The Chicago Bears have moved on from the 2025 season. Head coach Ben Johnson made sure of that. What they accomplished last year doesn’t mean anything. This will not be the same team that left the icy Soldier Field against the Rams in January. They are starting over from scratch. Lots of new players, and most importantly, a new schedule. Right now, the Bears only know who their opponents will be for next season. They don’t yet know when those matchups will happen, both calendar-wise and time-of-day-wise.
That latter part is not something people have thought about much. NFL insider Mike Florio cautioned on 104.3 The Score that it would be wise to start. He stated that, because of the team’s success last year and Chicago’s massive ratings draw, the league is almost certain to insert them into as many primetime slots as possible. Get Johnson, Caleb Williams, and the other big names in front of a national audience. There will be no consistency with this schedule. It will be a mishmash of different days of the week and most likely an international game as well.
The Chicago Bears likely knew this was coming.
After all, they’ve seen the NFL do it before. In 2018, the team broke through with a 12-4 record and won the division title. Together with the epic Double Doink game in the playoffs, the league couldn’t wait to showcase the Bears a ton at the start of 2019. Five of their first six games that season were either in primetime or the late afternoon window. If Matt Nagy and Mitch Trubisky got that sort of reaction, you can only imagine what Williams and Johnson will command. Their media profiles are far higher among national fans.
This is probably why the Bears are considered heavy favorites to open the season in Seattle against the defending champion Seahawks. No doubt the NFL is hoping it will be a playoff preview between two really good teams, setting the tone for what will be a competitive NFC. Of course, we all remember what happened the last time the Bears opened up a season on primetime after a playoff run the previous year. They flopped in a 10-3 loss to Green Bay and started a slow spiral down the drain.
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It isn’t hard to predict what some other primetime games will be.
You can bet at least one of the matchups will involve the Green Bay Packers. After the numbers both teams did in their last two games against each other, there is no way the NFL is leaving that out of a national slot. One can assume another should include the Minnesota Vikings, especially after they landed former Pro Bowl quarterback Kyler Murray. Maybe the Detroit Lions also get one, but that feels unlikely unless it’s on Thanksgiving. Other options include a rematch with the Philadelphia Eagles, a big-time showdown with the AFC champion New England Patriots, or a D.J. Moore reunion against the Buffalo Bills.
Any one of those is sure to do great numbers, especially if the Chicago Bears can maintain their consistency from last year and keep winning. That depends on Johnson’s continued ability to develop young guys on the roster, including Williams. If their incoming draft class can make strong contributions as well, this team should be every bit as dangerous as before, if not more so.
