The Chicago Bears are wheels up and headed down to Nashville after a short practice on Wednesday. The next time we see them on the field, they’ll be sharing it with the Tennessee Titans during Thursday’s joint practice ahead of the preseason finale on Saturday.

Just like last week, head coaches Ben Johnson and Robert Saleh are putting a lot of weight into Thursday’s session to determine whether or not they’ll send the starters out there during Saturday’s game. It’ll be a critical day for both teams, especially with roster cuts coming up on Sunday and the start of the regular season around the corner.

We’ve got two A to Z Sports beat writers together ahead of Thursday’s practice one for the Bears, Kole Noble, and one for the Titans, Easton Freeze, to break down the most interesting head-to-head matchups to watch during this upcoming joint practice.

Bears QB Caleb Williams vs. Titans HC Robert Saleh

Noble: The Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams dynamic has been awesome going into Year 2. It’s not perfect, and it never will be, but Williams has taken significant strides in his command of this offense. With a solid practice on Thursday, this could be the last we see of Williams until Week 1. As for what Williams needs to clean up before that opening game arrives, Johnson is paying close attention Williams’ situational work (two-minute in particular) after having a “mixed bag” in terms of the success of the first-team offense in those drills along with some things he wants him to improve in his coverage recognition.

Freeze: The Bears’ franchise quarterback is expected to shatter Chicago’s passing ceiling in Year 2 under Ben Johnson, and the Bears have publicly declared they expect to score at an elite rate. Meanwhile, Saleh’s defense has been on an up-and-down ride through camp in a way that has left fans unsure of what it will look and feel like in the regular season. The Titans have the juice on paper to be an accomplished unit, particularly up front, where the defensive line has the potential to be the heart and soul of the team in the pass rush. But they have to put it together, and so far the picture has been incomplete.

What will Saleh throw at Caleb? How does the Tennessee defense respond when stress-tested by the best of the three offenses they have faced in joint practice this far? Without live tackling, the offense holds a natural advantage, but this is still the best lens we have to evaluate whether the Titans’ front can generate enough disruption to take stress off a secondary that looks like the weak point of this defense. Chicago certainly has the weapons to exploit that. Two strengths collide, and I’m curious to see which one bows first.

Titans QB Cam Ward vs. Bears DC Dennis Allen

Noble: Dennis Allen isn’t afraid to throw the kitchen sink at a young quarterback, even in a joint practice setting. Allen loves to deploy DB blitzes out of the slot and from the safety position, which will be something Cam Ward will need to be prepared for. Linebacker Devin Bush has also been a menace chasing Caleb Williams out of the pocket and linebacker D’Marco Jackson had a “sack” during last week’s joint practice as well. Allen isn’t going to hold back, so Ward better be ready and better be quick with his reads.

Freeze: The inverse matchup is just as compelling. Allen had a failed run as a head coach in New Orleans, but don’t let that distract you from the fact that he is one of the more accomplished defensive minds in recent NFL history. He’s manning an improved Bears defensive unit that should put Ward under some real stress.

Ward has been under the microscope here in Nashville because he has also had an up-and-down camp. He has looked so much better in practice than he has in the preseason games. The sample size is incredibly lopsided between practices and preseason action, but these joint practices are the settings I hold in the absolute highest regard for evaluating him. He gets a full two-hour, two-and-a-half-hour practice period to prove himself against a Bears defense that is maybe the weakest of the three units Tennessee has faced. The Titans have gone up against the 49ers, the Seahawks, and now the Bears. No scrubs in that trio. But this Chicago defense is not the beast that Seattle’s was last week. So look the best you’ve looked in joint practices. That’s my charge to Ward, and it’s something Titans fans are going to hope they see.

Bears TE Colston Loveland vs. Titans S Kevin Winston Jr.

Noble: Colston Loveland has been a matchup nightmare for virtually anyone that’s tried to guard him in coverage heading into his second season. Everyone wants to talk about The Incompletion from Saturday’s game, but I saw that play as a sign of the trust Williams has going to Loveland for an explosive play and they barely missed on the connection. Loveland is already a monster for this team and going up against another defense again this week will really tell us how impactful this guy can be for this offense.

Freeze: Loveland broke out as a star rookie tight end last season, and expectations are high for him to take another leap in Year 2. But Kevin Winston Jr. is a guy expected to take a second-year leap of his own, now a full year removed from his ACL recovery. He is a violent safety who can hang in the deep third with range and also come up and play in the box against a receiving tight end like Loveland. He’s a heat-seeking missile, and nobody is worried about his physical abilities.

The question is mental. How quickly can he get up to speed? Winston talked at the end of last year about how he felt he was learning things for the first time in his limited game action. These practice settings and preseason games are the instances in which he has to refine his craft. He made a big mental error in Sunday’s Week 2 preseason game. Hopefully he learns those lessons in the non-regular-season settings so that when the real games arrive in a couple of weeks, he has tuned things up in a big way. Against Loveland, this is a fantastic opportunity to check in on his progress.

Bears DT Jordan van den Berg vs. Titans RG Fernando Carmona

Noble: The sixth-round rookie defensive tackle has been one of the biggest risers on this roster and seriously pushing for a starting opportunity. Jordan van den Berg is still raw with his techniques, but his physicality and motor makes up for it. He’s been a beast over the last two weeks and continues to get more and more opportunities with the first-team defense. We’ll see if that continues to be the case on Thursday and how he looks against the Titans’ starting offensive front.

Freeze: The Titans’ rookie right guard has been stress-tested every single day in practice, going up against the likes of Jeffrey Simmons, Jordan Elliott, and John Franklin-Myers. Those are some monsters hiding under his own bed. That’s a great way to acclimate yourself, batting-donut style, to whatever the rest of the league throws at you from the interior.

Each passing practice in which Carmona continues to get first-team reps solidifies the fact that he is the rookie starter at that position. Now he has to prove his floor is higher than we thought it might be coming out of the draft. That comes with consistency, and the Bears will throw some talented defensive linemen at him Thursday. Don’t be a liability next to JC Latham on the right side in pass protection. We know Carmona can be a road-grading run blocker, and that’s really why the Titans gave him the nod as early as they did. They knew he could handle one phase of the game with a high floor and maybe a high ceiling. What does that floor and ceiling look like as a pass protector? That’s what we’ll be paying attention to against Chicago.

Bears RB D’Andre Swift vs. Titans LBs Cody Barton and Anthony Hill

Noble: D’Andre Swift has easily been one of the top consistent players for the Bears all throughout training camp. He’s fully committed to hitting more explosive runs this season and seemingly has ripped off a big one every single day of practice. With Kyle Monangai still sidelined, Swift hasn’t had any preseason action, so this will likely be his last showing against another team until Week 1. I’m excited to see if he can stack one more big performance against this Titans’ defense.

Freeze: Swift is the starting running back in a 1A/1B split with Kyle Monangai for Chicago, and by all reports he has been going off in practice. His running against the Titans’ defensive front, if Tennessee is not as stout as hoped at the point of attack, will test an ongoing battle between veteran linebacker Cody Barton and rookie Anthony Hill Jr.

This is a lion-chasing-a-gazelle type situation. We all expect Hill to eventually take over as the starting MIKE linebacker for this team. The question is when. Every time we check in with the coaching staff, including as recently as this week, they say it’s an ongoing process and that they like his progress but it’s still very much a work in progress. That’s understandable on paper. But when we watch Barton in limited preseason action and see him a half-tick or more late on everything, it’s difficult to maintain patience. If you feel that as a fan, the reality is the coaches, executives, and owners in the building feel that pressure as well.

I still expect Barton to be the starter in Week 1, but if you made me make any promises beyond that, I’d be unwilling to. Instances like Thursday’s joint practice are only going to accelerate Hill’s timeline if he looks pretty good.