Chicago Bears’ 2026 Schedule Could Bring Holiday Stress and Too Many Short Weeks

While it's great to see the Chicago Bears on the rise following what was a successful 2025 campaign, the team's success does come with consequences.

As Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio explained, the Bears are likely to have a much more all-over-the-place schedule in 2026 as the NFL looks to load them up with more primetime games amid their rise, and because of the must-see television that quarterback Caleb Williams and head coach Ben Johnson are.

"(The Bears are) going to be playing short weeks, they're going to be playing prime time," Florio said. "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."

That's a problem because the Bears' schedule now figures to have multiple short weeks.

In fact, if our schedule leaks tracker is accurate, the Bears are already slated to play four games on short rest in 2026.

That's a result of games on Thanksgiving, which is confirmed, and Christmas, which is rumored. That means extra stress for Bears fans on two of the biggest holidays of the year.

On Thanksgiving, the Bears are set to take on the Detroit Lions at Ford Field, and rumor has it Chicago will host the Green Bay Packers on Christmas, which falls on a Friday.

Two other rumored games on Chicago's 2026 slate are a Monday night contest against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 3, and a Thursday night showdown versus the New England Patriots in Week 7.

Bear in mind, the NFL flexes games, so the amount of primetime games the Bears start the season with could increase.

A tough road ahead

Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson speaks at the NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. — Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

While all of this certainly has its downsides, fans will gladly take the trade-off. There is nothing worse than being irrelevant because of a lack of success.

That said, the amount of primetime games and short rest slated to be on the schedule only makes the Bears' life tougher, as Chicago already has the sixth-toughest slate in the NFL, according to Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis.

The only positive about Chicago's schedule thus far is how few miles it will travel. Bill Speros of Bookies.com reports that the Bears will travel just 10,676 miles throughout the 2026 campaign, which amounts to the third-fewest in the league. To compare, the San Francisco 49ers are traveling the most with 38,105 miles.

Hey, it could be worse.

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