Chicago Bears 2026 Season Preview

Johnson's Second Act

Ben Johnson won the NFC North and beat the Packers in the Wild Card round in his first year, then lost to the Rams a round later. That's a strong debut by any plain reading. But the 2-4 division mark inside that 11-6 finish is the wrinkle worth sitting with, since division play is exactly where a roster gets tested against the teams it sees twice. The turnover margin and the one-score record both broke his way in 2025, the kind of thing that rarely repeats at the same rate. None of that erases a good first season. It just means year two asks Johnson to win those division games outright, not lean on the bounces that covered for them.

Ground Game, Aerial Gap

Chicago's offense is a study in contrast: third in rushing yards per game at 144, tenth in passing at 225. Caleb Williams is projected to start again after throwing 27 touchdowns against just 7 interceptions in 2025, a clean ratio for a passing attack that still ranked only 9th in yards per play. The offense finished drives efficiently, needing fewer yards per point than the league median, which historically is the hardest thing to repeat. Ben Johnson's second year should mean fewer moments where the run game has to bail out a stalling pass attack. The bigger question sits on defense, which allowed 6.00 yards per play, 29th in the league, a gap the offense cannot keep papering over.

Caleb Williams threw for 3,942 yards and 27 touchdowns in Ben Johnson's first year running this offense, and the leap from year one to year two of that pairing is the real story here. The Bears ranked just 9th in points per game and 10th in passing yards per game despite Williams' production, which points to a quarterback still growing into a scheme built for him rather than a talent problem. Tyson Bagent, Case Keenum and Miller Moss round out the room as depth, with no competition to speak of. This is Williams' offense now. If Johnson's system clicks the way it's designed to, the passing numbers should climb without Williams needing to do anything different.

D'Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai formed one of the league's more productive backfields in 2025, combining for the bulk of a ground game that ranked 3rd in rushing yards per game. Swift's 1,087 yards and Monangai's 783 give Ben Johnson a proven two-back rotation to build around, not a puzzle to solve. Travis Homer's exit barely registers given he managed -2 yards last season, and Salvon Ahmed arrives from the Colts to add depth without threatening either lead role. Brittain Brown and Roschon Johnson remain as change-of-pace pieces who saw limited work. The bigger question is efficiency, not carries, since a 9th-ranked scoring offense with this much rushing volume should be doing more with each snap.

DJ Moore's exit leaves Rome Odunze as the clear top target, and his 44 catches for 661 yards last year came in just 12 games. Luther Burden III is the other constant, having caught 47 balls for 652 yards across 15 appearances, giving Ben Johnson a genuine one-two punch to build around. Kalif Raymond arrives from the Lions after catching 24 passes for 289 yards in 2025, adding a proven slot option rather than a projection. Zavion Thomas, the round 3 pick out of LSU, joins with no professional numbers yet, but he gives the room a developmental piece behind the veterans. Chicago finished 9th in points per game a year ago; replacing Moore's production without a true outside complement to Odunze is the real question, not whether the receivers are talented enough.

Colston Loveland's 58 catches and 713 yards mark him as Ben Johnson's real weapon at tight end, a matchup piece the offense should lean on even harder in year two of this scheme. Cole Kmet's 30 catches and $10M price tag say the Bears still value him as a complement, not a co-lead. Durham Smythe's departure barely dents the room since he caught just 4 passes last year. The bigger addition is Sam Roush, taken in the third round out of Stanford, giving Johnson a rookie to develop as a blocking and receiving option behind the top two. Nikola Kalinic and the rest of the depth chart are camp bodies, not factors in what should again be a top-ten scoring offense.

Darnell Wright anchors a line that allowed just 24 sacks and helped push a 144-yard rushing attack, third-best in the league, and most of that group is actually back. Braxton Jones, Jonah Jackson, Joe Thuney and Kiran Amegadjie all return alongside Wright, even as Drew Dalman, Ricky Stromberg and three others move on. The center spot gets reshaped regardless, with Garrett Bradbury arriving from the Patriots and Logan Jones drafted out of Iowa in round two to eventually take over. Wesley French adds more competition up front. Ben Johnson inherits a line that protected well and ran the ball effectively, not a room he has to rebuild from nothing.

Montez Sweat still anchors the edge coming off a 10-sack season, but the interior around him got a full overhaul. Andrew Billings, Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, Dominique Robinson and Chris Williams are all gone, and that group's departure matters because last year's line allowed 135 rushing yards per game, 27th in the league, and 6.00 yards per play, 29th. Neville Gallimore arrives from the Colts after posting 38 tackles and 3.5 sacks in 15 games, and he projects as the interior fix Chicago needs next to Gervon Dexter Sr. James Lynch and Kentavius Street add rotational bodies, while Grady Jarrett and Austin Booker return to give Ben Johnson's front some familiarity up front. The bigger question is whether Gallimore and Dexter can actually move the pocket, because 35 team sacks a year ago, 22nd in the league, will not cut it if the run defense does not improve first.

Tremaine Edmunds is gone, and Devin Bush arrives from the Browns to replace him after piling up 123 tackles and 3 INTs there in 2025. That is a real talent bet at $13M, the top salary in this room, on a player who spent last year elsewhere. T.J. Edwards anchors the middle after 67 tackles in just 10 games, with Noah Sewell opening the year unavailable. The run defense was the problem in 2025, allowing 135 yards per game on the ground, 27th in the league, and that number has to move for this unit to matter. Jack Sanborn adds depth after time with the Cowboys, but Bush is the name that determines whether Chicago's front seven stops bleeding yards on the ground in 2026.

Jaylon Johnson and Tyrique Stevenson still anchor the outside, but almost everything behind them has turned over. Sixteen defensive backs left the building, including the entire back end of Jaquan Brisker, Kevin Byard and Nahshon Wright, and Ben Johnson responded by remaking the safety spot from scratch. Coby Bryant arrives from Seattle off 4 interceptions but opens the year unavailable, Xavier Woods adds 2 more from Tennessee, and first-round pick Dillon Thieneman steps into the room as a rookie safety with real draft capital behind him. Kyler Gordon only played 3 games in 2025, so his health matters more than any name on this list. Chicago finished 22nd in passing yards allowed last year; the fix wasn't continuity, it was subtraction and replacement at volume.

Cairo Santos made 25 of 30 field goals across 15 games, exactly the steady leg Ben Johnson wants when a possession-heavy offense needs points instead of touchdowns. Tory Taylor backed him up with a 40.4 net average on 60 punts, giving Chicago a real weapon at flipping field position. The only change comes at long snapper, where Luke Elkin arrives from the Raiders to replace departed Scott Daly, with Beau Gardner still holding down the other snapping duties. That is a low-risk swap on the least visible job in football. With the kicker and punter both intact, this unit's floor is set. Chicago's special teams should again be a stabilizer, not a variable, for a team that already showed it can win in January.

A Secondary Overhaul

The name that jumps off this churn list is DJ Moore, gone after catching 50 balls for 682 yards, and Chicago answered not with a receiver but with numbers in the back seven. Coby Bryant arrives from Seattle with 4 interceptions, and Devin Bush brings 123 tackles and 3 picks from Cleveland, replacing departed pieces in Jaquan Brisker, Kevin Byard, Nahshon Wright and C.J. Gardner-Johnson all at once. That is four defensive backs out for essentially a defense-heavy free agency class in, plus rookie safety Dillon Thieneman added in the draft. Caleb Williams still runs the offense after throwing for 3,942 yards and 27 touchdowns, so the passing game does not need to be rebuilt, just fed a new receiver room. This is a defense retooling on the fly while the offense stays put.

Loveland Must Replace Moore

Colston Loveland is the swing piece for this offense now that DJ Moore's 682 yards are gone. Loveland caught 58 passes for 713 yards and 6 touchdowns in 16 games last season, already outproducing the receiver he must help replace. Caleb Williams threw for 3,942 yards with a 27-to-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio, and his best target now runs through the tight end rather than a wideout. If Loveland takes on a bigger share of the passing game, Chicago's offense keeps its teeth. If he does not, Williams loses his most trusted outlet with no proven replacement at receiver.

Home Cover, Road Fade

The split that matters for bettors is not the record, it is the venue. At home, Chicago has covered 58% of the time and gone 19-16-3 as a favorite, backing up Ben Johnson's first year with real value in that building. On the road it flips hard, a 41% cover rate that includes a 39% mark as an underdog, a number that should make anyone chasing this team on the highway think twice. Division games have been almost a coin flip against the number, 27-31-3, which tracks with a team that won the NFC North outright but still went 2-4 within it. None of that erases the bigger picture that this club overachieved its underlying numbers in 2025, but the home-road gap is the sharper, more actionable line for 2026.