Bears must count themselves lucky they aren't in their NFC North rival's position

The Bears and 30 other NFL franchises didn’t reach their ultimate goal of winning a Super Bowl last season.

But there was still major progress made in the 2025 NFL season. Ben Johnson’s team won 11 games, clinched the NFC North, and defeated the Green Bay Packers in an epic comeback victory at Soldier Field in the Wild Card round.

Arguably more important than all of the team’s achievements was that the organization knows it has a franchise quarterback in Caleb Williams. The Bears’ second-year quarterback finished the 2025 season with 3,942 passing yards, 27 touchdowns, seven interceptions, and was sacked just 24 times, after leading the league with 68 sacks in his rookie season. Williams also led seven fourth-quarter comebacks, earning himself the “Iceman” nickname.

Chicago is in a great situation entering the 2026 NFL season. The same can’t be said for the Minnesota Vikings. The organization fired general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.

Bears fans watch as Vikings' situation keeps getting worse

And according to The Athletic’s Dianna Russini, the Vikings have a “desire to bring in competition for young J.J. McCarthy,” and “one league source speculated that (Kirk) Cousins could be an option” for Minnesota.

For Vikings fans, that must be discouraging news.

McCarthy was the 10th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, yet he has played just 10 games. He tore his meniscus in 2024, forcing him to miss the entire season, and an ankle sprain and concussion forced him to miss games in Year 2.

Bringing in competition at the quarterback position is never a good sign. If the Vikings were to bring back Cousins and he wins the job, there is no long-term future there. Cousins is 37 and on the back end of his career. Another year of McCarthy missing games completely wastes the Vikings’ ability to take advantage of his rookie contract.

But McCarthy hasn’t instilled confidence in the organization, so the team might be forced to look elsewhere at the quarterback position.

The Vikings’ situation is the harsh reality of the NFL. When highly drafted young quarterbacks struggle, there’s not a lot of patience from organizations. Careers are short, and time must be maximized.

Chicago has gone through their fair share of first-round quarterback busts with Mitchell Trubisky and Justin Fields.

But that’s not the case with Williams. The Bears are finally in a position to continue building around their quarterback instead of searching for their next one.