The Chicago Bears enter the 2026 season with vastly different expectations than they faced a year ago. After winning the NFC North, ending a lengthy postseason drought and watching Caleb Williams take a major step forward, Chicago is no longer a team that can surprise anybody.
One NFL executive, however, believes the Bears can do more than simply defend their division crown.
In Mike Sando’s latest NFC rankings for The Athletic, six anonymous NFL executives ranked all 16 teams in the conference. The Bears finished fifth in the consensus order, behind the Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks, Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys.
But one executive placed Chicago at No. 1.
That is a major vote of confidence for a Bears team whose 2025 breakthrough came with some understandable skepticism. Chicago went 11-6, won the NFC North and earned its first playoff victory in 15 years, but the team also won seven games after trailing in the final two minutes.
Regression is the natural expectation when a team survives that many close games. The executive who ranked the Bears first acknowledged that concern but saw enough evidence that Chicago can withstand it.
“The coach is really good, they have a really good ascending quarterback, the roster is super talented,” the executive told The Athletic.
Those are the three biggest reasons optimism around the Bears has reached a new level. Ben Johnson immediately altered the direction of the franchise in his first season as head coach. His offense helped Williams cut his sack total from an NFL-high 68 as a rookie to 24 in 2025, while Chicago finished sixth in total offense and ninth in scoring.
Williams is now the central reason expectations are soaring. The 2024 No. 1 overall pick is entering his third NFL season with an excellent group of weapons around him, including Rome Odunze, Luther Burden III, Colston Loveland, Cole Kmet, D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai. Multiple of those weapons were trending sharply upward late in the 2025 campaign.
The quarterback also drew widespread praise in Sando’s annual quarterback tiers, where he landed in Tier 2 and tied for 11th overall after making one of the largest year-over-year jumps in the survey.
The unnamed executive who ranked Chicago first also believed the Bears handled their offseason correctly, saying the franchise made the needed moves to counter potential regression.
Still, this was not a unanimous belief that the Bears are ready to take over the NFC.
Only two of the six executives labeled Chicago a Super Bowl contender. The other four viewed the Bears as division contenders, and Chicago received votes ranging from first to seventh. Their average ranking was fifth, with a median placement of 5.5.
There are valid concerns. Chicago is still sorting through its left tackle situation, with Braxton Jones appearing to be the Week 1 favorite but no formal starter announced. Rookie safety Dillon Thieneman will be asked to handle a major role after Coby Bryant’s knee injury, while nickel cornerback Kyler Gordon will miss at least the first four games on the physically unable to perform list. The entire defense presents significant questions.
One executive also questioned whether Chicago can make the kind of playoff leap required to become a genuine Super Bowl threat, asking, “Can they win a playoff game again?”
That is the hurdle in front of Johnson, Williams and the Bears. They are no longer being treated as an upstart with nothing to lose. Rival executives see a talented roster, a rising quarterback and a coach capable of sustaining last season’s breakthrough.
For one NFL decision-maker, that combination is enough to place the Bears above every other NFC team–even the Rams and Seahawks.
That prediction will look bold until Chicago proves it can handle the expectations that now come with it.
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