Chicago Bears Preseason Schedule: Dates, Times and TV Channels

All Chicago Bears preseason games will be shown locally on the Chicago Bears Network on FOX32 and can be heard on ESPN Chicago.

Two of the Bears' preseason games will be shown nationally on NFL Network, including Week 1 and Week 3.

Will the Bears play their starters?

When it comes to the Bears' starters, head coach Ben Johnson said "a number" will not play in this contest, including Caleb Williams.

"We'll end up sitting a number of our starters as we view it on both sides of the ball," Johnson said. "There will be a handful of guys that aren't participating in this matchup, and yet I think we're going to get some good evals of the guys that are out there and make sure that we have enough to go win this game."

Backup quarterback Tyson Bagent will get the start for Chicago with Williams not playing. Johnson said Williams getting reps in the preseason isn't necessary, but a final decision will be made next week.

"I don't know that I need to see game snaps," Johnson said of his starters. "What we're trying to assess is the volume throughout the week and making sure we're hitting our benchmarks to make sure our team is ready to go for a 17-plus game season. That's what we're looking to do."

"Next week we can address when it gets there," Johnson added. "But we have a plan in place of the reps, the workload we want to get as a team between the joint practice with Cincinnati and the game reps as well."

"But do I need to see Caleb Williams in the preseason? No, I don't," he said. "I see him every single day in practice and I know what we're going to get come the season, and yet there is a workload and there is a number of reps that we want to hit as a team, so [we will] make sure we even that out whether that's game reps or not."

Johnson mentioned the joint practice with the Bengals, which is slated to take place on Thursday, Aug. 20, two days before the preseason Week 2 contest versus Cincinnati.

Chicago will also meet the Titans in Nashville for another joint session on Thursday, Aug. 27, before their exhibition game on Saturday, Aug. 29.

Once that game concludes, the Bears will cut their roster down to 53 players and the regular season will begin two weeks later, with Chicago's regular-season opener taking place on Sunday, Sept. 13, against the Carolina Panthers.

We're almost there, folks.