Over the years as a sports fan, I have certainly questioned a player or two about their desire to get back on the football field. But over the years I’ve learned that’s not a good idea.
I will admit, I originally questioned Jay Cutler in the moment during the NFC Championship game when we had the Caleb Haine experience. In hindsight, that was stupid.
It took me a long time to question Nate Davis. Let’s not forget, the summer Nate Davis arrived in Chicago, his mother died. It’s impossible to know how
that’s going to affect someone’s professional life, and to this day, we still really don’t know how that impacted him.
Kyler Gordon is entering his fifth season in Chicago. And while he’s never played a full season, before last year, he never missed more than 4 games in a season. Last year, Gordon missed 14. This year, Gordon basically hasn’t been on the field at all.
If the Bears were coming out and talking about Gordon’s injury and how his rehab is going and a projected timeline, we would be classifying this as an unfortunate injury, but that’s not what the Bears are saying.
Both Ben Johnson and Ryan Poles have been pretty flippant talking about Gordon during the spring and summer and certainly seemed agitated about his lack of progress and lack of participation. They also seem to be missing details about what his status is.
The Bears have plenty of injured players. You don’t hear Johnson or Poles talking about any other injured players like that. We just heard Ben Johnson say that “ALMOST every player” that is injured is trying hard to get back on the field. That certainly seems like a shot at Gordon.
At this point, with the Bears clearly frustrated, is it time to question Gordon’s motivation to get back on the field?
Like I said at the top, questioning an injury with a player is almost always bad business. I think 19 times out of 20 (maybe more), you find out that you didn’t have all the information and the player was more hurt than anyone realized (sometimes coaching staffs included).
But let’s go back to Nate Davis. And now, I am not saying Gordon is Davis. But Davis clearly didn’t want to play football. Davis got through his rookie contract, signed a contract that earned him $20 million guaranteed with the Bears, and at that point, decided to do the bare minimum to fulfil his contract so he could collect his money.
At this point, we know Davis was released in November of 2024, and he hasn’t even sniffed a tryout with another team. Davis is a good enough player that teams would absolutely bring him in for a tryout if he was interested. He clearly is not.
Is that Gordon’s situation? I have a hard time believing that. Gordon has played hard in plenty of football games and has never come across that way. But Gordon was paid in August of 2025, and since then, not only has he barely played, he’s barely practiced.
Ryan Poles is frustrated. Ben Johnson is frustrated. Chicago Bears fans are frustrated. Is it fair to question Gordon’s motivations and wonder if he’s lost his drive to play now that he has a contract that guarantees him $31 million?
We’ve seen more and more players retire at younger ages once they get the guaranteed money from their second contract. Heck, Drew Dalman only got through one of his two guaranteed years before he decided to hang it up.
Has Kyler Gordon quietly quit?
I certainly hope not, and I’m not there yet, but I have to admit, the thought is now creeping into my mind. I don’t like that it has, but it’s almost impossible at this point not to start thinking it’s a possibility.
For now, we wait. We see if Gordon gets on the field in the regular season, and we see how hard he’s playing and how effective he is.
If this dance continues throughout the season, every Bears fan is going to have the same thought. If Gordon gets on the field and plays 12 or 13 games and looks good in the process, we are all going to put this behind us.
To me, I’m starting to wonder if this is similar to the Derrick Rose situation with the Bulls. Rose, post injury, was very honest about how he approached injuries and how he wasn’t willing to punish his body if it meant the possibility that his body breaks down in the future when he’s in his 50s and 60s. That frustrated Bulls fans, but when Rose was on the court, he was 100% committed to being on the court. It was how he approached his recovery that was frustrating.
Is Gordon the same? Only time will tell, but as for now, I’m just wondering if it’s time to question Kyler Gordon?
