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The Chicago Bears are having a great start to the 2024 NFL season. Chicago is 4-2 heading into Week 7 and rookie QB Caleb Williams is finally finding his groove. Williams is catching up with Jayden Daniels, who has already been playing like a good starting QB. That hype surrounding both players is being rewarded by the NFL by flexing the game into a more favorable time slot.
The NFL is moving the Bears vs. Commanders game in Week 8 from 1:00PM ET to 4:25PM ET, per Ari Meirov. To make room for the swap, the Eagles vs. Bengals game is moving out of 4:25PM ET to 1:00PM ET. The NFL is excited to flex the Bears and Commanders closer to primetime so it can showcase Caleb Williams against Jayden Daniels.
It should be no surprise that the NFL wants to highlight this matchup. Not only is it a classic No. 1 overall pick vs. No. 2 overall pick from the 2024 NFL Draft, but it is also two of the hottest young QBs in the league. Caleb Williams is finally coming into his own after two good performances in a row. Meanwhile, Jayden Daniels has been great all season long and has been smashing record after record.
This should be an interesting matchup. The Bears have a stout defense, which should cause a few problems for Daniels and give Williams a chance to keep Chicago in the game.
Chicago is on a bye this week and will have some extra time to prepare for Washington.
Bears coach Matt Eberflus, DJ Moore break silence on major changes to play-calling philosophy
The Bears made one recent play-calling change on offense that is paying dividends already.
OC Shane Waldron adjusted how he calls plays at the beginning of games. Waldron decided to begin scripting the beginning of games instead of picking from a wider set of opening plays at the start of each drive.
“We always have openers that we practice,” head coach Matt Eberflus said on the change. “And that’s a big part of it. So, we have several plays listed as openers. Openers are plays that you’re going to use on first and second down, and obviously you go to your third-down script based on distances. “That was just more of a communicating with a leadership of the offense, with Shane and myself, to be able to put those in order – put those in order so the guys knew exactly what play 1 was, play 2, so forth and what the first third-down plays were, kind of working that way.”
Bears receiver DJ Moore believes the change is positive because it increases offensive cohesion and preparedness.
“You can go into the game knowing the set plays that we have to go in and just be on the details,” he told the Mully and Haugh Show, per Audacy.com. “(You don’t have to worry about) being shocked by a play call that we may have not run as much in the week, so having that first 15 is a big deal.”
Bears fans will surely get on board with this change as long as it keeps leading to wins.
