Bears DC Dennis Allen is sending a strong message to his defense in training camp, and no players are being excluded from it

The first price to pay in order to be on his defense involved a form of physical initiation. Each defensive player, veteran and rookie alike, were forced to do 40 up-downs. An up-down involves running in a stationary position until the coach blows his whistle, after which you drop to your stomach on the ground and spring back up ready for the next whistle with minimal rest, if any, between reps.

"When you get the whole team buying in and knowing that every single person that's going to be on that field has to do it, there's no treatment," linebacker T.J. Edwards said. "It doesn't matter what year you are, you're out there doing it."

That includes players who weren't on the field with the rest of the defense on the first day of camp, something defensive back Alex Cook learned on Thursday. Cook was waived by the team on Tuesday before camp opened and resigned with the team on Thursday morning. Before taking the field, Cook had to pay the initiation price too.

"He flew back into town and to start practice (on Thursday) we all circled around him. He did his up-downs," veteran safety Kevin Byard explained. "It kind of felt bad watching him do them by himself but at the same time it's just like that's one of those deals, the initiation of this defense. And then once he finished everybody was like 'welcome to the defense,' then got on with practice."

In that way, it builds a lot of camaraderie amongst the defense, and something many players haven't experience since their college days. One could expect a similar rite of passage will be coming down the line for rookie cornerback Zah Frazier (who missed the first two days due to a personal matter) and eventually veteran cornerback Jaylon Johnson (who's expected to miss weeks with a leg injury). 

It also sent a strong first impression to open training camp that already paid off. On the first defensive play during team drills, the unit got an early win over the offense after linebacker Tremaine Edmunds intercepted quarterback Caleb Williams.

Training camp is supposed to be a long grueling process for a well coached team, something the players in Chicago are starting to figure out. 

"It's a way to mentally train players to be tough and push through adversity," Allen added. "Training camp's going to be difficult, and we're going to have to be able to overcome when we're tired. How do we focus, how do we concentrate, how do we dig down deep inside, rise up and make plays in critical situations in the game?"

It's a strong message that every player on that side of the ball has already bought into just two days into training camp.