An argument that has been made ad nauseum to undercut the Chicago Bears’ 2025 success was their seemingly easy strength of schedule. At the end of the 2025 season, the Bears finished with the 4th-easiest strength of schedule, based on opponent records, with a 0.458 win percentage. This ranked behind the Cowboys, Broncos, and Patriots — who had a historically easy schedule with a win percentage against of 0.391.
Of course, after a successful season, the Bears are slated to play a first-place schedule,
meaning they will play teams like the Jaguars, Seahawks, and Eagles rather than the Titans, Cardinals, and Giants (who the Lions will play).
To this end, Sharp Football Analysis has released the 2026 NFL Strength of Schedule based on Vegas’ odds for each team. The Bears are slated as having the 6th hardest schedule ahead of the 2026 NFL regular season. This ranks behind the Cardinals, Dolphins, Panthers, Cowboys, and Rams, who all have tougher projected schedules.
That means that the Bears will have the hardest schedule in their division with the Packers, Vikings, and Lions slotting at the 17th easiest, 16th easiest, and easiest schedules, respectively, in the league.
While this means the Bears’ road will be tougher this upcoming season, it doesn’t mean it will remain that way. You might recall that before the 2025 season, the Bears were projected to have the 3rd hardest schedule in the league. By the end of the year, they had the 4th easiest. A lot of this can be chalked up to simply beating your opponents and directly impacting their collective win percentage — but it also suggests that these projections need to be taken with a grain of salt.
For instance — one of the Bears’ opponents in 2025 was the Joe Burrow led Bengals team in Cincinnati, a team that was expected to compete for their division. However, by the time the Bears entered Cincy, Burrow was on the sideline and old man Flacco was at the helm.
So look at this as a snapshot in time. At the moment, the Bears have a hard schedule. By the end of the year, national analysts could be decrying their success as being a result of how easy it was.
