Bears QB Clausen can make his move vs. Jaguars

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Jimmy Clausen has a great opportunity Thursday to stake his claim as the backup to quarterback Jay Cutler.

Coach Marc Trestman announced Tuesday that Clausen will relieve Cutler against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

?He?ll have the shot after Jay comes out of the game, whenever that is,? Trestman said. ?But [Clausen and Jordan Palmer] will play.?

Palmer relieved Cutler in the Bears? exhibition opener Friday against the Philadelphia Eagles and played primarily with the second-stringers.

But Clausen led the Bears? comeback, completing 7 of 13 passes for 150 yards, two touchdowns and a 134.6 rating during the third quarter (his only quarter of play).

Palmer (8-for-11, 104 yards, touchdown, interception) wasn?t completely outdone by Clausen against the Eagles, but Clausen has been the better performer during training camp.

Now he?ll get a chance to work with some of the Bears? better players.

?It?s another opportunity to get better and get more comfortable with the whole offense,? said Clausen, the former Notre Dame standout.

Clausen?s arm strength has been impressive, especially considering that he had surgery on his right shoulder last September.

?My shoulder feels great,? Clausen said. ?It?s probably the best it has felt since my junior year at Notre Dame. I felt good. The legs feel good. I just have to keep grinding.?

Trestman has insisted that the competition between Clausen and Palmer is ongoing. If there?s a leader in his mind, he?s not saying.

?You see it every day out here,? Trestman said. ?They?re both making plays. They?re competing. I?ve talked to both of them that nothing?s set in stone from last week. We grade them every day. We?re watching all the tape. We?re making the corrections with each of them. It?s still a competition, and they know it. We?re repping them that way.?

 

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Bears' Offensive Line...

One of the blessings for the 2013 Bears, besides finding gold in rookies Kyle Long and Jordan Mills starting, was a level of health that allowed four of the five mainstays to start all 16 games with Mills forced out of the Green Bay game with a fractured foot.

Through training camp, the Bears were building a second-tier of veterans with pro experience and with established abilities to play more than one position: tackle/guard Eben Britton, with 34 NFL starts, four with the Bears last year; former Montreal Alouette lineman Michael Ola, who has worked at both guard and tackle throughout camp; center/guard Brian de la Puente from New Orleans; and former Bengals right tackle/guard Dennis Roland.

Not all are likely to make the final roster, based on numbers if nothing else. But roster numbers are often adjusted because of injury specters at positions, and right now, the Bears are facing that kind of situation in a previously solid position group.

Mills has missed the Philadelphia game and the past week of practice with nagging pain in his surgically repaired left foot. De la Puente is down for a couple weeks with a knee sprain from the Eagles game, and Britton has had to miss most of camp with a hamstring injury suffered in a pass-protection drill.

All of which places an uneasy spotlight on the depth chart for an area on which much of the entire offensive success is based.

With Mills out, Ola started against Philadelphia and worked the past week at right tackle. Roland, who also played guard with Cincinnati, has settled in at right tackle with the No. 2 unit. But Ola has emerged as a key figure, for at least the moment, because of an ability to play multiple positions.

?Michael Ola has been able to play four different spots on the offensive line,? said offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer. ?He?s a good athlete, and he uses his hands really well. He?s growing each week. There are very few people that can go from left tackle to right tackle and both guard positions and do what he has done, so we?re excited to have him.?

Ola was signed by Miami in January, then released in May ? not a ringing endorsement when someone cannot make the roster of a team with an offense in the 20?s for most categories last season. Now, he has the right level of desperation.

?If they tell me to go out there and cover kicks I'm going to try to do it,? Ola said. ?I'm really comfortable along the line, so the only thing is just learning the concepts, getting the concepts back, because once I have the concepts down, whether it's guard or tackle I'm very comfortable.?

 

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Linebacker play:

Collectively, the group played poorly in the opener against the Eagles. But in its defense, the team was matched up against a high-octane, no-huddle offense that featured plenty of zone-read concepts that the Bears hadn?t game-planned for. Specifically, Jonathan Bostic and Shea McClellin need to play better. Considering he started nine games as a rookie, Bostic should be poised to take a major step in his development, but we haven?t yet see that. McClellin is making the transition from defensive end, and the staff remains confident he?ll progress enough that the team would feel confident about making him the starter on the strong side.