Bears players have chosen five season-long captains: quarterback Caleb Williams and left guard Joe Thuney on offense; defensive tackle Grady Jarrett and linebacker T.J. Edwards on defense; and kicker Cairo Santos on special teams.

"Huge recognition for those guys voted by their peers, and a lot of responsibility comes with that," said coach Ben Johnson. "Obviously, they represent the locker room to the coaches, but also to the fan base as well. They're everything we want to be about, and they go about their business the right way, so really proud of those guys."

Williams, Thuney, Jarrett and Santos were Bears captains last season as well, while Edwards replaces safety Kevin Byard III, who is now with the Patriots.

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, Williams has now been voted a captain in each of his first three seasons with the Bears.

"It's an honor," Williams said. "I'm very grateful. It's something that I don't take lightly. It's really cool, to be honest. It's my third year in the league, and I've been a captain for the three years. That doesn't happen every year, that doesn't happen often. So just being able to be in this position, [I'm] blessed."

Hot corner

Johnson described cornerback Jaylon Johnson as "one of those guys that ended camp really strong." After two straight Pro Bowl selections in 2023-24, the veteran DB underwent core muscle surgery last season and was limited to seven games.

"That second half of camp, you could feel his presence more," said the Bears coach. "He's always been really cerebral. He's a smart player. He's smart in the building, in the meeting room as well, very deliberate in what he does, has a lot of intent with what he does. And yet, I could feel a fire lit under him. I don't know what it was, but you could feel it really ignite there, back half of the training camp. He's been really strong. I don't know if it's a confidence level — you'd have to ask him if that's the case — but from my perspective, I think we got a player that has a chance to be playing his best football this year."

Off and running

The Bears are determined to get off to a faster start than last season, when they opened 0-2 with losses to the Vikings and Lions. They closed by winning 11 of their final 15 games to finish 11-6.

"That's the whole intent of training camp is to make sure that we're good to go for the first quarter of the season," Johnson said. "The best teams in the NFL, they start fast and they end well. They're able to handle whatever adversity comes their way … [when] guys go down, other guys step up. They beat teams with winning records and playoff teams. We've got one of those Week 1 as well.

"I don't think there's any secret to coming out of the gate hot. All 32 teams want to do that right now. As a coach, a trap that I've run into in the past is trying to bite off a little more than you can chew early on the season. Really, our intent as a coaching staff is [to] come out and play fast."

Asked if the onus will be on the offense to take an early lead, Johnson said: "Well, it's the responsibility of the offense to score every time we hit the grass. That's how we view it. Of course, there's complementary football. We'd love to get a lead and protect the lead. If we don't happen to play the game that way and we're behind, we've got to find a way to come back."

As is the case every season, Johnson conceded there are a lot of unknowns heading into Week 1.

"We'll find out a lot about this team," he said. "We won't know Week 1 who we are yet. That's where this first month, all of September, is going to be a lot of trying to figure out who this 2026 team is and where we need to complement each other.

"But I'm really proud of how these guys ended camp. I thought the last two or three weeks, I thought we got some really high-quality work in, some really intense training sessions. I think we put ourselves in a position to play well early in the season."

Odunze day-to-day

While the first official injury report for Sunday's opener won't be released until Wednesday, Johnson said that receiver Rome Odunze is day-to-day with a calf injury he sustained last Thursday in practice.

"I don't believe he'll be out there today," said the Bears coach. "But we're hopeful he'll be ready to go on Sunday."

Johnson added that Odunze's injury is not related to the foot issue that hampered him during the second half of last season.