6 takeaways from Chicago Bears first day of mandatory minicamp

The Chicago Bears opened up the first practice of their mandatory full-squad minicamp today. This minicamp will run for three days (June 14-16) and then the team will be off until training camp in late July (dates yet to be announced). This mandatory minicamp does not include pads and therefore hitting will be at a minimum. However, we already saw how the team violated league policy by holding practices that were too “rough” according to league rules.

That said, I cannot wait until training camp. There are important factors at play here and the team needs to get the pads on to determine who exactly should be starting on the offensive line. As it stands, the unit is in complete flux and I’m not too thrilled with what we are hearing at the moment. Obviously, things can change drastically before the preseason and even before the season, but we need to keep an eye on a few things to see if what we are being told by head coach, Matt Eberflus is true or just his way of spinning things to the media.

After practice today, the Chicago Bears held a few press conferences that gave us a few tidbits of note after Day 1 of minicamp. Beat reporters also shared a few nuggets along the way, but as we all know they are only allowed to share so much information. This franchise still believes its success is tied to keeping as many details in-house. It’s a little ridiculous when teams like the Packers and Patriots literally share practice footage via YouTube.

Chicago Bears Takeaway No. 1: Robert Quinn was unexcused from minicamp

Reports hit social media today that Robert Quinn was not attending the Chicago Bears mandatory minicamp. The first report came from Ian Rapoport who said that Quinn was away from the team and training on his own.

This is something to keep an eye on, but I wouldn’t read too much into it right now. All we would be doing is speculating. The fact that Quinn isn’t at camp cannot be about money. Quinn is making a base salary of $12.8 million this year. With different bonuses, he’s making over $17 million — not bad for a 32-year-old veteran.

Other speculations are that Robert Quinn is demanding a trade, the Chicago Bears are seeking to trade him and Quinn isn’t happy, or my thought on the matter is that he’s just not wanting to attend and will show up for Training Camp in July. Quinn missed all of this mandatory minicamp in 2021 due to a back injury. Although not injury related, it’s really not a big deal that Quinn isn’t at practice. The only downside is he is not there to help teach the younger players. He’s played in this scheme before and doesn’t need to be at Halas Hall to learn it.

When asked about Quinn after practice, Matt Eberflus confirmed the absence was not excused and had this to say:

"“We are not talking about that as an organization. I basically have no comment. We hoped he would be here. I’ve had some conversations with him, but now I’m leaving the rest up to GM Ryan Poles.”"

The way he worded it, there is clearly something going on. However, don’t forget the work ethic and mentality of Eberflus. He could just be disappointed because he believes everyone should be at practice giving it their all on every play. Robert Quinn is on record after the Khalil Mack trade that he hoped not to be traded but understands it’s a business. Let’s all calm down and be patient with this situation.