Josh Sitton not worried about missing first week: ‘Camp's too long anyways'

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BOURBONNAIS. Ill. — This is Josh Sitton’s 10th year in the NFL, and he’s been named to Pro Bowls as both a right and left guard. So if there’s anyone on the Bears who could take a week off from training camp and be totally fine, it’s probably him.

Sitton, after the birth of his daughter, joined the Bears for his first practice at Olivet Nazarene University on Wednesday.

“I think training camp’s too long anyways,” Sitton said. “Missing a week, I think I’ll be just fine.”

Sitton is making the switch back to right guard, where he began his career with the Green Bay Packers and which culminated with being named to his first Pro Bowl in 2012. The Packers flipped him to left guard after the 2012 season, and he’s been to back-to-back-to-back Pro Bowls from that position in the last three years.

The switch isn’t necessarily an easy one, Sitton explained, given that he has to re-train some of his muscle memory for being on the other side of the offensive line.

“When you do something on one side of the ball for so long, your body just gets used to it,” Sitton said. “It takes a while to train it. Little things, hand placement, missing by an inch or two, your footwork, missing by an inch or two. It takes time to build that muscle memory back.”

The Bears’ interior offensive line — Sitton, Cody Whitehair and Kyle Long — should be the backbone of this team in 2017, provided Long is back to 100 percent (or close enough to 100 percent to be effective). That trio was a strength last year, despite Whitehair being moved from guard to center and Sitton being signed all about a week before the season opener.

There’s still plenty of time for the Bears’ offensive line to take shape between now and Sept. 10, but having that trio of players rolling together earlier could help make this unit even stronger. But for now, offensive line coach Jeremiah Washburn didn’t sound worried about all the rotating he’s had to do with his units.

“It’s a good part of training camp to be able to do that, to be able to mix and match,” Washburn said. “You guys saw it last year with this group — there were new starters about every week so you want to get these guys used to playing next to each other, communicating with each other, different calls. So for us, we’re excited to get those guys eventually, but right now it’s good for the group in terms of mixing and matching lineups.”

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