The Chicago Bears have an important preseason ahead of them. Not only does new head coach Ben Johnson have to use those three games to evaluate his roster, but it will also be against three pretty good teams. All three are AFC contenders: the Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, and Kansas City Chiefs. It appears Johnson hopes to take advantage of this setup by doing something many coaches across the league have championed: holding joint practices. They did it last year with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Things will be a little different this time. According to a new report, the Bears will hold joint practices with not one but two of their upcoming preseason opponents, the Bills and Dolphins. It is a great opportunity for Johnson to measure his young team against two seasoned rosters filled with playoff experience. He'll also get to measure himself against two proven head coaches, Sean McDermott and Mike McDaniel. It will be interesting to see how the Bears approach those situations, knowing things can get heated if not controlled properly.
The Chicago Bears can't focus on winning joint practices.
That doesn't tell them anything about how the upcoming season will unfold. They looked great against the Bengals last year, especially on offense. All that ended up telling us was that Cincinnati's defense was terrible. What the Chicago Bears need to find out is the state of their overall preparation and execution. Johnson will want to see his guys run a smooth process. Limit the mistakes. He's already hard at work in OTAs getting such issues fixed. Players are quickly finding out that Johnson does not let little things slide. It will be fun to see how far his competitive streak goes in those practices. Things may get emotionally charged during those full team drills. We're honestly here for it.
