Caleb Williams became the first Chicago Bears quarterback in history to achieve the honor of being on the cover of a video game. Not just any video game, too. He will be the next face of the Madden franchise. This was unveiled this past week as EA explained that Williams’ achievements last season were an inspiration for the next generation of players. His Jumpman pose on the cover was both a nod to his incredible 4th and 8 conversion in the playoffs against Green Bay and an acknowledgment of Michael Jordan’s iconic skyline photo from years ago. Everybody is excited about this. Well, all except Bears head coach Ben Johnson.

He was asked about the announcement during his recent press conference. One would think he’d be happy for his young quarterback. It is a terrific individual achievement. Instead, Johnson shrugged it off, stating he had no meaningful reaction to it. If anything, he looked annoyed by it. This has led some to think that the head coach is actually unhappy about the honor. Dan Wiederer of The Athletic offered a theory on this, and it carries more than a little weight.

As for Bears head coach Ben Johnson? Well, his reaction was far more subdued.

“No reaction,” Johnson said stone-faced.

Zero elaboration from the coach, either.

Truth be told, given Johnson’s intense focus and assassin’s mentality, it’s fair to wonder if a small part of him was annoyed by the Madden recognition for Williams, which registers to many as a symbol of arrival, as a gold star presented to a still-developing young player working to master the hardest job in the sport.

Ben Johnson doesn’t need Williams thinking he’s arrived.

That is because, in his mind, the quarterback hasn’t. Last season was not a success for Johnson where Williams is concerned. Yes, the quarterback set a franchise record with 3,941 passing yards and scored 30 total touchdowns. It is the best season a Bears QB has ever had. That isn’t what Johnson likely remembers. He is thinking about the league-low 58% completion percentage and the five interceptions in two playoff games. Star quarterbacks don’t do things like that. Losers do.

This Madden cover stuff is unnecessary validation for a player who, in Johnson’s mind, hasn’t earned it yet. There is no question that the young quarterback is on the cusp of being special. He isn’t there yet. The last thing he needs is a bunch of suits and business people telling him otherwise. However, Johnson knows he can’t say anything like that publicly. It completely torpedoed team morale and caused an immediate media controversy. The best thing for him to do is stick to the original plan.

Keep grinding on Williams.

Ben Johnson might not be able to control what other people outside Halas Hall say to Williams, but he can sure control what he says. Being the head coach gives him certain perks in that regard. Since the offseason began, Johnson has been steadfast in saying that Williams still has a long way to go before he’s “arrived.” The completion percentage remains a central focus, and his ball placement has also become a topic of serious discussion. The quarterback must get better at giving his receivers a chance to catch and run.

Williams stated that his goal this season was to raise his Madden rating from 90 to 99 by the end of the year. He’s leaning into this stuff, which isn’t a crime. Still, it runs counter to Johnson’s thinking. The only true measurement of superstar status is winning a championship. Everything else is superficial. Nightmares of that interception in overtime against the Rams likely still haunt him. Until Williams can avoid doing things like that, Johnson won’t celebrate anything about his quarterback’s progress.

Sports Mockery has covered the Chicago Bears stadium fiasco for years now. One person we’ve been circling more and more as a central part of the problem throughout it is team president Kevin Warren. He certainly arrived with fanfare. The man had supposedly played a crucial part in helping the Minnesota Vikings build their new stadium in the late 2010s. Then he served as Big Ten Commissioner. He had plenty of experience rubbing shoulders with powerful people. George McCaskey and the Bears’ ownership felt he’d be perfect for taking over the goal of building a new stadium in Arlington Heights.

Four years later, Warren has accomplished little. The Bears have pivoted back and forth between different sites, including an ill-conceived attempt to get a new lakefront stadium off the ground. For the past month, he and political supporters in Springfield have been pushing to pass the Megaprojects bill, which would have provided the property tax assistance needed to start construction. Instead, the bill died in the Senate, and a last-second replacement to give the Bears a loophole ran out of time before the legislature adjourned.

That left Warren and McCaskey with two choices. Either they wait it out to see if the government tries to again this summer or fall, or they finally make a firm commitment to Hammond, Indiana.

They chose the latter.

Or at least that is what Kevin Warren wanted everyone to think.

One other thing about this entire process is that the Bears’ president is appallingly bad at keeping things from getting out to the media. The most recent example was regarding the team’s supposed communications with Chicago. Mayor Brandon Johnson insisted Warren was re-engaging on the possibility of a lakefront stadium. The Bears publicly insisted it was only one call about the Soldier Field lease. Later information revealed it was six calls, poking massive holes in that explanation.

Well, it gets better.

According to multiple reports, two different members of the Illinois government, Kam Buckner and Bill Cunningham, revealed that Warren insisted to both of them that he was looking forward to continuing discussions about the possibility of getting a new stadium in Illinois. This came directly after the Bears’ Board of Directors announced the vote to shift focus to Hammond. Incredibly, Warren once again shot himself in the foot, robbing himself and the team of any real leverage.

The McCaskeys have to stop the bleeding.

People keep arguing that Kevin Warren has brokered the sweetest deal ever by getting Indiana to pay up for a stadium site. Here’s the thing. It’s actually not that great. Sure, Indiana will come through with significant property tax and infrastructure support, but the Bears are still paying for the construction themselves. They’ll likely be doing it in a massive refinery district atop former waste sites. Oh, and he will have pushed the franchise out of Illinois for the first time in over a century.

What an accomplishment!

Nothing about this process indicates Warren is a genius. Quite the opposite. He comes across as a man who has plenty to say but can’t seem to get results. There is nothing to suggest he has a plan. Everything over the past four years indicates he was doing the political equivalent of throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. He’s the classic boss who promises the world and thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room. Guys like that always end up realizing their reach exceeds their grasp.

Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson isn’t just a competitor. He is essentially approaching his job like a military general. Everyone else is the enemy. He doesn’t care if the other teams have lots of good, likable people. They are all an obstacle to his ultimate goal. That is winning a championship. It is probably why some across the NFL don’t like him. They see him as brash and antagonistic. That suits Johnson just fine. He doesn’t care if he’s liked. He didn’t take the Bears job to become popular. His focus is on dominating the opposition and winning games.

That means he will seize every opportunity he can to rev up his players and motivate them. Even the slightest bit of disrespect is useful in his mind. So you can imagine how he’ll feel when he sees ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI) projections for the 2026 season. Regarding Super Bowl contenders, the Bears failed to crack the top five despite their strong finish last season. In fact, they’re not even in the top 16. Needless to say, the analytics guys see a major dip coming for Chicago.

Ben Johnson will love the reasoning for this.

Seth Walder broke down why he’s not buying the Bears later in the article. It boils down to how inefficient Caleb Williams was last season and the defense’s overreliance on turnovers to be effective. Unless those two issues are resolved, there is no way this team will reach a Super Bowl. Not only that, but he thinks the Bears will have a hard time even making the playoffs. Part of that is the metrics, but also that they’re about to play a much tougher schedule than they did last season.

“Chicago broke through last season, going 11-6 to win the NFC North and adding its first playoff win in 15 years. But the numbers suggest the Bears overachieved. They ranked seventh and 19th in offensive and defensive EPA per play, respectively, but that defensive number was entirely reliant on turnovers. Chicago’s defense ranked 30th on non-turnover plays. Plus, while quarterback Caleb Williams delivered repeated jaw-dropping plays, he also ranked only 16th in QBR.

The Bears might show growth in 2026 and become the Super Bowl contender their fans hope for them to be. But the FPI does not see that as a likelihood because of the combination of last season’s metrics and the first-place schedule they’ll face in 2026. Chicago is a light underdog to make the playoffs (46.5%) and has only a 19.4% chance to win the NFC North — roughly half of the Lions’ chances.”

Mentioning the Lions is almost certain to go over well with Ben Johnson. The Bears’ head coach was already stewing from last season after his former team swept him in the season series. To hear they are now the heavy favorites to unseat him from the division crown is only pouring fuel on the flames.

Great head coaches find doubters wherever possible.

One thing about Bill Belichick that made him a master of that New England Patriots dynasty was his constant ability to fuel an “us against the world” mentality. This came even during the peak years. Bill Walsh was also great at it during his run in San Francisco. Ben Johnson has shown signs of being the same. He always finds a way to make his players feel disrespected. Last year was easy since pretty much everyone doubted the Bears would ever be a playoff contender. This time around might have proven trickier.

ESPN just served some up on a silver platter. It’s one thing to consider the Bears a dark horse for the Super Bowl, but to give them no shot? Not only that, but they’re also a mortal lock to not even make the playoffs. There is no way in hell Johnson will let something like that slip by without making full use of it. Don’t be shocked if the Bears come out early this season feeling like they have something to prove. Because apparently, in the eyes of the national public, they still do.

There have been plenty of missteps by the Chicago Bears in their efforts to get necessary legislation passed to help them start building a new stadium. It was team president Kevin Warren pivoting to a downtown push in 2024 that anybody with common sense knew was a waste of time. It was failing to finalize a traffic study that would’ve clarified where all of the infrastructure funding they wanted would go. Not to be outdone, it was also their double-dealing with Indiana, even when it felt like negotiations in Springfield with the Illinois government were progressing positively.

All of it has demonstrated an appalling lack of awareness of how to handle the complicated machinations of high-stakes negotiations. Yet of all these mistakes over the past two years, Illinois House member Kam Buckner believes one stood out above the rest. He told the CHGO Bears Podcast that everything boiled down to the property tax issue. Under the current state law, the Bears would’ve had to pay over $50 million in property taxes annually. That is multiple times greater than any sports team in existence. They needed legislation to let them negotiate a more reasonable rate.

Buckner believes the blunder stemmed from the Bears not offering a clear roadmap for how to get there. They merely said they “needed property tax certainty.” This vagueness led to confusion and disagreement in both the House and Senate, which devolved into competing strategies on how to get there.

Everything goes back to the Chicago Bears’ lack of preparation.

Warren was hired in 2022 to take over the project to build a stadium. Every indication since then is that the man was woefully unprepared at every juncture. He never put together a detailed plan on what kind of legislation he wanted. It was just tell the politicians the overarching goal and let them figure it out. He even hired lobbyists to help facilitate the process, only to completely ignore their advice. George McCaskey was never going to be any help. Though well-meaning, he is the last person you would think of as having political clout.

The moment the Chicago Bears failed to offer a clear vision, it was doomed. There were too many competing factions within the government, each wanting different things. This inevitably led to infighting. Some wanted the PILOT (megaprojects) bill passed. Others felt it was way too big. Some felt a downsized bill focused just on the Bears would be easier to pass. Too many representatives felt the language was too murky to risk forcing it through. On top of all of that, you still have a bloc of voters in Chicago doing everything in their power to stop the team from moving.

Now the Bears are backed into a corner.

Barring a special session this summer, it’s looking more and more likely the Bears will have to wait until next spring to take another crack at passing the legislation. Waiting another year would be a colossal admission of defeat. Their only other option is the nuclear one. They finally agree to a deal with Indiana to move their new stadium across the state line to Hammond. That would mark the first time in the franchise’s over a century of existence that they would not play their home games in Chicago. A true end of an era.

At this point, fans are exhausted by the entire process. They just want a resolution. Indiana feels like the only certain path forward left. Buckner remains adamant that a solution can still be found in Springfield. It’s a question of getting the details nailed down so they can find enough votes. Given how things have gone to this point, there is no way the Bears have what it takes to do that.

Almost from the moment Kevin Warren took over as team president of the Chicago Bears, things went sideways. He was officially hired by the team on January 12th, 2023. One month later, on February 15th, the team officially closed its purchase of the Arlington Park property in Arlington Heights. One would think the task ahead for Warren from that point was easy. Start making inroads down in Springfield to facilitate the process of getting the new stadium built. That is not what he did.

Around October of that same year, Warren began holding conversations with new Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson about the possibility of a new lakefront stadium. After six months of discussions, the two unveiled a plan for a massive complex downtown. Yet the moment they pushed it to the state for consideration, it was shot down immediately. Governor J.B. Pritzker said there was no way taxpayers were helping fund such a venture, especially knowing activist groups would fight it all the way.

Left little choice, Warren pivoted back to Arlington Heights and eventually to Indiana as the primary possibilities. Yet it has become evident that the Bears’ president never let go of that dream of a downtown stadium.

Kevin Warren ruined everything because of this obsession.

New evidence from Justin Laurence of Crain’s Chicago Business proves it. Reports stated that the Bears held conversations with the city again, supposedly hoping to reignite a downtown stadium deal. The team insisted in a public statement that their focus was only on Arlington and Indiana. Nowhere else. The only call they placed to City Hall was about breaking their lease with Soldier Field. Laurence reports that this was a straight-up lie. The Bears actually held six calls.

“The Chicago Bears told key Springfield lawmakers they had only limited discussions with City Hall about a potential new stadium, but records obtained by Crain’s show team and city attorneys held at least six calls and virtual meetings in April while legislators were considering a package of incentives to facilitate a move to Arlington Heights.”

What did Warren expect would happen?

Did he actually think that holding these talks with the city would remain a secret? These are professional politicians he’s dealing with. They will use any information against you they can if it’s to their own gain. Chicago knew right away that those phone calls were all but guaranteed to torpedo stadium bills because it would look like Kevin Warren and the Bears were negotiating in bad faith. This obsession with staying downtown despite mounting evidence that it won’t happen has done nothing but hamper the team’s efforts to get anything done.

Now here they sit. No deal with the spring legislature adjourned. It doesn’t sound like a special session will be called to address it. That means the Bears’ best hope is the government revisits it this fall. Otherwise, they’re looking at waiting another year before the process starts all over again. Doing so would be an admission of defeat and that the whole Indiana thing was nothing but a leverage play. This is why growing sentiment is that the Bears will announce their official move to Hammond within the next month.

Warren will be front and center, declaring this was the intention all along. He’ll soak in the limelight, passing it off as a victory. In reality, the Bears’ stadium would likely already be under construction if someone competent had been in charge. This entire saga felt like Warren flailing about like a fish on the beach. No sense of direction. No idea of how to handle the complicated machinations of the Illinois political landscape.