CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - AUGUST 17: Caleb Williams #18 of the Chicago Bears celebrates a first down during the NFL Preseason 2025 game between Buffalo Bills and Chicago Bears at Soldier Field on August 17, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Geoff Stellfox/Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 776336388
The Sun-Times’ experts offer their picks for the Bears’ first season under head coach Ben Johnson:
### Patrick Finley
**Record: 9-8.** If the Bears learn by the end of the season that quarterback Caleb Williams and Johnson are keepers for the next decade, it will be a tremendous success. Posting just their second winning record since 2012 — albeit with a playoff miss — will be gravy.
### Jason Lieser
**Record: 9-8.** The Bears feel like a .500 team, but assessing opponents is difficult. Are the Cowboys freefalling? Are the Raiders an upstart? Which way do the Steelers and 49ers tilt? If Johnson steadies the Bears, they’ll be in the middle.
### Mark Potash
**Record: 8-9.** With Williams a little bigger project than Johnson might have expected, the Bears will make steady progress that might not show in the record because of a difficult schedule after their Week 5 bye. But the arrow will be pointing up.
### Steve Greenberg
**Record: 7-10.** Walk? Maybe not yet. Crawl? For sure, and that’s not nothing. Watch the Bears win a couple of games and generally hang in there in a lights-out division, and try to remember — that’s called real progress.
### Scoop Jackson
**Record: 9-8.** The hype is real. But what will it lead to? The Athletic list Bears fans as the 12th most optimistic fan base in the NFL this year. They don’t know us. We over-hope everything. 9-8 will be our truth. Reality usually defeats optimism.