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NFL Week 1: Bears vs. Vikings will come down to one critical factor

Originally posted on Chicago Bears on SI | By Bryan Perez | Last updated Sep 6, 2025 11:13 AM ET

Quarterback is the most important position in sports, and never will it be as obvious as Monday night's Week 1 matchup between the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings.

The battle between Caleb Williams and J.J. McCarthy will take center stage, and the QB who handles the primetime pressure better will be the one who comes out on top.

And by pressure, I don't mean the bright lights and national viewing audience. Instead, it's the pressure that the defensive coordinators will bring throughout the game.

“They blitz more than any other team on any down,” Williams said of Brian Flores and the Vikings this week. “They load up the box. They typically want many rushers rushing the QB, as many one-on-ones (as) they can have.”

McCarthy will make the first start of his career in what can be viewed as his rookie season despite being part of the same draft class that saw Williams selected first overall.

He'll have those first-game jitters, and the Bears will do their part to take advantage of them.

“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.”

Williams vs. McCarthy. Quarterback vs. Quarterback. Perhaps a preview of a long NFC North rivalry to come?

Let's hope so. The negative press around Caleb Williams continues to spiral out of control, and he'll need a big performance -- even if it's in a losing effort -- in Week 1 to silence an assault by content creators who are trying to get their piece of the treasure trove of clicks that Williams seems to generate.

Ben Johnson and the Bears' revamped coaching staff should help Williams take a massive step toward silencing the noise.

One way the coaches can give Williams an assist is by making sure he breaks the huddle with time left to communicate.

“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.”

Both the Bears and Vikings need their young, franchise quarterback to get off to a hot start. But odds are one of them won't. And that will be the team that loses in Week 1.

This article first appeared on Chicago Bears on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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