LAKE FOREST, Ill. (104.3 The Score) — Bears head coach Ben Johnson put the past away months ago, turning the page from his team's breakthrough 2025 season. He also isn’t getting ahead of himself as Chicago's new campaign kicks off Sunday in Charlotte.
"We want to do big things this year, but really what's most important to us is that we're laying the foundation the right way,” Johnson said early Tuesday afternoon.
“It's a long race here. We just need to bring consistent energy, attitude, effort throughout this thing and we'll be in great shape."
The Bears open this season as the reigning NFC North champions. They carry heightened expectations, though some outsiders expect regression. Johnson’s task is to prevent that from happening.
Here are three storylines to follow heading into the 2026 season.
Johnson, Bears work to avoid regression
Moments after the Bears' overtime loss to the Rams in the divisional round last January, Johnson reminded his players that nothing they had accomplished in the 2025 season meant anything for 2026.
That refrain certainly resonated at Halas Hall in the offseason. Johnson carried that message forward in meetings and has kept his focus on the present. The Bears have responded well by embracing the challenge to press forward.
"We’ve got some guys that want to get after it,” Johnson said. “They want to work hard, they want to eventually get the results. We got to earn those results. But the process in terms of how we’re going about our business, like, they are completely devoted to. And I think the coaching staff has held a high standard, and I think those guys have answered the call every step of the way.
“I don’t know that we’ve had really a practice or a blip through training camp where you’re really, ‘Man, I'm really disappointed, I don’t think we got better today.’ Yeah, we’ve had some tough ones, the pre-snap penalties, this or that, that you don’t like. But at the same time, the whole group has brought an intent to get better. I think that goes a long way. It’s the maturity of the group."
Back in 2019, the Bears went 8-8 after a breakout 12-4 campaign in 2018 led by then-coach Matt Nagy. The Bears regressed under Nagy’s watch, and he was fired after four years on the job.
The difference between Nagy and Johnson is stark. While Nagy was stubborn with his processes and philosophies, Johnson is evolving his with the hope to stay ahead. He devoted a great deal of time this offseason to adjusting his offensive scheme so that opposing defensive coordinators can't catch on to tendencies from 2025.
Nagy never recovered from the Bears' infamous “double doink” loss to the Eagles in the wild-card round in January 2019. Meanwhile, Johnson has only looked forward after leading the Bears to their first playoff victory in 15 years.
Trapilo looms in left tackle mix
The Bears named Braxton Jones as their starter at left tackle to open the season, but it was hardly a grand declaration of a successful victory in this team’s latest competition at the position.
“He’s got to earn that, Braxton does, as do all the players that are going to be active on game day,” Johnson said. “They got to earn it. They got to show us that they deserve to be out there. That’s how we go about it in this building, and I think they understand that.”
Johnson isn’t one to throw a parade in naming a player the starter at a position. With that as context, his tone regarding the left tackle position has been deliberate.
Second-year offensive tackle Ozzy Trapilo is still working back from a serious knee injury, and the Bears could plug him back into the starting spot at any point once they're fully confident in his health. Trapilo simply hasn’t had the proper ramp-up period to step back in as a starter, but left tackle will eventually be his job again.
Jones has asserted himself well as a starting left tackle for the Bears over four seasons with the organization. By re-signing with Chicago on a one-year deal this past offseason, Jones has the opportunity to prove himself again at full health, which he wasn't at last season.
Of course, the Bears selected Trapilo believing he would be their long-term answer at left tackle. He played well enough to earn that over six starts in 2025. In his seventh game – the Bears’ win over the Packers in the wild-card round – Trapilo limped off with the torn patellar tendon. The initial belief was that he could miss the entire 2026 season.
Trapilo returned in just seven months, a stunning development for the Bears. Now, he’s pushing to regain his starting spot.
This rookie is for real
If there was a redraft of the 2026 NFL Draft, Bears rookie defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg wouldn't be a sixth-round pick. He almost certainly would be selected by the end of the third round – and perhaps as high as the second round.
That’s what van den Berg proved throughout the course of training camp and the preseason. Before ever playing in a regular-season game, van den Berg has the Bears – and those who have followed his emergence – plenty confident that he’s going to be a standout player in the NFL.
The 213th overall selection, van den Berg plays with a relentless motor. He has stepped in for starting reps with the Bears’ defensive line. That’s a trend that should continue throughout the season.
Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen sees van den Berg still fine-tuning his skill set to become a more consistent player.
“A lot of times with defensive linemen, you can have a lot of hidden production where you’re just so disruptive that you create opportunities for other players,” Allen said. “And that’s probably where he’s at right now, and hopefully we can continue to work with him and develop some of those finishing moves where not only does he have disruption but he has production.”
Chris Emma covers the Bears and the Chicago sports scene for 104.3 The Score.
