Talk about Fournette was for naught
Tempting as it might have been, the Bears passed on running back Leonard Fournette.
David Montgomery’s groin injury sparked speculation that the Bears would be interested in Fournette, the fourth overall pick of the 2017 draft, who was waived by the Jaguars. But coach Matt Nagy said the Bears were not interested.
“I saw that he was out there,” Nagy said. “Again, we feel very comfortable with where we’re at. I understand [the question]. We explore everything. Ryan [general manager Ryan Pace] and those guys [in personnel] do a great job. They’re always looking at all scenarios and then we talk through things. I’ll just say we really like where we’re at right now with our running back room.’’
Fournette signed with the Buccaneers late Wednesday, reportedly for one year and $3.5 million.
Montgomery was estimated to be out two-to-four weeks when he suffered the injury on Aug. 26, so he could return as early as Wednesday before the opener Sept. 13 against the Lions — though that is not considered a likely scenario.
The Bears have Tarik Cohen, Cordarrelle Patterson, Ryan Nall and Artavis Pierce behind Montgomery on the roster and are expected to use a combination of players to fill the void if Montgomery misses any games.
Miller’s ‘amazing camp’
Anthony Miller turning the mental corner will be one of the most watched narratives as the Bears begin the season. He received another endorsement Wednesday.
“He might have had the best training camp of a lot of players on this team,” Nagy said. “He had an amazing training camp where he was making some mental errors early on, but the best part about Anthony is that when you correct him, he doesn’t make the same mistake twice. And that kid is playing at 110 percent on every single play. He took the challenge and had an awesome camp.”
‘Awesome practice’
Nagy was encouraged by the way the team responded Wednesday after an “average” practice Tuesday. It was the final full practice until the Bears being preparations for the opener against the Lions.
“It was an awesome practice,” Nagy said. “Yesterday — average practice. We talked about it and the players responded. [Wednesday] was one of the best practices we had . . . there was great energy and vibe.”
‘Aggressive and attacking’
The Bears have a new offensive identity this year, with four new
offensive coaches in line coach
Juan Castillo, coordinator Bill Lazor, quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo and tight ends coach Clancy Barone.
“Aggressive and attacking — that’s the mindset for the offense this year,” left tackle Charles Leno said. “We slipped a lot last year on the details things. Just fine-tuning the details and being more attacking and aggressive.
“We were really conservative in a lot of play-calls and stuff like that last year. Even coming from an offensive line perspective, we weren’t really attacking that much as a front five, moving guys off the ball. So we’ll be definitely doing more of that this year.”