love," which rated only a bad.

So this was the ugly part of this week's Bears Hard Knocks: Good, Bad and Ugly.

Here's the Good and the Bad.

The Good

Trading Places: The behind the scenes look at the Matthew Judon negotiation from the Bears' end with Ryan Poles was an excellent study.

So, too, was the draft day film footage from their trade when senior director of player personnel Jeff King gets a deal finalized on the phone to get the Bears back into Round 5 to pick Austin Booker.

The interesting aspect of the Judon negotiation is it sounds a bit different than the narrative being reported about how Judon simply chose the Falcons over the Bears. Maybe the Patriots sent him to the Falcons because he wanted to go there, but Poles didn't want to bring in a player who wasn't going to be signed to an extension.

"I don't want to get the club stuck in a position where we have a player that's here, we've given up a draft pick and we haven't had a resolution on a contract," Poles said, adding he didn't want to be "losing all flexibility."

If that's the case, then no one needs to worry about them trying to trade for Jets edge rusher Haason Reddick. He's already holding out and has no contract.

Even more fun with this part of the show is the revelation when Poles says Montez Sweat was their 14th ranked edge. Judon is only 50th.

He's No Chump: Backup QB Tyson Bagent gets mentioned prominently in this episode, along with his arm-wrestling father, Tavis. Bagent has been having an excellent training camp and preseason and he makes it clear he doesn't think of himself as a lifetime backup despite being a Division II product.

He said he wants to "keep it fresh on everybody's mind that I'm not just some chump in the quarterback room."

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie: The part dealing with Australian punter Tory Taylor and how he was basically had no serious career prospect and more or less stumbled into the Aussie Rules Football conversion program that helped him become an NFL punter.

The film footage from practice Taylor dropping punts down inside the 10 and then out of bounds doesn't do justice to what he's actually done throughout training camp. Sometimes he has three or four coffin corner punt spin out of bounds inside the 5 in a single practice.

The most fun part of this section is when Brazilian kicker Cairo Santos tell the Aussie to drive on the right side of the road, even though he has been in the U.S. living for over four years.

A very revealing part of the film is from the game and HBO caught something that may have slipped past the attention of most. Backup long snapper Cameron Lyons had at least two bad snaps in that game. One was so high it took every bit of Taylor's reach to snare it and get it down for Santos.

Nerves of Steel: One of the best cuts from the entire show so far is Caleb Williams on the sidelines telling QB coach Kerry Joseph that he never gets nervous. At least not since his very first game in high school, when, as he recalls, he fumbled two snaps from center.

When your quarterback doesn't get nervous the battle is already won. It's questionable whether Justin Fields could have said this after the 10-28 record he posted and his trouble making plays in the fourth quarter of  games.

Proof Positive: Somehow the narrative gained strength that Keenan Allen has slowed down. doesn't do much at practice and is out of shape. This episode provided proof positive whoever came up with this idea needs better glasses.

Mr. Nickname: Matt Eberflus has been the nickname minister since arriving and he goes through warmups with a mic on, giving out the nicknames as he walks through players stretching.

The HBO mic obviously works better than helmet mic.

The Bad

Cart Ahead of the Horse: Kevin Warren and his crew of administrators are busy meeting and discussing what kind of seats are needed in a particular section of the new stadium.

Hel-lo? Guys, you need to decide on the place to put the stadium and build it before worrying about seats.

Cover-Up: The HBO camera work of the wet practice in the downpour was fine, although they failed to capture the wet media standing out in it, huddled under umbrellas. Regardless, the really bad part of this was while they focused on the Bears slip-sliding on the wet grass, they didn't show the two Bengals players who suffered knee injuries practicing in this when they had a dry Payton Center with a roof a few hundred feet away.

Camp Visitor: Rapper Lil Durk was a guest on the sideline and they devoted more time to him at practice than they did to another guest at Halas Hall, Ryan Poles' college teammate Matt Ryan, a former MVP with the Falcons.

No one cares about the rapper on the sidelines at practice. Someone is always at Halas Hall during camp or at practice. The Rev. Jesse Jackson was there earlier in camp and they didn't have a segment devoted to him.

Simone Biles' Jacket: Speaking of sideline visitors, Simone Biles drew the wrath of Bears fans on social media for the Packers coat she wore on the sidelines with the image of husband Jonatha Owens, now with Chicago. Except the coat is a Packers coat.

The ironic part of all this is a judge in 2018 threw out a Packers fan's lawsuit against the Bears because they wouldn't allow him on the sidelines at a Bears game even though he was supposed to be there and the reason he wasn't allowed was he was wearing a Packers jersey. The Bears had a policy of not letting opposing team apparel on the sidelines. Apparently this has changed?

Someone get her a new jacket please, and somewhere to sit. The poor girl had her foot in a cast from the Olympics and was standing.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.