In a recent article, I shared that the Bears are projected to have the seventh-hardest strength of schedule (SOS) per Sharp Football Analysis. When the schedule was released in May, the NFL announced that the Bears were projected to have the second-hardest SOS based on opponent win percentage (.571). Additional models forecast the Bears to have between the eighth-hardest to the hardest SOS. What makes these projections especially unfortunate for the Bears is that in 2024 they had the toughest actual SOS.