MINNEAPOLIS — The Chicago Bears have gone from finding different ways to squander game-winning opportunities in crunch time to getting blown out.
While Monday night’s 30-12 loss to the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium was a relatively close game score-wise until the end of the third quarter, it never felt like the Bears had much of a shot.
The defense battled tough — the Vikings only outgained the Bears 329 to 284 in total offense — but the Bears were a wreck on third down and couldn’t overcome a slew of self-inflicted errors in losing for the eighth consecutive time to fall to 4-10.
Here are 10 thoughts from the Week 15 loss.
1. With the losses mounting and clear evidence that firing the head coach and offensive coordinator didn’t magically change the fortune of the season, self-doubt is creeping in.
It’s human nature, and the frustration is piling up for a team that hasn’t won since Oct. 13 in London against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Bears haven’t won a true road game since the Vikings on Nov. 27, 2023. Minnesota was quarterbacked then by Josh Dobbs and the Bears prevailed 12-10. Their eight-game losing streak ties for the second-longest single-season stretch in club history.
The defense played pretty hard. It was a big improvement over the previous week when the San Francisco 49ers were lighting up the secondary with big plays all over. Yes, the Vikings connected on too many third-and-long situations, but it was a battle for QB Sam Darnold. The Bears did a nice job against Justin Jefferson again as the star receiver had seven catches for 73 yards on 13 targets with a 7-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter when the Bears offense was shut out once again.
The Bears actually didn’t score in the first half for the third consecutive game. Their slow starts that have affected the first quarter all season — and more on that in a little bit — have actually spread to the second quarter now.
But the defense did what it could, especially after Caleb Williams was stripped on a blindside sack by Jonathan Greenard set up Minnesota on the Bears’ 29-yard line for its second offensive series. Greenard was shot out of a cannon past rookie left tackle Kiran Amegadjie, who started in place of Braxton Jones who missed the game with a concussion.
It was a quick 10-0 hole for the Bears and that deficit reached 13-0 before halftime.
The Bears turned it over on downs twice in the first half. Running back D’Andre Swift was stopped for no gain on the Bears’ 39-yard line on fourth-and-1 on the first series of the game. Swift was stymied for no gain on fourth down again in the second quarter, this time at the Minnesota 29-yard line when the deficit was still only 10 points. Left guard Teven Jenkins pulled to the right side on the play and Swift tried hitting the A gap when he was bottled up by Vikings linebacker Blake Cashman.
“My responsibility is to read the A gap out,” Swift said when asked where the play was designed to go. “It was fourth-and-1 and there was a crease to the left. I was trying to get the 1 yard. The A gap was kind of bottled up. I tried to hit something with speed. I tried to make something happen. It was tough.”
Said interim head coach Thomas Brown: “Wanted to be aggressive going into the game. Was kind of a point of emphasis for our unit to be able to stay on the grass and make some plays. Backfired early.”
Column: Chicago Bears seem to have little left as an astounding losing skid drags on to 8 games
The Vikings entered with the league’s third-ranked run defense, and Swift had more success than he did in the first meeting this season, carrying 19 times for 79 yards. The Bears used DJ Moore in the backfield some and kept things balanced. They simply couldn’t pass protect well enough to get the ball downfield in the passing game.
Once they fell behind and couldn’t convert fourth downs, well, the defense wasn’t going to hold Minnesota all night.
“Those are things you gotta just be able to get in spite of how you block it up,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “We’ve just gotta find a way to get those and we didn’t get those. Tough, for sure.”
Vikings wide receiver Jordan Addison (162 yards) and tight end T.J. Hockenson (114 yards) both had huge games in the Week 12 meeting at Soldier Field when Minnesota had far too many explosive plays. The defense tightened up here as Darnold was 24 of 40 for 231 yards and one touchdown with one interception by Tyrique Stevenson in the end zone. The Vikings ran the ball for 114 yards, one more than the Bears got.
But the Bears were 1 for 12 on third down (their worst showing since going 1 for 14 in Week 10, Shane Waldron’s final game as offensive coordinator) and they committed nine penalties for 93 yards. That’s too much to overcome against a surging opponent — Minnesota (12-2) has won seven in a row now — on the road.
“It really just hasn’t been our year,” strong safety Kevin Byard said. “I think our margin of error is very small. We were playing pretty good and then toward the second half the (pass interference calls) really hurt us. They were able to extend those drives. That’s how it’s gone.”
It’s only fair to wonder if the Bears can find a way to end the losing streak before the season ends. The Detroit Lions, who are reeling with injuries, come to Soldier Field on Sunday. Then, the Seattle Seahawks, in the hunt in the NFC West, visit on Dec. 26, for another national television appearance in prime time. The Bears travel to Lambeau Field to face the Green Bay Packers in Week 18.
The explanations are sounding the same because they are mostly recycled sound bytes. The execution hasn’t been there. Well, why not?
“If I had an answer for that, I would give it to you,” Kmet said. “The thing I have learned through it all is just you’ve gotta be on your own (stuff) and you know, trying to get other guys to do certain things, it takes away from your preparation. So you’ve got to take care of your own (stuff) and just do your job.
“And then if other guys aren’t doing their job or other people aren’t doing their job then that’s on them. We haven’t executed clean enough and that’s usually what it comes down to in these NFL games.
“We’re on this crazy losing streak at this point right now. We haven’t executed well enough and the other teams have executed better than we have and that’s why the outcomes have been what they’ve been.”
Kmet said the last month has been particularly draining for him.
“It’s brutal,” he said. “Just working through it. Just trying to come in every day. Keep going about my process and then obviously you question yourself in times like this in terms of what you’re doing. Am I doing the right stuff day in and day out? Am I being the right person? Am I going to work the right way?
“You question your process and the way you go about things. I think I’m right. I think I am doing the right things throughout the week but obviously the results haven’t been there for that. It’s been hard. It’s been tough and obviously I have had my fair share of these since being here. This is just overall been a lot mentally for sure.”
Williams spoke about trying to maintain his routine as the Bears have consecutive short weeks and attempting to remain balanced as he seeks more ways to grow. But the losing is taking a toll and it is wearing on everyone in the room.
“Nobody wants to blow a gasket,” Moore said. “But somebody is going to blow a gasket soon.”
2. It’s going to be interesting to see if Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores is a sought-after candidate for teams who will be seeking a head coach come January.
In February 2022, Flores filed a class action lawsuit against the NFL alleging racial discrimination three weeks after he was fired as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. Some have wondered if Flores will get another opportunity for a top job with the litigation pending.
He’s done a bang-up job with the Vikings working with defensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell. And we’re not talking about a unit that is stacked with high draft picks — Minnesota has pieced things together. Flores is working with a few players he’s had in the past and some that were with him in Miami. I found them interesting to chat with because they were with Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa, who back in August leveled some heavy criticism at Flores, calling him a “terrible person.” It’s one thing to say a guy is a bad coach, but Tagovailoa went after Flores’ character.
Does that matter moving forward? Everything matters for teams as they explore the backgrounds of coaching candidates.
“I’ve known him forever now,” said linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill, who was drafted in 2016 out of Eastern Illinois by the New England Patriots, where Flores was coaching at the time. “I went with him to Miami and just watching him evolve as a coach, he’s always been that dude when it comes to coaching. He can draw stuff up. But watching him evolve, he truly puts players in the best positions for them. It’s not a cookie-cutter defense. He uses his strengths of what he has. It is just awesome to see.”
Grugier-Hill spent the 2020 season in Miami when Tagovailoa was a rookie. It was an odd year for everyone with the pandemic.
“I can’t really speak to (what happened with the quarterback and Flores),” Grugier-Hill said. “I think that Flo expects a lot out of us. As a head coach, I feel like you have different responsibilities. I don’t really know how things were handled with that. People have their own opinions. Tua was a rookie. Things might be a little different.
“I think he’d make a great head coach again. The evolution of Flo just keeps getting better and better and better. I think he’s 100% a players’ coach now. He always kind of has been, but especially now. You need a guy that you can run through a wall for. He’s that guy.”
Outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel was also in Miami with Tagovailoa. Van Ginkel signed with the Vikings in free agency because he had an idea of what kind of role he could play for Flores, who served a senior assistant for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2022 before spending the last two seasons as O’Connell’s coordinator.
“I would say he’s taken a step in his coaching career,” Van Ginkel said. “He spent time with Mike Tomlin. He spent time with KO (O’Connell), kind of his culture. I think he’s learned a little bit, how to deal with certain situations. I definitely feel like he’s taken a step forward and he’s brought the best out of me. He’s brought the best out of all these guys in this locker room. He’s got a high standard and high expectations. He ultimately wants what is best for each and every one of us.”
I asked about the heavy criticism by Tagovailoa.
“He coaches hard,” Van Ginkel said. “He has high expectations and high standards. He wants us to play at the top of our game. He’s doing his best to be able to provide the resources and give us the coaching points. Sometimes you need that hard coaching. There’s times for it and times when you need to dial it back. I think he’s learned being around KO and how Mike Tomlin handled it. I think ultimately he’s grown and developed as a coach.”
Six-time Pro Bowl safety Harrison Smith didn’t have prior experience with Flores but credited his most recent coordinator with extending his career at age 35. Smith has been season-to-season for a while now.
“To be honest, he’s a large reason why I am still playing,” said Smith, a Notre Dame product. “I am still learning a lot from him. He’s got a nice groove going. It’s intense but it’s purposeful. There’s always a reason. He’s a very good leader. Very good communicator. He gets us prepared the right way while keeping the day-to-day enjoyable. He’s hard on guys but appropriately. Extremely creative. I don’t want him to leave. He’s been phenomenal.”
Outside linebacker Jonathan Greenard said he embraces Flores’ tough approach.
“He understands what buttons to push,” Greenard said. “He understands how to talk to you. I could literally go out there and make 11 sacks, but if I have a technique wrong one time, ‘JG, hey, get on your (stuff).’
“I’ve been around coaches where guys will do whatever they want, keep on messing up, and, nah, Flo will get on me. He did it tonight. At the end of the day, I want that. He holds guys accountable because he’s been there. Whenever he sees something that is not that — at the standard — he’s gonna say something. That’s what we all respect him for.”
I don’t know what will shake out for Flores. Will the Bears have interest in him? They ought to. He’s 43 and has an interesting background. He broke into the league with New England first as a scouting assistant and then as a pro scout. He did that for four seasons before becoming an assistant special teams coach and then moving to the defensive side of the ball.
Having an entry to the game from the personnel side probably helps him understand the bigger picture. Surely he learned a lot from his three-year stint in Miami as head coach too. He didn’t get an interview in the head-coaching cycle last year.
I expected Vikings players to have positive stuff to say, but I thought Grugier-Hill and Van Ginkel had interesting replies, as they were also in Miami with Flores. Smith is always insightful. Flores will need to have good answers about what he wants to do on offense if the Bears interview him. That’s a prerequisite for any coach with a defensive background that they talk to.
3. On the road, in prime time, inside a dome. It wouldn’t be what the Bears would consider ideal for rookie Kiran Amegadjie’s first NFL start.
But little to do with the team’s offensive line has been ideal this season.
Starter Braxton Jones reported concussion symptoms on Sunday morning and the Bears ruled him out — and that’s when Amegadjie found out he would be starting. Sure, the third-round pick out of Yale prepared as if he would be in the starting lineup all week, but Jones got the bulk of the work with the starters in practice.
Monday night’s task looked too big initially. Jonathan Greenard blew past Amegadjie as if he was standing still on the second third down for the offense. It resulted in a strip/sack of Caleb Williams, setting up Minnesota’s first touchdown of the game.
“It was one-on-one,” Amegadjie said. “Just gotta execute better.”
Should the Bears have had some chip help for Amegadjie? On third-and-9, that probably would have been prudent. But you can’t chip for a tackle on every play and this was a tough assignment. Greenard walked Amegadjie back into the pocket a handful of times. He forced Williams to flee the pocket. Amegadjie got called for two holding penalties and a false start.
“Didn’t play within myself when it mattered most,” he said. “I have no excuses. I gotta play better. There was nothing that confused me or no looks that I didn’t know what I was doing. Just gotta play better.”
Amegadjie missed training camp and preseason as he was still recovering from surgery on his quad to repair a college injury. But he’s gotten some work during the season — 58 snaps entering this game — and a lot of work on the practice field.
“I wouldn’t say it stunted my growth,” he said. “Had a later start than everybody. I was drafted for a reason. I am here for a reason. Just gotta play better when it’s needed.”
This was the third game Jones has missed. A knee injury forced him out of the loss at Arizona and the bad home loss to New England. The Bears didn’t score a touchdown in either of those games. Maybe he’s been more valuable than anyone thought?
As far as Amegadjie goes, if he plays in Week 17 against Detroit, you’d expect him to be at least a little bit better with more game action and getting to play at home.
“I caught him a couple times,” Greenard said. “He definitely has potential. Once he gets comfortable within himself and understands how to play this game, it will slow down for him. In this environment, for his first start, it’s kind of tough to judge and gauge it. He had some good run block technique. He ran me by the quarterback a few times when I was too high with long arms, he continued to ride me by the quarterback. He has some stuff in there. You can work with that. Just a rookie.”
With Amegadjie starting, the Bears used their sixth starting offensive line combination this season. What’s maybe more telling is that they’ve had 11 linemen play more than 65 snaps now. That’s about a full game — 65 snaps — and Bill Murray looked like he was headed for a starting spot before a torn pectoral muscle ended his season after only 42 snaps.
Jones, Coleman Shelton, Darnell Wright, Matt Pryor, Teven Jenkins, Larry Borom, Nate Davis, Ryan Bates and now Amegadjie all have more than 100 snaps. Jake Curhan is at 89 and Doug Kramer should be just over 65 after excluding plays where he lined up in the backfield.
Injuries, poor play, a little bit of everything has led to the line turnover, and the Bears were hesitant to have Williams drop back against the Vikings because of protection issues. That Williams was sacked only two times was surprising. He took some other big shots, including one from Jihad Ward.
“Got to protect,” interim coach Thomas Brown said. “So that obviously affects some stuff that you do. I think being able to also understand what this defense does as far as disguising and pressuring. On the third down when we had a strip/sack, third-and-(9), tried to hold the ball a little bit longer. Those kind of deter you from wanting to take shots down the field.”
Maybe Jones bounces back and can play against Detroit. ‘m not sure there has been a team with more linemen to log significant time. When I mentioned that to offensive line coach Chris Morgan, he sort of shrugged.
“No one is going to feel sorry for us,” he said.
4. Wide receiver is one of the more challenging positions for a rookie to make a huge impact.
The NFL is a big jump from the college game. The caliber of cornerbacks is elevated. The playbook is a lot more complex.
So with Rome Odunze’s rookie season nearly complete, I went looking for a good example of how the game has started to slow down for the first-round pick from Washington.
Wide receivers coach Chris Beatty didn’t hesitate when responding.
First play of the fourth quarter on Thanksgiving in Detroit. The Bears had third-and-6 from the Lions 15-yard line. They were trailing 23-7 and needed a touchdown.
“We lined it up during the week,” Beatty said. “‘Hey, if we get in this situation, the ball is going to be on you. How are you going to run this route?’”
The call was for Odunze to run a slant-return. Lined up to the short side of the field as the lone receiver in a three-by-one formation, he was going to sell the inside route to rookie cornerback Terrion Arnold and break it back outside.
“There are certain aspects of route running that I try to give them some freedom to do,” Beatty said. “Then there are some things where I want you to do it like this. He ran the route and I sat back and said, ‘Tell me what your plan is for the route.’
“There are certain different ways to run it. We watched how Keenan (Allen) runs it. How DJ (Moore) runs it. How Stefon Diggs, Ja’Marr Chase and all of these other guys throughout the league run it. Then we said, ‘Now, put your spin on it.’ He did a great job.”
Arnold’s momentum carried him inside, so Odunze was able to create leverage moving toward the boundary for the 6-yard completion from Caleb Williams, which set up a touchdown pass to Allen two plays later. It’s not an easy route for a bigger receiver — Odunze is 6-foot-3 — to run.
“Watching tape, there were different ways cornerbacks were playing (the route) based on how receivers were running it to get open,” Odunze said. “When I got the specific look that I did (press coverage from Arnold), I ran it how I had seen Adonai Mitchell of the Colts run it against him on the same route.”
Fourth-and-3. Game on the line. How Chicago Bears rookie Rome Odunze made a ‘Vegas’ gamble pay off.
Another thing Beatty noted is Odunze is a big note taker in meeting rooms, a skill he carried over from college. He fills the side of his book that has play designs with notes and turns back to his work at night to make sure he doesn’t have lingering questions from the day’s work.
“It’s impressive,” Beatty said of Odunze’s notebook. “He’s one of those guys, you could tell him once and you generally don’t have to tell him a second time. It’s not just the attention to detail but the willingness to work so hard on the small details.
“For him, it’s a must. Whenever he does something wrong, he is so hard on himself because he knows that he wants to be as good as he can be.”
Odunze said he became a big note taker at Washington when then-Huskies coach Kalen DeBoer said “it crystallizes the brain.”
“In school I took a good amount of notes, but I was able to receive information a lot better,” Odunze said. “Some of the nuances in football are a little more subtle, so you have to do things to remember those things.
“I realized note taking really did help me. It’s something I have continued to do. You don’t want to write down everything. But if it’s something that doesn’t click for me right away, I write that down.”
As far as his rookie season goes, Odunze has 47 receptions for 621 yards and three touchdowns. He had a chance to make a leaping grab in the end zone for a touchdown in the fourth quarter Monday when he got behind linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill but it went off his hands. Fortunately, Keenan Allen scored two plays later. He was targeted seven times during the game with two grabs for 39 yards.
For comparison, Arizona’s Marvin Harrison Jr. (drafted No. 4, five slots ahead of Odunze) has 47 catches for 687 yards and seven touchdowns in an offense without as much wide receiver talent. That speaks to the growing process at the position because there haven’t been many college receivers more heralded than Harrison over the last decade or two.
Odunze encountered a situation where the addition of Allen suffocated him a little bit. To be clear, Allen has helped Williams and he’s a good resource in the room, but on the field Allen probably has taken away opportunities from Odunze if he had been the No. 2 receiver at the start of the season.
The fastest way for a player to learn on the fly is with game reps and volume. When the volume isn’t there every week — and Odunze has averaged 7.8 targets over the previous eight games — it becomes a mental thing. The note taking has helped.
5. The Bears need 15 points in the first quarter over the final three games to avoid having the lowest-scoring team in club history since 1978 when the NFL moved to a 16-game schedule.
First quarters have been a series of three-and-outs, miscues, stuffed runs, penalties, turnovers, you name it. Almost nothing has gone right. The Bears rank last in the NFL with only 20 points scored in the opening frame. As bad as the Bears were on offense a year ago — and they were not good — that team scored 71 points in the first quarter.
This team needs 14 points to pull even with the 2004 Bears. That was the first season for coach Lovie Smith when Terry Shea had a one-year run as offensive coordinator and the team used four starting quarterbacks: Rex Grossman, Chad Hutchinson, Craig Krenzel and Jonathan Quinn. Those Bears scored 34 points in the first quarter in 16 games. The 2024 team will get 17 games to hopefully eclipse that 2004 mark.
Going back to 1978, there have been eight Bears teams that have scored 40 or less points in the first quarter. I was amazed to see the 2001 team on the list; that team scored only 38 points in the first quarter and it won 13 games. Great defense.
First-quarter points: Year (Record)
- 37: 2019 (8-8)
- 36: 2009 (7-9)
- 34: 2004 (5-11)
- 38: 2001 (13-3)
- 40: 1994 (9-7)
- 37: 1993 (7-9)
- 40: 1991 (11-5)
- 40: 1989 (6-10)
“To me, it’s more psychological at times when it comes to the approach overall,” interim coach Thomas Brown said Saturday. “I’ve mentioned several times that plays are just on a sheet of paper until we bring them to life. It’s about understanding how to get guys going earlier in games, but us just making plays, being efficient, being detailed, not always just hunting the big plays all the time – which I don’t think we do that for the most part in the first half of games.
“I would say a big part of it is the ownership aspect of it. How I call the game early on to get us in the flow and the rhythm. It’s always going to be a collaborative effort between players and coaches.”
Brown tried to keep the Bears in the flow, aggressively going for it on fourth-and-1 twice in the first half. Both attempts failed. What’s crazy is the Bears have been shut out in the first half in three straight games. Are they making adjustments that help? Maybe. Is it too late? Sure looks like it.
The Bears have tried tempo. They’ve tried scripts. No scripts. You think of it, I think they’ve already tried it or thought about it.
Any sense for what’s leading to this?
“A sense I got to be better,” Brown said. “Put us in better spots and make better plays. That’s the sense I have.”
6. The Bears were hanging around midway through the third quarter when they appeared to cut the deficit in half before their jumbo fullback, backup center Doug Kramer, was penalized for not reporting as an eligible player.
It’s the latest in a series of bizarre Bears occurrences this season. Kramer hustled onto the field for a first-and-goal from the 1-yard line right after D’Andre Swift gained 27 yards on consecutive carries.
Kramer plowed ahead, Swift followed and it looked like a 1-yard touchdown that would have brought the Bears within 13-7 with 8:19 remaining in the third quarter of a game that felt like a blowout.
But referee John Hussey said Kramer never reported and the Bears were backed up to the 6-yard line. Swift gained 5 yards and back Kramer came on the field again — this time making sure he reported — for second-and-goal from the 1. Kiran Amegadjie got called for holding, and well, that was that. Cairo Santos ended the possession with a field goal. Instead of being within six points, the Bears trailed by 10 and couldn’t catch up.
Again, you can’t make this stuff up.
“It was 100% on me,” Kramer said. “Forgot to report. Ran on the field. The clock was running down. We got in the huddle and ran the play and it’s an unacceptable mistake. I apologized to all of my teammates, everyone on the offense. Things like that can’t happen. It’s 100% my error.”
Kramer knows what he’s doing. When I talked to him two weeks ago about playing fullback, he ticked off about 15 or 16 snaps he’s had in the role and helped the offense at the goalline.
“It’s frustrating because we practice so much and I don’t know if we reported,” quarterback Caleb Williams said. “The ref didn’t see it. I believe right in that moment I heard him say that he reported when he was on the field and the ref didn’t see it. Having self-inflicted wounds right there on that touchdown and then we get backed up, we score again and have another self-inflicted wound, it’s challenging because scoring in this league is tough.
“Winning games is tough. You’ve got to score to be able to win. Taking those points off the board, it obviously hurt us in that moment. We end up having to settle. We’ve got to get better and not have self-inflicted wounds whether it’s penalties or face masks or, you know, illegal substitutions, whatever the case may be. We can’t have those because of how hard it is to win games and score.”
I doubt many folks want to read it or really care, but props to Kramer for sticking around to talk. He did the same thing after the Washington game on the botched handoff at the goalline when he fumbled. He was accountable. He answered questions. He did so in a way some could learn a little something from. I’ve covered more than a small handful of players, some pretty popular former players, who would have exited without saying a word after a crucial miscue.
7. Kevin Warren and George McCaskey have something to dig in on now. It’s possible they discover a path to getting a new stadium built.
The NFL voted in August to allow private equity funds to buy up to a 10% stake in teams, and some folks I have spoken to over the last few months believe that could be a stepping stone for the Bears to get the funding required for a stadium project — especially in light of the cold responses they’ve received in a bid for public funding.
No one expected the Bears to make the first move, and now two other teams have. The Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins were granted approval to sell stakes to private equity investors at a league meeting Wednesday in Irving, Texas.
One team source emphasized it’s premature to expect the Bears to follow with a similar move anytime soon.
“I’m actually in the process — myself and some of our senior staff members are working through truly understanding the different machinations of how private equity would work in the (NFL),” Warren said when I asked him about the possibility during the team’s trip to London in October. “I want to make sure any decisions we make don’t create any unintended consequences.
“At this point in time, it’s not something that we’re focused on and exploring in Chicago. But I say that to say these next couple months, my focus will be to make sure I truly understand how the private equity system would work in the (NFL). There hasn’t been a team announced yet.
“I will spend the next couple of months really digging deep into not only how it operates but the financial implications. What happens down the road? And so that’s a great question and probably in about two months, I’ll be more educated to say the impact that private equity not only will have on the (NFL) but any of these stadium projects that are current.”
The league cleared Ares Management to buy a stake in the Dolphins and Arctos Partners to buy into the Bills. Ares bought 10% of the Dolphins at a valuation of $8.1 billion. Arctos bought a 10% share of the Bills with a reported $5.8 billion valuation, including debt load.
Chicago Bears and Soldier Field: What to know about the possible stadium move — or transformation
The Bills have encountered huge cost overruns on the new stadium they are building adjacent to Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y. The new stadium is scheduled to open before the 2026 season.
The original price tag, when the project was announced in March 2022, was $1.4 billion with the state of New York paying $600 million and Erie County contributing $250 million. The cost is now estimated to exceed $2 billion, and the team is on the hook for all project overruns.
It’s only getting more expensive to build a stadium, and the Bears can get cash if they agree to sell a stake to private equity. That’s money that could be applied to a stadium project.
Of course, it would depend on how Warren — and ultimately McCaskey and the board of directors — evaluates the pluses and minuses of such a transaction. In 2017, the McCaskeys bought back a small percentage of the team that Mugs Halas’ family had owned. Knowing that, turning around and selling a portion of the team to get liquid assets might not be the first move ownership wants to make.
Either way, the Bears will be able to study the fine details of the moves by the Bills and Dolphins and determine how something similar could work in their situation. The controlling owner has to maintain at least a 30% share of the franchise, so it’s not like the Bears — or any other team — would all of a sudden be under control of a private equity group.
Let’s do some loose math here. If there’s a $900,000 gap in what the team needs to get a stadium deal done, picking up $600 million to $800 million in a sale involving private equity — I’m just throwing around numbers here — could help move a plan toward the goal line and get a shovel in the ground somewhere.
But this isn’t a simple math equation.
8. Injuries on the defensive line have created opportunities for Byron Cowart.
He’s hopeful his work product gives him a chance to put down roots here — or somewhere — after learning his lesson bouncing around the league.
Cowart, 28, is on his fifth team since 2022 and has been playing his best football. With Gervon Dexter (knee) missing a game for the first time in his career, Cowart started against the Vikings and he was over 50% in snaps from the previous three games. He finished with two tackles, although it looked to me like he had involvement in at least one tackle of running back Aaron Jones for a loss that was credited elsewhere. Statistics for interior linemen aren’t the first measuring stick teams look at anyway.
The nature of being a journeyman has made Cowart nimble when it comes time to move. A fifth-round draft pick out of Maryland in 2019 by the New England Patriots, Cowart was claimed by the Indianapolis Colts in July 2022, signed with the Kansas City Chiefs in free agency in 2023, where he thought he’d found a landing spot. He bought a home in Kansas and wound up being released 47 days after getting there. A week after being let go, he signed with the Houston Texans and purchased a home there, thinking he’d stick. A little more than three months later, he was released.
Cowart spent last season on the practice squad with the Miami Dolphins and then signed with the Bears, who were seeking some depth, in March.
“I signed up to be in the NFL, but it’s hard when you wanna be somewhere and (they don’t want you),” Cowart said. “The moving is the hardest part. There are 32 teams and 32 opportunities. Wherever they call, that’s where I am going to go. But I would like to be in one spot.”
Cowart said he was able to sell the residences and make a little on top, but he’s renting for now.
He had a big stop in the Thanksgiving Day loss late in the fourth quarter when the Detroit Lions were trying to run out the clock. Cowart dropped David Montgomery for a 1-yard loss on third-and-1 from the Bears’ 39-yard line. That set the Bears up to get the ball back for the fateful drive that ended without coach Matt Eberflus using a timeout.
Cowart shoved back Lions center Frank Ragnow off the snap to make the play — and that’s what he’s done when he’s played well, proving to be stout at the point of attack. It’s interesting because after playing at Auburn and Maryland, Cowart was viewed as a disruptive interior pass rusher, but he’s now viewed as more of a run stuffer.
“I coached him at the Senior Bowl and he was kind of that tweener,” Bears defensive line coach Travis Smith said. “Is he a five-technique closed end that you can bump inside? You weren’t sure. He could penetrate, though. Then, he got drafted by New England and he became a two-gap player, went to Miami and was on the practice squad in a 3-4. Come to us and it’s completely different, and he’s really done a good job improving every week and he’s earned more snaps.”
When I asked Cowart about the play against the Lions, he talked about having Dexter next to him and expressed regret for jumping offside in a similar late-game moment against the Green Bay Packers.
“I want to be here,” Cowart said, realizing offseason change is coming. “I want this to be home. I like what is going on. I believe in the organization of the Bears — what it’s built on. They play defense. Here you gotta have grit, be a tough guy, be able to play every down. That’s what I am working on right now. I am trying to do what’s best for the team and show them that, ‘Hey, right, wrong or indifferent, I am doing whatever I can t be here and make it work here.’”
Smith believes Cowart has helped himself for the future and it’s something the coach makes players aware of: you’re viewed by what you’ve done lately.
“That’s not just for him, that’s for everybody,” Smith said. “That’s my goal to help him achieve that, some stability. Whether it’s here or somewhere else because ultimately players, especially one-year (contract) guys, that’s what they’re looking for. The tape is his resume and my resume, and so you’re hoping his tape is speaking for itself where he can create that opportunity somewhere — here or somewhere else — where they like him and he can get a little bit of long-term stability.
“I think if you’re looking at BC … the growth he has shone, and I actually told him this last week, has been really impressive. I don’t want to say I am proud because he’s done it, but coming from a two-gap system, not a penetrating one, to be in our system and be asked to do something totally different.”
Just a little stability and, who knows, maybe Cowart will be in the market to buy again.
“That is my why,” he said. “That is my push. Keep grinding and try to, I don’t know, land somewhere.”
9. Dominique Robinson hasn’t seen a lot of action this season. This was just the third game he’s played in and the first time he’s been on the punt block team. And he delivered.
Robinson notched the second blocked punt of the Bears season — defensive end Daniel Hardy had one in the season-opening win over the Tennessee Titans — when he came free off a stunt and wound up blocking Ryan Wright’s kick with his facemask before the punter was hit hard.
The Bears ran a stunt to their left side, and that left Robinson and wide receiver Collin Johnson as the only defenders on the right. Robinson was supposed to run an up-and-in from the C gap to the B. When he got there, he was on Broadway and there was no traffic in sight.
“The night before in chapel, we spoke about speaking things into existence,” the defensive end said. “So all night and all morning today, I was talking about speaking it out loud. Just getting a punt block and a sack. One of those came true.”
Robinson didn’t know he’d crushed Wright on the play and expressed hope the Vikings kicker was OK.
“I didn’t see him,” Robinson said. “I was trying to find the ball.”
The big play set up the Bears’ second touchdown. Robinson hasn’t gotten a lot of chances this season. He’s probably going to be best served with a fresh start elsewhere. But each time I’ve spoken with him, he’s been upbeat. Whatever small role he gets, he’s excited for the opportunity. He made something of his chance against the Vikings and it was a spark the Bears needed, giving them a short field at the Minnesota 27-yard line when they had been struggling to drive the length of the field.
“I thought special teams also played particularly well,” interim coach Thomas Brown said.
Credit to special teams coordinator Richard Hightower, too, for identifying a pressure that could work and having a new player — Robinson — step in and make something happen.
10. How strong is the NFC North?
The division could wind up having three teams with a minimum of 12 wins. The Detroit Lions and Minnesota Bikings, both 12-2, are already there. The Green Bay Packers are in third place at 10-4. In the Packers’ final three games, they will host the New Orleans Saints (5-9), play at Minnesota and close out the season with the Bears at Lambeau Field.
Since the NFL went to eight, four-team divisions in 2002, the record for most victories by a division is 43 (AFC North in 2023 and NFC East in 2022). Those divisions did not have a team with a losing record — and the Bears are dragging down the NFC North this year.
The NFC North is at 38 wins and with four division games remaining, that will get the group to 42 wins provided there isn’t a tie. That means there needs to be two more wins to reach 44. The non-divisional remaining games:
- Week 16: Seattle Seahawks at Vikings and New Orleans Saints at Packers
- Week 17: Seahawks at Bears and Lions at San Francisco 49ers
10a. We can avoid a serious social media meltdown. Cornerback Jaylon Johnson remains a captain even though his jersey was missing the usual “C.”
“It didn’t?” Johnson said after the game. “That’s crazy. I gotta talk to Little T (equipment manager Tony Medlin).”
Interim coach Thomas Brown was clear there have been no changes in team captains.
“I didn’t even see it,” Brown said. “He’s definitely a captain. He’s in every captains’ meeting and a guy that speaks for our group a lot. Actually did a really good job at Saturday’s practice after we kind of broke it down. Let him get in the middle and did a great job of delivering a timely message. He is definitely a captain on and off the field for us.”
One suggestion for Johnson. The venerable Medlin isn’t the tallest guy in the organization, but I would not call him Little T. He’s got quite the stature at Halas Hall.
10b. Ready for a statistic about a 4-10 football team on an eight-game losing streak that will blow your mind?
The Bears have scored touchdowns on 19.08% of their offensive possessions this season — 29 for 152. Their opponents have scored touchdowns on 20.26% of offensive possessions — 31 for 153.
10c. Wide receiver DJ Moore caught eight passes for 46 yards off a lot of screen passes and stuff at the line of scrimmage. According to Pro Football Reference, he is the first wide receiver in team history to have eight or more receptions for less than 47 yards.
Running back Tarik Cohen caught nine passes for 44 yards in a loss to the Vikings at the end of the 2019 season. Cohen also had an unfathomable game against New Orleans that same season with nine catches for 19 (not a typo) yards. Running backs Matt Forte (2014), James Allen (2001) and Ken Grandberry (1974) also fit the criteria, and tight end Greg Olsen had eight catches for 45 yards in a 2008 game against the Saints. But Moore is the first wide receiver to have that many catches with so little yardage, a sign of pass protection issues and more.
10d. The Fox crew Kenny Albert, Jonathan Vilma and Megan Olivi will call this Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field.
10e. The Lions opened as a 7-point favorite over the Bears for Sunday’s game at Soldier Field at Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas.
