Bears HC Ben Johnson is hopeful for joint practices this training camp

Ben Johnson relished the opportunity to scrimmage against other NFL teams during his first training camp as Chicago Bears head coach, and he wants to do more of the same in 2026. It remains to be seen whether or not that comes to fruition, though. Johnson was a guest on the Hoge & Jahns podcast on Tuesday while at the NFL annual meetings in Arizona and was asked about the potential of having joint practices again in 2026.

"That's the hope right now," Johnson said. "We got a couple on the docket that we would love to get [preseason] Week 1 and Week 2. " The Bears had two joint practices in 2025 with the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills at Halas Hall in the week leading up to each preseason matchup, and Johnson appreciated being able to practice against multiple teams.

"We loved it," Johnson said. "I thought it was a good changeup for our players at that point of camp. I think we'd like to do that again.

" Though the 2025 Bears struggled at times during training camp and started the season 0-2, the joint practices provided a glimpse into how the team would compete for the entirety of the year. Against the Dolphins, Chicago was the more physical team, laying harder hits than Miami expected and dominated on both sides of the ball. They didn't have the same success against the Bills, though they were able to generate takeaways against quarterback Josh Allen.