Training camp hasn’t even started yet. The Chicago Bears won’t get into full preparation mode until next week. It is still well over a month before people will start thinking about opening day of the 2026 season. Yet things are already transpiring that figure to impact the Bears’ chance of getting off to a good start. Their schedule was set a few months ago. By now, everybody knows their first opponent of the year will be the Carolina Panthers. The Bears will visit them on the road, highlighting a matchup of two playoff teams from last year.
However, the vibe is very different between the two organizations right now. Chicago is going into camp with few major concerns. The same can’t be said for Carolina. They were hit with an avalanche of bad news as some of their best players got some unfortunate health updates. Taylor Moton, their rock-solid right tackle, was diagnosed with blood clots. He will miss the start of the regular season. Their top cornerback, Jaycee Horn, is also dealing with a foot injury and was placed on the NFI (non-football injury) list.
This doesn’t include left tackle Ikem Ekwonu, who ruptured his patellar tendon in the playoffs in January. He was placed on the PUP (Physically Unable to Perform) list. That means he’s going to miss at least the first six games of the season.
The Chicago Bears are certainly being handed an advantage.
Any team playing without one starting offensive tackle faces a difficult challenge. Playing without two is a nightmare scenario. That is what the Panthers now face. Keep in mind the team had just the 27th-ranked offense last season with both Ekwonu and Moton healthy. How will it look with both of them out of the lineup? Much of that depends on the Bears’ pass rush. We know Dennis Allen is a master of situation pressure. If anybody can overwhelm two inexperienced tackles with nasty blitzes, it’s him.
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The major key will be the series of moments when the Bears rush four. Can Montez Sweat, Austin Booker, and Dayo Odeyingbo get enough pressure by themselves to unsettle Bryce Young? The young quarterback was fortunate last year, playing in only two games where he was pressured more than 12 times. Both were losses. This may force Carolina to lean on running the football more often, trying to keep their quarterback protected. That is problematic since they were 19th last season on the ground and lost Rico Dowdle, their best rusher, to free agency.
The Bears can’t ask for a better opportunity.
Carolina isn’t a bad team. They were good enough to almost beat the Rams in the playoffs before a last-second rally by Matthew Stafford. Overlooking them was the death of many good opponents last season. The Chicago Bears should be smart enough to know they can’t overlook anybody. As with every game, it comes down to finding the right matchups. Both starting tackles being out is certainly at the top of their defense’s priority list. The Panthers have no choice but to begin planning how to mask having two backups on the edges.
It will limit what they can accomplish offensively. If the Bears can put them in an early hole on the scoreboard, it will force Carolina to pass. That should allow the pass rush to pin their ears back and go. This was an advantage Chicago didn’t see often last season because of how often they trailed late in games. Head coach Ben Johnson said he wants this season to be about getting off to better starts. Week one offers a perfect opportunity.
