The Bears got no penalty luck in 2025

The Bears’ 2025 season was about as chaotic as a season could get. As far as potential events that can impact the result of a game, Chicago witnessed extremes on both ends of the spectrum.

For one, the Bears led the NFL with 33 turnovers forced in 2025. It’s possible to replicate a high level of turnover success, but considering that four of the top 10 teams in turnovers forced from 2024 also finished in the top 10 in 2025, it’s not incredibly likely. One could argue the rate at which they consistently came from behind could be tough to replicate in 2026, as well.

However, there were two negative things that luckily shouldn’t be translatable year over year. The first one being the injuries the Bears faced: they led the NFL with the most games missed by players due to injury in 2025. Notable defenders like Jaylon Johnson, Kyler Gordon, Austin Booker, Dayo Odeyingbo, and Shemar Turner all multiple months at a time with injuries. Some of the disruption they faced in going from Braxton Jones to Theo Benedet to Ozzy Trapilo at left tackle came from the former two both suffering injuries, as well.

Another key statistic that didn’t help Chicago at all was the lack of penalty luck they received from their opponents.

Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis posted on Twitter/X on Thursday, ranking all 32 NFL teams by how many penalty yards were called against their opponents in 2025. The Bears ranked dead last:

With the new kickoff rules, let’s say the average field position in today’s NFL starts off at their own 30-yard line. If the Bears got 140 more penalty yards called in their opponents’ favor, that’s two full touchdown drives in Chicago’s favor, and they’d still be in the bottom 10 in penalty yards called on opponents.

Three of the Bears’ six regular season losses came by fewer than a touchdown. If you add in one of those aforementioned two touchdown drives to two of their losses, the Bears end up 13-4. You never know.

Granted, am I going to look at every play to see how many missed penalty yards the Bears lost from bad calls by referees? Absolutely not. This statistic has little to no bearing on how the referees called games. Rather, it mainly goes to show the bad luck Chicago got on penalties being called on their opponents in 2025. Here’s hoping they get a little more luck in 2026.