What we learned as Fields' dime to Dazz highlights light Day 15

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LAKE FOREST – The Bears returned to Halas Hall on Monday for a relatively light day of work.

With only four days of rest between Saturday's preseason opener and Thursday's game in Seattle, the Bears went through a light-contact practice Monday in shorts and shirts. No pads. No shells.

As is always the case with these observations, we'll have some good and bad things to note.

Let's start with the positive.

During the two-minute drill, Justin Fields delivered one of his best throws of training camp.

Fields rolled right and looked deep down the middle of the field. With defensive end Trevis Gipson bearing down on him, Fields stepped up and rifled a throw into traffic. The pass narrowly avoided a defensive back's out-stretch arms before finding its way into the hands of Dazz Newsome. The receiver made one defender miss before being whistled down inside the 10-yard line.

Deep completions have been few and far between for the first-team offense, so Fields' connection with Newsome was a welcome sight, even if it did come on a day of light work.

Newsome's grab was the only offensive highlight of a short Monday practice.

Otherwise, things were not crisp.

The first-team offensive line had a rough day against Robert Quinn, Al-Quadin Muhammad, Gipson, and Dominique Robinson.

By my count, the Bears' starting defensive line could have easily been credited with eight sacks throughout the 90-minute practice. Head coach Matt Eberflus spent much of the day yelling, "finish it!" asking the offense to continue the play as the rusher let up.

The first team period saw the defense record what would have been two, perhaps three, consecutive sacks. Quinn whipped rookie Braxton Jones on back-to-back plays to start the period, and then linebacker Nicholas Morrow came on the blitz and got past center Sam Mustipher, who whiffed on the block.

The two-minute drill also was not a pretty sight for the first-team offensive line.

Fields dropped the snap on the first play, and then Quinn bulldozed Jones on the next snap for another training camp non-sack. Fields completed a pass to Velus Jones after being allowed to finish.

Fields hit Isaiah Coulter on the next play for a chunk gain down the right side. Gipson, Muhammad, and Sam Kamara quickly got pressure on three of the next four plays, beating Jones and Riley Reiff off the edge.

Fields' big completion to Newsome got the offense inside the 10, and they clocked it with one second remaining. But the offense couldn't punch it in as Fields' final pass of the session fell incomplete.

The Bears' offense finished the day with two red-zone plays. Khalil Herbert was stopped after a short gain on the first, and Quinn got in the backfield quickly on the final snap, forcing Fields to scramble before going out of bounds at the 2-yard line.

Here are more notes from Day 15 of camp:

-- Kyler Gordon, Cole Kmet, Velus Jones Jr., Kindle Vildor, Angelo Blackson, and David Montgomery all returned to practice Monday after missing a chunk of practice last week and Saturday's game. Montgomery didn't take part in any team drills.

-- Jaquan Brisker was a non-participant Monday. The rookie safety rode the bike along with Justin Jones off to the side.

-- Roquan Smith was not seen Monday, but the linebacker could have been in the training room as the Bears were conducting practice.

-- Teven Jenkins got his first work at right guard Monday. He got snaps with the second and third team and appeared to do a solid job in a light-contact practice.

-- The second-best play of the day came from the second-team offense as Trevor Siemian hit Dante Pettis for a touchdown during the first team period. The veteran wide receiver ran a crisp route, got a lot of separation, and Siemian delivered the ball on time for the score.

-- Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said Monday that the plan is to give the starters more reps Thursday against the Seahawks, but the number of snaps is unknown.

-- Gordon said he will be good to play Thursday against the Seahawks. Jones said he'd leave his availability up to Eberflus.

-- Getsy was pleased with how Fields played Saturday against the Chiefs, noting just one play he'd like the second-year quarterback to get back. On the play that ended with Fields sliding and not getting a flag for a late hit, Getsy said the quarterback left the pocket too early.

"He vacated too quickly," Getsy said. "He skipped No. 2 in the progression. He kind of went left/right, and they took away No.1. That was a great job by him of getting back. I think he got out of there a little too quick. That was the one play, honestly, that I wish we had back for him. The other guys each had one or two that was the same thing — we haven't done that the last couple weeks out here. But the flow of the game, it speeds everything up a little bit. I love the decision to slide, obviously, but he had a chance to maybe hang in there just a tick longer."
 
--The Bears waived undrafted rookie Carson Taylor on Monday. They'll have to cut four more players by Tuesday's deadline to get down to 85.
 
-- The Bears will be back at Halas on Tuesday before taking off for Seattle on Wednesday.

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