Week 7 of the NFL season is officially here, and the Chicago Bears are kicking things off by welcoming the New England Patriots to Soldier Field for a Thursday Night Football matchup. It's set to be a battle of arguably the top two quarterbacks from the 2024 draft class, the top coaching hires from the 2025 offseason, and two teams in prime playoff position heading into the middle of the season.
The Bears (4-2) are coming off a big win against the Atlanta Falcons with a 31-23 score, thanks to a few key returning starters. Quarterback Caleb Williams was back in action after missing the last three games with a hamstring injury and put on a surgical performance against Atlanta's defense, throwing for over 300 yards and completing over 80% of his
passes. On the other side of the ball, cornerback Kyler Gordon played in his first game of the year coming off a calf injury and was a heat-seeking missile coming off the edge. Gordon totaled three sacks and two forced fumbles, providing a much-needed spark to thwart Atlanta's offense.
As for the Patriots (4-2), they had some significant returns of their own in their close 26-19 win over the New York Jets. Wide receiver A.J. Brown was back from a high ankle sprain suffered in Week 1 but didn't have quite the impact he and the team were hoping for. Instead, quarterback Drake Maye spread the ball around, throwing three touchdowns in the victory. New England didn't come out unscathed, however, as they lost multiple starters on the offensive line and will be shorthanded for the game.
Thursday Night Football can feel like a hangover game since players are still recovering from four days earlier, but that's where things can get crazy. Here are our bold predictions for Bears vs. Patriots:
1. D'Andre Swift finds paydirt
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Despite running back D'Andre Swift's uneven workload between halves the last few weeks, he is still scoring at will and producing as the lead runner on offense. Swift has scored a touchdown in three of six games this year, but he's scoring multiple touchdowns with Williams operating the offense.
The Bears are a much better team in the redzone with No. 18 back in the fold, scoring in 8/11 trips with him at quarterback vs. 5/16 without him, per Taylor Doll. I expect that trend to continue with the Bears feeding Swift down near the goal line to get a touchdown. He may even get two again.
2. Caleb Williams hits Zavion Thomas for a deep connection
One aspect I'm very interested in seeing this game is the in-game chess match between Williams and safety Kevin Byard. The two have practiced against one another for two years before Byard left the Bears via free agency to join the Patriots. He's one of the best veteran safeties in the game and can pick up on tendencies extremely well. Williams and the Bears offense will need to be careful when looking his way. So why not throw something at him that he's never seen before?
Much of the Bears' skill position players are familiar to him, such as Rome Odunze and Luther Burden, and even Kalif Raymond from his days with the Detroit Lions. Thursday is the perfect chance to utilize Zavion Thomas and get him the ball on a deep route. Thomas has gotten more playing time on offense, and he's getting more comfortable with the route tree. I can see Johnson and Press Taylor dialing up something to get Thomas deep over Byard, where Williams hits him for a big gain. It will be the rookies' most impressive offensive play of the year up to this point.
3. Kyler Gordon gets an interception
Kyler Gordon returned to the field with a vengeance last week. The talented cornerback only saw 17 snaps but made each one of them count. He totaled three sacks and two forced fumbles as he provided a spark to an undermanned defense, primarily as a blitzer off the edge. Could we see something similar this time around? Absolutely, but I also believe the Bears will change things up as well.
The Patriots have film on Gordon now in Dennis Allen's defense. They saw how he was lined up and could be ready to counteract his blitzing. Perhaps the Bears are one step ahead, however, and opt to drop him back into coverage more often. I believe Gordon's role will evolve and he will see more coverage snaps than expected. And with that, he'll come away with an interception, as Maye won't expect him to clog up the passing lanes. Gordon got his first career interception against the Patriots back in 2022. Now, he'll get his first one since the 2023 season.
4. A.J. Brown goes over 100 yards receiving
Week 6 was a notable one for returning players for both teams. Not only did the Bears welcome back Williams and Gordon, but the Patriots had wide receiver A.J. Brown back for the first time since Week 1. Unfortunately, his first game back wasn't as impactful as Williams and Gordon's. Brown caught just three passes on 10 targets for 27 yards. He committed three drops as he was largely ineffective in the Patriots' win. But Brown doesn't stay down for long.
The Pro Bowl receiver has shown to bounce back quickly, and he's facing a defense that couldn't remotely stop him in 2025. When he was a member of the Philadelphia Eagles, Brown had his best game of the season against the Bears, totaling 10 catches for 132 receiving yards and two touchdowns. He single-handedly kept the Eagles in that game and has shown the ability to be a problem for the Bears' secondary. It's also not the first time he's torched the Bears defense, either.
Maye will continue looking Brown's way, especially with receiver Romeo Doubs out for this week. And this time, Brown will deliver with his first 100-yard receiving game of the season.
This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: 4 bold predictions for Bears vs. Patriots
