Good morning, Bears fans!

For better or worse, it finally became training camp the past few days as the Bears suffered their first big injury (Coby Bryant), inked a big extension (Darnell Wright) and … yes … played host to their first camp fight.

For those of you scoring at home, it was a rookie bout. Jordan van den Berg vs. Caden “The Vanilla Gorilla” Barnett. Two names straight off a UFC card.

Great newsletter ahead today, send Bears By 7 to a friend …

— Kevin Kaduk

Darnell Wright and Bears come to terms: Another camp, not just another extension. More on the record-setting deal below.

Coby Bryant out 8-10 weeks: The universal takeaway on the knee injury suffered by the offseason’s biggest free agent signing is the correct one. It could’ve been worse. Bryant missing camp with a new system/team is a big deal, but his presumed replacement (Cam Lewis) has time to get ready in the preseason and the first month of the season is arguably the most hospitable for playing an important man down. Thank God, small favors, etc.

Caleb Williams makes a move in The Athletic’s tier rankings: QB 18 jumped from Tier Three to Tier Two in the annual exercise and tied for 11th with Brock Purdy. That’s a jump of 12 spots year over year. Keep going, Caleb. (The Athletic)

A big piece of the foundation for what we hope will be the next great Bears team was officially set on Tuesday with Darnell Wright and the team agreeing to a monster deal that resets the league’s market for right tackles.

Your tl;dr bulletpoints:

My take:

I wasn’t a fan of Ryan Poles passing on Jalen Carter for Wright and a fourth-round pick in the 2023 NFL draft, but it’s become clear there was no wrong choice to be made. We can officially mark Wright down as Poles’ first big draft win.

While Carter was the perfect piece for another Eagles’ Super Bowl title, Wright has been the perfect anchor for the Bears’ future dreams. He’s played in 49 of 51 games since entering the league, often at less than 100 percent like when he played most of last year with a torn UCL in his elbow.

And while there were some inconsistencies to work through during his first two seasons, Wright took a big jump in Year 3. Under new coach Ben Johnson, he became the linchpin of a ferocious zone rushing attack the team used en route to an NFC North title. Johnson helped turn Penei Sewell into a star during his time in Detroit and now he’s doing the same with Wright in Chicago.

Johnson wasn’t here for the 2023 draft, though, so let’s go back and give Poles some more credit. Both he and Ian Cunningham gushed about the pre-draft time they spent with Wright in Tennessee and raved about his intangibles both on and off the field. It was so much it gave me bad flashbacks to Ryan Pace talking about Trubisky driving his grandmother’s Toyota around Chapel Hill.

But Wright has rewarded Poles’ faith in him since showing up at Halas Hall and stripping the cliche from the “quiet leader” who “works hard” and “leads by example.” If everything goes right, he has a shot at being an all-time Bear.

Poles, meanwhile, has a chance of doing this for two more first-rounders next summer with Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze. That will prove to be a much tougher task with the money that Caleb will command. Odunze’s situation is another matter with Luther Burden and Colston Loveland coming up behind him and the insane big money that receivers are getting (four years, $140 million for Zay Flowers?)

For now, though, let’s just enjoy the success of the Darnell Wright pick.

These wins don’t come around often.

Talk about Darnell Wright’s extension in the Bears By 7 community!

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