Bears Preseason Week 1: Rookie Report
Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports
Training Camp Invites
CB Al Louis-Jean – A talented young corner who is very raw considering he only played 9 games in college. ALJ made an athletic play on an interception in the 3rd quarter and almost got another one in the 4th but refs ruled that the ball hit the ground first. He is a long-shot due to his inexperience and is probably better off on the practice squad, but ALJ has NFL talent and if he keeps playing like he did Friday he will have a shot to make the team as the Bears 5th or 6th CB.
RB Senorise Perry – The undrafted free agent from Louisville has been one of my favorite dark-horse roster candidates since the day the Bears signed him. I thought he should have been drafted and think his game translates better to the pros than it did in college. Perry is tall for an RB (6’0) but has elite speed (4.36) which none of the other running backs on the Bears can match. He’s not just a speed back as Perry showed good power on Friday night; He gained 3-4 yards after contact on two runs and 1-2 (yac) on a couple of others. Perry didn’t have a chance to show off his speed in the open field, but he did have a nice 13 yard reception on a screen pass on 3rd & 11. On the downside, Perry did half-ass a blitz pickup. It didn’t result in a sack but he didn’t do a good enough job stopping the blitzer’s momentum and gave up pressure on Fales. Overall Perry showed some of the talent that got me so excited when the Bears signed him, but there is more he can do that he hasn’t had a chance to show yet.
OL Michael Ola – The Canadian league import didn’t have any flash plays, but he didn’t make any glaring mistakes either on a day where most of his roster competition did. Ola has the versatility to play either guard or tackle and played both sufficiently on Friday night against a pretty good D-line.
LS Chad Rempel – It looked to me like the snap on Robbie Gould’s blocked field goal was a little off target but the TV angle was bad and I haven’t heard anyone else mention it so maybe it was fine… Besides that Rempel did a decent job and his competition, Brandon Harstock, had a high snap on a O’Donnell punt so I’d say the competition is still fairly even and a bit of a concern.
CB Derricus Purdy – I saw Purdy on the field late in the 4th quarter Friday but didn’t see him make any plays. With all the depth at CB Purdy will have to make his minutes count if he wants to stick around.
FS Marcus Trice – One of my favorite of the Bears training camp invites, if Trice played I didn’t see him.