Not so fast on ignoring practice stats says one Chicago Bears coach

   

When J.J. Watt isn't being a Brewers fan as a retired NFL star, he's apparently paying a lot of attention to NFL training camps.

Something he said on social media struck a chord with a Chicago Bears player.

Watt had a lengthy Tweet saying "Training Camp “stats” are insane and ridiculous.

"Used to think it was always just people joking, but now seeing them seriously reported. You have no idea what the purpose of that period is, what the goals are, what the context is, etc."

By that, he's referring to some team periods address specific down and distance or situations.

"It could be a strictly 3rd & Long blitz period where every play is skewed to the defenses advantage," he wrote on "X.

 

"Coaches could be asking the QB to focus specifically on one route concept," he added. "DLine may be focusing only on bull rushes one day or just speed rushes for one period."

He got a bit carried away with the length of this tweet.

"More importantly, practice is for practicing," he wrote. "You’re supposed to fail. You’re supposed to try new things, see what works and what doesn’t work, etc. If you only do what works, you’ll never grow, adapt, change."

It almost seems obvious Watt is referring to the talk about Caleb Williams' throws, but it could be Jordan Love, J.J. McCarthy or any number of NFL quarterbacks.

One who at least saw it and considered it a viable comment was none other than Williams himself, as he retweeted Watt's comment.

All of this sounds easy to go along with, especially at this stage of Bears practices. There will be so many more passes thrown in practice and preseason before anything matters, so what is an interception or two or even eight straight incompletions like in one 7-on-7 by Williams on Friday.

However, Williams' own offensive coordinator admits there is importance to those training camp passing statistics in practice.

"We track everything, we track all of it," Declan Doyle said after Friday's pratice. "The biggest thing is you track it and you give it to them so you know, 'Hey, we're below our standard right now.' That information is really helpful."

Whether the standard for practice is the same as the 70% completion mark Ben Johnson set forth or Williams this year isn't certain. It could be different because they're looking at so much in camp and practice situationally.

"It's just something that we'll track throughout camp," Doyle said. "Obviously, that's our benchmark and our goal. That's the biggest thing; we have to track all of it and make sure our players are aware of what we're going to ask of them.”

What was also interesting was how Doyle said they were even keeping track of the numbers from 7-on-7 besides full-team scrimmage.

“We track anytime we're in a team period," Doyle said. "So, it could be seven-on-seven as well. Anytime we're going live, everything's getting tracked.”

If that's the case, maybe Watt and even Williams shouldn't be so dismissive of the concern over the practice numbers.

Imitating Allen Iverson by saying "it's practice, man," just doesn't cut it at this stage for the Bears.