Cram Course Has Jason Peters Ready

The Bears are going against last year's top-ranked defense Sunday night when they open the season against the Los Angeles Rams and they're trying to do it with a 39-year-old left tackle who wasn't on a roster when training camps opened.

Jason Peters might be Plan C or Plan D at tackle based on the options available when camp began but 2 1/2 weeks of working with line coach Juan Castillo ensued. Coach Matt Nagy is convinced he has an adequate replacement for rookie Teven Jenkins, who is on injured reserve after back surgery, and no rotation at left tackle is necessary to give Peters rest.

"I feel pretty good right now with him," Nagy said. "I think he's in a good place. You know, just talking with him and talking with coach Juan, his level of conditioning we feel is good so it might just be something when we get into the game we'll just see how he's feeling and I think we'll plan on going into it with him as the guy.

"And you know, he's played a lot of games and he understands that football game conditioning and we're going to have to rely on him a lot as we go through it."

Castillo coached Peters almost a decade ago in Philadelphia and sees the cram course in the offense and the conditioning all coming together well.

"You know what? Jason always takes care of his body," Castillo said. "He's a big man—I mean when he played for me (in Philadelphia), he played at 352 pounds. He's a big guy.

"He's ready to go. He's been working a lot. He's been taking a lot of the reps and everything. He's ready to go and excited to go."

Peters is 24 pounds lighter than he was when he played for Castillo the first time. The conditioning aspect of it is critical and the Bears put Peters on a program designed to make certain he can withstand a full game.

"He's also done extra work," Castillo said. "You know one thing that he's been doing is he takes reps like a stack, a 10-play stack. We've gotten all the way up to 55, 60 plays.

"So he's already kind of conditioned himself. Because that was the thing he knew that he needed to work on. And I feel good about that."

Behind Peters is rookie Larry Borom, a right tackle in college who has played one regular-season game on the left side since high school. They could always turn as a last resort to veteran Elijah Wilkinson, but Borom is the left side backup choice.

"He's young, so what I'm trying to do is keep him on one side and Elijah on the other side," Castillo said. "I think that makes it easier."

The Bears in past years had gone with a swing tackle concept, but now Wilkinson will remain behind Germain Ifedi. Wilkinson hadn't been entirely comfortable with the left side when the Bears tried switching him there to be starter after Jenkins' injury.

"It's a difficult thing to do," he said during camp. "'It's just flipping to the other side' — but if you think about it, it's all flipped around, the plays are backward, the call's on the other side, talking to somebody else on the other side. It's very different. It's challenging, you know?"

Castillo likes to talk about how he can count on Peters because he's coached him in the past.

"I say that, (then) Jason says, 'Juan, you say that, but we've been apart for eight years,' " Castillo said. "I'm like, 'man, it seems like yesterday.' I know Jason pretty good. I know from watching him and everything. I feel pretty confident that he's ready. He's good for the group. And he's excited."

By saying Peters is good for the group, Castillo means the work ethic rubs off.

"So you know what he's doing is besides working his butt off, he's really enjoying this," Castillo said. 'And all the other guys are seeing how hard he works, even though he's already been in the league—I think this is his 18th year, but he's still working as hard or harder than everybody else."

The real question might be whether the line itself is ready since teamwork and cohesion are so important, especially when facing a defensive front with Aaron Donald on it. Communicating while passing Donald off to each other across the front as he attacks at different points is critical.

The Bears had their line together in preseason for the first half of one game but Castillo starts counting up play repetitions from practices and it sounds better. He said they had 21 plays against the Tennessee Titans but they took 60 snaps together at Monday's practice and had been practicing together entirely since Aug. 23.

"I think that what's happened here is they kind of all in these last few weeks have done a good job of getting comfortable with each other and communicating and working," he said. "We work drills, we stay after, all those kinds of things. And I think those things will pay off."