Bears complete first padded practice of season at Halas Hall

Matt Nagy has grown so accustomed to wearing his mask at Halas Hall that he often finds himself sitting alone in his office - the one time he's allowed to take it off - and still his face is covered.

"The other night, I went home, and my four boys were at home, and I had the same mask on," the Bears head coach said. "They looked at me like, 'What's going on?' I'm just used to having it on."

Finally, after weeks of Zoom meetings and walk-throughs, the Bears held a real, padded practice on Monday. Nagy wore his mask through the entire outdoor practice.

Even with masks, it was a return to normalcy - somewhat - for the Bears.

Defensive tackle Bilal Nichols said it wasn't strange suiting up and being in close quarters with his teammates.

"I miss my teammates," Nichols said. "The last five months, we've all been isolated from each other. I missed the guys over that period of time. We spoke on the phone as much as we could. We got a chance to enjoy time with our families, but at the end of the day, you miss your guys."

The Bears held their first padded practice less than a month before the start of the season. They will open the 2020 campaign at Detroit on Sept. 13. The team practiced for about 90 minutes on Monday, largely doing individual work and position drills.

"Before you know it, there's not a whole lot of reps for some of the team periods," Nagy said. "You want to try to get as many plays as you can in those periods so that you can evaluate."

There will certainly be more of that as camp continues.

Much of the work it took to reach this point - a real practice - happened beforehand. Masks are becoming second-nature now. The team is becoming accustomed to the spread out facility and meeting rooms.

Now, finally, it's about football.

"We been used to it," safety Eddie Jackson said. "They've been doing a good job, just the ramp up stages, the ramp up phases we're going through. They told us a lot of things were going to be different. Right now, we're used to it. This is the third week of it. Everything's just going well. It's becoming more normal now."

Defensive tackle Akiem Hicks said being at Halas Hall the past few weeks has brought back a sense of normalcy, despite the coronavirus precautions that are in place.

"You just get back into it," Hick said. "You get fully immersed. ... Being around the guys and being around the football facility makes it that much easier."

Nagy reiterated that the team will take as long as it can to determine who will start at quarterback on Sept. 13. Monday was the first step in determining that and other position battles.

There's only so much the team can do in meetings over Zoom. Now comes the real eye tests.

"Now you're on the grass," Nagy said. "And there's a defense with moving parts, and there's an offense with moving parts."