Bears minicamp observations: Fields delivers sharp outing on Day 2

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LAKE FOREST – That's more like it.

A day after admitting the offense was a work in progress, Justin Fields delivered a sharp performance on Day 2 of Bears mandatory minicamp at Halas Hall.

Fields connected on several chunk plays throughout drills, including big connections to Darnell Mooney, Byron Pringle, and Cole Kmet.

For the second day in a row, head coach Matt Eberflus had the offense face the defense without a script. Wednesday went the way of the offense with Fields hitting Mooney for a good gain down the right sideline to move into plus territory. On the next play, Fields threw down the right sideline for Velus Jones. The ball bounced off Jones' hands, but the defense was flagged for pass interference, moving the ball to the edge of the red zone.

Fields finished off the drill by delivering a strike to Dante Pettis for a touchdown.

"Really nice day today. Really nice," Eberflus said of Fields after practice. "Made a lot of nice passes in all parts of the field. His timing was really good, and it was a good day for him."

The seven-on-seven drills finished with Fields completing eight consecutive passes to six different receivers across two sessions.

All in all, Eberflus was pleased with what was a much better day for his offense.

"We executed," Eberflus said. "I thought offense made some nice chunk plays not only in that period but also in the course of the whole day. We had much better accuracy today. I thought it was on point in terms of the operation of that as well."

The Bears finished the day with a two-minute, end-of-game drill.

Fields opened the session by hitting Kmet over the middle for a significant gain. However, a false start and what looked like an illegal shift put the offense in first-and-20. Fields' pass on first-and-20 fell incomplete, but the Bears' defense was whistled for a penalty that set the offense up inside the 15.

The offense had two plays left to get in the end zone.

Fields' first attempt ticketed for Mooney fell incomplete. Then, on the final play, Fields rolled left to buy time, but the defense covered everything up, and Fields' pass for Tajae Sharpe sailed out of the back of the end zone to end the period.

Still, it was a positive day for the offense and Fields, who rarely has had back-to-back poor outings.

More notes from Day 2 of mandatory minicamp.

-- Edge rusher Robert Quinn was once again absent.

-- Left guard Cody Whitehair was excused from practice for what Eberflus called a "good reason." Instead, rookie Zachary Thomas took reps at first-team left guard.

-- Center Lucas Patrick was present but didn't participate much in team drills. At one point, the Bears had three rookies on the offensive line with Thomas, Doug Kramer (center), and Braxton Jones (left tackle).

-- Kyler Gordon was once again present but didn't participate.

-- Undrafted rookies Carson Taylor and John Alexander each made notable plays on defense. Taylor batted a pass down during the two-minute drill and Alexander notched a pass breakup.

-- Trestan Ebner made the play of the day, snagging a contested catch in traffic that got some love from his teammates.

"What we saw on tape in college, just an explosive athlete who can run the whole route tree as you saw today on that great catch he made," Eberflus said of Ebner. "He's been really learning a lot. He's a mature young man and we like where he is in terms of learning the offense and what kind of man he is."

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