Bears First Padded Practice. 5 Things to Watch.

Finally.  The Bears will hold their first padded practice of the offseason tonight.  Now that the pads are coming on, we can start to get a much better idea of how certain things are coming together.  Here are the top 5 things I’ll be watching tonight:

Get that dummy out of here.  Tonight, Shea McClellin goes up against real competition.

5.  Shea McClellin.  How will the rookie look in pads?  Will he be pushed around in running drills?  More importantly, how will he look in the 1 on 1 pass rush drills?  Will he show a good repertoire of moves/counter moves?  This will be our first real look at Phil Emery’s first draft pick and I’m very anxious to see it.

4.  Gabe Carimi.  On the flip side of McClellin is Gabe Carimi.  How will he look coming off the knee injury that sidelined him for all but 6 quarters of 2011?  His comeback is vital for Chicago’s success this year and now we’ll get to see if he is fully recovered from that injury.

3.  Brian Urlacher.  Speaking of knee injuries, today we’ll get a good idea whether or not Brian Urlacher truly is “110% good to go” as he said.  Though wearing a knee brace, he hasn’t looked restricted at all thus far into camp.  Now we’ll see how he looks full speed and with contact.

2.  Matt Forte.  Full speed in pads is exactly what we want to see here.  Ever since he failed to condition himself properly heading into his second year, Matt Forte has been a workout warrior and has always reported to camp in amazing shape.  This year appears to be no different.  There was some concern though, due to the missed mini-camp, that he might not arrive in “football shape”.  He looked fast on a breakaway run yesterday, but today we’ll see just how fast he looks in pads.

1.  The left tackle battle.  Of course.  The biggest question mark on the team, the battle for the left tackle position between J'Marcus Webb and Chris Williams, will legitimately begin today.  It’s very hard to judge linemen without pads on, so today is the day the battle really starts.  This is where most eyes should be tonight.

So, it should be a lot of fun tonight.  Today is the day that it truly feels like camp begins.  We’re only 12 days away from the first preseason game against the Broncos, so the action should be coming fast and furious now.  That’s also what the action on the field will be like tonight.  Here we go.