CHICAGO ― Todd Monken may have plans to play a lot of his starters when the Browns open the preseason Aug. 15 at the Chicago Bears. His counterpart in the game, Bears coach Ben Johnson, is taking a different approach.
Johnson told Chicago reporters during his availability Aug. 13 at Bears training camp that a number of his starters won't play in the game. The most notable of those is quarterback Caleb Williams.
Tyson Bagent, the Bears' backup, will start at quarterback against Cleveland and is expected to play about a half. The fourth-year pro has appeared in 12 career games, but only seven over the last two seasons since Chicago drafted Williams No. 1 overall in 2024.
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“[D]o I need to see Caleb Williams in the preseason? No, I don’t,” Johnson told Chicago reporters. “I see him every single day in practice, and I know what we’re going to get come the season. And, yet, at the same time, there’s a workload and a number of reps that we want to hit as a team. And so we’ll make sure we even that out — whether that’s game reps or not.”
The exact starters who will or won't play for Chicago isn't known. One Bears player who will play at some point during the game is former Browns first-round draft pick Jedrick Wills Jr.
Wills signed with the Bears in the offseason after taking the 2025 season off to allow a knee injury to fully recover instead of signing a free-agent deal somewhere other than Cleveland. He'll be the No. 2 left tackle against his former team.
Chicago is coming off an 11-6 record in Johnson's first season as head coach in 2025. The Bears won the NFC North title, then rallied past the archrival Green Bay Packers in a home NFC wild card game before losing in overtime in the divisional round to the Los Angeles Rams.
“There will be a handful of guys that aren’t participating in this matchup,” Johnson said. “And, yet, I think we’re going to get some good evals of the guys who are out there and make sure that we have enough to go win this game. So, really excited about that.”
Monken announced Aug. 12 he will start Deshaun Watson at quarterback against the Bears. Watson has been in a competition for the starting job with Shedeur Sanders, who'll start the second preseason game against the Buffalo Bills.
The plan, according to Monken, is to play Watson through the first half. Sanders will then take over in the third quarter.
“We’re going to see both of them," Monken said Aug. 12. "One’s going to start this week and one’s going to start next week, and we’re going to play them about a half each. I’d like to see a quarterback play a half and get a two-minute [drive] — we’re going to do everything we can to get a two-minute and for the half — and we’re going to try to do the exact same thing the next week.”
Monken was much less clear on the exact plan for many of the other starters. The one area he seemed to indicate the Bears' plans could dictate what he did, at least in terms of length of playing time, was with the offensive line.
The first-team offensive line, at least tentatively, will feature Spencer Fano and Tytus Howard at the tackles, Zion Johnson and Teven Jenkins at the guards and Elgton Jenkins at center. That, however, is subject to change based on Monken's whims.
“Again, I think I mentioned the other day we’d like our starters to begin the game," Monken said. "We’ll see where they’re at in terms of who they’re playing up front. I think it’d be unfair to our quarterbacks, either game, to not have our guys up front to give our quarterback a chance to function, so that’ll be predicated on what the Bears do a little bit. Now, if they play their starters for three quarters, we’re not going to do that. Ultimately, we want to give our quarterbacks a chance to function no matter who they put out there, collectively as a group both weeks."
The Browns have dealt with a variety of injuries on both lines of scrimmage this training camp. They've also had injuries to linebacker Carson Schwesinger and cornerbacks Denzel Ward and Tyson Campbell that have sidelined them for at least some of the last week, if not longer.
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ. Sign up for Browns Insider newsletter at https://profile.beaconjournal.com/newsletters/browns-insider/
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Who will Bears start at QB in preseason game vs. Browns? Not Caleb Williams
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