The 2023 NFL preseason is officially over for the Chicago Bears following a 24-21 loss to the Buffalo Bills. They went 1-2 this preseason, a stark change from last year’s undefeated August.
With a Week 1 matchup against the Green Bay Packers up next, let’s look over the past three weeks with an objective eye to see what we’ve learned.
Before diving deep into the takeaways, let’s get one thing out of the way: the Bears’ 2023 preseason record doesn’t mean anything.
Read that again, and never forget it.
Coaches aren’t game-planning or watching tape of their opponents, and they aren’t playing chess with the other team’s coaches as the game progresses.
Starters play very few snaps and usually run very basic, scripted plays meant to test certain players or concepts.
I’ve already seen some panic about the Bears’ fortunes on social media, and it’s wildly overblown. The Bears looked like a well-oiled machine during last year’s preseason. They went 3-0 in 2022, and look where it got them; they ended the regular season with the worst record in the NFL.
The Detroit Lions famously went 4-0 in the 2008 preseason before losing every regular season game that year. The LA Rams went 0-3 the year they won the Super Bowl.
None of it matters.
Now, let’s get to the Chicago Bears’ preseason takeaways.
