They try at once to make an impression and yet be inconspicuous. They tote around their playbooks, listen earnestly when spoken to and despite hanging onto their old college T-shirts, attempt to forget from whence they came.
For if Platteville, Wis., is an extension of their old classrooms, the real world of Lake Forest beckons. And they can only hope it’s big enough to accommodate them.
Of the 19 Bears rookies in training camp Thursday, fewer than half are expected to be on the roster after next Tuesday, the first official cutdown deadline.
“It’s a little scary,” says defensive tackle and fourth-round draft pick Paul Grasmanis, who like top picks Walt Harris and Bobby Engram is one of the locks.
Michael Lowery isn’t. He’s one of those rookies who has to share a number. Lowery wears 62d (defense). Derrick Turner, who is not expected to make the team, wears 62o (offense).
At one time, Lowery was not expected to make it either. Wednesday, when Vinson Smith couldn’t practice because of a sprained knee, Lowery, who is also playing on special teams, found himself working with the first team at strong-side linebacker and may start Saturday at New Orleans.
“It’s a bit of a shock to me,” he admitted.
A converted safety his senior year at Mississippi, Lowery was signed as a free agent with the slim hope that at 6 feet, 220 pounds, he could be another Barry Minter, also a 220-pound safety in college who was later converted in Dallas to a heavier but still agile linebacker. A slim hope.
Was Lowery, the only free-agent rookie with a chance to make the team, a long shot? “Oh yeah, he definitely was,” said Bears coach Dave Wannstedt, who has been raving about Lowery of late. “I probably didn’t know who he was until about two weeks into camp. For him, it was lucky we had tape on the helmets early because that was the only way I would know his name.”
Running back Michael Hicks and defensive tackle Marcus Keyes, both drafted in the seventh round, are also on the proverbial bubble this week as the Bears head into their third exhibition game Saturday at New Orleans. “What it comes down to is, we have 80 players right now and after this game we have to be down to 60,” Wannstedt said. “When you put in 53 players and five potential practice-squad players, you’re at 58. So you’re pretty much forming your team after this game. That’s why it’s so critical.”
It will probably come down to a choice between Hicks, a 6-foot, 194-pound halfback out of South Carolina State, and 5-11, 210-pound Brandon Bennett out of South Carolina, who signed as a free agent last December after being waived by Cleveland.
“The biggest advice that I give these rookies,” said Wannstedt, “is that you’re not ever going to get the amount of work that you would like, but when you get an opportunity, you have to know what to do and you have to take advantage of that opportunity.
“What happened to Michael Lowery last week? Sean Harris pulls a hamstring and now we need a linebacker and he’s standing there and we said, `OK, get in there. You never played that position, but get in there and see what you can do.’ He didn’t have a mental mistake the whole game, he knew what to do, he was prepared. Now he has an opportunity.”
At 6-3, 303 pounds, Keyes has yet to convince the coaching staff that he has what it takes besides his obvious physical advantages. But unlike most rookies, he has benefited from additional playing time when tackle Carl Simpson filled in at end for the injured John Thierry and Al Fontenot.
Defensive coordinator Bob Slowik said he tells rookies not to fixate on making the team. “They’re really trying to make any one of 30 different football teams because everybody at this stage, when you look throughout the league, the personnel people are looking at all young guys,” he says.
