4 takeaways from the Chicago Bears’ 2024 schedule

The NFL finally released the official schedules for the 2024 season on Wednesday night, and that means it’s time for some immediate reactions.

After enjoying the Chicago Bears’ high school movie-themed release video, I noticed four things in the schedule that stuck out to me.

No division games until Week 11

This was by far the oddest part of Chicago’s schedule. The Bears will not play a single division rival until Week 11, when the Green Bay Packers come to Soldier Field. That means that six of the final eight games will be within the NFC North. That could make the playoff race one of the most exciting in the entire league.

Only three primetime games for Chicago

This was a bit of a disappointment, as the Bears had four primetime games in 2023. Only getting three in 2024 feels like the league throwing some shade at the Bears. However, if you want to count international and holiday games as primetime (I do), then the Bears get five. They’ll play the Lions on Thanksgiving and in Week 6 they travel to London to play the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Hopefully this London trip ends better than the last one.

No brutal stretches in the schedule this year

The Bears will be playing some very tough teams this year, but they all seem evenly spread out throughout the 18-week schedule. To me, the only part of the schedule that you could maybe call a “tough stretch” is Weeks 2-4, when they play the red-hot Texans, the Colts, and the Rams. After that, any tough game is followed by a winnable one.

Caleb Williams has five intriguing quarterback duels in first ten weeks

Within the first ten weeks of the 2024 season, Caleb Williams will be in a quarterback duel with the two quarterbacks drafted immediately after him (Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye), the most recent first overall quarterback before him (Bryce Young), the most recent first overall quarterback who drew the same kind of “generational” label (Trevor Lawrence), and finally the quarterback whose rookie season in 2023 he will hope to emulate (CJ Stroud).

That’s a lot of pressure on the young Caleb Williams. Fortunately, early signs show that he’s built for this.