Bears Training Camp Notes 8/10: Yannick’s Early Impact, QB2 Finds His Form, More

This was the last Halas Hall training camp practice for me this summer. I’ll be at the joint practices with the Colts outside Indianapolis next week. It’ll be a fun road trip, to be sure. And I’m also looking forward to linking up with some good people while I’m out there. But I digress, if only so I can share some thoughts from today.

Yannick Ngakoue is already making his mark

He hasn’t even been around for a full week’s worth of practices and Yannick Ngakoue is already leaving his mark on the Chicago Bears. While I was walking down from the bleachers at the end of practice, I caught Ngakoue and rookie defensive tackle Gervon Dexter Sr. working together. It was a pretty cool moment:

Maybe this is just the football nerd in me talking, but I love this stuff. Seeing a veteran work with a rookie after practice is the stuff I always try to keep tabs on at camp. It was one of my favorite things to do at Bourbonnais with the spread-out practice fields. Seeing which youngsters were hanging around to do some extra work and which vets are lending a helping hand helps add depth and layers to this team.

I hope Gervon Dexter Sr. was a sponge during this after-practice special session. Bears Head Coach Matt Eberflus and Defensive Coordinator Alan Williams have been pounding the table and underscoring the importance of the 3-technique defensive tackle in this specific defensive system. This isn’t a foreign concept to those of us who were watching the peak years of Lovie Smith’s defense with a line anchored by Tommie Harris. In other words, any tips Dexter can pick up from Ngakoue will be welcome with open arms. Dexter might not be at the top of the depth chart now, but my hope is that he is on the path to becoming a starter by year’s end.

P.J. Walker picked a good time for his best camp day

Sometimes, I’ll have a thought and share it — only to ultimately feel like I’m on an island. And when I made an observation about backup quarterback P.J. Walker looking his best today, there was a small part of me wondering if I was seeing things. But it turns out that I wasn’t, which comes as a sigh of relief:

Don’t get it twisted. P.J. Walker isn’t going to make or break the 2023 Bears’ season. But that doesn’t mean Walker’s role isn’t important. Ideally, Walker comes to Chicago and helps the Bears around the edges in a variety of ways.

This time of year, things such as helping build the bond between Justin Fields and D.J. Moore (Walker and Moore were teammates in Carolina) and aiding in the development of young reserves (players such as receiver Tyler Scott and running back Roschon Johnson could learn a thing or two by following veteran leadership) come to mind. And if push comes to shove, the Bears will need Walker to steward them through a game in case Fields isn’t available. Considering that Fields is at risk of missing time on any given play in which he pulls the ball down and runs, having a capable QB2 can be quite valuable.

All in all, it is good timing for Walker to have his best showing at camp. We figure to see a lot of him during Saturday’s preseason opener against the Titans. And he’ll go into that game with the arrow pointing up.

Extra points

Me: “I wish P.J. Walker would’ve picked a number other than 15 because I keep thinking it’s Trevor Siemian out there.

Greg Braggs Jr.: “You don’t see 15 and think Patrick Mahomes?”

Me: “I try not to think about Mahomes being on the Bears, but that’s going to come up in therapy on Tuesday.”