This is the one week during the NFL season that the old adage about "taking it one game at a time" does not apply.
With Bears starters set to sit out Thursday night's preseason finale against the Bills, they can devote 100 percent of their energy on preparing for the regular-season opener Sept. 9 versus the Packers.
"The focus for them right now is mentally they can finally just say, 'You know what, I can go all in on Green Bay,' and mentally just get prepared, soak it up, and don't worry at all about Buffalo," said coach Matt Nagy.
"Now they can start really hammering on watching the tape on Green Bay and trying to figure out what they see there. We're there to help them with that, and just hone on in now.
"They're at a point now where the physical part of it is going to continue, but now you start game-planning. Now you start saying, 'OK, this is what we're thinking about doing. Let me see how this fits.' All the stuff we've done in OTAs and training camp, now we start picking and choosing what we want to do and what we don't want to do and now you fit it into what Green Bay does and you try to prep for it."
On the mend: Nagy told reporters that Roquan Smith's hamstring tightness is improving but conceded that the rookie linebacker's participation in Monday's practice "was pretty much the same deal" as last week when he was limited.
There's still a chance that Smith could make his preseason debut in Thursday night's finale against the Bills at Soldier Field.
"We'll keep continuing to monitor it and if we feel like he's in a spot where we think it makes more sense to go in there and get him some reps, then we'll do that," Nagy said. "That will be a day-to-day type thing. I would love to get him out there. I just don't know if that's where we're going to be."
If Smith does not play Thursday night, that doesn't necessarily mean he won't suit up for the season opener in Green Bay.
"He's at a point where it's more the conditioning part of it because mentally right now I feel like he's in a good spot, I really do," Nagy said. "It's more of, 'Can he last through a game or what's his reps if he does play in that game?'
"That we really don't know, and then you're just a point where do you want to take the risk of overdoing it and then you compound something. Do you want to do that or not? That's kind of where we're at right now."
Playing hurt: Nagy remains confident that outside linebacker Leonard Floyd will be able to play despite a broken right hand when the regular season begins.
"He'll have that club on him, but he'll be ready to play," Nagy said. "We've gone back and looked; there's been some good players that have played with clubs. It prevents you a little bit from grabbing, but we feel confident he'll be able to play."
Floyd continues to recover from surgery to repair the broken hand he sustained Aug. 18 in a preseason win over the Broncos in Denver.
Asked when he expects Floyd to return to practice, Nagy said: "I would say several days yet. It's not tomorrow, it's not the next day. It's still a few days, probably closer to the true Packers week."
Waiting game:Nagy doesn't think that tight end Adam Shaheen is headed to injured reserve, though the Bears are still waiting for second opinions on the sprained foot and sprained ankle the 2017 second-round draft pick sustained against the Broncos.
"There's different things that could happen with him, but we're waiting for the results to come back from these different opinions and then we'll have a much clearer picture with that," Nagy said. "Once we know where that's at, then we'll be able to figure out the choices that we have for him."
