10 thoughts after the Chicago Bears, playing many offensive starters for the entire first half, rolled to a 27-3 preseason victory against the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday afternoon at Soldier Field.
1. Credit Matt Eberflus for going off script a little when it came to playing time for rookie quarterback Caleb Williams and some key members of the offense. General manager Ryan Poles did on the Fox-32 broadcast.
Bears starters were going against backups — the Bengals had 34 players who did not participate — and the offense struggled from the first snap. Williams and the Bears went three-and-punt on the first three possessions into the second quarter. Imagine what sports-talk radio would have been like this week had Eberflus called it a day for the starters after three possessions, a total of 16 yards, no first downs and a 2-for-6 day passing for Williams with an intentional-grounding penalty mixed in.
Eberflus ran the starters back out for a fourth series, and rookie wide receiver Rome Odunze zipped around the left side for 16 yards on an end-around. On the next play Williams, off a play fake, fired deep for speedy wide receiver Tyler Scott, drawing a 43-yard pass-interference penalty on rookie cornerback Josh Newton, a fifth-round pick. It came a series after Newton had made a nice play breaking up a well-placed slant throw for DJ Moore on third-and-2 to force the third punt from Tory Taylor.
Scott very well would have hauled in the pass had Newton not pulled him down. If the ball was more toward his inside shoulder, he probably could have caught the pass running away from the cornerback and scored.
“I was a little hurt because I really wanted that (completion), to be honest with you,” Williams said. “Tyler Scott ran a great route. The corner tried to overplay, he ended up sitting flat-footed. Tyler ran right by him, ran a great route. The safety came down on the deep over. Then the backside corner tried to invert and get over the top of that. We teach it to stay up and don’t cross the hash and things like. Tyler did that. We got the PI and we went all the way down there and ended up scoring.”
But Williams was sacked for a 6-yard loss on the next play and then completed two short passes, forcing Cairo Santos to come on for a 37-yard field goal that gave the Bears a 3-0 lead. Still, the offense had generated the 16-yard Odunze run and long penalty as its only two big gains, and Eberflus decided to stick with Williams and the starting offensive line and he mixed in some skill talent for a fifth possession that began with 4:52 remaining in the half.
“I think it’s important to allow a young quarterback in the offense that he is learning, the new system, to work through some of those things,” Poles said on the broadcast. “A little choppy in the beginning, but they worked through it and we got some positive plays toward the end of the first half.”
In the final series, Williams hit Nsimba Webster for an 11-yard gain, and Khalil Herbert showed off the ability to change direction and rumbled for 21 yards on a cutback. Maybe that wouldn’t have happened against Bengals starters on defense, but he saw daylight to the back side and capitalized.
Then Williams, rolling to his left, lofted a perfect pass down the sideline for Odunze and a 45-yard gain that moved the offense to the Bengals 7-yard line. A couple of things were on full display. First, there’s clearly some early communication brewing between the rookies in the scramble drill. Second and more obvious was that Williams has natural gifts at the position.
“It’s something that I’ve worked on in practice,” Williams said. “Watching Aaron Rodgers — I know he was a Green Bay guy, sorry guys — but watching Aaron Rodgers and all his times these past 19, 20 years, he can do unbelievable things, right, left, running straight, running left, all these other things. Just practicing it, over time perfecting it.
“Obviously, there’s going to be times where I don’t put it exactly where I want to. Today worked out. Rome ran a great route. Or Rome had a good exit plan from his route and got upfield and made a marvelous catch, a wonderful catch, and I tried to just give him a shot.”
There simply are not a lot of quarterbacks who can make that play. Rodgers. A younger Matthew Stafford. Obviously Patrick Mahomes has that kind of ability. Josh Allen can make a play like that but maybe doesn’t have as much accuracy. A lot of guys have the arm strength to do it, but to move, throw against your body and have the combination of velocity and touch down the field — few quarterbacks can do it.
Williams was on the money again on the next play, another play fake, when he rolled right and had to avoid rookie defensive end Justin Blazek, a Neuqua Valley product who is an undrafted rookie from Wisconsin-Whitewater. Williams, backed all the way to the 21-yard line, did a stop-and-start before getting the corner, racing to the 14 and unleashing a laser to Odunze that would have been a touchdown had the receiver not stepped out of the back of the end zone first, perhaps confused because the end line is usually 2 full yards of solid white — not just a stripe as it was Saturday.
“If I’m being honest, (the back line that was out of bounds) was in my periphery,” Odunze said. “I was like, ‘OK, I’ve seen the back line and figured I was in by a comfy margin.’ That’s something that you can’t have out there. You have to be aware of the double lines and stuff like that. It got me a little bit. Now I’ve learned.”
Still, it was a great play and evidence Williams and Odunze had sorted out the miscommunication they had on a corner-of-the-end-zone throw at Buffalo the previous week.
Two plays later, Williams easily scored on a 7-yard run with left guard Teven Jenkins as a bodyguard and no Bengals defenders in sight.
“I looked over and there was two wide receivers and two corners and me and Caleb,” Jenkins said. “I’m like, ‘Why the hell don’t we just take off?’ ”
While Williams’ decision to pull it down and run was a little delayed, he scored with ease.
“It’s a little tough because I like to pass the ball, even in scramble mode, things like that, I tend to lean a lot more towards throwing the ball,” Williams said. “Throwing the ball for completion, right in front of me, however it may work, something crazy or just throwing it to the end zone.
“They’ve been coaching me about attacking the line of scrimmage … on my scrambles, on the rollouts, the keepers. So I’ve been trying to get a little bit better with balancing that and taking what they give me, taking what the defense gives me, whether it’s a run for yardage or quick pass in front of me. It’s always a constant battle to do things like that. You just continue to get better at those situations.”
In the end, Williams led two scoring drives for 10 points in five series and was able to call it a day after making some strong plays in a 22-play outing.
“That was the range that we had,” Eberflus said. “We don’t go into it and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to play a quarter or quarter and a half.’ That doesn’t work. How you do it is you say, ‘Hey, we’re going to have a range of series and a range of plays,’ and then that’s how you see the ebb and flow of the game and guys are able to play until we say, ‘OK, that’s good,’ as a group. I ultimately make the decision.”
However the Bears arrived at the decision to keep Williams on the field for the entirety of the first half two days after getting solid work against Bengals starters in a joint practice at Halas Hall — and whatever that range of plays looked like — the important thing is the team left the stadium after seeing plenty of what makes the quarterback unique and what all of the optimism for the offense is based on.
Williams has second-reaction skills that can turn potentially broken plays into major gains and a cast of skill-position players who can facilitate that.
“Justin (Fields) would make some of those spectacular plays, and we’re all familiar with seeing Justin take off and use his legs,” cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. “To that point, Caleb uses it to throw on the run. I feel like he has a very unique arm on the run. It’s something exciting to see. Of course, we’ve seen it in practice. We’ll see how he continues to do what he does on Sundays when it really counts.”
2. How do you process everything you saw from Caleb Williams and his stat line — 6-of-13 passing for 75 yards with the one sack, the intentional grounding and the big pass-interference call — when it came against players who will be battling for a reserve role on the Bengals?
That question needs to be tackled because it’s not good versus good, as Matt Eberflus calls it in practice when the Bears starting offense goes against the starting defense in training camp.
The first thing that comes to mind: Williams is a rookie. If this were a young quarterback going into, say, his third year — remember the hype for Mitch Trubisky at that stage of his career in 2019 or Justin Fields in the same spot at this time last summer? — the enthusiasm would be a little more muted after watching three three-and-punts against some players who are less than two weeks from hitting the waiver wire. Williams was doing it against a better defense than he typically saw when he played at USC.
The Bears had some reserves in on that final drive too. Running back D’Andre Swift didn’t play — a healthy scratch — and receivers DJ Moore and Keenan Allen were out after three possessions.
Williams had to move because of pressure and proved more than capable of it. We can expect that against any defense. What we saw was his ability to create on the move, which is what makes him an exciting prospect whether he’s playing against Bengals backups or Tennessee Titans starters on Sept. 8 at Soldier Field.
“He had a nice professional day at quarterback,” Eberflus said. “It’s not always going to be rosy. You aren’t going to make all your completions and make these big chunk plays to start out. I saw operation that was good before the snap, in and out of the huddle. Really good communicating. Cadence was good. I thought his flow of the game was really nice. I thought his disposition, when he had a little adversity on the sideline, was excellent. Him working with the players, body demeanor never changed. He was always there working through the next one.”
Ultimately, preseason reps are worth more than practice snaps because they are the closest thing to real game action. So the Bears have a few more of those in the bank for Williams and other starters settling in to offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s system, and they get back to work after film review.
3. The Bears were in play for Matthew Judon this week before the New England Patriots traded the veteran edge rusher to the Atlanta Falcons for a third-round draft pick Thursday.
It will be really interesting to see what shakes out for the 32-year old and the Falcons as Judon is entering the final year of his contract, scheduled to make a base salary of $6.5 million with another $1 million attainable in per-game roster bonuses.
As I understand it, the Bears were in on Judon if he was willing to play on that contract for this season. When it became murky as to whether Judon would need a contract extension to play this season — the Falcons haven’t signed him to a new deal yet — the Bears were out.
Would the Bears have considered Judon on some type of modest contract retooling? I don’t know, and everyone’s definition of modest is different. If Judon is willing to bet on himself to some degree this season — he had four sacks in four games last year before suffering a season-ending biceps injury — he’s probably not looking to do anything overly team-friendly. The Patriots reportedly tried to sign Judon to an extension over the summer, but the math didn’t add up for the player.
The Bears don’t want to sink more big money into a defensive end, not one who is 4 years older than Montez Sweat. But this is evidence Ryan Poles always is going to seek upgrades and isn’t shy about turning future draft pick(s) into established, proven performers.
If Judon, who had 28 sacks in 2021 and 2022 combined, winds up playing out his contract for the current amount, it’s a win for the Falcons. Most figured they would target a pass rusher in the draft, and they shocked everyone by drafting Washington quarterback Michael Penix at No. 8 after signing Kirk Cousins in free agency. The Falcons have not had a player reach double-digits in sacks since Vic Beasley in 2016 and are without their top two pass rushers from a year ago — tackle Calais Campbell and edge Bud DuPree.
Coincidentally, the Falcons were after Sweat at the trade deadline in October, and Sweat was hoping to go to the Falcons because he’s from Georgia. Coincidentally, Sweat and Judon share the same agent, Damarius Bilbo, who also represents defensive tackle Gervon Dexter. The Bears have done plenty of business with Bilbo but they couldn’t make this one work.
“No communication,” Sweat said when I asked him if he had chatted with Bilbo or Judon about the possibility. “That’s them.”
The Bears couldn’t trade for Judon and have uncertainty about the financial side of things — the mess the New York Jets have right now with pass rusher Haason Reddick is a prime example of why. The Jets traded with the Philadelphia Eagles for the disgruntled Reddick in the offseason. They have not worked out a new contract for him, and Reddick hasn’t shown up for training camp.
The natural question that follows: OK, what’s next for Poles?
I don’t see a Plan B on the trade market right now. I’ve said for some time there isn’t a clear fix available in free agency. For the same reason the Bears didn’t wind up with Judon, they’re not going to be engaged with Reddick. Whatever Reddick has in mind for a new contract — and he’s due a base salary of $14.25 million in the final year of his deal — will not fit in the team’s structure.
The Bears are going to have to roll with what they have after considering all options.
“I guess it would have been cool,” Sweat said. “But we’ve got everything we need in the building. But anything else would have been great.”
The Bears liked the idea of getting another edge rusher because they can slide DeMarcus Walker inside in pass-rushing situations where he’s more effective because he isn’t an explosive player coming off the edge. They like the development of fifth-round pick Austin Booker but realize he’s going to take some time. They think Dominique Robinson has been better now that he’s bulked up a little. They have another possibility in Daniel Hardy — more on him in a bit — and the hope is Jacob Martin is back from a toe injury sooner rather than later.
When the 53-man roster is formed, look for the Bears to possibly go a little heavier at defensive end, and know Poles is always going to be on the lookout.
4. Going into his third season at the helm, Matt Eberflus has been more candid when talking about Nate Davis and the recent time the right guard missed than he has about any other player dealing with injuries.
One thing will resonate more than anything Eberflus has said — more than him announcing that a player can lose his starting spot because of injury — was when he said Thursday: “Everybody’s going to play.”
That’s the likely reality for the Bears as they move closer to the start of the season, now three weeks away. Davis started Saturday’s game against the Bengals and was in for 22 snaps as the starting line stayed in for all of Caleb Williams’ action. Coleman Shelton started at center and Ryan Bates was sidelined for the second consecutive game with a shoulder issue the team hopes doesn’t linger much longer.
The Bears have three candidates for two starting spots. Bates can play center and right guard. Shelton can play center. Davis can play right guard. To make the best decision, the team needs more time with all three players healthy so it can get more apples-to-apples comparisons. Injuries to Davis, who missed most of the first three weeks of camp with a groin issue, and Bates are a reminder of what the team could be forced to juggle in the regular season.
The Bears used nine starting combinations on the offensive line last season, and that came on the heels of nine lineups on the line in 2022. That’s 18 starting combinations and hardly a recipe for success for protecting a quarterback and creating a consistent ground attack.
The goal to start this season has to be to create a clear picture up front for rookie Caleb Williams. The Bears want to pick five starters — the best combination they can have for the opener against the Tennessee Titans on Sept. 8. Then they’ll hope the unit can grow together with young pieces in place: right tackle Darnell Wright, the 2023 first-round pick; left guard Teven Jenkins, entering a contract year; and left tackle Braxton Jones, who is starting a critical third season.
Offensive line coach Chris Morgan has proved to be adept at putting together a makeshift line, but the Bears want to get out of the cycle of constant change and turnover. At least Eberflus is being realistic when he looks at the situation.
“We’re going to need everybody,” he said. “Those guys that I just said are going to play and be part of our line and we’re fortunate to be able to have that flexibility and that position flex and those guys being able to move in there that have starter reps in the NFL. I think it’s a good position to be in.”
When Davis and Bates are healthy, the Bears have more depth than they did the last two years. They have better flexibility with Bates and Matt Pryor as an option. Pryor has 24 career starts over the last five seasons and projects as the swing tackle with the ability to move inside to guard as well.
Considering Davis has not played a full season since 2020, when he made 16 starts for the Titans, and Jenkins has missed 20 of 51 games over the past three seasons, the Bears know they need to have flexibility. If Davis and Jenkins can combine to be available for roughly 30 starts, the Bears should be in pretty good shape. If the number is below 25, then you’re talking about extended time going to Plan B, Plan C or beyond.
I don’t know how it’s going to shake out in the next three weeks before things get real. A healthy Bates is probably a starter because the Bears obviously like him. They tried to sign him from the Bills as a restricted free agent in 2022 and then traded for him this offseason. Davis has an $8.75 million base salary this season, of which $7 million is fully guaranteed. But Eberflus has been candid in saying Davis is competing for a starting spot, which is a plot twist from the opening of training camp when he was entrenched as the starter at right guard and Bates and Shelton were in a competition at center — splitting reps with the starters each day.
It’s now a three-man battle for two spots, and the Bears can hope when they make a decision that all of the possibilities are healthy and the starting five they select can hang in there. Otherwise, they’ll go to Plan B, and over the last two seasons they’ve had to go to Plan I — to a ninth starting combination. They desperately need to avoid musical chairs.
5. The Bears look like they’re going to be pretty good — and young — in the secondary.
Not to be lost in focusing on the starters is the development of Terell Smith as a player defensive coordinator Eric Washington can count on if something happens to Jaylon Johnson or Tyrique Stevenson on the outside.
Smith, a fifth-round pick out of Minnesota last year, has had a strong training camp and maximized opportunities in practice with Stevenson recently missing a little more than a week. Smith is playing with more confidence, and it showed in the game Saturday when he intercepted Bengals quarterback Logan Woodside’s sideline effort for Cole Burgess.
The Bears were in a “clue third” defense, meaning they had a zone pressure with Cover-3 behind it.
“I saw the receiver’s split and he had a cut split, so I was assuming it would be something quick or out-breaking,” Smith said. “Hitch. Dig. Something like that. So that’s what I played.”
Smith jumped the route with his knowledge of the down and distance — it was third-and-9 — and where Burgess was. It paid off.
Smith missed five games in the middle of his rookie season with mononucleosis. He made four starts and finished with 49 tackles, six pass breakups and one forced fumble and recovery in a victory at Washington. He had the normal ups and downs you would expect for a rookie out on an island, especially a Day 3 pick, but he competed and was active in run defense, and the Bears felt he had the possibility to develop into a solid depth piece in Year 2.
“I feel like I have been having a really good camp,” Smith said. “Definitely more consistent and the overall game has slowed down so much compared to last year. Everything feels slower, so I am more comfortable in the defense and … able to make a lot more plays.”
Some plays still don’t go his way. In practice Wednesday, for instance, Rome Odunze toasted him with a double move for a touchdown. Those teaching moments are valuable.
“Crazy double move,” Smith said. “I just have to play the situation better. It was two-minute. They needed a field goal to tie it and they were already in field-goal range. I don’t have to play it that aggressively. I could have just stayed over the top. Playing the situation better next time.”
6. Maybe the most impressive undrafted rookie in training camp has been linebacker Carl Jones Jr.
Jones played defensive end at UCLA and was assigned to spy Caleb Williams almost exclusively in the Bruins’ 38-20 victory against USC last fall when he had a game-high six solo tackles.
It’s an interesting transition for Jones, who wanted to switch to linebacker in school but was sort of pigeonholed into being an undersized edge rusher. The Bears list him at 6-foot-2, 230 pounds.
Jones entered UCLA as a safety and was switched to linebacker as a true freshman. He was used as an outside linebacker, primarily rushing the passer as a sophomore.
“Junior year I asked to go back and Chip Kelly was like, ‘Nah, we like you here,’ ” Jones said. “The next year, I asked him again, ‘No, we like you here.’ So I just stuck it out.”
Jones considered transferring after his junior year to join a program and move to linebacker but wanted to earn his degree from the school, eventually getting one in African-American Studies with a minor in film and acting.
Catching the attention of NFL teams as a player who did not profile as an edge rusher wasn’t easy, and it took a little imagination for the Bears. Jones wasn’t invited to the scouting combine or any postseason all-star games. He ran a 4.49-second, 40-yard dash at the UCLA pro day, which caught the attention of the Bears, who gave him a $20,000 signing bonus and guaranteed $120,000, an indicator they saw him as a good shot to make the practice squad.
“With my journey I knew going into the draft process that me switching positions was going to be tough, so I needed to run a fast 40 and have a good pro day and then hopefully get a good opportunity and make the most of it,” he said. “That’s all I am doing.”
Now, Jones is in the thick of a battle to crack the 53-man roster. He had a game-high seven tackles against Houston with an assist on special teams and three stops at Buffalo. Against the Bengals, Jones had four tackles on defense to go with one solo and one assist on special teams.
“Lot of speed,” defensive coordinator Eric Washington said. “He flashes because he’s so explosive. He can go from 0 to 60 in a hurry. Really like him. He shows up. Hope we can keep him around.”
Jones’ best chance for a roster spot is proving to be versatile on special teams. He played all four phases at UCLA, so it’s not like some frontline college players who enter the NFL with limited experience covering kicks and in the return game.
“He’s flying around making plays on defense and special teams,” special teams coordinator Richard Hightower said. “Really good job by our personnel department (to sign him), and he’s fighting his tail off doing everything he can do. Love the kid’s attitude and love the way he’s working. He’s doing well. He’s got an uphill battle but he’s doing well.”
7. Running back Ian Wheeler’s story was shared on “Hard Knocks” on Tuesday after his two-touchdown game at Buffalo.
During the second episode of the five-week series, the undrafted rookie from Howard revealed that he deferred admission to medical school to make a run at an NFL career. But Wheeler might be one of the few players in the building who isn’t tuning in to the program on HBO.
“I am going to wait until the end because I want to wait until everything is said and done here to watch the whole show,” he said. “I know I am an overthinker. I don’t know if they go up into the scouting department (with cameras) and say anything I don’t need to hear. There is a reason why I am not in those rooms. I don’t need to hear it.”
Wheeler, who carried two times for 4 yards and caught two passes for 14 yards against the Bengals, faces an uphill battle to make the roster, but if he shows some promise, he might stick around on the practice squad. That could be a foot in the door in pursuit of a football career while he puts off an entry into the medical field with the goal of becoming a psychiatrist. The practice-squad salary for players with less than two years of experience in the NFL is $12,500 per week or $225,000 over an 18-week season.
Wheeler’s appeal is simple — speed. His 40-yard-dash time of 4.39 seconds is elite, and the more he can showcase that, the more intrigue he’ll provide. The question is whether the game will slow down enough for him as he adjusts to the big jump coming from Howard, where he landed in 2019 after drawing interest from mostly Division III schools.
Wheeler grew up in Houston and attended a private high school in the football-rich state where public school action is king. That partially explains why he fell through the recruiting cracks, but a visit to Trinity University, a D-III school in San Antonio, put him on a path to bigger competition.
“The head coach I had a real talk with him and I said, ‘Where do you think I should be playing?’ ” Wheeler said. “He said, ‘I think you should be playing D-1.’ I said, ‘Respectfully, I am just going to bet on myself.’”
Wheeler walked on at Howard and earned a scholarship after his sophomore season when he led the team in touchdowns. He was interested in psychology and then decided to go a step beyond and pursue psychiatry. He has deferred acceptance to McGovern Medical School in Houston, which is part of the UT system.
“Mental health is something I am real interested in,” Wheeler said. “Being able to relate how the mind affects the rest of the body. I think it just goes back to, in general, you see people do things and you’re like, ‘Why did they do that?’ Everyone’s mind works differently.
“Why do certain stimuli give you certain behaviors? If I talk about the color yellow a couple different times, you’re going to choose that the next time you do something. Things like that are really interesting to me. Everything starts up here (pointing to his head) whether we want to realize it. Very few things are just our body working. When you realize how powerful this machine is, it’s one of the most complex things on the planet. It’s incredible.”
Getting into the playbook was complex at first, but Wheeler showed well in the spring. His start to camp was slowed when he missed about a week with a hamstring strain.
“At the beginning of camp, before the vets got here, I was kind of in my own way,” he said. “Overthinking things. Once the vets got here, I was fine. I got in my playbook and, you know, stuff happens. Getting hurt sucks. You are limited on your reps and you are limited on your mental reps because you are doing rehab during practice. But I trusted the process, still played really close attention in meetings, still watched a whole lot of film and still trying to make sure when I was out there I could do what I could do and I knew exactly what to do when I had the opportunity.”
As far as his future on the field, Wheeler needs to flash with what made him stand out originally — his speed.
“I’ve made the most of my opportunities so far,” he said. “Staying consistent. Being a constant learner and then keep showcasing the talents I do have.”
8. If not for the emergence of rookie fifth-round pick Austin Booker in training camp, there would probably be a little more buzz about Daniel Hardy.
A defensive end who spent last season on the practice squad, Hardy had 2½ sacks last week at Buffalo and a tackle for loss against Houston. Against the Bengals, he had another sack, two quarterback hits, three tackles and a stop on special teams. He also was called for holding on the game’s opening kickoff return.
He’s probably a bubble guy right now after Montez Sweat, DeMarcus Walker, Booker, Dominique Robinson and maybe even Jacob Martin. But the fact the Bears had him on starting special teams units was evidence they wanted to see how he would handle the roles.
Now he has a short week of practice, Thursday’s preseason finale at Kansas City and three practices on the back end of that game before the team must reduce the roster on Aug. 27.
“A little bit,” Hardy said when I asked him if he considers how the roster will shake out. “It’s always in the back of your mind, but it can kind of slow you down. Really, you’ve got to show up and put your best foot forward in everything you do. You just have to go out there and play. I try not to think about it. It’s good competition. We have a ton of talent in our room, but everyone gets better because of it. You’re competing against the guy next to you but everybody has the right mindset. No matter what happens, everyone is going to end up in a good spot.”
Hardy knows he’s performing for the Bears — and the 31 other teams — and what he puts on tape is his resume. He says he’s in the best position he has been in entering his third year in the league. He suffered an ankle injury during the preseason opener with the Los Angeles Rams, who drafted him in the seventh round out of Montana State in 2022. That led to surgery, sidelining him for 10 weeks and leading him into an offseason in which his focus was solely on getting his body right.
He took a different approach after last season and signed a reserve/futures contract to remain with the Bears.
“I took time off,” he said. “Nothing crazy. I was still lifting. But I let my mind rest more than anything and then slowly just built that progression (to camp). And then once it got started, not letting myself get out of shape.
“Coach Eberflus talks about the connection between mind, body and spirit, just making sure you are hitting all three of those things. I got my mind and spirit right.”
The Bears are searching for the right pieces and looking for upside. Hardy hasn’t produced against starters, but 3½ sacks at this point in the preseason makes him worthy of consideration.
“He has a chance,” defensive coordinator Eric Washington said. “His angles are good. His conditioning is excellent. He needs to continue to work on using his hands and he can change directions. One-on-one, he’s really good at changing directions.”
9. Strong safety Jaquan Brisker and linebacker Noah Sewell each went through workouts under the supervision of the training staff about three hours before the game.
That could signal each player is nearing a return to practice. Sewell and Brisker have missed the majority of training camp.
Brisker missed a good chunk of training camp last summer, and he’s playing next to a new partner in the secondary this season in Kevin Byard.
“I know he’s close but he’s in meetings every day,” Byard said when I asked him if they needed more work on the field to make sure communication details don’t lead to occasional breakdowns. “We’re still talking to him on the back end. He’s been in this defense longer than me. So honestly, there are still some things that he’s helping me out with.
“But … you do need time together to get back out there, get the communication and everything going. But when one guy is not in there, it’s another opportunity for another guy, and Elijah Hicks has been playing his behind off. I really like him.”
10. Six days after Metallica held the second of two shows at Soldier Field, the Bears played on the surface, and it was clear specific areas had been repaired.
General manager Ryan Poles and assistant general manager Ian Cunningham spent time inspecting the field pregame, which is a little out of the ordinary for their pregame routine. One team official acknowledged that while the field wasn’t in great condition, it was better than it looked from the press box perch, where you could see lines from some of the new grass that had been put down.
The playing surface — which not many years ago was routinely panned by players, opposing teams and pretty much everyone else — has been in terrific shape the last two seasons. It sounds as if the Bears expect it to be much improved in three weeks when they return for the start of the regular season.
“Our guys do a great job putting the turf down,” Matt Eberflus said. “This time, it was put down a little later because of the concerts and everything like that. It hadn’t been down that long. In terms of its safety and its play and what it was on the field, it was fine. It was good, because the NFL, obviously, tests that. It was up to their standards. Once it ends up being in there for a couple of weeks before the first game it will look beautiful.”
10a. If there was any doubt about the Bears’ plan for the backup quarterback, that has been erased. You can use ink to put Tyson Bagent’s name on your depth chart — the coaching decisions in terms of playing time in the last two games solidified that. Bagent was smooth against the Bengals, completing 7 of 8 passes for 87 yards and two touchdowns. He’s going to back up Caleb Williams, and it stands to reason the Bears aim to sign Brett Rypien to the practice squad.
“I don’t think I ever wasn’t (the No. 2),” Bagent said. “(Rypien) did go throw three touchdown passes in the Hall of Fame game. Trying not to think about that and doing a good job of taking it one day at a time. Everything has been great.”
10b. It sure looks like Dante Pettis has a good shot of making the 53-man roster. It wasn’t just the two touchdowns he caught against the Bengals. It’s how he has been used in practice. Collin Johnson has been out injured since the preseason opener. Maybe DeAndre Carter will get back on the field and push Pettis for the job, but Pettis offers a sure-handed option as a punt returner and might be the fifth receiver. He certainly helped himself Saturday.
10c. One of the next questions for Matt Eberflus: Will quarterback Caleb Williams play Thursday night at Kansas City on a short week? He has been on the field for 42 snaps in preseason, and the range Eberflus mentioned entering training camp was a little above that. It wouldn’t surprise me either way, and the most significant factor might be how comfortable the coach is rolling out the starting offensive line on a short week.
“We’ll look at the tape, we’ll talk as a group,” Eberflus said. “The players are off (Sunday), so we have the whole day to be able to digest this performance from every level, including the quarterback. Then we’ll just look at each other and say, ‘Yeah, this is good,’ or we’ll have to flow into the next one. We’ll see where that is.”
10d. Rookie punter Tory Taylor had three kicks averaging 50 yards with a net of 47.7. That’s a fine debut at the stadium he’s going to call home for some time.
10e. Teams must reduce rosters to 53 players by 3 p.m. Aug. 27.
10f. Scouts from the Bills, Chiefs, Patriots, Ravens and Steelers were at the game.
