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Joint Practices with New England Patriots Prove Positive for Chicago Bears

By Bill Zimmerman

Jul 30, 2016; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) looks on as quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (10) takes a snap during training camp at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 30, 2016; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) looks on as quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (10) takes a snap during training camp at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports /
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Nothing but positives will come out of the Chicago Bears spending the last three days with the New England Patriots

The Chicago Bears spent the last three days in Foxborough practicing with the New England Patriots. After the 22-0 thrashing the Bears suffered at the hands of the Denver Broncos, there was some chatter that the Bears practicing with New England would only further expose their issues and create more problems, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

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The obvious headline from these practices were all the scuffles. Alshon Jeffery got into with Malcolm Butler on Monday. That shoving match led to a full team scuffle where even CEO George McCaskey got involved and separated players. Later on Monday, yet another scuffle occurred between Nate Solder and Lamarr Houston. There was even some pushing and shoving after practice.

On day two, things got uglier. Harold Jones-Quartey hit Julian Edelman late, Akiem Hicks knocked Martellus Bennett on his rear, Lamarr Houston continued to get into it with New England, and John Timu and Bryan Stork got into a skirmish as well.

Let’s start with the scuffles. This is great to see out of the Bears. No, nobody wants the Bears to turn into a dirty team, but this shows a team with a lot of fight. The Bears are coming off a poor performance against Denver. They are agitated about their performance and don’t want to be pushed around. This is great to see less than two years from a team that completely quit at the end of the 2014 season and spent most of the season fighting each other, rather than fighting opponents.

The personality of this team is finally taking shape. This team is a John Fox team. Ryan Pace finally has his players in place. The Bears are still rebuilding but this season we will see the style and player that Fox and Pace envision. Last year was largely a transition year and very difficult to gauge.

Beyond the Bears showing some serious attitude. There were plenty of on-the-field positives that came out of the practices as well:

  • Jay Cutler and Alshon Jeffery hooked up for a huge play over Super Bowl hero Malcolm Butler.
  • Kevin White showed serious skills throughout all three days of practice.
  • The Bears first-team defense made some very nice plays against Tom Brady and the Patriots first offense.
  • Akiem Hicks looked sharp.
  • Josh Bellamy burned the Patriots second-team for a long TD.

Sure, there were some warts too. The Patriots are a great team so of course they were successful against the Bears. This wasn’t about the issues the Bears have, this was about the Bears growing as a team and the players developing individually on the field.

The Chicago Bears aren’t winning the Super Bowl this year. If fans are on a Super Bowl or bust mentality, they will be disappointed. Last year was a transition year into the new-look Bears and this year is a building year to develop this team into what Pace and Fox envision. The earliest this team will be a Super Bowl-contender is 2017. Realistically, it’s probably 2018.

These joint practices again proved one thing- the Bears are on the right track. It will be interesting to see how much improvement the Bears show on Thursday night off the egg they laid last week. A win or a loss Thursday night against New England is irrelevant because all the Bears need to do is show progress. If the joint practices this week are any indication, they certainly will.

Bill Zimmerman is an editor and featured writer for FanSided‘s BearGogglesOn. Like his Facebook page or follow him on Twitter for more news and interaction.

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