Windy City Gridiron
The Chicago Bears’ 2025 preseason slate kicked off on Sunday at Soldier Field with a 24-24 tie. This came just two days after a physical, dominant joint practice in which the Bears set the tone from the early going and did not relent. Before Friday’s practice, first-year head coach Ben Johnson foreshadowed what would be a backup-heavy contest on Sunday, with just a handful of starters playing on both sides of the ball. He held true to his word, with just Braxton Jones, Colston Loveland, Luther Burden, Tyrique Stevenson, and Nahshon Wright seeing time with the “starters” over the first series or two.
As Bears fans have learned from previous years, preseason results very rarely carry over into the regular season. With that in mind, it’s important to keep proper context on their three preseason games, and simply enjoy getting to see the bottom of the roster play out in real time. With seven days before a “Sunday Night” affair against the Buffalo Bills, let’s take a deeper dive into the sights and sounds of Sunday afternoon’s preseason opener.
Every year around this time, similar storylines follow most of the 32 teams around the league. Frankly, it’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation, yet fans find themselves on opposite ends of the argument every single time.
Now, there’s no denying that this offense in particular needs more time on task. It’s been an uneven start to camp for this group, and there will be plenty of focus on second-year quarterback Caleb Williams, who will be looking to live up to his No. 1 overall draft status. There’s a reason Johnson was one of their top candidates from the start of the interview process. The first-year head coach will be tasked with doing something no modern-era coach has done for this franchise: Properly develop a star quarterback into reaching his full potential.
That’s why when it came out on Friday that Johnson would be holding out the majority of his starters, it was met with a mixed reaction from fans and critics alike.
On the one hand, a series or two for the starting offense might have helped work out some of their ongoing pre-snap issues. The offensive line could host as many as four new starters, and that’s a group that notoriously takes time to gel. Allowing that group additional game time to work through some kinks wouldn’t have been the worst idea. After all, I’m a firm believer that no amount of “controlled” snaps in a joint practice setting can replicate the nerves, excitement, and noise factor of a live football game. Preseason or not.
Looking at it from the other side, it’s easy to see that Johnson and his coaching staff have a firm plan in place. It was a starter-heavy joint practice session, followed by more than 70 pre-game reps featuring Williams and his starting...
