The Foundation-ish: Several players made great strides throughout the 2025 season as the Bears established their core for the future.

But don’t let that fool you. An NFC Divisional Round exit wasn’t the game plan. The results, while fun and inspiring to the fans, weren’t enough.

Since the season ended on Sunday, we’ve talked ad nauseam about the unknown. “Who’s coming back next season?” Can the Bears afford to keep this guy?”

That complicates things. And because it’ll be a different group in the building next fall, it’s time to start over.

Johnson said Wednesday: “There is no building off of this. We go back to square one. We're back at the bottom again, and that's really all 32 teams. If you feel otherwise, you're probably missing the big picture. We have got to start from scratch. We have to start from the fundamentals. … We have to dig a little bit deeper. We have to work a little bit harder. We have to give a little bit more if we want to take this thing over the top.”

But Johnson was still complimentary of where the Bears can build heading into 2026.

Johnson on Caleb Williams: “We revamped the footwork a little bit last spring, and I think the comfort level grew from that. He certainly got more comfortable with the concepts that we were running over the course of the season. That's something that we can build upon, and yet there's still a lot more that we can push through in that regard. And so, I'm really encouraged about the steps he took this year. I'm Caleb Williams' number one believer. I have a lot of faith in him, what he's capable of doing, and the player that he's still striving to become.”

Johnson on the offense’s growth: “Upfront, this offensive line, I feel like we have something to really build upon there. We’ve got weapons on the perimeter. Our quarterback's going to be a special player in this league. I think it starts there. Our run game picked up as the year went on, which I think was desperately needed. … I think we did a number of really good things on offense, and yet we haven't even scratched the surface of what we're fully capable of yet.”

Timetables: That’s where things get interesting, especially with the offensive line.

Ozzy Trapilo, who suffered a significant patellar injury in the Bears’ wild-card win against the Packers, had surgery and has begun his long rehabilitation process.

Poles on Trapilo: “Really unfortunate because I thought that he was really coming along, I was looking forward to him getting this offseason. I don't have a specific timetable. I'm sure that it will be somewhere deep into next year, for the injury.”

Jordan McFadden, who made his lone start of the year in the NFC Divisional loss, suffered an ankle injury in the game. He is expected make a full recovery over the offseason.

Shemar Turner, Dayo Odeyingbo, T.J. Edwards, Terell Smith and Kiran Amegadjie, who all suffered season-ending injuries, are rehabbing and expected back this offseason, too.

Zah Frazier, the Bears’ 2025 fifth-round selection who missed the season due to a personal matter, will return in 2026. He posted earlier this month that he was medically cleared to return.

Poaching: The Kansas City Chiefs will, in fact, hire Eric Bieniemy away from the Bears as their new offensive coordinator.

Defensive backs coach Al Harris interviewed for the Green Bay Packers’ defensive coordinator opening on Wednesday. He is also expected to receive interest from the Washington Commanders for their DC vacancy.

Ben Johnson on losing coaches to promotions: “When you have success, and you win games, normally that's what happens. … And I'm all for it, man. I want these guys to continue to ascend, anything I can do to help them out. I think they all know I'm more than willing to do that.

“But a big part of what this collection of guys brought to the table was they all wanted to be here. You know, that was a big thing for me. I want guys that want to be here. So if a guy wants to continue to build upon what we started, then I would love that as well.

“But this is a five-star staff and it's no surprise to me that we got a number of coaches that are garnering interest right now.”