Chicago Bears Offense Needs to Max-Out at Minicamp
Published by Gene Chamberlain on May 22, 2010
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
Friday, on the first day of minicamp, Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler took a realistic approach toward how long it will take to get the new offense of coordinator Mike Martz down.
“Into training camp,” Cutler said. “That’s the game plan. We’ve got a lot of time. But we’ve got to keep putting a lot of pressure on myself and the rest of the guys to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible, but be able to retain all the information throughout the year.”
“That’s going to be the hard part.”
The perceived problems with taking on a high-risk, high-reward offense were very apparent on the first day of non-contact practices at Halas Hall.
Getting the seven-step pass drops blocked properly wasn’t always easy. In fact, left tackle Chris Williams had trouble at times blocking new defensive end Julius Peppers, who moved from right end to left end and then back to right end.
Once Peppers knocked the ball out of Cutler’s hand when he passed. Another time he was in the backfield for what would have been an easy sack if they’d been playing actual tackle football.
“He’s a good player,” Cutler said of Peppers. “But offensively, we’ve just got to clean some stuff up. I do. We’re all learning. I think we’re all learning at a pretty good pace so far.”
Cutler forced the ball deep into coverage a few times. He got picked off by Brian Urlacher on a short route once and by Zack Bowman on a deep route.
“It is a little bit different,” Cutler said of the new Don Coryell-style attack. “It’s a high-paced, high-octane offense. Guys are flying around. Quarterbacks have to make quick, precise decisions and you have to be really accurate with the ball.”
“It puts a lot on the quarterback, puts a lot on the receivers. But it’s going well. The guys are picking up and they’re really receptive to it.”
Cutler said he expected it to be difficult initially.
“Any time you get a new system it’s going to be complicated,” he said. “It’s just something different than what everyone is used to. We’re more words than numbers and it’s [from] West Coast to this system. It’s just a different system.”
“It’s not more complicated, it’s not harder. When it is rolling, and I think Mike does a great job of keeping defenses off balance, that is what kind of puts this offense, when you get it down, maybe ahead of some other stuff.”
One thing the Bears did show that wasn’t expected was the use of double tight ends, featuring Desmond Clark and Greg Olsen. Martz’s offenses never really have used much of this in the past.
The Bears were without their new blocking tight end, Brandon Manumaleuna, who is coming off minor arthroscopic knee surgery.
They are playing with a juggled offensive line due to center Olin Kreutz missing practices while recovering from surgery to remove bone spurs. That means left guard candidate Josh Beekman had to play some center and backup tackle Kevin Shaffer played left guard as a result.
Frank Omiyale, who played left guard last year, has been moved to right tackle.
It didn’t surprise coach Lovie Smith that his new $91 million free agent acquisition at defensive end looked like a dominant player.
“There are certain guys that, No. 1, you pay a lot of money to for a certain reason and he’s going to earn every dime,” Smith said.
The defense also liked having Urlacher back from a dislocated wrist and safety Chris Harris, re-acquired from Carolina in the offseason.
“Of course, Brian missed most of last year but he’s been here every day in the offseason,” Smith said. “He’s a good football player, we’re expecting great things from him, seemed like old times out there today with him.”
“Also guys like Chris Harris, getting Chris Harris, it seems like he never left us.”
One player who wasn’t where he normally plays was cornerback Charles Tillman. The Bears had him playing in the second team right cornerback spot while Bowman took his left starting corner spot and Tim Jennings played right corner with the first team.
Tillman has been missing the voluntary workouts of late due to trips to visit troops in Kuwait and Afghanistan. A few of the veterans poked fun at Tillman, laughing that the “second-string cornerback” made a pretty good play when he stripped the football from a ball carrier after a catch.
“When some of the players haven’t been here the entire time you don’t know exactly what type of condition they’re in and you have to get them out here and see,” Smith said. “Charles Tillman is one of our guys. Every day that I’ve been here that’s been the case and that won’t change.”
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