A lot has changed since the Green Bay Packers’ win over the Chicago Bears on December 7th. The Packers are banged up, with three players ruled out, ten players listed as questionable and star pass-rusher
Micah Parsons on the injured reserve going into the weekend. It sure seems like Bears fans have taken notice.
This week, we’re joined by Bill Zimmerman of Windy City Gridiron to break down how Chicago feels about the upcoming matchup. For what it’s worth, even after all the injuries the Packers suffered against the Denver Broncos, Green Bay opened up as the road favorite in this game. Recently, though, the number has swung toward the Bears, who are now favorites.
What’s this I’m hearing about the Gary Bears?
Ah, the stadium debacle. Yes, this certainly has been a bit of a mess for the Bears the last couple of years. I am mostly supportive of President Kevin Warren because he helped transform the Bears from operating like a Mom & Pop Shop to an actual billion-dollar corporation and brought in a level of professionalism they desperately needed. I also got a chance to interview Ben Johnson’s agent, Rick Smith, shortly after the Bears hired Johnson, and he talked about how one of the key reasons he came to Chicago was Kevin Warren and the transformation he’s done behind the scenes. That being said…
One of the main reasons Warren got this job is to build the stadium based largely on what he did for the Vikings and their new stadium. The Bears purchased land in Arlington Heights before Warren was hired, and Warren immediately pivoted and tried to get the stadium built in Chicago, but logistically, it just wasn’t possible. He shifted back to Arlington Heights, but the Bears don’t want to pay for the needed infrastructure around the stadium site, and the Illinois government has no interest in shelling out any taxpayer dollars.
It’s been at a standstill, so despite Warren saying shovels in the ground in 2025, it doesn’t even seem like shovels in the ground in 2026 is on the table right now. So the Bears are pivoting to Indiana. Is it simply a leverage play? That’s what many think at this point. I think they would upset a large portion of the fan base if they moved to Indiana, and I don’t think they would do that, but who knows at this point.
The biggest issue is when Warren decides to do these things. He decided to hold a press conference with his renderings of what the new stadium would look like in Chicago, the day before the Bears drafted Caleb Williams. Now he sends this letter to the fans days before the biggest Bears-Packers game in several years. Bears fans are tremendously enjoying this season, and nobody had any interest in reading a letter about the spat between politicians and billionaires.
I think the story of the game for the Bears’ offense is how many of these skill players are banged up. What’s the feeling of who is in/out, and how will the team have to adjust if they can’t suit up?
There is certainly a concern that both Rome Odunze and Luther Burden are going to miss this game. D’Andre Swift being a midweek add to the injury report is certainly concerning as well, but as of now, we have very little information as to the severity of Swift’s situation. Fortunately, the Bears have some flexibility with their personnel. If Swift can’t go, you’ll see a heavy dose of rookie Kyle Monangai, who has been very strong in the second half of the season. He’s not nearly as fast as Swift and mostly stays between the tackles, but he is an effective runner.
As for Odunze and Burden, you can expect the Bears to use more 12 and 13 personnel in the game. They like using 12 with Colston Loveland and Cole Kmet and utilize that frequently, but their 3rd tight end is Durham Smythe, who is mostly a blocking TE, but they used a lot of 13 against the Philadelphia Eagles and ran the ball tremendously well with that grouping. It also led to that fantastic touchdown throw to Cole Kmet in that game, which was out of 13 personnel.
It’s certainly not ideal if all three of those guys miss, and it will absolutely hinder the offense in certain capacities, but hopefully Ben Johnson will be able to find some ways to make things work based on who is available.
Defensively, what does linebacker Tremaine Edmunds bring to the table if he can go on Saturday?
Edmunds has been a punching bag for me and a lot of other Bears fans during his first couple of years in Chicago. I am never a fan of paying an off-ball linebacker significant dollars, but the Bears did it with Edmunds and didn’t get a great return. But this year, we’ve seen a far different Edmunds. He’s been a lot more of an attacking player rather than letting the play come to him. He has tremendous size and length and does a great job making it difficult for quarterbacks to throw over the middle of the field, and he certainly has a nose for creating turnovers. His numbers in 10 games this year look similar to his full-season statistics from previous years. I do think Edmunds goes, but if he doesn’t, D’Marco Jackson has been really outstanding. Dennis Allen had familiarity with him from the New Orleans Saints, and they brought him in due to some linebacker injuries after the Saints cut him. He’s done an excellent job filling in when needed to the point where he actually won defensive player of the week last week for his performance against the Browns.
So, how have teams been able to bottle up Caleb Williams this year? It seemed like he played the entire game on the right sideline against the Packers a couple of weeks ago. My answer this time around would have been putting Micah Parsons at left end to chase him down …IF I HAD A MICAH PARSONS.
You definitely want to make sure your Edges don’t overpenetrate on the rush and allow Caleb to escape towards the sidelines. If you watch most of his highlight reel plays this year, almost all of them are with him throwing on the run; that’s when the magic happens. He’s improving throughout the season, operating on time from the pocket, but there’s still room for improvement there. When Caleb is executing the offense from the pocket, that’s when we see him airmail some balls he shouldn’t, and when the passing game just gets a little clunkier. He also seems to have gotten noticeably faster this year (if you look at the top 10 fastest MPH runs this year from all players, Caleb’s name is on there like 5 times), so flushing him up into the pocket, he will take off and run and grab yardage that way as well.
I think you want to try to keep him in the pocket and disrupt his passing lanes, and try to fan the inaccurate passes. That seems to be the best way to do it. Also, the Bears’ running game has been humming the last couple of months. If you can bottle up the running game, and the Bears are forced to pass a lot more, the offense doesn’t operate nearly as efficiently when it gets one-sided towards the pass.
Let’s hear how you think this game unfolds. It’s prediction time.
I know this is getting published on a Packers website, and I’m sure I’ll be labeled a Bears homer for this one, but I feel pretty darn confident about this game. I think the Packers might be a little shell-shocked from the Parsons injury, and I think the Bears are a very confident bunch right now. I think the Parsons injury is going to turn the Packers’ defense from a strong unit to just a decent one because I just don’t know what kind of pressure they can generate with four without Parsons. I think the Bears win this game by more than a possession, and I don’t know if I’ve ever felt that way about one of these games since Brett Favre became the Packers quarterback. I will say 27 to 17 Bears.
