The New York Jets are on the road on Sunday for the 4th game of their 2026 campaign. They will be facing the Chicago Bears. The Bears are 2-1 on the year. They are coming off a dominant 27-7 shellacking of the Philadelphia Eagles last week.
Previewing this matchup, Bill Zimmerman, Deputy Manager at Windy City Gridiron, was kind enough to answer a few questions regarding the 2026 Chicago Bears.
1. The Bears will likely not have starting quarterback Caleb Williams available against the Jets. Case Keenum
led the Bears to a big win over the Philadelphia Eagles last week in Williams’ absence, but Tyson Bagent might be healthy and ahead of Keenum on the depth chart against the Jets. Who do you think should start, who do you think will start, and can the Bears offense continue to have success with backup quarterbacks?
The Case Keenum story from Monday Night Football was genuinely awesome. I was totally caught up in the human-interest angle of it. But I think you have to take what Ben Johnson said after the game at face value: “There’s a reason that we broke camp with Tyson as our QB2.”
The Keenum story was awesome, but I think after having 60 minutes of tape to analyze, I’m not sure another 60 minutes of Keenum will work unless Ben Johnson wildly changes up the game plan. I think Tyson Bagent should start, and I think Bagent will start.
As for continued success with backup QBs, why not? I think Ben Johnson is an offensive genius. I’m in awe watching what he does each and every week. He’s truly playing chess. He sets up explosive plays in the second half with plays he runs in the first half. He’s a Monet. I think he can adjust his scheme and have success with Bagent.
If Caleb Williams was out for the year, I think Ben Johnson would run out of magic beans, but I absolutely think he can do it for 2 to 4 weeks.
2. The Bears have held each of their last two opponents under 10 points and under 260 yards of offense. What have been the keys to that kind of dominant defensive play and is it sustainable?
The defense has looked much better the last two weeks, but this is still the same defense that gave up 37 to Carolina in week one. Here’s where I am at with the Chicago Bears defense. It’s not very good, but their defensive play caller, Dennis Allen, is elite.
The Vikings game is tough to evaluate. Wet doesn’t describe what that game was. It was a steady rain for the entire game and it rained a ton prior to the game as well. The conditions were awful and I think the conditions were too much for the offenses to overcome. Carson Wentz struggled to get the ball down the field, and that allowed the Bears’ defense to excel on third down.
But the defense’s performance against the Eagles was truly special. They completely shut down the Eagles offense in the second half, and Allen called a phenomenal game.
This defense is tough to see where they are at. In the secondary, Jaylon Johnson, Tyrique Stevenson, and Cam Lewis are allowing roughly a 130.0 passer rating against when they are targeted. However, when teams target rookies Dillon Thieneman or Malik Muhammad, they can barely complete a pass; their targeted passer rating against is around 30.0.
The defensive line was supposed to be the weakest unit on the team, but thanks to Grady Jarrett turning the clock back a couple of years and Dayo Odeyingbo creating interior pressure, it’s been decent. Will that hold up? Will they revert to week one? Your guess is as good as mine.
For this defense to be successful, Dennis Allen is going to have to continue to call fantastic games, and they are going to have to create turnovers; they were able to create three last week against Philly.
3. Can you give us a synopsis of what the 2026 Bears draft class has looked like so far, and what you expect from them as the year goes on?
Overall, you have to be pretty pleased with the draft class, but not everything has been smooth. As I mentioned before, Dillon Thieneman, their first-round pick, is starting at safety and looks the part. He’s going to be a 10-year safety in the league. Malik Muhammad, a fourth-round CB out of Texas, has really boosted the secondary with some solid play while the other CBs struggle. They have been a huge boost to a defense that desperately needed it.
As for the other picks, DT Jordan van den Berg, their 6th-round pick, was turning heads in the preseason; even Brian Baldinger did a breakdown on how well he was playing. However, in the regular season, van den Berg has been out there for 54 snaps and has recorded one tackle. Teams have handled him pretty well.
Second-round pick C Logan Jones hasn’t played yet, as he’s Garrett Bradbury’s backup. Third-round pick Zavion Thomas has been on the field a little, but we haven’t seen much yet. He’s looked good returning kicks, and he has tremendous speed. It feels like Ben Johnson will find some spots for him during the regular season to get an explosive play or two, but he isn’t quite there yet.
Their other pick, TE Sam Roush, has been awful. He was the key guy so they could run 13 personnel, but he’s been bad on multiple levels. He dropped a touchdown pass that would have given them the win against the Vikings; he also missed a block on a FG attempt that resulted in a blocked kick. Last week the Bears had a phenomenal chance to down the ball at the 1 against the Eagles on a punt, and he touched the ball when his foot was in the end zone that resulted in a touchback. He’s been a mess. Hopefully he improves soon.
4. Every team has a player or two who may be somewhat unfamiliar to other teams’ fans but is known to be an unsung hero by fans of his own team. Who are the Bears’ unsung heroes? If possible give us one guy on each side of the ball.
I think the Bears offense has several names that most football fans know. But I think the offense’s unsung hero is TE Cole Kmet. Kmet has been a solid TE in the league for many years, but with the drafting of Colston Loveland and Ben Johnson’s offense, Kmet’s role has changed. He’s used as a FB; he does a lot of the dirty work at TE, and he will leak out and get used occasionally in the passing game. He’s a key piece to the offense that doesn’t show up much on the stat sheet anymore.
Defensively, I’ve already mentioned quite a few names. But one name I haven’t mentioned is Austin Booker. I don’t know if Booker is an unsung hero, but he is a key piece to the defense. He plays the bulk of the edge snaps opposite Montez Sweat (by far their best DL), so Booker needs to complement Sweat. When he plays well, he elevates the entire defensive front. Last week Booker had a forced fumble; the week before, he had a sack. If Booker can make 1 or 2 big plays a game, it changes the outlook of the defense.
5. If you were an opposing head coach, how would you attack this Bears team on offense and on defense?
Defensively, the Bears struggle to stop the run. I would make sure I establish the run, and once that’s done, I would use play action and pick on the CBs, especially Tyrique Stevenson. Dennis Allen is going to get creative and use blitzes and stunts to generate pressure so the QB has to be on the lookout for those blitzes and try to attack the hole in the defense before the pressure gets home.
How to stop the Bears offense? Well, rain certainly did the trick in week two. I would make it rain. I’m joking, obviously, but I don’t think there’s just a straight way to beat the Bears offense because Ben Johnson is that good. He’s a lot smarter than me, so anything I tell you, he already knows. But this offense does go with how the offensive line goes. I would make sure the defense keeps the offensive line off balance. When the OL plays great, the offense hums. Get the offensive line to miss blocks at the second level, have the defensive calls get you some good one-on-one matchups against the tight ends (Flores did that brilliantly in week two), and disrupt the rhythm of the offense.
