The Chicago Bears practiced for only about 45 minutes at Halas Hall today because tomorrow they’ll strap it up for a joint practice with the Cincinnati Bengals, which, while a controlled scrimmage, should also be physical. Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen met the media this morning and said, “It’s going to be a heck of a test for us.”
It’s fair to say the Bears offense has had the overall edge over Chicago’s defense throughout training camp, so this will be a good opportunity for Allen to gauge
how his unit fares against a different set of explosive playmakers.
“They’ve got a really good offense,” Allen said about the Bengals. “MVP-caliber quarterback. MVP-caliber wide receiver. Tee Higgins is a heck of a player. [Chase] Brown’s a [heck] of a running back. [Mike] Gesicki at the tight end position. They’ve got a lot of weapons and a lot of things that they can do on offense. All five of their offensive linemen are returning. So, it’ll be a great test for us, and I’m just looking for us to go out there and compete and see where we stack up against what I think is probably going to be one of the better offenses in our league.”
Allen was also asked about nickelback Kyler Gordon, and said he was “hopeful” that he’d return “sooner rather than later.” He reiterated what head coach Ben Johnson has been saying: that Gordon is in the building, doing all his rehab, and attending all the team meetings.
Mason Williams from the Times of Northwest Indiana shared the list of those not practicing today: Tyson Bagent, Tyrique Stevenson, Terell Smith, Jaylon Jones, Tony Fields II, Ruben Hyppolite II, Grady Jarrett, Marcus Davenport, Joe Thuney, Luke Newman, Garrett Bradbury, and Wesley French, and this list does not include those players on the PUP nor those who will be sidelined for some time.
Here are a few tweets from practice.
You can check out Dennis Allen’s presser here.
