What the Assistant "O" Coaches are Saying

Washington

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/ct-spt-bears-assistant-coaches-offense-20180806-story.html#nt=oft02a-1gp4

As the Bears continued preparation for their second exhibition game Thursday against the Bengals in Cincinnati, the offensive assistant coaches shared their thoughts on their players’ progress through nearly three weeks of training camp.

Here are some highlights from those Monday conversations.

Wide receivers coach Mike Furrey
On the areas rookie wide receiver Anthony Miller needs to polish: The first thing I tell him is that whatever you’ve done out here for three weeks and how everybody is saying you’re having a great camp is not true. You’re still young. You’re still a rookie. You still have to develop into a professional. And that takes time. And that’s not going to happen overnight. As passionate as you are, we’ve got to slow down at times. And be more patient. You’ve got to understand the big picture of the play and not just, OK, get open.

I think early, he wanted to come out here and kind of playground a little bit. And he was making some plays and everybody was excited. And then we were like, “No, no, no, come here. That was awful. I know you caught the ball. But you’re supposed to be way over there. And that’s his ball.” So that was kind of a new thing for him. And so the first two or three weeks, and still, really just into the preseason game last week, he’s still learning that.

So now with the culmination of all of the plays that he has had to learn and the concepts, things are starting to slow down. He’s starting to understand, “OK, I might not get it here. But I’m going to open it up for somebody behind me.” Now he’s mad about that because he wants the football, which is a good habit, a good thing to have. But he’s doing a better job with that and that’s allowed him to progress here over the last couple days.

On whether top wide receiver Allen Robinson is introverted: I thought he was an introvert early, very quiet. What I think now is that he’s a professional. He loves what he does. He wants to be great at what he does. He’s very, very smart. So he studies all the time. So he knows what he’s doing. And that’s a lot of stuff. When you have all that, there’s not a lot of stuff on the outside that he has time for. This is what he wants. That’s a pro.

So I don’t think he’s as much an introvert as he’s just a professional who wants to be great. And he is rubbing that off on our young guys. And he’s starting to talk a little more with our young guys. “Listen, this is what you have to do. This is what you have to work on.” And in return, they’re kind of teaching him some stuff. Because they can do some things that he can learn from. We’re in a good situation.

On wide receiver Kevin White being his own worst critic: Right now the biggest thing is to get rid of that, and we’re working on that. He didn’t need to be a critic to himself. I’ll do that, and I’ll do it in a positive way. You just go do what we’re asking you to do full speed and expect the football and make plays. He’s done a better job of that over the last couple weeks. You can be hard on yourself to the point where it starts to (cripple) you. You can’t do that. You can’t come out here and play with fear. You can’t come out here and judge yourself. … Right now let’s just go play ball and relax. And I think he’s done that.

Quarterbacks coach Dave Ragone
On Mitch Trubisky’s progress: The last two days in particular, you can tell. Obviously the installs have been in, and now we’re going. And you can see there are some periods out there where Coach Nags is calling it and it’s not scripted, and he’s going out there and performing at a high level and he’s getting to the right checks. He’s seeing things. But more importantly, his information coming back to us, what he is seeing or why he did something, that to us is really the litmus test of what he knows and what he doesn’t. If he’s giving us the right response back on why he did it or why it did not work, then you feel good about it. If he doesn’t know, you obviously think to yourself, “OK, we have to go back over that.” But he’s giving back the right answers. He’s executing plays that aren’t just the 101 level but the next level. Obviously not everything is down, but he’s making steady improvements. Every day is a new day for him in being able to take it to the next step. And challenging himself. He’s done well with that.


On Trubisky’s strides in leadership: He’s a completely different person. Obviously in Year 2 as an NFL player, now especially being the starting quarterback unequivocally of the Chicago Bears, he takes that very serious. His mental approach in terms of the understanding of what a leader is and (how) he needs to be himself as a leader has been leaps and bounds different. And the players around him, you can see it. There’s a calm confidence with him and the players around him. Mitchell’s authentic, which is important when you’re a leader, and his teammates around him understand that. And he’s pushing himself. I give him a tremendous amount of credit. This offseason, it was a big project for him to go out there and make sure he understood that this was his team and he’s done that, and he’s done it from OTAs to minicamp to training camp so far. Again, he’s going to continue to grow in that position, but it’s been really good.

Tight ends coach Kevin Gilbride
On what he has seen from Trey Burton so far: I see a very bright football player, who understands how to get open. There are certain guys who can get open and understand how to sit in zones and things like that, but they can’t create for themselves. He can do both, and he understands the soft spots in zones, which tends to be a smart player. He understands the techniques that allow him to create separation from a man defender, so that’s special in that regard. What I also have seen is his willingness and his toughness in the run game. That’s exciting. That was something that was a question mark because you didn’t see a ton of that on film, but he’s got that in him. Not like we want to put him, a heavy dose of front side of an outside zone play, or anything like that, but he can hold up if you put him in those situations.

On the areas Adam Shaheen needs to grow: It’s not one particular thing. It’s continued growth in all areas. I’ve seen that so far, he just has strides to make. I’ve seen him improve his route-running ability, getting in and out of routes with breaks that are over 90 degrees, which can be difficult for a guy his size, keeping his pad level down in the run game, and his pass protection, his sets and his punch, all of which in those three areas he’s making strides. He just has to keep doing it, and understand the work he’s putting in as he focuses on the process of improving those areas, is going to be fruitful down the line.

Offensive line coach Harry Hiestand
On Kyle Long coming back from three offseason surgeries: For him, it’s getting healthy and it’s the progression of getting more and more plays and getting back into football shape. He’s done a great job with his body, getting it ready. But then there’s no substitute for football shape. For what he’s doing now, his plays have been gradually increased. Today he probably had his most plays out there and has made steady progress. I feel good about the direction he’s going.

On how the offensive line is shaking out with Cody Whitehair, Eric Kush and James Daniels: Cody’s playing center. Kush is playing left guard. He showed the other night he can play center, which we needed to see. Kyle’s coming along really well at right guard and Earl (Watford) is right there working on both sides. … And then James has been out for over a week, so he just got back, really had his first work today. We’ve got him better at center and we’re going to keep working him there for this week.

Everybody does (have a chance to win a starting spot). But it’s a progression, and when you’re not on the field, you’re going to be behind. And (Daniels) is a little bit behind right now.

Running backs coach Charles London
On Jordan Howard working on his hand placement to improve his pass catching: It was really looking it into what I call “the pocket.” A lot of times, whether his thumbs weren’t together or his pinkies weren’t together, it was just a small thing of concentration. We did some different hand-eye things. We started with tennis balls. We didn’t even start catching footballs. It was doing tennis ball things. He and I juggling to each other, bouncing things off the wall. So it started there, and then we just kept progressing. He did a great job over the summer when he was on his own continuing catching the ball. He’s catching out here. He probably catches 200-300 extra balls a day. I think we’ve seen improvement, but now he has got to do it when the lights come on. So I’ll be excited to see that.

On coaching Tarik Cohen in different roles in this offense: He and I spend a little extra time together on just some of the receiver stuff. Because he has to understand coverages, understand how they’re being attacked. Maybe they’re leverage there. And he has done a great job of that. And really he has done a lot his whole life as far as high school and college. He played a lot of different positions, so I don’t think the transition was as hard for him in this offense of what we’re asking him to do. He just has to understand what position he is in each personnel group, and then which formation. Because we’re asking him to line up in different spots. And he has done a great job of handling it. We’re going to keep feeding him as much as he can handle.

ckane@chicagotribune.com
 

Bearly

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I can understand White being critical of himself. Lots to prove and reading all the shit supposed fans post about him. I thought Watford was making this team. Nice to see the Ghost Bear get some props.
 

Washington

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I wonder what the future holds for pencil neck Grasu. With Kush showing he can be competent at OC and Daniels getting lots of work there (he was supposedly the best OC in college football last year), is there room for a backup on the line who is an OC only? Not to mention Grasu has struggled so much in his 1st 2 years. I am not sure the our oline whisperer, who supposedly can fix everyone, will be enough to make Grasu serviceable as a backup.
 

Spunky Porkstacker

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I wonder what the future holds for pencil neck Grasu. With Kush showing he can be competent at OC and Daniels getting lots of work there (he was supposedly the best OC in college football last year), is there room for a backup on the line who is an OC only? Not to mention Grasu has struggled so much in his 1st 2 years. I am not sure the our oline whisperer, who supposedly can fix everyone, will be enough to make Grasu serviceable as a backup.

Is there a defensive center? :speechless:
 

Washington

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Just curious why you would call the center an offensive center, would you call the QB an offensive quarterback?

I have often referred to guards as OGs too. I don't know why. Never thought about it. I hope that doesn't keep you up at night. We'll all come out of this OK, or is it K :).
 

Adipost

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I can understand White being critical of himself. Lots to prove and reading all the shit supposed fans post about him. I thought Watford was making this team. Nice to see the Ghost Bear get some props.

It’s been a big issue for White since the first injury, his lack of confidence.
 

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