Chicago Bears rumors: Was 2019 Schedule Leaked?

The Chicago Bears 2019 schedule may be out a smidge earlier than expected.

The NFL is releasing its schedule tonight on NFL Network, but as always, plenty of pieces of the schedule have already leaked.

The Chicago Bears schedule started coming out in dribs and drabs but eventually, it looks like the whole schedule may have been leaked.

Here is what appears to be the Chicago Bears 2019 schedule, in an interesting photo from The Bears Report:

Some single games on the schedule were also leaked out by different sources. First, Brad Biggs tweeted that the Bears and Lions would meet on Thanksgiving.

Wednesday morning, the NFL announced their international schedule.

Of course, we already knew that the Bears would kick off week one against the Packers at Soldier Field.

Here are some interesting things about the Bears 2019 schedule.

The first thing that jumps off the page is that the Bears have three Thursday games. While that seems like a disadvantage, it actually plays off as an advantage.

Their first Thursday game is in Week 1, which gives them extra time off for Week 2. Then they play back-to-back Thursday games on Weeks 13 and 14 against Detroit (on Thanksgiving) and at home against Dallas.

So, the Bears only have one short week prior to a Thursday game and have two extended weeks off after the Green Bay and Dallas games — not too shabby.

The Bears will apparently have five primetime games, which is fantastic. They have the Packers in Week 1 and the Dallas game in Week 14. But they also have Sunday Night Football matchups in Week 16 against the Kansas City Chiefs and in Week 11 against the Los Angeles Rams. The Bears also play the Washington Redskins on Monday Night Football in Week 3.

Per scheduling rules, no NFL team is allowed to have more than six primetime games, so with the Bears at five, the NFL leaves themselves open to sliding the Bears into one more primetime slot once the flex schedule begins for NBC.

Another interesting note is that the Bears play against Vic Fangio and the Denver Broncos early in the season. It will be Week 2 when Vic faces his former team. If this is indeed the Bears schedule, it should make for a fun season.