Bears taking cautious approach with receiver Kevin White

SHARE Bears taking cautious approach with receiver Kevin White
lions_bears_football_64539187.jpg

Bears wide receiver Kevin White (catching a pass vs.
Glover Quinn and the Lions last season) did not participate in organized team activities Tuesday at Halas Hall, but the Bears are counting on him to be healthy in 2017. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)

It didn’t take long for Mike Glennon to see how receiver Kevin White can make him a better quarterback.

‘‘He’s a big body, he’s fast [and] he’s got a good catch radius,’’ Glennon said Tuesday. ‘‘It’s just got to all come together. And I think it will once he plays. He hasn’t had a big opportunity to play. Once he gets out there, I think he’s gonna do a lot of good things.’’

‘‘Once he gets out there’’ remains the key factor in that equation. White, the Bears’ first-round draft pick in 2015, was among several players who didn’t participate in the organized-team-activity practice on wet grounds at Halas Hall.

Glennon indicated White took part in the OTA practice Monday. Coach John Fox said the Bears were being cautious with White, who missed the final 12 games of last season with a broken leg and sprained ankle.

‘‘We’re just trying to make sure we get guys ready for camp — even more precisely, for

Game 1 against Atlanta,’’ Fox said. ‘‘So we’re going to do everything necessary to make sure we get that done.’’

Fox wouldn’t say whether White, who has played in a combined four games in his first two NFL seasons, would participate at all during the OTAs.

‘‘We’re not really going to get into that as far as who’s in, who’s out and those types of things,’’ Fox said. ‘‘Just understanding that we’re not lining up to play quite yet.’’

For the record, Glennon and receivers coach Zach Azzanni have talked about White as though he’s going to be there.

‘‘I’ve really enjoyed getting to know Kevin, on and off the field,’’ Glennon said. ‘‘He’s a great guy. He works his butt off. He made some really good plays [Monday] that got me and the rest of the team excited.

‘‘He’s really eager to learn. I know he’s eager to get back on the field. [He and] the other

receivers, I think, have a chip on their shoulder to prove that it’s a good receiving corps.’’

Azzanni was excited about White’s potential when he spoke with reporters this month at the Bears’ rookie minicamp. But he noted keeping him healthy will be key.

‘‘He ran a curl the other day, and a bunch of mouths dropped, like, ‘Wow, we had not seen Kevin do that in a long time,’ ’’ Azzanni said. ‘‘And then he watched it, and he was like, ‘Ahhhh.’

‘‘I think that raised [the expectation] that, ‘You can do this, man. We’ve just got to keep working on it and keep you dang healthy.’ So he’s excited. We’ve got to watch him, be careful with him. We don’t want to just throw him in the deep end right away. We want to make sure he’s healthy and ready to go, so he can do all that stuff.’’

Follow me on Twitter @MarkPotash.

Email: mpotash@suntimes.com

RELATED STORIES

Bears notebook: Kyle Long, Zach Miller out, Pernell McPhee in at OTAs

What if Mike Glennon is actually a good QB for the Bears?

The Latest
Four from North Central have combined to capture six national titles since the program’s inception, and six are scheduled to compete next month in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at Penn State.
The Bulls have 13 games left in the regular season and an opportunity to break even when they visit the Rockets on Thursday.
“Joakim [Noah] is very driven and motivated,” coach Billy Donovan said. “He’s all about the team, about winning. You can put Coby and Ayo into that category in terms of how they view things.”
Maybe Fields will develop with the Steelers, become a franchise star. It’s more likely he’ll be an updated Mitch Trubisky.