Happy NFL Schedule Release Day! And Other Bullets

One-hundred percent can relate:

  • As a reminder, Bears preseason and regular-season single-game tickets will go on sale one hour after the schedule is announced. So I’d suggest you have your plastic ready to make purchases at 8 p.m. central time via Ticketmaster online or by phone.
  • Who’s on the home slate? Glad you asked. The Bears will play home games against the Packers, Lions, and Vikings in NFC North showdowns, as well as the Rams, Patriots, Buccaneers, Seahawks, and Jets. That’s a group with three playoff teams and two teams who just missed at 9-7. The Bears will also play road games against their NFC North foes, while other road opponents include the 49ers, Bills, Cardinals, Dolphins, and Giants.
  • I don’t know about you, but I’ve got my fingers crossed for Miami in December.
  • Worth noting via this from the Chicago Bears’ website, the team is replacing the print-at-home ticket option with mobile tickets. Which means printed PDF tickets are no longer accepted for valid entry. Again, something to keep in mind for the season ahead. It’s something we’ll probably need to bring up again when the season draws near.
  • Are you ready for some prime-time changes? If not, at least you have some time to adjust your internal clocks to prepare for some new start times:
  • For those of us in the central time zone, this means Monday Night Football will start at 7:15, Sunday Night Football at 7:20, and Thursday Night Football at 7:20. They’re small, but significant changes that could help us avoid the dreaded late finish. Here’s hoping the Bears play their way into some prime-time action on Sunday night.
  • As for the first Monday Night Football game, rumor has it that it could feature a team from the NFC North. Brian Costello of the New York Post reports the Lions will host the Jets in the first Monday-nighter of the season. Because nothing says “Welcome back, football!” like a pair of teams that missed the playoffs last year.
  • Sticking around the New York Post and MNF, Andrew Marchand reports Brett Favre flunked his audition for the color analyst gig. That’s unfortunate, but it spares us the awkwardness of having to re-visit Favre’s past with former ESPN personality Jenn Sterger. No need to go down that road. We try to keep this a family-friendly site as often as possible.
  • Moving our focus on the field, it sounds like Matt Nagy has some big plans for second-year running back Tarik Cohen. A jack of many trades in 2017, Cohen is expected to be a mismatch machine in Nagy’s offense, writes Adam Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times. “He’s a run threat and then he can catch the ball in space in broken formations,” Nagy said. For us, that’s an advantage for the play callers and the play designers to  be able to do some different things, move him around and try to get an advantage.”
  • Cohen still has much to learn, but after conquering the many challenges of having so much thrown on his plate as a rookie, I won’t bet against him.
  • Another position loaded with youth and upside is the tight end position. So far so good, from Nagy’s perspective. “The tight end group right now to me has been a really pleasant surprise as a whole,” Nagy said, via The Athletic’s Kevin Fishbain. “They’re making some good catches out there.”
  • “He’ll be fiiiiiiiiiiiiine,” he said, before his breathing into a paper bag intensified:
  • The Bears still have needs when it comes to defending the edge, but one of the team’s free agents is getting looks elsewhere. NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport tweets the Raiders have worked out outside linebacker Lamarr Houston, whose career started in Oakland. Houston signed with Chicago in 2014, but suffered a pair of ACL tears and never developed into the impact pass rusher the team signed him to be. Still, Houston was effective and helpful – especially in his second stint when he picked up four sacks in five starts when the position group was handcuffed by injuries.
  • Aaron Rodgers is having one heck of an offseason. The latest from the Packers quarterback comes from the team’s official website, where he shares his desire to get a contract extension done with Green Bay. “Obviously, we’d like to lock something in at some point,” Rodgers said. “The team has made that public knowledge, they’d love to do that. I’ve said it many times I’d love to finish my career here. There’s more than mutual interest on both sides.”
  • I guess that’s a step in the right direction considering the other headlines he made this offseason.
  • written by

    Luis C. Medina, who you can find on Twitter at lcm1986, has been covering the Chicago Bears at Bleacher Nation since 2017. Since then, he has written about 3 head coaches, 5 play-callers, and 11 starting quarterbacks. Previously, Luis wrote about the Cubs and MLB at BN (2015-16) and worked in the Chicago Tribune sports department (2011-16). He also co-hosted a Cubs postgame show, Outside the Ivy, in 2019.

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