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LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Quarterback Mike Glennon found it difficult to describe his feelings when it was announced that Mitchell Trubisky will get snaps with the Chicago Bears' first team to start the second half Sunday at Tennessee. Was it surprising?
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"I guess you could say yes," Glennon said. "I don't know if it's surprising. I don't even know. They just told me what it was and, 'OK, time to start getting ready.'"
After losing the quarterback job in Tampa to draft pick Jameis Winston, Glennon said he at least feels he can turn back to the experience to help this time.
"I just have to control what I can control, and that's going out there and playing good football for the Bears," Glennon said. "That's really all that came to my mind. Focus on what I can control and go out and prepare this week to go out and execute."
--No receiver has stepped up in the Bears passing game to become a No. 1 target, and it was thought Kevin White and/or Cameron Meredith might do this.
"I think we have a lot of receivers," quarterback Mike Glennon said. "And I think that's good. We have depth at the receiver position. As the season goes on, maybe someone will become that guy.
"But right now, we have a bunch of guys that I feel comfortable with, even guys that I haven't necessarily played with, I'd play be comfortable with if they were in with me."
Offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains broke the news about playing with the first team to Trubisky on Tuesday, a day before the rookie took snaps with the first team in practice.
Loggains' advice was simple.
"Just keep taking the same approach I have been doing," Trubisky said. "I mean, that sounds good to me because I'm not going to change what I've been doing. I'm just going to come out here, work every day, it doesn't matter what group I'm going with."
--The Bears' defensive line sees its 3.2 yards-per-carry allowed as a sign of drastic progress.
"Nasty, nasty," was how defensive end Akiem Hicks put it. "Just ready to get after it. You take a play like the one from Arizona, where Jonathan (Bullard) comes through, he comes free; Jaye Howard comes from the other side and they just smash the running back.
"And the intensity behind that; and not just that, but the energy that they carry out throughout the next couple of plays -- it says a lot about where guys' mindset is. And I think that's our defense as a whole."
Hicks sees it as the next step in a process that started last year.
"I think coming in to this year, we knew where we wanted to be," Hicks said. "We knew what our culture and what our identity wanted to be. Now we're just implementing it."
--C Hroniss Grasu has had to add playing time at guard during training camp due to guard Kyle Long's injury. Although the preferred option seems to be playing center Cody Whitehair at guard, the Bears are trying to be ready for all eventualities because of Long's iffy ankle.
"The way I looked at it is just it's just a test," Grasu said. "Just test me, my mental toughness. Test how well I can handle adversity. I could have looked at all the negatives about it and been pouty about it. But I wasn't. I was just super excited to attack this opportunity that I have."
The switch to guard is more a physical challenge than the mental challenge Whitehair had last year when he moved to center after Grasu suffered a torn ACL.
"The challenge of it is really just getting off the ball with a certain foot back, with a certain hand down," Grasu said. "It's just the split-second of the timing on the punch in any pass pro, or getting a hand on the shoulder in any run game. That's the biggest challenge.
"Obviously I'm getting better at it every single day, and it has been working out really well."
NOTES: DE Akiem Hicks (achilles) returned to practice Wednesday after missing several practices and the last game due to soreness. ... S DeAndre Houston-Carson (back) is day-to-day because of back spasms. ... LB Sam Acho (ankle) is day-to-day and it's hoped he still could be able to play in Sunday's game at Tennessee. ... CB Prince Amukamara (hamstring) is practicing with the team again after missing last week's game. ... DT Jonathan Bullard continued to miss practice Thursday due to a glute muscle injury that also sidelined him Wednesday. ... RB Ka'Deem Carey (wrist) sustained an injury in last week's game and had surgery on Monday. He is expected to be out six weeks. Carey was in a roster spot fight with Jeremy Langford and Benny Cunningham, likely for one or two spots. Langford (ankle) has begun full practices this week for the first time in training camp. ... LB Pernell McPhee (knee) has stepped up the amount of work he is doing on the side, but coach John Fox said it's too early to say if he'll be healthy enough to be activated for the start of the season. ... WR Markus Wheaton (finger) is maintaining his conditioning by running on the side during practices. Wheaton had surgery on his pinky finger after suffering a broken bone in camp.
