Chicago Bears Hard Knocks Episode 2 Recap: HBO brings us closer to DJ Moore, Keenan Allen and RBs

Intro episode two of HBO's Hard Knocks took us in depth into the running back battle between veis Jones and undrafted rookie Ian wheeler plus it brought us the softer side of DJ Moore and Keenan Allen whose kids definitely stole the show you are locked on Bears your daily Chicago Bears podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day this is locked on bears and I'm your Show Open host Lauren Cox I'm here to bring you your daily in-depth Chicago Bears news and Analysis you can follow me on Twitter at Cox sports1 you can follow the podcast at lockon Bears on Tik Tok Instagram Facebook Twitter and on the lockon Bears YouTube channel that way you can keep up with all of our video podcasts as well thanks for making locked on Bears your first listen today we're part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook make every moment more this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus every day so visit fanduel.com to get started on the show today we recap everything we saw and learned from episode two of the Chicago Bears training camp on HBO's Hard Knocks we'll start with with the big three wide receivers where we got to see a bunch of great practice footage of them running routes against Bears defensive backs and making catches in the back of the end zone for some touchdowns some in-game stuff from them but also behind the scenes and definitely the lighter softer side of Keenan Allen and DJ Moore as dads interacting with their children was really really a joy to see on Hard Knock then we'll turn our attention to the running back room where we got a lot of veis Jones miked up and we got to know undrafted rookie running back Ian wheeler who has is going to medical school when he finishes his career deferred medical school but wants to eventually become a medical doctor it was cool to kind of get to know his story a little bit more and then we'll wrap up with a few nuggets on Caleb Williams that came out of this episode nothing you know Earth shattering but three separate interesting little tidbits we got from him along the way that add to our adds really to the legend and and our understanding of what Caleb Williams is doing as a rookie quarterback but I want to start with the wide receivers cuz that to me felt like the big storyline we got to focus in a lot on in this episode it was Keenan Allen versus Jaylen Johnson at practice we finally got a lot more Jaylen Johnson miked up and got to hear some of his trash talking making plays in there and Allen admitting you know hey I haven't really been able to get a catch on him in practice but I'm going to and you know really kind of challenging him and them going back and forth we saw Roman dun making some nice plays in those practices as well and it felt like you really got to see more of the like practice nuts and bolts of Route running and the Hand fighting between receivers and defensive backs and really like that train that true training camp battling of you know we heard all offseason about iron sharpens iron I mean it's the whole the cliche we've heard over and over and over again about you know great wide receivers going up against Great defensive backs and we finally really got into the Weeds on like yeah all right here's Keenan Allen versus Jaylen Johnson and how Jaylen Johnson's right there to break up passes and how he hangs on with guys and then even in the the Bill's preseason game as as well we got some good Jaylen Johnson moments in there too and DJ Moore as well on the big catch from from Caleb Williams on the Cur route that we all saw like it was a really nice way to to get us Keenan Allen and DJ Moore closer to not only the newest be receiver in in Keenan Allen but also someone who just got a big contract in DJ Moore and and really I think I mean this was kind of what they what they teased you know in the trailer for The episode so you know if you don't have HBO Max or you know could couldn't watch on TV you can get a sense of how this looked you know the tweeted it out I think the Bears tweeted out as well like it was a cool it was a cool section of the episode that you know they put out on social media for free where you can just kind of see a lot of those battles back and forth but even beyond what we got on the field we also really got to know get under the helmet a little bit with these guys and see a lot more personality from Keenan Allen and DJ Moore in particular than what we typically get from them you know on the outside and to me this is what hard KNX is all about cuz we see the jersey number two and number 13 and you know we see the plays they make and maybe they'll get up and point for a first down but even at like press conferences when the helmets and stuff are off you know DJ Moore tends to be a little bit more calm and and quiet and maybe a koi smile on his face and he'll occasionally say something interesting but like Keenan Allen very much business you know he's the veteran talking about making plays and you know it's all very sort of standard by the book you don't really get a lot more about these guys but hard KN was able to mic them up get a lot of footage of them with their children and their their significant others and you really saw this this warmth and this character in each of them that yeah I'm sure you we all sort of assumed I mean they're good people and all that stuff but like you got to see Keenan Allen playing with his kids after practicing his daughters like drying off his face and his head is from the sweat with like a little towel that she had found and he was playing catch with another one of his kids and you know he he was making these nice little one-handed catches sitting down and then you at one point she throws it and hits him like when he's not looking hits him like right in the stomach and he's like oh you know you're lucky daddy's been working on his abs or whatever like it's just these sort of like cute soft moments where it's like oh like Keenan Allen's a dad you know just like just like anyone else like he's they're football players but they're human beings with with families that they love too and then with DJ Moore we got to follow him and his kids and and his I don't I don't know if they're married or what the relationship is his his significant other they went to the Museum of ice cream in Chicago and you got to sort of see him playing with his kids in there they buried him there's a giant like pool of plastic sprinkles that they were all playing and the kids all buried DJ Moore and that and very cute moments there they tried hot dog flavored ice cream on a bun with relish and mustard at the ice cream Museum you know just just the kind of oddities you love to see in hard knock and then they follow that into the Bills game and and you got DJ Moore's kids talking to him on the sideline during warm-ups and coming over and you know seeing the daddies out there and you know rooting for him in the stands and stuff like it was just so cool to be able to get that next level deeper especially as his daughter is cheering you know go Bears and and booing the bills and telling a Bills fan she doesn't want a bills jersey she's Bears all the way like it's that kind of cute behind the scenes stuff that we just don't really get and then we also got a sit down with with radun we got to see adun do karaoke just like they're making all the rookies get up in front of the room at a meeting and do karaoke sing a a Chris Brown song but we also got to see like a really cool sort of character building moment for Rome where a couple of ninth grade football players were at practice and he was talking to them and just like giving them advice about how you know you got to you it's all about preparation and hard work and about how like you got to run the route a thousand times so that nothing that you're doing in the game is ever new you know you practice that catch a thousand times you practice that route a thousand times and then everything will come super easy to you once you actually have to do it on the field and like it wasn't just like platitudes and clich of like work harder and you can do whatever you want in the world but it was like kind of legit like no like this is exactly how and why you do it and this is what I've done and you know you guys are young and can still work at all this stuff and then you know if you do it this way and really put that kind of effort in the preparation like this is the work that it's all about and you know you're going to outwork the guy across from you like it it was very real from radun and we still got to hear from his his mother was miked up during the the Bills game as well so we got to you know we got some of the behind the scenes stuff and the the personality stuff from Rome as well so like I'm just glad that you know after the first episode it was a lot of Caleb Williams a lot of mieo they're obviously the biggest characters here but we wanted to hear more from the Bears receivers as kind of the other big offensive stars and and you know some of the other biggest stars on this team and it was nice that a couple of guys that are a little bit more stoic most of the time in Allen and Moore opened up a little bit whether they knew the cameras were certainly more knew the cameras were there at the ice cream Museum but I think they kind of knew what was going on and were still able to you know not be so buttoned up and kind of let loose a little bit and say hey you know what it's cool and it's all right to to show exactly what you're like as a person off the field and it brings us as fans closer to them as people and as players for us to root for I'm also glad that we finally got to get to know running back's coach Chad Morton and not as much focused on you know we didn't get much DeAndre Swift or Roshan Johnson or k Herbert but we got all in on veis Jones and his transition to running back plus the undrafted rookie Ian wheeler who had a couple touchdowns in the bills preseason game and I think it was pretty raling about veis Jones and also a really cool story with Ian wheeler and finally the the personality of Chad Bon we've been waiting for so lots to get into with the running backs next on locked on [Music] Bears this episode of lockd on Bears is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook we FanDuel might be in the slow part of the sports calendar although now the preseason football starting back up we're really starting to ramp up now but no matter what's going on on your sports day you can be sure there is plenty for you to play with with our friends at FanDuel and this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily that's right there's something for everyone every day all summer long whether you're betting on baseball whether you're betting on the Bears preseason games you get money lines and spreads for that you can bet ahead to week one Bears Titans where bears are still favored about four and a half points in that one you can bet on Matt a as coach of the year candidate Caleb Williams as an offensive Rookie of the Year candidate and so much more all in their that's safe secure and super easy to use so head over to fanduel.com and start making the most out of the rest of your summer FanDuel official sports betting partner of Major League [Music] Baseball the wide receivers was what we really wanted to see from you know the bigger stars getting miked up but on Chad Morton this podcast when we previewed hard knock and said what do we want to see across this season one of the names we were still waiting to hear from was running backs coach Chad Morton because we had heard from the players and certainly heard of training camp practices he's a talker he is a trash talker he likes to get in guys face he likes to but he's also like your friend and a good coach too like he's not just a not just a loudmouth but actually someone who's helping these players get better and pushing them in a lot of ways and so I was glad to see we finally get introduced to him but you know it's not all about the coach in in in hardock they always try and make it about the players and so it was in the context of undrafted rookie Ian wheeler trying to make the team as the you know the sort of the young running back in the and in the context of veis Jones transitioning to running back and it was really a bigger focus on those two didn't get much Travis Homer in that conversation which I found interesting but you know I think Jones and Wheeler are a little bit more of the interesting storylines at this point you know one point the running backs coach Chad Morton told Ian wheeler that he he looked like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh he said somebody was like frowning or he looked mop is like hey you got you know you got to brighten up a little bit you look like eore from way the Poo like just giving him a hard time about you know harm stuff but then also like getting in his face about Hey low lower pads run harder like run through them don't be don't be afraid don't be soft like just go go hit him go be physical and you know and and then encouraging him along the way as he did more and more of that and then the episode kind of builds up to Ian wheeler taking that that coaching and that confidence into the Bills game and having a couple touchdowns and running really hard and of course he also had a bunch of great runs at practice that they were able to capture well that speed really showed up for him there and it was like wow this is this is a cool story of a of a player who's ascending but also they interviewed him and it's like yeah Ian wheeler deferred Acceptance in a medical school got into medical school but really wants to pursue his NFL career first see this out as far as it can go and then he'd like to go become a medical doctor he said he wants to be a psychiatrist in particular but still I thought it was cool to kind of see that coach player relationship and also get to know an undrafted free agent running back that prior to the Bills game you know hadn't been in the spotlight much at all a player kind of buried on a depth chart but making a little bit more of a name for himself and certainly is playing his way under the practice squad at the very least this season and you know putting some good tape out there for the rest of the NFL but I think the guy with a better shot at the roster obviously then is veis Jones and we got some of Chad Morton coaching veis Jones as well but we also got him miked up in the Bills game which had a lot of interesting stuff and on the sideline quite a bit at practice and so you know when they were talking in the coach's room about veis Jones going into running back you know he said something along the lines of you know veis he's got to be in the Playbook he's really got to keep his head in the Playbook so we can do more than just you know the outside runs because I think it's pretty clear like the touchdown he had against the bills right you give him a toss to the outside there's not a lot of like you're not reading gaps per se you know you're not necessarily reading the Run fit of the I mean you are there's reads in the open field but like it's not like you're reading an offensive line at that point when you're tossed out into the flat right there's a couple blockers out in front of you you're reading them it's one or two guys and one or two Defenders but it's just open space kind of like a kickoff return or a punch return at that point whereas like when you're handing it off up the middle maybe you're reading three different gaps and two different linebackers to see which gaps those linebackers fill and then make your cuts off of that and how your blocks are holding up like there's a lot more he needs to be aware of running on the inside there and the running backs coach Chad Morton made that very clear on the front end like yeah his head has got to be in the Playbook and I was I was I don't know if bothered is the right word but it me a little bit like right away when they right after they introduced veis Jones is transitioning to running back he they had him miked up on the sideline of practice and he said yeah I'm with the running backs like I'm Percy Harvin and I I don't know that just struck me as a little bit like getting ahead of yourself I I don't know I'm trying not to be too hard on him because I think everybody's really hard on veis Jones and I'm not trying to say this makes him an idiot or this you know this means he's a loser what I mean but but it just kind of feels like hey man like you you weren't great at wide receiver and now you're trying it out at running back and like I think the thing about Percy Harvin was that like he was a pretty darn effective receiver and a pretty darn effective Return Man and then occasionally got some handoffs as well but like Percy Harvin I mean we don't need to spend a lot of time on Percy Harin but like you look back at Bess Jones his career obviously he was cut short with with injuries and the migraine stuff but like Rookie of offensive Rookie of the Year with the Vikings in 2009 obviously like a first round pick a guy who had over a th yards from scrimmage in his third season had over a th kick return yards as a rookie had five kickoff return touchdowns across his career and had you know multiple seasons of 600 plus yards receiving and then a couple of seasons of over 100 yards rushing including that that 2011 season he had 345 rushing yards and a couple of rushing touchdowns and so like not that bis Jones was necessarily saying I'm as good as Percy Harvard I mean I get he's weing number 12 he's a Return Man wide receiver playing some running back like I get why there's some loose connections there but like I also feel like Bess Jones needs to start by like making the team and providing real value to this roster before you can start comparing yourself in any way to to Percy Harvin I mean like bis Jones in his career has 127 receiving yards and 154 rushing yards and notably no kick return touchdowns has a couple long returns but no no touchdowns there like it's you're qu quite a bit of ways away from Percy Harvin maybe you think you're as fast or as skilled as Percy Harvin but like you got to be able to do it so like again I'm I'm not here to like rip him a new one and you know call him a bum or whatever but like maybe maybe maybe don't jump all the way to Percy Harvin like can we can we step back a little bit to like Tai Montgomery from the Green Bay Packers wide receiver to running back transition like you I don't know just like you don't got to pretend you're pery cover the first time you're playing running back cuz like even he himself then during the Bills game they had him miked up when he took one of the handoffs and I think I think it was actually right after his touchdown at least when hard knock showed we don't know exactly if that was the order it happened in or if that's just how they presented it to us but he was miked up in the Bills game and said I don't even know what I'm looking at yet give me some time and I'm going to be great like just like basically just saying I scored a touchdown but just wait until I actually know what I'm looking at yet you know he's like I don't know what I'm looking at yet like give me some time I'm going to be great like you're admitting like yeah you're learning a brand new position after three days and you still don't even know really what you're looking at yet so like maybe don't compare yourself to Percy Harvin the first time you get put at the running back spot I mean I don't know especially because in that Bills game again talking about Percy Harvin maybe he thinks he's as good a returner as Percy Harin but he muffs that kickoff and they had him miked up on that muffed kickoff and you can you can't hear exactly you can't make out exactly what he yells but like he runs over that kickoff and yell something at Tyler Scott that I I attri attribute to being something along lines of either like like calling it saying hey like get out of the way Scott I got it or just saying hey I got it I got it even though it was a lot closer to Tyler Scott and then well after calling that he got it goes right through his hands hits the ground has to pick it up and like you can't you can't be the guy who's like I got it and then you literally don't got it and you can't be the guy who says I'm like Percy Harvin and then you're like but I still don't know what I'm looking at like something about that just rubs me a little bit the wrong way and I thought it it didn't end up turning out like a great look for vess Jones but they did make him definitely a sympathetic character and someone that we're all rooting for like it's in the best interest of the Bears and like veis seems like a good person like we all want veis Jones to be successful and certainly the running back experiment is something that we're happy to see and hope he can have some success with but like like let's let's do the results first and then maybe some of the talking and the other stuff a little bit later on after that it was nice that episode 2 wasn't quite so Caleb Williams focused from start to finish a lot of Caleb Williams as there should be but like we got to go into some of these other lines with a lot more depth and then we just kind of kept checking in on Caleb Williams and that came away with I I thought there were three particular nuggets two two stronger than than the third but like three things that that I thought was interesting that we gained from Caleb Williams that I want to go through uh including uh potentially an Olympic future some stuff with the referees and maybe a little trickeration from Caleb Williams next on locked on [Music] Bears the locked on bears podcast is Better Help sponsored by betterhelp betterhelp provides online therapy that's here to help you be your best self we all live busy lives with pack schedules whether you got kid activ kids activities or just you know big projects at work or whatever it is in your life it's easy to let your priorities slip and and run out of time to take care of yourself so it's important to have non-negotiables like therapy that really carve out that time so you can be the best version of you both for yourself and also for all those other things on your schedule and all the people in your live that count on you I do online therapy every single week and it's a really important part of my own personal mental health regimen and that's why I highly recommend giving better help a try it's entirely online it's designed to be convenient flexible and suited to your schedule you just fill out a brief questionnaire and then they match you with a licensed therapist and if that therapist is not the right one for you that's fine you can switch therapists at any time for no additional charge so never skip therapy day with better betterhelp visit betterhelp.com Lockton to get 10% off your first month that's betterhelp hp.com slocked [Music] on we did get some good Caleb Williams Caleb Williams stuff which is a prerequisite for every hard KN episode we all at the end of the day Caleb is who we're all tuning in to see first and foremost and we all want to watch his progress his development his growth and maybe be able to reflect on these early days later on in his career whatever he goes on to be able to do as a Chicago Bears quarterback and so we didn't get as much of the like es and flows of the Caleb Williams development stuff that we got in the first hard KNX episode but I thought there were three interesting things that that jumped out of me in particular I mean obviously there was more than just three things of Caleb Williams but three that I was like oh like I I always take notes during these episodes and like things that jumped out of me where it's like I gota I got to write that down and remember to talk about that on the podcast but also like keep that in the back of your mind for the future I think the first one we saw was that they brought Caleb Williams into the meeting room I think it was eflu Caleb Williams and then one of the Bears front office guys I don't know if it was it wasn't the director of analytics but it was like director of football Administration I one of the front office guys who whose names even even if I had it in front of me we wouldn't know it I'm guessing it was football Administration Matt Feinstein but I I don't I didn't write it down or screenshot or whatever when when the episode came out but they sat down like they had a meeting with Caleb Williams especially for him going through who the refereeing crew the officials were going to be for Bears bills and saying you know these are the eight guys this is the the white hat is like the head official for the game this is his name they said you know his full-time job he's like I think an athletic director at a high school in Washington I don't remember exactly where they said but like they were like having Caleb they're kind of prepping Caleb on Who the head referee was going to be in this game and was like Hey like you need to get in good with these guys these referees have really long careers and you're going to have a really long career so you're going to see these referees multiple times you sometimes not even not even multiple times in the same season but over the course of your career you're going to see the same guys every year and if you have a long career you're going to see him 10 15 times whatever so like they were like Caleb get in good with these guys now they were coaching him on how to have a relationship with the referees and I thought that's such like a a good idea and also one of those behind the scenes moments that we would never see or even think of otherwise they didn't end up showing Caleb actually talking to the referees in the game which was interesting there was a nice moment with Josh Allen after the game that probably would have been the fourth nugget if I was going to include one on here where when Caleb took a hit on his first play Josh Allen was like dude don't do that in the preseason in the regular season that's fine but in the preseason don't take that hit dude and he was like all right thank like you're just in passing and that was cool but like we never got the followup of Caleb talking to the referee and using that skill but I thought it was really cool and showed the Bears proactive smart thinking of like hey am for every game go get to know that referee because he's going to that referee they didn't say this but it's implied that referee is going to control whether you get that roughing the pass or penalty whether they throw that intentional grounding flag or not like you know I mean if you can at least have a positive relationship in their mind maybe they'll give you the benefit of the doubt more often than not whereas if you're someone who's constantly arguing with the referee and getting in his face and not friendly with him at all and disagreeing with him over and over again or whatever it is like they might be more inclined to say I'll screw you you know I'm not gonna not going to give you a a close call that goes your way like any little Advantage you can find even if it's just with the referees a little bit is is a really smart and cool thing that the Bears had Caleb Williams do there another really interesting thing that they cut they just gave a brief clip of Caleb in the quarterback room as they were kind of just you know messing around you know way before the meeting or after after the meeting just kind of talking and socializing they they talked about how flag football is coming to the Olympics in 2028 and Caleb was like I would 100% do flag football at the Olympics like he was adamant like he would love to participate in flag football in the Olympics like we're four years away from that but like that's legit something that's on the radar here and I haven't really been keeping up with this but like I did a little digg in before the podcast and like this is a big thing around the NFL right now too so like if you don't know like they're going to try out flag football in 2028 at the Olympics in Los Angeles they don't know exactly what the venue is going to be yet but it's my understanding that flag football at the Olympics is a 50 yard field not 100 yard field and it's only 25 yards wide so it's about half as long and half as wide as an NFL football field and I believe it's five on five in the Olympic format so I'm assuming that's quarterback and four receivers versus five defensive players and certainly it would be really cool to see Caleb Williams in the Olympics representing USA you know on the international stage uh but we've also seen and I this was what I was kind of catching up on Patrick Mahomes has said he wants to do the flag football in the Olympics Travis Kelce has said he wants to get a gold medal and be a part of the Olympics team like we may have a real discussion in four years about which of the NFL's best players may try and go to the Olympics now I would guess that under their contracts teams don't want these players playing in the Olympics even though it's Flag Football there's not nearly as much of an injury risk there's still any kind there's still some injury risk anytime a quarterback is throwing or running around or an NFL player is running around on the field like I'm guessing it's going to kind of be like three on- three basketball in the Olympics this year where there weren't really NBA players it's all the guys who aren't good enough to get in the NBA so in this case all the guys who aren't good enough to get in the NFL would play in the flag football league and the part of the reason why in the Olympics this year there weren't any NBA players in the 3on three league is because you have to qualify for the three on3 League like you have to play in games to earn your way onto the Olympic team for that and I would guess flag football might be similar where it's like obviously Patrick Mahomes even four years from now would be the best player in flag football in the world and the US team would love to have him on there but I'm guessing if you want to play for Team USA flag football you're going to have to play in qualifying games and matches for Team USA flag football and that Patrick Mahomes ain't playing in no qualifying matches I mean he it'd be hard enough for him to even get permission to play in the Olympics let alone trying to do qualifying matches before to get in the Olympics so I predict it's not going to end up being a big NFL crossover but Roger Goodell is kind of left the door open there so we'll see what that ends up being but like if Caleb Williams was in the Olympics that'd be pretty cool and like four years from now he's still going to be on his rookie contract with the Bears he's not going to be super high paid just yet like I would would absolutely love to see him out there having fun and clearly like from from this episode of hard KN it's something he is 100% his words 100% would want to do flag football at the Olympics the last thing briefly here before we wrap up there was a play at at practice that they showed where I think they were just practicing like play action handoff kind of it was like Snap turn ball faked and then turn and like roll out and it's and but they weren't doing like real throws to receivers after that it was just like the the ball stuff and the the footwork right just just sort of everything before the throw on a roll out a play PA roll out and Caleb threw it back to his coach you know not like it's not like a step drop back throw he's just tossing the ball back to his coach threw it behind his back like we've seen Patrick Mahomes do uh dead accurate to the assistant coach behind the back pass from Caleb Williams and so like I I don't think we're ever going to see Caleb Williams do one in a game but like if he does like we know it's in his repertoire it would be so unbelievably risky and probably stupid to attempt an actual behind the back pass in a game and you would only do it like if there's a guy in your face or you're like being sacked and you're like trying to evade the pressure or something like there's there's almost never a real scenario where that would actually be a good idea but he can do it he's done it practice and we saw it on Hard Knocks so that's where like plant that in the back of your mind something to keep in keep in mind like okay Caleb does have the behind the back pass in his repertoire here but we probably won't see it in the regular season game but wouldn't it be cool like wouldn't it be badass if if it's like third second and two and he's rolling out and he flicks it behind the back to the the running back on a check down like again he shouldn't it's a bad idea but it would be so cool to see him do that in a game or maybe even in a flag football game at the Olympics regardless I'd love to hear what you thought of episode two of Hard Knocks there were other moments that stood out to you that we didn't talk about here or if you agree with the way I sort of portray things or disagree by all means I'd love to hear it from you let me know here in the comments on lockon bears YouTube channel or you can tweet us at lockdown Bears or you can even Post in the lockdown Bears Facebook group or comment on our Instagram or Tik Tok Pages however you do it make sure you hit that subscribe button on YouTube or wherever you listen to the podcast because that's going to be the best way to keep up with all of our daily in-depth Chicago Bears news and Analysis thanks for making lockon Bears your first listen today we're part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day and that includes your fantasy football team so if you're 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