Chicago Bears’ starters to play Saturday against Bengals
Earlier this week, Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor announced that his starters would not be playing in Saturday’s preseason matchup against the Chicago Bears. This sparked curiosity (and mild panic) as to whether Caleb Williams and the rest of the Bears’ starters would get to play at all on Saturday. Some speculated that head coach Matt Eberflus might follow suit and rest his starters, seeing as they had a joint practice with the Bengals today. However, Eberflus confirmed today after practice that the Bears’ starters will be playing this Saturday.
“We feel really good about our plan and the process that we’ve been through so far in training camp, and you will see the starters in that game. I talked about competitive reps the other day and I feel like we’ve gotten a lot of good competitive reps — 1s on 1s, a lot of good situations.”
“This day was another chance for us to get competitive reps against another opponent, another skillset, which was outstanding. And then this week, coming up on Saturday, we’ll get another chance to get some reps there too, so we feel really good about that.”
Eberflus takes the lead by playing starters
This is a great move by Eberflus, and not just because of the fans’ excitement about seeing Caleb Williams and the other starters in action. It would have been easy for Eberflus to just sit his starters since the Bengals are sitting theirs, but Eberflus took the lead here and showed that these preseason game reps are important to his young quarterback’s development. It’s also important for the offense to get into a rhythm going into the regular season.
When asked by reporters how many reps he planned to give the starters in Saturday’s game, Eberflus said that it depends on “the ebb and flow of the game.”
“We’ll figure that out when we’re at the game. We’ve got a good range that we feel good about like we did last time, and we’ll see where that is during the game.”
Caleb Williams will benefit from more preseason game reps
The Bears have taken a more conservative approach in the past with their starters in the preseason, opting to go into the season as healthy as possible. However, Eberflus could be shifting his approach this year since the Bears have been slow out of the gate in previous years when the starters didn’t get as many reps in preseason.
Yes, there is a risk that comes with the Bears’ starters playing more in preseason. However, the reward of having a cohesive offensive unit that goes into the regular season with confidence outweighs that risk. Eberflus sees what a special opportunity he has with this talented offense, and he’s determined to have them ready for Tennessee in week one.
