Montez Sweat and the Chicago Bears found themselves in an unfamiliar situation Tuesday morning.

Players and coaches gathered at Halas Hall a few days after the Bears ended the regular season with a loss to the Detroit Lions. But the Bears didn’t spend the day packing up their lockers and doing their last interviews with reporters before the offseason started.

Instead, the Bears started preparing for Saturday’s Wild Card matchup against the Green Bay Packers, their first playoff game since 2020.

“It’s everything,” Sweat, a defensive end, said Tuesday at Halas Hall in Lake Forest. “You’re usually packing the cars up, sending everything back home to home base and getting ready for the offseason. So it feels good preparing for the postseason right now.”

To many outside the building, the Bears’ 11-6 record, NFC North championship and No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs all seem ahead of schedule.

Many expected the Bears to take a big step in head coach Ben Johnson’s first season at the helm. The Bears had talent on their 5-12 team in 2024 and found ways to lose too many games in dramatic ways. However, few thought Chicago could earn a top seed and secure itself at least a couple of potential home games in the playoffs.

Tuesday wasn’t a surprise to many of the Bears, as much as it was unfamiliar. Johnson made it clear when he took over the offseason that he believed the organization was a sleeping giant that could contend for championships each season.

Now that Johnson’s vision came true, he set his new expectations as the Bears entered unfamiliar territory.

“We’re mentally prepared to play for five more weeks,” Johnson said. “And so that’s our intent. How do you do that? You go out and you win the first one. So we’re going to come in today, and we’re going to have a great day today. Meetings. Walkthrough. Short week. Opponent that we know. And we’re going to get ready for this one, and we’re going to go all out for this game.”

Chicago will need to do some learning on the go as it prepares for Saturday’s playoff opener.

The Bears have a younger group, primarily offensively, that doesn’t have much or any playoff experience. Three Bears – tight end Cole Kmet, cornerback Jaylon Johnson and kicker Cairo Santos – remain from the last Bears team that reached the playoffs. Meanwhile, Bears general manager Ryan Poles added veterans such as left guard Joe Thuney, who has won multiple Super Bowls.

Veteran safety Kevin Byard compared this year’s Bears team to the 2019 Tennessee Titans team he was a part of early in his career. The Titans had a young squad that season that snuck into the playoffs as an AFC No. 6 seed with a 9-7 record. Tennessee reached the AFC Championship game and lost to the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.

Byard values playoff experience. He said the playoffs feel like a whole new season and that the intensity will reach another level.

But there’s also value in a team knowing how to win in key situations, no matter how young the players are.

“I’ve been hearing the same noise about this team this year, as well,” Byard said. “So I just think for us, all together, just understanding how special this group is and going out there and just playing for each other, you know what I mean? It’s do or die at this point.”

The Bears have treated the last month’s games with a similar level of intensity as they tried to qualify for the playoffs. Three of the Bears’ final four opponents either qualified for the playoffs or finished the year above .500.

Chicago went 1-3 in those games. The team came back to beat the Packers in overtime in Week 16 and lost close games to the Packers, San Francisco 49ers and Lions, gaining valuable experience along the way.

“Just a lot of experience in a lot of different situations that we can learn from,” Kmet said. “Some of them we’ve executed well. Some of them we haven’t. Those are all things we can take in, learn from and bring into the playoffs. We don’t have a lot of experience in that regard. And I think that will bode well for us here, especially in this first game.”

Players and coaches were excited about what they had accomplished this season as they reflected Tuesday. The team accomplished a lot of firsts this year, including its first NFC North title since 2018 and its highest seed in the playoffs since the 2010 playoffs.

“It’s everything. You’re usually packing the cars up, sending everything back home to home base and getting ready for the offseason. So it feels good preparing for the postseason right now.”

—  Montez Sweat, Chicago Bears defensive end

But the Bears don’t feel like they accomplished anything yet in their first prep for a playoff game in five years. Johnson set the goal of ending the season on a four-game winning streak, ending with a Super Bowl title.

Those are the expectations, no matter how unfamiliar they might be.

“That’s what our mission is,” Kmet said. “So we have to take care of this first one here in order to be on our path there. But yeah, this season has been a lot of fun. It has been a great locker room to be a part of. I’ve had a lot of fun with the guys in there. We just want to keep moving on, and the only way to do that is to win on Saturday.”