Newcomers vie for starting center position at Bears training camp

CHICAGO (CBS) –The Chicago Bears put on the pads for the first time this training camp on Friday and the energy levels were up, especially considering it was also the first practice fully open to fans.

"We're all in pads, finally. The offensive and defensive line especially have been anticipating this moment," said backup quarterback Tyson Bagent. "It's still the start of camp, so I think guys are out there really competing. Everybody's body feels pretty good right now, and yeah, you kind of expect that, especially with a team that's looking to compete this year and make some things happen."

Maybe the most intense battle in camp is at center where a pair of newcomers, Ryan Bates and Coleman Shelton, who are in a friendly fight for the starting job.

"Bates is a great player," said Shelton. "We're in there together every day. We both come in at the same time and we're helping each other out because that only helps the team out, so every day we're in here learning together, we're working together and we're striving to be the best we can be."

Bates said, "We all love each other in the room. Times like during training camp is when you build that chemistry, that shared [suffering]. Everyone's trying to win the job at the end of the day, but we're all trying to make each other better."

Even if the competition is friendly, it can still be stressful competing for their livelihoods every day unless they come in with Bates' mindset.

"Honestly, I wake up every day and, excuse my language, I just say 'F--- it,'" he said. "Whatever happens happens. You can't worry about making a mistake. You can't worry about stepping on eggshells. You gotta go."

Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams got in the middle of a little skirmish between defensive lineman DeMarcus Walker and a couple of offensive teammates. Bates said he loves that mentality for a quarterback, but Williams maybe needs to be smart about it.

Bagent works hard in offseason to gain "edge"

Last year, Tyson Bagent was competing for a backup job as an undrafted rookie. This year, he's preparing to play behind Caleb Williams with four games under his belt as a starting quarterback.

The intensity of Friday's practice was nothing compared to what Bagent put himself through this summer. He said he didn't have time to worry about the Bears signing another veteran quarterback because he was too busy absolutely grinding his "face off."

He and and one of his best friends attempted a one-mile burpee broad jump, which took them an hour and seven minutes, Bagent said.

"I ate a lot after," he said and shouted out Betty's Restaurant in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, where he ordered six eggs, bacon, and toast.

Bagent explained that while he might not necessarily be getting better at football with such offseason training, "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 have somewhere in the back of my head that I've done things far worse than this, that I can handle really anything that's thrown at me."

He acknowledged doing burpees and broad jumps for a mile is a little crazy and he would even receive some weird looks from people as he did them. But as he said, it's all about the mental edge.

Bagent also said he's trying to share some of his experience as a second-year QB with Williams, although more about what he's seen on the field, and not as much about burpees.