2026 Week 1: Chicago Bears 59, Carolina Panthers 37

Are you not entertained? [Photo: FOX]

Player grades can be found at the Qwality Sports Substack.

I thought the offensive line was going to grade out better. 

Don’t get me wrong, they were great. But they were just regular great instead of really great. The running backs also only graded out regular great instead of really great, so I’m not sure what to make of this. Bradbury was the only guy I would call somewhat disappointing. He got olé’d a couple times and made the wrong read a couple others. I’m not really sure why the Bears occasionally went to Benedet at LT; I thought Jones was fine. Benedet was also fine (albeit still leany). Ozzy Trapilo has no injury designation for this week. So good to know that they’ve got a guy who’s legit good and two guys who are fine. This is a good Carolina defense, particularly the interior defensive line, and the Bears did this to them. And I thought they had real room for improvement. Swift got dinged a few times for running at the wrong spot. In fact, I blamed him for Loveland’s holding penalty; Swift tried to bounce outside when he had room inside, the defender moved to attempt to stop him and Loveland got flagged for a grab.

Speaking of Loveland, no catches. Why?

It felt like Loveland was the guy Carolina was most concerned with containing. Makes sense, given they were sitting in zone most of the game, trying to put a lid on the big plays. The way around that is stuff underneath, where Loveland would be a menace, so the Panthers focused on taking him away. Of course, doing that opened up opportunities for everyone else, especially when Loveland was blocking as well as he was. Remember in the last section where I was talking about how I thought the O-line was just regular great and the backs only graded out really well instead of excellent, but they ran all over Carolina anyway? Here’s why it worked: Loveland was such a good blocker and his presence in the passing game is so scary that no matter what Carolina put on the field, they were going to be wrong. The Bears can run 12 and 13 personnel sets because you have to respect Loveland as a receiver to the point that you can’t go heavy. Conversely, Loveland was strong enough in-line that the Bears could run the ball effectively out of 11. Max Toscano wrote more about it at his Substack, Remember the Tight Ends. We know what Loveland is as a receiver and while he was no slouch as a blocker to begin with, this was a step forward, not just in making blocks, but making difficult blocks. “Best TE in the league” is on the table this year, folks.

PFF said Caleb wasn’t very good. 

PFF was cool when they first came onto the scene because they were encouraging people to look at football at a deeper level. Somewhere along the way, they started overthinking things to the extent that it caused them to miss the point. If you think that Caleb’s performance week one was merely middle of the pack, you’ve lost the plot. Having to put out a statement attempting to justify that ridiculous evaluation should tell you something. I understand the point they were trying to make, that Caleb’s decision making left something to be desired. I saw some of that myself. For example, the deep shot to Rome needed to be out quicker. If Caleb sees him break open and rips it right away, it’s six. It wasn’t the only time a pass needed to be out quicker, but those events didn’t come close to outweighing the positives. Even with the pick he’s lucky didn’t count, it was still a very good day. The best thing I saw from Caleb was him taking what was there. He did a much better job getting through his reads, not getting happy feet, and taking easy yards that presented themselves. The command of the offense was superb. With another strong outing against Minnesota and DC Blitz McGee, I will declare the year 2 leap truly real. 

And, uh, the defense?

Well, there were guys out there in Bears jerseys and helmets while Carolina had the ball, but I wouldn’t call it a defense. Let’s just start with this because it became a meme: motivating Odeyingbo didn’t work. He was absolutely dreadful. My grandmother could’ve done better than he did and she’s been dead for almost a quarter century. Odeyingbo is quickly moving up my list of reasons to fire Ryan Poles. Fellow reason Grady Jarrett sucked, too. The new guys Poles brought in from Indy and Atlanta also stunk. What was extra disappointing was guys like TJ Edwards and Jaylon Johnson, who you expect much better from, laying total eggs. Some credit for this poor showing belongs to Dennis Allen, though, who saw his defense repeatedly victimized by rub routes that he had no answer for. You cannot count on turnover luck continuing to bounce your way, nor can you count on weekly fifty burgers from your offense. If this team is going to go anywhere, this has to improve. The deficiencies in personnel probably can’t be adequately addressed during the season. Some of the coaching issues might be.

But!

Dillon Thieneman was awesome. Dude was all over the place in the run game and mostly good in coverage. Couple times he was a step slow reacting in coverage, but he’ll learn. Safety isn’t a particularly flashy position, otherwise I’d say DROY is on the table. The second-best player on defense was another rookie, Malik Muhammad. The coverage skills are already there. The run defense is a work in progress. I’d like to give him the outside spot opposite Jaylon Johnson, but that leaves Cam Lewis as the best option at nickel until or unless Gordon can play again and I wasn’t impressed with him. I was, though, less unimpressed than I was with Tyrique Stevenson, so I say give it a shot. 

Anything else

Too many penalties. Clean up the penalties. 

Looking ahead

The Purple Cobras Vikings crammed it up Matt LaFleur’s cram hole in week one, but that felt much less like the Vikings being good (especially with Carson Wentz out there) than it did them simply being the beneficiaries of Matt LaFleur’s most recent bed crapping. The Packers spent a lot of that game with receivers running wide open and Love having time to hit them until Flores cranked up the pressure to Extra-Strength Flores, at which point the Packers’ offense couldn’t do anything because their offensive line is a traveshamockery. If Flores tries that against the Bears, one nickel says Ben Johnson schemes up a long TD via a screen pass to Burden or Raymond. If Caleb’s decisive and plays a clean game, the Bears win, even with the danger of Justin Jefferson versus a secondary whose best players in week one were rookies.

Monsters

Caleb, both RBs, Raymond, Loveland, Wright, Thuney, Thieneman. Also, Muhammad in coverage. 

Chipmunks

All defensive persons not listed above, except Sweat and Bush, who were just meh, not outright bad.

Four Stars of the Game

  Dillon Thieneman

  Caleb Williams, Colston Loveland, and Kalif Raymond. All were awesome. 3 each.

Darnell Wright and Joe Thuney. Also awesome. 2 each.

D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai. Full star to each.

Honorable Mention: Rome Odunze and Cole Kmet. Those catches were awesome. Half-star each.

Twitter, Bluesky, Threads: @312sportsguy