Nagy announces most starters out of Saturday's Bears preseason game

In a move that is unprecedented in recent Bears history, most starters will not play Saturday in the next-to-last preseason game, which is usually the one in which first-teamers get their most playing time.

After discussions with his staff, first-year Bears head coach Matt Nagy informed players Friday of his plan not to play most of the starters against the Chiefs, including quarterback Mitch Trubisky. The plan has been in the works all week, and it included extra practice reps for starters in the past several days.

Nagy's reasoning is that the Bears have practiced more than every other NFL team, because they began a week early due to their participation in the preseason-opening Hall of Fame Game on Aug. 2. Except for the Bears and Ravens — their opponent in the opener — all other NFL teams began their preseason schedules a week later and therefore started training camp a week later.

Many of the Bears' practices, even those at Halas Hall since after they broke camp on Aug. 12, have been lengthy, often lasting close to three hours. Nagy's plan was that, if he saw what he needed to during this week's practices, as far as productivity, efficiency and effort, he wouldn't ask most of the starters to play in Saturday's noon game at Soldier Field.

That game would normally be the final dress rehearsal before the start of the regular season, Sunday night, Sept. 9, in Green Bay against the Packers. Most starters also won't play in next Thursday's preseason finale.

• Bob LeGere is a senior writer at Pro Football Weekly. Follow Bob's Bears reports on Twitter @BobLeGere or @PFWeekly.