Why Bears playing starters in Week 3 preseason game vs. Chiefs is no surprise

Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson confirmed this week that he intends to play the team’s starters against the Kansas City Chiefs in the final preseason game of 2025. While there was a presumption that teams around the league would sit their first-teamers this weekend, Johnson has opted for a more traditional approach.

What we don’t know yet, however, is how long Caleb Williams and the rest of the Chicago Bears’ starters will play.

“We’ll see how long it is,” Johnson said. “We’re going to get through a couple of days of practice and determine how long. But we need to go through this.”

It wasn’t long ago that the NFL’s preseason featured four games. And, during that time, clubs used the third game as the regular season’s dress rehearsal.

Chicago Bears could use Week 3 preseason game as dress rehearsal

Nothing has changed with the league’s calendar; the same amount of time exists between the third preseason game and Week 1’s opener. The only difference is that the final preseason game has been replaced with a bye week.

So, yeah, Week 3 should still be the “dress rehearsal.”

Johnson has been dropping hints about using the preseason as a simulation for what’s to come. Chicago’s Sunday night preseason game against the Buffalo Bills was a great test for what the Bears will experience in Week 1 against the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football.

“I thought the routine was a big part of it,” Johnson said after the game. “This would be really the first time we’re on the road in a preseason. It’s probably good to go through that exercise as well.”

The Chicago Bears will look to build upon their 38-0 dismantling of the Bills with another impressive showing on the road against the Kansas City Chiefs. Indeed, preseason wins and losses are hardly indicative of regular-season success. But for a Bears team that’s rebuilding its culture from the ground up, stringing together two strong performances before the regular season kicks off will be a huge momentum boost.

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