The Bears put their pads on for the first time on Friday, and in the process began the starting center competition in earnest. Both Ryan Bates and Coleman Shelton will get the opportunity to win the job over the coming weeks and each man understands the stakes. But neither man is looking at the other with contempt. In fact, they’re each pushing the other to get better.
“Coleman’s a great guy, great teammate,” said Bates. “During OTAs we really got to form a bond. I help him. He helps me. Iron sharpens iron, so it’s going great right now.”
“We’re teammates, so every day we are in here learning together and we’re working together and we’re just striving to be the best we can be,” said Shelton.
The Bears say they’re in no rush to sort out who’s going to be the starter. They’re going to let the competition play out organically, without a timeline. That begs the question: shouldn’t the Bears get one center in place ASAP to develop chemistry? Bates disagrees.
“I wouldn’t think too much into it to be honest, because me and Coleman have both played some ball. We know what we can do, what we can’t do, especially with a young guy back there at quarterback.
“We try to take some of the pressure off of him, just handling stuff up front by ourselves and honestly just trying to make him feel as comfortable as possible, because I know he has a hell of a lot of stuff on his plate.”
Nose tackle Andrew Billings lines up against each man in practice, so he has a unique perspective on the competition. He says it’s between “one quick guy and one really strong guy,” but believes the winner will be the player who performs most consistently.
Bates, however, thinks he and Shelton are more similar than different.
“We’re both lighter guys. We’re not 320-330 pounds. We both can move really well. We played similar. We come from the same coach in the past (former Bears offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer). He had (Kromer) in L.A. I had (Kromer) in Buffalo. So we’ve been coached and taught the same things… So we have the same mindset the way we think, the way we move, it’s all very similar.”
Each man also has one thing in particular that could give him a leg up in the competition.
GM Ryan Poles has wanted to bring Bates to the Bears for several years. Poles tried to bring Bates to Chicago in 2022 when Bates was an RFA by signing him to an offer sheet, but the Bills matched that offer sheet to keep Bates in Buffalo. Two years later, the Bills agreed to send Bates to Chicago in exchange for a fifth-round draft pick.
“I think I fit well in this offense, wide-zone team,” said Bates. “I’m athletic. One of my biggest attributes is my feet… I feel like this offense, it does well for me. I think I do well for the offense.”
Shelton on the other hand has more starting experience, including experience with Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. The two worked together on the Rams in 2019 when Shelton was a rookie and Waldron was the team’s passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach.
“It’s not like I have to learn a completely new language,” Shelton said. “I know a lot of the verbiage and a lot of the scheme. So that’ll help me out.”
Center appears to be the only real competition on the team this training camp. Unless a free agent comes in to shake up the defensive line, all the other starters are set. Accordingly, the center competition has drawn a lot of attention throughout the summer.
But the Bears, Bates and Shelton aren’t outwardly concerned about the big question mark in the middle of the offensive line.
“Honestly, I wake up every day and– excuse my language– I just say: ‘F–k it,’” said Bates. “Whatever happens, happens. You can’t worry about making a mistake. You can’t worry about stepping on eggshells, you’ve just got to go.”
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Source: ‘F–k it’: Why Bears aren’t stressed about center competition
