Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Wiederer's 2026 Bears schedule wish list! | Take The North

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

From 'Take The North' (subscribe here): Dan Wiederer previews for Adam Studzinski his wish list for the 2026 Bears schedule. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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the NFL schedule release will be sometime in the next two weeks. I know there was kind of some noise out there that they might delay the release. Hopefully, that doesn't happen. But that's not pertinent to our conversation because, Dan, what you have is your annual schedule wish list, as you call it. I got the wrong thing on there on the title down there. So I apologize. But schedule wish list.

And I know you've said before you've cornered the market on this. Totally cornered. Nobody else can get in this market. Mock schedules are my terrain. And so this is a chance to flex the Mock Schedule muscles a little bit. Third year doing this second time or first time for the athletic. That will publish on Wednesday. morning so get over to the athletic to see the full thing. But I thought one of the fun things to

do here would be to give you as a way of giving the folks a sneak preview. I may slip a nugget or two in there, but you can ask me questions about my mock schedule, give the people a little taste of what's to come, and then they can go read the whole thing at the athletic. And we'll tell you this, the Bears play, obviously a first play schedule after last year. They play 12 games this year against teams that finished 2025 with a winning record. So that's going to be challenging. And road slate is not super easy. And so I just hope people are prepared to know what that slate looks like. Again, like schedule strength always changes.

Yeah, we league's unpredictable and teams that we think are going to be good right now, aren't. But on the surface, it sets up to be a really, really difficult slate. And I'm here to take some some questions from you, Studs. Okay. Okay. I've been looking forward to this. First, I want to lay out.

We do know, as you were teasing there, we do know who, all of the opponents are. So I'm going to run down real quick so everyone's aware. The home opponents this year, the division opponents, obviously, Lions, Packers, Vikings. Then there will be the Bucks, the Eagles, the Jags, the Jets, the Patriots, and Saints. Those are all at home. The away schedule, obviously, the division opponents, Lions, Packers, Vikings. Also, the Bills, the Dolphins, the Falcons, the Panthers, the Seahawks. So that is the schedule that the Bears will be looking at in sometime in the next two weeks. And according to your wish list, we will find out the order in which they will play and what times they will play.

So, all right. The first question, Dan, I got to know. I got to know. Are the bears going to be in the curtain in the opening game of the NFL season against the Seahawks in Seattle? A lot of chatter about that. A lot of chatter about that being a reality. So much chatter, in fact, that I currently have a hotel room booked in Seattle on Tuesday night, September 8th. And so don't have a flight booked yet.

That's the big thing. Okay. So I currently have that locked in as something that might be on the radar. You don't want to get left high and dry for that kickoff night. Now, I've said personally as a beat writer, horrible thing if that happens because it means the Bears will be practicing on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of Labor Day weekend. Bye-bye Labor Day weekend. We're going to be at Hallis Hall listening to the coordinators and Ben and Caleb and everybody

prepare for the season. All that said, no, I do not have them on my mock schedule opening the season in Seattle. But I've got what I think is the next best thing or the next next next best thing. I've got that on Sunday night football in week one, on the road at Buffalo for the opening of the Bill's new stadium at New Highmark Stadium in a very high profile game. Reunion with DJ Moore, Caleb versus Josh Allen, two teams with legitimate, legitimate championship hopes squaring off in front of a revved up Bill's mafia crowd in Buffalo. You'd sign up for that as a good alternative to Seattle, right? Oh, yeah. That would be a great theater. And I agree. The next best thing to being in the opener in Seattle is probably what made, I would say the only other next best would be Sunday night at home against the Packers. So that might be. So now that leads to my next question. I love that as a wishless for the opener, though. In Buffalo, week one, Sunday night football. That would be a great theater for everyone. Right. Now, next question, very important. When do you have the first rematch with the Packers?

Okay. So I'm going to answer this in two ways because you just used a word that I use as my compass doing this exercise. The mock schedule is all about theater. How do we set up the maximum show for Bears fans, the maximum show for the city of Chicago? And it's through theater. And so what did we learn from 2025? We learned that saving the Packers games for the back end of the season creates an incredible amount of anticipation and hopefully if both teams are playing well as they were last year,

meaningful games late in the season. So the first game of the Bears Packers series I have, get ready for this one. You ready? Lean into this one. All right. We are going to be at Lambo Field on Thanksgiving night. Bears did that once upon a time and the John Fox hero went up there with Jay Cutler and Tracy Porter managing an upset of Aaron Rogers. So that's it. That's week 12. It's Thursday, November 26. It's Thanksgiving night, the third game of that triple header. And there you go.

You wait a little while. You let both teams figure out their identity. You hope that the standings are at play. And all of a sudden, you squeeze a couple Packers' Bears games in the back half of the schedule, and you get the theater element that I'm so, so, after. Now, I do agree that is great theater. However,

I hate when the Bears play on Thanksgiving because it ruins, especially if it's the night game, ruins my hold. I'm stressed the whole day. If they do play in Thanksgiving, I do like, let's get it out of the way, you know, the 1130 kickoff, even though the last time they did that was just an unmitigated disaster.

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I don't even like thinking about it. I thought last year was the perfect setup. It's like, okay, you get to just relax and watch football all day in Thanksgiving and then you get this great matchup on the Black Friday. game against the Eagles. I thought that was perfect. However, I do, I do agree with your theater aspect of this, Bears Packers, Thanksgiving night as the first matchup of the season. And I do remember that that 2015 game is one of my favorite Bears games in the last decade plus, if only because it was one of the few times they won. That was the last time they won at

Lambo, right? Until now two years ago when the Bears finished season. Yeah. tweak with the Thomas Brown win. But yeah, look, like that was also, it was Vic Fangio and the Bears defense stepping up late to get one final stop on Aaron Rogers, which never happened during Aaron Rogers' his time as Packers' quarterback. And so that one was very memorable in that regard because they got the stop late in that game that was always so elusive. And didn't Tracy Porter have like two interception?

I mean, I just vividly remember Tracy Porter and Cutler outside the Bears locker with Michelle Tofoya taking a bite out of a giant turkey leg and it was all all that was there. Yeah, yeah, that was a really fun. It was a lost season, but it was a really fun game and a lost season. And Tracy Porter had that like random resurgent year with the bears because he was really good that year. And so yeah, anyway, yeah, that was a fun trip down memory lane. What was the cold tub time machine?

We still calling it that. Yeah, for sure. Okay, so I got one more, right? We got one more. Just one more. So use it wisely here because this is the end. and then you have to go to the athletic website to check out the rest of the most of the I know I know which one I want to know will and I'm sorry if this was already answered or not I couldn't

remember now as I'm coming up with this last question will the bears play in Spain this year no I have I have that I have that so that would be the Falcons game the Falcons being hosting the Madrid game I have that as a very very random throwing game Sunday January 3rd that's week 17 that's at the end of the year. Obviously a chance to stop Bijan Robinson. So no Spain, Atlanta, right after the new year. And as the Bears kind of play the penultimate regular season game, hopefully gearing up for another playoff run. We'll see. You know, this is going to be a very interesting year. I did want to point this out here because this is a notable nugget that I had with my exchange with the office earlier this week. Everybody talks about the first place schedule, right?

And that affects three games. Okay. It's only three games, but they are three meaningful games. And so let me compare the Bears first play schedule to the Lions who are playing the last play schedule. They'll have these same opponents other than these three. The Bears will play the Jaguars and Eagles at home on the road against the Super Bowl champion Seahawks. That's the Bears first play schedule. Contrast that to the Lions who get the opportunity to host the Giants and the Cardinals and go on the road to play the Titans. If you had your selection of those two trios of games, there's no question you're taking the Lions Road. over the Bears Road.

And that's in a division where all four teams finished with winning records last year, that could be a very significant differentiating factor, as it was last year, as the Lions played the first place schedule and the Bears played the last year. Yeah, no, you're right. Our yoga instructor challenged us to find inner peace. I found it faster than anyone. After four seconds, I stood up and screamed, I found Nirvana.

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