4 things we learned at the Chicago Bears rookie mini-camp, including inspiration from Ja’Tire Carter from his late brother – Reading Eagle

The Chicago Bears spent their second day of mini-camp newcomers Saturday at Lake Forest. The draft class of 11 people continued to study the rope in a group of 69 players, which also included 16 newcomers without a draft contract and a horde of test players.

Here are four things we learned.

1. Line striker Ja’Tire Carter continues to honor the memory of his deceased brother.

Carter, one of three seventh-round choices, arrived at Halas Hall this week with wide-open eyes. He is from a single-light city in White Castle, Louise, and traveled to the NFL through Southern University in the NCAA Football Division division.

So when he came to the bears headquarters for a mini-beginner camp, it was an experience.

“Crazy,” Carter said. “It was a spectacle, man. Just from where I come from, from a small school to high school and college, it was a lot to take in. ”

Offensive battle in the South, Carter begins the transition to Guard and has to fight the next four months to earn a spot on the list. He said he pushes himself every day in honor of his older brother Artel, who died in a car crash while Ja’Tyre was in high school.

The accident happened a few days before graduating from Artel High School, Carter said. The two were teammates in high school – Artel played on the defensive line – and also played basketball and participated in athletics with each other.

“I take it wherever I go,” Carter said. “He’s just helping me keep going. … He is in my heart. Wherever I went, he was right there. He has a special place. “

Carter described his older brother as a quiet guy who was “cool to everyone.”

“He was a good kid,” he said. “It was a pity it happened.”

2. Line striker Braxton Jones is trying to stay in line with his recovery process after a year full of football and training.

Jones, chosen by the Bears in the fifth round, comes from the Southern Utah program, which played the spring and fall seasons in 2021.

FCS teams, such as Southern Utah, played spring games after the 2020 season was thwarted by COVID-19. This means that Jones, who followed the spring season by starting 11 autumn games from the left, had a short break in football for more than a year, including spending the last few months preparing for the draft.

Jones said maintaining consistency in his recovery process will be key as he continues his work at the mini-camp and then hosted team events this month.

“This weekend has been a little harder with this,” he said, “in terms of schedule a little more stressful, and you won’t necessarily have that much time to recover. But you can still get it there.

“The most important thing for me is to make sure that I stay up to date with these things and really make sure that I spend my time recovering. Because it’s very important, especially knowing that it won’t stop anytime soon and that we’re just going to pick up and keep going over the course of the season. ”

Jones, one of four offensive linemen the Bears drafted on the third day, said his main goal this weekend was to show he could be trained.

“When the coach tells you that your first step is slow, you go there again and again and try to fix that first step,” he said. “For me it was a big thing, even yesterday, just the first step was too slow and behind, so I wasn’t gaining enough position to get to where I needed to be.

“Some of these guys, when I come to training camp, will be much faster than now. So it’s very important to just be able to coach and understand, look at the coach and think, “Yeah, I get it”. I can pick it up. And then I can translate it on the field. “

3. Defense coordinator Alan Williams says the two defenders, who were drafted by the Bears in the second round, like a lot.

Williams gave his intelligence reports on Washington cornerstone quarterback Kyler Gordon and Pennsylvania security defender Jacuan Brisker, whom the Bears chose under the 38th and 49th elections.

It started with Gordon’s size: 6 feet, 194 pounds.

“Thickness. He’s not a weak guy. He’s a fat guy, ”Williams said. “And then those attributes that mom and dad gave him. He has speed. He has the right temperament, which we like. He is athletic. He runs. And then we look at football IQ. He is instinctive.

“And then you move on to what he did on tape. Sticky in coating. At the top of the route he stays in touch. And then he finished the play, and the most important thing is that in the moment of truth he makes a play.

Williams said Brisker caused a “huge yes” from several people at the Bears’ intelligence and coaching staff when they were evaluating the players. Williams then used one of coach Matt Eberflus’s abbreviations in his description of Brisker.

“(Eberflus) would say M&M. He would say engine and evil, ”Williams said. “And then he would say he has speed, he has instincts, he has a strike. That’s what we saw on the tape. “

4. Williams seeks to take full control of the defense.

Yes, Eberflus is a defense-minded coach who has spent the last four seasons as the coordinator of the Indianapolis Colts, and he has a certain philosophy and a clear vision of how he wants his defense to work.

But Williams will gain autonomy to run his own show and was grateful to his boss for that freedom.

“He was an A-plus,” Williams said of Eberflus. “I don’t know if many people could do it – have defensive experience and let someone else go and put their stamp on things. But so far he has done so. I can’t say how much I appreciate it. “

For the past four seasons, Williams has worked under Eberflus as a coach for the Colts. So it’s not as if he came to Halas Hall to make drastic changes or offer a major overhaul. The Bear Protection Foundation will be incredibly similar to what Eberflus ruled in Indianapolis.

“The foundations of what we’ve been doing have been around for a very long time,” Williams said. “And (Eberflus) kind of stayed away so I could put my stamp on it so I could put my identity into it. I praise him for that.

“At every meeting and every practice he doesn’t look over my shoulder where I should go: ‘Oh, am I right?’ He kind of kept to the side and said, “Alan, take it, run it, build it, do it.” Put your stamp on it. ” And then he seemed to be left behind. “

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