NFL Analyst is All In on Caleb Williams and the Bears in 2026

The Chicago Bears are not the same team they were last year. 

Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker are gone from the back half of the secondary. D.J. Moore was traded to the Buffalo Bills. Drew Dalman retired after one season with the team. Tremaine Edmunds was released to free up cap space. 

Nahshon Wright's rising market value from his breakout season forced the Bears to let him walk in free agency. C.J. Gardner-Johnson wasn't kept after being a great stopgap player in the secondary. 

There has been genuine concern that the Bears would not be able to repeat their 2025 success this offseason. There's no guarantee that the Bears are going to be able to put up those same takeaway numbers, so there may not be a safety net if the defense struggles again. 

Caleb Williams will have one less veteran receiver to throw to now that Moore is gone. The road is going to get tougher now that the Bears are playing a first-place schedule this year. 

It feels like we've all heard this before, but NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah isn't hearing it. 

He appeared on a recent episode of "The Pat McAfee Show" and revealed that he had the utmost confidence in the Bears and Williams. 

"I'm in, man," Jeremiah said. "I'm all in on Caleb. I'm all in on the Bears. I feel like there's been some reluctance on them, where people are like, 'Uh oh. They're gonna take a step back, or Caleb, you're never gonna see him evolve. He's gonna play on schedule; that's not who he is.' I don't believe that at all. I think the steps he took last year, and look, it wasn't like he was playing on schedule; this was obviously not on schedule this play, but it wasn't like he was on schedule 100 percent of the time. But it was improved vastly from year one to year two. I think now, having command of this offense, I think having Luther Burden back out there when he's healthy, it's going to be a massive impact player to go along with second-year tight end Loveland, who's going to be better. Like, they're so young at so many of these spots. I think they are." 

It makes sense that people are doubting the Bears. 

We saw just how brutal the NFL can be last year, as the Washington Commanders went from playing in the 2024 NFC Championship Game to not even making the playoffs. 

Another year in this Ben Johnson offense should do Williams a lot of good. 

This Bears team has been doubted before, so this is nothing new. At least Jeremiah believes in the Bears.