Bears Mailbag -- How Will Bill Lazor's Past With Andy Dalton Help?

It certainly has been a whirlwind since last week: Teams have reported to training camp, Aaron Rodgers and the Packers came to an "agreement" to give themselves one last season together in Green Bay, and the NFL sent out a blistering set of COVID-19 related warnings.

For the Chicago Bears, they reported to training camp yesterday and held their first practice (with Justin Fields taking all the reps).  Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace met the media, and Eddie Goldman officially reported to camp.  We covered all of this on last night's Club Dub (@clubdub_podcast) show.

With the first practice open to the media today (Wednesday), expect more updates to stream through as we get started. With that, let's reach into this week's "Football is back!" Bears Mailbag.  Follow me on Twitter @DhruvKoul to continue the conversation.

Bears Mailbag

Robert Schmitz of Windy City Gridiron on Twitter made a very good point yesterday, and I'm paraphrasing: The Bears ran two different playbooks/offenses in 2020 when Mitch Trubisky (who did very few things well) played vs. when Nick Foles (who did very few OTHER things well) played.  That put a ton of stress on the OL, WRs, TEs and even coaching staff.  When two QBs who are so, so different and have zero overlap in skill are playing meaningful snaps, it can be challenging. What the Bears get in Andy Dalton and Justin Fields are two QBs who, while obviously different physically and athletically, do have overlap in skillsets.  Both *can move* (Foles was a total statue), and execute similar passing concepts.  This helps the Bears moving forward for if one of the QBs gets hurt, or if they decide to press forward with Fields mid-season. That said, Bill Lazor's past with Dalton certainly helps the Bears design an offense/scheme that will benefit Dalton, and therefore, both QBs.  I do not expect them to dust off the Cincinnati playbook because the supporting cast is different.  But the Bears have made it clear they expect to commit to the run in 2021 with all of their additions (heavy OL addition, signing Jesse James as TE3, adding two additional RBs).  That can only help as the Bears try to settle in and take a bottom-caliber offense and try to move it to at least average in Year 1 of the Post-Trubisky era.

Cornerback is the most important position on defense in today's NFL, and when the Bears released Kyle Fuller, they certainly weakened a strong spot.  Jaylon Johnson is the undisputed CB1 on this team.  However, the Bears have intriguing battles on hand for the CB2 and NB spots. Desmond Trufant is a solid veteran corner who has had a nice career.  But health issues have plagued him lately.  Kindle Vildor struggled somewhat in coverage in 2020 as a rookie, but he showed strong instincts and tackling ability -- most notably in a crucial win in Minnesota.  The Bears have high hopes for Vildor and said yesterday in their press conference that they certainly expect him to push for the CB2 job.  In veteran minicamp earlier this summer, Vildor reportedly looked good.  That's a good sign. At nickel, it appeared that Duke Shelley had the minicamp edge over Thomas Graham Jr. earlier this summer.  However, keep in mind that TGJ did not play in 2020 and that was a key reason he dropped in the draft.  He's a very solid NB who should absolutely see playing time in 2021.  I do expect him to eventually supplant Shelley once he settles in, because I see him as the more talented option to do so.