For weeks, it was speculated that the Chicago Bears would open up the 2026 season in Seattle against the defending champion Seahawks on opening night. Even top insiders were convinced it was likely. So you can imagine the surprise when news broke that it instead would be a Super Bowl rematch with the New England Patriots. People were confused. Why would anybody want to watch that game after how dull the actual Super Bowl was, especially with how much controversy Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel is involved in? Regardless, it left people wondering what fate awaited the Bears.

Now we know. Jordan Schultz revealed that Chicago will travel to Carolina for an opening-day showdown with the Panthers. It will be a showdown of two playoff teams from last season and two former #1 draft picks in Caleb Williams and Bryce Young. That should create some fun buzz in and of itself. That is before you remember it’ll also be a matchup between Bears head coach Ben Johnson and Panthers head coach Dave Canales, two of the best offensive play callers in the league.

The potential for fireworks on opening day will be high.

The Chicago Bears better not treat Carolina like a gimme.

Yes, the team finished 8-9 last year. On paper, they weren’t good for much of the season. The Panthers were 27th in total offense, and middle-of-the-road on defense. They merely benefited from playing in a terrible division. This glosses over some truths about how they reached that point. For all the grief people give Young, he actually played good football during most of the second half of last season. In the final seven games, he threw for 1,497 yards, 12 touchdowns, and four interceptions. That included big wins over the Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Then he put up 31 points in a rematch against the Rams in the wild card round.

Three of their four wins in November and December were against eventual playoff teams. It always seemed like the Panthers turned things up a notch when they sensed good competition. So you can bet they will be ready for the Bears this September. That is before one gets into the subplots. Everybody knows Chicago passed on Young in 2023, trading the #1 pick to Carolina for a massive package of picks. One of them ended up being the #1 pick in 2024, which became Williams. It is one of the great what-ifs of the past decade.

This game could carry long-term ramifications.

There is a good chance these two teams could find their way right back into the playoff mix this season. Carolina spent a ton of money upgrading their defense with Jaelan Phillips and Devin Lloyd in free agency. Then they got Young some much-needed protection with 1st round left tackle Monroe Freeling. They acted like a team that feels it is close to a serious run. The Chicago Bears obviously feel the same way. There is a serious possibility that these two teams could end up fighting for a playoff spot a few months from now.

So it may not be a divisional game, but a win against the Panthers would put a crucial tiebreaker in the Bears’ back pocket as they embark on their long season. That is why every game matters. If Chicago wants everybody to take them seriously, it starts with beating quality opponents in their own buildings. Carolina, like other NFC teams, will be eager to knock the Bears off their perch. Conversely, they will want to prove that last year wasn’t a fluke. It should be a fun one.

Everybody knows the story by now. As the 2026 NFL draft was drawing to a close, the Chicago Bears had two 7th round picks remaining. Most expected them to just stay put, grab a couple of players they liked, and call it a day. Instead, general manager Ryan Poles hatched a surprise. He packaged those picks together and sent them to the Buffalo Bills in exchange for their 6th round pick. Then the Bears took Georgia Tech defensive tackle Jordan Van Den Berg, ending their draft early.

It was an unusual move. Usually, Poles isn’t that aggressive, even late in drafts. Clearly, the team must have really liked Van Den Berg. As it turns out, that is more true than any of us realized. According to Adam Jahns of CHGO, this entire situation started long before the draft. Bears assistant coaches were evaluating players when they stumbled across the defensive tackle. They grew so enamored with him that they pieced together a 60-play video just to show it to defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, knowing they had to win him over first.

Once that succeeded, he and the assistants immediately began pushing Poles to get Van Den Berg. The GM finally acquiesced, executing the trade to bring him aboard.

Jordan Van Den Berg is in rare company.

Not many 6th round picks can say they were the subject of an elaborate scheme to get drafted. It speaks to how much the Bears coaches liked him. There is no way they would’ve gone through all of that effort buttering up Allen and nagging Poles unless they were 100% certain he could be a strong contributor on defense. It is easy to see the appeal. You don’t encounter many 300-lb human beings with a 10-yard split of 1.61 and a 36-inch vertical leap. Oh, and he also benched 225 lbs 35 times. He has upper- and lower-body strength for days.

All of that began showing up in a big way last season as Van Den Berg finished with three sacks and 11 tackles for a loss. While not Aaron Donald numbers, it was the first indication that he was blossoming as a player. Remember, he spent three years wallowing as a backup at Penn State before transferring to Georgia Tech. There, he found a coach who tasked him with watching lots of Grady Jarrett tape. One year later, he was one of the best players on their entire defense. If he had shown similar flashes earlier for the Nittany Lions, he probably would’ve been a top 75 pick easily.

Buzz is already building inside Halas Hall.

The athleticism and explosiveness didn’t take long to show up. It will be some time before he can showcase it fully. Pads don’t go on until after training camp begins in late July. Until then, Jordan Van Den Berg must spend his time honing his craft. That means learning how to use his hands to fight off blockers, run twists and stunts, set his feet against the run, and keep his pad level low. As much as the Bears coaching staff likes him, they have no intention of just handing him a job right out of the gate.

Such things are earned, and he’ll have plenty of competition. Neville Gallimore, Kentavius Street, and James Lynch were all signed as free agents, stacking the interior depth on the defensive line. Van Den Berg will have to outperform at least two of them if he wants to get any sort of playing time. The coaches believe he can do it. We already know he works hard and is resilient. The only thing left to do is get on the practice field and prove it. This will be one of the most interesting stories to follow this summer.

The reaction when the Chicago Bears selected Zavion Thomas in the 3rd round last month was muted. Fans were sure why the team was taking a wide receiver that early. On paper, the team already had a strong lineup even after losing D.J. Moore to a trade. Experts immediately jumped to the conclusion that he would be their primary return man, serving as an occasional fun little toy for head coach Ben Johnson on offense. A classic gadget weapon. Outside of that, don’t expect much.

Such an assumption would be a mistake. When Thomas arrived for rookie minicamps last week, Coach Johnson took him aside, and the two talked. There, he made it clear to the young receiver that there is no set role for him on offense. Everything was on the table. How many snaps he played this season would be entirely dictated by how well Thomas absorbed the playbook and applied it in practice. If he excels quickly enough, even a starting job isn’t out of the question.

“We had a long conversation, him just telling me what’s the expectations here and hopefully what my role will be,” Thomas said. “It’s all going to be dictated [by] me how I grasp the offense and stuff like that, so it’s all going to be up to me.”

Ben Johnson is showing again that nobody’s job is safe.

This is not a team that will hand out roster spots based on name recognition or experience. Johnson will play the guys who deserve to be out there. We saw that last season, with Colston Loveland and Luther Burden both getting into the mix much faster than lots of rookies usually do. That is because they were putting in the work in practice, reaching a point where Johnson couldn’t justify keeping them off the field. It worked out pretty well. Both proved essential to getting the Bears to the playoffs and beating the Packers in the wild card round.

There won’t be any change to the approach this season. Johnson won’t play anybody until you show him you’re willing to put in the work. Thomas seems to understand that. Talent has never been a problem with him. He’s super athletic and blazing fast. His deal will focus on developing his route-running skills and finding ways to contribute as a blocker. He’ll face some stiff competition for playing time with Kalif Raymond, Jahdae Walker, and Scotty Miller all in the mix. The Bears seem confident that he can handle it.

Thomas is finally in a position to thrive.

It is safe to say that was never really the case in college. Things never quite lined up for him at both Mississippi State and LSU. The head coach was fired midseason during his sophomore season with the former, prompting him to transfer to the latter. Then, after spending a year as a backup, he finally gets to start and watches his quarterback get hurt, shortly followed by his head coach getting fired midseason again. It seems rather ironic that Thomas would find stability at both in Chicago.

Ben Johnson is by far the best coach he’s had at any level. Caleb Williams is the type of gifted quarterback he’s never had the chance to play with. Thomas has already shown flashes of his ability in minicamps, proving there is far more to his game than just running really fast. Johnson seems to think he has a far higher ceiling than others do, and is prepared to put his money where his mouth is by leaving a starting spot wide open. All he has to do is reach out and grab it.

The Chicago Bears already know they have one of the toughest schedules (on paper) in the NFL this season. Nine of their games will be against opponents who made the playoffs last season, including both Super Bowl participants. If head coach Ben Johnson and quarterback Caleb Williams wanted to show everybody last year wasn’t a fluke, then the NFL is throwing them a pretty brutal test. Thankfully, not all of it is bad. The franchise just found out it would avoid a significant scheduling landmine this year.

For months, it was known that the league had a massive international schedule planned with games scattered across Europe, Central America, and South America. One of those games would be in Madrid, Spain. It is common knowledge that Chicago is one of the select few franchises with exclusive marketing rights in Spain. It wasn’t difficult to connect the dots. After the season the Bears just had, it was obvious the NFL would want to put them back on the international stage, right?

Nope. News broke that the Madrid game will instead feature the Cincinnati Bengals and Atlanta Falcons.

The Chicago Bears caught a big break on the travel front.

Distance traveled in a given season is a primary talking point for teams. Spending more time on the road can have a draining effect on players after a while. Less distance traveled means a better chance of guys being fresh in December when the game really starts to matter. A round-trip from Chicago to Madrid would’ve added 8,400 miles to the Bears’ travel schedule, especially given the massive time zone differences. If you don’t think something like this matters, just look at the teams with the shortest travel distances from last year. Of the top ten, six of them made the playoffs, including the Bears.

This is not to say long travel schedules automatically lead to bad seasons, but it certainly makes things a lot tougher. Every little thing can add up during such a grueling four-month march. The Bears at least dodged the international requirement for one more year.

The Bears can now focus on their crucial first matchup.

A full schedule announcement arrives on May 14th. Some games have already started trickling out via leaks. Curiously, none of them has mentioned the Chicago Bears. However, there is rampant speculation that they will be the team to open up the 2026 NFL season in September against the defending champion Seattle Seahawks. It makes sense. Chicago was a good team last year. They come from a major media market and have two rapidly growing personalities that national audiences recognize: Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams.

Watching that Bears offense go toe-to-toe with Seattle’s tough defense is an easy draw for fans. It will certainly be a gigantic opportunity for Chicago. Knocking off the champs in their own building is the ideal momentum-builder for a season. Better still, it would also get one of their longest road trips out of the way since Seattle is farther than any other city they visit this year. They’ll have ten days to rest before their next game. Not a bad way to start the year, especially if they win.

The Chicago Bears went 11-6 last season and won the division for the first time in seven years. They earned every bit of it, engineering seven 4th quarter comebacks and overcoming a mountain of injuries. However, many critics of the achievement insisted that much of it came courtesy of playing a softer schedule. This was thanks to them finishing last in the NFC North the year before. Facing a 4th-place schedule often results in facing some bad opponents, improving the chances of turning things around.

That won’t be the case in 2026. Since the Bears finished first in the division, they will be getting the first-place schedule. That, combined with projected tilts against some really good divisions elsewhere, has landed Chicago with the league’s toughest strength of schedule at .550, according to ESPN.

No matter what bravado fans may show over this announcement, the reality is this isn’t great news for the Bears. Since 2015, only three of the 11 teams with the highest strength of schedule entering a season have made the playoffs. It helps illustrate how difficult the task ahead is for this team.

The Chicago Bears face a steep uphill battle.

Among their list of opponents will be eight teams that made the playoffs last season. Among them are both Super Bowl participants, the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. You’ll also have the Buffalo Bills, Philadelphia Eagles, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carolina Panthers, and, of course, the two matchups with the Green Bay Packers. That doesn’t include two games against the Detroit Lions, who swept the Bears last season, or the Minnesota Vikings, who just landed Kyler Murray at quarterback.

The good news is the Bears weren’t handed a free ride last season. Six of their games were against teams that eventually made the playoffs. They went 3-3 in those contests. So think of it like this. They have nine games against playoff opponents from last season. If they go 5-4 against that slate, all they’d have to do is go 6-2 against the non-playoff teams to duplicate their record from last season. They could split the season series against the Lions and Vikings, and then hopefully take care of business against Atlanta, New Orleans, Miami and New York.

Truth be told, nobody knows what to expect.

Every season in the NFL is different because every roster is different. Nothing ever stays the same, especially in this era when free agency and trades are more prevalent than ever. That is why Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson said this team was starting from scratch. What happened last year means nothing. Everything resets. He is correct. That is why it might not be wise to just assume every team the Bears face this upcoming season will perform at the same level they did a year ago. Some good teams will regress, and some bad teams might take big steps forward.

There is no way to predict it. All the Bears can do is control what they can control. That means working hard, preparing well, and giving it everything they have on gameday. This team is talented enough to beat any opponent they line up against. We saw it last season. The issue has always been discipline and execution. Only the best teams do that consistently. If the Bears can cross that threshold, it won’t matter how tough their schedule is.

Dennis Allen knows a thing or two about the safety position. He played it in college at Texas A&M and briefly in the NFL. Then he coached it for years as a defensive backs coach at various stops before ascending to offensive coordinator. The array of names he’s worked with is beyond impressive: Tyrann Mathieu, Roman Harper, Darren Sharper, Malcolm Jenkins, Brian Dawkins, Vonn Bell, C.J. Gardner-Johnson, and Kevin Byard. So if anybody was qualified to assess whether Dillon Thieneman was worth taking 25th overall by the Chicago Bears last month, it was him.

This was a first for Allen. In his long coaching career, he has never been involved in taking a safety in the 1st round. That must mean he has a high opinion of Thieneman as a talent. This is true. Yes, the pure physical talent is impressive. Having a guy who is 6’0″, 200+ lbs, who can run 4.35 is rare. However, that isn’t what sets the rookie apart. In Allen’s mind, what makes Thieneman special is his mix of intelligence and instincts. That is what will separate him from everybody else.

“Obviously you can see his athleticism on the tape,” Allen said. “But the biggest thing was he found his way around the ball a lot. To be able to do that, there has to be some intelligence about him and there has to be some instincts about him.

“And I think when you’re looking at college safeties or safeties in general, it’s a production position. That production can come in a lot of different ways, whether it be tackles or interceptions or PBUs or any of those things. But safety is a position where you find your way around the ball. The best ones do. I thought that showed up with him.”

Dillon Thieneman can think the game.

That may sound like a small thing, but it is most definitely not. If you look back across the last few decades at the best safeties to play the game, they all share that one trait in common. Dawkins? Ed Reed? Troy Polamalu? Harrison Smith? All of them were savants between the ears. They constantly understood what offenses were trying to do and had the wherewithal to make adjustments on the fly. Thieneman exhibits many of those qualities. It isn’t often you see a safety be the one directing traffic on defense, but that is what he did at Oregon.

His coaches called him a version of Brian Urlacher, often operating in the middle of the field as their eyes and ears. When was the last time the Bears had a safety like that? One would probably have to go back to Mike Brown in the 2000s. Older fans will remember how excellent the former 2nd round pick was when healthy. The defense played at peak levels with him on the field. Even Urlacher admitted he was the true brains of the operation, which is why the injuries that shortened his career were so gutwrenching.

Thieneman landed in the perfect situation.

Not only will he be under the guidance of Allen, a former safety, but he’ll also have two excellent position coaches to further his education. Al Harris played cornerback in the NFL for several years, earning multiple Pro Bowl selections. Then you have safeties coach Matt Giordano, who played nine seasons in the league and won a Super Bowl with the Indianapolis Colts in 2006. If Dillon Thieneman can’t find success with this setup, then he was never meant to excel at the professional level.

Early signs are promising. Reports from rookie minicamps last week indicated the 1st round pick was already seizing control of defensive drills, directing teammates on where to line up. If he’s already doing that with minimal knowledge of the playbook, there is no telling how much better it will get as his experience keeps growing. Thieneman is only 21 years old. He’ll have an outstanding mentor in Coby Bryant to help guide his path. Allen is right. Great things are ahead for him.