Bears to limit starters

Bears quarterback Jay Cutler expects to play in the team's final preseason game Thursday against the Browns, but not for long.

"How much?" Cutler said. "I don’t think that’s been decided yet. But the starters will go a little bit."

Like most teams, the Bears will rest many of their starters for most of the final preseason game to keep them healthy and fresh for Week 1 against Green Bay. The game will offer coach Lovie Smith and his staff a chance to study reserve players who are trying to make the team.

Smith said his starters would see at least some time on the field. Caleb Hanie will play most of the game at quarterback.

"They’re going to play," Smith said. "Haven’t really decided [how much]. You can kind of look at our history a little bit and see that first and last preseason games, we don’t play them as much as we do for the second and the third [preseason games]."

Besides not featuring too many starters, the Bears won't feature much variety in their playbook Thursday. The Bears play the Browns in the regular season, and they do not want to reveal too much to give the Browns an advantage in November.

"We’ve got to play something," defensive end Alex Brown said. "I mean, we’ve got to play some defense. What are we going to show? That’s up to Coach Smith. I doubt we’ll show much. We’ll be pretty vanilla.

"I know we’ll play hard, though," Brown said. "We’ll show them that. We’ll show them that’s what they’re going to get. We’re going to play hard each and every play, and we’re going to run to the ball. That’s what we’re going to do."

-Tom Musick