Being a late round draft pick isn’t easy in the NFL. From a football perspective, it’s like being born a second-class citizen. The only way to get out of the squalors is to work harder than everybody else and hope the right people notice you. The problem is most such citizens live their football life in obscurity. It’s apparent Kylie Fitts has no intention of going down that road. He’s prepared to sacrifice whatever it takes.
At least that’s how he’s begun his first training camp. Brief snippets along with a stream of reports from Bears training camp show the sixth round pick out of Utah is attacking every drill with a fervor that is rare. It’s clear he’s heard the criticisms. Injury-prone in college. Never had a true breakout season. Still unproven against top competition.
It seems this has put him in a combative mindset. He’ll do whatever he has to do for the coaches to give him a chance. That’s what late round picks have to realize. They aren’t drafted with the guarantee of a job. They are drafted with the idea they’ll get a fair opportunity. What they do with that opportunity makes the difference between a Tom Brady and a Tayo Fabuluje.
Such effort and relentless work ethic is a great thing, provided one can keep it under control.
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Bears coaches warned Kylie Fitts endangering the QBs
A few decades ago, quarterbacks were often declared live during camp practices. In other words, defenders were free to hit them in drills. That’s almost a non-existent thing in this modern NFL with the league being so quarterback-centric. One wrong tackle or hit and a team’s season is ruined. The problem is some defenders get so amped up that during their rushes they tend to flirt hitting them anyway.
Fitts encountered this situation a few times in camp. So much that head coach Matt Nagy admitted he had to warn the rookie to be more careful, resulting in an apology for the misstep.
“He plays extremely hard. I have to sometimes remind him to make sure to stay away from the quarterback and the throwing motion, and he actually came up to me and apologized to me for it. But you can’t fault a kid for trying to play hard, trying to get to the quarterback. So I told him, ‘When we get to the preseason, do it as much as you want.’”
It’s always hard to fault a player for giving it everything he has.
Fitts owning up to his mistake shows he’s willing to learn from it. This makes one excited to see whether he takes Nagy up on his word to save it for the preseason. One thing is clear. This isn’t an isolated incident. Fitts was playing with that same hair-on-fire mentality going back to the Senior Bowl when he first started flashing to the wider public.
Here is Kylie Fitts beating Brandon Parker 1-on-1 at this year's @seniorbowl
Fitts won 71% of his pass rushes in 1-on-1 drills down in Mobile pic.twitter.com/WMOUjiihsV
— PFF CHI Bears (@PFF_Bears) April 28, 2018
Here’s another look at #Utah DE Kylie Fitts who shows great get off and power vs. #TCU tackle Joseph Notebloom. #SeniorBowl pic.twitter.com/vYVeyQjCML
— Jennifer Lee Chan (@jenniferleechan) January 26, 2018
There’s no question the Bears pass rush needs all the help it can get. Outside of Leonard Floyd and Akiem Hicks, they have few answers at the position. They’re hoping somebody else can step up. Will it be Sam Acho? Will it be Aaron Lynch or Isaiah Irving? The way Fitts is practicing, it seems like he’s doing everything in his power to make sure it’s him.
