First-year offenses are almost always a work in progress — especially with the Bears. But already, the veterans in new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s offense are raising the bar.
Asked for a realistic timeline for the Bears to get “comfortable” in Waldron’s offense — with a rookie at quarterback in Caleb Williams — wide receiver DJ Moore didn’t hesitate.
“Tomorrow,” he said.
‘Yeah, now,” tight end Cole Kmet said.
They weren't kidding. And even though the Bears’ offense won’t be in full stride in Saturday’s opening practice, Moore’s and Kmet’s responses set the tone. They don’t expect this to be a 17-game process.
“The urgency — we’ve got to get this thing going quickly. There’s not going to be time to meander through this thing,” said Kmet, who played in slow-developing offenses under Matt Nagy in 2020-21 and Luke Getsy in 2022-23. “We’ve got to operate at a high level. We’ve got to really take advantage of our walk-throughs … at night. The better we are through these things, the faster we will be on game day. But it’s got to happen quickly.”
Moore just turned 27, but feels the urgency as well. He’s never been on an offense ranked higher than 18th in scoring since his first season in the NFL in 2018.
“We’ve all gotta come together as quickly as possible,” said Moore, who had career-highs with 96 receptions, 1,364 yards and eight touchdowns with the Bears last season. “We all do different things in the receiver room. The tight ends do different things. Got a new quarterback. The running backs — we’ve got [D’Andre] Swift with. Roschon [Johnson] and Khalil [Herbert]. Everybody’s gotta start to mesh and they’ve gotta start [Saturday] when we get on the field.”
Veteran tight end Gerald Everett will start training camp on the NFI (non-football injury) list, which is for players who suffered injuries outside of NFL activities. The Bears did not say how long they expected Everett to be out. He signed a two-year, $12 million contract ($6.1 million guaranteed) in free agency this year.
Rookie offensive tackle Kiran Amegadjie, the Bears’ third-round draft pick from Yale, is on the NFI list. Amegadjie, a Hinsdale Central product, is recovering from a partially torn quad muscle he suffered at Yale last October.
Amegadjie did not participate in the offseason program following the draft. Coach Matt Eberflus was hopeful he would be ready by training camp. General manager Ryan Poles was upbeat about Amegadjie’s status — “everything is positive” — though he could not provide a timetable for his return.
Undrafted rookie defensive end Jamree Kromah was removed from the PUP (physically unable to perform) list.
Per the NFL trend, the Bears will ease into training camp. Eberflus indicated the first padded practice will not be until July 27 — the seventh practice of camp.
The Bears will have at most four practices in pads before the preseason opener against the Texans on Aug. 1 in the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio.
After years of resistance, the Bears will be featured on HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” the documentary series produced in conjunction with the NFL.
Which Bear is the most likely star? Linebacker T.J. Edwards picked loquacious defensive end DeMarcus Walker to top his list.
“D-Walk is always a high contender for that,” Edwards said. “We’ve got some characters on this team, so it’ll be fun for people to see their true personalities. And us going out there to grind at camp and seeing the guys who still keep that energy is gonna be a lot of fun.”
