The Chicago Bears held their second joint practice of training camp, closing out the camp season, with the Tennessee Titans Thursday, at Vanderbilt Health Football Center, a roughly two-hour, padded session against Robert Saleh’s Titans two days before Saturday’s preseason finale at Nissan Stadium (5 p.m. CT). It was hot, physical, and chippy. From the Bears’ side the day split cleanly: the offense — especially Caleb Williams and the tight ends — won the first half; Tennessee’s defense and first-round
receiver Carnell Tate won the second after Chicago lost both starting corners for stretches. Ben Johnson framed the weekas “another controlled test” link against an “attacking front” designed to meet the Bears at the line of scrimmage — a different problem than Joe Burrow and the Bengals. This is the last chance for the Bears to evaluate position battles and get both the offense and defense ready for a season that will kick off in less than two weeks, and where the Bears will face their first test of the season against the Carolina Panthers.
On a very hot day in Nashville, Caleb Williams got off to a hot start according to CHGO’s Adam Hoge, noting Caleb had six straight completions and was 9 of 11 overall for that period. Hoge also reported that Caleb spread the ball around to eight different receivers.
Ben Arthur (FOX, covering the Titans) described the tape: Williams hit Rome Odunze in stride off an RPO, stepped up and found Cole Kmet on a shuffle pass, and ripped a dart into a tight window outside the numbers.
Red-zone work was even better for Chicago. The Tennessean’s live blog had the Bears scoring six touchdowns in 12 combined red-zone snaps across first, second, and third units. Caleb threw two red-zone scores in one period, including an out to rookie WR Zavion Thomas and a play-action shot to a wide-open Kmet. D’Andre Swift scored in the red zone and was part of a trick play: handoff, pitch back to Williams, downfield to Kmet. Johnson had said before practice that Swift looked as good as he has at this point of any year — vision, bounce, cut-up timing. That showed up today in the practice with the Titans.
The tight-end room was the most consistent Bears’ weapon of the day. Colston Loveland drew praise from Titans reporters on the other sideline (“looks legit”; “big, tall, fast, and very good”). He had a highlight after a Swift-to-Williams lateral and a YAC spin for a chunk gain. Rookie Sam Roush, working later units with Case Keenum, caught a deep ball and an end-zone score for “big plays” according to Nick Moreano of REKAP, in the 11-on-11 period. agreed that Johnson’s pre-practice line on Roush still applied after the session: flashes that get a staff excited, consistency not there yet, which is expected for a rookie tight end.
In the second half of the practice, the Bears were taught to remember the Titans (you come here for the news and coverage, you stay for the Dad jokes). Adam Hoge noted the “good response” by the Titans defense during a long team period in which they were better in coverage and got more pressure on Caleb. Also said that that the Titans did not like Tyson Bagent going to make a tackle on an interception. Williams finished a two-minute drive around the 20 with 12 seconds left and threw an interception to Tony Adams intended for Loveland. Titans 1s also sacked him and forced incompletions in the period after the break.
Chicago arrived today in Nashville short on the defensive line. Dan Wiederer of the Athletic reported that Gervon Dexter (hamstring or trade negotiations – hard to say which) and Austin Booker (groin) did not travel. Then both starting corners left early. Jaylon Johnson hurt his right arm on a run play in 11-on-11, lost his helmet and pads, stayed on the sideline next to DBs coach Al Harris, and kept chirping. Tyrique Stevenson favored his right leg after a collision with Tate / a red-zone breakup, left with trainer Andre Tucker, then returned with the starters. While Johnson took off his pads and did not return to the field, he stayed on the sidelines. Cam Lewis gave the defense its best moment: an interception of Cam Ward on a throw behind TE Gunnar Helm. Malik Muhammad broke up one would-be Tate touchdown. Otherwise, with Johnson out and Stevenson in and out, Tate feasted. Luther Burden III traveled and did individual work only while still easing back from a groin injury; he stayed vocal on the sideline. A hit on Titans WR Wan’Dale Robinson, later identified as having been delivered by Xavier Woods, was called “cheap” by Saleh in the post-practice interview. It cleared both benches and sent Robinson off for a concussion evaluation.
There seemed to be a consensus among both Bears and Titans beat reporters that the Bears had the advantage early in practice but that the Titans got the best of the Bears in the later period. Jim Wyatt, senior writer for the Tenessee Titans, thought that the Titans “held their own” against a “good football team” in the Chicago Bears at practice today. He also thought that former Chicago Bear, now Titans backup, Mitch Trubisky had a solid day with a 19-26 performance. AtoZ’s Kole Noble said it most directly from the Chicago beat: the Titans “seemingly won the day,” with plenty of Bears positives still on the field. Chris Kwiecinski and Devan Kaney of FOX 32 sounded the most Bears-optimistic voice among the reporters covering the practice, writing that Williams was the catalyst and that “the Bears’ offense was winning the day over the Titans” – but that assessment was before the practice break. All in all, while the Titans seemed to get the best of the Bears in the second half of the practice, both teams seem to have come away with positives, despite the jawing and occasional fisticuffs, and despite the scare with the injuries to Johnson and Stephenson, and the hit on Robinson, both teams seem to have come away relatively healthy.
Some other news of note, nuggets, if you will:
Swifty of the Swift Sports Network indicated that Caleb thinks that only Braxton Jones and Theo Benedet are left in the left tackle competition.
Patrick Finley of the Sun-Times remarked that Zavion Thomas was ready to fight any and every Titan on the field:
In the same vein, Brad Biggs of the Tribune observed that the Bears were very vocal with the Titans throughout practice today:
Adam Schefter of ESPN reported that Sean McDermott, the former Buffalo Bills head coach, was at practice and consulting with Ben Johnson:
And a few videos from the day.
