The NFL season is here. The Chicago Bears open the season against the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night at Soldier Field.
Ben Johnson will coach his first game with the Bears, while 2024 No. 1 draft pick Caleb Williams will enter his second season. The Bears take on a Vikings team coming off a 14-3 season but making a huge transition at quarterback. With Sam Darnold gone, Chicago-area native J.J. McCarthy — last year’s No. 10 pick — will make his first NFL start after missing all of last season with a knee injury.
Here’s a look at what to watch in this Week 1 matchup.
Player in the spotlight
Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy
McCarthy emerged as a star quarterback at Nazareth as a sophomore in 2018, leading the Roadrunners to the IHSA Class 7A state championship. He became one of the top-rated recruits in the nation and committed to Jim Harbaugh and Michigan, where he quarterbacked the Wolverines’ 2023 undefeated national championship season.
McCarthy suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee during the 2024 preseason and needed surgery. He will be making his NFL debut Monday. In terms of playing experience, McCarthy is — for all intents and purposes — a rookie, but he did have a year to observe in an NFL quarterback room with NFL coaching.
He’s one of the biggest wild cards not only in this game, but also in the entire 2025 NFL season. If coach Kevin O’Connell can successfully pull off this transition from the resurgent Darnold to the untested McCarthy, he will further cement his place among the best quarterback whisperers in the league.
For the Bears defense, Monday will be all about trying to disguise and confuse McCarthy.
“We don’t want to give him, I would say, an easy test,” veteran safety Kevin Byard III said. “You don’t want to just line up in coverages so the offensive coordinator and head coach can just tell him what to do: ‘Hey, this is what they’re playing.’ We want to try to confuse him as much as possible, try to get him to take another hitch step.”
Pressing question
Can Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams handle the Vikings blitz?
With Brian Flores as defensive coordinator, the Vikings have led the NFL in blitz rate over the last two seasons. They brought extra pressure on 38.9% of snaps in 2024.
When these teams last played in December at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, the Vikings pressured Williams on 42.9% of his drop-backs, per NFL Next Gen Stats. They sacked him just twice, but the pressure was enough to make him uncomfortable. The Vikings won 30-12 against a beleaguered Bears offensive line (left tackle Braxton Jones didn’t play that day).
“They blitz more than any other team on any down,” Williams said this week. “They load up the box. They typically want many rushers rushing the QB, as many one-on-ones (as) they can have.”
The Bears hope their offensive line is better equipped to handle what Flores throws at them. A veteran interior that was rebuilt with left guard Joe Thuney, center Drew Dalman and right guard Jonah Jackson could help Williams identify where the pressure will come from.
Don’t be surprised if the Bears get to the line of scrimmage quickly. The play caller can continue to talk into the quarterback’s earpiece until the play clock hits 15 seconds. The quicker the Bears get to the line, the longer Johnson can help direct Williams.
“A lot of this stuff is the chess match,” offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said. “This is a scheme that provides challenges. It’s always good to have good tempo going to the line of scrimmage. The earlier we get there, the more we might be able to help the quarterback.”
Keep an eye on …
Ben Johnson’s creativity and philosophies
All eyes are on Johnson in his head coaching debut. His offenses in Detroit became one of the best stories in the NFL in recent years. Now he’s attempting to build something similar as Bears coach.
“I’m really just focused on the preparation level of it right now,” Johnson said. “And I know what I want that to look like.”
The Vikings defense will present unique challenges, but don’t be surprised if Johnson throws in some surprises of his own. He was never afraid to use a trick play at any moment with the Lions.
When things were going well for the Bears offense in Williams’ first preseason start, he was releasing the ball quickly. The best way to eliminate the Vikings blitz is to make sure it doesn’t have enough time to reach the quarterback.
That, of course, is easier said than done.
“Everybody on the offense is going to have to carry the load at some point in this game,” Johnson said. “You talk about one-on-ones with our O-line up front, but our backs have to hold up in protection, our tight ends have to be involved, our receivers have to be physical. It’s everybody here.”
One other aspect to keep an eye on is how aggressive the Bears are on fourth down. With Dan Campbell as head coach and Johnson as offensive coordinator, the Lions were never afraid to go for it on fourth down. That sometimes allowed Johnson to call an unconventional play on third down, knowing he had two chances to move the sticks.
Will Johnson take the same approach in Chicago?
‘A mental test’
Cornerback Jaylon Johnson missed all of training camp with a groin injury. He called the injury a “freak” thing that happened on the type of move he makes all the time.
He returned to practice this week and appears to be gearing up to play, although his return isn’t a guarantee.
“It’s definitely been a journey, been frustrating, going in the training room to the weight room, back to the training room for six, seven, eight weeks now,” he said. “It’s just a mental test, but I’m coming out better.”
When the Bears assembled this new coaching staff, the two-time Pro Bowl cornerback was excited about having Dennis Allen as his defensive coordinator because Allen likes to use man-to-man coverage concepts.
In the past, Allen has been willing to allow his top cornerback to shadow the opponent’s top receiver. Not every defensive coordinator does that. Under former coach Matt Eberflus, Johnson typically stayed on one side of the field.
Presumably when Johnson is fully healthy and the matchup is right, he will do just that. The question this week is whether the Bears have enough trust in his health and readiness to allow him to shadow Justin Jefferson, arguably the best receiver in the league.
“For this game, it’s hard to say,” Johnson said. “I feel like it would be a situation where we had to figure out what that game plan looks like.”
In eight career games against the Bears, Jefferson is averaging 85.6 receiving yards with three total touchdowns. Does Ben Johnson trust his top cornerback to blanket Jefferson? Or is the lack of practice time due to the groin injury reason enough to play it safe in Week 1?
Predictions
Brad Biggs
The NFC North rivals’ goals mirrored each other quite a bit during the offseason as both rebuilt the interior of their offensive lines and sought new parts to anchor the middle of the defensive lines. This is a challenging game to pick because J.J. McCarthy is making his NFL debut and there’s a great deal of unknown for the Bears, too, with Caleb Williams’ first start under Ben Johnson. Expect both offenses to attempt to run the ball, create half-field reads and get play action going. Slight edge to the Bears because McCarthy is a total wild card and has to play on the road.
Bears 20, Vikings 17
Sean Hammond
Kevin O’Connell finds ways to win games and get the most out of his quarterback. Yes, McCarthy is an unknown. At every level, though, the 22-year-old has won — including a state championship at Nazareth and a national championship at Michigan. O’Connell will have a good sense of what McCarthy can and can’t handle. Everyone in Chicago believes this could be Ben Johnson’s coming-out party. But are we so sure it’s not McCarthy’s coming-out party in the same stadium where he grew up rooting for the Bears? Either way, this feels like it will be a close one.
Vikings 27, Bears 24
Phil Thompson
A Brian Flores defense is one of the last units you’d want to see when you’re trying out a new offensive scheme. On the other hand, the Vikings defensive coordinator has yet to see how Ben Johnson tailors his offense to the Bears’ upgraded personnel. Despite having last season’s highest blitz rate (38.9%), the Vikings allowed the fifth-most passing yards per game (242). Coupled with McCarthy making his NFL debut — and having a depleted receiving corps — Williams’ arm and Cairo Santos’ leg should be enough to pull off a modest upset.
Bears 23, Vikings 21