Chicago Bears rookie Kylie Fitts could be called upon to have a significant role on defense in 2018, especially if injuries start to pile up.

With veteran outside linebacker Aaron Lynch sidelined, Fitts has been able to earn more reps during the first two weeks of training camp. After dealing with an injury of his own, Fitts returned to the practice field last week and even played a lot in Thursday's first preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens.

In his first NFL action, Fitts held his own for the most part. He looked good at times but also had some moments which reminded you that he was a rookie. Overall, the performance was solid as he finished the game with four tackles and a sack.

Now the rookie just hopes to build on that performance moving forward.

"Just showing up every day," Fitts said. "You can’t come out here at a practice and take some plays off, it’s every snap, every drill you’re going 100 percent."

Throughout practice in Bourbonnais, Fitts and fellow players on the defense have to pull up when they are going after the quarterback. Head coach Matt Nagy had to get on Fitts about pulling up and not hitting the quarterback in training camp.

"He plays extremely hard," Nagy said. "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 [Monday] 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."

On Thursday, he finally got to get out there and hit an opposing quarterback. He got his first opportunity to go out there and show what he could do, along with some other young players on the Bears defense.

"I think for all of us outside ’backers it’s a young group, so we all have a lot to show out," Fitts said. "I think just every opportunity I get all of us we have to show out, this season we have to improve our pass rush, we have to do a lot more."

For Fitts, getting back out on the field was a positive after he had an injury-filled career at Utah. He played in just two games in his junior year after hurting his foot and then played in just 8 games as a senior in 2017.

When Fitts was on the field he produced but it was staying healthy that became the problem. Aside from a minor hamstring injury in training camp, Fitts has been able to stay healthy and earn some valuable reps in training camp.

Even with Sam Acho as the current starter opposite of Leonard Floyd, there's some uncertainty as a whole about the edge position for the Bears. Fitts will have his chance to earn a spot but he has to stay healthy.

"Yeah, it’s just taking care of your body before practice do stretching and then after ice tub, treatment," Fitts said. "You can’t ignore that, you have to keep doing that after every practice, no matter how tired you are."

As for what he hopes to improve on going into the next preseason game against Cincinnati? Well, Fitts already has an idea.

"Just a few of my pass rushes, I think I could clean it up, improve my get-off a little bit," Fitts said. "Just improving, improving technique, being more technically sound and just improving on that."