Despite a strong inaugural season, the Bears face a challenging reset. Ben Johnson emphasizes building from scratch, not building on past success.
The Chicago Bears had a very successful first year under head coach Ben Johnson.
The Bears finished the regular season as the No. 2 seed in the NFC. Chicago reached the playoffs for the first time since 2020 and won its first NFC North title since 2018.
Soldier Field even hosted multiple playoff games.
The Bears' season ended after a 20-17 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the Divisional Round. Now, Chicago is in offseason mode.
It can be easy to think that the Bears can replicate the same level of success in 2026, but that just isn't how the NFL works. We saw how different two years can be for the Washington Commanders.
The Commanders reached the NFC Championship in the 2024 season, but then missed the playoffs entirely in 2025.
Johnson spoke at his final media availability of the 2025 season and said there's no way to build on what happened in his first year. The team has to start from the ground up again.
Johnson believes the Bears need to go "back to square one."
"Yeah, there is no building off of this," Johnson said. "We go back to square one. We are back at the bottom again. And that's really all 32 teams. If you feel otherwise, you're probably missing the big picture. You know, we got to start from scratch. We got to start from the fundamentals. ...We got to give a little bit more if we want to take this thing over the top. I mean, it's no different. You're trying to lose weight, you're trying to lose 50 pounds. The first 30 is the easiest. You know, the last 20, that's the hard part. So, we did a nice job this year, but it's not enough. We got to do more."
Things got off to a great start in the Johnson era, but now is not the time to get complacent, especially with how unforgiving the NFL is.
We've already seen that to some extent with the recent injuries to T.J. Edwards and Ozzy Trapilo. According to General Manager Ryan Poles, Trapilo's return may not be until late in the 2026 season.
The Bears took a massive leap in 2025 and now have to work even harder to replicate that success in 2026.
Johnson and the Bears are going to have to really grind it out this offseason if they want to get back to the playoffs.