Chicago Bears vs. Pittsburgh Steelers Preview, Injury News, Analysis + Aaron Rodgers Update

Chicago Bears vs. Pittsburgh Steelers Preview, Injury News, Analysis + Aaron Rodgers Update

Hey guys, we got a fun episode today. Filmed a joint preview with our Steelers talk host Jack Sperry. So that’s coming up here in just a few moments. But do want to hit the injury news off the top here. These injury reports were from Wednesday. So keep an eye on Thursday and Friday’s injury reports as well. For the Bears, the following six players did not practice. Jaquan Brisker dealing with that shoulder injury. You wonder if part of that was from that collision with Tyreek Stevenson. Tmaine Edmonds popped up on the injury report with the groin issue. So that is certainly something to monitor as well. Still no TJ Edwards as he’s dealing with that hand and hamstring injury. Uh as well Noah Su also on the injury report with an elbow injury. Remember the Bears signed Jaylen Reeves Maben. That could explain uh some of the thought process of bringing him in other than the special teams value he he’ll provide as well. And then Grady Jarrett Kevin Byer just veteran rest days. Uh nothing to worry about there. Uh these eight play or seven players were limited I should say. Drew Dolman with a knee. Uh DeAndre Swift dealing with that hip. Remember early in these weeks he’s been kind of banged up, so not too concerned there. Travis Homer pops up with the hamstring knee injury. So we’ll keep an eye on that. Same with Darnell Wright with the pec, but uh with him being limited, I’m not too concerned. Tyreek Stevenson, good to see him at least limited. He got banged up pretty bad in that last game with that hip and calf injury. Uh and then Jaylen Johnson and Kyler Gordon who do have their practice windows open. They were uh limited on Wednesday. I would guess if they are not full participants on Thursday, they likely will not play this week, but keep an eye on those injury reports throughout the week. For the Steelers, Aaron Rogers uh told reporters on Wednesday that he’s still rehabbing, hoping to practice today on Thursday with that left wrist issue. They’re still working through options in terms of how to protect it. Jaylen Warren with the ankle. He’s their lead runner. So, that is something to watch. Alex Heismith with the pec did not practice. One of their top pass rushers. And then three veteran rest days for John Smith. Cam Hayward and TJ Watt. Isaac Seamalu was limited with a pec injury. I would imagine he plays uh one of their starting guards, but wanted to mention that. And then Darius Slay, who was in the concussion protocol last week, did not play, is expected to return. Sounds like he’s either cleared or is going too soon. He was a full participant. And then Cole Hulk, who’s been dealing with an illness, he practiced as well. So, those two guys should be fine. All right. If you want the Bears to win their eighth game in their last nine games, hit that like button. Let’s keep the streak rolling. And without further ado, little Bear Steelers joint preview with my guy Jack Sperry. All right, we’re back at it with another joint preview. I’m Harrison Graham of Chicago Bears. Now he is Jack Sperry of Steelers Talk. Big matchup. Big game for both teams. Steelers a game up on the Ravens in the AFC North. Of course, the Bears a half game up in a crowded NFC North. Obviously, the big storyline, Jack, is Aaron Rodgers making his probably last return to Soldier Field, but is he going to play? I think that’s where we should start here. We don’t have the full injury picture, but what’s the latest and what’s your kind of take on the situation? So, right now, obviously, Rogers is dealing with a fractured wrist. It’s on his non-throwing hand. So, uh right now, kind of the big thing is whether or not they can stabilize it and find a brace where if he has to brace himself against the ground, he can stay safe. Then also, if it’s not going to affect the way that he plays. Head coach Mike Tomlin said this week that he needs to see him practice and he needs to see a good practice from him on Friday in order for him to play. And if he’s not going to be able to go, it’s going to be backup quarterback Mason Rudolph. Now, the team feels very comfortable with Rudolph as their backup quarterback. He won three straight games for them at the end of the 2023 season to get them into the postseason. Last week, had a really efficient day. Now, a lot of that was kind of checkdown kind of heavy stuff, but he only had two drives in the second half because the defense was busy scoring touchdowns for them. Uh, but he did a good job converting on third and longs, getting into the end zone on one of those drives. Um, and he is certainly somebody that’s capable of executing the offense for Pittsburgh. So, I know for a fact Rogers wants to play in this game. Obviously, he wants to go into Chicago. He’s probably had this one circled on his calendar for a very, very long time. Of course, he he likes to say he like he owns the Chicago Bears. Um, so it’s going to be interesting to see here if he’s going to be able to play on Sunday. Yeah, I mean, he’s clearly pushing to play. That’s been reported. Uh, Tomlin said yesterday that they’ve they’ve talked and Aaron’s doing everything he can to get ready. I believe, and correct me if I’m wrong, Tomlin said Friday will be a big day to kind of determine, he probably doesn’t, he doesn’t really need the reps. I mean, being, you know, a 20-year vet and everything like that. Uh, I think part of the reason also he wants to play, not just, you know, the history with the Bears, the dominance over the Bears, but like things have tightened up in the AFC North, like he feels like every game is critical cuz he is. So, uh, you would think he’s going to push to be out there. I’ll ask you this with the injury because the word Mike Tomlin used was we got to see if he’s functional. Now, we talked about this on Bears. Now, I’m sure you’ve talked about it on Steelers talk of to me when I hear that it’s like, okay, can you handle an under center snap? Can you do the ball handling things? Hand the ball off with your left hand, grip the football. Are there any other things when Tomlin mentions the word functional that fans of both teams should be aware of because these were things that I pointed to including the ability to absorb contact if he gets knocked to the ground and, you know, being able to brace when he falls. Well, I think uh part of that equation as well is just how well does the ball come out of his hand? And like if he’s wearing a brace, does the weight dist distribution between the two sides of his body get kind of jacked up? Also, it’s worth mentioning that Rogers jammed a finger on his throwing hand pregame back in week nine versus the Colts and he hasn’t been the same since. It’s been three straight kind of lackluster performances for the passing offense ever since that injury happened. And you got to you can’t tell me that that injury uh even though he played through it hasn’t affected his accuracy. I mean, the way that you grip the football and if one of your fingers is hurting you, it’s going to affect the way that you throw the ball. And I think that has clearly affected the way that he has thrown it. Over the last three weeks, cuz he was like an above average starting quarterback the first half of the season, the first eight weeks, and the last three, he’s been like a bottom five uh starting quarterback in the game. So, uh even if he plays, I’m not sure if we’re going to see a normal Aaron Rodgers out there, which is kind of why, you know, if he’s not playing well in practice on Friday, I would just go with Mason Rudolph. He’s a very uh functional quarterback inside this offense and if the Steelers are going to win this game anyway, I think they’re going to have to win it with their defense. So, uh if Rogers isn’t 100%, I would go with Mason Rudolph, but if I know Aaron Rogers and if I know Mike Tomlin, uh if Rogers can play, he probably will be out there. What for so Bears fans understand and Steelers fans as well, is there a major difference in what they’re going to do offensively if they play Mason Rudolph? Like what are some different things that uh fan both fan bases should be aware of? Well, I think that you’re going to see some more simplified reads. Rogers likes to have full field progression reads and he likes to read out the defense. He’s somebody that obviously has an incredible football IQ and he’s got great vision so he can read postnap rotations very well. All that stuff. Mason Rudolph is more of a, you know, give him a high low read and he’s going to be able to find the right guy. If neither of those options are open, he’ll find a checkdown. So, you’ll see more simplified uh kind of reads for the quarterback if Mason Rudolph is in there. Uh, but also I think Mason does a better job staying in the pocket. Rogers likes to kind of use his pocket presence and his quick feet to move inside that pocket. Mason obviously can’t run very well, so he’s very more statuesque where he’s going to be standing in the pocket and delivering. Those would kind of be the two main differences I would say between these two quarterbacks. Let’s flip to the Bears quarterback here, Caleb Williams, who’s I think clearly made progress this year. Still some accuracy issues uh that are popping up from time to time. The Bears have had some untimely drops the last couple weeks as well. Um, for those who don’t know, Jack Sperry obviously is our Steelers talk host, but you are a big film junkie. You watch uh a lot of these quarterbacks specifically, especially upcoming Steelers opponents. I don’t know how much you’ve gotten into Caleb just yet, but what have you seen here? And if you have any, you know, questions for me about what uh I’ve thought about him, I’ll certainly get into that as well and ways to attack this Steelers defense. cuz I think, you know, it’s always going to be an interesting chess match going up against the Tomlin defense, but um the Bears are number one in explosive plays this year. Some of that’s the running game as well, but what have you seen from Caleb in year two under Ben Johnson? Well, I mean, he was the he was the highest grade I ever gave to a quarterback heading into the National Football League. I my pro comp for him was Patrick Mahomes, and he hasn’t lived up to that yet, but I do think he’s getting there. He’s still getting used to the under center game uh with Ben Johnson here, but he throws on the run better than anybody I’ve ever seen throw the football on the run. The velocity that he can put on it, even with both feet in the air, is incredible. His pocket presence was something that I really loved coming out of USC. Now, the advanced numbers for him, you know, the efficiency stuff isn’t all the way there yet. You know, not ranking in the top 20 in a lot of those key areas, but he’s turn he’s not turning the football over. Uh and he’s not putting the ball in harm’s way all that much. and he is creating a lot of explosive plays and he’s doing a really good job avoiding uh pressure when it comes. He does hold the ball for a long time. He’s currently dead last and average time to throw. Uh but sometimes with these scramble type of quarterbacks, I mean like Lamar Jackson, for example, holds the ball for a long time, but he gets away with it because he’s excellent out of structure just like Caleb Williams is. Yeah, I’ve kind of made the point. I think the time to throw stat is very casetoase based. Like there are certainly times he just needs to get rid of the football further, but when there’s four or five plays a game where he avoids a sack, spins out, and you know, runs from one hash to the far sideline and it’s a 9-second play, it’s kind of just going to elevate that number. I think I actually saw a stat on just normal structure plays. He’s like at 2.6. So, it’s actually uh much better there. But I’ll add one more to advance metric. I’ll have to double check. But heading into last week, EPA per drop back, Caleb was actually 10th in the NFL. He’s had some weird negative QB sneaks. They dropped a couple of snaps, so that’s kind of hurt his EPA per play, but the per drop back’s been pretty good. I think something Steelers fans should watch out for in this game where he’s really improved other than the sack avoided which that is something to watch for like TJ W Alex Heismith uh in company like finishing these plays. I mean, the Giants had him dead to rights at least a half dozen times and couldn’t get him to the ground. So, I would imagine the Steelers are really emphasizing that this week. But the play action over the middle in the intermediate areas, uh, Sperry, I think that’s when this offense is at his best. Number one, the ability to run the football, which they’re now second in the NFL in rushing with DeAndre Swift and Kungai. But setting up play action off of that, those inb breaking routes, Doma Dun, DJ Mo, Luther Burden, Colston Lovelin, those two guys getting more involved. I think Caleb throws that ball better than any other pass he he uh he attempts right now. So, keep an eye on some of those intermediate overthe-middle throws. And I know the Steelers run a lot of man coverage, so it’ll be interesting to see kind of seeing that play out this week. Yeah, they usually like to, especially with these kind of uh out of structure kind of rushing quarterback types like Lamar Jackson for example. What they love to do is put a fiveman blitz on that quarterback to avoid uh any openings in the rush lanes and not give the quarterback anywhere to escape. So, I would expect a lot of fiveman pressure looks from the Steelers uh this week. And they’ve been playing a lot more zone lately, especially ever since they moved Jaylen Ramsey to safety and they brought in Kyle Duggar. They’ve been playing a lot more safety, a lot more too high safety structure kind of stuff. And the defense has been a top five defense in the league the last three weeks since they acquired Kyle Duggar and moved Ramsay to safety. Those guys hit hard. They have great instincts. Um, and when everybody’s eyes is on the quarterback, they do a really good job rallying to the football, hitting guys hard over the middle of the field if they want to come in with those dig routes. Uh, really excited to see, you know, this matchup between an offense that prioritizes throwing the ball over the middle as much as it does and a Steelers defense that punishes teams for coming over the middle as much as they do. Yeah, chess match should be very, very fun. We got a lot more to get into. Some matchups to dive into in this matchup as well, but want you guys to weigh in on the show. Who wins on Sunday? Big game for both teams. Uh, if you’re rolling with the Bears, type chi. If you’re rolling with the Steelers, go ahead and type PIT. Now, going to tell you guys about prize picks, then we’ll get back into this preview. Daily fantasy made easy at prizepix.coms. The hard-hitting football action is even better with prize picks. The weather might be changing, but the feeling of being right never gets old. So, keep the season rolling on Prize Pix by getting $50 instantly in lineups when you play your first $5. 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It’s good to be right. Wanted to ask you about the running game, Sperry. Obviously, whether it’s a diminished Aaron Rodgers or Mason Rudolph, you would think that Arthur Smith is going to want to run the football. Feels like it’s been mixed results this year for Pittsburgh on the ground. How’s that been looking lately? And would you expect a run first approach this week? Yeah, Arthur Smith is well known for, you know, wanting to establish the run. And I mean, last year they were terrible at running the football and they were still uh top five in rushing rate. Once again, they’re rushing the football quite a bit this season. Jaylen Warren is one of the more underrated running backs in football. Uh makes guys miss very very consistently. He’s got good long speed, a great spin move, contact balance out the wazoo. Uh so he’s going to get uh quite a bit of the workload in this game on early downs. And my and what the Steelers have done differently this year and what is what has actually been copycatted by a lot of different teams in the league is they’ve been playing a lot of jumbo personnel which means you put that sixth offensive lineman out there. Spencer Anderson has been used as that jumbo tight end. And then of course you got Darnell Washington who’s 311 pounds. Saw that today as as another kind of tight end/offensive lineman. So especially for teams like the Bears that like to base out of nickel uh they’re going to have to play heavier than what they’re used to in this ball game to keep up with the size matchup. Uh last week the Cincinnati Bengals did a good job of that. Uh jumbo personnel. I think they only had 15 yards on 10 jumbo runs. So it wasn’t as successful last week uh for the Steelers, but this has certainly been the bread and butter of the Steelers offense this year, and it’s got to be the main thing that the Bears try and take away. Yeah, I’ll be curious to see if the Bears play more base defense in this game. They haven’t done a ton of it this year. One, TJ Edwards has missed half the games. We’re filming this on Wednesday, so keep an eye on the injury reports throughout the week. Uh obviously uh you know if you’re watching each of our channels we’ll update them on a daily basis but depending on when you’re watching this it may not be the uptodate. So don’t know if TJ Edwards returns for this game. He’s missed the last couple of weeks. Same with Jaylen Johnson and Kyler Gordon. Both their practice windows have been opened. We’ll see if there’s a chance one or both could play on Sunday. That would obviously provide a lift uh for Chicago. Um, outside of DK Metave, who is a weapon that Bears fans should keep an eye on in this one? I would say Darnell Washington because he’s been getting more and more snaps as the season has gone on. He had 45 snaps last week against Cincinnati that led all of Pittsburgh’s tight ends. And not only is he an incredible blocker when they want to run the football in early downs, but he is so tough for linebackers and especially uh defensive backs to bring down in open space. He’s so athletic for a 311 pounder. He’s got really good hands. They’ll throw it up to him in 50/50 ball situations. He really is an X-factor for the Pittsburgh Steelers offense in an offense that really doesn’t have many of those X- factors. So, outside of DK Metaf, who obviously is another big guy that can really run, you get if you give him a head of steam, Darnell Washington’s that other big guy. And something that they’ve been doing lately that’s been really fun is that they’ve been running mesh with Darnell and DK running uh the mesh there. ly have to pick your poison of which big guy you want to guard. Two physical specimen there. Yeah, we’ll see. I’ll be curious to see who the Bears kind of match up with Darno Washington and probably some Tummaine Edmonds at times who’s played better in this Dennis Allen defense. Jaquan Brisker could be an option there uh as well. I mentioned the Bears running attack earlier. Sperry second in the NFL in rushing and this was after kind of a poor first month running the football. They couldn’t get things going, but they’ve really picked it up with uh DeAndre Swift who’s had a much better year with his vision. and he’s uh just trusting the blocking more. I think a lot of that is just a better scheme under Ben Johnson and b the investments the Bears have made up front. And then rookie Kyle Manongi has really come along. Swift missed the game against the Bengals and Manongi ran wild in that one and ever since then his role has kind of increased. So a little bit of a thunder and lightning and you know kind of a poor man’s version of what Ben Johnson had in Detroit with David Montgomery and Jir Gibbs. This team certainly doesn’t have a Jir Gibbs, but their ability to run the football. I I think Sperry the a big determining factor in this game is going to be who wins the battle of the Bears offensive line against the Steelers defensive line. I mean, these games are often won in the trenches anyway. But you could argue that’s the biggest strength of each team, the the Steelers defensive front and the Bears O line. So, I’m I’m fascinated to watch that play out. Yeah, me too. Especially because the run defense for Pittsburgh has been very hit or miss this season. and they’ve given up over a 100red yards multiple times to different running backs. They almost gave up a hundred last week to Chase Brown for the second time this season, but they’ve shut down some of the league’s premier backs like Josh Jacobs and Jonathan Taylor when they played the Colts. So, you know, this is a group that has a lot of physicality to it. Um, I think it’s more pass rush ccentric and certainly Patrick Queen and Pton Wilson, their second level players, can be hit or miss. But I think a big addition to this Steelers run defense as of late in particular, has been Jaylen Ramsey and Kyle Duggar at safety because they play a lot of these two high safety looks now with those two safeties. And they ask these two safeties now to really carry a lot of the load and cleanup work on the back end there. Uh, cuz obviously if you’re playing with two high safeties, you got one less guy in the box. So, you’re going to have to rely on your safeties a little bit more in run defense. And those two guys, super physical players, great tacklers. Um, and they have really allowed the Steelers to play more of that too high structure, which I think is really allowed this uh defense to play better these last three weeks. Yeah, Kyle Duggars played pretty well uh in that scheme. For whatever reason, it was not working in New England. Uh, all right. Do you have any other, you know, matchup things you want to dive into? X factor thoughts or things that uh Bears fans should keep an eye on or vice versa thoughts on certain Bears uh situations going against the Steelers? Yeah, you know, it’ll be interesting to see if Jaylen Johnson plays in this game. Obviously, that would really help take away DK Metaf, but also on the other side there, James Pierre has actually played really well for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but this week, Mike Tomlin said in his press conference that he actually plans on starting Darius Slay, who has really, really struggled. And I’m guessing they’re going to be putting Joey Porter Jr. a really good physical press man corner on Roma Dunay, which means that Darius Slay would be on DJ Moore. So that that could potentially mean DJ could be in for a big day, especially if Slay continues some of the coverage struggles that we have seen from him very consistently throughout this season. Another guy that the Bears can take advantage of is Patrick Queen, who has really struggled in pass coverage this year. He’s he leads the league in miss tackle rate among linebackers this year. They spent a lot of money on him and he’s an athletic freak, but he’s out of position very frequently both in both phases. Um, that’s certainly a guy that they can take advantage of as well. Coat’s coming off a good game. Coulson Lovelin’s been heating up, so maybe they look to Ben may look to find some one-on-one matchups with him or some opportunities to exploit that. All right, guys. This was a lot of fun. Bears Steelers this Sunday, 1:00 Eastern, 12 Central time at Soldier Field. Again, keep an eye on both channels, both injury reports as uh Sperry will have the latest over on Steelers Talk. I’ll have the latest here on Chicago Bears now. So, subscribe regardless of what channel you are watching on. You got a score prediction for us? I’m going to go 2320. Steelers win. I know the Bears are winning a lot of these close games, but I think this time the Pittsburgh Steelers pull it out. You think bad man does it again or I think we’re going to get Yeah, regardless of QB, I think the Steelers get the dub. All right, I’ll go Bears 2421. Should be a tight one. Think it’ll be a fun day at Soldier Field. We will see you guys soon. Stay up to date with our content. See you next time.

Bears vs. Steelers Preview: The Chicago Bears host the Pittsburgh Steelers during NFL Week 12. Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS and use code CLNS and get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup! Could this be the last appearance of Aaron Rodgers at Soldier Field? Will Bears CB’s Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon be active to play alongside C.J. Gardner-Johnson? Which matchups should Bears fans be on the lookout for? Chat Sports hosts Harrison Graham and Jack Sperry break down this game on this Chicago Bears Youtube video.

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Bears Injury Report from Wednesday: DNP
– S Jaquan Brisker (shoulder)
– LB Tremaine Edmunds (groin)
– LB TJ Edwards (hand/hamstring)
– LB Noah Sewell (elbow)
– DT Grady Jarrett (rest)
– S Kevin Byard III (rest)

Caleb Williams 2025 stats (10 GP):
– COMP %: 59.7
– PASS YDS: 2,329
– TD/INT: 13/4
– RUSH YDS: 272
– RUSH TD: 3

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Bears Injury Report from Wednesday: LP
– C Drew Dalman (knee)
– RB D’Andre Swift (hip)
– RB Travis Homer (hamstring/knee)
– OT Darnell Wright (pectoral)
– CB Tyrique Stevenson (hip/calf)
– CB Jaylon Johnson (groin, IR)*
– CB Kyler Gordon (calf, IR)*
* = Practice windows opened

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Chicago Bears Defensive Coaching Staff:
– Defensive Coordinator: Dennis Allen
– Defensive Pass Game Coordinator / DB’s: Al Harris
– Defensive Line Coach: Jeremy Garrett
– Linebackers Coach: Richard Smith
– Assistant Linebackers: Kevin Koch
– Safeties Coach: Matt Giordano
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