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Practice? We talking about practice?
Caleb Williams was, dropping this gem of a quote to open up the third episode of Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Chicago Bears on Tuesday.
“Practice is harder than the game,” Williams told head coach Matt Eberflus, laughing, when asked what he learned from his preseason matchup against the Buffalo Bills.
It sure seemed that way when Williams dazzled fans with a brilliant downfield pass to Rome Odunze and a pair of fantastic scrambles later in that drive against the Cincinnati Bengals, the second of which resulted in a touchdown run. The sequence was featured toward the end of Tuesday’s episode.
It wasn’t the most memorable moment of the episode, however. That distinction belonged to backup quarterback Austin Reed, who crushed rookie karaoke with an unexpected Keyshia Cole performance.
Tyson Bagent’s father, who was mic’ed up during the Bengals game, was also a big hit:
On the more newsy side, the episode offered a behind-the-scenes look at the team’s pursuit of edge-rusher Matthew Judon, who was ultimately traded to the Atlanta Falcons.
There were reports that the New England Patriots received an offer of a third-round pick from both the Bears and Falcons and allowed Judon to choose his destination, though the edge-rusher denied the story, telling reporters “Don’t believe everything you read or everything you see.”
Albert Breer @AlbertBreer
One addendum to the Patriots/Falcons trade of last week: New England, believing the Bears and Falcons were in a similar category, and with third-round offers from both, gave OLB Matthew Judon his choice of being dealt to Atlanta or Chicago.<br><br>Judon, obviously, picked Atlanta.
Regardless, during Tuesday’s episode Bears general manager Ryan Poles expressed reluctance to pull the trigger on a trade with New England unless the team had an extension agreed upon with Judon, who was a hold-in with the Patriots this summer while seeking an extension.
“I don’t want to get the club in a position where we have a player that’s here, we’ve given up a draft pick, and we haven’t had a resolution on a contract,” he said.
Chris Maltby @ChrisMaltbyBD
Good to see HBO’s Hard Knocks shining a light on the <a href=” aggression to move up and get DE Austin Booker.<br><br>After missing out on Matthew Judon, Chicago is going to need someone to step up alongside Montez Sweat on the defensive line.<br><br>Here’s to hoping Booker can be that guy.
His reaction to Judon ultimately being moved to Atlanta was also captured by NFL Films.
“If he has 20 sacks or something, yeah, it’ll make me sick,” Poles told Bears director of football administration Matt Feinstein.