Chicago Bears vs. Tennessee Titans Week One Preview
The Chicago Bears are set to take on the Tennessee Titans at home in Soldier Field for their Week One matchup. It’ll be an interesting one as the 2024 number one overall pick Caleb Williams makes his regular season debut in the big leagues. Statistically speaking, since 2003, there have been 15 quarterbacks taken with the top pick and they’ve gone 0-14-1 in their debut game. Usually, the top pick goes to the worst team in the league the previous year and that team becomes the underdog in their Week One matchup. However, this year is different because the worst team in the league last year, the Carolina Panthers, traded the number one pick to the Bears, who were a pretty decent team last year. Now with Williams as their quarterback, they shouldn’t be looked at as an underdog in Week One against the Titans, they should be even better.
The Bears’ opponents, the Tennessee Titans, are in a very different boat than the Bears. After years of dominating in the AFC South, they are now looking like they’ll finish at the bottom of the division, hoping that Will Levis can establish himself as a franchise quarterback without Derrick Henry in the backfield. If Tony Pollard and Tyjae Spears can reach the levels that fans are expecting of them, the Titans could be able to win more games than expected. One of the players to watch for the Titans in this game would have to be newly acquired cornerback L’Jarius Sneed. The Titans acquired Sneed in the offseason from the Kansas City Chiefs hoping he could help the Titans’ defense cause more problems to teams than some could ever expect. The Titans even signed wide receiver Calvin Ridley, hoping that he can shape up their offensive game even better.
Chicago is going to look to use their new weapons from the get-go including D’Andre Swift, Rome Odunze, and Keenan Allen. On top of that, with his new contract extension, D.J. Moore looks to make an even bigger impact for this Bears team than he did in 2023. On the other side of the ball, the Bears defense should be interesting to watch as well. The defensive unit ranked first in the NFL against the run and tied for the league lead with 22 interceptions. They showed improvements last season with the mid-season acquisition of Montez Sweat. The defensive chemistry will be exciting to watch and I’m sure Bears fans are eager to see if they can generate game-changing plays in the season opener against the Titans. Catch the Bears in action against the Titans this Sunday at noon CDT on FOX.
