Dexter Lawrence made life difficult for Caleb Williams and the Bears offense but here’s why this shouldn’t be cause for concern
Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence had a dominant day during Thursday’s joint practice against the Chicago Bears and it’s not as big of an issue as it initially seems for the Bears’ offense.
The Chicago Bears were hoping to see a strong performance from quarterback Caleb Williams and the rest of the offense during Thursday’s joint practice against the Cincinnati Bengals, but one man had other plans for how things would go.
That man is the Bengals’ new star defensive lineman, Dexter Lawrence, who was easily the most dominant player out on the field during today’s joint practice. Lawrence was eating through double teams, had some run stops, had a tipped interception, and probably would have had multiple sacks had this been a real game.
He was a menace, and one the Bears’ interior had no answers for. That caused a little bit of panic among the fanbase based on the initial reactions, but let’s talk about why this isn’t the end of the world.
Dexter Lawrence has seemingly been dominating everyone at Bengals’ training camp
Lawrence’s domination against Chicago’s offense was exactly what the Bengals wanted to see out of the three-time Pro Bowler to validate the team’s massive investment it took to acquire him. It’s something they’ve been seeing against its own offense throughout training camp, but seeing it against the Bears proved his play is legit.
“It was [expletive] great,” Bengals center Ted Karras said after practice, via Jay Morrison. “It validated a lot of my insecurities.”
To ease more concerns for the Bears’ fans out there, I spoke with our Bengals beat writer John Sheeran to really get an idea of how much of a one-man wreaking ball Lawrence has been since arriving in Cincinnati.
“Lawrence has been making life a living hell for the Bengals’ offense these last four weeks. Karras is known as one of the most steady pass protectors at his position and has enough grown-man strength to handle most nose tackles. Lawrence has been schooling him practically every day.
He’s been getting by as a pass-rusher with both sheer force and quick hands. He’s been nearly impossible to clear out in the run game. Simply put, he’s been practicing like a man on a mission. I think Karras and Co. were so excited to finally watch Lawrence go up against another team for once, and Lawrence took advantage by the sound of it.”
We knew this would be a big battle to watch, especially for veteran center Garrett Bradbury
Ahead of this practice, Sheeran and I actually listed Lawrence against center Garrett Bradbury as one of the top head-to-head battles to watch. Bradbury quickly solidified himself as Chicago’s starting center heading into Week 1, but a big concern throughout his career has been his ability to hold up against stout, violent, defensive tackles.
For a player that’s looked “flawless” since arriving to Chicago, we finally got to see his biggest flaw on display. However, this has been a known concern in Bradbury’s game and I’m not going to drop this stock after this or call for rookie Logan Jones to take his spot. Bradbury isn’t going to face Dexter Lawrence every single week and he’s still the right man for this job heading into the regular season.
“It’s a daily thing,” Bradbury said in his last press conference earlier in camp. “There’s going to be ups and there’s going to be downs. I have a lot of pride and confidence in myself and the operation of playing center. I take a lot of pride in making sure all five guys are on the same page, tight ends, running backs, that they’re included. So the more I learn this system, the more confident I can be and that’s just — we play as a unit.”
Ideally, the Bears would have a better plan in place for Dexter Lawrence in a live game setting
The biggest thing about this situation is that there was no true game planning for this practice and having Lawrence wreck havoc all day was good experience for the Bears to deal with and learn from. In a real game week, the Bears would have a plan in place to scheme away from a guy like that and prevent him from dominating the way that he did.
“He’s a force to be reckoned with,” Williams told reporters after practice. “That’s something where you go into a game week that you plan for him, you plan to execute against him and doing things that aren’t necessarily in his favor… Obviously, with it being practice, you’re not scheming players. You’re going out there and executing and not scheming fully. That’s something that we’ll do throughout the weeks.”
The other thing to note is that in a real game, Williams will be able to put on the Superman cap, evade, and create something special out of a broken play if Lawrence comes barreling down the middle of the pocket.
“I think we played him pretty well,” Lawrence said of Williams. “He had to run a lot, we got him off his spot. But, he’s a competitor. I think he’s a special quarterback and in the middle of the practice, he caught a little fire.”
I get how things seem concerning after the day Lawrence had against Williams and the Bears’ offense. But, I’m not concerned in the slightest until something of this magnitude happens again during a real game in the regular season. Then we can talk about it.
