Bears Will Use Starters Extensively

Justin Fields and the Bears offense will see a half of action in the final preseason game, the most time on the field they've had in the exhibition season.

The Bears will have their dress rehearsal after all.

While the idea of using a preseason game to look extensively at starters runs contrary to some teams' practices, the Bears will do it in coach Matt Eberflus' first season.

Justin Fields and the first team offense will be on the field Saturday in Cleveland through the first half and the first-team defense will also get an extensive look. This will include linebacker Roquan Smith, who rejoined the first-team defense in on-field team work at Tuesday's practice.

"So the starters are going to play up to the half," Eberflus said. "We're trying to get 25 or 30 plays in there and again we always reserve the judgment to pull whenever we think is necessary bit thats what we're trying to do with those guys.

"There will be selected players that have experience that will be out before that but that's our plan to do that for this game."

Eberflus will talk to Browns coach Kevin Stefanski about his use of players but it's not likely to change what the Bears are doing because they have much to prove yet in their coach's eyes.

"Yeah, I think it's a lot of things," Eberflus said. "You know, it's establishing your identity, establishing your style of play, the effort we give, the execution we give, situational football, albeit third down, if we get a two-minute drive, how we operate in the gold zone.

"All of those things that come into play that are good football. Again we want to play a good operation, clean operation and we want to be aggressive in our style and aggressive in our approach. So that's what we'll be looking for."

Players often think of preseason chances to play as anything but opportunities, but with so little actual game experience in their new offense Bears starters are happy to go for a half.

"Any way to build continuity, get out there, you know, Cleveland is a great environment to play in, too, so that will be cool for us to be able to work through some things if we have to go to silent cadence or things like that," center Sam Mustipher said. "Yeah, it’s great to get out there, get live reps, especially against a really talented defense, for sure. That will be awesome and any time you get to play football is awesome."

The Bears are holding a simulated regular season week in practice, with Tuesday serving like a normal Wednesday.

"It's nothing different for me, just preparing myself, preparing my body," cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. "And of course this week's preparation is gonna be a little intense. But it's nothing I’m not used to doing: going out there and playing."

It might seem unusual for Smith to be playing. He didn't practice with the team on the field until Tuesday. His hold-in ended Saturday when he went through individual drills in the first half of practice, then duplicated that Sunday.

"Like I said he's ramping up, like you (media) guys were talking about but now he's going to be going into the (team) periods, ramping up that way and getting ready to go," Eberflus said.

Injuries remain a concern, cornerback Tavon Young in particular. The former Ravens slot cornerback hasn't practiced much since camp started and missed some of offseason work, as well.

Nothing had been said about the injury until Tuesday, indicating it was considered a minor day-to-day injury. However, Eberflus said it is a lower leg injury that required extensive rehab and by revealing this it means it's regarded as more of a long-term injury.

"He's been in the pool a lot, he's been working himself through that," Eberflus said. "We're just getting him on dry land as of last week.

"We're just trying to get him back as soon as we can. He's working hard to do that."

In the meantime, it's been rookie Kyler Gordon playing the slot.

The Bears continued using Teven Jenkins at right guard and Larry Borom at right tackle in Tuesday's practice with starters, indicating they'll both get a good look there against Cleveland.

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