Kevin Byard III recaps Bears-Dolphins joint practice | Chicago Bears

Kevin Byard III recaps Bears-Dolphins joint practice | Chicago Bears

You feel like it was a uh pretty big day for the secondary out there? Absolutely. Um I feel like we just came out with the right intensity. Uh we kind of just talked about it last night in our meetings being able to go out there and set the tone. I mean I always believe that defense is obviously set, you know, everything’s set from the front. So obviously boys like Grady, Dex, uh TZ, Dio, they’re going to set the tone, but on the back end we want to be able to hold our own too. And um Brett came out there, got a couple big hits, he got a pick, kind of turned us all up. I was able to get a pick as well. So, uh, still a lot of things to clean up, but I think if we play like we practiced today, uh, we’re going to be pretty good. Was it Tyreek that deflected the ball that you picked off? No, it was actually, uh, Nan Wright. Um, and he’s been playing big time ball, you know, obviously in the absence of Jaylen. So, uh, got a lot of good depth at corner. So, um, yeah, like I said, man, we want to go out there and set the tone. Guys out there making plays, flying around. You were on the sideline when the Smitty was out there for most of the time today. Yeah. What did you see from him to today uh that that stood out? I mean, Smitty’s a ball player. He’s had a couple uh I mean, they tried to throw the ball a couple times. They threw a deep ball. He obviously covered it pretty well. He almost caught an interception um in the red zone, uh which is a good player. Like I said, Smidy’s a ball player. I know he’s been uh kind of want a depth piece, but Smitty is a starter in this league, you know, 100%. So, like I said, he’s always been playing big time ball ever since I’ve been here. So, he’s just waiting in the wings, waiting for his shot. And I know DA kind of talked about a competition. So, all them boys out there trying to compete and trying to get, you know, get reps and uh be able to either start or get value playing time. I know a lot of veterans are going to have Sunday off, but it’s going to be Ben Johnson’s first kind of game of any kind. What do you think you can learn about your coach just the way he takes you through pregame in-game stuff when he takes timeouts or when he goes no huddle or whatever it is? I mean, I don’t think it’s I mean, it’s not I don’t think it’s ne necessarily doesn’t really matter what I learned about him. I think just for him, um, obviously being his first time as a head coach going out there, um, I think a lot of times for a head coach, he’s I know he’s calling the plays and things like that, but also another responsibility of a head coach is being able to be great in situations, timeouts, and all these other situations. Not just things us being in the team meetings. Uh, he’s dialed in uh, with everything. So, uh, like I said, I think he’s going to do great, um, not only this game, but obviously throughout the entire year. So, um, we know last season had a lot of those situations. I think he’s going to be really good this year. Kimmy, what is it about Ben that that you guys respond to? Just his intensity, uh, attention to detail. Um, he’s a leader of men. Um, I know that’s always kind of been talked about just as a head coach, but, uh, I just really enjoy the energy that he sets every single day. Um, you know, I’ve been part of a new kind of leadership change, culture change, and, uh, it feels very similar, uh, with just doesn’t matter if you’re year one, undrafted, year 10, you got to come in and show every single day and and and show and prove, and, uh, you feel it, you know what I mean? So, like I said, as a veteran, I’ve been through it and it’s very similar to what it was when I was with Vable. So, and I don’t like to make the comparison as far as like just because we have every was going to have success, whatever it may be, but um just I understand what it’s like to have to reset a culture. Uh and I think he’s doing a great job. J particularly physical. I don’t know what appears to have or weren’t. But y’all like it’s a added emphasis on y’all to be more physical coming across the middle considering the corners play so much man in this defense and they got to deal with those drag routes. Yeah, 100%. I mean, we know with as much man that we play, we’re going to get overs and and digs. Well, especially today, I mean, that’s kind of Miami’s o MO. Uh, a lot of motions. Uh, guys going to move in every single play, but they’re going to be running crossing routes. Diggs. Uh, it’s kind of like the same offense, the Shanahan, San Francisco 49ers. Um, but just talking about as safeties, we just believe fully that we own the middle. Um, you know, obviously, like you said, Bris has some pretty good hits. Uh, I was able to get a tip ball. So, that’s just something just as a DB in a secondary group. We got four starting safeties in my opinion, uh, with Elijah Hicks as well. So, we just want to go out there and kind of turn each other up, uh, compete with each other, and, uh, you know, everybody wants to make the play. Some of the skirmishes at the end, was that something that the friction was kind of building throughout, or was there something specific that set it off? Nah, man. I just think, like you said, we’re going to stand 10 toes. Uh, we wasn’t going to try to get into any fights. You know, it’s something obviously we talked about. We didn’t want to fight. Ben Johnson talked about, you know, if you wasn’t going to play in the games, you got to play the whole game. I kind of got in the middle one, but at the same time, like, you’re not about to just take anything from anybody. Doesn’t really matter. this is our field. This is our home. And uh if they want to turn up, then we could turn up. But um but yeah, it wasn’t I don’t think it was anything that was leading up to it. It’s just how we feel as a defense. We’re going to try to set the tone. We’re going to not let anybody uh just think they’re going to do what they want to do to us as a defense. Did you see on their sideline where two of their guys started fighting each other on their sideline? No, I didn’t peep that. I I was kind of out of it a little bit at that point. Only fight at the joint, right? They might have been frustrated with themselves. I don’t know. We was over there high five, having a good time. for kind of riding that line though, right? With the aggression and the intensity were not going too far. You had one that kind of started with you and one of their guys and it ended with Tyreek getting pulled out cuz a little bit too far. So, what’s what’s the line? How you keep guys from crossing? Well, for me it was one of those situations. I mean, it was a guy that was, you know, trying to block all just doing some extra stuff and uh I didn’t throw any punches, but I made sure I had him and let him know that he was a little boy even, you know, I don’t really know him like that. But, no, when Reek jumped in, I started to start breaking it. I tried to break it up with Reek. Uh, but like I said, that’s just kind of knowing, you know, knowing your guys. Sometimes guys in the middle of a practice, hot practice, kind guys are kind of tired, guys kind of black out a little bit, and I just try to grab them and tell them, “Hey, it’s over. It’s over.” Uh, just protecting the guys. But, um, you know, it’s NFL football. It happens. It’s training camp. Do you feel like you guys out physical them today? And is that sort of the identity that this group wants? Yeah, I mean, like I said, I we’re all going to watch the film. Don’t really know what happened on the offensive side of the ball, but like I said, I think if we play the way we practice today on defense, we’re going to be pretty damn good. Kevin, when you when you hear from the coach that the starters won’t play in the first preseason game, how does that impact the level of intensity that you brought to today’s workout? It doesn’t change anything. Um because I think every single day as a defense, we practice with the same tempo, same intensity. Uh I don’t think us I think if anything, it just let us know we’re going to have more reps today. And I think just as a mentality, just understanding, hey, we’re going to have to fight through and just keep going. You might be tired, you might be exhausted, but you’re just going to keep pushing through. and then use these next couple days to be able to recover and get your body right because like I said man at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter about the preseason games or whatever at least for us the guys that’s not playing it’s about just trying to improve every single day and uh every opportunity you get to go out there in the film is on it’s opportunity to go prove yourself this defense to click so far to come together with Dennis’s identity I think just I mean we got some experience of playing with each other over the past year even though it’s not scheme not the same scheme but obviously we all know each other we’re good friends we hang out together so a lot of it is just getting the communication down. Um, it’s not like we don’t have a whole lot of rookies out there with us on defense. So, guys been in this league. We understand, you know, how teams are going to try to attack us, especially in Dennis’s defense. He kind of spoke about the man coverage. We know we’re going to get overalls from DBs. So, just being able to anticipate uh the communication, the motions, and all that stuff. Still a work in progress, but we’re we’re making good progress. Feel like over the last three weeks that there has been noticeable momentum building defensively. How do you describe it in terms of the progress that you have made since camp started? Sure. Uh, like I said, it’s just um it’s just a constant reminder just keep getting better. Uh, like I said, we’re still a work in progress. You know, you still never really know uh how it was going to be until you get to those live games, live actions, but I mean, you guys have seen it for the most part. Most practices have felt like they’ve been live. You know what I mean? Like, I haven’t been a part of a training camp like this before in my career, honestly. That practice we had, I think it was Tuesday, uh, there was it it was definitely live. I mean it was it’s times out there where you’re you know a lot of times the coach would come in the huddle and be like hey this is a live period or something like that and so we had one live period was like goal line short yardage and then at that point guys are just asking each other hey is this live and it’s like if you don’t know then you air on the side of being live you know what I mean and I think you know even though I haven’t been a part of something like that it’s good because you know sometimes you see in the preseason games or in the first couple games of year it’s a lot of bad tackling uh so I guess when you practice it during in practice in training camp you know you kind of get live reps at it so Like I said, we’re just using every little edge we can get as a defense to try to, you know, set the tone and impose our will on the offense. Do you feel like you’ll look back at that Tuesday practice as you talked about like the culture change that Ben is doing here as one of those moments of like this is this is when it felt different? Oh, for sure. Uh, I definitely think that I think everybody kind of was saying the same thing we got in the locker room like, “Bro, it was the most intense practice ever.” Uh, and obviously we knew we had an off day coming, so I think that was kind of the the the talk in the locker room was like, “Hey, let’s go. Let’s really go.” And I think the coaches kind of got guys riled up a little bit. Dennis Allen made a joke like I haven’t seen I haven’t seen a tussle or nothing during training camp. So I think guys kind of took that personal. Um but like I said and then once we watched the film we told ourselves that hey this is the floor now. You know what I mean? Like if it’s not going to be like this uh every single day. I mean obviously we’re not going to try to fight each other but uh then that’s not the standard. And we’re going to try to keep that standard as high as we can. And uh and it’s consistency. just just making sure we’re consistent uh you know as a team and as a defense. They had a few runs leak off the right head so they got up to your level pretty quick. Yeah. What’s your perspective on that and how do y’all fix it before? Yeah. I mean it’s watching the film um you know I think in a couple of those runs we had we might have been in cover two or something like that. So you know we I I don’t I don’t know exactly what happened up front but like I said a couple of those when they leaked to the right bridge filled the alley and kind of smack a couple dudes. So, like I said, when they do get to the second level, we make sure we’re going to punish them as much as we can. Um, and at the end of the day, the scheme, that type of stuff, we can fix that. But one thing we can’t correct, and we don’t want to be correcting is the effort and the intensity that we play with. Do you have a good look at at Tmaine’s pick that almost wasn’t a pick? He he tried to make it as dramatic as possible. I think it that was something good for the fans. He caught the ball like seven times. But, like I said, I think it was just a good ending to the day that we had cuz like I said, I think we had four turnovers. We had a couple balls on the ground. uh some force fumbles, some punch outs. So, like I said, man, for us, that’s just a standard. It’s just not like this is something that surprises us or nothing like that, man. It’s just how we play. We have a lot of playmakers out there, and it’s just good to see guys showing up, making plays. Last one, two very accurate passer and uh highest completion percentage in the league last year, and I I’ve read that he had only thrown one interception in all of their practices to this point. So, what are you what were you guys seeing or what were you picking up on that allowed you to do that? I mean, they ain’t played us, you know what I mean? Like, they, you know, this training camp and stuff like that. I don’t really read into that as much. You know, a lot of things can be skewed rather fish, you know, a lot of quick game, a lot of screens, a lot of balls underneath five yards, whatever it may be. He is a very good quarterback, though. I will say that I think he’s a he’s a really good quarterback. He’s a probo he’s a probo caliber quarterback and I think it was a good test and challenge for us today to go against him and some of the speed receivers that they had out there. Um, but like I said, I think we had a pretty good day against those guys and uh excited to be able to see, you know, some of the guys go out there in the preseason. Obviously, I don’t think he’s going to play, but just going to be excited to see the guys in the preseason, especially some of the young saders. Excited to see them go out there and fly around, make plays. Thanks, Kevin. No problem.

Defensive back Kevin Byard III meets the media Friday at Halas Hall.

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