Chicago Bears 2025 Season Preview

Chicago Bears 2025 Season Preview

As we stand at the starting blocks of the 2025 NFL season, the Chicago Bears look to race to the top of the NFL North standings. With new Head Coach Ben Johnson, fans are finally excited for the first time in many years. How excited should the fans be? We at Dutch Lion Sports think Bears fans should be VERY excited, at least for the future, if not right away. This team should show improvement in the win column already this year.

New regimes usually take time to improve, or at least take time to improve to a worthwhile level. Last year’s record ended at 5-12. Do we need to go over the miserable details? Nah, let’s not go there. Opening day is here! The Bears kick off their ’25 season tonight on Monday Night Football vs the division rival Minnesota Vikings.

We feel really good about tonight’s matchup. Despite the Vikings being favored by 1.5 points, the Bears have the edge because Minnesota is starting their new quarterback J.J. McCarthy for the first time in his professional career. He was technically a rookie last year, but he never played in the regular season after getting injured in the preseason. Thus, tonight is his first NFL start. And it’s at night, on MNF, on the road in Soldier Field. EDGE: Bears.

Not only are we previewing tonight’s opener, but we’re thinking about the entire 2025 season as a whole. How much improvement can the Bears make in one year? How many wins are we envisioning? From 5 wins to …?

What to Watch For:

• Will Bears QB Caleb Williams get sacked? – As you remember, Williams was sacked a franchise record and NFL leading 68 times last year. Did the OL get better at pass protection? Did Caleb get better at throwing the ball away?
• RB D’Andre Swift – Swift had a decent but underwhelming season in ’24. Will he improve, starting tonight? He doesn’t have much depth behind him b/c of injuries, so let’s pray he doesn’t get hurt.
• Who will be this year’s breakout player? – I think it will be WR #15 Rome Odunze. He seems to have great chemistry with Williams, while D.J. Moore seemed to pout last year every time Caleb’s throw was a little off, or every time Williams’ decision making was a little too non-D.J. Moore-ish. Diva alert! Whoop, whoop! It’s sad and strange, because before last season I always saw Moore as the anti-diva wide receiver, which can be rare. But now…. yeah, he’s turning into a typical “throw me the ball” player. I’m curious if he’ll revert to his pre-2024 form. Meanwhile, we think Odunze is bound to improve on his rookie numbers and become a big-time NFL wide receiver.
• Pass rush by Montez Sweat – How many sacks will Montez Sweat have in ’25? Last year he had only 5.5 sacks after leading both the Bears (6), and Washington (6.5), in sacks in ’24 with 12.5 total sacks. Will Sweat regain his pre-2024 form?
• Fast Starts, or Slow Starts? – The Bears averaged only 1.6 in the 1st quarter of games last year, last in the NFL. That is horrid. What does it say about the preparedness of the team? The coaching? The play-calling? Are these guys ready to play? I’m interested to see if Coach Johnson has this team scoring in the 1st quarter.

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Let’s go with our game-by-game predictions for this season:

Week 1 – vs Minnesota – Prediction: Chicago Bears 24, Minnesota Vikings 16

Week 2 – at Detroit (L)

Week 3 – vs Dallas

Week 4 – at Oakland

Week 5 – BYE

Week 6 – at Washington – This one sounds tough on paper, but it holds special significance as the one the Bears let get away last year. You remember, the Hail Mary in which Tyrique Stevenson was messing with the fans and got over late to cover his man, who caught the tipped pass for the game-winning TD. The Bears season blew up on them from that moment forward, ending up with the firing of OC Shane Waldron and eventually HC Matt Eberflus, which was somewhat surprising. So yeah, we think the Bears are more than motivated to win this one, and will be victorious.

Week 7 – vs New Orleans

Week 8 – at Baltimore (L)

Week 9 – at Cincinnati (L)

Week 10 – vs N.Y. Giants

Week 11 – at Minnesota (L)

Week 12 – vs Pittsburgh

Week 13 – at Philadelphia (L)

Week 14 – at Green Bay (L)

Week 15 – vs Cleveland

Week 16 – vs Green Bay

Week 17 – at San Francisco (L)

Week 18 – vs Detroit

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Add it all up and we predict the Bears will finish 10-7. This should be good enough to get in the NFC Playoff field. We’re conservatively predicting a 3-3 NFC North division record, with wins at home and losses on the road to Detroit, Green Bay, and Minnesota. Regarding the Bears cross-conference schedule, it’s against the AFC North this year. We’re picking 2-2 in those four matchups (wins over Pittsburgh and Cleveland, losses at Baltimore and at Cincinnati). As for the other seven games, we’re picking Chicago to go 5-2 in these, with wins over New Orleans, Dallas, Las Vegas, Washington, and the New York Giants, with losses at San Francisco and at Philadelphia.

To us, this all sounds reasonable, as long as the Bears make progress with their offense, defense, and self-discipline. Just having a competent head coach and coaching staff should make the difference in a couple games, as compared to last year. Remember the game at Detroit on Thanksgiving which ended with Eberflus not calling timeout, thus letting the clock burn out in a very winnable game? OMG, this preview is bringing up a lot of bad memories, no? We’ve already covered two miserable losses that COULD have been prevented by coaching. Right there, the 5-12 Bears should have been 7-10, just like that.

The sky is the limit with these guys. One of the biggest concerns for tonight is the long list of injuries already piling up. CB Jaylon Johnson, CB Kyler Gordon, and LB T.J. Edwards are all questionable and we haven’t even played a game yet. We’ll see if that’s all munk.

For now, let’s hope for the best. Chicago will win tonight 24-16 and go 10-7 for the 2025 season. Thank you and good luck!

Dutch Lion