Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune brings us up to date on the goings-on at Bears practice:
The Bears spent ample time having the offensive linemen go against defensive linemen, and it wasn’t just one-on-one pass rush. They invested almost an entire period working on combination blocking schemes with a focus on the ground game. Offensive line coach **Dan Roushar** was animated barking out pointers.
“There’s a lot to the run game,” center Drew Dalman said. “There’s a lot of cohesion, there’s a lot of communication, as well as the physical piece, which was on more display today. But we’ve been working on all facets of it since April 7 or whenever our first day (of the offseason program) was. This feels like a step in a long process that we’ve already been undertaking.”
I found this quote to be somewhat reassuring. I keep remembering a media session with head coach Ben Johnson earlier in the offseason when he was asked what he was looking for in the offensive linemen. He was adamant that he was looking for linemen who could pass protect first and that whatever they could do in the run game was icing on the cake. This didn’t sit well with me as an old-fashioned, run first, and play action off of that Bears observer.
Today’s session made me wonder why he said that. He could be just blowing smoke. But assuming he believes it, perhaps Johnson was just addressing what he was looking for at that time, meaning before the players put on pads. That’s reasonable, as movement skills can be evaluated more effectively by looking at pass protection if there’s minimal contact. But I don’t think that’s how the question was phrased.
What really intrigues me is the possibility that he believes that they coach any lineman to run block effectively if they are athletic enough to pass block well. Is that true? I have my doubts. But it’s an interesting thing to consider.