Former Bears WR explains how Chicago can avoid regression going into the second season under Ben Johnson based on his experience
The Chicago Bears had a season to remember in 2025 and the challenge now is continuing that same level of success and avoiding regression, and one former Bears wide receiver had some great advice.
The Chicago Bears had a season to remember in 2025 after winning 11 games during the regular season and claiming the NFC North title in the first year under head coach Ben Johnson.
The challenge now is finding a way to sustain that level of success and avoiding any major signs of regression in 2026.
Johnson has held a firm stance that what happened in 2025 is in the past and there’s no momentum that can carry the team into next season. As the team goes back to square one, a former Bears standout offered some strong advice based on his previous experience in Chicago.
Former Chicago Bears WR Allen Robinson explains how the Bears can avoid regression in 2026
“The number one thing, for me, that always sticks out and I would try to preach – even when I was in Halas Hall – was when you’re coming off a year like that, there is no way possible to avoid expectations,” Allen Robinson said, via 104.3 The Score. “Good teams have expectations. Great teams have expectations. To be able to evade that, is not really possible. . .
“So, what the guys have to expect from themselves is to be able to take their game to another level coming off last year. So, each and every day at practice, you have to be a little bit better than you were the previous year.”
Robinson understands that better than anyone, because he learned it the hard way. In 2018, the Bears won 12 games and a division title in the first season under head coach Matt Nagy. The following year, Chicago won just eight games and missed the playoffs.
It sounds simple enough, but Robinson is exactly right. However hard you worked the previous season to achieve that success, you have to work even harder the next year to even think about achieving similar results.
The Bears went from being the hunter to the hunted over the last 12 months. Next season, Chicago will have more eyes on them and an even bigger target on their back, while having to play a first-place schedule.
Fortunately, Johnson is already having the right approach putting 2025 behind the team while sharing the same message about everyone needing to work even harder.
“You can look at 2025 and say, ‘Hey, it’s a great start.’ Well, the truth is it was really hard to accomplish what we accomplished, and it wasn’t good enough and it’s going to be that much harder to put ourselves in that position again next season,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of work coming up. I know our players, when they come back, they’ll be ready to go.”