The NFL has moved the Packers-Bears clash in Week 5 out of the late afternoon spotlight and into a Noon Central kickoff at Lambeau Field.
That game had originally been set for FOX’s 3:25 PM Central “Game of the Week” slot after the league released its 2026 regular season schedule. It was one of the network’s priority matchups, with Green Bay hosting Chicago in the first meeting of the season between the NFL’s oldest rivals.
But the appeal has shifted over the first three weeks. Green Bay has opened 1-2, and its only win came in overtime against the New York Jets. Chicago, meanwhile, will be without starting quarterback Caleb Williams for a few more weeks as he continues to recover from a hamstring strain.
With that, the league has flexed Packers-Bears out of the late window and into the early afternoon. FOX will now carry 49ers-Seahawks in the later national slot.
The time change also pushes the Packers’ new “Rivalries” uniforms into a much smaller audience. Green Bay is scheduled to wear them for the first time in this game, while Chicago will debut its version in the Christmas Day rematch at Soldier Field.
There’s another wrinkle here, too: this is only the second time in more than 20 years that both Packers-Bears meetings will kick off at Noon Central. The holiday rematch will still be shown nationally, but the unusual scheduling pattern has only happened before in 2024 - when the Week 18 time slot wasn’t locked in until the end of the season - and before that not since 2004, which also featured a season-ending matchup.
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Bielema has not revealed what the defense will look like next, and that uncertainty is part of the challenge. Illinois is expected to adjust its scheme, possibly moving away from the 3-3-5 alignment used under Hauck, but the real test is whether the change can happen cleanly enough to matter right away. Purdue will offer the first look at how much Bielema can simplify, shift, or reshape things without exposing the defense in the process. [Read more 🡒]