After nearly a week of practices, let’s take a look at the camp battles of note.

WIDE RECEIVER
Over.  Devin Hester and Earl Bennett are going to be the starting wideouts in Green Bay on the 13th.  The question is who of the remainder (Davis, Iglesias, Knox, Rideau) will win the job in the slot.

LEFT GUARD
I thought Frank Omiyale would run away with this but all evidence is pointing toward Josh Beekman as the early leader.  I’d like to see this position settled as soon as possible because the more time this unit can play together before the season starts, the better.  The good news is, of course, the Bears have all-important depth along the offensive line.

CORNERBACK
Will Peanut be healthy?  Will Vasher continue to be awful?  Will Bowman’s hamstring injury linger?  With Tru or Graham or D.J.Moore establish themselves at the position?  Cornerback has quickly become the position to watch throughout the preseason.

FREE SAFETY
Steltz v. Manning won’t remind anyone of Ali v. Frazier or Brown v. Board of Education but it’s the absolute defensive key to big play prevention.  This coaching staff has always been in love with Danieal and I think it’ll be an uphill climb for Craig to start in any major capacity.

If ESPN (as a whole) allows Jeff Dickerson of ESPN (Chicago) to be their lead man when it comes to Chicago Bears coverage, we may actually get some balanced and detailed football reporting from the Worldwide Leader.  Dickerson is my favorite thing going right now.  Here are some excerpts from his News & Notes with my commentary…

Things got chippy Tuesday. Guard Tyler Reed had a dust up with defensive end Mark Anderson during line drills. Later, cornerback Zack Bowman squared off with receiver Earl Bennett near the goal line.

“It’s just a matter of time before tempers flare up a little
bit,” head coach Lovie Smith said. “No damage done. I tell guys if you
get into a fight, just fight like you would fight your brother and go
from there.”

Bowman continues to make the most of his opportunity. The cornerback picked off a Jay Cutler pass in the back of the end zone.

Cornerback Nathan Vasher got beat deep by Hester and Bennett.

Apparently Zack Bowman’s interception against the Vikings a year ago won’t be his only chance to make an impact on the Bears defense.  Every indication from training camp is that Nate Vasher is getting beat up and down the field while Bowman is vying for “Player of the Summer” honors.  Assuming Peanut Tillman is healthy for Green Bay on the 13th, it doesn’t seem we’re far from making Bowman the presumptive favorite to start on the other side of the field.

And in one sentence or less…

Linebacker Brian Urlacher leapt in the air and intercepted an errant Jay Cutler throw during 7 on 7.

Pussy.

Overall, Cutler was on fire, zipping in a fastball to tight end Greg Olsen in a red zone drill.

Soon to be the most dynamic red zone combination in the sport.

The Bears broke out the Wildcat or “‘Cane” formation with receiver Devin Hester attempting a pass that fell short and incomplete. Hester also took a pitch from Cutler out of an option like formation.

I have the sneaking suspicion this is going to be the play that has fans screaming “Enough!” by mid-season.

Marinelli
officially calls the defensive linemen “rush men.” He even had the
label changed on the bag of practice footballs to read “rush men.”

I’ve never seen so much emphasis on a position coach in camp…ever.

Okay, guys, so it is done.  If you look at the right side of the screen (and scroll down a bit), you’ll see the constant updates from the writers covering camp, some players and correspondance to them from fans.  It’s actually pretty cool.

Cedric Benson Still Hasn’t Learned
I don’t care if Cedric Benson believes the Bears made a mistake in releasing him. (They didn’t)  I don’t care if Cedric Benson believes he’s better than Matt Forte. (He’s not)  I don’t care if Cedric Benson believes the Holocaust didn’t happen. (It did)  What I don’t understand is why Benson insists on never shutting his goddamn mouth.  He had a halfway decent season for a crap team against awful defenses and now he’s delivering his Hall of Fame speech to Brad Biggs.  Great athletes don’t have to remind you of their accomplishments and Benson’s reminders – beginning with his embarrassing draft day tear fest – are what led to the player resentment and fan disdain that chased him from Chicago in the first place. 

Tillman Injury…Good Thing?
Throwing a bone to Bob LeGere at the Daily Herald, who is reiterating what everyone seems to be saying: Zack Bowman is the standout of Bears training camp.  One has to wonder if Bowman would be receiving anywhere near the number of reps he’s getting if Peanut wasn’t out with a balky back.  Is it possible that the 2009 Chicago Bears are using injuries to their advantage?

Orlando Pace
Another good piece by Brad Biggs in the Sun-Times.  If you’re not rooting for Pace to succeed in Chicago this season, you’re not a sports fan.  
 

From a guy called (hopefully just for now) Super Die Hard. Some funny stuff in here but a solid look at actual football about midway through.

I’m just going to keep rolling out this format for the start of camp.  I like it.

If you’re not on Twitter…

You probably have a life off the computer and I’m slowly becoming jealous.  However, I’ve got a stream of updates from Brad Biggs, David Haugh and ESPN Chicago’s Jeff Dickerson all day long.  It is the absolute best way to get a sense of the mood in Bourbonnais (outside of attending yourself). This one just came through from Dickerson:

Just saw my first waddle jersey of camp. Football season has truly begun.

The Duke of Earl

David Haugh’s column on the rapport between Jay Cutler and Earl Bennett is a bit inspiring.  Describing an improvised route, wherein the Duke faked Vasher out of his jock:

“It was the first time I ran that route, and we just called up a normal play and he gave me a pump on that and all I had to do was turn up and catch it,” Bennett said. “It’s a great route and I hope we put it in the game plan.”

I know better than to wholeheatedly buy every piece of positivity available from camp.  But currently I’m wholeheartedly buying every piece of positiviely available from camp.  Bennett needs to be a reliable five catch-a-game receiver and a threat on third downs.  He seems to be capable of just that.

More Kevin Jones?
Vaughn McClure writes about the Bears giving Matt Forte some downtime at practice this weekend.  Smart move and something many of us think is coming ten months too late.  Just because the Double Deuce is capable of thirty touches a game doesn’t mean he should be given thirty touches a game.  Over-running young tailbacks is quickly becoming the equivalent of over-throwing young arms in baseball.  Something the city of Chicago knows a thing or two about.

The Erik Kramer Factor
I write about the legendary 1995 season Erik Kramer played at quarterback for the Chicago Bears all the time.  Good to see it get some press from Brad Biggs.  Some really thoughtful insight from Kramer too:

”I can’t think of a lot of guys out there who can do what he does,”
Kramer said. ”I think the thing when you look at Tom Brady, Peyton
Manning and the guys that are in that group that have won Super Bowls,
looking at them as quarterbacks, they’re players that have supreme
command of what they’re doing out there. With Jay, it still remains to
be seen, but the Bears are working with an incredible piece of clay.”

The Zack Attack
It’s starting to look like Zack Bowman is going to be a real integral part of this club’s secondary.  The kid showed flashes in limited duty last year until he was derailed by an injury.  And since I’m in the camp that believes Nate Vasher is on the way out, the team will need somebody to occupy half the field.

In Rodeo format…

Cutler, Cutler, Cutler
The story is everywhere – from everybody’s perspective.  It seems media, players and fans alike are seeing what they dreamt they’d be seeing: a real, live start at the quarterback position.  But it’s Devin Hester’s response that excited me the most:

”Last year, we came in here wondering whether Kyle [Orton] or Rex
[Grossman] was going to be the quarterback,” wide receiver Devin
Hester said. ”That right there, I feel like it [took] a big toll on
our part. We didn’t know which quarterback to adjust to. This year we
know who our guy is, and now we’re just having fun and polishing up our
work.”

Marcus Harrison
I get pissed off when I read stories like Marcus Harrison not making weight for the start of training camp.  Be a fucking professional, kid.  You got a chance to be a force in the middle of this defensive line but you need to be at goddamn practice.

If You’re Going to Camp…
Get there early.  And well played, Bears fans.  Well played…

Somehow we got here.  Camp.  September 13th is right there.  So close. 

Most of us don’t have the patience to wait for full wrap-ups at the end of practice so I’m doing the Twitter thing.  I should mention that I hate Twitter when it is used by every knucklehead in America to share the tedious banalities of their tired existences.  But reports from Bourbonnais are fine by me.

Brad Biggs of the Sun-Times is here.

David Haugh of the Tribune is here.

If you’re attending camp, feel free to send photographs to jeff@dabearsblog.com and I’ll make sure they get on the site.

I had two thoughts last night as I sat down for a long shower.  (1) What do I really think about this whole Bobby Wade-says-Urlacher-called-Cutler-a-pussy thing?  (2) When’s Steve Rosenbloom going to realize that nobody cares about baseball anymore?  Rosenbloom makes his 2009 NFL season debut this morning and does so with the most interesting and lucid commentary I’ve read on the situation. 

Rosenbloom thinks the whole thing is great and so do I.  That’s where we sorrowfully part.  Steve’s contention seems to be that it’s important for Brian Urlacher to establish locker room dominance before Cutler becomes Cade McNown redux. Suddenly the Halls of Halas are a Discovery Channel documentary about lions in the Serengeti.

I contend that, on the eve of training camp, Cutler use this incident as an offensive rallying cry.  2009 can be a lot of things for the Chicago Bears but it should be the year where the leadership ceases to come from the middle linebacker position and from the defense in general.  I can already hear some fans crying “Sacrilege!  This is the Chicago Bears!  Middle linebackers run the show!  We’re all about defense!”  Fuck that.  Seriously.

The young talent of this Bears group is the pussy quarterback.  The running back.  The tight end.  The wide receiver.  The most accomplished veteran on the roster is the left tackle.  The heart and soul of the organization is still the center.  The defense?  Outside of Lance Briggs, Alex Brown and Israel Idonije – is there a player on that side of the ball that hasn’t underachieved in the last two seasons?  If Urlacher made the comments to Bobby Wade, perhaps it’s because he’s beginning to sense that his decade-long stranglehold on the locker room went the way of Mike Brown.

And on the eve of training camp, that’s what I’m hoping for.  A Chicago Bears team whose Pussy QB reminds one of the Punky QB and takes his club to the same destination.  His club.  #54 has had the pulpit and the sermon was a mixed bag.  Three trips to the postseason and two complete defensive meltdowns upon arrival.  Maybe it’s time for the balance of power to shift.  And if Brian and the boys want to re-take control of this team…they could start by playing better. 

First, two links:

1. David Haugh doesn’t think the Bears need to go the retread route.  He’s possibly right, especially in terms of the Mike McKenzies and Patrick Surtains of the world.  The one player of interest might be former-Raven Chris McAlister – still a free agent.  Then again, why would a capable cornerback still be on the open market on the cusp of training camp?

2. Rick Telander, always a source of cheerfulness, writes about the wear and tear on Peanut’s body after six over-achieving seasons in the NFL.  I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with the Nut, ever since his movie reviews appeared Da Site during his rookie campaign.  Tillman is capable of the brilliant (see: Randy Moss, endzone) and the disaster (see: Bernard Berrian, left sideline) and often both on the same play.  But I’ll miss the day 33 is not starting at corner for the Bears.

Ah, the commentary:

Nathan Vasher now becomes the defense’s most attention-worthy player in training camp.  Don’t worry about the pending battle between Tru McBride, Corey Graham, Zack Bowman and D.J. Moore that will surely take up newspaper space for the next two weeks.  The difference there will be negligible.  If Ballhawk can return to his 2005, 2006 form, then the defensive backfield will withstand the hopefully-short absense of Peanut.  But Nate hasn’t played more than half a season in two years and hasn’t tackled well when he has played.  So with inexperience at both safety spots and the opposite corner, expecting The Great Nate Reversion of 2009 may have fool’s gold written all over it.

In other words…get well soon, Peanut.