A 23-10 home loss to the Packers on Monday night locked the Vikings into the sixth seed in the playoffs and made Sunday’s game against the Bears essentially meaningless.
Coach Matt Nagy was asked Tuesday how that development changed the Bears’ plans Sunday. Had the Vikings won and had been playing for a different seed, perhaps the Bears would feel an obligation to the league to play more of their starters?
Nagy didn’t dismiss the possibility of giving time to younger players.
“Being able to go win the game is important to us,” he said. “It does also, at the same time, present some opportunities … knowing kind of where they’re at and where we’re at. We’ll see where that takes us. I want to be smart about it. But at the same time if there is somebody we can get a chance to see, we want to be able to do that as well.”
The Bears could give rookie Alex Bars his first career start if injured right guard Rashaad Coward can’t go. Other calls could involve resting stars.
Nagy said Week 17 is different than preseason games, where he sits players to avoid injuries.
“The end of the year versus the start of the year, is probably the biggest thing,” he said. “Again, there’s some things that we’ll take into account as we go through this. But the main objective for our players and for our coaches is to go there and try to win the football game — even regardless of their situation.”
