Chicago Bears July 30 Training Camp Recap
The Chicago Bears were back at Halas Hall this morning for training camp practice, and overall, the defense continues to be ahead of the offense, But that’s not to say the offense didn’t flash. There were some big plays during the 7 on 7 and 11 on 11 periods, and during the two-minute drills to end practice, both the first-string offense and second-string offense moved down for touchdowns.
At his post-practice press conference, head coach Matt Eberflus announced that none of his starters would play in Thursday’s Hall of Fame game against the Houston Texans.
Today’s padded practice lasted about two and a half hours, and they’ll have another padded practice tomorrow. Eberflus said it would be a split squad with the starters on one field and the reserves on the other. The reserves will have more of a walkthrough to get them ready for Thursday, while the first team will scrimmage.
You can check out some more recap from today’s practice in the Tweets below, but make sure you join Jeff Berckes and me at 6:00 p.m. CT for a Bear & Balanced podcast. We’ll go over all the key offseason talking points, and I’ll recap everything I saw at Halas Hall.
Chicago Bears 2024 Position Battles: Is this the best tight end group in the NFL?
In this 11-part series, we’ll go position by position, examining the players on the Chicago Bears 90-man roster and their chances to make the team.
When the Chicago Bears brought Marcedes Lewis back, that solidified their tight end room behind Y tight end Cole Kmet and U tight end Gerald Everett, and it got me thinking… Do the Bears have the best tight end group in the league?
The 25-year-old Kmet is coming off his best season as a pro, with 73 receptions and 719 yards, but he also came into his own as a blocker. I could see his numbers coming down due to the new faces on the offense, but his impact will still be felt.
Pro Football Focus recently ranked their top 32 players at each position in the league, and they had Kmet as the 11th-best tight end in the game.
Kmet came alive in 2023, earning a 77.7 receiving grade and posting a career-high 719 receiving yards. He’s dropped just three passes over the past two seasons and showed why the Bears drafted him in the second round back in 2020.
Everett, who just turned 30 last month, was PFF’s 19th-ranked tight end, and he’s coming off 51 catches and 411 yards last year with the Chargers.
Everett is similar to Henry [Hunter Henry, their 18th-ranked TE] but with a slightly lower touchdown number. He’s one of the best at making defenders miss, as he’s racked up 45 forced missed tackles over the past three years.
They called Henry “one of the most consistent tight ends” in the league,” but also that he won’t give “much production as a run-blocker,” which is Everett’s game, and that’s perfectly fine.
He won’t be used inline much, if at all, as offensive coordinator Shane Waldron will split him wide or flex him off the line to find mismatches he can exploit. While Waldon won’t have Everett at the point of attack on many power runs, at 6’3’’, 250 pounds, he is capable of squaring his man up if he’s stalk-blocking on the perimeter.
