The Chicago Bears are 7-2 at the halfway point of the 2026 regular season and sitting atop the NFC North. It’s a fortunate spot to be in, but make no mistake, the Bears earned every bit of it.

Chicago has already knocked off both Super Bowl teams from the 2025 season. The Bears also went 2-1 without their starting quarterback. Add it all up and it’s easy to see why Super Bowl hopes are building quickly in Chicago, and not just among fans. The Bears are drawing plenty of interest as a legit Super Bowl contender around the league as well.

That label comes with heightened expectations. It also comes at a time when the path forward gets much tougher. But, the Bears are built to handle this kind of pressure.

Bears face the hardest remaining schedule, but are also the toughest opponent on teams’ schedules

Based on the current records of their remaining opponents, the Bears own the hardest remaining schedule in the NFL. That stretch includes two major division games: the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving and the Green Bay Packers in Chicago on Christmas Day.

Meanwhile, Chicago also has to face two current first-place teams in the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Buffalo Bills. Needless to say, nothing about the second half will come easy for this team.

Still, the Bears are on the path they want to be on, and the front office clearly views it that way too. Chicago traded two first-round picks to land All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, a move that has transformed the defense and signaled exactly where this team believes it’s headed. You don’t move that kind of draft capital unless you think the window is open right now. And the way the Bears are playing right now, they are going all in this season and still believe they’re the hunter, not the hunted.

“I can guarantee you that if an NFL player tells you that it’s not a thought of theirs to go to the Super Bowl, I would say they’re lying,” Simmons said. “But for me, it’s also just one day at a time, one game at a time. I really think everything will take care of itself. We have a great team and a lot of things go into that. If we can stay healthy and continue to get healthier, the sky’s the limit for this team. I truly feel that.”

The standard for this Chicago Bears team starts at the top

Everything this team is built on starts at the top with Bears head coach Ben Johnson. Chicago went after Johnson for the offensive mind he brings, but the championship standard he sets every single day has been just as important. And it’s been something the players have fully bought into.

“When you have a guy like that who’s in the building working his tail off and leading the ship, while also holding people accountable and all of the different things, it’s incredible what he’s able to do,” WR Rome Odunze said of Johnson. “Just the way he carries himself, the way he’s been in the building since Day 1, is really something that I look up to.”

That buy-in isn’t limited to the guys who have been in the building for two years, either. Simmons joined the roster in Week 8, coming over from a 1-7 Tennessee Titans team. He knew from the first day he walked into the facility that something was different. The mindset and culture throughout the entire building stood out to him immediately, and that’s a direct reflection of what Johnson has built in such a short amount of time.

“You can tell as I’m walking around the building and walking into team meetings, you can tell there’s a lot of confidence in that building,” Simmons said. “We see it on social media after games and Ben having his fun doing the stanky leg, that breeds confidence into your guys… It’s also one of those things where how can you not get guys comfortable. I think coach Ben is doing a helluva job of that by not letting guys get comfortable and telling them ‘Good ain’t good enough, there’s so much more in the tank.'”

Chicago Bears’ reaction to narrow Week 9 win tells you everything you need to know about this team

Clearly, that standard Johnson has created in Chicago has taken hold inside the locker room. And there was no better example of it than last Sunday night.

Chicago defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but it wasn’t pretty. The offense turned the ball over five times, the defense allowed some big plays, and special teams had its share of miscues as well. What could have been another high-scoring game for the Bears turned into a nail-biter. In years past, a Bears team would have walked into the locker room celebrating like it had just pulled off highway robbery coming away with a win like that. That’s not what happened this time around.

During the postgame “Good, Better, Best” speech led by Johnson, there were no cheers and no sense of triumph. Most of the team walked out of the locker room shaking their heads. They understood their performance against Tampa Bay fell well short of the championship standard they’ve set for themselves.

“We have a high standard,” Odunze explained. “I think we play to the standard. We don’t just play for wins and losses. Obviously that’s the biggest importance, but we play to a standard. We felt like, especially on the offensive side of the ball, we didn’t meet that standard and we’re going to be upset about that.”

That’s a good thing. It shows this team is focused on the right thing. The Bears aren’t fixated on the end goal, as great as it is to get a win in this league. Instead, they’re trying to be the best version of themselves in every moment, knowing that approach is what gets you to the finish line in the first place.

Bye week is about finding ways to improve, and tuning out the noise

That mindset carries into the bye week, where the focus is on finding the little ways to get better. Nobody in that building is satisfied or content with a 7-2 start. Johnson himself acknowledged the team isn’t playing at the level it needs to be yet, and that improvement will only come one day at a time.

At the same time, the noise on the outside is picking up, and rightfully so after the start Chicago has put together. However, that noise is only worth what you make of it. Let it get in your head, and it can be taken away just as fast as you earned it in this league.

The second half could go either way for this team, especially with how this division looks right now. Things can bottom out just as easily as they can continue at any moment, any given week. For now, though, the Bears continue to show they have the right mindset to handle what’s coming.

“We’re in a day of age where everybody sees everything on their cell phones,” Johnson said. “The message is ‘it’s in one ear, out the other.’ We have got to keep winning, we have got to win each and every week. We have got to go 1-0 this week. That’s all we care about… I believe in the coaching staff, I believe in the players, and I believe in our process. Our process is one of hard work and belief. That’s what we just continue to hone into.”