The Chicago Bears have officially kicked off training camp. Photos have been taken, interviews have been conducted, and drills have started on the field. With new head coach Ben Johnson leading the way, things are expected to turn in the right direction. 

Quarterback Caleb Williams is set to begin his second year in the NFL after an up-and-down rookie campaign. For him and the rest of the team, camp will be an indicator of how things are progressing. 

One thing that the Bears can take advantage of ahead of Week 1 is their joint practice and preseason schedule. Johnson believes those practices and games will help them gauge their progress in the race to their Week 1 game against the Minnesota Vikings.

“There’s certain benchmarks along the way,” Johnson said. “The first couple weeks, it’s going to be a big installation. The guys are going to be thinking, mistakes are going to be made. These joint practices that we have against Miami and Buffalo will be a good barometer to see where we’re at as a team. Then Kansas City, the preseason games. All these teams will be really good for us to gauge where we’re at as well. I don’t know if there’s a certain timeline on it. It’ll be a feel as we go through camp.”

Regardless of who the Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, and Kansas City Chiefs decide to use in these joint practices or preseason games, it will present a high-end challenge to the Bears on all sides of the ball. 

Johnson believes that these situations will help his players, and they hired him to take advantage of these things. So far, it sounds like he knows what he wants as a head coach.  

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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Bears HC Ben Johnson explains benefit of joint practices, preseason