Potential Chicago Bears worries for 2025 on offense and defense

The problem with being a guru going somewhere else is your success came with another group of players more tuned into what it was you were trying to accomplish. Now Johnson has a different team, and with it different problems.

GM Ryan Poles tried to address problems he saw drag down last year's team and Johnson helped by pointing to players in the offseason who could best fit his vision for the team in both the draft and free agency.

The best laid plans, as the saying goes, but even with super geniuses find the potential exists for plans exploding in their faces. They can be dragged down by lingering issues or problems yet to develop that are caused by underlying problems with talent.

The problems have yet to cause a loss or even sleepless nights but all of this could happen in the future. Here are the biggest Bears flaws for the 2025 season.

Offense

1. Caleb Williams to end games

Caleb Williams was a rookie last year. He has experience. It was bad experience. They not only fired the head coach for the first time in franchise history but also cut ties to an offensive coordinator even before that, then fired the next one, too. And this is who they entrusted the top pick of the draft to after everyone from his father, Carl Wiliams, to then shortest-termed Bears fan worried about happening.

Calling Chicago a place where quarterbacks go to die might be exaggerating the situation but Williams' first year was the kind of thing that can cause players to rot on the vine, so to speak.

So Ben Williams inherits a QB used to doing things his own way from college or the way of a failed coaching staff. It's going to take Johnson time to pump out the bad and bring in the good. He hasn't had experience at this with a QB yet, just as Williams hasn't had positive NFL experience.

Last year Williams struggled mightily early in games, presumably because of poor game-planning.

At the end of the game is when a veteran's touch takes over as QBs try to negotiate the clock, yardsticks and a deficit. Williams did this to close the season against Green Bay but has to prove it over and over again.

2. Inside running

Try as he might, Poles admitted after the draft how the best running backs just couldn't match up with his turn for selection. So they ended up with seventh-round pick Kyle Monangai and an undrafted free agent from UTEP named Deion Hankins added to the room.

The power runner Johnson needs, his new David Montgomery, seems to be absent like last year. They need Roschon Johnson to do it but he hasn't proven much of anything yet, either because of injuries, blocking failures or his own issues.

The Bears have been a team that struggles in short yardage situations. It's why they were throwing laterals on fourth-and-inches to D'Andre Swift or bringing in center Doug Kramer to be a fullback for Roschon Johnson at the goal line or in short-yardage situations.

Their line was better at pulling and moving players off the edge last year and they brought in linemen even better at this. What they didn't do was add linemen capable of shoving defensive linemen off the ball or running backs capable of smashing it up inside for 1 or 2 tough yards on fourth-and-1.

Poles said the running backs will be better through coaching from Eric Bieniemy and offensive line performance, but there's enough doubt about the backs and whether any of the linemen—even 32-year-old Joe Thuney—can be straight-ahead fourth-and-1 types.

Johnson's response to a question about the so-called "tush push," underscores an even bigger problem here for the Bears.

"Have you ever seen a tush push become an explosive play? I like big plays. I like big plays, so I'm not a big tush push myself," Johnson said.

Maybe he should be, or maybe he should figure out a way to get the fourth-and-1 besides a pass because that's been a Bears headache, and you need the short gains to make the long gains possible to achieve.

3. Picking up the blitz

Combine a coach who owns grandiose plans, a quarterback who lacks extensive experience, several new receivers, a new offensive system and running backs who haven't really distinguished themselves as pass blockers and what do you get?

Someone is going to blitz the heck out of the Bears, that's what.

If it's not Brian Flores and the Vikings it will be someone else, possibly Detroit.

A lot of Johnson's running plays start with long-developing run-blocking schemes to the outside. Run blitzes can snuff out this type of thing.

Until last year, center Drew Dalman had never been graded higher than 39th among league centers at pass blocking. Right guard Jonah Jackson has never graded higher than 50th among 130-plus guards as a pass blocker. Darnell Wright allowed six and seven sacks in his two seasons, which ranked him behind 119 other tackles in 2024 and 123 tackles in 2023. Tackle Braxton Jones is coming off a broken bone near his ankle.

None of this can make Williams feel at ease as he sits back in the pocket.

Defense

1. Late-game pass rush

They would like to believe this problem is no longer an issue. Winning teams put games away with pass rush heat late and losing teams look like they're just in a seven-on-seven at game's end and they're chasing around wide-open receivers. Sometimes teams with good pass rushers look vulnerable late because they just don't have enough players rushing the passer through the course of the game to keep their best pass rushers fresh for late. The Bears had this problem last season, in addition to a few others. They raised their sack total from 30 to 40 but the consistency of their pass rush seemed no greater or even worse, at times.

Austin Booker and Dominique Robinson as relief on the edge for Montez Sweat and Dayo Odeyingbo doesn't seem to do it for anyone. It's why it wouldn't be shocking to see Gervon Dexter moving outside at times like he did on 144 plays last year, according to Pro Football Focus. They don't need Sweat and Odeyingbo worn out by the fourth quarter.

Assuming ascension by either Booker or Robinson is a dangerous approach. Without sufficient pass rush, defensive backs trying to play more man-to-man than they're used to can get exposed.

The Bears added bodies to their pass rush rotation but they still seem to be short one.

They could simply sign another edge rusher and be done with the worrying.

2. Interior blockade collapse

The Bears should be able to contain running games trying to get outside with versatile edge players like Sweat and Odeyingbo, with Tremaine Edmunds because of his speed at middle linebacker and with T.J. Edwards' ability to come straight upfield attacking. They also have excellent run-stopping ability with tackles Andrew Billings and Grady Jarrett. However, both Billings and Jarrett are in their 30s. Dexter is explosive inside but that's largely been as a pass rusher. His run-stopping grades by PFF have been only so-so. Actually, his rookie year he was terrible at 187 out of 215 defensive tackles, before improving to 56th out of 219 last year.  

The Bears look like a run defense capable of moving back into the form it had in 2023 when it led the league, but also capable because of their depth and age of backsliding toward last year's sub-par performance. And if they can't stop the run, eventually they'll find stopping the passer difficult.

3. Safety physicality

When one safety is 32 years old like Kevin Byard will be this season, and Jaquan Brisker has had three concussions in three seasons—including last year's season-ender after only 5 1/2 games—it's safe to wonder how long they'll be able to handle all of the physical work that position requires. Covering tight ends and tackling running backs after they build up a head of steam downfield are not easily accomplished.