Chicago Bears catch a huge scheduling break

The Chicago Bears caught a huge break with respect to their Week 7 opponent, the New Orleans Saints.

You never want to see a player get injured, especially when they are one of the NFL’s brightest stars, but it appears the Chicago Bears will be indirect beneficiaries of an injury-riddled Week 2 in the league.

The New Orleans Saints took on the Los Angeles Rams in a rematch of the infamous NFC Championship game from last year in which the Saints were robbed of a chance to go to the Super Bowl by a horrible missed pass interference call. While yesterday’s game also included some calls that didn’t go their way, they were the least of their concerns.

That’s because Drew Brees, their star quarterback, left the game when he injured his thumb on a pass in just their second drive of the game. The extent of the injury was not known until today when it was revealed that he will need surgery to repair a torn ligament in his thumb.

While his exact return date is unknown at this time and depends on how successful his surgery and rehabilitation goes, he is expected to at least miss the next six weeks. That would put him back in time for the Saints’ Week 10 game against the Atlanta Falcons.

However, he almost assuredly will not be back in time for their Week 7 matchup against the beloved Bears. If true, that is a huge break for the Bears as they will not have to face one of the league’s best quarterbacks. Instead, they will face Teddy Bridgewater at home. While Bridgewater is no slouch, the offense will look drastically different without Brees.

That’s a huge turn of events, but also underscores why you shouldn’t get worked up over a team’s strength of schedule before the season kicks off, as you never know how things will unfold. What looked like an extremely difficult game now appears a lot more winnable.

Of course, if the offense continues to play the way it has been, it won’t matter who’s under center for the Saints. Nevertheless, with winnable games upcoming against the Washington Redskins, Minnesota Vikings, and Oakland Raiders, the Bears will have a bye week to prepare for a Saints and could be 5-1 before that contest. Again, the Bears need to pick things up offensively, but I’d rather be playing the Saints without Brees than with him.