Remembering Sweetness, Here Comes OL Help, Alternates, PUP List Watch, and Other Bears Bullets

Bears players report to training camp TOMORROW. With that in mind, I was planning on treating myself to a nice, relaxing day before things ramp up. We’ll see how that goes. But also, always remember to treat yourself. It’s a long summer, and you deserve nice things.

  • Huzzah! ICYMI: The Bears are bringing in some offensive line help just in time for training camp to get going. Veteran lineman Michael Schofield is reportedly signing with the team, just one day after reports surfaced of a workout visit over the weekend. Schofield, 31, has starting experience at right guard and right tackle — which happen to be positions the Bears have openings at as training camp gets going. I’d guess the Bears would like to pencil him in at right guard, which would ideally fortify the interior offensive line trio. Tackles would still be up in the air, but perhaps there is value in having a strong interior trio with experience to counter the inexperience of the bookends outside.
  • Today would’ve been Walter Payton’s 68th birthday. So maybe it’s fitting that the Chicago Bears kickoff festivities for training camp THIS WEEK. But first, a trip down memory lane:
  • I could watch those clips for days on end. The nimble feet. Legs that never stopped churning. Stiff arms from both sides. Payton ran with ferocity, but did it so with a particular gracefulness. I’m not one to compare players from one era to another, as they are often unfair comps. HOWEVER, I believe Sweetness is one of the handful of players who could play in any era and against any competition. Full stop.
  • While we’re waiting for Jaquan Brisker to be the final Bears rookie draft pick to sign on the dotted line, NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport reports the Panthers and third-round pick QB Matt Corral ironed out a deal. The heir apparent to the winner of the Sam Darnold-Baker Mayfield competition will be ready for the start of camp. Why are we waiting for Brisker? There is a reported standstill in negotiations due to the amount of guarantees he’ll get in late years of that rookie contract. NFL Network reporter Tom Pelissero lays it out the trend that is causing a slowdown in some spots around the league:
  • The way I see it: If Brisker projects to be a major piece of your defense — and I sure as heck hope you’d feel that way if you’re taking that player with a top-50 pick — then squabbling over what might be $50K-$100K on a rookie deal contract shouldn’t be an issue. This team is playing north of $50 million in dead cap charges to players who aren’t even here any more. So what’s $100,000 in guarantees for a player your team chose thinking he’ll play a large role in this defense. 
  • It is just a gut feeling, so take it for what it’s worth, but I think the Brisker deal gets done in a timely manner. Maybe this replicates the path Roquan Smith took to get his rookie deal done. That wouldn’t be ideal, but it would be better than the alternative of a holdout lingering into the regular season. So long as Brisker can play in at least one preseason game to get a lather going, I’ll feel better about things in the long term.
  • I sure hope Brisker signs in time to rock the orange helmets for both games they’ll be used in this season. The Bears are one of more than a dozen teams rolling out alternate helmets. I’m not gonna front, some of these are kinda neat:
  • The Bears’ orange helmets were really the talk of football for a healthy chunk of Sunday afternoon. Folks at NBC Sports Chicago, Pro Football Talk, 670 The Score, and the Sun-Times were weighing in on the addition.
  • Some of you like the Bears orange alternate helmets. Others don’t. And what’s really funny is that, once we see them in game action, there will be some who liked it at first, but don’t like how it looks on TV or at the stadium. Then, there will be others who didn’t like it at first, but eventually come around to it. That’s the nature of fashion, though.
  • We’ll be watching Kyler Gordon’s career with great interest:
  • The deities responsible for controlling the weather appear to be blessing us for the start of training camp:
  • I’ll see you folks there on Thursday and Friday. Keep your eyes peeled for a guy in an orange hat who is likely weaving in Simpsons references into analysis of Justin Fields’ new throwing motion.
  • You already knew what my answer to this was going to be:
  • Cody Benjamin and Tyler Sullivan (CBS Sports) put together a useful list of players who will start the summer on their respective team’s PUP list. Among the most notable players is Packers Pro Bowl left tackle David Bakhtiari. Green Bay signed Bakhtiari to an extension worth as much as $105.5 million in November 2020, but an injury in practice on Dec. 31, 2020 ended his season early and limited him to just 27 snaps last season — all in the regular-season finale. Bakhtiari couldn’t give it a go in the Packers’ playoff loss to the Niners, so he was made inactive. Outside of Aaron Rodgers, Bakhtiari is arguably the Packers’ most important offensive piece. And while Green Bay does wonders in cobbling together above average offensive lines despite injuries, the Bakhtiari one could be significant. We’ll continue monitoring the situation.
  • Some MLB executives see the Cardinals as the front-runners to land Nationals star Juan Soto, and it makes me sick:
  • written by

    Luis C. Medina, who you can find on Twitter at lcm1986, has been covering the Chicago Bears at Bleacher Nation since 2017. Since then, he has written about 3 head coaches, 5 play-callers, and 11 starting quarterbacks. Previously, Luis wrote about the Cubs and MLB at BN (2015-16) and worked in the Chicago Tribune sports department (2011-16). He also co-hosted a Cubs postgame show, Outside the Ivy, in 2019.

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