Last season, the Chicago Bears took advantage of a last-place schedule to win the NFC North for the first time since 2018. They played just five games against eventual playoff teams, two of which were against the same team (the Green Bay Packers).
Add in quite a few narrow victories last season, along with what we know will be a tougher schedule, and it's easy for some people to predict regression for the Bears this year.
The question has been just how tough the 2026 schedule will be when the details are made official later this month. Sharp Football Analysis has provided an answer, giving the Bears the sixth-toughest schedule in the league according to its data.
Nine of the Bears' 2026 opponents, including the rest of the NFC North and both defending conference champions, either finished above .500 or made the playoffs last season. That puts 12 of their 17 games against quality-looking opponents, without accounting for how the slate stacks up.
Mike Florio makes obvious assertion about Bears' 2026 schedule
Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio appeared on 104.3 The Score's "Mully and Haugh" Tuesday. Regarding the 2026 schedule, coming off the season they had in 2025, he is rightly confident in the league's plans for the Bears.
"A big part of it is they love to engineer the prime time windows to have the best games, and when the Bears are now considered one of the best teams and they're a big draw", Florio said . "They had more than 30 million tune in for the Wild Card game on Prime Video on a Saturday night in January. The Bears are going to get jerked all over the place this year."
"They're going to be playing short weeks, they're going to be playing prime time. Now that they are a team with a great quarterback that people are going to want to see, with a coach that is a fascinating designer and executor of offense, get ready for Bears games to be all over the map this year."
ESPN's Michael Wilbon may have already revealed the Bears will play the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks in the Wednesday night season opener in September.
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Whether that's true about the season opener or not, Ben Johnson's squad is lined up to play plenty of prime-time/late Sunday afternoon games against quality opponents this season. So, an expected extra layer to being a popular team with a tough schedule is undoubtedly coming, with specifics coming soon.
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