This stat doesn't bode well for Chicago Bears after bye week

The Chicago Bears will look to buck history when they return from their bye in Week 6.

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The Chicago Bears are resting up during their Week 5 bye, which will actually seem like a longer rest than usual since they don't re-take the field until Week 6's Monday night matchup against the Washington Commanders.

It's a long break for Ben Johnson, Caleb Williams, and the rest of the team, and they'll need it if they want to buck a recent trend that's haunted the Bears after their bye week.

Put simply, the Bears have been horrendous following bye weeks. It's a trend that dates back to Marc Trestman, John Fox, Matt Nagy, and was continued by Matt Eberflus.

Up next is Johnson, who will look to secure only the third Bears' post-bye victory in the last 12 years.

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"While the rest of the league used the week off to recharge and fine-tune their gameplans, Trestman, Nagy, Fox and Eberflus went 2-10 in the week following a bye," Chicago Sun-Times' Patrick Finley wrote. "That’s tied with the Jets for the worst record in the NFL. The Bears’ point differential of minus-96 is the second-worst in the league, too, behind the Jets."

As Finley noted, the Bears were 4-2 and riding three very good games by Caleb Williams entering their bye last season, only to return and post 10 straight losses, midseason coaching staff changes, and unnecessary questions about the quarterback situation throughout the offseason.

2025 offers an eerily similar situation to last year's post-bye return. The Bears returned last season to face the Commanders after their week off, and lost what is now infamously remembered as the Fail Mary.

This year, Williams and the Bears will have a primetime opportunity to exorcise those demons, and the post-bye demons that have haunted Chicago for more than a decade.

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