6 final takeaways from the Chicago Bears mandatory minicamp

Matt Eberflus is not afraid to play and even start his rookies

I think it is evident that Jaquan Brisker and Kyler Gordon are going to be starters at the start of the regular season. The only way I don’t see that happening is if one of them is injured. Speaking of that, Kyler Gordon did not participate at minicamp and his absence is starting to become a little suspect. Hopefully, whatever he is dealing with is not anything too serious.

However, Matt Eberflus was asked specifically about playing and starting guys who were not drafted in the first or second round.

Are there guys (referring to rookies) that you are willing to give a shot, outside of first and second-rounders based on what you’ve seen so far?

Now, it obviously should be known that this past year the Chicago Bears didn’t have a first-round pick. However, when I heard this question my first thought went to Velus Jones, Jr. He was the team’s third-rounder and I don’t see how he doesn’t see starting reps. That said, I think the reporter was thinking about the guys who were taken in the later rounds and even undrafted free agents. Here is what Eberflus had to say.

"“Yeah, when I see a guy who as the talent and the movement skill and I see it at this time of the year, I want to get a thorough evaluation of him in training camp. I want to look at it. I want to pair him up. This is what we will do at training camp. So I’ll have player A who is on the rise and I’ll put him against our best guy so I can see him against a pro starter, now I can see what he can do. I’ll match those up all the times. Not just 1s vs 1s and 2s vs 2s. If you have a guy going up against the 2s and 3s, well he’s not getting the full exposure. We want him to improve his game by going up against the top talent. We’ll do that from the line and through the perimeter”"

When I hear this and see that Braxton Jones is pushing for starting playing time with the first-string offense, he is the type of guy I’m thinking meets the qualifications of the reporter’s question and honestly seems to have a good shot. More about him next.