Ben Johnson Sets Tone at OTAs | Early Takeaways from New-Look Offense

The Charter: A Chicago Bears Podcast

Chicago Sports Network

Football, Sports, Sports:football

4.4 • 699 Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Bears’ preseason schedule is set—and so are joint practices with the Dolphins and Bills. Ruthie Polinsky, Clay Harbor, and Alex Shapiro break down what that means for fans, young players, and position battles. The crew also shares their biggest takeaways from the first open OTA session, including Caleb Williams’ progress, Ben Johnson’s intense coaching style, and the leadership presence of veterans like Joe Thuney and Grady Jarrett. Plus, a closer look at Jaquan Brisker, Gervon Dexter’s potential breakout, and why Dennis Allen is flying under the radar—for now.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the Charter Podcasts, everyone.
0:07.0	Ruthie Polinsky, Clay Harbor, Alex Shapiro.
0:10.0	This podcast, as always, is brought to you by St. Xavier University.
0:14.0	We have some breaking news on the Charter podcast, relatively breaking.
0:18.0	May not be breaking by the time you are listening to this podcast,
0:21.6	but we have some official dates for the Chicago Bears preseason, which I think is another
0:28.6	exciting part of the schedule. You start to look ahead. You say, wow, we're talking about the
0:34.6	preseason. We're talking about real football games. We're talking about August games. It's already almost June. This thing is creeping up. Here we go. Everyone
0:43.5	fired up. Look at Clay's face if you're watching on the screen. Really exciting, guys.
0:48.5	The Bears will open their preseason against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, August 10th. That'll be a noon kickoff.
0:55.7	And the following week, they're going to host the Buffalo Bills in Chicago, Sunday, August 17th at
1:01.9	7 o'clock p.m. And then they'll finish the preseason on the road against the Kansas City
1:07.4	Chiefs on Friday, August 22nd at 720.
1:12.0	Man, I'm already looking at those games like,
1:13.8	who the heck is going to be playing in those games,
1:15.9	especially for the Chiefs and the Bills,
1:18.8	as we talk about those people probably don't need to play
1:22.9	in too many preseason games.
1:25.7	Guys, also breaking news today, in addition to those preseason dates, we know that the bears
1:32.8	are going to host both the dolphins and the build for a session of joint practices, which is
1:39.9	really cool, always fun, I think, for people like us who cover teams and then get to kind of
1:45.5	cover other teams in those settings. And also cool for the fans who are going to be in Chicago
	...

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