Bears 2025 Season in Review

Thirty-three takeaways. Number one in the entire National Football League. That's the headline of the 2025 Chicago Bears — a defense that didn't always stop you, but had an unnatural gift for ripping the ball away when it mattered. Here's how Caleb Williams took a real step in year two, how a power-running game finished top five in the league, and the one weakness that ended this thing one overtime short of the Conference Championship. Eleven and six. First NFC North title since 2018. A Wild Card win over the Packers, then a heartbreaker — seventeen to twenty in overtime to the Rams in the Divisional Round. The Cardiac Bears were real, and the numbers say they were no fluke.

Start with the team-level portrait. Chicago's offense finished plus 87.1 in total expected points added — how much every snap improved their scoring chances — landing them eighth in the league, seventy-eighth percentile. The defense allowed plus 18.5, middle of the pack at nineteenth, but the takeaway machine more than papered over it. Thirty-three forced turnovers, first in football. Third down was solid at 42.5 percent, twelfth in the league, and the field goal unit hit 33 of 39. The week-to-week shape was wild — a 52-point beatdown in Detroit in Week 2, a 47-42 shootout win in Cincinnati in Week 9, a Week 15 31-3 dismantling of Cleveland. Boom-or-bust. They learned to win the boom games and steal the close ones.

Now let's talk about the passing offense. The Bears posted plus 47.9 in passing expected points added on 602 attempts — tenth in the league, seventy-second percentile — and threw for 234.8 yards a game. Caleb Williams finished with 3,942 yards, 27 touchdowns, just 7 interceptions, and only 24 sacks taken behind a pass protection unit that ranked in the ninety-fourth percentile for keeping him clean. Here's the catch — his completion percentage over expected was minus 6.9, one of the lower marks among starting quarterbacks. Translation: boom-or-bust accuracy, great at avoiding disaster and explosive when he hit, but the down-to-down still has another gear. The signature throw of the year tells you everything — Week 9 in Cincinnati, 25 seconds left, Chicago down 42-41, first and ten from their own 42. Williams stepped up and ripped a 58-yard touchdown down the middle to rookie tight end Colston Loveland to steal a 47-42 win. Loveland led the team with 58 catches for 713 yards and 6 touchdowns. Feast or famine — but the feasts won them games.

Now let's dig into the rushing offense, because this is where Chicago really smashed. Plus 33 in rushing expected points added — fourth in the league, ninety-first percentile. 4.8 yards a carry, third in football. 144 rushing yards a game. A top-five ground game any way you slice it, and the steady floor under the offense's volatility — when the pass game sputtered, the run kept the chains moving. D'Andre Swift was the engine: 223 carries for 1,087 yards, 4.9 a pop, 9 rushing touchdowns, and plus 128 rushing yards over expected on the season. The most consistent unit on this team, week in and week out, and it's why even the losses tended to be competitive.

Next up, the pass defense — the unit with the split personality. The raw numbers are mediocre: 239 passing yards allowed per game, 32 passing touchdowns surrendered, plus 17.8 in passing expected points added allowed, right at league average. The pass rush was a real problem — 35 sacks, twenty-fourth in the league, twenty-eighth percentile. They simply did not get home enough. But the ball-hawking? Otherworldly. Twenty-three interceptions, ten fumble recoveries, thirty-three takeaways total — best in football. Safety Tremaine Edmunds was the heartbeat, with a fourth-and-goal interception against Dallas in Week 3 that captured the unit's identity: bend a lot, then take the ball away when the other team gets close. Sustainable? That's the question. In 2025, it worked.

And the run defense. Tighter paragraph because the story's tighter. Chicago allowed 134.8 rushing yards a game and plus 0.68 in rushing expected points added allowed — basically zero per carry. Nineteenth in the league, forty-fourth percentile. Steady floor, low ceiling. Not a strength, not a glaring weakness. They surrendered 15 rushing touchdowns, a fine number, and the splash plays came when the front got disruptive — Andrew Billings and Noah Sewell stripped Ashton Jeanty on fourth-and-one in Week 4 against the Raiders, and Chicago recovered at the 20. Plays like that papered over a unit that, on neutral downs, was just okay. If the Bears want to push past where they finished, the front seven needs to win more snaps before it forces the splash.