The Chicago Bears knew they needed help along the defensive line at the beginning of last offseason. Montez Sweat couldn’t do it alone. Their biggest addition was defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo. His massive size, power, and versatility could make for a valuable weapon up front. Unfortunately, plans for him were thrown into disarray when Austin Booker injured his knee in the preseason. That forced Dennis Allen to play Odeyingbo mostly outside, which was fine against the run, but not so much on passing downs.

It got even worse when he tore his Achilles midway through the season. Just like that, it was over. He was done for the year, having managed just 1.5 sacks. Most weren’t optimistic he could rebound in 2026. Not coming off an injury of that severity. So imagine the shock of watching Odeyingbo collect 3 sacks in his first 4 games. He’s been the biggest surprise of the season by miles. However, he hasn’t been the only one. Recent data reveals that not enough people have been noticing how effective Grady Jarrett has been as well.

Jarrett has quietly worn more hats than Dayo Odeyingbo.

While the defensive end has achieved his rebound through effective pass rush, the old defensive tackle is doing a little of everything. Not only does he have 8 interior pressures, but he also has 3 run stops for no gain or loss. Every time the Bears have needed somebody to make adjustments and stop the bleeding, Jarrett has been the one to do it. Perhaps what stands out even more than his effective individual plays is how he directs traffic. You constantly see him communicating with teammates, getting them lined up in the right spots, and telling them what’s coming.

Dayo Odeyingbo has had the greatest impact, which is why he’s getting most of the attention. Still, that should not subtract from the job Jarrett is doing. Remember, the man is 33 years old. It felt like he’d run out of gas last season, failing to influence games at a high level anymore. His leadership was never questioned, but that isn’t what the Bears paid for. They were hoping for one more year of the player he was in Atlanta. While he still isn’t that guy this season, he has been far more noticeable.

It feels like the Bears are managing his snaps carefully.

Each week, they’ve alternated between heavy and lighter workloads. In the opener against Carolina, he logged 29 snaps. The following week, it dropped to 18. Against Philadelphia, it went back up to 28. Then last week he had 13 against the Jets. Allen and the coaches might be trying to give Jarrett’s body as much help as possible. They recognize he can’t go full throttle every week like he used to. So one week he goes all out, and the next week he gets extra snaps off to refill the gas tank.

It seems to have worked. All 8 of Jarrett’s pressures have come in games where he played the full slate of snaps. Each one came after extensive rest periods. The Bears may have found a solution that works. Improving their defensive tackle depth has certainly helped, with Odeyingbo able to move inside and the arrival of Neville Gallimore, Kentavius Street, and others.

The Chicago Bears haven’t been bitten too badly by the injury bug on offense so far this season, outside of Braxton Jones’ knee issue. Unfortunately, in the NFL, that doesn’t last forever. News broke this week that Kyle Monangai, their promising young running back, is dealing with turf toe. His status was up in the air as a result. On Friday, it was made official. Monangai would not play against the Green Bay Packers, being called “week-to-week” by head coach Ben Johnson. The timing of this is tough with such an important game on Sunday.

Monangai just had 146 yards and 2 touchdowns last week against the New York Jets. He’s played so well to start the season. It was hoped he’d continue that streak against Green Bay. Now people are nervous about what to expect. They shouldn’t be.

D’Andre Swift is still in the lineup. Fumble issues aside, he’s also played very well to start this season. Even better? He seems to play some of his best football against the Packers. In 5 games against them, he’s averaged 4.26 yards per carry with 3 touchdowns.

No Kyle Monangai at least simplifies things.

Unless head coach Ben Johnson is prepared to give Roschon Johnson 10-12 carries in this next game, it feels like the obvious decision is to lean heavily on Swift. Typically, the Bears prefer to split their carries to keep both backs fresh. However, there have been instances in which he has received a legitimate bellcow workload. He’s had 20 or more carries in a game four times as a member of the Bears since joining them in 2024 and seven times in his career. He averaged better than 4.0 yards per carry in four of those games.

It’s not like Swift is incapable of logging heavy snaps. Despite his 5’8″ frame, he’s tougher than he looks. The key for the Bears is ensuring he isn’t taking a constant beating at the line of scrimmage. That means good, consistent blocking up front. You can also help out by using Johnson in short-yardage situations. He does well there thanks to his strength and size, and would ease the amount of hits Swift takes. Sort of a slightly reduced role that Kyle Monangai played last season.

One must trust Johnson in this situation.

The Bears’ head coach has already proven that he can handle losing key personnel on offense. That includes the starting quarterback. He isn’t afraid to lean more heavily on somebody else in the lineup, but also isn’t afraid to give no-name guys an opportunity. Swift went down with an injury in 2022 that cost him three games. While he was out, Jamaal Williams got the bulk of the carries, but Johnson also sprinkled in 20 carries from backups Craig Reynolds and Justin Jackson.

He won’t be afraid to give Roschon opportunities, and also whoever the Bears decide to elevate from the practice squad for Sunday. Monangai will be missed. He’s a good player and a key part of this offense. Smart money says he won’t be out long. That said, the Bears must adjust. If their solution is to give the rock to Swift and ride him? It isn’t a terrible strategy given his history with the Packers.

The Chicago Bears are the #1 offense in the NFL, at least in terms of total yards. The Buffalo Bills are the highest-scoring. Does that make them the most feared, though? That depends on who you ask. Buffalo does have Josh Allen, who is currently the league’s best quarterback. However, it seems more people are talking about the Bears lately. Why is that? It might be because it remains almost impossible to stop despite losing their budding star quarterback, Caleb Williams, to a hamstring injury two weeks ago.

It hasn’t come into focus for some why the Bears are that offense nobody wants to play. Sure, the massive amounts of yards are part of it. They’re still top 10 in points scored as well. However, it wasn’t until analytics laid out in stark detail what it means to play them that it sank in.

It’s not just that the Bears can move the ball on you. It is that they move the ball at an agonizingly slow pace, then consistently score at the end. No team is better at holding the ball for a long time and putting up points at the end.

The Chicago Bears embody the identity Ben Johnson set for them.

Multiple players have said it for some time now. The head coach doesn’t just want to score points on the opposition. He wants to squeeze the life out of them. He wants to make them quit. There is no more proven way to do that than by possessing the ball for 10/11/12 players per drive, eating up half of a quarter, and putting a touchdown on the board at the end. It is so demoralizing when that happens. Many times over the years, you’ve seen teams get their spirit broken from moments like that.

There are reasons to believe in this style of offense. It tends to create success for the entire team. Since 2000, there have been 14 instances in which an NFL team ranked #1 in time of possession and in the top 10 in scoring. Thirteen made the playoffs. Five reached at least the conference championship game, and two reached the Super Bowl, with the 2017 Eagles claiming a Lombardi trophy.

The Bears have a winning formula.

Nobody disputes that NFL players are tough. However, like anybody else, they can be mentally broken. All it takes is wearing them down to a state of physical exhaustion, then hitting them with a gut punch at the end. That is what those long drives. It’s the Muhammad Ali strategy. Dance around the opponent, grab and clinch them to eat away at their stamina, and when they’re dead on their feet, throw that right hook. If it worked for the champ, there is no reason the same mentality can’t work on the football field.

This is why Johnson went against the grain when building his offensive philosophy. Most offensive coaches these days are all about the quarterbacks. Build everything around them. The Chicago Bears head coach felt that wasn’t the way to go. Unless you had Tom Brady or Drew Brees, it is impossible to conduct a death-by-a-thousand-cuts offense. For that, you must run the ball. No team in the NFL is better at it than the Bears, and it’s creating an aura of fear for their opponents.

The Chicago Bears’ defense has been far better than anybody expected. After a rough first game against the Carolina Panthers, they have allowed just 28 points total in the past 3 against the Vikings, Eagles, and Jets. One would think that this turnaround is largely thanks to the presence of cornerback Jaylon Johnson. The two-time Pro Bowler came into the season finally healthy after an injury-marred 2025. Most, including himself, expected a big rebound season. After all, Johnson has a new contract extension to chase. In reality? The Bears haven’t won because of him.

They’ve won in spite of him.

That feels incredible to say, given how good the cornerback has been in the past. However, new data continues to show that Johnson has been a liability through the first month of the season. Opponents have targeted him 19 times, completing 15 passes for 248 yards. In his career, the most he has ever allowed in a season was 588 during his rookie year in 2020. At his current pace, Johnson will allow 1,054 yards. It would mark the first time a cornerback has cracked 1,000 since 2023, when Cameron Sutton did it in Detroit.

Jaylon Johnson has looked sluggish.

That is the most alarming part. In this age of wide receivers, the worst thing you can be as a cornerback is slow. Johnson has always demonstrated great speed and quickness for his size, which is why he was such a headache to go against. This year, he seems far more vulnerable to speed, while quicker wide receivers seem to create separation against him consistently. Johnson has yet even to get his hands on the football once. No interceptions and no passes defended in four games and counting.

It isn’t because teams aren’t throwing at him. Jaylon Johnson has been targeted more than any player on the team. Quarterbacks clearly aren’t afraid to go at him, and apparently for good reason. His 118.8 passer rating allowed is 57th out of 70 qualifying cornerbacks. It feels like this should be a bigger story. Lucky for him, two factors have masked it. One is, of course, the quality play of the overall defense, ranking top 10 in total yards and points allowed. The other is the unexpected ascent of rookie corner Malik Muhammad.

Johnson isn’t fighting for a new contract anymore.

He might be fighting for his job period. One thing we’ve learned about this coaching staff is that it doesn’t suffer sub-standard play for long. If they sense a player can’t play at a high level, they will move on. Don’t forget that Dennis Allen inherited Johnson. There is no personal loyalty since the coach had no say in drafting him. That always plays a factor in any roster decision. Johnson has one year left on his contract after this season, and the dead money won’t be a deterrent next offseason. Cutting him would net the Bears $16 million in space.

This is the same team that let Kevin Byard walk this past spring despite 7 interceptions. Why? Mostly because he was too slow. Speed is a major must for this staff. Johnson was already on the slower side coming out of college, running a 4.50 in the 40-yard dash. If he has lost even a half step, that is a massive concern. He has 13 games left to get it figured out.

The Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers have played some classic games in the past couple of years. It seems like each one carries higher stakes each time. While this one might not be quite at that level, it does hold considerable importance for the men involved. The Bears want to continue their chase for 1st place in the NFC North. The Packers want to avoid going 0-2 in the division and falling even further behind. People might try to downplay the importance so early in the season. They would be mistaken. It matters. The intensity on the field this Sunday will prove it.

Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers backstory

These two teams have always been adversaries, but hate hasn’t been infused in it for a long time. That has changed drastically. Head coach Ben Johnson made sure of that when he began taunting Matt LaFleur from the moment he took over. Now the two teams are taking snipes at each other all the time. There is genuine bad blood on both sides, made only worse by the massive consequences of last January’s playoff game. Green Bay is desperate for revenge. Chicago wants to bury them.

Injuries

LB Edgerrin Cooper (Achilles)

With Micah Parsons still out of the picture, the Packers’ defense has needed somebody else to step up. That had been Cooper, who’d been a major factor in each of their victories this season. His ability to defend the run and pass made him such a pain to deal with. Having him out of the lineup is a devastating blow for Green Bay. Their run defense is already among the league’s worst. Removing him from the equation threatens to see the bottom fall out. To say nothing of how his absence could expose their coverage over the middle.

RB Kyle Monangai (turf toe)

The former 7th round pick has become one of the Bears’ best offensive weapons. His 146 yards and 2 touchdowns last week against the New York Jets were further proof of this. He’s also played well against the Packers, posting 93 total yards in the last regular season meeting. If he can’t go because of this toe injury, it puts a lot of pressure on D’Andre Swift to carry the load, with the one-dimensional Roschon Johnson as the primary backup. It could change how the Bears deploy the run game.

Key matchups

TE Tucker Kraft vs. LB Devin Bush

Kraft has been Green Bay’s primary weapon in the middle of the field, taking advantage of their speed at wide receiver. Getting him going usually yields positive results in the win-loss column for them. This is partly why the Chicago Bears have invested in linebackers with speed who can play coverage. Bush is their most recent addition. He’s been a constant presence, able to plug passing lanes with his range and instincts. He must do everything possible to limit Kraft’s opportunities.

WR Rome Odunze vs. CB Brandon Cisse

Odunze had somewhat of a breakout game last week with 96 yards against the Jets. He no doubt hopes to build that momentum up in Green Bay. If the Bears are hunting for a matchup, then Cisse is the guy they want. The Packers’ cornerback has struggled against larger wide receivers this season. You saw it against Justin Jefferson on opening day and again with Drake London against the Falcons. Odunze fits that same mold of size mixed with good route-running. Cisse is a rookie. This should be a matchup advantage.

X-factors

WR Christian Watson

Of all the players on Green Bay’s roster, few have given the Chicago Bears more headaches than Watson. His mix of 6’4″ size and blazing speed has made it a nightmare for their cornerbacks to cover him. He had 150 yards against them in the 2024 November meeting and 89 yards with 2 TDs at Lambeau Field last year. You can bet LaFleur will be hunting for matchups on slower defensive backs like Tyrique Stevenson all night.

EDGE Montez Sweat

The Packers have scrambled to fix their offensive line problems by signing multiple veteran guards like Kevin Zeitler and Laken Tomlinson. All the while, their weakest link remains left tackle Jordan Morgan, who’s given up 14 pressures so far this season. Sweat will be the primary guy going against him in this game, and the Bears’ top pass rusher has two sacks in the past three games. He can and should be a big factor.

Prediction: Bears win 28-23

On paper, Chicago seems to have the advantage. Their running game is a big matchup problem for Green Bay, and the Bears’ defense has played considerably better to start the season. The problem is that this is a rivalry game. Rivalry games are always weird. Dismissing the possibility of the Packers winning would be foolish. That said, the Bears in no way will treat this showdown lightly. They ride a strong offensive performance to victory.