Bears Defense Needs to Attend Workouts – For the Good of the Offense

[tshanno]

Bears Defense Needs to Attend Workouts – For the Good of the Offense

 

Sean Jensen at the Chicago Sun-Times recently interviewed Bears quarterback Jay Cutler and asked him about the workouts they were planning (http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/bears/5398418-419/jay-cutler-bears-offense-needs-to-get-together-despite-lockout.html). To the surprise of many, only the offensive players were planning to workout together:

 

“Cutler said the workouts would be for offensive players only.

 

“’I mean, those defenders have been in the system for eight years, nine years,’ Cutler said. ‘What are they gonna do?

 

“’What am I going to tell Lach?’ Cutler said, referring to linebacker Brian Urlacher. ‘‘Your drop is a little short. Sorry, buddy.’ Offensively, we have a lot of room to improve.’”

 

The offense actually started last Wednesday without the defense and Cutler’s reasons for not pushing them to be there above are true enough. But what the veteran defensive players either don’t understand or, worse, don’t seem to care about, is that even though they personally don’t need the workouts, the team needs them to be there.

 

I love Brian Urlacher but like many if not most great athletes he’s a little emotionally stunted. Sometimes you can tell that there’s a lack of maturity there that makes him self-centered, not on the field, but in other little ways off it. This is one example of it and I’m sure many of his teammates are no better.

 

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune sits down with the paper’s NFL expert, former safety Matt Bowen where Bowen elaborates on this issue (http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/ct-spt-0522-biggs-bowen-qanda-bears-c20110520,0,2193377.story):

 

“It’s easy to go out there and run routes with your teammates when you’re not held accountable by working against a defensive back and having a coach look over your shoulder. It’s just not the same.”

 

“Working against a defense [is what's missing from the workouts]. Running routes is just like doing warmups before a game when you come out of the locker room. There are some benefits to that. You can work on your timing. Let’s say the depth of the route is 10 yards, you can really fine-tune that. Work on getting your head back. Jay (Cutler) can work on getting to that fifth step, planting the foot and throwing the ball. But without the competition aspect, without having the DB drive underneath that route and make a play on it, without having that DB working against receivers so they can create separation and get down the field, it’s not football.”

 

Bottom line your offense can’t get better without a defense there to play against.

 

Admittedly you might question just how much of a “competition aspect” there would be without coaches present and without the risk of even accidental contact. And I understand that the offseason is a precious time for these guys and I’m sure the defensive players are enjoying the time off.

 

But the Packers, the Lions and the Vikings are getting better and the Bears aren’t going to keep up by sitting stagnant and saying, “We’re veterans. We don’t need to work.” Urlacher needs to get the defense out on the field to workout with the offense.

[AZ54]

This hype around practices in May is too funny. What do we normally have here....rookie minicamp. Then a few OTAs where the team basically works the rookies into the schemes and gets a view of their athleticism. No contact. Suddenly in May if you aren't out there tackling it's the end of the season for your team.

 

In June I'd like to see Cutler out there with his WRs and to a lesser extent TEs working on their timing. They know the routes the plays, run them. It's silly to assume that if the Oline is standing in front of Cutler as he throws he'll somehow be getting better because it replicates what he'll see against GB.

 

Drew Brees has had plenty of opportunities to pay for practices for his teammates in May over the years but never felt the need until now.

[tshanno]

Drew Brees has had plenty of opportunities to pay for practices for his teammates in May over the years but never felt the need until now.

 

Points are well taken in that all of this really is of questionable value. A lot depends getting guys to do things properly and a lot of self-coaching though veteran leadership, I'm sure. And the Bears strongest non-free agent leaders are on defense.

 

But having said that, almost every team has missed a mini-camp and a rookie-camp by now. So it isn't like these players wouldn't have been working together on the field by now in a normal year.

 

Tom S.

[azbearsfan]

I wouldn't want the defense going against the offense for injury purposes.

 

It would suck to lose someone because of that.

 

 

I am for the offense getting together to go over the offense as long as it non contact