When the Kansas City Chiefs head to Soldier Field to face the Chicago Bears in preseason Week 1, they’ll get a healthy dose of the NFC North team’s starting lineup during the game.
New Bears head coach Matt Eberflus confirmed that his starters will play in the preseason opener against Kansas City. This means the Chiefs will face players like second-year QB Justin Fields, veteran DE Robert Quinn, and even former Chiefs WR Byron Pringle (here is the latest projected depth chart from Bears Wire).
Eberflus is still in the process of determining how much the starters will play in preseason Week 1.
“Yes, we will play first-team guys against the Chiefs, absolutely,” Eberflus told reporters. “The number of plays, we’re still working on but we do want to get them a good amount.”
A good amount could be anything ranging from a quarter to over a full half of play. It’s possible they’ll determine this on the fly based on performance, but it’s also possible they’ll have a preconceived snap count in place for both offensive and defensive starters.
On the flip side, the Chiefs are typically quite reserved with starters during the first game of the preseason. Reid usually gives them anywhere from a few series to a full quarter of play before switching over to the second team. If the first offensive drive is a long scoring drive, it’s possible that Patrick Mahomes and the rest of the starters are pulled quickly. If things don’t go smoothly for the starting offense, they could be out there longer. They won’t be in for more than a quarter as Reid likes to ramp things up throughout the preseason.
I suspect that Kansas City’s starting defense, specifically the rookie starters like Trent McDuffie, Joshua Williams, George Karlaftis and Leo Chenal, will get a lot of run throughout first- second- and third-team defense. They need as many snaps as they can get ahead of the start of the season.
No matter what, playing against the Bears’ starters will provide a nice challenge to kick off the preseason.
