This summer, I took the opportunity to survey the landscape of Chicago Bears rivalries entering the 2025 NFL season. This included a ranking of the team’s (or fanbase’s) ten biggest rivals, with three honorable mentions thrown in for good measure:
My ranking took a number of factors into consideration, but now that the we are well into the new season, I thought it would be a good opportunity to revisit these rivalries and assess how each has been affected by the changing landscape of the NFL in 2025.
While I won’t be re-ranking them at this time, what I will do instead is place each previously named rival team into different categories based on how the rivalry currently seems to be intensifying (or not).
TBD
Pittsburgh Steelers (Week 12, Home) & Jacksonville Jaguars
To start, these are teams that seem to have remained neutral in terms of a Bears rivalry. While there hasn’t been enough to drive things into greater hostility, the potential for bitterness is still there and can’t be completely ruled out just yet. In the case of the Steelers, the opportunity will obviously come in week 12 when Aaron Rodgers visits Soldier Field. As for the Jaguars, it will ultimately come down to how the two teams perform over the course of the year with rookie head coaches Ben Johnson and Liam Coen being tied together by the nature of the hiring cycle. Breaking it down further, I’d be tempted to label Pittsburgh as more likely to heat up while Jacksonville would be more likely to cool down.
Cooling Off
Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons missed the cut on the original rankings but made the honorable mentions by virtue of all the familiar faces that have accumulated in Atlanta under former Bears GM Ryan Pace’s watch. With the two teams not scheduled to play each other this year and no other real catalyst to further tensions, things haven’t had a chance to intensify so this one has cooled significantly.
Dallas Cowboys (W, Week 3; 31-14)
The Cowboys paid a visit to Chicago back in week 3 in what was the first time back for Matt Eberflus. That… didn’t go well for him. While Dak Prescott has been having a fantastic season for Dallas, he failed to have much success against a Bears defense that really got going in this matchup and Caleb Williams picked apart his former coach’s defensive scheme for his best performance of the season to date. The definitive victory seemed to settle the bad blood and close the book on the Matt Eberflus era in Chicago.
Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs have found themselves after the release of Taylor Swift’s new album, I mean after Patrick Mahomes’ receivers were able to return to the team following injuries and suspension. Since this rivalry has always been built on the Bears decision to draft Mitch Trubisky over Patrick Mahomes, it’s hard to argue against a gradual cooling without any real competition between the two clubs so far removed from that fateful day.
New York Jets
It’s hard to have a rivalry when you can’t help but feel bad for the other team. That’s where things are landing at the moment with the New York Jets, who finally managed to eek out their first victory on the season in week 8. Many Bears fans (myself included) will always root for Justin Fields, but that didn’t stop his presence on the Jets roster from adding intrigue to this rivalry to start the year. Pairing that with Ben Johnson’s former colleague, Aaron Glenn, taking over as Head Coach was a solid recipe that has only cooled with each New York loss.
Carolina Panthers
Things used to be incredibly tense between Panthers fans and Bears fans. I won’t say that you can’t still start an argument with relative ease, but both teams navigating the start of the year with ups and downs seems to have moved us further away from the memories of the trade that ultimately led to each team’s number one overall pick quarterback. If a matchup were scheduled to take place this season, I’m sure it would kick back up, but for now, the heat has cooled.
Simmering
Las Vegas Raiders (W, Week 4; 25-24)
A dramatic ending to this season’s game has only managed to turn up the temp on this rivalry, despite the Raiders falling short of their expectations so far this season. This kind of competition is exactly what is needed to fuel these rivalries, and that’s on top of the Ben Johnson coaching search drama that also surrounded these teams during the early offseason.
New England Patriots
It’s obvious why New England is here, and it feels all too familiar to what was going on last season to when Bears fans suffered through the stellar rookie season of Jayden Daniels. Sure, Caleb Williams hasn’t been horrible, but he hasn’t been the best quarterback of his draft class, either. That title (which was Daniels’ last season) was ripped away by Drake Maye, who has been leading the Patriots over every bum team that the NFL put on their schedule in a very impressive manner. I say that with as little salt as I can manage.
Detroit Lions (L Week 2, 21-52; Week 18, Home)
Now I know what I said about the Bears’ definitive home victory over their former coach and how that closed the book on that era and ultimately lead to a cooling of the rivalry between Chicago and Dallas. HOWEVER… this isn’t that. The Lions’ beatdown of the Bears in week 2 was definitely embarrassing for many, including Ben Johnson, but I’m sure that’s exactly why this rivalry with a divisional opponent is still simmering and building under the surface until their week 18 meeting at Soldier Field. We can only hope that game will have some stakes beyond bragging rights.
Green Bay Packers (Week 14, Away; Week 16, Home)
Speaking of simmering and building under the surface – here’s the Packers section. The eternal rivalry hasn’t had much to catch fire so far this season in terms of direct competition or engagement between the two teams (aside from the Cowboys tie, which is just a funny thing after how the Bears were able to perform against Dallas) but that never stops the fanbases from chirping at each other. It’s inevitable that weeks 14 and 16 will bring a palpable tension.
Fully Enflamed
Washington Commanders (W, Week 6; 25-24)
Much was made of the Monday Night Football matchup between these two teams this season after the way last year’s game ended. As much as all of Chicago would’ve preferred a clear and decisive victory, there is something poetic about taking the W at the buzzer. That kind of result, paired with the never-ending link between Williams and Daniels, has only led to a rivalry that is burning as strong as ever at this point.
Minnesota Vikings (L Week 1, 27-24; Week 11, Away)
The thing about Monday Night Football I guess, is that it can really add fuel to a rivalry. This wasn’t intentional by any means, but the Bears’ other MNF game of the season (and also their first game of the year) is another that managed to kick an existing rivalry’s burner up a notch. The Vikings have fallen below the Bears in the standings since, but the way they were able to come back in the fourth quarter to claim victory and spoil what looked to be a Chicago victory in week 1 has only served as the catalyst for increased hostilities in the second matchup of the year for these clubs.
