Ben Johnson Makes Call on Bears Starters Playing in Preseason Opener

The Chicago Bears will kick off the 2025 preseason at home against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday August 10, but head coach Ben Johnson has decided that Caleb Williams and the majority of Chicago’s anticipated starters will need to wait at least one more week before making their 2025 debuts.

On the morning of August 8, Johnson made an appearance on the Hoge & Jahns Podcast to discuss numerous Bears related topics, including Johnson’s approach to playing starters during Chicago’s upcoming game against Miami. This is where Johnson revealed that his second-year starting quarterback and a handful of other key starters on both sides of the ball won’t be suiting up.

“There’s going to be a number of guys that aren’t playing in the game,” Johnson said. “We have a number of things scheduled around the game for those guys that aren’t playing, whether it’s the day before or the day after. We’re actually going to end up getting more reps for them than they would have had we played them week one.”

While this development is a bummer for any fans who were jonesing to see what the Bears would look like for first time in the Ben Johnson era, it’s worth noting that this is not necessarily a deviation from the norm around the NFL. Sure, with Johnson implementing a new offense, there’s a case to be made that his starters should be seeing live action as much as possible. However, with a joint practice scheduled with the Dolphins on Friday, the first-team offense and defense will be getting most of the reps against their AFC counterpart.

Bears Eager to ‘Beat Up On Someone Else’

It’s been over two weeks since training camps began in the Windy City, and understandably, the Bears are growing tired of having to compete against their teammates day in and day out. With the Dolphins coming to town, it not only provides the Bears the opportunity to test themselves against another group of players, but also the chance to get physical, and maybe even a little chippy, with an actual opponent.

“What I like about joint practices is having the opportunity to compete against somebody else,” defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said Thursday, per Patrick Finley of Chicago Sun-Times. “As you can see, when we get a real chippy practice like we had [Tuesday], we can be tired of seeing each other for a little while. So you get to beat up on somebody else and just see where you stand.”

On both sides of the ball, there are schematic benefits too. Both of Ben Johnson’s coordinators — Declan Doyle and Dennis Allen — expressed their excitement to see some looks that they haven’t been used to seeing this summer.

“We play against our guys all the time,” Doyle said. “We get pretty used to how they play certain things. It’s a lot better for the quarterbacks, the wideouts, everybody, the O-line, picking up different pressure and things like that. The variety of those joint practices is really valuable.”

“It will be good for us to see something different, some new formations, some new motions, shifts, all those kinds of things — test out our rules,” Allen added.

Countdown is on for Bears Regular Season Kickoff

Including Sunday’s game against the Dolphins, the Bears still have three preseason games to play before welcoming the Minnesota Vikings to Soldier Field for the opening Monday Night Football game of the year. But check the calendar and you’ll see it’s only one month until that first NFC North tilt.

There’s still a whole lot left to be determined on the roster front. Who will win the left tackle competition? Will Tyrique Stevenson be unseated as the starting cornerback opposite of Jaylon Johnson? Will Jaylon Johnson even be healthy come week one? But most importantly, what will Caleb Williams look like in Ben Johnson’s system? And how will Johnson’s offense in Chicago be different than it was in Detroit?

At least from a philosophical sense, it doesn’t sound like it will differ all that much.

“(I love) his creativity,” Williams told NFL Network’s Stacey Dales and Brian Baldinger. “Ben goes by these two simple things: smash-mouth football — old rules, smash-mouth football — and then new and innovative football.”

All eyes will be on Williams during the opening game of the season, and every game afterward, for that very reason. But additionally, the fact that the season opens with Minnesota, a team that Williams reportedly wanted to end up being selected by in the months leading up to the 2024 NFL Draft, only adds to the intrigue.