Bears Blitz

Published by Nick Shepkowski on August 8, 2009
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

You may also find this artice at Love Your Smith

Friday was the seventh day in a row of practice in pads for the Bears as they took the field on a very rainy day in Bourbonnais. Here’s a summary of what happened on Friday afternoon:

Brandon Rideau was the receptionist of three deep passes from Jay Cutler as the pair connected multiple times deep on Friday. Rideau and Earl Bennett seem to be the two favorites for the No. 2 receiver spot, likely going to take a few preseason games to decide it.

Either way, if the receivers can even be even average this year then the offense should far exceed most skeptics predictions.

Friday Off-Day: Tommie Harris, Hunter Hillenmeyer, and Devin Hester all sat out of practice on Friday. With all the off-days that Tommie is having I have my doubts he will see time in any more than eight regular season games this season. He can’t be as healthy as himself and the Bears coaching staff lead us all to believe.

The defense got good work in on short yardage defensive situations. Lovie Smith was excited not exactly for what he saw but instead just being able to have the players face one-another in real-time speed.

“Always good to let the guys do a little bit of tackling that’s live” were his exact words, that’s because this form of hitting happens so rarely in practice.

It seems that Josh Beekman is well ahead of free agent acquisition Frank Omiyale for the starting left guard position. If this is the case, Omiyale will be making just over $6 million from the bench…a ton of money to have “sitting around.”

More good reports about Chris Williams from Bourbonnais today. His footwork is said to be spot-on so far, his awareness has also been top notch. His best compliment may have come from Adawle Ogunleye who made the claim that Williams will be the most athletic right tackle he faces in 2009.

Anger management? Mark Anderson and Chris Williams got into a scrum on Friday. Everyone seems fine by evening as the two compared it to being brothers and that they are still part of the family who is focused on the “big picture.” Anderson may be having a solid camp in Lovie’s eyes but I just do not see him being a major contributor this year.

Finally, Jay Cutler feels Bears fans are more passionate than the football fans out in Denver. He told Tom Waddle and Marc Silverman of ESPN 1000 on Friday afternoon. The question came after Kyle Orton was of course heavily booed by the Broncos faithful on Thursday night.

Saturday brings “Family Day” to Soldier Field, the annual Bears preseason practice at their home stadium. If you attend between bands at Lollapalooza you likely won’t see a lot out of the “football ordinary” but it’s a pretty cheap way to be entertained by your hometown team if you can’t make it to Bourbonnais at all this summer.

I’ll be back after it’s completed. It begins at noon for those interested.