Bears Begin OTAs on Wednesday: Here's the Full Schedule and What to Expect

The Chicago Bears will begin OTAs (organized team activities) on Wednesday. Here's a look at the full schedule and what we can expect to see.

Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

The Chicago Bears will embark on the next part of the offseason program on Wednesday, when the team begins organized team activities (OTAs).

The Bears have been in the midst of their offseason program since April 20. Rookies joined in this month and made their practice debuts during rookie minicamp.

Now, it's time for the veterans and rookies to hit the practice field together at OTAs, which will begin this week and run through next week.

It's important to point out that this is still voluntary, so don't be surprised to see some veterans not in attendance. All Bears players will be required to attend mandatory minicamp next month, which begins on June 9.

Here's the full OTAs schedule for Chicago and what to expect.

Bears OTAs schedule

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

The Bears will hold a total of six practices during OTAs. Here are the days in which those practices will take place:

• May 27-29

• June 2-4

It isn't clear which Bears OTAs sessions will be open to the media, but there should be at least a few.

That will give us an inside look at what the Bears are doing as beat writers share notes, photos and videos from practice.

What to expect

Chicago Bears defensive back Dillon Thieneman. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

Again, this is the first time we'll see both rookies and veterans on the practice field together, but there will be no full pads (helmets, protective elbow and knee pads only) and no live contact.

What we will get plenty of is team drills, including 7-on-7, 9-on-7 and 11-on-11, and that's where all the best video clips that we'll surely overreact to will come from.

We'll be keeping a close eye on how the Bears deploy players who are involved in positional battles, of which Chicago will have plenty, both for starting and backup jobs.

We wouldn't put too much stock into what we see out there this week and next, as training camp is when competitions are really decided. Still, what happens between now and mandatory minicamp sets a foundation for training camp.

We wouldn't worry too much about how draft picks look, as they are given plenty of runway and it won't be time to start panicking about or hyping up their 2026 roles until we see more in July and August.

Undrafted free agents are a different story, as the leash is much shorter for these players and a few bad days could lead to them getting cut. The bigger the UDFA contract received, the more leeway those rookies will get.

In order to prepare you for OTAs this week, we've provided links to some content we've posted over the course of the past week leading up to OTAs.

We will, of course, have full coverage of everything that goes down during OTAs, both this week and next.

Bears On SI's OTAs Previews

OTAs Could Decide the Fate of These 4 Bears Roster Bubble Players

Bears OTAs Open With 5 Pressure Points That Could Shape the 2026 Season

6 Chicago Bears UDFAs Who Realy Matter at OTAs

Kyler Gordon's Absence From OTAs Raises New Doubts About Future With Bears

Bears' Jaylon Johnson's $76M Deal and Rough Season Means Absence From OTAs Can't Be Ignored