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Chicago Bears training camp gets off to a strong start
FOX 32's Lou Canellis and Cassie Carlson deliver a live report from Chicago Bears' training camp at the team's first open practice.
LAKE FOREST, Ill. - The Chicago Bears overhauled their offense this offseason. Through all those changes, the Bears could have opted for a veteran quarterback to place behind Caleb Williams as a mentor.
The Bears did not go that route, placing their trust in second-year quarterback Tyson Bagent.
The thought of that happening didn't occur to Bagent, in any way. He was, well, preoccupied.
"I didn't really think too much about it," Bagent said Friday after training camp practice. "I was too busy grinding my absolute face off in the offseason."
"Grinding my face off" includes mind-boggling, exhausting-to-hear and borderline unbelievable birthday workouts that Bagent does with his best friend Derek Gallagher.
This year, it was burpee broad jumps for one mile. So, that's a burpee that then turns into a long jump. Bagent and Gallagher did that for a mile down a street from Gallagher's backyard to the river and back.
It's exhausting to read that. But, that's not the only workout Bagent has done to celebrate a birthday.
"Last year, it was a birthday 5K," Bagent said, recalling the workouts. "A 1000-meter burpee broad jump, 1000-meter row, 1000-meter backward sled drag, 1000-meter sandbag run, 1000-meter backwards run."
Bagent's background was extensively covered this season when he took over for an injured Justin Fields. His dad is a champion arm wrestler, which leads to his affinity for tough workouts.
However, the drive behind these kinds of mind-boggling workouts goes beyond just celebrating a birthday.
There's a football reason behind it, too.
"There's been a lot of people in my life that have been stationed in my life along the way," Bagent said. "I might not be getting better necessarily at football when I'm doing a workout like that. However, just the mental edge that it gives me, finding out what I can endure versus what the next man can endure in a sense gives me a little mental edge. When I show up to things like this and people start complaining about our schedule, I can kind of have somewhere in the back of my head that I've done things far worse than this."
That's the guy backing up Caleb Williams, and the player the Bears placed their faith in to back up the No. 1 overall pick and the future of the franchise.
Still, this begs a follow-up question: what do you eat after a workout like that?
"Shout out to Shepherdstown, West Virginia, went to Betty's restaurant," Bagent said. "I think I just got six eggs and bacon with some toast."
Camp report: Bears offense, Caleb Williams overcome penalties to shine in first padded practice
Here's Friday's update from the first padded practice at Halas Hall, which included a two-minute drill where the offense clicked in an electrifying fashion.