Welcome to Week 1 of the regular season. In six days, the Chicago Bears will open their regular season on the road taking on the Carolina Panthers and both teams head into the season with a lot of optimism after winning their respective divisions last season.

Later today, the Bears will hold their first practice of the week and we will get to hear from head coach Ben Johnson as he prepares for Carolina. As for the Panthers, their first day of practice is already is the books and Panthers head coach Dave Canales addressed what he’s preparing for ahead of this matchup against Chicago’s offense on Sunday.

Dave Canales is more focus on stopping the Chicago Bears’ run game than he is about Caleb Williams

All offseason long, quarterback Caleb Williams has been a national talking point and rightfully so going into his third NFL season. Yet, Canales didn’t seem to concerned about preparing for Williams as he is about preparing for the other piece of Ben Johnson’s offense.

“(They’re) multiple in the run game and that’s one thing I’ve always appreciated about Ben Johnson’s offenses is it’s not going to be just this run, it’s going to be multiple runs out of similar looks and the play passes to match it up,” Canales explained. “The uses of tight ends, and screen game, and hiding a guy out in one way, shape, or form. That’s been something that I’ve seen that’s consistent. Expecting that part, expecting those wrinkles and it really forces you to dial in – is there anything we can pick up? Is there any tell that can differentiate what’s going to happen before the snap?”

That is truly what makes Ben Johnson so difficult to defend against, and so great as an offensive coordinator is his ability to turn one look into 50 different plays. It’s a big reason why he’s so intense about the details and Canales is preparing for the right thing in that regard.

As for the run game, it’s the backbone of this offense and one they’re looking to improve even more. Sure, Williams has the ability to make explosive and heroic plays, but the real consistency of this offense starts on the ground.

“The reason it’s fun to be a part of? First of all, the O-line up front. But, Ben and how he sees the run game and the way he calls it, the detail that’s in place with the plays and how it’s being blocked, the angles, and how he calls it throughout the game,” Bears RB D’Andre Swift explained. “Plus, the variety of runs we have. It’s a lot of stuff.”

This run game can be a nightmare for any team to prepare for, whether it’s wide zone, duos, counters, you name it. There’s a reason this team led the NFC in rushing yards last season. And how Ben Johnson plans to utilize multi-TE sets will make things even harder for defenses to diagnose pre-snap.

Carolina Panthers are hoping its revamped defense can take on the challenge

The Panthers sunk a lot of resources into the defensive side of the ball this offseason to give defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero the ideal players for his system. That included throwing a lot of money at pass rusher Jaelan Phillips and linebacker Devin Lloyd, along with using a second-round pick on defensive tackle Lee Hunter to pair him with Derrick Brown in the middle of the front.

This first game will be a big test for that unit, especially Lloyd and new veteran linebacker Bobby Okereke, going up against this run game and Chicago’s three tight ends in Colston Loveland, Cole Kmet, and rookie Sam Roush.

“Two physical players,” Canales said of Lloyd and Okereke. “When they see the ball and they see what’s happening, they play downhill… When you can play like that, it’s a good balance. I feel like they are two really balanced players in terms of being able to play the run and also knowing where their landmarks are when they drop into coverage.”

Can they read, react, and make a play fast enough against Ben Johnson’s offense? That’ll be a big question to watch and it’s easy to see why that’s Carolina’s biggest concern going into this game instead of simply preparing to stop Williams alone and overlooking what Johnson can do in this run game.

But, if you ask Swift and the Bears, the team’s top back simply said “there’s no reason we shouldn’t get off to a fast start” compared to how the run game looked early last season. We’ll see how things turn out.