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Bears Camp Stock Report July 23: Offense

Mitchell Trubisky breaks the huddle during Sunday’s practice.
Image Credit Will Ingalls (Da Bears Brothers)

The last four days have been an absolute whirlwind. At least one Bears Brother was on hand to cover each of the last three open practices with a ton of content being produced by the team as a whole.

However, it can be easy to lose sight of how certain players are doing overall. Some players excelled on Saturday but struggled on Sunday and visa versa. This stock report will take every practice into account and give a current standing on where each player stands with less than 10 days to go until the first preseason game.

Stock Up ?

Kevin White: If you didn’t see our tweet that was featured on Bleacher Report, here is a refresher:

Splash play aside, White has been making his presence known on a consistent basis. He has especially excelled on short and intermediate routes. Additionally, White consistently created separation and made quick transitions from catch to moving upfield.
Health will always be the concern with White, but he has never looked this prolific at any point of his NFL career.



Anthony Miller: Most receivers need to improve their route running between the college and the NFL level. Miller has proven to be an incredible exception to that rule.
His ability to win with his first step is comparable to the early years of Chad Johnson … before all the name changes.
Miller has made a habit of humiliating Chicago’s defensive backs. He’s broken plenty of ankles, regardless of skill level. Even Kyle Fuller and Prince Amukamara have been put on skates by Miller’s footwork and clean breaks.
The rookie has looked borderline unstoppable during his first week of NFL action.
Jordan Howard: Most people more or less blew off Howard’s claims of becoming a better receiver over the offseason.
Those same people picked their collective jaws up off the floor as Howard hauled in nearly every pass thrown his way in team drills.
Additionally, Howard is continuing to work on his craft during special teams segments with every free period being dedicated towards more catching drills.

The Bears offense only gets better if Howard can translate his impressive camp to gameday success.
James Daniels: While receiving most of his looks with the second group at guard and third group at center, Daniels has shown he belongs in the NFL.
The rookie has shown dominance once he gets his hands on the defender which is impressive considering he’s a bit undersized.
His athleticism has also shined in the opening days of training camp with the Bears placing a heavy emphasis on the screen game.
Colin Thompson: This player looked like someone John Fox would sign.
He caught three passes in his senior year at Temple and was almost exclusively used as a blocking tight end.
From the onset, he looked like the often used buzzword, “camp body.”
Then he caught a pass, then two passes, then four passes, and looked agile despite his solid 6-foot-4, 257-pound frame.
The tight end room was stacked going into camp, and Thompson is only making the race for the final roster spot tighter and more intriguing.

Stock Down ?

Mitch Trubisky: This was an extremely difficult pick for this category.
2017 Trubisky and the Trubisky that showed up in training camp are two entirely different players, all for the better.
His leadership and command of the huddle have completely transformed in the last nine months, and his footwork has improved tremendously.
However, despite these improvements, it was hard to walk away from camp with an overwhelmingly (and completely) positive outlook on Trubisky’s performance.
He’s struggled with accuracy during stretches of camp, especially when it comes to the deep ball. Many open receivers downfield haven’t been able to punish the defense because Trubisky has left the majority of his deep ball short.
Here’s a prime example:

Additionally, Trubisky’s decision making has left something to be desired as well. A few of his interceptions in practice could have been easily avoided either by releasing the ball earlier, checking it down, or throwing it away.
Is it harsh to hold Trubisky to a near perfect standard? Perhaps …
However, he is a second overall pick, and this team is built to go as far as Trubisky takes them. Ryan Pace went all out to stack the team with a coaching staff and weapons to cultivate Trubisky’s success. To this point, there hasn’t been an acceptable return on investment.
That said, there are plenty of reasons to believe Trubisky won’t be on this list by the end of camp.
Three of Trubisky’s first four days at Bourbonnais were plagued with sloppy conditions, he is learning an entirely new offense, is still establishing a connection with many of the weapons that Pace placed on the team, and the Bears defense has played extremely well as a unit.
Remember, the defense often reigns supreme at the start of training camp.
Trubisky undoubtedly has the talent to be Chicago’s savior at quarterback, but he needs to start translating that talent from good plays to good drives, and good drives into good games.



Taylor Gabriel: Many of Chicago’s centerpieces have made a handful of memorable plays at camp to this point.
The aforementioned play by Kevin White at the top of the article, a tremendous diving catch by Allen Robinson, a number of screen plays taken for huge gains by Tarik Cohen, and a fair amount of intermediate balls hauled in by Dion Sims, Trey Burton, and Adam Shaheen.
However, Gabriel has failed to make the same impression that many of his teammates have. Part of that has to do with Trubisky’s struggle with the deep ball, but the Bears aren’t paying Gabriel $6 million a year to be a one-trick pony.
Here’s hoping the coming weeks see a more healthy dose of Gabriel running more than fly routes.
Benny Cunningham: Despite many expecting Cunningham to be a roster lock due to his special teams value and ability to execute the two-minute offense, the sixth-year pro hasn’t seen a ton of reps to this point.
A majority of the reps that Cunningham would get have gone to Taquan Mizzell who was considered a long shot for the 53-man roster at the beginning of camp.
However, Mizzell has looked explosive in his opportunities while Cunningham has often looked average.
Cunningham won’t get beat out by Mizzell when it comes to special team value, but the fact that he’s losing so many reps on offense does bring pause to his roster security.
Charles Leno Jr: To put it bluntly, Leno has struggled to start camp.
He’s given up a number of pressures to Leonard Floyd, and he hasn’t impressed in run blocking either.

Leno has carved out a role as a solid left tackle, but the first four days of camp have been mediocre by his standard.
Chase Daniel: There was never a question that Daniel’s value on this roster was as a mentor to Mitch Trubisky. However, his performance in camp has definitely not been leading by example.
A number of passes from Daniel have been grossly off target, and he’s had a habit of holding onto the ball far too long.
No one should want Daniel to start a game, but he’s offered very little confidence that he could lead the Bears to victory in a relief performance.
Check back tomorrow for the defense’s stock report!

Will DeWitt

Will is the founder and host of The Chicago Audible podcast.

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