We have had a weekend to sit with the Chicago Bears’ 2026 schedule, and here are my initial thoughts on every game.

There’s been a lot of hand-wringing about the strength of schedule and how brutal this slate is going to be. I’m not buying it. The NFL is a year-to-year league — last year’s contender is this year’s question mark, and vice versa — and paper schedules have a way of looking very different by October. More importantly, I actually like the way this thing is structured.

The opener sets up well, there’s a reasonable runway before the first Packers matchup, and the bye week placement, combined with some built-in extra rest from primetime and standalone games, gives this team some nice cushion at key points in the season. We’ll get into all of it, week by week.

18 Thoughts on the Chicago Bears’ 2026 Schedule (via Patrick K. Flowers)

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