Chicago Bears

The most storied rivalry in football is generating some good stories.

After the Bears beat the Packers in the playoffs (it was only the third postseason meeting between the franchises), Chicago coach Ben Johnson declared in the locker room, “Fuck the Packers! Fuck them!” Addressing his reaction later, Johnson’s explanation was simple, “I don’t like that team.”

In a visit this week with PFT Live, Johnson was asked to elaborate.

“Who likes the Packers?” Johnson said.

The next question focused on whether Johnson is simply leaning into his job as head coach of the Bears, or whether he truly doesn’t like the Packers.

“The Bears and the Packers, they should not like each other,” Johnson said. “I think it’s as simple as that. And I think that’s gonna make this rivalry, this game, something that people are going to watch here going forward.”

He’s right about that. Even though the NFL tends to market itself, a WWE-style effort to stir things up a bit only makes an upcoming game more compelling. Case in point: Every network and streamer will be jockeying with 345 Park Avenue to televise one of the two games between Chicago and Green Bay during the 2026 season.

But there’s another side to it. Johnson has made Packers coach Matt LaFleur a periodic pin cushion, starting with Johnson’s introductory press conference more than a year ago. Within the high-turnover coaching industry, where relationships among coaches with other teams fuel future employment prospects, open hostility from one head coach to another is rare.

Johnson was asked whether he has talked to LaFleur, who seems to be confused by all of it.

“We don’t talk,” Johnson said.

Does he want it that way?

“I’m good with it.”

Has he tried to reach out?

“No.”

Bears fans love it. The YouTube version of the full interview and the social-media clips drew significant attention, with nearly 600,000 views. Chicago sports radio was buzzing.

So, yes, it’s good for business — ours and the NFL’s — for Johnson to embrace and to reflect the basic reality that the Bears and Packers should not like each other. In an age where players come and go far more often than they did in the days before free agency and the salary cap, the hatred the fans feel toward a rival isn’t shared by the men in uniform.

Johnson is taking a very different approach. To the delight of everyone in Chicago, and Bears fans everywhere.

Teams making decisions about picking up the fifth-year options on the contracts of their 2023 first-round picks now know how much that will cost.

The NFL revealed the values on Friday afternoon. There are four levels of compensation at each position. Players who have made multiple Pro Bowls as an original selection are at the top followed by players with one Pro Bowl selection and players who have hit playing time milestones before reaching the lowest level.

Panthers quarterback Bryce Young and Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud were the first two picks of that draft and both of them reached the playing time level of compensation. That will leave them with fully guaranteed salaries of $25.904 million if the teams decide to exercise the options, but longer-term extensions are also a possibility now that they have finished their third seasons.

The full list of 2023 first-rounders — there were 31 that year because the Dolphins were stripped of their pick — and their fifth-year option salaries appears below:

1. Panthers QB Bryce Young — $25.904 million (playing time).
2. Texans QB C.J. Stroud — $25.904 million (playing time).
3. Texans DE Will Anderson — $21.512 (Pro Bowl).
4. Colts QB Anthony Richardson — $22.483 million (base).
5. Seahawks CB Devon Witherspoon — $21.161 million (multiple Pro Bowls).
6. Cardinals OT Paris Johnson — $19.072 million (playing time).
7. Raiders DE Tyree Wilson — $14.475 million (base).
8. Falcons RB Bijan Robinson — $11.323 million (Pro Bowl).
9. Eagles DT Jalen Carter — $27.127 million (multiple Pro Bowls).
10. Bears OT Darnell Wright — $19.072 million (playing time).
11. Titans OG Peter Skoronski — $19.072 million (playing time).
12. Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs — $14.293 million (multiple Pro Bowls).
13. Packers DE Lukas Van Ness — $14.475 million (base).
14. Steelers OT Broderick Jones — $19.072 million (playing time).
15. Jets DE Will McDonald — $14.475 million (base).
16. Rams CB Emmanuel Forbes — $12.633 million (base).
17. Patriots CB Christian Gonzalez — $18.119 million (Pro Bowl).
18. Lions LB Jack Campbell — $21.925 million (Pro Bowl).
19. Buccaneers DT Calijah Kancey — $15.451 (playing time).
20. Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba — $23.852 million (Pro Bowl).
21. Chargers WR Quentin Johnston — $18 million (playing time).
22. Ravens WR Zay Flowers — $27.298 million (multiple Pro Bowls).
23. Vikings WR Jordan Addison — $18 million (playing time).
24. Giants CB Deonte Banks — $12.633 million (base).
25. Bills TE Dalton Kincaid — $8.162 million (base).
26. Jets DT Mazi Smith — $13.391 million (base) Smith was traded to the Jets by the Cowboys.
27. Jaguars OT Anton Harrison — $19.072 million (playing time).
28. Bengals DE Myles Murphy — $14.475 million (base).
29. Saints DT Bryan Bresee — $13.391 million (base).
30. Eagles LB Nolan Smith — $13.752 million (base).
31. Chiefs Felix Anudike-Uzomah — $14.475 million (base).

Two different states continue to jockey for the ability to host the next Bears stadium.

Indiana currently is moving closer to finalizing legislation that would help fund a venue near the Illinois border. Via Kayla Dwyer of the Indianapolis Star, the Indiana Senate has passed by a 45-4 vote a bill that teed up the issue for the desk of Governor Mike Braun. Later in the day, Braun signed the bill into law.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that an Illinois legislative committee has advanced a bill that would help lay the foundation for the Bears to build a stadium on property the team owns in Arlington Heights.

The best outcome, in our view, continues to be a new stadium in Chicago. There’s currently no indication that there’s any chance of a lakefront stadium happening.

Either way, the process is moving toward decision-making time. Indiana is ready to go. Illinois is moving in the same direction. The Bears have yet to make a deal with any entity.

Bears quarterback Caleb Williams can’t sign a contract extension until the 2027 offseason, but thoughts about it are already part of the long-term planning in Chicago.

Williams took a step forward in Ben Johnson’s first year as the Bears’ head coach and the team’s trip to the divisional round after winning the NFC North showed the kind of success the team can have with strong quarterback play. While speaking to reporters at the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis this week, Bears General Manager Ryan Poles said that Williams still has more room to grow into the player the Bears want him to be but said that there’s already work being done to make sure the Bears are positioned to keep him in the fold while building the rest of the roster.

“Anyone that’s watched the league long enough knows that for quarterback play, it’s consistency,” Poles said, via Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times. “Can you stack years on top of each other? We still have steps to go. I don’t want to make it like he’s already [there]. He knows he’s got work to do. But if all of that falls into place, we have to understand how that changes our formula as we move forward. That’s a great thing to be on that path. I feel like we have a long-term quarterback solution. It makes me excited.”

Poles acknowledged that things are easier financially “when that quarterback isn’t taking up a massive piece of the cap,” but added that he hopes “to pay a young quarterback” and it probably won’t be too much longer before that background planning becomes the main priority in Chicago.

Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds may be on his way out of Chicago.

Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune reports that the Bears have given Edmunds permission to seek a trade this offseason. Edmunds is set to make $15 million in salary and bonuses during the 2026 season and has a cap number of more than $17.4 million.

The Bears would get $15 million of that cap space back if they release Edmunds, but a trade would be a preferable parting of ways since it would bring something back to the team.

Edmunds had 112 tackles, four interceptions, a sack, and a fumble recovery in 13 regular season starts last season. He added 13 more tackles in the Bears’ two playoff games.

The Bears selected Ozzy Trapilo in the second round of the 2025 draft, and he played 14 games, with six starts at left tackle, in his rookie season. Trapilo, the third left tackle for the team, stabilized the position until a patellar tendon injury in the wild-card playoff win over the Packers.

The Bears are now back to where they were — in search of a left tackle.

Trapilo will miss most of the 2026 season, General Manager Ryan Poles confirmed Tuesday.

“We expect him to come back and heal from it,” Poles said, via Kole Noble of AtoZ Sports. “There’s a plan in place. I can’t get into the timelines or anything like that, I just don’t know. But, yeah, we expect him to be back and be himself. Pretty significant injury that he’s got to get through, but in terms of affecting his overall career or next year, I don’t see that being an issue.”

All-Pro left guard Joe Thuney finished up the Bears’ season at left tackle, but the Bears will not move him there full time. And right tackle Darnell Wright will not make the move to the other side, Poles said.

That leaves Theo Benedet and Kiran Amegadjie as the only options on the roster for now.

The NFL’s Rooney Rule calls for teams that develop minority executives or coaches to receive a pair of third-round picks when they move on to other clubs as General Managers and head coaches, but the Bears are currently not expected to receive those compensatory selections after Ian Cunningham left the team to become the GM in Atlanta.

According to the NFL, the Bears are not getting those picks because president of football Matt Ryan is the top football executive in Atlanta. Ryan said earlier this month that Cunningham is the one “driving the ship” and Cunningham said at a Scouting Combine press conference on Tuesday that the Bears should be getting picks based on his understanding of the rule.

“I haven’t had much time to really dive into the wording of it,” Cunningham said. “It was always my interpretation that if a general manager gets hired, that team would receive two third-round picks. I’m the General Manager. I was hired. I would think that they would get two third-round picks. I don’t know the wording of it. That’s just my perspective. I wouldn’t be sitting here if it weren’t for them giving me that job and helping me grow to get this job right now.”

Bears GM Ryan Poles called it “a little odd” that the Chiefs got picks when he was hired in Chicago and called the entire rule “strange,” but that it is also “very clear” that the Bears should be receiving those picks in the current situation.

The Bears are moving closer to a move to Indiana.

Via NBC 5 in Chicago, the Indiana House of Representatives based a bill that would devote up to $1 billion in public funding for a stadium in Indiana by the overwhelming vote of 95-4.

That doesn’t mean Illinois is giving up on keeping the Bears.

“I’m very interested to see how the people of Indiana and the voters of Indiana feel about the massive increases in taxes that are being proposed, about paying for a stadium in Indiana for the Chicago Bears,” Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said.

Pritzker added that the negotiations with Illinois are ongoing.

“I believe the Bears should be based in Illinois, and I’m going to do everything I can without harming the taxpayers of Illinois in the process of trying to keep them in the state,” Pritzker said.

The end result is that the Bears remain in good position, with two states vying to host the team. One of them will end up building a new Bears stadium, sooner or later.

When Ryan Poles left the Chiefs to become the Bears’ General Manager in 2022, the Chiefs got two third-round compensatory picks because Poles is Black and the NFL rewards teams that develop minority head coaches and GMs. Poles is not a fan of that NFL policy.

“I’ll be honest, I think it is a little strange,” Poles said. “At the end of the day you should want to develop your staff regardless of the color of their skin. I think that’s important. I think we take a lot of pride with the Bears in how we have our setup. I take a lot of pride in that, so to be compensated for that is a little strange.”

The Chiefs used one of those third-round picks to draft linebacker Leo Chenal and used the other in a trade for wide receiver Kadarius Toney. Poles said he found it odd to see his old team get players because of him.

“I saw the Chiefs get a pick because of me and then I watch that player go and play, it’s just a little odd,” Poles said. “But at the end of the day if they think that’s what’s best to help incentivize, that’s what they wanted to do.”

The rule is relevant to the Bears this offseason because Ian Cunningham, who is Black, left to become GM of the Falcons — but the Bears are not expected to receive compensatory picks for Cunningham because Matt Ryan, not Cunningham, is viewed as the Falcons’ primary football executive. Poles said that while the rule doesn’t change the way he operates, he does wish the Bears would benefit from it as long as it’s in place.

“At the end of the day, that’s not the purpose of why we develop our staff, but if that’s the rule they have in place, then I think it’s very clear in this situation what should happen,” Poles said. “But we’ll see what they think.”

Poles seemed to be suggesting that the Bears are still holding out hope that they’ll receive two compensatory picks, which would require the NFL reversing course from what it previously said about Ryan being the primary football executive. Those two picks would be helpful to Poles, even if he questions the wisdom of the rule behind them.

Bears quarterback Tyson Bagent could be on the move this offseason.

The Bears signed Bagent to a two-year extension last summer that keeps him under contract through the 2027 season, but neither General Manager Ryan Poles nor head coach Ben Johnson ruled out trading him during Tuesday press conferences at the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. Poles said that the team has received calls about Bagent from other clubs and called the prospect an “interesting dynamic that we’re going to have to work through” because it would also involve finding a reliable backup to Caleb Williams.

Bagent has appeared in seven games and thrown six passes in that role over the last two seasons, but Johnson said that the quarterback’s preseason work has left the team with the belief that Bagent is capable of being a starter in the league.

“You want to see him have a chance to do it himself,” Johnson said. “We’ll always do what’s best for our team and our organization. I do think there’s a lot of merit to having a strong No. 2 quarterback, which he certainly fits that bill. I’m of the mind that he’s probably one of the best 32 in the NFL.”

Poles said trading Bagent would be a “really tough decision,” but it is one that the Bears could opt to make if the right offer crosses the table in the coming weeks.