Discover the Bears' 2026 opponents, featuring matchups against the Falcons, Seahawks, and AFC East powerhouses like Josh Allen.
The 2025 regular season came to a close on Sunday night.
The Chicago Bears lost to the Detroit Lions 19-16 on a game-winning field goal from Jake Bates, and now look ahead to the postseason.
Despite the loss, Chicago is the No. 2 seed after the Philadelphia Eagles were beaten 24-17 by the Washington Commanders. The Eagles and Bears are now both 11-6, but since Chicago has the tiebreaker, it took the No. 2 seed.
The Bears take on the Green Bay Packers in the Wild Card. While that will be the focus this coming week, the teams the Bears will play in 2026 were revealed via Marquee Sports Network's Scott Bair.
They will obviously face teams within the NFC North twice, so I excluded those games. Here are the teams the Bears will play next season:
Home
- New Orleans Saints
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- New England Patriots
- New York Jets
- Jacksonville Jaguars
- Philadelphia Eagles
Away
- Atlanta Falcons
- Buffalo Bills
- Carolina Panthers
- Miami Dolphins
- Seattle Seahawks
The Bears drew the NFC South as their division on the same side of the conference. Chicago took on the Saints earlier this season and won 26-14, a matchup featuring two former college teammates, Spencer Rattler and Caleb Williams.
Williams and Rattler were at Oklahoma at the same time under former head coach Lincoln Riley.
Chicago also gets to see former Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins, who now plays for the Falcons. Cousins was named the starter in Week 12 after Michael Penix Jr. suffered a torn ACL.
On the AFC side, Chicago takes on the AFC East, meaning they'll see Josh Allen, Tua Tagovailoa and Drake Maye. We'll see what the Jets decide to do at quarterback in 2026, as they may find their next starter in April's draft.
Then, there are the remaining NFC division winners. So, that means the Bears will see the Seahawks and Eagles. Chicago and Philadelphia met in Week 13, but the Bears haven't played the Seahawks since the 2024 season.
The last meeting between Chicago and Seattle ended 6-3 in favor of the Seahawks.
The second year of the Ben Johnson era will have a much more demanding schedule, it seems, which is the price of ending with an 11-6 record. As fate would have it, the Bears actually have the toughest strength of schedule for 2026 based on opponent record.
We'll see what 2026 has in store for the Bears as they look ahead to the postseason.