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Chicago Bears training camp stories that won't matter
Inevitably there are going to be stories that pop up that are pretty worthless to follow as Bears fans.
These stories will be trumped up and Lovie Smith will be asked the same questions over and over. These are going to be the same questions that get asked about day in and day out until the start of the season.
You'll also get the same answer from Lovie Smith that you get every year when there are these types of empty stories to follow.
First story that will get an overwhelming level of unneeded coverage is how healthy is Brian Urlacher.
The question will be asked every day that Urlacher sits out and every day that Urlacher doesn't work out with the first team. The line of questioning will go something like this
"Brian Urlacher sat out from practice today, is this a typical veteran's day off"
The answer will come something like this "Brian Urlacher's knee is 100% he was given a veteran's day off, I don't think we need to worry about Brian Urlacher he's a 13-year veteran, he knows what he's doing and he'll be ready to go to start the season."
This question will get asked a lot no matter how often or little Urlacher works out with the team. This "story" won't become a story unless Urlacher misses the opener against the Colts. However expect to be an ongoing question throughout training camp.
Next story or question that will come up over and over again: "How important/great is it to have Matt Forte back and signed to a contract extension?" "Well Matt is an important part of our offense and a great part of our team. He's a great player and we're excited to have him back and a part of our football team again. The follow up to that will be: "Do you think there will be any lingering bad feelings or problems after this contract problem between the Bears and Forte?" Lovie's answer will come "No Matt's a professional, the issue is now a non-issue, Matt's a part of our football team and we're happy to have him here for another four years at least. We're moving forward with our football team and our focus now is winning football games."
The next non-story is going to come as a bit of a shock to most Bears fans because it's the story that is being talked about most, the left tackle battle.
Chris Williams and J'Marcus Webb are battling for the starting LT and will be battling for that job until week three of the pre-season. A starter won't be named until then because the third pre-season game serves as the dress rehearsal for the start of the regular season. The third pre-season game is the game that the starters play in the longest, so who ever starts that game will likely be the starter in week one.
That means there's five weeks of training camp between training camp before the Bears decide on who will be the starter. There is no concern about naming a starter sooner for the unit to come together, for the unit to jell and develop chemistry.
What's important is the coaching staff getting as much time as possible to evaluate who will be the starter. No reason at all to name a starter as soon as possible but that's the type of speculation we'll get from now until a starter is named.
Another story that will trickle out will be Julius Peppers schooling both Williams and Webb at LT during training camp. Peppers is one of the best pass rushers in the NFL and will easily and consistently beat any LT the Bears run out there during camp. No judgment of future success can be made by who doesn't block Julius Peppers the best throughout camp.
I'm sure there will be a few more insignificant stories that come up during camp that will be talked about and discussed for a few days on end. These stories however I'm certain will come up in the first week and take focus away from far more important aspects of camp that need to be asked about and analyzed.
