As the Chicago Bears get prepared for Monday night’s regular season opener against the Minnesota Vikings, one issue still presents a major concern for the offense based on the last time we saw the unit in action.

Pre-snap issues continued to hold the offense back in the preseason finale against the Kansas City Chiefs as well as the sloppiness against the Chiefs’ starting defense, a common trend the unit has been facing all summer long.

Ideally, it’s an issue one would like to see cleaned up well ahead of the season opener but instead it’s an area the team has still had to address going into this game.

“It’s a process,” Thuney explained last week. “We’re always working, always trying to get better pre-snap and cut those things out. As a unit, we’re really trying to play more mistake-free ball. But, it’s just part of it and trying to improve as a group.”

Improvement starts in the huddle, where quarterback Caleb Williams in charge of relaying the formation and play-call to the other 10 members on the field, an area Thuney noted Williams has been “great” at throughout camp.

Next, everyone needs to get lined up correctly. During training camp, the starting offense had issues with pre-snap alignment and motioning correctly. After that comes with firing off the ball at the right time to avoid a potential false start.

Realistically, fixing these issues won’t happen overnight, or in one practice setting. It’s going to have to be an ongoing effort.

“I don’t know if it’ll naturally go away. I think it’s something that takes our direct effort and focus,” Drew Dalman said on Monday. “It’s certainly something we have worked on and will continue to work on throughout the year. It will never be a finished product or anything like that. But, we certainly have improved and will continue to improve and focus on those things.”

The good news is, head coach Ben Johnson noted last week that the staff has a plan in place to eliminate this issues in the regular season, starting by condensing the offense from what the unit has been learning all summer.

Bears can’t afford to have negative plays vs. Brian Flores’ defense in Week 1

This should come across as obvious. No offense wants to take negative plays and get themselves behind the sticks but for the Bears’ case in Week 1, this needs to be a top priority.

Vikings’ defensive coordinator Brian Flores is going to be throwing the kitchen sink at quarterback Caleb Williams on Monday and it’ll be even worse if the unit is facing a 2nd-and-15 or any other obvious passing situation.

Keeping a clean operation out of the huddle and into the start of the play can allow all of the attention to go toward diagnosing Flores’ complex defense.

Looking back to the two matchups against Minnesota last season, the Bears had some killer pre-snap penalties, including a delay of game on the first drive of overtime that stalled the unit’s momentum.

If improvement still isn’t shown in this area on Monday Night Football, the Bears might have a serious concern to worry about on offense.

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Kole Noble