LAKE FOREST, Ill. (WGN) — Caleb Williams is hungry and taking every opportunity to learn Ben Johnson’s offense. The Chicago Bears’ head coach is chewing players out for mistakes, while praising others for their success—something veterans have eaten up. Not much is wrong in the land of Bears, except for one thing.
Their top two draft picks haven’t seen much of the field this offseason.
Chicago’s first-round pick and the tenth overall selection in this year’s draft, Colston Loveland, was seen catching passes and running routes with a helmet on for the first time during minicamp or OTAs Tuesday.
The former Michigan Wolverine has recovered enough from an AC joint injury that required surgery to do everything but (maybe) throw a football with his right arm.
“I’ve become ambidextrous, kind of,” Loveland said with a laugh after practice.
Outside of the action on the practice fields at Halas Hall, Loveland said he’s also back to lifting weights as a part of the Bears’ offseason training program, but Johnson wouldn’t commit to whether his prized rookie tight end will be fully ready to go once training camp rolls around in mid-late July.
“To be honest with you, I haven’t even looked that far ahead,” Johnson said. “We will get that before we officially break for summer, just the expectation for camp and who’s going to be full-go day one, and who is still limited and working in. I don’t have that answer for you at this moment.”
Loveland, as can be expected, was a little more optimistic about his chances than his head coach, but he’s still taking things one day at a time with a certain set of goals in mind.
“Just work. Get back right, continue rehab. I’m working out,” Loveland said. “But, [I] definitely have my own little walkthroughs, whether I need to go with my brother or whoever that is, saying some plays, lining up, just doing stuff repetitively [and] getting those reps so that it just becomes second-nature at that point. That’s the goal.”
If he checks all the boxes he’s identified, he thinks he’ll be ready for day 1 of training camp.
“That’s the plan. Just working every day to get there,” Loveland said.
As for the Bears’ first pick in the second round, Luther Burden III, he’s seen the practice field only a handful more times than Loveland this offseason.
Burden suffered what Johnson called a “soft tissue injury” during rookie minicamp that led to him being unavailable during the portions of minicamp and offseason OTAs made available to local media.
Chicago’s rookie head coach isn’t concerned about Burden’s long-term future though when it comes to that soft tissue injury. He expects him to be a full go once training camp rolls around.
What Johnson is more concerned about is the reps rookies like Burden and Loveland are missing due to their injuries.
“[Burden] misses a lot. Any time you’re not out there, if you’re in the training room when the rest of the guys are practicing, you’re losing valuable time—valuable time with your coaches, valuable reps with your teammates, the ability to build the trust that we’re talking about,” Johnson said. “It’s not just the coaching staff having trust in you, doing the right thing over and over, but it’s also your teammates.
“They have to be out there. They have to see you do it. They have to know that the guy to the right and the left of them are going to do the right things, and they’re going to make the plays when called upon. It’s for everybody. It’s a shame that he got dinged up and missed all that time, because for a young player, it’s really where you get the most reps and you can get better in a hurry that way. That’s really for every player on this team.”
