Why Week 1 provides the Chicago Bears to finally walk the walk expected of them in 2024

LAKE FOREST, Ill. - The Chicago Bears have felt it all preseason long.

From the moment Caleb Williams walked across the stage as the No. 1 overall pick, joining a loaded offense and an established defense, the jolts of excitement grew into anticipation for what the Bears could be in 2024.

On Monday, the Bears started their preparation for Week 1. The regular season opener against the Tennessee Titans will have more anticipation surrounding Williams' debut.

It's also the start for a Bears team looking to move past excitement and anticipation.

This is a team that wants to do what it was built to accomplish and make the Bears a franchise that wins games. 

"It sounds good, it seems good," Bears' cornerback Johnson said. "All that matters is what we're going to do this weekend."

The Bears have not finished a season over .500 since the 2018 season, then-head coach Matt Nagy's first year, when the team went 12-4 and made the playoffs.

The two following years under Nagy were 8-8 seasons, which sits right at .500. Now, with a 17-game schedule, there's no way to finish right at that mediocre line. Either you're a winning team, or you're a losing team.

The Bears have been more synonymous with the latter, winning 15 games in three seasons and just 10 in head coach Matt Eberflus' first two seasons.

The first step in reversing the narrative is always to build a winning team. The second is to get that team ready to play, which the team feels it has done.

"I can feel this team coming together faster," Eberflus said.

Now comes the third step: winning games.

For all the talent the Bears have on their roster, some of their biggest names haven't won games. Moore, for example, has never been on a team that finished with a record over .500.

"Every year I wanted to be on a winning team," receiver DJ Moore said. "I have happened to be on the losing side for six years."

That kind of record has fed into more desire than anticipation around Halas Hall.

On Monday, Johnson and Moore described that desire to win. Not only has it eluded them before, but it's also something the team is united around.

"We just all have a common goal," Johnson said. "Guys that have won games and guys that have not won at all."

The Bears don't need a reminder of how dangerous excitement can be.

They opened last year against the Green Bay Packers at home and were, putting it lightly, beat down. The offense turned the ball over and Jordan Love carved up a defense slowed by lack of preseason reps.

Avoiding that type of let down is paramount for a season that can be massively different. It starts with Eberflus, and the players notice the steps he's taking to establish structure with a team that's done rebuilding.

"The leadership has evolved underneath him," Johnson said of Eberflus. "Being transparent, those who were leaders, they were all pushed out or let go. I think we kind of had to re-identify who those leaders want to be."

Those leaders are players like Moore and Johnson.

Moore, voted captain for the second year in a row, said he knows it's partially a popularity contest. He likes his role as "class clown" but knows that act drops when he steps on the field.

His leadership style is leading by example. When he gets on the field, he wants his teammates to see his focus solely landing on winning football games.

The focus on winning games started in the offseason. Now this Bears team, tired of anticipation, wants to prove it can do what it was built for.

"We got to get through Week 1," Moore said. "At the end of the year, we'll know if that anticipation was right."