Ben Johnson discusses joint practice with Dolphins | Chicago Bears

Ben Johnson discusses joint practice with Dolphins | Chicago Bears

All right, man. Feels like game day, doesn’t it? That’s how we’re trying to make it here for our players. So, we’re we’re jacked up. We’re ready to go. Um, we had a nice little walk through here this morning. I I can tell that they’re they’re wired in. And and like I said, we we have a lot of stock going into what this practice looks like here today. Um, in a lot of ways is I know it’s already come out that a few of these guys won’t be playing on Sunday. So, that they’re going to get the bulk bulk of the work here today. We’ll get a great workload and uh some new competition. And so talk to coach McDaniel. I know their team’s fired up and ready to go as well. And uh we’ll go ahead and open it up from there. Who are the few? Who are the few? Uh I don’t have that off the top of my head. Quarterback obviously. Quarterback. Quarterback will be one of them though. Yeah, I think we have about nine on nine on D. And we’ll see how today goes. Maybe that number will change. So we’ll make it through today and we’ll make those final decisions once we get there. Then how we handle the quarterback workload on Sunday? On Sunday, I believe Tyson’s going to start for us and then and hopefully take us through that first half. We’ll see how the snaps go, though. And then left tackle composition, what do you want to see from those guys in in game action in the Yeah, we’ll end up having Braxton, Azie, uh Theo, those guys will all kind of be cycling through uh throughout that game and they’ll get the workload of of really on both sides. Ben, with Karan’s injury, does that kind of put him a step back in the left tackle competition right now? Yeah, he’s missing some some quality reps there. Um, he was getting better, too. I mean, that’s the shame of it. He’s getting better. Uh, we’re very pleased with the trajectory of where he was headed and, uh, hopefully we’ll get him back here sooner rather than later and so he can he can get right back into that mix. Ben, you talked about the workload that you’re going to get today, how important it is. Why can’t you do both? Why can’t you get work done today and then also get work done on Sunday with a starters? Yeah, you you certainly could, but we have uh in place a plan for whether it’s pregame or after the game the next day where the guys that aren’t playing, they’re going to be getting a substantial number of of reps that’s actually higher than the guys that are playing. So, um we’ve talked about as a staff, we feel very good about this plan going forward and and that’s what we’re going to do. What do you mean? We’ll get we’ll get a good throwing session with Caleb and the pass catchers right right before the game. It’ll be. Yeah, I think it’s got to be before three hours before. Yeah. Can we go back to Tuesday that four minutes at the end of practice? Yeah. Know it didn’t go the way you wanted, but you had the penalty which is unacceptable and then you also have the incompletion which you don’t want in that situation. What were the coaching points for? I know penalty. What was the coaching point on the incompletion? Yeah, so uh there’ll be times that uh that we choose to throw the ball in a four-minute situation. the quarterback understands that we need the clock running at the end of the day and that if if push comes to shove, sacks are acceptable in that situation. So, good learning opportunity for us as a entire offense because there were a number of things that that really showed up there. I mean, it was our first time doing four minute. Um, that day on Sunday was our first time doing backed up and some things popped up there that really can’t happen as well. So, we’ll have to come back and hit those situational deals at least one more time here over the course of camp. I presume that is going to be upstairs. What is that communication going to be like with you or or is he not? Uh we’re still deciding who’s up and who’s down right now. Uh we’ve got a number of of good coaches really. Uh we’ll kind of hone through the the communication process. Usually I don’t like a lot of chatter on the lines and uh those guys I think they they already got that memo based on family fest the other day. You’re going to call you’re going to call plays on. Yeah. and the practice on Tuesday that physical nature we saw. Is it going to be similar today or what are the conversations like with you and Mike about what you guys want physicality wise? Yeah. Well, we are in pads. That was our sixth padded practice the other day. I think we only have five more left throughout uh training camp that we have scheduled right now. And so, um, to us as a coaching staff, what what that was, you know, you take the skirmishes out out of the play, that’s that’s really what we were going to be about. And so, it was good to see our guys bite like that. And, uh, we we expect to play physically on Sundays and so we should practice that way in pads. You like the way the guys responded to that? Like, you gave them the message in the morning and then when you watched the practice, did you like the way the guys kind of responded to that tone? Yeah. Yeah, I liked it. And I I think they enjoyed the practice as well. That new offensive line, are you comfortable with where they’re at right now, just through practice and today’s tough practice, or do you want to see some of that work happen in on Sunday? We’re we’re inconsistent as a whole on offense. Uh you can talk to any position group. Um we really need to start playing more as a cohesive unit. We just haven’t done that. Everyone’s kind of taking their turn of uh not so good. And I I talked about that the other day. When that happens, someone else has got to pick us up and get us out of that. And uh and we’re just not we’re frankly not there yet. And and that’s the beauty of training camp. I think there’s probably a lot of teams around this league that are dealing with some of the same growing pains. Um in that particular unit, I think they’re jelling. I think they’re coming together. Coach Roshar and Kyle Dean, I talk about it all the time. They’re doing a great job coaching those guys up. They’re very demanding. Um they understand the techniques with which we want to play. It’s just a matter of of using those all the time. Can you expect or plan Caleb and the guys not starting a preseason game Sunday to play at all at all in the preseason? I would suspect that we will have them play at some point. Yeah. But that’s to be determined. Is there any sentimental value for you being here when you got your start and kind of having a moment of reflection how far you’ve come? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, uh, there’s no there’s no doubt there’s a number of familiar faces, whether it’s, uh, people that were there when I when I was there. I think that was 2012 to 2018. Um, you know, training staff, equipment staff, uh, coaches. There’s still some coaches that are still there. And then there’s some coaches I was with in Detroit that are there now, too. So, uh, it’ll it’ll be pretty cool to see some of those faces. It’s when you look back at at this game at this level, I it always comes down to relationships and you know, we get into the competitive nature of wins and the losses and uh you know, you get fired and you you have to move on and all that, but uh really it’s the the people that you’re you’re around that make the job so enjoyable. With the left tackle competition, I would assume that you don’t want to go through the entire camp and preeason still not knowing who that is. is this week, this this practice today and Sunday’s game kind of very important in deciding that for you? Yeah, it’s it’s just another step along the way. Like I said, we’re not in a rush here to to make this decision. We’re going to go as long as we need to go to to feel like we’re making the the best possible decision for our best five to be out there. Um but yeah, there’s a lot of weight that goes into this practice. There’s a lot of weight that goes into Sunday’s game. There’s a lot of weight that goes into uh Buffalo next week. But uh I don’t want any of those guys looking ahead right now. It’s the only thing that’s important is is the here and now. Yesterday we saw Luther run a little motion I guess a little tentatively and and and Caleb kind of waves him through, passes him through. Is that a small indication to you that maybe the understanding and control of the offense is starting to come along for him? Yeah. No, it was it was good to see Caleb do that. Um that’s the expectation from the quarterbacks and and they’re getting a more familiar grasp of what we’re what we’re looking for and the intent of the play both in the passing game but also in the running game which I think that was a that was a run on that play. So um it’s good end of the day they need to be able to be the directors of each and every play and and they’re taking that ownership. Then did Caleb campaign to play at all? Did he did he make his case to you? Uh no I I don’t even think I’ve sat down and talked to him yet. I mean, the cat got out of the bag so early that I haven’t sat down and talked to uh any of the players that that we’re thinking of quite yet. I I told him last night that there’s a number of guys that won’t be playing in the game, but I didn’t specifically say who that was. Ben, you mentioned earlier that this these joint practices would be kind of a benchmark or an evaluation period that you could see where you were at so far in camp. What does that evaluation process now look like now that you’re here? Yeah, I think uh I think what we’re looking for today is to see the competitive nature come out of these guys. We had that physical practice the other day um to where guys were emotional. They they kind of I like to say towed that line and at times we went past that line and now that we’re against an opponent, we we can’t pass that line. So, we expect that intensity to still be there, but at the same time, we got to be smart and uh there better not be any fights today or or they know the consequences. So, um Kyler and Darnell, right? Darnell will be out there today and then uh Kyler is is to be determined still. Yep. Thank you.

Head coach Ben Johnson addresses the media Friday at Halas Hall.

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