For the first time since 2019, the Chicago Bears are expected to play overseas during the upcoming 2024 season.
The Bears will host the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 6 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England.
Having a game overseas usually creates a lot of issues for teams during the season when it comes to travel arrangements and deciding when to schedule the flight across the pond. However, the Bears will reportedly learn from past mistakes and take advantage of the way their 2024 schedule is structured.
According to Nicholas Moreano, a source told him the Bears plan to leave early in the week for London rather than later in the week. This will allow the team and players to overcome any lingering jet lag that may occur during the five-hour time change after the trip before the team has to take the field. The last time the Bears traveled to London in 2019, the team arrived on Friday and lost 24-21 on Sunday.
Typically, teams plan to wait until later in the week to leave for London so that all players can rest and rehab after the previous weekend’s game. The Bears will play a game early Sunday against the Carolina Panthers in Week 5 before their date against the Jaguars. The team will then have its bye week the following week.
This will be the first time a team coached by Matt Eberflus travels overseas and it appears the team’s head coach is already making the right decision. New defensive coordinator Eric Washington could have also contributed something after suffering the consequences of traveling later that week to London in 2023 with the Buffalo Bills.
During the Bills’ Week 5 game against the Jaguars, the team left for London on Thursday after practice, arriving Friday morning, and ultimately lost 25-20. Here’s what Bills head coach Sean McDermott said after the game.
“We’ll see what happens in the future in terms of our return here,” McDermott said, “but we need to evaluate everything because I didn’t feel like our energy was good enough early in the game. “They had more energy than us.”
As for the Jaguars, it was their second of a back-to-back games in London after playing the Atlanta Falcons overseas in Week 4. Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson even claimed he felt his players were well-rested.
The Jaguars will play back-to-back games in London again next season, but the game against the Bears will be the first of those two games. This is great news for the Bears as it means both teams will travel the same week for the matchup and from the looks of it, the Bears are hoping to beat the Jaguars there.
We’ll see whether or not the Bears’ progressive approach pays off once October rolls around.
