Chicago Bears seem to have clear Super Bowl path in 2026

The Seattle Seahawks flew home from Santa Clara with the Lombardi Trophy, but it is the New England Patriots’ path to a Super Bowl that should have most of the NFL standing at attention, including the Chicago Bears.

After all, while critics can point to a historically easy schedule, the Patriots faced that slate because they managed just four wins in 2024 and were picking No. 3 overall in last spring’s NFL Draft, and built a turnkey offense around second-year quarterback Drake Maye who played his way into the MVP conversation throughout the regular season before largely wilting in the playoffs.

In Chicago, that blueprint might as well be hanging over general manager Ryan Poles’ desk.

Chicago Bears can easily follow New England Patriots’ Super Bowl path

The Bears arrived in 2025, a bit ahead of schedule, thanks to head coach Ben Johnson’s arrival accelerating second-year quarterback Caleb Williams’ development in an offense and a scheme that was built to maximize his best traits.

While Chicago enters the 2026 offseason leaps and bounds ahead of where New England was at this time last year, there are some parallels that can be drawn between how each franchise has built its roster and the Bears’ potentially navigable path to a Super Bowl appearance next February, from Between The Hashmarks:

After rebuilding the offensive line with premier veteran talent in front of quarterback Caleb Williams, the second-year quarterback was sacked just 25 times after withstanding a barrage of 68 as a rookie. Joe Thuney and Co.’s dominance up front, along with young talent like Rome Odunze, Luther Burden, Colston Loveland, and Kyle Monangai, are an exciting ascendant group around a rising quarterback who fell just shy of passing for 4,000 yards.

Meanwhile, despite the defense surviving by producing a league-high 22 takeaways, general manager Ryan Poles and the Bears seem intent on investing similar resources to give coordinator Dennis Allen’s defense real teeth in a way that last offseason was dedicated to making the offense turnkey around Williams.

Sure, Johnson and the Bears will be tasked with surviving a first-place schedule, but if Chicago deploys its cap space this offseason to fortifying the defense in a way it did around Williams last spring, it could significantly raise the ceiling on next season’s entire outlook.

A quarterback on his rookie contract, with ascending playmakers around him, and a defense potentially infused with difference-makers in the offseason ahead might just be the roster best built to challenge the Seahawks in the NFC and follow a similar blueprint to how general manager Eliot Wolf, head coach Mike Vrabel and the Patriots so rapidly made the leap from AFC East also-rans to conference champions.

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