Bears announce 2018 preseason schedule

The Bears’ build up towards the 2018 regular season will consist of five games in the preseason this year due to the Hall of Fame Game, as the team officially announced it’s August schedule Wednesday afternoon. Keep in mind official dates for contests won’t be locked down until later.

Chicago gets the honor of playing in Canton, Ohio on Thursday August 2nd, and starting training camp activities a week earlier this year, because of Brian Urlacher’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame that weekend. Since Urlacher only played with the Bears during his First-Ballot career, the league decided to match Chicago up with fellow First-Ballot Hall of Famer Ray Lewis’ Ravens: who also only played with one team in Baltimore. The contest is a national television game on NBC.

It should be a weekend of emotions for two franchise legends, and an excellent extra week of preparation for a new head coach Matt Nagy and the Bears.

After that, the Bears are set to open the normal schedule of preseason games by visiting the Bengals in Cincinnati somewhere between August 9th to August 12th.

Then, Chicago comes travels to Denver’s altitude to take on the Broncos in the second preseason in the range of August 16th to August 19th. That should be an interesting warmup for the Bears’ defense against what is likely to be former Vikings’ quarterback Case Keenum.

Finally, in a final measuring stick for the Bears’ starters before the games count, Nagy’s former team in mentor Andy Reid’s Chiefs are set to visit Soldier Field between August 23rd to August 26th. Look out for this game with the dramatic preseason storylines. Typically, starters play a whole half to be entertained by here too!

“Mitchell Trubisky. Pat Mahomes. Feel the fever!”

To conclude the preseason, the Bears will host the Bills on August 30th, as fringe roster players on both sides attempt to solidify jobs. This is a change-up from the annual meeting with the Browns. A jarring shake up that has everyone around the water cooler talking.

With the 2018 NFL Draft less than two weeks away, and the preseason schedule being announced, the countdown towards meaningful games being played for the Bears in September has revved up.

Robert Zeglinski is the Bears beat writer for The Rock River Times, an editor for Windy City Gridiron and Inside The Pylon, and is a contributor to Pro Football Weekly and The Athletic Chicago. You can follow him on Twitter @RobertZeglinski.