What personnel do you expect the Bears to deploy Saturday against the Bengals?
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Are the Bears and Bengals planning to start their regular‑season players in the preseason game?
This is Rahimi Harris and Grody on 1043 the Score. We are happy to come to you live from our Score Hyundai studios, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. This is a preseason game two Eve. Marshall Harris, how you doing with it?
You know how I'm doing. I'm it look, I need to know. Are starters playing or are they not? Cause if they're not, I won't be watching live.
Yeah, that's that's where we sit with this as a show crew. We all have a lot of work over the weekend, and this game is at six o'clock on a Saturday night. And as hype as I was for the Saturday night regular season game with the Packers, for example. This
is the opposite. No.
Knowing that we were gonna be on ten, knowing that it was here and playoff seating was on the line, the division at the time. I was at the game already. All of the wonderful things. Yeah, you went w thanks to Henry Melton, friend of the show.
Shout out to Henry.
Yeah, all of those things. That was a that was an incredible Saturday night in the life of Chicago. This one might be a little bit different. Now we haven't gotten anything official. We know that the Bengals are sitting their starters. That was reported over many outlets. Chris Emma said yesterday he speculated that he thought the Bears would sit their starters. We know Tyson Bajin, for example, didn't make the trip. They get the joint practices out of the way, the Super Bowl of the preseason, if you will. I think that's what Mark Grody called it. I I
think he's right.
But I think we're still up in the air as to whether or not that was it. Ben Johnson said he did they see enough? You know, he told us that beforehand. If they saw enough as to whether or not to be able to play their starters in this game.
Let me give you a line from today's Chicago Tribune in an article that was co-written. Ten observations from Chicago Bears joint practice, including good and bad for Caleb Williams on the offense. This is Sean Hammond and Brad Biggs joining forces like the freaking Wonder Twins activate. Doo-doo. In this article it says And this is like first paragraph of the article. In a lot of ways, NFL teams prefer joint practices to preseason games because it's a controlled environment. Taylor already announced the Bengals starters won't play Saturday. Johnson hasn't said for certain, but the starters saw a ton of action Thursday, which could indicate They'll have the day off Saturday.
I that's it. It's we knew that Ben Johnson keyed off on this. I the better question and sadly the worse question then became, Well, what the heck are we gonna see the next Saturday against the Titans? That's a Saturday night game too. Did you think about that?
Did not think about that. I did
I did and then I was like, Ooh And and then we tried to figure out if we're watching the game live or not and I will be 'cause I've got to work on a bunch of different things over the weekend, but
Now, one of the things though, Layla, that's different now than in, you know, previous years. I mean, it's been this way for the last couple of years. Ever since the NFL changed the structure of how preseason works and training camp cuts work, it actually does make more sense that starters don't play the deep game preseason because more guys are on the roster and you're trying to make all those mass cuts that after that last preseason game. So you need more playing time for all the the end of the the roster guys trying to make the fifty three.
Did you like it when they used to do the s the staggered kind where you had the first set and then you had the second set?
Hard knocks liked it 'cause every week it was dun dun, who's off. Yeah. Who's off the chip? I mean
that was kind of the that was the inspiration behind Hard Knocks to begin with, wasn't it?
It makes it feel more like uh what's what's that one uh reality show Clay Harbor was on?
What did Ben Johnson say about the Bengals’ starters sitting out Saturday?
Um Oh
The Bachelor. Yeah,
like every week people gotta go home.
I'm like the reality show Clay Harbor was on. Oh, you mean the Braves and White Sox game yesterday? No, no, that was Grant Holmes.
Yes. Uh and and so I look, I do like that they're
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Are the Bears and Bengals planning to start their regular‑season players in the preseason game?
0:00–3:30
2
What did Ben Johnson say about the Bengals’ starters sitting out Saturday?
3:30–7:24
3
Why are joint practices considered the “Super Bowl of the preseason” for Chicago?
7:24–12:21
4
How has the NFL’s preseason structure changed the way teams evaluate roster cuts?
12:21–15:35
5
Which Bears players are likely to see snaps on Saturday and could become Week 1 starters?
15:35–18:11
6
What is the speculation around the left‑tackle position and the upcoming Titans game?
18:11–19:36
7
Which four players did the hosts name as potential first‑team starters for the regular season?
19:36–20:07
8
What final thoughts do the hosts share about preseason strategy and future match‑ups?
20:07–20:18
Speakers
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