{"id":263004,"date":"2025-08-05T06:13:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T06:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/263004\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T06:13:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T06:13:15","slug":"we-got-a-dmn-good-head-coach-hightower-lauds-johnson-as-bears-prep-for-joint-practice-first-preseason-game-against-dolphins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/263004\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We got a d*mn good head coach\u2019: Hightower lauds Johnson as Bears prep for joint practice, first preseason game against Dolphins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (WGN<\/a>) \u2014 With nearly two weeks of padded practices under their belt, the Chicago Bears started prepping to go full tilt against players they don\u2019t share a locker room with Monday.<\/p>\n

EDGE Dayo Odeyingbo was one of the Bears who expressed excitement for the team\u2019s first joint practice against the Miami Dolphins, which is scheduled to take place Friday.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey can be a little chippy. That can be intense. You\u2019re defending your home turf, especially in this situation,\u201d Odeyingbo said. \u201cEveryone is excited to get going against someone else, someone you\u2019re not trying to look out for because it\u2019s not your teammate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joint practices are an opportunity for players to bring their A-game, but also for coaches to better assess their rosters.<\/p>\n

And according to special teams coordinator Richard Hightower, who worked under Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel before coming to Chicago, he can see a lot of similarities between Ben Johnson and McDaniel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew from afar when I watched some of [Johnson\u2019s] press conferences or some of that stuff, the guy\u2019s pretty sharp,\u201d Hightower said. \u201cWhen you work with him and you can see the attention to detail and how he meticulously looks at everything, no matter what it is, [he] dives deep into things. He has an eye \u2013 real head coaches have an eye for things when they happen.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m telling you for a fact. We have a d*mn good head coach here. A d*mn good head coach. I\u2019m just telling you. I know what they look like. I\u2019ve been around them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bears\u2019 first preseason game takes place Sunday at noon against the Dolphins at Soldier Field.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAKE FOREST, Ill. (WGN) \u2014 With nearly two weeks of padded practices under their belt, the Chicago Bears…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2070],"tags":[374,1035,692,391,2493,593,7,6496,12642,251,6,20757],"class_list":{"0":"post-263004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-bears","9":"tag-ben-johnson","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bears","12":"tag-chicagobears","13":"tag-dayo-odeyingbo","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-head-coach","16":"tag-head-coaches","17":"tag-miami-dolphins","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-richard-hightower"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114974687714989623","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}