There is an obvious target on the Chicago Bears' backs in 2026 after their terrific 2025 season.
After going 11-6 last year, this offseason gave all the attention to Bears quarterback Caleb Williams and head coach Ben Johnson as the future of the NFL. Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen didn't take too kindly to all the attention on the Bears and none on his team, name-dropping that he saw "40 pictures" of Williams and none of them about his team.
Johnson was asked about this during his press conference on Day 3 of training camp. The Bears coach got honest about what Coen had to say.
“Well, we’re the No. 1 regression candidate, so I think we’ve got plenty of motivation ourselves. We’ve talked about Caleb in the past. He’s used to handling a lot of attention, so I’m not worried about that.”
Bears have a mixed bag of believers and non-believers in 2026
Everyone has been predicting the Bears will be a much worse team in 2026 than last year. A big reason is that they have the toughest schedule in the NFL, while their division rivals, the Detroit Lions, have the easiest.
There has been a lot of talk about the Bears' defense as well, getting some unneeded attention. Many experts believe that side of the ball did not improve from the unit that was in the bottom 10 in total defense.
While everyone has bought into the Bears being a good team for a long time, it sometimes feels like there is a level of uneasiness with experts fully all-in on them. It almost feels like they are being cautiously optimistic about the Bears.
Williams is the biggest reason experts believe that the Bears are going to be great. He broke franchise records and NFL records, so it's easy to understand that.
The attention hasn't seemed to put the Bears in a place where they have egos, though. Johnson is making sure of that through his tough coaching, but he already created a culture in Chicago where egos get checked at the door anyway, so there shouldn't be any worries about that.
Read more: Bears' offense came back down to Earth at training camp with one headache to fix
Coen and the rest of the NFL can say whatever they want about the Bears, but they are focused on themselves and getting better on the field. This is a team poised to do great things in 2026, even if they face some regression.
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