Official 2023 Training Camp thread

[JoJoBoxer]

Guys, velus is in rare company. He should be proud!

View attachment 30183

It sounded like it was a great honor to join an all-time Bears list ... until one finds out that it was not an esteemed list but rather with just Shaheen.

Yuck!

 

[JoJoBoxer]

That was a Monday night game. I’m
faitly confident ole heavy tits was inhaling 15 lbs of mini weenies and a 5 gallon bucket of lard, not watching the game.

That's called "honing your craft".

Do you think that it is easy inhaling 15 pounds of mini weenies?

We are not talking about 15 pounds of normal weenies. These are the mini version, meaning so many more hand-fulls are required. Now add the fact that his hands are full of lard at the same time and we are talking about a Hall of Fame type performance.

That demands a round of applause!

 

[JoJoBoxer]

My memory goes back to Cunningham. Do you really want to compare the Eagles’ success to the sorry ass Bears over the last 30 years?

Comparisons are always important and, before I begin, the sorry ass Bears are an excellent thing to compare so we can see what is missing.

Let's talk about some of those good teams, like the Eagles, Pittsburg, Ravens, Pats and Chiefs.

All of those teams had a good defense for most, if not all, of their years.

Defense was the one thing the Bears could usually count on until they couldn't count on it after Lovie and the one-year 2018 blip.

Most of those teams had an excellent head coach, game planning and the continuity that he brought.

Hard pass for the Bears. Lovie was their one shiny example and, sadly, he was not going to get them any further. He "got off the bus running" yet his OCs abandoned the run at the most inopportune times.

Most of their teams had a franchise QB for a few years, if not for decades.

Who on the modern day Bears could ever be considered a franchise QB? Fields might get there, but he cannot be considered a franchise QB yet.

Most of those teams had all three above at the same time.

The Bears had 2 of them at one time recently and it got them to the Super Bowl. When they had the closest to the franchise QB, they won the Super Bowl.

Most of them had very good offensive lines. Pittsburg has always made a good offensive line a priority and they are the shining example of a "good team", basically having a winning record for over 50 years. Even the great Mahomes did his own version of Icarus and fell down to Earth in the Super Bowl when his two starting OTs went down.

The Bears were a patch-work of offensive line building, finally beginning to actually build a starting 5, like this year.

Adding: When the Bears had good offensive lines, they either went to the Super Bowl, were contenders for the Super Bowl or won the Super Bowl.

Other teams had ownership that either were a force on their teams or built up strong front offices.

The Bears had "a fan" and this ...


In short, the Bears were a recipe for failure.

However; the Bears have finally begun to change and start heading in the right direction. Does that mean certain success?



Sometimes things happen along the way to steer plans away from their goals.

 

[playthrough2001]

There has been quite a bit of anti Velus Jones rhetoric on this board. It sounds like he’s worked incredibly hard to get better but most of all comfortable in his role and knowledge of the offense.

Also, he’s been putting in the work to improve as a punt returner which was an obvious weakness last season.

He really flashed as a kick returner last season. If he blossoms this year as a punt returner and receiver, the Bears become even more difficult to defend this season. His size and speed have to be respected if he’s utilizing those tools effectively.

Here’s some highlights from a Fishbain piece on him from The Athletic:

“It really set me free when I stopped worrying about what everybody had to think about me.”

He had a 44-yard catch against the Billsin Week 16. He ran for a 42-yard touchdown against the Vikings in Week 18. And he finished third in the NFL in kickoff returns, averaging 27.59 yards per return.

“I would say it was close to the end of the season when I was still stressed out, thinking about things in the past,” he said. “But there’s nothing you can do about that. I finished the season on a high note. Had a touchdown in the last game of the season. I just told myself, ‘Have fun. Play football.’”

And…

But Jones also wants to win back that punt-return job.

During the offseason, he did the standard work of catching punts off a JUGS machine, but then he visited Bears punter Trenton Gill in North Carolina. Gill was joined by a few other NFL punters, and Jones spent days catching punts, focusing on “beating the ball to the point.”

On his last day with the punters, he caught 110 balls and dropped only two.

“Just look the ball in, beat the ball to the spot, because when I catch it, honestly,” Jones paused, before adding, “I feel like I’m the best returner in the league.”

More at this link:

Bears’ Velus Jones Jr. settled in for Year 2: ‘I’ve got a better feel for everything’

Jones struggled mightily during his rookie season until he stopped worrying what others thought about him.

theathletic.com

 

[2MuchChino]

Unfamiliar with the facilities at Halas Hall but with training camp being held there, as opposed to a nearby university, are players living there? That is, do they go home every night or are there accommodations to temporarily house 90 players?

 

[playthrough2001]

Unfamiliar with the facilities at Halas Hall but with training camp being held there, as opposed to a nearby university, are players living there? That is, do they go home every night or are there accommodations to temporarily house 90 players?

They go home.

 

[nvanprooyen]

Moving forward in this thread, please keep it focused on TC.

Most people reading this don't want to read a handful of people's back-and-forth bickering and are here to catch up on news coming out of TC, which @bears26 is doing an awesome job with (as usual).

Feel free to slapfight in other threads, but let's keep this one focused.

Thank you gents.

 

[Bearly]

There has been quite a bit of anti Velus Jones rhetoric on this board. It sounds like he’s worked incredibly hard to get better but most of all comfortable in his role and knowledge of the offense.

Also, he’s been putting in the work to improve as a punt returner which was an obvious weakness last season.

He really flashed as a kick returner last season. If he blossoms this year as a punt returner and receiver, the Bears become even more difficult to defend this season. His size and speed have to be respected if he’s utilizing those tools effectively.

Here’s some highlights from a Fishbain piece on him from The Athletic:

“It really set me free when I stopped worrying about what everybody had to think about me.”

He had a 44-yard catch against the Billsin Week 16. He ran for a 42-yard touchdown against the Vikings in Week 18. And he finished third in the NFL in kickoff returns, averaging 27.59 yards per return.

“I would say it was close to the end of the season when I was still stressed out, thinking about things in the past,” he said. “But there’s nothing you can do about that. I finished the season on a high note. Had a touchdown in the last game of the season. I just told myself, ‘Have fun. Play football.’”

And…

But Jones also wants to win back that punt-return job.

During the offseason, he did the standard work of catching punts off a JUGS machine, but then he visited Bears punter Trenton Gill in North Carolina. Gill was joined by a few other NFL punters, and Jones spent days catching punts, focusing on “beating the ball to the point.”

On his last day with the punters, he caught 110 balls and dropped only two.

“Just look the ball in, beat the ball to the spot, because when I catch it, honestly,” Jones paused, before adding, “I feel like I’m the best returner in the league.”

More at this link:

Bears’ Velus Jones Jr. settled in for Year 2: ‘I’ve got a better feel for everything’

Jones struggled mightily during his rookie season until he stopped worrying what others thought about him.

theathletic.com

Don't know if he'll be all that or not but we knew he had a history of slow to acclimate from college. Gifted athlete that may not be the sharpest pencil in the bag. He's obviously been working hard and getting better. Fingers crossed.

 

[Bearly]

I wouldn't put much stock in training camp reports when the pads aren't even on yet. Lance is almost a full year younger than everyone else in that class and the reality is he only had about 500 passes in his high school and college career combined. The Niners did him a disservice drafting him so high and he needs reps. Having said that, I sure as hell am glad they passed on Fields and Pace finally did the smart thing.

I wouldn't mind him backing up Fields in a couple years. 9ers have $20m in dead cap if the decide he's not worth keeping so he's not going anywhere this year. He should get most of the preseason reps, just to see if he can better assimilate to this level with those reps.

 

[iueyedoc]

I wouldn't put much stock in training camp reports when the pads aren't even on yet. Lance is almost a full year younger than everyone else in that class and the reality is he only had about 500 passes in his high school and college career combined. The Niners did him a disservice drafting him so high and he needs reps. Having said that, I sure as hell am glad they passed on Fields and Pace finally did the smart thing.

Reps doesn't cure bad and splitting 2nd team reps with Sam Darnold isn't a path to better. How he ever got hyped into a 1st rd QB off of such limited tape is beyond me. One year of outstanding college production is rarely a great barometer( unfortunately, see Mitch Trubisky). How a low college level, minimal starts, year removed from playing QB goes #3 after trading 3 1st is criminal by the 49ers. And I can near guarantee Purdy is going to do a less douchey 2nd year Mac Jones-esque cliff dive this season.

 

[iueyedoc]

I wouldn't mind him backing up Fields in a couple years. 9ers have $20m in dead cap if the decide he's not worth keeping so he's not going anywhere this year. He should get most of the preseason reps, just to see if he can better assimilate to this level with those reps.

He's already splitting #2 reps with Sam Darnold. The Trey Lance ship has sailed in SF.

 

[cameronkrazie86]

He's already splitting #2 reps with Sam Darnold. The Trey Lance ship has sailed in SF.

His entire tenure in SF has been strange. He's technically only played in 8 games for his career with a total of 102 passes. Now in training camp, much to the frustration of the many SF fans I follow on twitter, he's splitting more reps with Brandon Allen than Darnold. I know Purdy is their guy but I'm surprised they aren't trying to give him every opportunity in the world to win the backup job at least given the draft cost to acquire him. Will be fascinated to see what SF does with him and if they do trade him, what they're able to get back for him.

 

[Discus fish salesman]

Reps doesn't cure bad and splitting 2nd team reps with Sam Darnold isn't a path to better. How he ever got hyped into a 1st rd QB off of such limited tape is beyond me. One year of outstanding college production is rarely a great barometer( unfortunately, see Mitch Trubisky). How a low college level, minimal starts, year removed from playing QB goes #3 after trading 3 1st is criminal by the 49ers. And I can near guarantee Purdy is going to do a less douchey 2nd year Mac Jones-esque cliff dive this season.

I agree on Purdy. I wouldn't be shocked if darnold was pretty good with Shanahan though.

 

[msadows]

I wouldn't mind him backing up Fields in a couple years. 9ers have $20m in dead cap if the decide he's not worth keeping so he's not going anywhere this year. He should get most of the preseason reps, just to see if he can better assimilate to this level with those reps.

Guy legit showed nothing to make me want him as a backup even.

This is going to go down as one of the biggest draft blunders of all time, mostly because of what SF gave up for him and how ready they were to win now.

They could have just traded for stafford and probably won a superblow.

 

[Discus fish salesman]

His entire tenure in SF has been strange. He's technically only played in 8 games for his career with a total of 102 passes. Now in training camp, much to the frustration of the many SF fans I follow on twitter, he's splitting more reps with Brandon Allen than Darnold. I know Purdy is their guy but I'm surprised they aren't trying to give him every opportunity in the world to win the backup job at least given the draft cost to acquire him. Will be fascinated to see what SF does with him and if they do trade him, what they're able to get back for him.

It'll be the worst transaction ever when they traded 3 1sts for him and end up getting like a 5th or 6th back. Or maybe a conditional late round pick swap.

 

[msadows]

It'll be the worst transaction ever when they traded 3 1sts for him and end up getting like a 5th or 6th back. Or maybe a conditional late round pick swap.

Lets not forge they also drafted a bust when the bears traded up with them.

Could have had watson...or mahomes.

But decided to bank on a collection of bottom tier QB's. I used to think shanny was some passing game guru, which he may be, but the guy has no clue what a good QB looks like.

 

[sevvy]

I think it's officially time for Trey Lance to get a change of scenery. He's also very close to being a "forever backup".

 

[Bearly]

Guy legit showed nothing to make me want him as a backup even.

This is going to go down as one of the biggest draft blunders of all time, mostly because of what SF gave up for him and how ready they were to win now.

They could have just traded for stafford and probably won a superblow.

I think he's worth a look. It's not like I would have any expectations. I agree with all most are saying here and also didn't understand the high draft status. It's the same reason Richardson went 4 except that Fields and Jones were still on the board which makes it that much worse. I mean, Jones is a better Purdy and fits that O. Fields had even more potential and much less down side. Baffling choice.

 

[bears26]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1685304847581491201

 

[bears26]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1685304054224756737