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2025-26 NFL Season Thread


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  • 2 weeks later...

Please be real Austin Booker. Guy got so much hype last year and he looks physically bigger this year which is what he needed to do. 

 

Even if hes just a stud situational pass rusher that could be huge. 

 

Outside of Booker, without a lot of the starters out there the game was kind of a nothingburger....Trapilo looked good but he didn't come in till way late in the game so the quality of the D out there is not what he's gonna face in real games. 

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Something that sucks right now is the media all deciding Caleb sucks, and obviously his camp has not been inspiring, and roughtly 100% of the time in my life when the media says a bears QB sucks and I say "they are dumb" they have been right so I'm bracing for it again.

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7 hours ago, bmags said:

Something that sucks right now is the media all deciding Caleb sucks, and obviously his camp has not been inspiring, and roughtly 100% of the time in my life when the media says a bears QB sucks and I say "they are dumb" they have been right so I'm bracing for it again.

I can’t say I even trust Ben Johnson (regardless of his Detroit success) until he proves that he won’t be “Bears’ed.” No one deserves benefit of the doubt until they can succeed in a Bears uniform/or on the Bears sideline

If there is any part of Williams that needs that little extra motivation to play well, he should have no problem finding it. The media and most fans outside of Chicago have written him off. 

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5 hours ago, Flash Tizzle said:

I can’t say I even trust Ben Johnson (regardless of his Detroit success) until he proves that he won’t be “Bears’ed.” No one deserves benefit of the doubt until they can succeed in a Bears uniform/or on the Bears sideline

If there is any part of Williams that needs that little extra motivation to play well, he should have no problem finding it. The media and most fans outside of Chicago have written him off. 

I am more worried about Caleb and Poles than Johnson. Johnson seems to be setting right tone, culture, his push for greatness, focus on details etc. Even the time in press conferences - they are clear in the standards they are setting an unapologetic. Whether stating Caleb isn’t ready or the oline coach making clear Wright isn’t where he needs to be at RT. All of these things I think are various ways to reinforce the message around the standard and how high the standard is. 
 

It is so necessary because the bar / standard was just so low relative to what it really takes to excel at the highest level. 

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I hope somehow Smiths injury ends up being less serious than it looked. Outside of that - very sharp preseason game by Bears. I’d have kept Caleb out for another series or two - but he looked awesome that first series and on 2nd one Rome dropped the first down. Was nice to see him being decisive and accurate with his throws and spread the ball out. 
 

Burden just looked like a dude and he had a few real nice blocks which was good to see. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
18 hours ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Good luck, Bears…

”Packers acquired Micah Parsons from the Cowboys and signed him to a four-year, $188 million extension.”

There’s a lot of coping going on with Bears fans after this. I’ve seen a lot of responses like, “they aren’t one piece away from winning,” “how was the Dallas defense with Parsons” “this will end up like the Mack trade for the Bears and cripple their future.”

Maybe. But the Packers have earned the right to believe this will more likely work in their favor, than not. For an organization that drafts and develops well, losing two lower round 1st round picks for a top DE is a risk worth taking. 

If there’s a silver lining to this, I believe Hutch and Parsons alone main embarrass the Bears into having to upgrade both DE and LT. I don’t know how next years draft will shake out with both positions. I’m willing to wager both positions will need to be addressed….again. And we cannot play that BPA nonsense. If Poles has to trade up for that top tier talent and surrender future 1st round picks, so be it

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On 8/13/2025 at 5:17 PM, Chisoxfn said:

I am more worried about Caleb and Poles than Johnson. Johnson seems to be setting right tone, culture, his push for greatness, focus on details etc. Even the time in press conferences - they are clear in the standards they are setting an unapologetic. Whether stating Caleb isn’t ready or the oline coach making clear Wright isn’t where he needs to be at RT. All of these things I think are various ways to reinforce the message around the standard and how high the standard is. 
 

It is so necessary because the bar / standard was just so low relative to what it really takes to excel at the highest level. 

Given the brutal Bears schedule this year if they can win six games and if Williams shows progress at least there is some reason to think that things will get better.

It will be yet another losing season but again if Williams shows progress that's the key. I think Johnson will turn into a very good coach. Like you I still don't know if Poles can do the job.

This organization still has a long way to go. 

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1 hour ago, Lip Man 1 said:

Given the brutal Bears schedule this year if they can win six games and if Williams shows progress at least there is some reason to think that things will get better.

It will be yet another losing season but again if Williams shows progress that's the key. I think Johnson will turn into a very good coach. Like you I still don't know if Poles can do the job.

This organization still has a long way to go. 

Winning 6 games will be a monumental under achievement for this group, doesn't matter the schedule. 

This isn't a Super Bowl roster by any stretch, but the floor should be 8 wins. They spent a ton of money on the offensive line, have objectively one of the best receiving rooms in the NFL (WR/TE) and spent the No. 1 overall pick on a QB last year. They won 5 games last year which included an almost unbelievable 10 game losing streak, led by totally unprepared coaching staff. 

Expectations need to be raised. Yes, there could be some struggles early as the offense finds it's way under Ben Johnson, but this is the NFL. Training wheels are off. Caleb got his NFL experience (both good and bad) last year. Of course there is going to be continued development, but it's go time. Time to start winning games, using the weapons on the roster, preparing to take the jump to legit playoff team next season. 

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17 minutes ago, Tony said:

Winning 6 games will be a monumental under achievement for this group, doesn't matter the schedule. 

This isn't a Super Bowl roster by any stretch, but the floor should be 8 wins. They spent a ton of money on the offensive line, have objectively one of the best receiving rooms in the NFL (WR/TE) and spent the No. 1 overall pick on a QB last year. They won 5 games last year which included an almost unbelievable 10 game losing streak, led by totally unprepared coaching staff. 

Expectations need to be raised. Yes, there could be some struggles early as the offense finds it's way under Ben Johnson, but this is the NFL. Training wheels are off. Caleb got his NFL experience (both good and bad) last year. Of course there is going to be continued development, but it's go time. Time to start winning games, using the weapons on the roster, preparing to take the jump to legit playoff team next season. 

7 to 9 wins seems right, I would probably lean towards the higher end of that as of today.

I think they'll beat Vegas, New Orleans, New York and Cleveland.

Toss up for Dallas, Washington, and Pittsburgh.  

I don't think they'll beat Baltimore, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

Assume they go 3-3 in the division. 

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53 minutes ago, bmags said:

The bears schedule is not that brutal.

Not overall but their out of division road matchups are pretty brutal

@ Washington (Primetime)

@ Baltimore

@ Cincinnati

@ Philadelphia ("Prime"time-ish, get it.)

@ San Francisco (Primetime)

They get Dallas, New Orleans, New York Giants, Pittsburgh and Cleveland at home. Would have been nice to have some of those tougher matchups be at home.

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10 minutes ago, T R U said:

7 to 9 wins seems right, I would probably lean towards the higher end of that as of today.

I think they'll beat Vegas, New Orleans, New York and Cleveland.

Toss up for Dallas, Washington, and Pittsburgh.  

I don't think they'll beat Baltimore, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

Assume they go 3-3 in the division. 

I agree on baltimore and Philly, I struggle to put cincinnati and san fran as unbeatable teams right now. Burrow is incredible but that defense looks brutal, and san fran just seems so brittle. Who knows what they are this year.

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Just now, bmags said:

I agree on baltimore and Philly, I struggle to put cincinnati and san fran as unbeatable teams right now. Burrow is incredible but that defense looks brutal, and san fran just seems so brittle. Who knows what they are this year.

Yeah Cincinnati defense is awful but they may have the best offense in the league and are going to be extremely difficult to stop. San Francisco is definitely health dependent, but if healthy they are going to be pretty good.

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7 minutes ago, Chisoxfn said:

It seems pretty tough to me - partly because of the division we play but also due to some of the other divisions we are playing too.  

This is what I was going to say.  There are three legit playoff teams in front of them which they play six times.  I would be SHOCKED if they go 3-3 in the division.  I think it will be more like 1-5 or 2-4.  The rest isn't easy either.

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58 minutes ago, Chisoxfn said:

It seems pretty tough to me - partly because of the division we play but also due to some of the other divisions we are playing too.  

NFL.com ranked it the second hardest in the league, only the Giants have a more difficult one in their opinion. 

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5 hours ago, bmags said:

Oh man Tyler dunne s Substack just eviscerates Williams. Basically makes him out to be Jamarcus Russell or johnny manziel.

Not sure I believe most of what's in there. The Bears gave Williams a ton of responsibility to start the year. If he had no idea what he was doing, they wouldn't have let him call audibles or change the protections. A lot of the stuff just reads as revisionist history. Who in the pre-draft process had Caleb Williams as the worst of the 6 QBs taken in the first round? The only one I saw was some guy who said Spencer Rattler was the best QB in the draft. Is there a chance that Caleb didn't respect the coaching staff last year? Yeah, and it wasn't a Caleb-only issue. Guys like Keenan Allen and DJ Moore were a part of that too. And honestly, the coaching staff deserved no respect after what happened in the Commanders game. Eberflus was a bad head coach who commanded no respect and definitely didn't deserve any at the end of his tenure. 

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1 hour ago, chw42 said:

Not sure I believe most of what's in there. The Bears gave Williams a ton of responsibility to start the year. If he had no idea what he was doing, they wouldn't have let him call audibles or change the protections. A lot of the stuff just reads as revisionist history. Who in the pre-draft process had Caleb Williams as the worst of the 6 QBs taken in the first round? The only one I saw was some guy who said Spencer Rattler was the best QB in the draft. Is there a chance that Caleb didn't respect the coaching staff last year? Yeah, and it wasn't a Caleb-only issue. Guys like Keenan Allen and DJ Moore were a part of that too. And honestly, the coaching staff deserved no respect after what happened in the Commanders game. Eberflus was a bad head coach who commanded no respect and definitely didn't deserve any at the end of his tenure. 

I think there are a few things at play. When the Wickersham article came out a few months ago, it painted Caleb as the victim and made the coaching staff look awful. Eberflus, Waldron, Thomas Brown, Chris Morgan and a host of others lost their jobs, a lot centering around the failures of Caleb’s development, or lack of development. 

There was bound to be a response from the staff to partly rebuild their reputation. 

But I’m sure there are plenty of truths in the article as well. It’s a very bad look for Caleb and the front office. Luckily, Caleb is in control of making the entire article irrelevant with how he plays this season. 

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23 minutes ago, Tony said:

I think there are a few things at play. When the Wickersham article came out a few months ago, it painted Caleb as the victim and made the coaching staff look awful. Eberflus, Waldron, Thomas Brown, Chris Morgan and a host of others lost their jobs, a lot centering around the failures of Caleb’s development, or lack of development. 

There was bound to be a response from the staff to partly rebuild their reputation. 

But I’m sure there are plenty of truths in the article as well. It’s a very bad look for Caleb and the front office. Luckily, Caleb is in control of making the entire article irrelevant with how he plays this season. 

There is so much information in there from very specific events, down to exact quotes, that it should be easy to prove/disprove. Now, do the Bears go the route of:  “why do we need to validate the article with a response” or do they address it head on?

Regardless of how the front office responds, if Williams goes out and looks like garbage everything in there will be “true”

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