LeGere: Royal is worth watching

No one on the Bears' roster has the connections that wide receiver Eddie Royal does, and that makes him a player worth watching in training camp.

As a rookie with the Broncos in 2008, the 5-foot-10, 185-pound wide receiver burst onto the NFL scene with 91 catches for 980 yards, by far the most productive season of his career. Jay Cutler was his quarterback.

Royal's position coach for his next two years in Denver was Bears offensive coordinator Adam Gase, and Royal's last season in Denver was 2011, John Fox's first season as the head coach there.

Reunited this year with three of the major players in the Bears' rebuilding project, Royal is one of the keys to success. While he isn't actually replacing king-size receiver and king-size distraction Brandon Marshall, who was traded to the Jets, Royal will be counted on to pick up a lot of the slack left by Marshall's departure.

After a couple of lackluster seasons, Royal bounced back with the second-best season of his career in 2014 with the Chargers, catching 62 passes for 778 yards. Marshall had 61 catches for 721 yards last season. Royal also has 15 TD receptions in the past two seasons. He's enjoyed NFL success in multiple roles, lining up wide, in the slot and just about everywhere else. With the Bears, he's expected to add much-needed production in the slot, something lacking from recent Bears passing attacks.

But Royal won't limit himself.

"I'm trying to show that I'm more than a slot, that I can play outside and I can play everywhere," the 29-year-old said. "As a receiver, you don't want to be defined in just one role. You want to try to expand that, and that's what I'm trying to do now.

"I'm trying to prove myself."

First-round pick Kevin White is expected to start on the outside across from go-to guy Alshon Jeffery, who's coming off back-to-back 1,100-yard, 80-plus-catch seasons that also included 17 touchdowns. But if the rookie is slow to make the jump from spectacular college player to impact pro, Royal is ready to go.

How ready tight end Martellus Bennett is at the start of camp will be interesting to watch after he skipped all of the voluntary off-season program in a bid to get a new contract just halfway through his four-year $20.4 million deal.

When he showed up at the mandatory mid-June minicamp, Bennett admitted he was behind the curve in learning the new offense.

"A lot of guys know a lot of stuff we're doing," he said six weeks ago. "But I'm pretty intelligent, so I pick up on it pretty quick."

Fox would have preferred having Bennett on hand throughout the off-season, but he repeatedly refused to make it an issue, preferring to focus on Bennett's talents, which helped him snag more passes (90) than any tight end in the league last year.

"He's got all the physical tools it takes, both as a blocker and as a pass catcher," the coach said. "He proved what he's capable of a year ago, and hopefully we can duplicate that and then some this year."

Royal believes the receiving corps is an ideal mixture of size, speed, quickness, youth and experience.

"It's a great group, with all the variety," he said. "A lot of guys do different things well, and that's good for our offense because you could set certain guys in position to where they could have success. Some guys are better at deep balls. Some guys are better at underneath stuff. You want a balanced offense to where guys can do everything."

None of the skill-position players will be able to do much of anything without help from an offensive line in transition. Unrestricted free agent center Will Montgomery was brought in to replace overaged center and former line leader Roberto Garza, who was released. Montgomery is familiar with Gase's offense, having started eight games for the Broncos last season. But the 32-year-old Montgomery could wind up as a temporary placeholder for rookie Hroniss Grasu, the third-round pick out of Oregon.

Even more relevant will be the positioning of Kyle Long. The 2013 first-round pick was a Pro Bowl right guard in each of his first two seasons but could be moved to right tackle, where he might be even more valuable as a pass protector.

That would leave an opening at right guard and a position battle among free-agent pickups Vladimir Ducasse, Michael Ola and Jordan Mills.

Ola started at least two games at four different positions for the Bears last season, while Mills has started 29 games at right tackle since being drafted in the fifth round in 2013.

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