Vikings-Bears preview: J.J. McCarthy, Vikings kick off 2025 season opener on Monday Night Football

The Vikings kick off the regular season in the final game of Week 1, as J.J. McCarthy makes his NFL debut in the stadium where he saw his first NFL game at age 4. He’ll face Caleb Williams, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 draft who went nine spots ahead of McCarthy.

McCarthy has played in two preseason games for the Vikings, but as he sees it, Monday night is his first real action since Jan. 8, 2024, when he led Michigan to a national championship against Washington. “Gotta be four quarters for it to count,” he said last week.

Here’s a look at what to expect at Soldier Field:

Familiar faces in new places: McCarthy and Williams have known each other since they were high school quarterbacks in the Elite 11 camp in 2020, both doubting they had done enough to win MVP honors in the camp until Williams was announced as the winner. Williams has a year of experience, but McCarthy has familiarity with his coach: Williams is in his first year with former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, whose offenses helped Detroit go 5-1 against the Vikings while he was there.

“There’s some predicting, some forecasting what he uses, but no one has a crystal ball,” defensive coordinator Brian Flores said of Johnson. “We don’t know what Ben has cooked up. It’s really more about fundamentals and techniques. Week 1 is normally about that.”

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How will Bears cover Jefferson? In the first matchup between the teams last year, the Bears draped defenders around Justin Jefferson, giving him just 1.5 yards of average separation from the closest defender, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. The Bears played primarily Cover 3 and Cover 4 zones against Jefferson last season; it’ll be interesting if they take the same approach or use some of the man coverages that veteran defensive coordinator Dennis Allen typically likes to employ. Jaylon Johnson, the Bears corner who’d likely match up against Jefferson the most, has been dealing with calf and groin injuries, which could limit how much Allen wants him running with Jefferson. The Bears also added cornerback Kyler Gordon to their injury report with a hamstring injury on Sunday; the injuries to Johnson, Gordon and Josh Blackwell could put the Bears in a tough spot covering Jefferson.

New front gets first swing at Johnson’s offense: After becoming one of the NFL’s hottest coaching candidates this offseason, Johnson moved from Detroit to Chicago, where the Bears are trying to replicate many of the tenets of his offense that gave the Vikings so much trouble the past three years. The Bears revamped their offensive line, drafted Colston Loveland as their answer to Sam LaPorta and built an offense that could mirror Detroit’s. The Vikings will counter with a defensive front that should provide more interior pass rush than it did last year, with Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave in the middle of the group.

Williams could be in for a test: Williams threw for 340 yards in the Bears’ first game against the Vikings last year, thanks to some spellbinding moments while he was on the move. He threw for only 191 yards on 31 attempts in the second game, as the Vikings pressured him 40% of the game while allowing him to complete only four passes longer than 10 yards. The additions of Hargrave and Jonathan Allen to the Vikings defense, as well as the growth of Dallas Turner, could put Williams in a tough spot again on Monday night, if the Vikings can create the matchups they want against the Bears line.

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