Turnover Kings, Breakup Princes, Fields’ Leadership, and Other Bears Bullets

I’m either on my way to Bears training camp at Halas Hall. If you read this post from Thursday, you probably have some familiarity with what camp is all about. If you’re making it out today (or any other time this summer), please make sure to enjoy yourself. And if you see me, don’t be afraid to say hello.

• I’m not expecting to see Teven Jenkins any time soon, which bums me out because I had high hopes for him this year with a new staff and scheme. His development was one of the storylines I was most looking forward to following this summer. But with an undisclosed injury putting him on the sidelines, it’s dèjá vu all over again (as Yogi Berra used to say). I wonder how much of a competitive disadvantage it would be to share some clarity regarding his injury situation? Not providing clarity last year didn’t help the Bears put forth a winning record. So … what’s the harm?

• Look … I can get it at some level. NHL teams are notorious for being evasive in sharing injury details because of a long-held belief that opponents would target those players’ injuries in a dirty manner in a game situation. I think those days of goonery are in the NFL’s past (for the most part). Gregg Williams’ Bountygate Saints probably aren’t walking through that door. So why not provide a small morsel of clarity?

• Didn’t the Bears learn anything from how the Matt Nagy Thanksgiving week scenario played out? Ignoring rumors instead of squashing them only makes your organization look bad. Whether they are true or not is irrelevant. The optics – which clearly don’t matter to the Bears’ upper management until it’s too late to save face – don’t look good. And while optics aren’t everything, the Bears aren’t in a spot to not care about how they are being perceived. Again, I’m not asking for state secrets. Just a little bit of transparency. I don’t think I’m asking for much.

• Circling back to close out the Jenkins discussion. It’s way too early to call Jenkins a bust. But given some hindsight, it is fair to point out how that trade-up, selection of Jenkins, and move from right to left tackle has backfired on the Bears. This isn’t to say that Jenkins can’t turn it around and change the narrative. However, that turnaround needs to happen in order for us to forget about how the Pace-Nagy era’s desperation in the 2021 NFL Draft was damaging to the 2022 Bears.

• Here’s a palate cleanser:

• Jaquan Brisker is someone worth following closely at camp. He has the attitude of the type of player who can be dropped into any competitive Bears team of recent lore and immediately fit in. I hope the takeaway king gets many jewels for his crown.

• If Brisker is the Takeaway King, Jaylon Johnson is the Pass Breakup Prince:

• Remember how good Johnson was as a rookie in knocking away passes? Johnson’s 15 pass breakups as a rookie were impressive. He had just nine lat year, but five came in the first two weeks before teams began to scale back at targeting him. If we could get a full year’s worth of Johnson’s flashes instead of a tapering down at the end of the year, we’ll be discussing the Bears secondary as a strength. What a welcome sight that would be after what we saw in 2021.

• On the other side of the ball, the arrow continues to point up for Justin Fields:

• If buying merchandise is a metric that suggests a leap of faith by sports fans, then we should point out the people are still supportive of Fields:

• You can’t make this up! The Jaguars are signing kicker Elliott Fry after cutting rookie Andrew Mevis, who misfired on three training camp warm-up kicks — including one that nailed Dave Campo (a former Cowboys Head Coach who now works for a sports radio station). (ESPN)

• The Brisker and Kyler Gordon picks were fine to me. Even still … it will sting if George Pickens becomes the type of WR1 that would help this offense thrive. That guy was all over our radar in the pre-draft process:

• I hope someone writes a screenplay to be adapted into a Garnder Minshew II biopic:

• Here’s hoping this Joe Musgrove extension is going through because Musgrove is taking a discount because he knows Juan Soto is coming by way of trade soon.

• The baseballers aren’t the only ones engaging in trade rumors:

• OUCH: