Mile High Report
Week 1 of the 2025 regular season wraps up with the Minnesota Vikings on the road against the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football. Two first round picks in the 2024 NFL Draft will square off for the first time with Caleb Williams and J.J. McCarthy taking the field for their respective teams.
Kickoff is set for Monday, September 8, 2025 at 6:15 p.m. Mile High time at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois and fair on ESPN/ABC.
According to FanDuel, the Vikings are 1.5-point favorites on the road over the Bears. First round rookies rarely fare well in their debut game and I expect that to be the case here with McCarthy. The real question is whether the Vikings defense comes back with the same efficiency it has last season. That is the one they could keep this game close and keep Caleb Williams from having any kind of success. Carrying over defensive success from one season to the next is not easily done in the modern NFL, so I’m going to go with the Bears here.
Prediction: Bears 20, Vikings 12
