Bears’ Kevin White after drop: ‘Sometimes the easiest plays can be the hardest’

After wide receiver Kevin White dropped a third-down pass on the Bears’ first possession Thursday, Mitch Trubisky tracked him down on the sideline.

“I’ve seen him make that catch 100 times in practice; that’s something that we rep over and over again,” Trubisky said. ‘‘I’m coming back to you on the next one.’’

White’s drop — the ball hit him in both hands over the middle — was wiped out by a late hit by Bengals defensive end Carlos Dunlap. It stuck with White after the game, though.

“Those are routine plays,” White said. “Sometimes the easiest plays can be the hardest. It takes a little more focus. I just need to catch the ball and get the yards I can get.”

White is notoriously hard on himself. Dropping a pass in his first exhibition game — in the most important preseason of his life — was a bad start.

The key for White is to not make it a bad omen. Receivers coach Mike Furrey talked this week about how the Bears are trying to get the fourth-year player to stop relitigating every mistake and focus on the next play.

“I’m trying to get better every day,” White said. “I’m trying to make the easy plays easy.

‘‘Sometimes I can let plays get away.”

RELATED STORIES

• Why Bears TE Adam Shaheen is growing in Matt Nagy’s offense

• Roquan Smith holdout reaches milestone as Bears prepare to break camp

Injuries have kept White from finishing all but three regular-season games in three seasons. The Bears signed Allen Robinson and Taylor Gabriel and drafted Anthony Miller this offseason so they’d no longer have to rely on White’s development

Any spark he provides is a bonus.

“I have a lot of faith in Kevin; I’ve seen him make that catch,” Trubisky said. “That’s just a little thing. There are other things that go on throughout that play that can make it more solid. . . .

“He knows I have a lot of confidence in him. And we put in a lot of work. And we work too hard to let one dropped pass bother us like that. So we move on. And it’s gotta be better this week, and it will.”

Coach Matt Nagy said at the start of training camp that the coaching staff wasn’t going to harp on White’s mistakes.

On Thursday, he followed through on that promise.

“It was a good throw — it was a drop,” Nagy said. “Kevin will tell you that. And that’s what we’re trying to get through. He wasn’t the only one. . . . You drop a ball? The next time, come out when you get an opportunity and catch the next one.”

Want your Bears training camp update without delay? Each day of summer practice, Sun-Times Bears’ beat writers Patrick Finley, Adam Jahns and Mark Potash will share exclusive insights on the workout and interviews in a livestream conversation 1 p.m. daily through Aug. 12. Catch their live analysis and ask questions on Twitter using the hashtag “#BearsBeatLive” or send them directly to @suntimes_sports. Also, follow Sun-Times Sports on Periscope to be notified of each live report.