Montgomery, Shelley starting to stand out at Bears rookie camp

Ask head coach Matt Nagy which of his baby Bears are impressing him at rookie minicamp or if anybody stood out today at practice and he'll be forced to demur.

After practice Saturday he said, "No, not necessarily. Really, collectively, again, it's hard from where I'm at.

"I'd like to better answer that tomorrow. No one really jumped out today where I can say, 'Yeah it's this guy or that guy,' but there'll be somebody after we watch tape."

So of course he was asked about Friday's practice and he replied, "I thought Riley (Ridley) had a good day. I thought he looked good. Not a lot of mental errors."

Clearly the Bears are excited about the acquisition of Ridley in the fourth round when most pundits, and teams, thought he would be gone.

And just as clearly Nagy is going to be somewhat restrained in talking too much about individual players because it is so early in the process, and because he can't risk the appearance of having favorites or leaving anyone out.

I, on the other hand, have no such restraints and while I can't begin to predict which kids will make the team and which won't or who the stories of Bourbonnais are going to be - again because it's so early in the process - I can tell you about a few who've had some very nice moments through these two days.

The running game in helmets, no pads and shorts practices is really just about timing, quickness and speed, but both drafted running backs, third rounder David Montgomery and seventh rounder Kerrith Whyte, have displayed a few of the traits that caused the Bears to covet them.

While Montgomery's a Bear to run the ball first one of his greatest assets is reported to be his receiving skills and he made two catches Saturday in the passing game that many wideouts would be proud to make and some wouldn't.

Whyte flashed his sub 4.4 40 speed on a play that Nagy talked about after practice.

"When he takes off, I mean we just ran a go-route with him over here. He made a great catch and they came back and the quarterback says to me, 'That's a running back.'

"And I go, 'I know.' It's raw speed. Every NFL scout knew that."

Undrafted Rookie Free Agent tight end Dax Raymond was solid on Saturday but it was late in practice Friday he showed why he's a player you'll be hearing more about, splitting the seam and racing downfield to make a fingertip grab in stride with two DBs on him, one in his hip pocket.

Another player who flashed several times on Saturday was sixth round pick Duke Shelley out of Kansas State, an undersized cornerback with blazing speed and extremely quick-twitch movement skills who played outside in college but will have to play in the slot for the Bears because of his diminutive stature at maybe 5-9, and maybe 180 pounds.

On one play Shelley made a lightning break inside on a pass over the middle, knocked the ball away and the majority of his defensive teammates began chanting Duke, Duke,

Duke ...

When I asked Nagy if that kind of impact on his teammates notches bonus points for his roster hopes Nagy said, "Oh yeah, absolutely."

Practice again ended with each of the eight placekickers getting one try from 43 yards out and the entire team lined up behind them, only this time with dead silence on the field, I assume to add pressure?

Honestly it felt a bit strange.

But Saturday's six of eight conversions was a big improvement over Friday's two of eight.

The best player on the field Saturday was undersized outside linebacker Josh Woods, but that could be expected with the year of experience he gained on the practice squad last year.

At the end of the day none of these kids will secure a spot on the 2019 depth chart with what they do this weekend, but they can begin to lock in impressions of what they can do in the minds of their coaches and Ryan Pace, and that process clearly did begin to accelerate Saturday.

• Hub Arkush, the executive editor of Pro Football Weekly, can be reached at harkush@profootballweekly.com or on Twitter @Hub_Arkush.