Bear Digest

Bears Schedule Officially Out and It's Caleb Williams Friendly

An AFC South start for three weeks and the Bears don't face a divisional opponent until Week 11 as their QB has time to get a feel for the league.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams' first Bears season will begin with three straight games against AFC South opponents.
Caleb Williams' first Bears season will begin with three straight games against AFC South opponents. / David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
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Caleb Williams will get a good look at the NFL before he must take on divisional teams in the NFC North as a rookie.

Then again, the NFC North teams will have a better look at him before they face him.

The 2024 NFL schedule has been released and the Bears do not face a divisional team until late in the season.

In fact, you'd just about think they've enlisted in the AFC South from the way it all starts, with three straight games against teams from that division.

The Williams era begins for the Bears against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, Sept. 8 in a noon game at Soldier Field (Full schedule below).

After Williams' debut, he'll go on the road for the first time and face the Houston Texans and last year's NFL quarterback darling, C.J. Stroud.

It's a schedule with surprisingly few prime-time games considering the great anticipation over Williams and the changes the Bears offense made. They play only three prime-time games—the Week 2 game on Sunday Night Football at Houston, Week 15 Monday Night Football game with Minnesota and a Week 17 Thursday Night Football game with Seattle.

In the opener, the Titans will be in their first game under head coach Brian Callahan, one year after they were 6-11, and now are without running back Derrick Henry. The Tennessee defense finished last in interceptions and 31st in total takeaways last year.

NFL TEAM BY TEAM SCHEDULES FROM SI.COM

The start to the Williams era could be interpreted as a soft one, although the Titans could have something to say about this. It's not that the Titans are doormats. But the start is easier than if the Bears began the season against one of the strongest opponents on the schedule, like San Francisco, or one of their divisional rivals, as they embark on a slate labeled the league's third easiest according to the 2023 records of teams on it.

The Bears don't even see an NFC North team until they host the Green Bay Packers in Week 11.

As a result, they close by playing all of their six divisional games in an eight-week period.

The Bears play a Thanksgiving Day game at Detroit at 11:30 a.m. and their bye week will be Oct. 20, the week after they play in London against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Thanksgiving game is the first for the Bear since 2021 and the Lions have lost seven straight on turkey day.

The schedule definitely tests the Bears later in the year and not only with the divisional games. They have a strange stretch of three straight road games, then three straight home games and then three straight road games again. One of those road games in the first stretch is classified as a home game but it's in London. There are breaks involved, including their mini-bye after the Thanksgiving game.

Bears 2024 Schedule

Regular Season

Week 1: Sunday, Sept. 8, Tennessee Titans at Bears, noon.

Week 2: Sunday, Sept. 15, Bears at Houston Texans, 7:20 p.m.

Week 3: Sunday, Sept. 22, Bears at Indianapolis Colts, noon.

Week 4: Sunday, Sept. 29, L.A. Rams at Bears, noon.

Week 5: Sunday, Oct. 6, Carolina Panthers at Bears, noon

Week 6: Sunday, Oct. 13, Bears. vs. Jacksonville Jaguars at London, 8:30 a.m.

Week 7: Bye Week

Week 8: Sunday, Oct. 27, Bears at Washington Commanders, noon.

Week 9: Sunday, Nov. 3 Bears at Arizona Cardinals, 3:05 p.m.

Week 10: Sunday, Nov. 10 New England Patriots at Bears, noon

Week 11: Sunday, Nov. 17 Green Bay Packers at Bears, noon

Week 12: Sunday, Nov. 24 Minnesota Vikings at Bears, noon

Week 13: Thursday, Nov. 28, Bears at Detroit Lions, 11:30 a.m. (Thanksgiving)

Week 14: Sunday, Dec. 8, Bears at San Francisco 49ers, 3:25 p.m.

Week 15: Monday, Dec. 16, Bears at Minnesota Vikings, 7 p.m.

Week 16: Sunday, Dec. 22, Detroit Lions at Bears, noon

Week 17: Thursday, Dec. 26, Seattle Seahawks at Bears, 7:15 p.m.

Week 18: Jan. 4 or 5, Bears at Green Bay Packers, TBA

Preseason

Week 1: Thursday, Aug. 1, Bears vs. Houston Texans at Canton Ohio (Hall of Fame Game), 7 p.m.

Week 2: Saturday, Aug. 10, Bears at Buffalo Bills, noon.

Week 3: Saturday, Aug. 17, Cincinnati Bengals at Bears, noon.

Week 4: Thursday, Aug. 22, Bears at Kansas City Chiefs, 7 p.m.

TV Included

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Gene Chamberlain

GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.