Heading into Super Bowl 60 on February 8, we had a feeling there was a good chance that NBC might choose to debut new footage from the2026 One Chicago crossover event during the big game. That feeling proved to be correct as NBC dropped a brand new promo for the upcoming crossover event during the Super Bowl which promoted the 2026 crossover in hyping up that no one does a crossover like One Chicago.
The spot featured a lot of footage from the first promo that dropped for the One Chicago crossover at the end of Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, and Chicago PD on February 4, but it also seemed to feature some new footage woven in as well. This included an exciting shot of Patrick John Flueger in action as Ruzek with a clip of him on the streets of Chicago amid the chaos unfolding around him. You can see the One Chicago Super Bowl spot below:
The moment sparked immediate excitement among fans who were quick to jump to the assumption that the Super Bowl spot was confirming Ruzek’s return in the episode. After all, why feature him so prominently in the spot if not to tease his return following Flueger’s leave of absence from Chicago PD?
Well, sadly, it seems that Ruzek might not be returning for the 2026 One Chicago crossover on March 4.
Upon examining the Super Bowl spot again, fans are likely to pick up on the fact that the promo features a lot of old footage with NBC weaving in clips from past One Chicago crossovers with footage from the upcoming 2026 crossover. This includes the footage of Ruzek that we see, which was from the 2025 “In the Trenches” crossover and is not new footage from the upcoming crossover.
As seen in the photo above from 2025’s “In the Trenches” crossover, Ruzek is wearing the exact same outfit that he was seen wearing in the Super Bowl spot. This confirms that, sadly, the Ruzek footage shown in the One Chicago Super Bowl promo was not new footage.
Now, just because the footage NBC used for the One Chicago Super Bowl spot was from the 2025 crossover does not entirely rule out the possibility of Ruzek appearing in the episode. Rather, it simply keeps his involvement in the 2026 One Chicago crossover up in the air and unconfirmed.
We know that Flueger returned to set in December following his leave, but it’s remained unclear where in production the show was when he returned to set. This has made it difficult to pinpoint when Ruzek might make his first appearance back on the show following Flueger’s leave.
Given that the crossover will be bringing back former Chicago PD stars Jesse Lee Soffer and Tracy Spiridakos as Halstead and Upton, respectively, we really hope that Flueger is also back as it would be amazing to see the full band back together again!
