The Chicago Bears offseason workout program dates announced
The first portion of the 2022 offseason is in the books. We saw a free agency period come and go without any splash signings. We saw the 2022 NFL Draft unwind before our eyes as Ryan Poles turned to the defensive side of the ball early but then loaded up on the offense with a wide receiver, a running back and four offensive linemen. Poles turned six picks into 11 — although I question the decision to take the Chargers’ two seventh-round picks while giving back their 2023 sixth-round pick that was part of the Khalil Mack trade.
With those two picks, the Bears received two, very late seventh-rounders that basically gave them first dibs on the undrafted free agency class. One of those picks was a punter and there is little doubt that they could have landed him in the undrafted free agency pool. The competition to sign UDFA punters had to have been very slim. Either way, both the sixth and seventh rounds are mostly a crapshoot anyway. The more darts you have the better, so I’ll give Poles the benefit of the doubt.
The other picks were very solid, but that’s not what this article is about. No, now that the NFL Draft is in the books, we turn our attention to the next part of the offseason. Next up are the NFL offseason workouts.
The Chicago Bears and the NFL have released their offseason workout dates
It will not be long before the Chicago Bears are back to work. Their OTAs start on May 16 and rookie minicamp starts next week. OTAs run sporadically throughout the next two months with the following dates:
- May 16-17
- May 19
- May 23-24
- May 26
- June 6-7
- June 9
The team also will have a mandatory minicamp that will run from June 14 through June 16 and a rookie minicamp that will run from May 6 through May 8.
According to the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, each team will be able to run a nine-week offseason program that is conducted in three phases.
Phase One is typically the first two weeks and does not include much football. Instead, teams are focused on meetings, strength training and rehabilitation.
Phase Two is when on-field workouts begin. There isn’t any live contact and it’s basically a walkthrough of the team’s playbook(s).
Phase Three is when things get a little more physical. Teams are able to conduct 10 days of organized team practices. Still no live contact (not too physical then), but you can run 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills.
These dates will lead us into training camp and we can finally see how this team will start to shape up. The Chicago Bears have plenty of work to do both on and off the field as the roster comes together.