Report: Vikings to face Bears in early October

We’ve gotten another leak of part of the Minnesota Vikings’ 2023 schedule, and this one features another division rival.

Ben Goessling of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune is reporting that the Vikings’ annual trip to Soldier Field to take on the Chicago Bears will take place in Week 6.

If you couple this with our earlier story about the Vikings’ two matchups against the Green Bay Packers, it means that the Vikings won’t be facing either of their two division rivals that play outdoors during the cold weather portion of the calendar. They’ll have finished both their trip to Chicago and Green Bay before the midway point of the season. Of course, they have road trips to Philadelphia and Cincinnati on the slate, so there’s a chance they won’t avoid the weather entirely.

This also probably means that the Vikings will be done with the Bears much earlier than we’ve become used to in recent years. The Vikings hosted the Bears a bunch of times in the regular season finale over the past few years and finished last season at Soldier Field. However, it appears that their last two games will be at home against Green Bay and against the Detroit Lions (location TBD), so the Vikings could be done with the Bears fairly early.

We’re still trying to keep track of the leaks as best we can on our Schedule Tracker, and we’re about nine hours away from the “official” schedule release, so keep it here as more develops!