Mini-camp Won’t Tell Us That Much

Matt Bowen at the Chicago Tribune runs through things he wants to see about Marc Trestman’s new offensive and defensive schemes and personnel during this week’s minicamp.  Amongst the things he’s curious about are how Trestman and offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer will use new tight end Martellus Bennet.

“With Bennett, and second-year pro Evan Rodriguez, the Bears can bring their Ace personnel (two receivers, two tight ends, one back) on the field to create matchups versus base defensive fronts and try to exploit the second level of the defense. There will be opportunities here for [quarterback JayCutler to use the tight end to beat up the middle of the field.”

Only if they can run the ball with that personnel.  If both Bennett and Rodriguez can block well enough to force an opponent to use a base scheme against that personnel, they’ll be able to do something.  But as of now if I’m a defensive coordinator, the Bears will rarely see a full compliment of linebackers against that personnel.  Certainly not in anything that looks even close to a passing situation.

The problem is that you won’t really be able to evaluate that in a mini camp.  The Bears won’t really know what they have until the players get out of shorts and start hitting people.

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