All-Out Competition Breaks Out Now in Bears Camp

Coping with the pandemic will still be an overriding theme, but it's time now for the Bears to find out who they have and what everyone can do over the next 15 practices

Getting through the pandemic has been the main focus of the Bears for so long now.

COVID-19 now hovers in the background as the Bears move into a portion of practices when what happens on the field takes priority over all else.

The Bears on Monday enter the final phase of training camp where actual practices occur. 

Virtual gives way to reality. 

Coach Matt Nagy and staff will take them through meetings and walk-throughs still, but along with those comes full-fledged actual competition in all the traditional forms, from seven-on-seven to scrimmage with full contact. The full contact is not a common occurrence in modern pro football practice and is courtesy of a preseason eliminated.

So it could be an eye opener.

"The biggest challenge like, for any team, I think, and coach says this all the time, is the team that's going to be the healthiest, the team who is going to have all of their players available, that team has the best chance to win," wide receiver Anthony Miller said.

Staying healthy through all the COVID-19 precautions is one thing, remaining healthy through full contact at practices might be another. It's difficult to predict how or who will emerge.

The other part difficult to predict is who wins the quarterback battle, with only 15 days of practices to be conducted before final roster cuts.

Even the defensive players are curious as to how this will play out.

"I feel like as far as the competition, it's going to be good to see," linebacker Danny Trevathan said. "It's going to bring out the best in both of them for sure, and that's what we need to see. We need to see that hunger, that drive, which one of those guys want it the most and who can get a great feel for the offense.

"You've got to have a feel for your guys, know your guys, know what they like in certain situations, knowing when to give them a chance, just to throw that ball up and let them go get it. Those are things I'm excited to see, just the competition at quarterback."

Coaches will get a better idea how the offensive changes they've made will look on the field, defensive players will get the contact they need to callous for tackling in the regular season.

And it's all magnified because there's so little time left to do this before the regular season.

"The players gotta understand that there's a little bit more a sense of urgency," Nagy said. "So every single rep that you take in practice, every single rep that you script as a coach, it really, really, really has to be magnified."

Combine the limited time to get ready, full contact and a quarterback derby and it still all comes down to players and coaches who feel they underachieved last year.

They say they want badly to do something about it.

"We didn't play as well as we may have wanted," Robinson said. "But this is a different year. We have a lot of our returning starters back. We've added some other starters on defense and offense.

"We're looking forward to getting after it and to get back to where we want to be."

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