Ben Johnson sees surprise contribution from a Bears rookie continuing

"He's got a little bit more weight to him so we can combat both tackles and tight ends and hold up and win the line of scrimmage," Johnson said Friday. "So I think that's natural.

"You know, I was surprised, it kind of can be some foreign territory for some guys that are either moving outside-in or inside-out and it kind of felt at home. I think he felt comfortable there. It looked comfortable at least from our perspective, and so we're hopeful that that's going to take for us and he'll be able to help sure up our run game a little bit and platoon with the rest of the crew. The whole unit did a great job last week, obviously, with that run game and containing a very dangerous rushing attack, and I think that's really going to be our starting point again this week."

It should surprise no one that Turner can do this. He played both end and tackle at Texas A&M and, in fact, his best year as a college player in terms of sacks was as an end his next to last year in 2023 with10 1/2.

In fact, after being drafted he counted that versatility as a big strength. The Bears just hadn't tapped into it much to date. His injury in training camp had much to do with that, however.

“Really my ability to be able to do pretty much anything on the D line," Turner said after the draft in describing his strengths. "Wherever they needed me, I was more than willing to go there. If they needed me inside, I'm moving inside. If they needed me at zero, I'm at zero (nose). If they needed me at five (end), I'm at five, nine technique. If I'm dropping, I'm dropping. So whatever they needed, I was there for them.”

Turner at the time talked about how he had to do something extra to be able to move inside.

“I had to gain a little weight, start eating my Chipotle and stuff like that," he said. "I had to lift a lot more with (Texas A&M Director of Football Strength & Conditioning Tommy) Moffitt. Had to get some extra time with him. Just get bigger to support the double teams and stuff like that on the inside.”

Looks like Chipotle will be off the menu if he's going to start lining up more

Ryan Poles' rookie class to date has maybe Luther Burden's TD catch on a flea flicker and a few other catches he made as key plays but not much else. Colston Loveland, in particular, has had a disappointing start.

Whether it's Turner leading the way for all of them or someone else, they need it to start happening now.