CHICAGO — In the NFL, where the next big event is rarely far off, the scouting combine is fast approaching. The league will descend on Indianapolis for a week beginning Feb. 23, and the start of the new league year March 11 isn’t far behind.

The Chicago Bears have been deep in scouting meetings, and the coaches have returned to Halas Hall after time off following the divisional playoff loss. With the organization seemingly set with the combination of coach Ben Johnson and quarterback Caleb Williams — the two biggest hurdles struggling franchises (see the Bears for most of the last two decades) usually are trying to clear — the perspective is different when considering areas of need and improvement.

After the Seattle Seahawks’ 29-13 demolition of the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX on Sunday, here are some related thoughts to the Bears offseason and the work ahead as they attempt to put together consecutive winning seasons for the first time in 20 years.

1. The Seahawks defensive front throttled the Patriots.

The Patriots punted on eight of their first nine possessions, with the outlier being a kneel-down at the end of the first half. In many respects, it was a mirror image of what the Philadelphia Eagles did to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl the year before, mauling Patrick Mahomes and Co. up front.

Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald and Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio employ similar 3-4 base fronts that are rooted in split-safety zone coverage. The safeties can fill the alleys against the run, and the teams have a competitive advantage when they can rush the quarterback with four defenders and drop seven in coverage.

There isn’t a lot of smoke and mirrors. Both schemes are highly disciplined, and to make it go, they rely on having monsters up front who can win one-on-one matchups.

Former Bears safety Adam Archuleta, an analyst for CBS, posted on social media that the Seahawks didn’t try to outsmart anybody.

“Genius isn’t tricking people, running exotic blitzes or using dozens of different coverages,” Archuleta wrote. “Genius is getting all 11 players on the same page and playing faster than the other team.”

The Seahawks sacked Patriots quarterback Drake Maye six times, just as Fangio’s defense sacked Mahomes six times a year ago. The Seahawks had seven defensive linemen and outside linebackers play 34% or more of the snaps, with Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy, Dexter Lawrence and Derick Hall all standing out. That’s the same thing Fangio got the year before with a wave of disruptive big men, including Jalen Carter, Milton Williams, Josh Sweat and Jordan Davis.

Macdonald mixed in blitzes using defensive backs, including former Illinois cornerback Devon Witherspoon, and that’s something Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen showed a knack for being able to do this past season.

A menacing pass rush has taken over three of the last five Super Bowls. Four years ago, the Los Angeles Rams tied the Super Bowl XX Bears with seven sacks, as Aaron Donald and Von Miller had two apiece and ex-Bear Leonard Floyd led the assault on the Cincinnati Bengals Joe Burrow. The 2015 Denver Broncos and the 1975 Pittsburgh Steelers “Steel Curtain” defense are the only others to have seven sacks in a Super Bowl.

The Bears aren’t going to move off of Allen’s 4-3 base scheme, but they will make the defensive line a priority this offseason. Allen was creative despite missing key pieces for big stretches of the season, and the results were generally strong. He got aggressive in the postseason as the Bears pressured Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love 17 times (eight QB hits) in the wild-card victory and the Rams’ Matthew Stafford 10 times (four sacks) in the divisional round.

Allen had to lean heavily into blitz packages. Over the course of the season, when the Bears rushed only four, the results were too inconsistent. The solution is finding more difference makers and more depth across the board — not just another edge rusher.

The Bears are bullish on the future of defensive end Austin Booker, who totaled 4 1/2 sacks and eight QB hits in the final six games, playoffs included, but competition is needed.

While it’s true that general manager Ryan Poles needs to address the defensive line beginning next month, it’s not like he didn’t make an effort last year. The Bears signed tackle Grady Jarrett and end Dayo Odeyingbo in free agency. They just didn’t provide the kind of high-level play the Bears got from the interior linemen they added on the offensive side. Jarrett battled through a right knee injury, and Odeyingbo suffered a torn Achilles tendon. Rookie end Shemar Turner, a second-round pick, was lost to a torn ACL.

Even with all three healthy, the Bears need some combination of upgrades and competition to elevate the profile of Allen’s defense. The timing is right because it’s a solid draft for defensive linemen.

Schematically, the Bears won’t look like the Seahawks or Eagles. But they should strive be in a position where they can create chaos with four linemen. Like Archuleta said, it doesn’t involve a trick. It just requires the right players.

2. No one needed to watch the Super Bowl to understand the Bears have to find a solution at left tackle.

Patriots rookie Will Campbell, drafted No. 4 last April, had a miserable showing, allowing 14 pressures (and 29 total in the playoffs). That fueled all sorts of discussion about Campbell’s arm length (measured at 32 5/8 inches at the combine last year) and how that makes it difficult for him to defend the edge against elite pass rushers.

New England managed to protect Campbell for much of the season, but when the Patriots ran into top-tier defenses with elite pass rushers in the playoffs, he got exposed time and again.

You can’t blame the Patriots for playing Campbell at left tackle as a rookie. No one was going to draft him that high and play him on the interior right away, and he was a highly regarded prospect coming out of LSU.

“I think he would be an unbelievable guard if someone has the (guts) to play him there,” a national scout for another team told me at this time last year, “but if you’re drafting him and you don’t have an established left tackle, you’re probably starting him there first and you see how he handles it.”

This ties back into the Bears, who used Braxton Jones, Theo Benedet, rookie second-round pick Ozzy Trapilo and finally All-Pro left guard Joe Thuney in the divisional-round loss at left tackle. Coach Ben Johnson and his staff had a lot of game plans over the course of the season in which it was clear a top priority was protecting the left tackle.

That meant helping whoever was lining up there that day with a variety of options, including Thuney, tight ends, running backs and even wide receivers. It meant bootlegs for Williams, quick games, running to the opposite side and just about everything else you can imagine. It was particularly evident in the first game against Green Bay as the Bears did all they could to prevent Micah Parsons from wrecking the offense.

The Patriots finally ran into an opponent in the Seahawks against whom they couldn’t protect Campbell adequately. He was exposed by the best defense in the NFL. He couldn’t handle speed off the edge or power down the middle, and that’s why his metrics and arm length are topics again.

As good of an offseason as Poles had turning the middle of the offensive line from a problem into the strength of the roster, the Bears were unable to upgrade at left tackle and wound up relying mostly on a college right tackle in Trapilo.

What the options are remains to be seen. It’s possible the Bears would consider re-signing Jones, who will be an unrestricted free agent. Trapilo’s recovery from a torn patellar tendon in his left knee could sideline him for the bulk of the 2026 season.

Surely the front office will evaluate potential options in Round 1 of the draft. The Bears have a snug salary-cap situation, currently projected at $5.3 million over the estimated total by Over The Cap. The champion Seahawks, for what it’s worth, are sixth in the league with an estimated $72.2 million in room.

3. Bears at Seahawks to open the 2026 season?

It could happen. The NFL usually lets the defending champion have a banner-raising ceremony on Thursday night of Week 1, and the Bears have a shot at being the opponent as the league typically seeks a marquee matchup.

Other potential opponents for Seattle: the Rams, San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinals, Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants and Patriots.

The league announced the Rams and 49ers will play a regular-season game in Melbourne, Australia, and most signs point to that game falling in Week 1, which would make sense given the travel requirements. Given the recent struggles of the Cardinals and Giants, you probably can remove them from consideration, and while the Chargers were a playoff team and would be a compelling matchup, they don’t drive big television numbers.

That leaves four juicy options: Williams and the Bears, Mahomes and the Chiefs, the defending AFC champion Patriots and the Cowboys, who remain a television darling. The last time the league had a Super Bowl rematch to open the season was 2016, when the Broncos and Carolina Panthers ran it back.

The Cowboys played on opening night this past season in Philadelphia. If the league doesn’t want them in this slot for a second consecutive year, the leading candidates (in no particular order) would be a Super Bowl rematch with the Patriots, the Chiefs and the Bears.

The Australia game could fall on a Wednesday or Thursday, so the Seahawks playing on a Thursday probably isn’t a lock.

4. The Patriots didn’t just have the easiest schedule in the NFL this season, it was the softest slate in more than 25 seasons.

New England’s regular-season opponents had a .391 winning percentage, and the Patriots played only three games against teams that finished with a winning record: two against the Buffalo Bills and one against the Steelers.

According to CBS Sports, the .391 winning percentage for opponents was tied for the third-easiest schedule in the last 50 years for any team — not just a Super Bowl qualifier. Only the 1999 Rams (.363) and 1979 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (.379) had softer schedules.

New England cruised to a 14-3 record, three games better than the Bears (11-6) — who played the fourth-easiest schedule (.458), also trailing the Broncos (.422) and Cowboys (.438).

Both the Bears and Patriots played the AFC North and went 3-1. The Patriots benefited from two games each against the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins and also feasted on the NFC South, sweeping those four teams. The Bears will take a run through the NFC South in 2026 with home games against the New Orleans Saints and Buccaneers and road trips to Atlanta and Carolina.

The Patriots’ postseason journey went through some highly talented defenses. The Chargers (ninth), Houston Texans (second), Broncos (third) and Seahawks (first) were all in the top 10 in scoring defense. The Chargers offensive line was beat to heck by injuries, and of course the Broncos were without starting quarterback Bo Nix.

All of the discussion about a quirky schedule and breaks along the way would have been a forgotten footnote had the Patriots won Sunday. Instead, it tells at least a small part of how they reached the Super Bowl stage.

If the NFC North remains highly competitive — a good bet — the Bears will have a challenging schedule in 2026.

5. When Seahawks outside linebacker Derick Hall sacked Drake Maye, forcing a fumble that teammate Byron Murphy recovered with 10 seconds remaining in the third quarter, Brad Maynard’s place in the Super Bowl record book was pretty safe.

The Patriots faced third-and-6 when Maye was sacked, and had he hung on to the ball, New England almost certainly would have asked Bryce Baringer to punt for the ninth time. Maynard holds the Super Bowl record for punts in one game: 11 as a member of the Giants in Super Bowl XXXV, a 34-7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, who had one of the best defenses in league history.

When the Seahawks scored less than two minutes later to go ahead 19-0, the game was close to over and the Patriots certainly weren’t going to be in position to punt three more times, let alone four.

“Should be safe now,” Maynard texted after the Maye turnover. “One of these days (the record will be broken). Hopefully you and I are in our 80s.”

Baringer is one of eight players to have eight or more punts in a Super Bowl. The Ravens’ Kyle Richardson — also in Super Bowl XXXV — is the only other punter with double digits. He had 10 in that game.

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