The 4-5 Chicago Bears will play the 6-3 Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field in a Week 11 matchup. Here’s what you need to know before kickoff (noon, Fox-32).
What to watch for — plus our predictions
It’s always the Packers quarterback in the spotlight against the Bears, isn’t it?
After Aaron Rodgers went 25-5 in his career against the Bears, Jordan Love, his successor, won his first two starts last season to extend the Packers’ winning streak to 10 in the rivalry. Love completed 71.2% of his passes for 561 yards with five touchdowns, no interceptions, two sacks and a 129.3 passer rating in those two games.
Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson missed the season finale against the Packers last season with a shoulder injury, so he didn’t play against Love after the quarterback rounded into form — with 18 touchdowns and just one interception over the final eight games. But he knows how much stopping Love and the Packers would mean to Chicago, because it would be the same for him.
“We’ve been getting our ass whooped for a long time now,” Johnson said. “I don’t have a win (against Green Bay), so it would mean a lot to me personally.” Read more here.
- Bears and Packers have played 208 times in the past 100 years. Here’s how the rivalry has unfolded.
- 4 things we learned from the Bears, including Jaquan Brisker going on IR and DJ Moore on Packers ‘trash talk’
No pressure, right?
During his first team meeting as the new offensive coordinator on Wednesday morning, Thomas Brown articulated his vision for the week, offered some ready-made adjustments for the team’s struggling offense and spoke with purpose about what will be needed to keep this roller-coaster season from careening off the track.
Make no mistake, a far different energy pulsed through the air at Halas Hall, a palpable passion that Bears players felt ready to plug right into.
“To hear him up there in front of the whole team, it was amazing,” receiver DJ Moore said. “He brings a lot of juice, a lot of energy.”
Now the Bears are praying that Brown’s charisma and infectious “juice” can, at the very least, give them a short-term lift in the fight to save their season. Read more here.
- Column: How the Bears’ season went from brimming with optimism to turmoil, with Caleb Williams at the center of it
- Fired Bears OC Shane Waldron was ‘too nice of a guy.’ 3 things we learned on a busy day at Halas Hall.
- Column: Can Thomas Brown save the Bears season — or, more importantly, save Caleb Williams?
What it all means for Matt Eberflus
When Matt Eberflus walked into his first training camp as the Bears head coach, he did so with a collection of 19 assistants, a mostly handpicked coaching staff he believed could help lift the team to new heights.
That was just 27 months ago. At the midpoint of his third season, only eight members of Eberflus’ original staff remain.
If you’re keeping track, Waldron is the third coordinator Eberflus has parted with in 2½ seasons. Over the last 15 months alone, 10 of Eberflus’ assistants have departed, including eight via either resignation or dismissal. Read more here.
- Bears Q&A: Will the offense look different with Thomas Brown in charge? Why wasn’t Matt Eberflus fired?
- Column: Call failed? Matt Eberflus’ indecisiveness is another sign of the Bears being disconnected.
Will move help unlock Caleb Williams?
Nine games into Caleb Williams’ rookie season, his development — and the Bears offense — had taken such a concerning step back that coach Matt Eberflus fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. The midseason upheaval is obviously not ideal, but the Bears hope Thomas Brown’s fresh approach to leadership and perspective on the offense will help unlock Williams.
In the previous three games, Williams completed just 50.5% of his passes for 468 yards with no touchdowns, 18 sacks and a 64.7 passer rating. Eberflus has said Williams remains the starter, so it falls on Brown to turn him around.
Williams said he thought Bears leaders had properly seen his frustration with how the offense was going, but he didn’t think he could have given much input to influence the decision. Eberflus said he consulted with team leaders, including Williams, and the players shared their frustration but didn’t ask for the move. Read more here.
- Tracking Caleb Williams: How the Bears QB is performing in his rookie season
- Bears release veteran guard Nate Davis, who signed a 3-year, $30M contract in 2023
Stadium update
The Bears are reconsidering the former Michael Reese Hospital site as a potential location for a new stadium, a source said, but the team remains focused on the lakefront.
The team is open to any alternative that would work, but officials have said previously that the former hospital site was unworkable because it’s next to Metra train tracks that pose a security risk.
The 49-acre site is limited because it’s long and skinny, sandwiched between the tracks and DuSable Lake Shore Drive on the east, apartments on the west, 31st Street on the south and the Stevenson Expressway to the north.
The advantage of the site is that it’s mostly open land, not far from the Loop and the lake, and next to McCormick Place Convention Center. It would also avoid a legal fight over the Bears’ proposal to build a $3.2 billion roofed stadium on the lake to replace the team’s current home in Soldier Field. Read more here.
