Bears' Success Means Chaotic Schedule That Makes Already Tough Slate More Difficult

NFL teams prefer to have a consistent schedule over the course of the regular season, but the Chicago Bears might not have that luxury in 2026.

With success and excitement like the Bears enjoyed in 2025, the NFL tends to put teams in that boat in more primetime games rather than always having them play your customary Sunday afternoon contests, which means more short weeks.

And that's what we should expect to be the case for Chicago this coming season, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk says.

It wasn't just the Bears' overall success last season that will lead to that, though. Florio says having an elite play-caller like head coach Ben Johnson and an exciting up-and-coming quarterback like Caleb Williams are also contributing factors.

"A big part of it is (the league loves) to engineer the primetime windows to have the best games, and when the Bears are now considered one of the best teams and they're a big draw — 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," Florio said on 104.3 The Score.

"They're going to be playing short weeks, they're going to be playing prime time," Florio added. "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."

The Bears had a fairly hectic schedule last season, so this won't exactly be anything new. Chicago had four primetime contests in 2025, including two on Monday night and one on a Saturday night. There was also the Black Friday contest against the Philadelphia Eagles that had a 2 p.m. ET kickoff.

Theoretically, this is a good problem to have, as it means the Bears are a good team. But this could make Chicago's already tough road even tougher.

Stacking the deck even more

Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson looks on during warmups before an NFC Divisional Round game. — Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson. | David Banks-Imagn Images

We'll know for sure just what the Bears' schedule looks like when every NFL team's slate is released later this month.

If the Bears' schedule is going to be even more chaotic, it will only make things more difficult for Chicago because the team already has a tough schedule.

According to Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis, the Bears have the sixth-toughest schedule in the NFL based on win totals from Vegas oddsmakers.

No surprise there, as the Bears are playing a first-place schedule that includes seven 2025 playoff teams, all of whom should be at least vying for a playoff spot again in 2026.

Then there's also teams like the Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints who have a chance to be better. The Lions, Vikings, Bucs and Falcons were on the fringe of the posteason in 2025.

If the Bears do end up breaking their drought of consecutive years with a trip to the playoffs, they will no doubt have earned it.

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