Some of you may be reading this article and going, “Who the hell is Bill Zimmerman?” and that’s probably the majority of you (and for good reason). Some of you may know me as the guy who yells too much during his podcast or writes overly opinionated articles on this here website.
But most likely, only a few of you know that I am a 25-year radio professional who has attended 16 of the last 19 Super Bowl weeks for my full-time job.
I bring that up as the background to explain what Super Bowl week is
at the media center. It’s like a week-long convention for the NFL and the media who cover the league. Yes, a similar vibe happens at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, but similar conversations are had at the Super Bowl.
There are conversations had at bars, at dinners, in hotel lobbies, mostly at the media center, but they happen everywhere. Sometimes it’s a conversation with just you and one or two other people; other times, you end up in a group of 5 to 7 people, and you might not know any of them but one, but they are high-level people with connections, and nobody worries about keeping B-level rumors under wraps at these events.
These events are where rumors fly. Many of them are true, plenty turn out to be false or perhaps only partially true, but this is where the rumor mill gets churning, and you get a vibe about what’s happening around the league.
Over the last two decades, the Bears have been largely bad, and if we’re being honest, the bad teams aren’t discussed that often in these conversations. Most of the time, if I wanted to get something going about the Bears, I was the one who needed to stir up the conversation.
This year, it was different.
I sent this tweet out on Wednesday of last week, and you would have thought I said who the second shooter was on the grassy knoll. Yes, Bears fans appreciated hearing it, but of course, the tweet ended up in the hands of Packers fans, and you would have thought I came to each of their homes and individually insulted their mothers one by one.
Yes, this happened. Yes, the Bears were a popular conversation at the media center. No, they weren’t the only conversation; there were conversations to be had about the Seahawks and Patriots, of course, but there were plenty of conversations about the Bears, Eagles, 49ers, Chiefs, Ravens, and plenty of the other usual suspects.
The media center did not stand up and sing “Bear Down, Chicago Bears” in unison, while giving a slow clap to every Bears fan as we jogged victoriously through the convention center. But plenty of people wanted to talk about Ben Johnson, about Caleb Williams, and about the Bears’ future.
I’m going to share some Bears rumors over the course of the week, but I wanted to start with this one about the positivity around the Bears. For those of you who were asking, yes, there was plenty of buzz around the Bears after 2018 as well. Plenty of the Bears showed up to the Super Bowl that week and could be seen at various events.
Here’s what the general vibe was around Super Bowl week, and we will get into some more specifics later in this week about what the Bears might be looking to do on offense, defense, and perhaps some stadium talk as well.
The media and league couldn’t be higher on Ben Johnson. He’s in the elite class of offensive minds. I think in many people’s minds, he’s already catapulted ahead of guys like Kevin Stefanski and Kevin O’Connell. Andy Reid isn’t really mentioned in those conversations anymore. These days, he’s the godfather of NFL offense. Everybody knows he’s great, but until we see the Chiefs’ offense recover, he’s going to be pushed a little aside.
The conversation of elite minds is Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, and Ben Johnson. That seems to be the big 3, and I think if you asked most folks there, they would give you that list.
I think some had some more concerns about Johnson as a head coach overall and some of the decisions he made in terms of going for it on 4th down, game management decisions, and some other issues that they feel he needs to clean up, but the belief in Johnson is sky-high. Definitely much higher than it ever was around Matt Nagy in 2018.
Last year, the conversation around Caleb Williams was very mixed. Nobody was overly positive about him. It was either “Let’s wait and see, it’s only been a year, he showed some ability,” or “This is not good at all.” There were not a lot of positive vibes around Williams, and mostly, it was “if anyone can fix him, it’s Ben Johnson” that was about the most positive thing you would hear.
The Williams opinions now are far more positive. Not as overly positive as Johnson, but I think the vast majority think Williams is going to be a very good quarterback. In fact, I didn’t hear anyone talk about Williams like he isn’t already a top-half QB1 in the league already. The debate was more, will this guy become an elite top 5 quarterback, or a very good borderline top ten quarterback?
There was plenty of talk about Williams needing to use his legs a little bit more often, and the obvious comments about cleaning up some of the easy and basic stuff that he misses sometimes, but you know what I didn’t hear once? “Yeah, but his completion percentage…” That was refreshing.
I do think there’s a good chance that the Bears become the heels of the NFL. There really isn’t a villain in the league right now like the Cowboys in the 90s and the Brady/Belichick Patriots. Now, obviously, those teams won championships before they became the villains. The Bears may not wait that long. Johnson is highly competitive, and you can still tell that Williams rubs some people the wrong way. It would not surprise me if the Bears become that role thanks to Johnson and Williams. It may not happen next year, but I think this season was kind of like Anakin in Attack of the Clones. He’s mostly good, but you see flashes of why he ends up on the Dark Side. 2026 could be like Revenge of the Sith, and in 2027, Ben and Caleb could be full original Star Wars Darth Vader and be in full villain mode. I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but be ready for it. And if it does happen, embrace that role.
The vibes are high for the Bears. You can expect a lot of prime-time games for the Bears this year. I would not be shocked if the Bears have 6 primetime games next year (primetime, in this case, also includes Thanksgiving and Christmas). It’s possible the Bears could have as many as 7, which would be a record, but I don’t think the NFL pushes them that hard. I would expect the Bears to have multiple Sunday night games; they’ll be on Monday and Thursday night football as well. You will probably see them on some kind of holiday broadcast as well. Not only that, you’ll see the Bears pushed back to that 3:25 Chicago time start more often. The NFL believes in the Bears, and they are going to push them to the national audience. Of the 17 games the Bears have on the schedule next year, it wouldn’t shock me if they only have 6 or 7 Noon starts.
Consensus is definitely that the Bears are headed in the right direction, and they have the right pieces in the most important spots in the organization.
