Bears Enter Final Phase of OTA’s
The Bears entered the final phase of Organized Team Activities on Tuesday at Halas Hall, where they’ll practice Tuesdays-Thursdays thru June 7th and wrap up their offseason work with a mandatory minicamp June 12-14.
Under the new CBA, the OTA’s are limited to a maximum of nine weeks and are broken down into three phases. This final phase allows up to 10 days of non-contact offense vs defense work with coaches present and players in shorts and shells.
The Bears wrapped up Tuesday’s first workout with 7-on-7 and non-contact 11-on-11 team drills. Here’s the Minister of Propaganda Larry Mayer reporting from Lake Forest.
Hit the jump for some other notes and observations from Wednesday’s session.
According to Brad Biggs, your starting offensive line from left to right: J’Marcus Webb/Chris Williams, Chris Spencer, Roberto Garza, Lance Louis and Mansfield Wrotto (since Gabe Carimi is still on the mend from a Week 2 injury).
If that doesn’t make Kristen Cavallari double check JC’s life insurance policy, here are the 2’s: James Brown-Chilo Rachal-Edwin Williams-Ricky Henry-Tyler Hendrickson.
Johnny Knox isn’t going to play in 2012. No one in the organization will say as much, but if you read between the lines, that’s what’s going to happen. Knox lost 30 pounds while recovering from spinal fusion surgery. At his current weight, he might be more likely to be a jockey, not a wide receiver. Here’s wishing Johnny a speedy recovery and a return to action in 2013.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Devin Hester is “having the best camp among all WR’s”. He’s a Hall of Fame wide receiver in shorts and shells. Wake me up when the regular season starts.
Brian Urlacher is not participating in OTA’s and is unlikely to go full speed until training camp while he takes his sweet time recovering from a knee injury that he suffered in Week 17. Is anyone else out there concerned? Before you answer, undrafted free agent Dom DeCicco is taking reps at the Mike linebacker spot.
I’m a little concerned because of the lack of depth behind Urlacher, who is such a key to Lovie’s Cover-2. Look no further than the 2009 season to see what a disaster can unfold without a key piece of the defense. The Bears did a great job shoring up their backups on the offense in free agency; just not sure they have the same depth on the defense.