The 2025 NFL schedule will officially be released on Wednesday, May 14 at 5 p.m. PT, but several games were announced on Monday, including one between the Chicago Bears and the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles on Friday, Nov. 28.
It will be the third edition of Amazon Prime Video's Black Friday game. Kickoff at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia is slated for 12 p.m. PT.
The standalone game will be first matchup between USC Trojans coach Lincoln Riley’s former quarterbacks Jalen Hurts and Caleb Williams. Hurts transferred to Oklahoma in 2019 after spending his first three seasons at Alabama. Before he was winning Super Bowl MVP, Hurts was famously benched at halftime in favor of Tua Tagovailoa in the 2017 national championship.
Instead of transferring after the season or redshirting in 2018 to preserve a year of eligibility, Hurts spent the season as a backup in Tuscaloosa. Hurts arrived at Oklahoma in the winter of 2019, with one last opportunity to prove to NFL decision-makers that he could be a starting quarterback at the next level.
The Eagles signal-caller thrived in his lone season with Riley, he finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting to LSU’s Joe Burrow and led the Sooners to a berth in the College Football Playoff. Philadelphia then selected Hurts in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft and the rest is history.
For Williams, he arrived at Oklahoma as a five-star recruit in the 2021 cycle. He took over as the starter halfway through his freshman year after leading a 21-point comeback against Texas in the Red River Rivalry. Williams followed Riley out west after the season when the former Oklahoma coach left Norman to take the job at the USC.
The former Trojans quarterback found immediate success in Los Angeles and cemented himself as a USC legend in 2022, when he became the eighth player in program history to win the Heisman Trophy. Williams then went on the be selected by the Bears with the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s NFL Draft, joining other former Riley quarterbacks Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray, to win the Heisman Trophy and be selected first overall.
The game will be a massive test for the Bears as they face the team that has won the NFC two of the last three years and just defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX, preventing them from pulling off a historic three-peat.
Williams enters a pressure packed sophomore season in the Windy City. The Bears finished 5-12 in 2024, which included a coaching carousel that featured two different head coaches, three different offensive coordinators and a 10-game losing streak. Williams was sacked 68 times, tied for the third-most in NFL history.
Still, the former USC signal-caller set the franchise record for completions, passing yards and passing touchdowns. Chicago hired Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, a brilliant play-caller to be the franchise’s next head coach.
Johnson and general manager Ryan Poles immediately went to work this offseason to surround Williams with the necessary talent to be successful.
The Bears upgraded the interior of its offensive line with the signing of center Drew Dalman and trading for All-Pro guard Joe Thuney and Pro Bowl guard Jonah Jackson. They invested significant draft capital by using its first two picks on a pair of new targets for Williams in Michigan tight end Colston Loveland (No. 10 overall pick) and Missouri receiver Luther Burden III (No. 39 overall pick).
Chicago will have another prime-time game on Saturday Dec. 20 against their oldest rivals, the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field in Chicago, which increases the chances the Bears will play on Christmas Day. The four teams that played on Christmas last season all played on the Saturday before. Kansas City will be playing on Christmas again this year, the NFL announced on Monday, this time against division rival Denver Broncos.
The matchup on Dec. 20 is part of a doubleheader on FOX that also will feature the Philadelphia Eagles squaring off against the Washington Commanders.
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