Sportsnaut
The Chicago Bears will host a joint practice with the Buffalo Bills on Friday, and both teams will cap off the week with a preseason game at Soldier Field.
Chicago’s starters, including quarterback Caleb Williams, didn’t play in the preseason opener last week versus the Miami Dolphins. However, head coach Ben Johnson announced on Wednesday that the starters will be out there against Buffalo on Sunday.
“Ben Johnson said that everyone is going to play Sunday vs. Buffalo in the Bears 2nd preseason game,” Courtney Cronin of ESPN said on X. “That includes Caleb Williams and the starters who sat out last week.”
During his press conference, Johnson also added why he is deciding to play Williams versus the Bills after sitting him out last week.
“Well, last week — and really, all through camp — I’ve been pretty consistent with the thought of reps, reps, reps are the most important thing to get him [Williams] up to speed,” Johnson said on Wednesday. “And by the plan that we had a week ago, we were able to get him probably somewhere between 80 and 100 more reps than we would’ve been able to do had he played in the game.”
“This week, it’s a different schedule. Different length of time in terms of in between games and all that. And so, our plan right now is the guys that sat out last week, they will be playing this week.”
Johnson’s decision to sit Williams and the starters last week received some criticism. The first-year head coach now believes that his starters need to play a couple of drives of preseason action to get ready for the season, which doesn’t kick off until September 8 versus the Minnesota Vikings..
After working with the Bills this week, Chicago will wrap up the preseason at Arrowhead Stadium against the Kansas City Chiefs.
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