Bear Digest

Ranking the Best Bears Offseason Practice Battles

OTAs and minicamp provide coaches with a look at a player's capabilities when matched up against good competition and here are the best Bears battles for offseason practice.

Gene Chamberlain

Bears players at rookie camp who made the 90-man roster are about to get a good education at offseason practices against veterans.
Bears players at rookie camp who made the 90-man roster are about to get a good education at offseason practices against veterans. / David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
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OTAs and mandatory minicamp allow for team competition and coaches get a better idea of what players are capable of, with restraints applied.

The Bears know all too well what this restraint is because they drew a league penalty for it in 2022. They were too physical in  off-season practices and were forced to forfeit a day of organized team activities.

Certainly the players were not going to be broken up over this, as they are voluntary practices and most veterans would rather they didn't even have to be at as many as asked.

Still, they're valuable and can help coaches formulate ideas on position battles or simply what a player is capable of when training camp begins.

It's rather difficult for defensive or offensive linemen to show up in this kind of work. The offensive linemen need to get their pads on and hit while the defensive linemen need to finish off pass rushes with contact and that's not allowed.

With this limitation in mind, there will be battles in OTAs and minicamp worth noting. Here are the best ones.

1. CB Kyler Gordon vs. WR Keenan Allen

Gordon, aka Spidey, was on the rise in Year 2 with a 93.9 passer rating against and his fourth and fifth career interceptions. Now he'll go daily against someone with enough moves in his routes to make anyone's hamstring hurt. One of the tough breaks last year for the defense was losing Gordon early in the opener with Green Bay. They didn't get him back until the sixth game. What might have happened had they had him against Denver or even Tampa Bay in Week 2?

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2. WR DJ Moore vs. CB Jaylon Johnson

The Bears liked moving Johnson around last year even when it wasn't as necessary after Tyrique Stevenson started to develop in the second half of the season. Johnson is good enough at doing it that they'll want to keep this option open in games. However, in practices during the offseason it's much less likely they'll have him moving from one side to the other so often. He'll be on Moore much of the time and it's a matchup always worth watching, as it was last year in practices. There's little doubt last year getting to practice against Johnson helped Moore achieve career highs in yardage (1,365) and receptions (96) while it let Johnson become All-Pro and earn a contract extension. Now comes Year II of the battle.

3. S Jaquan Brisker vs. TE Gerald Everett

Often in the nickel the Bears will have Brisker matched up on a second tight end or the fourth wide receiver. Everett's pass-catching ability probably could have been used to a greater extent in L.A. and Seattle but all three of his teams had so many other weapons he had to wait for opportunities and take advantage. He hasn't had less than 37 receptions since 2018 and has been at 41 or more the last four years. Brisker has to be better in the red zone after he allowed 10 touchdown passes in his first two years, according to Sportradar. Working daily against Everett, who has 19 TD catches, will help.

4. LB T.J. Edwards vs.  RB D'Andre Swift

In the shorter passing game, the weakside backer often winds up with the back sliding out of the backfield. There weren't many flaws in Edwards' game last year but one might have been how his completion percentage allowed (82.8) creeped up from his 72% in Philadelphia for four seasons. Facing Swift coming out of the backfield can't hurt. swift's speed as a secondary target on shorter passes will test Edwards, especially in the open field.

5. CB Tyrique Stevenson vs. WR Rome Odunze

It's two less experienced players, or one with no experience in Odunze's case. Both have great promise. Stevenson came on in the second half of last season. The reason this ranks well down the list is the lack of contact in these offseason practices. There is no doubt one of Stevenson's greatest asset is his hitting ability and he uses physicality well in coverage, but that's not possible in this touch football at OTAs.

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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.