This has been a great week for the Chicago Bears, as they are riding the wave of momentum following their stellar 38-0 trouncing of the Buffalo Bills in the preseason.
Quarterback Caleb Williams is getting all this praise for his two drives, and the offense finished with over 500 yards of total yards. Head coach Ben Johnson is starting to see good progress from his team, which is now giving new hope to fans that the Bears might be a legitimate contender for the NFC playoffs.
There's only one problem: offensive pre-snap penalties.
Unfortunately, it has been a significant problem for this offense throughout training camp, and it seemed as though the offense had figured it out. Wednesday's practice showed that wasn't the case as several Bears reporters commented on the problem.
"First team offense was marred by pre-snap penalties after some cleaner practices as of late," ESPN's Courtney Cronin said. "Counted two delay of games, one of which happened when Caleb Williams tried to change a play call with 2 seconds left on the play clock."
Lots going on over here today, so I'm a little delayed on my practice notes. Here are a few:
— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) August 20, 2025
-Kyler Gordon (hamstring) returned to practice today for the first time since leaving early on Aug. 7.
-Braxton Jones got all the LT reps with the 1s today. Seems the Bears are close to…
"One of the negatives from today's practice was presnap penalties.....again," 247Sports' Zack Pearson posted. "Common theme for the offense in practices in training camp."
One of the negatives from today's practice was presnap penalties.....again. Common theme for the offense in practices in training camp. #Bears
— Zack Pearson (@Zack_Pearson) August 20, 2025
"Presnap penalties dominated the day again," CHGO's Mark Carman added. "Way too many."
Top 3 Takeaways from Bears training camp practice 18:
— Mark Carman (@thecarm) August 20, 2025
1- OZ caught a ton of balls all over the field.
2- Presnap penalties dominated the day again. Way too many.
3- There was extensive work once again on the run game.
Also - Gervon Dexter had to leave the field at one…
Cause for concern that Bears' offense continues to have pre-snap penalties?
One of the things that Johnson has preached throughout training camp is making sure they aren't repeating the same mistakes over and over again. It has to be frustrating for the new head coach to continue to see his team come up with bad penalties.
Interestingly enough, the Bears actually haven't been terrible with penalties in the two preseason games they have played. Against the Miami Dolphins, they had seven for 41 yards and against the Bills, they had five for 63 yards. Both the Dolphins and Buffalo had more penalty yards than Chicago did.
This will be something Johnson is going to push hard on during practice leading up to the Bears' Week 1 matchup against the Minnesota Vikings. He wants to make sure the team is doing the small things right so they aren't shooting themselves in the foot in games.
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Maybe this is a case of the team having this kind of problem only on the practice field. Bears fans can only hope that's the problem. Otherwise, trouble could be brewing in the Windy City.