There are useful facts to be understood about a team from the earliest of training camp practices, which begin in just over two weeks for the Bears.
They'll start learning more about forming their 53-man roster earlier than other teams becuase of the Hall of Fame Game.
In many cases, everyone would know more already except coaches love the nebulous offseason, when they can hide true intent behind a fuzzy cloud of possibilities.
It would be nice to say it all comes out in the wash at that first practice but this would be a lie. There will still be secrets.
Still, there are going to be strong indications which way they are leaning at certain positions from the start. The offseason work, when experimenting goes on, is done.
Here's what can be learned from the first day the Bears hit the practice field.
1. The Nate Davis Situation
When they left off at minicamp, coach Matt Eberflus was peppered with questions about Nate Davis. The starting right guard barely made an offseason appearance after a season when he struggled, was injured, went through personal tragedy and missed six total games. Instead, veteran journeyman guard/tackle Matt Pryor took the most snaps at right guard and they kept Teven Jenkins on the left side. Center candidate Ryan Bates was moved from his competition with Coleman Shelton to play right guard, too.
"I really don't know, exactly," was coach Matt Eberflus' assessment of the position. "Sure, we had Bates there. He's played there. Shelton has played at center, of course. Davis has played there. Tev has been on the other side. Pryor has been in and been out.
"The versatility there has certainly been helpful."
When Bates started at Buffalo, it was usually at right guard but he's a center, too.
"Ryan did a really good job of having those pieces in there so we don’t (end up) like last year or prior years, you know, a guy goes down and we're like, 'Oh, what are we going to do?' " Eberflus said. "At least we have that flexibility at the O-line position."
No one is going to know what was wrong with Davis at the outset but at least they'll know if he's all right now.
2. Center Favorite
Coaches will say the person who lines up at center first is just there because someone has to be there to start camp, as if it's a coin toss.
Whoever lines up there on the first day is the center favorite no matter what they say. Obviously it can change. It's only July. Don't foget the Bears still have Doug Kramer, too, and consider him part of this battle. Kramer is in his third year so he should be involved in such things.
Bates actually made more first-team snaps during the portions of offseason practices made visible to media, so it might appear he's the favorite. But he was moved to right guard and also the media sees less than half of offseason practice so it's always possible Shelton is actually No. 1. But they did have positive things to say about Bates.
"He's a pro, man," offensive line coach Chris Morgan said. "And he's athletic. He's smart. He's tough. We know he's versatile. And you know he's played a lot of football, so we’re excited to have him."
He just hasn't played a lot of football at center, only 200 NFL snaps but was the guy Ryan Poles tried to bring in two years ago as one of their linemen with a failed restricted free agent offer.
3. The Cursed Cadence
Caleb Williams didn't have the cadences in sync with the offensive linemen when they broke for summer. Why this could be any different now, after vacationing in France, no one would know. They worked on it at minicamp with defensive tackle Andrew Billings trying to pull them offsides with voice interference. He was successful.
This will need to be worked on extensively at the outset unless they enjoy presnap penalties.
"The challenge right now for me I would say would be– one would be the cadence and putting it all together, because there’s a fine line for it," Williams said.
There's more to it than simply yelling out signals.
"One thing that we always try to tell him is voice louder, emphasize like that second 'hut' to make the defense draw offsides and get a free play," guard Teven Jenkins said. "Those plays we got last year."
One helped them beat Detroit but that was with a different quarterback.
4. Where They Work
If receiver/return man DeAndre Carter starts out working with the receivers who are in the first group, it could mean moving down with reserves for either Velus Jones, Tyler Scott or Dante Pettis.
They'll usually have five or six receivers up working with the first team for when they are in four- and five-receiver sets.
However, Cart might need more time to learn a new offense. In that case, he might be back with the third and fourth groups for him. The back of the receiver group will be a place to watch for roster battles.
The same is true with rookie tackle Kiran Amegadjie. Will they put him in with the second team at one of the tackle spots immediately, or the third team? He missed all of the offseason work. This could impact what happens to Larry Borom.
Another curiosity will be who lines up with backup or third defensive tackle group. They shuttled players around in these spots during the offseason.
The last spot is at defensive end. It wouldn't be surprising if they let Austin Booker line up as part of the regular defensive end rotation with the second group because he showed so much promise in offseason work.
They have several other veteran candidates to put in there with him if he does. Dominique Robinson, Jake Martin, Khalid Kareem and Daniel Hardy are chief among them. It's going to be a group watched closely by coaches to see if the need exists to sign a veteran free agent.
5. Happy Returns
This is going to be a daily guessing game. Whoever goes back to field punts and kickoffs is going to be closely scrutinized. DeAndre Carter and Dante Pettis, possibly even Rome Odunze, could be back on punts. Any number of players could be back for kicks. No one knows what they're thinking with the kick returns because of the rule changes. It will be this way from the outset of camp.
