Practice Notes: Another fight, Emanuel Hall gets cut, and more from the Bears' first practice back at Halas Hall

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LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Bears' returned to Halas Hall on Tuesday, and apparently the tempers from Sunday came with them.

Suiting up for the first time since breaking camp on Sunday afternoon, a fight between wide receiver Javon Wims and cornerback Prince Amukamara highlighted what was the team's second-straight testy practice. The two were going against each one another in drills, and it appeared as though Wims took issue with something Amukamara was doing. The two started jawing and eventually (after a cameo from an animated Eddie Jackson) had to be pulled off one another by teammates. It was short lived, though, and both met with Nagy to hash it out moments after.  

"They're competitors, but I wasn't real worried about it," Nagy said after practice. "We talk about how we're going to handle these things internally, when things do happen. To me, there's different levels of it, and there's some levels that can get out of control, and it can ruin things. There's other ones where guys just -- it's competitive -- they're chirping. Guys want to do well. The beauty of our sport in general is that you care. These guys care." 

Nagy joked that the irony of Tuesday's fight was that it happened between "two of the friendliest people on the team." 

A common talking point among Bears players and coaches the last week or so has been about how the team is working through the doldrums of training camp. After two fight-free weeks, Sunday's practice featured the first sign of a skirmish, with Kyle Long and Akiem Hicks butting heads. As Nagy, Amukamara, and Mitch Trubisky were quick to point out, Tuesday's beef was already water under the bridge.

"And at the end of the day we’re competing, pushing each other to get better," Trubisky added. "And I think there’s always frustrations, but you gotta keep the big picture that we’re going against each other and we’re trying to make each other better because we’re on the same team. We’re all going for the common goal. But I think you could see the maturity of the team with the amount of fights we have.

"Teams that want to fight, they’re not there to play football."

Notes from Halas Hall

  • The Bears announced this morning that they cut undrafted free agent Emanuel Hall. Hall, who had seen limited reps in camp because of injury issues, did not play in the team's preseason opener against Carolina. "It’s just a lot of times it comes down to numbers," Nagy said. "He’s done a good job with us, we appreciate everything that he did but that’s just a part of the business.” Nagy also downplayed the timing of the move, saying that with a lot of depth at the position, it was just a numbers game. 
  • Akiem Hicks briefly left practice after seemingly hurting his hand. He came off the field with trainers, was in Halas facilities for a few minutes, and then returned and participated in the rest of the session. 
  • Trubisky spoke highly of rookie wide reciever Riley Ridley, who's strung together some strong practices after a hamstring injury delayed his start. "I love throwing to Riley. He's very savvy," he said. "He's like [Wims] a lot where he can run the whole route tree. We can put him in a lot of different spots and as a rookie and in his first year in this offense he picked up really quickly. You can tell he's got a high football IQ. He studies a lot, he's very competitive. He wants it really bad. And you love to see that as a quarterback." 
  • Both Elliot Fry and Eddie Pineiro were 6 of 8 on the day. 

 

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