CHICAGO — If you believe the Chicago Bears won the offseason — a competition loosely run between January and June — anticipation for how they will fare when things really matter should be peaking with the regular season nearly here.

The club completed moves to establish an initial 53-man roster on Tuesday, and now attention turns to the Sept. 8 season opener against the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field.

If the Bears are going to climb their way out of the NFC North cellar and eventually challenge in the division on a year-in and year-out basis, Caleb Williams will have to blossom as the quarterback the organization envisions him becoming.

First, the Bears will have to be much better on both sides of the line of scrimmage. Their play last season — when they allowed a league-high 68 sacks, ranked 28th in run defense and had a pass rush that ranked 16th with 40 sacks but never seemed consistent — should have been an affront to personnel men who believe in building a roster from the inside out.

It’s easy to have tunnel vision when thinking ahead to the season. It’s easy to dream on Williams and what he can do with new head coach Ben Johnson, whose hiring was a considerable victory for the franchise in the tabulation of offseason success. It’s fun to wonder what last year’s No. 1 draft pick can do with Rome Odunze, DJ Moore, Luther Burden, Olamide Zaccheaus, Colston Loveland, Cole Kmet and more. It’s also instructive to note that the teams playing deep into January every winter are almost always ones that win at the point of attack, where the Bears have lost all too regularly in recent years.

If the Bears want to challenge, they’ve got to be better on the offensive and defensive lines, so that’s where a really close look at the roster needs to begin. After all, that’s where general manager Ryan Poles put his focus and his resources.

The Bears traded for guards Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson (and gave both contract extensions after acquiring them), made Drew Dalman the third-highest-paid center in the league, and added tackle Ozzy Trapilo and guard Luke Newman via the draft. It wasn’t a total makeover of the offensive line, but pretty close.

“Feel really good about that position now,” Poles said.

The Bears don’t feel good enough to officially name Braxton Jones the starting left tackle yet. That designation should come next week. He was the only left tackle to play with the starting unit in the last two preseason games and his experience with 40 career starts made him the likely choice all along.

“We’re going to have a starter Week 1 and we’ll go from there,” Johnson said. “I said it a few weeks ago — we feel good about the guys we have in that room. Someone’s going to take the bull by the horns and is going to completely take over. But we’re not afraid to make a change if the performance isn’t where it needs to be. We’ll make that decision going into next week.”

Maybe Johnson wants to reinforce the notion in the locker room and publicly that jobs are still wide open for competition. Jones is going to have to play well to keep his spot. The coach has spoken multiple times about having a better idea where everything is after four games, when the Bears have a bye and competition is for every spot, not just the quarterback’s blind side.

But the pocket with Thuney/Dalman/Jackson in the middle will be much improved and there’s a blend of backup options with now-healthy Ryan Bates, Theo Benedet and Newman, who really impressed for a sixth-rounder during camp and preseason.

“I think that (Kansas City) game was pretty good in terms of how they held up,” Poles said. “The pocket was pretty strong. We’ve seen in the run game, really through training camp, you can see hip to hip, four numbers getting movement, and that’s something we have to be good at to have success on offense this year, and I felt like you could see that throughout training camp and in the preseason games.”

On the defensive side, Poles buttressed the line in free agency with end Dayo Odeyingbo and tackle Grady Jarrett, then added a penetrating interior option in the second round of the draft in Shemar Turner. So, he used money and cap space as well as Day 2 and Day 3 draft picks to not just fortify the lines but really overhaul them.

How Odeyingbo fits in will be interesting. Montez Sweat needs to perform like an elite talent all year, something he fell short of in 2024. Even with a flurry of huge paydays for elite edge rushers, the contract the Bears gave him in the middle of the 2023 season still stands ninth in the league ($24.5 million annual average). The play needs to be commensurate with the pay.

If Odeyingbo, who is capable of pushing toward 10 sacks in a season, can be the complementary player who has been missing, that will help Sweat. Austin Booker was really good in the preseason with four sacks before a knee injury sidelined him. That he didn’t start the season on injured reserve with a designation to return is a good sign. One source said it was considered a three- to five-week injury. If it’s on the low end, maybe he’s ready sometime around Week 1 or 2.

But the pass rush has got to be there so that defensive coordinator Dennis Allen doesn’t have to be overly reliant on scheming to get to the quarterback. And the defense has to be leaps and bounds better against the run.

“This was the best training camp Montez has had,” Poles said. “He’s in really good shape, ready to go. I think (Gervon) Dexter’s ready to make a move. And then when you put those guys together with (Grady Jarrett), he’s been a great addition, not only on the field but his leadership, that whole group is really lifted in terms of their play and their mentality.

“Then with Dennis, I’m sure there are things we haven’t even seen yet in terms of him helping and enhancing and creating confusion to get to the quarterback.”

The lines are where the biggest roster moves were made in an offseason that featured a lot of news and headlines. It’s where the Bears have to see major improvement if they want to be competitive on a consistent basis.

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