The Chicago Bears haven’t even begun thinking about their plans for opening day of the regular season in September. There is still so much work to do before then. Head coach Ben Johnson must get players ready in training camp, then whittle down the roster to the best 53. Only then will plans begin. Yet with that being the case, the Bears have seen their odds of a week one victory tick up steadily in the past week as the Carolina Panthers get crushed under an avalanche of bad injury news. It started with learning that both of their starting offensive tackle will miss the opener. Ikem Ekwonu is recovering from a torn patellar tendon. Taylor Moton was diagnosed with blood clots. Now the defense got hit with some brutal Nic Scourton news.
Carolina had high expectations for their young pass rusher. The 2nd round pick delivered five sacks in his rookie season last year, becoming a big help to the team’s playoff push. He looked poised for a jump in 2026. Now those plans are derailed as he suffered a torn ACL on the first day of training camp. Scourton is done for the season, putting immense pressure on Jaelan Phillips and Princely Umanmielen to pick up the slack.
The timing of this Nic Scourton news couldn’t be worse.
It is at that time in the offseason when every notable free agent has been scooped up by other teams. The pass rush market is stripped bare, save for one or two veterans who are well past their prime. Forget the trade market as well. No team will give up a credible pass rusher this early in the season. Carolina would have to wait until the trade deadline in November, and that has no impact on the opener against Chicago. This essentially means the Panthers are stuck with who they have. Losing Scourton at all is bad. Losing him after the meat of the offseason has passed is 10x worse.
Carolina knew they would need all of their defensive linemen healthy to get after Caleb Williams. He was one of the hardest quarterbacks to sack last season. This doesn’t even mention the other part of the equation. Now the Panthers’ run defense is also in danger. Chicago’s run game is built around the wide-zone, meaning they attack the edges. With Nic Scourton out of the picture, the chances of keeping that problem in check grow longer as well.
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Chicago’s plans for the opener just got easier.
With Scourton out of the picture, Coach Johnson and his staff can feel more comfortable throwing double teams at Phillips. This will force the other Panthers edge rushers to win their one-on-ones consistently enough to make a difference. Given who they currently have, that isn’t a safe bet. This will force them to blitz more often, hoping to unsettle Williams into mistakes. That is problematic since Williams had a 91.6 passer rating against the blitz last season. He was actually better against five or more rushers than regular four or three-man fronts.
So now you start to see the predicament Carolina is in. Barring something unexpected, there is a strong chance they will need to win a shootout in week one to beat the Bears. Even that is an issue due to the tackle injuries. One can only feel sympathy for the team. The season hasn’t even started yet, and they’re already scrambling for options to prevent a meltdown. It falls to the Bears to take advantage of this considerable gift.
