The Chicago Bears got back to work Monday afternoon with a 60-minute practice in shells, starting the workweek leading into the preseason finale against the Buffalo Bills on Saturday at Soldier Field.
It was a change in the original training camp schedule that called for a walk-through on Monday. It was turned into a shorter practice that had a slower tempo with a heavy focus on red zone drills. Here are four things we heard and saw.
1. Cornerback Jaylon Johnson ended practice for the first-team defense by intercepting Justin Fields in the red zone.
Johnson had takeaways on his mind after practice, not that one specifically.
“I’ve been wanting to get to game week since the start of camp,” he said. “So, everything you do is preparation. The more snaps, the more ready I can get for game one. It’s what drives me at this point. I mean, the old saying is the hay is never in the barn. Even for some of the best, you’ve always got to find new things. There’s always going to be something you can get better at. For me, I want to create more turnovers. Just trying to find different ways and creative ways to get more turnovers.
“Even today, I missed the overthrown pass. Just having that rep on my mind. OK, when I see the ball when it’s overthrown or when I think it’s going to be overthrown, make sure I’m locked into it or dialed into it a certain way.”
Fields’ pass was high when Johnson did make the play the second time at the end of the practice.
“That’s one that he overthrew again,” Johnson said. “I missed one. I thought the receiver was going to catch it — it was overthrown. I got a hand on it, missed it. And then I got the same identical play again coming back to the ball, the ball was overthrown, so I caught it, finished it. Just keeping that on my mind, not making any assumptions.”
Johnson has discussed his desire for a new contract. It remains to be seen if the Bears and Johnson’s representatives can reach an agreement. He might be best off going into the season and seeing if he can stack some of the takeaways he’s been focusing on.
“I catch Jugs all the time, deep balls, different angles,” Johnson said. “I wouldn’t say I do anything different. Just continue to get more reps and then really have it conscious on your mind, get in different positions and doing it smart within the scheme, just really making it a priority, making it something that I go out there and do, not just all the time when I break the ball up but treating myself like a receiver when I get in the air.”
2. DJ Moore was catching punts during a special teams period.
Don’t look for the team’s top wide receiver to handle that role in a game anytime soon.
“He’s been doing them in the offseason,” special teams coordinator Richard Hightower said. “He’s done it before. He did it in college. DJ is good at that. Anybody who has a helmet on that can do it is an option always.”
Moore returned 11 punts in five seasons with the Carolina Panthers but only one since 2019. He handled 15 punts returns in 2017 at Maryland, averaging 10.2 yards, but is far too valuable to the team’s offense to be exposed on special teams for anything short of an emergency.
It was notable that Moore took turns with Velus Jones Jr. and rookie Tyler Scott catching balls off the Jugs machine because it at least appears to be one of the unsettled roles on the roster. Jones muffed a punt in the preseason opener before sitting out last Saturday’s game at Indianapolis. Scott has one punt return for 9 yards in the preseason.
The job has looked like it would belong to Jones but Hightower said his confidence was not shaken.
“If you can’t get underneath it, then at all costs, you get away from it,” Hightower said of the miscue. “He knows that and I think he’s discussed that with you guys. Just got to keep working. Keep working, keep growing. You can never — he has a competitive streak in him. He wants to make a play and he just got to know when to say when.”
It will be interesting to see how the team evaluates returners against the Bills. Wide receiver Dante Pettis, who handled punt returns last season after Jones was benched, missed Monday’s practice with an injury.
3. Kicker Cairo Santos said he put an emphasis on kicking field goals from a greater distance during the offseason.
Santos was good last season — connecting on 4 of 5 attempts from 50 yards and beyond — but the one miss seems to have stuck with him. That was a 56-yard try during the Week 11 meeting with the Atlanta Falcons at the Mercedes-Benz Dome. It hit the crossbar and was no good.
“I kicked a lot of long field goals this offseason to work on making better contact — 50-plus — and not getting juiced up,” Santos said. “I did well last year, made a lot of 50-pluses, but the one that sticks to me is the 56 that I mishit. I knuckleballed it. I knew that if I had a clean hit on that ball, end-over-end rotation, I’ve been knocking those through. I have to be more fundamentally sound and strike the ball well.”
Santos made a 50-yard attempt Saturday against the Colts and was good from 49 yards in the preseason opener against the Titans. He’s 14 for 27 from 50-plus yards throughout his NFL career but 6 for 10 since rejoining the Bears in 2020. In that span, he’s made 26 of 30 kicks between 40 and 49 yards.
4. Five projected defensive starters did not participate in practice.
Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, safeties Eddie Jackson and Jaquan Brisker and defensive ends Yannick Ngakoue and DeMarcus Walker were held out.
With less than three weeks to go until a Week 1 meeting with the Green Bay Packers, is that concerning?
“Nah, cause for me, Tremaine is not somebody that is new to this league,” cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. “Brisker, I feel like he is coming in hot. I feel like the guys that are out that you named I feel like are professionals. They’re getting a lot of mental reps that are still out there at practice. And I mean shoot, when they come back, I know they are going to come in and make plays. Of course you want to be in shape when you come back, things like that. I feel like that just goes back to strength staff, the training staff, just to keep getting those back in shape for when they come back. I have no doubt we are going to hit the ground running.”
Also absent were wide receiver Chase Claypool, linebacker Dylan Cole and defensive backs Josh Blackwell and Jaylon Jones.