The Chicago Bears travel to Carolina to take on the Panthers on Sunday afternoon.

The Bears have a 9-4 edge against the Panthers, and they'll hope to move to double-digit wins tomorrow. Many believe they're in a good position to do that, too.

Despite both teams making the playoffs last season and the Bears traveling into the Panthers' cage, they're favored by three points (according to DraftKings Sportsbook) for the inter-conference clash.

There are a few reasons for optimism heading into the Week 1 contest. Likewise, a few players have matchups to be bullish on. Let's get bold with some of those mismatches.

The Bears pick off Bryce Young two times

Bryce Young tends to struggle in Week 1. Like, really struggle. He's completed less than half his passes across his three season openers and has thrown two interceptions in each of those games (along with only two total touchdowns).

We think he'll add two more INTs to his tally against the Bears on Sunday. They might've lost both starting safeties in the offseason, and one of the guys they picked to replace them, Coby Bryant, got hurt in training camp, but they still have opportunistic players across the entire defense.

Notably, Al Harris is still coaching the defensive backs. Takeaways seem to follow him wherever he goes, and the Bears will still be major players in that department this season despite losing some key players this offseason.

Austin Booker gets two sacks on Bryce Young

Austin Booker is in a good position to carry the momentum he had late last season into 2026. The Panthers have solid depth along their offensive line, but they'll still be starting backups at both offensive tackle spots against Chicago.

With Booker primarily lining up on the right side, he'll be lining up against Rasheed Walker, who signed with Carolina from Green Bay this offseason. That's a matchup he won handily in their three clashes last season. He had 1.5 sacks and 3 QB hits (he also had another sack taken away due to a penalty) across those games.

Monroe Freeling will be making his first career start lining up against Montez Sweat on the other side. That'll make it difficult for them to slide protection to help Walker out. Booker should be able to take full advantage of that fact.

D'Andre Swift rushes for 125 yards

The Bears' newest $33.75 million man will be eager to show that the Bears were smart to invest in him this season. He should be able to get off to a strong start in that regard against the Panthers.

Carolina's defense was much better against the pass than the run last season. They had the 19th-ranked rush defense and gave up 123.3 yards on the ground per game. The Bears will want to limit Kyle Monangai's touches in Week 1, and D'Andre Swift's fantasy owners will be the beneficiaries in that regard. He'll beat that mark on his lonesome on Sunday.

The Panthers drafted Texas Tech defensive tackle Lee Hunter in the second round, but it'll take time for him to learn the ropes. Edge rusher Jaelan Phillips is good against the run, but Princely Umanmielen will start on the other side with Patrick Jones II nursing a back injury.

Chicago's running game stumbled out of the gate last season. They won't have that issue heading into 2026.

The Bears score a touchdown on special teams

The offense won't be the only one getting into the action against Carolina. Zavion Thomas will also pick up where he left off in the preseason finale against the Tennessee Titans. This time, he'll finish the job and take either a kick or punt return to the house.

To the Panthers' credit, they were great in the kick return coverage game during the 2025 campaign. According to The Football Database, they allowed the second-fewest yards per kickoff return (22.58) last season. However, they also lost two key special teams contributors, Isaiah Simmons and Brycen Tremayne, this offseason.

More importantly, the Bears seemed to have landed a good one in Thomas. Sure, it was preseason, but that's really only a valid reason to throw cold water on his 140 receiving yards. Special teams is where players taking part in the final preseason contest tend to thrive. They have to if they want to stick around. That didn't prevent Thomas from making the Titans' special teams unit look silly on a few occasions, though.

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