Saints could set a franchise opponent record with Week 7 win in Chicago

Andrew Lang

The New Orleans Saints visit the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field in Week 7 at noon on Oct. 19 with the broadcast on FOX. The Saints have taken the last seven meetings against the Bears, which is tied for the most consecutive wins against a single opponent in franchise history.

Let's take a deeper look at the Saints'Week 7opponent, the Chicago Bears:

2025 NFL WEEK 7: NEW ORLEANS SAINTS at CHICAGO BEARS

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Meet your Saints opponent: Chicago Bears

Coach:Ben Johnson

Quarterback:Caleb Williams

2024 record:5-12, fourth in NFC North East

Most recent regular season matchup:Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023 - Saints 24, Bears 17

Bears-Saints series record:Saints lead 19-15 (including three postseason games)

Chicago Bears 2024 season recap:

The Bears started off the 2024 season strong, getting out to a 4-2 start which was tied for third in the NFC North and within striking distance of the division leading 5-0 Minnesota Vikings. From there, the season would go downhill as the Bears would begin a 10-game losing streak. The Bears would dismiss head coach Matt Eberflus following Week 13 and name Thomas Brown as interim head coach. The Bears broke their losing streak in the final week of the season with a 24-22 win over the rival Green Bay Packers to end the season 5-12, fourth in the NFC North. They missed the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season.

Deep Dive: Chicago Bears roster review

1. New look interior offensive line

The Bears went into the offseason looking to improve an offensive line that conceded the most sacks in the NFL in 2024 with 68. They traded for three-time Pro Bowler and four-time Super Bowl champion left guard Joe Thuney with 146 career starts with the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs. They also traded for one-time Pro Bowl guard Jonah Jackson (61 career starts) after a season with the Los Angeles Rams and center Drew Dalman in free agency with 40 career starts with the Atlanta Falcons.

"'Smart' is a word that comes to mind, particularly with the interior players," Bears Coach Ben Johnsonsaid about the trades for the two guards. "We love to have some versatility to our scheme, some multiplicity if you will and so we've got a couple guys in the building now that we feel strongly can handle a variety of different concepts and schemes that we might want to employ each and every week."

2. New offensive scheme under Ben Johnson

The Bears hired Ben Johnson as head coach after several successful seasons as the Lions offensive coordinator. Johnson led the Lions to the NFL's fifth-best scoring offense in 2022 and 2023 before putting together the league's top ranked unit in 2024. Johnson said the Bears offense will look different than in 2024 including putting quarterback Caleb Williams under center. In 2024, the Bears ran 70.8% of their plays out of the shotgun formation, tied for 16th most in the NFLaccording to the team website. The Lions ran 44% of their plays from shotgun, the lowest percentage in the league.

"There are some things that we're going to encourage that he looks to do a little bit differently," Johnson said. "He's been predominantly a shotgun quarterback for most of his high school and college career, and so he's very comfortable there. We're going to work to see the comfort level under center and how much of that applies. We had a lot of success where I was last, that going under center for the run game did translate in play-action."

3. Grady Jarrett bolsters defensive interior

The Bears added a familiar foe in free agency in former Falcons defensive lineman Grady Jarrett. The two-time Pro Bowler is heading into his 11th season in the NFL after finishing 2024 with 53 tackles and 2.5 sacks. Jarrett has played in 18 career games against the Saints and recorded 61 tackles and 6.0 sacks, the most sacks against any team he has faced.