Ben Johnson addresses Bears' pre-snap procedures this summer

The Chicago Bears had some issues with pre-snap penalties throughout last season, which was especially evident at this point last year and carried over into the regular season.

There have been notably less pre-snap issues this summer compared to last year in the first season in head coach Ben Johnson’s complex offense. And those issues were not apparent in Chicago’s 34-10 preseason win against the Cleveland Browns on Saturday.

Johnson sounded off on what still needs to be cleaned up on offense, but he noted that those pre-snap procedure issues aren’t among the biggest concerns heading into the 2026 season.

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“My concerns last year were a lot with the pre-snap. We don’t have those procedure issues to that degree anymore,” Johnson said. “So, provided we can keep those to a minimum, I think that’s where we’ll continue to get better. I think our defense is going to continue to get better because they’re facing a clean unit as well. We’ll see what it looks like going against a couple of new opponents. I’m excited to go down to Cincinnati, and they’ve got a lot of new talent on defense that we’re going to have to be on our Ps and Qs if we want to have success against.  That to me is going to help us really shape where we’re at as an offense right now.”

Against the Browns, Chicago only had two penalties for 10 yards.  One of those penalties was a false start right after a timeout, which will be frustrating to Johnson. The Cincinnati Bengals will be a good test for the Bears in next week’s preseason game with all the talent they have on defense to see if Chicago’s offense can minimize their pre-snap issues like they did against the Browns.

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