The Chicago Bears will not have the easiest season opener facing the reigning NFC South Champions, the Carolina Panthers. Despite finishing the season with a losing record (8-9), the Panthers are a difficult opponent who just struggled with consistency last year, losing to the Arizona Cardinals but beating the Los Angeles Rams in the regular season.
There are always a lot of questions going into the season opener. The Bears have no tape to reference with Carolina’s current unit, which is much different on defense than it was last year. This challenge provides a bit of uncertainty going into the first week.
Carolina is facing the same challenge as well with no tape to reference for Chicago’s new team, which has significant changes on both sides
of the ball with a new center, increased tight end depth, a new No. 2 receiver in Luther Burden III and a complete overall at the safety position with rookie Dillon Thieneman and Xavier Woods, who the Bears signed the beginning of August.
Even with all of the uncertainty surrounding the opener, it is hard to see the Bears leaving Week 1 with a victory without addressing these concerns.
Carolina’s secondary has a knack for taking the ball away
One group that has not changed a lot for the Panthers is their secondary. Last season, their greatest strength was their cornerback room featuring two-time Pro-Bowler Jaycee Horn, who led Carolina in interceptions with five and Mike Jackson, who played really well for them last season including his four interceptions and a league-high 19 passes defended.
Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has always been good at balancing taking shots and protecting the ball. He broke the record for the fewest interceptions in a quarterback’s first 1,000 pass attempts and only has 13 interceptions in his first two seasons in the NFL. At the same time, there are countless highlights of him taking shots downfield and making explosive plays. So, as long as he continues to prioritize protecting the football when taking deep shots in the season opener, the Bears should be able to overcome this concern.
Panthers have a decent offensive line
The Panthers actually would probably have a top 10 offensive line but for the injuries to both starting tackles. Still, Carolina has one of the better offensive lines in the NFL and they tend to be better at pass protection than run blocking. In 2023, when they were historically bad, Panthers quarterback Bryce Young was sacked 62 times. However, in 2024 and 2025 combined, he was only sacked 56 sacks (29 times in 2024 and 27 times in 2025). Simply put, the Panthers are good at protecting their quarterback and giving him enough time to find the open man.
This also puts Chicago’s defensive line to the test right away. They struggled to get sacks last year and did not make any significant moves in the offseason to improve their sack numbers. In fact, they traded Gervon Dexter who was second on the Bears in sacks last year although he was not a good run stopper. Going into the opener, this is probably the Bears’ biggest concern, but it will also shed a lot of light on what to expect out of this defensive line unit the rest of the season.
Carolina has home field advantage
This does not seem like it should be a major cause for concern, especially because it is not something the Bears can do anything about, but playing in Carolina versus Chicago actually makes a huge difference. In Caleb Williams’ career he has a 10-7 record and has only thrown four interceptions in home games. Conversely, he is 6-11 with nine interceptions in away games. So far in his career, being at home has made a huge difference for him in terms of his performance.
The same can also be said for Bryce Young. In his three years with the Panthers, he has a 10-12 record at home, including a 5-2 record at home last season, but a 4-20 record on the road. Carolina plays better when they have home field advantage including their win against the Rams last season. With how much better the Panthers are at home versus on the road, the Bears will have to be on top of every little detail if they want to leave Charlotte with a victory on Sunday and start their journey to defend their NFC North title and make a deep playoff run.
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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: 3 causes for concern as the Bears face the Panthers in Week 1
