The Minnesota Vikings gave up Sam Darnold after a Pro Bowl season for 1st round pick J.J. McCarthy. One would think the team would have a stronger commitment to such an investment after just one season. Unfortunately for McCarthy, the Vikings team brass doesn’t have that kind of patience. His struggles in 2025, along with Darnold winning the Super Bowl with Seattle, caused a lot of hard feelings to surface inside the team building. Many warned McCarthy wasn’t ready. Head coach Kevin O’Connell didn’t listen, and it cost the team a vital year of what felt like a Super Bowl window. That is how we got to Kyler Murray.

Feeling they couldn’t justify going another season with McCarthy as the guy, Minnesota chose to sign the former Arizona Cardinals Pro Bowler in free agency. They’ve tried to insist it will be a training camp battle between the two. Nobody is fooled. They know it’s Murray’s job. The past few months have operated under that assumption. Yet from how you’re starting to hear people in the Minnesota media talk, Murray’s grip on that job isn’t nearly as strong as you would think.

More was said about it on the Rotoworld Football Show.

Kyler Murray was never the savior people wanted him to be.

People act like he was dropped into Arizona and left to rot by the Cardinals. That was never true. The organization actually did a pretty good job building around him. They provided a head coach who crafted an offensive tailor-made to his strengths. They traded for DeAndre Hopkins from Houston and Kenyan Drake from Miami, providing legitimate weaponry. Next came James Connor in 2021 and Trey McBride in 2022. Last but certainly not least, they gave him left tackle Paris Johnson in 2022.

The truth is, Kyler Murray regressed after getting his big contract extension. In the three seasons before that, he was a two-time Pro Bowler with 90 touchdowns and 34 interceptions. Since then, he has 63 touchdowns and 26 interceptions. He’s also missed several games with various injuries. He hasn’t looked anything like the star most believed he was for five years. Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell fancies himself the quarterback whisperer after what he accomplished with Darnold.

There is a significant difference between the two. Darnold was hungry to prove something when he came to Minnesota. Murray has operated like somebody looking for that next paycheck.

Minnesota is doubling down on O’Connell.

That is what this season is. The organization is gambling that their head coach has the magic touch to bring Kyler Murray back to the level he was when he brought Arizona to the playoffs. The interesting part about this is the type of player he is. This is not the sort of quarterback O’Connell is used to. All of his most notable quarterbacks as an offensive coordinator and head coach fall into the same category: pocket-oriented.

• Jared Goff
• Matthew Stafford
• Kirk Cousins
• Sam Darnold

Murray is not that type of quarterback. He has built his success on his elite scrambling prowess and off-script playmaking. O’Connell has never worked with a quarterback like that before, which begs the question. Will he try to force Murray to play within the system, or will he adjust the offense to fit the quarterback? Both options have significant risks involved. Ben Johnson did a great job of molding the two together last season with Caleb Williams. Perhaps O’Connell will copy that approach.

For the past couple of years, Chicago Bears fans have been racking their brains trying to figure out what is happening with Kyler Gordon. At one point in time, the former 2nd round pick looked like one of the ascending nickel cornerbacks in the league. He was quick, athletic, aggressive, and physical. That was why the Chicago Bears gave him a contract extension. However, even before then, it was evident that Gordon had a problem. He struggled to stay healthy. It wasn’t that he had bad luck, either. These were knee, ankle, Achilles, or other freak injuries. They were soft tissue problems such as hamstrings, calves, and groin.

Those don’t happen because of freak occurrences. They come from a lack of proper conditioning and preparation. Yet that doesn’t make sense. Gordon has always come across as a dedicated player. Yet his landing on the PUP list ahead of training is starting to get people asking questions if something else is going on. That was when a rumor popped up on Twitter.

This seems to suggest that Gordon has quietly developed a habit of going to clubs every night while dabbling in fashion as a side hustle. That by itself raises a minor concern, but one person saying this doesn’t offer much credence. So you can imagine the surprise when a completely different person echoed the same thing to my Sports Mockery colleague, Dhruv Koul. With an added twist, too.

If this is true, it explains so much about Kyler Gordon.

You never want to let rumors run wild, but it’s hard to ignore this one. There have been many cases across NFL history where players get sidetracked by the nightlife. That is particularly true in big cities like Chicago. You’re young, rich, and living in a place with countless temptations at your fingertips. If this is true and Gordon is staying out late all the time, it would explain why his body keeps breaking down whenever he gets back on the field. He hasn’t been taking proper care of it.

As for the cocaine thing? That would also explain the injuries. Aside from being a dangerous drug for the heart and brain, it also has a long track record of wreaking havoc on your muscles. Cocaine causes severe inflammation (myositis) and weakness (myopathy). This structural damage has been proven to ruin athletic power, coordination, and flexibility. That means every time you push the body to its max during practice or games, the odds of a significant strain or tear are far higher than normal.

Former New York Mets superstar Darryl Strawberry is a perfect example. He was plagued by hamstring problems throughout his career. That is why his ability declined sharply in the 1990s. He tested positive for cocaine in 1995, but people around him confirmed the habit went back years.

Again, be careful with this story.

Kyler Gordon can’t officially be accused of anything based on the word of two people on social media. That is what the courts call hearsay. Still, with the Bears unable or unwilling to explain the problem, we have no choice but to speculate. The cornerback has long been a world-class athlete. He isn’t even close to his 30s yet. His body shouldn’t be constantly breaking down like this. The only explanation that makes sense is that some habit, extracurricular or otherwise, is messing with his body chemistry.

If these rumors are true, it is a sad situation. Gordon has Pro Bowl-caliber ability. He can be one of the best in the NFL. If his love of the nightlife and fashion has become more important, then there is an obvious decision ahead for the Bears. Once the financial penalty becomes less severe, they must cut the cord. Head coach Ben Johnson doesn’t want players like that on his team.

The Chicago Bears have faced uncertainty from many angles for years, and not just on the field. As the organization floundered in the 2010s, there were constant discussions about whether the McCaskey family should still own it. After all, they don’t really have the capital to keep up with richer owners in the league. They certainly can’t be called the most football-savvy either, despite their family history. Only recently have things seemed to settle down. George McCaskey is clearly in charge, and the team has unquestioned fixtures at GM (Ryan Poles), head coach (Ben Johnson), and quarterback (Caleb Williams). The same can’t be said for the Green Bay Packers.

Stability has been synonymous with the Bears’ arch-rival for decades. Not only have they rarely seen changes at quarterback, head coach, or GM over the past 30 years, but they’ve also exploited certain advantages of being a publicly owned franchise. However, those advantages are suddenly in serious danger. It started with reports that Wisconsin Congressman Scott Fitzgerald is looking to dismantle the Sports Broadcasting Act, a loophole in antitrust laws that allows the NFL to negotiate television rights. Killing it would force teams to negotiate local rights individually, which is a big problem for small markets like Green Bay.

If that weren’t bad enough, team president Ed Policy admitted to shareholders recently that rising player costs have put the franchise in a concerning revenue crunch.

The Chicago Bears can be thankful they’re in a big market.

Green Bay Packers president and CEO Ed Policy says adjustments might be necessary as the NFL’s only publicly owned franchise attempts to remain financially competitive in the long term.

“It’s like other teams have access to this ATM machine that we just don’t have right now,” Policy said Friday as the Packers released their annual expenses and revenues for the 2026 fiscal year, three days before the organization holds its annual shareholders meeting…

…”We’re going to have to be more aggressive with revenue generation going forward,” Policy said. “We all know the cost of competing in the NFL is going up, and other teams have access to capital sources that we just don’t have.”

In all honesty, the Packers probably shouldn’t exist.

With a population of barely over 230,000, Green Bay is the smallest market among the four major sports in the United States. The next closest is Buffalo at a minimum of 1.15 million people. Every other sports team that played in markets of a similar size to Green Bay died long ago. This was because they just couldn’t handle the financial responsibilities of their respective leagues. The NFL has kept the franchise stable for so long because of its ability to negotiate highly profitable television deals. It also hasn’t hurt that the Packers have established a popular brand that has a far reach across the country.

Yet the money always catches up. Due to the NFL’s structure, it has a guaranteed minimum cash spending window. That requires teams to spend a minimum amount of money in blocks over a three-year window. For the 2024-2026 block, that is $752.22 million. Again, that is the minimum amount the Chicago Bears and Green Bay have to spend to be in compliance. Spending the minimum doesn’t usually make you a competitive football team. You must be willing to throw some cash around to find roster upgrades.

Green Bay isn’t well-equipped to do that.

Their massive swing to acquire Micah Parsons from the Dallas Cowboys last year was pretty out of character. Giving up that much draft capital is one thing, but it was the enormous contract that really stood out. A four-year deal at $46.5 million per year. Some NFL teams would’ve been able to absorb that and keep the roster together. For the Packers, it came at a price. Defensive tackle Kenny Clark was sent back to Dallas in the trade. Edge rusher Rashan Gary was traded to Dallas this offseason as well. Cornerback Nate Hobbs was released. Quay Walker, Romeo Doubs, Elgton Jenkins, and Rasheed Walker walked in free agency.

The cap issue was never severe enough to warrant such a mass exodus. Yet it’s not the cap that is the problem. It is the cash flow. Green Bay just doesn’t have the pockets to pay multiple veteran players what they feel they deserve. This is why many in the organization are nervous. The current structure could break down soon unless the organization finds ways to increase revenue. Would they finally sell to a private owner? Would they consider moving to a bigger market?

It would be an ironic ending after the Bears spent over a century trying to snuff that team out.

The Chicago Bears retooled their secondary this offseason, along with the linebackers. Offensively, they added more depth at wide receiver and tight end while shoring up some unexpected holes on the offensive line. Yet one thing stood out from their approach that left fans and media puzzled. It was their bizarre decision not to invest more heavily in the defensive line. After ranking as one of the worst units in the league at rushing the passer, it made sense that they’d go hunting for upgrades.

Instead, the Bears opted for a more improve-on-the-margins approach. They added Neville Gallimore in free agency to boost the defensive tackle spot and drafted Jordan Van Den Berg in the 6th round to do the same. No notable additions were made at edge rusher. General manager Ryan Poles stated the team felt they had enough pieces to be productive. It was a matter of guys staying healthy, which Austin Booker, Dayo Odeyingbo, and Shemar Turner did not.

There may have been another explanation, though. It leads into one of Poles’ more unheralded traits. They might be waiting for the 2027 NFL draft. ESPN revealed why.

The Chicago Bears might be waiting for better opportunities.

Teams needing defensive line help have plentiful Round 1 options at both edge and defensive tackle. Simmons and Stewart top the edge rankings, followed by players such as Teitum Tuioti (Oregon), Yhonzae Pierre (Alabama) and Will Heldt (Clemson). At 6-5, 245 pounds, Stewart has a lot of similarities to Brian Burns as an explosive and violent edge rusher with exceptional bend.

“Stewart has some of the rarest movement skills that I’ve ever evaluated in an edge rusher,” an AFC evaluator said. “If he can reach double-digit sacks, he has No. 1 overall pick potential.” Stewart had 4.5 sacks in 2025.

There isn’t a defensive tackle who is head and shoulders above the rest, but players such as Moten, Echoles, A’Mauri Washington (Oregon) and David Stone (Oklahoma) are Round 1-caliber and viable DT1 candidates. They headline a defensive tackle group which scouts believe is the strongest non-QB position group in the 2027 class.

This strategy has yielded fruit for Poles before.

Waiting to address key positions until the draft talent matches the need is something Poles prefers. We’ve already seen it happen multiple times through his first few years on the job. His first year on the job, fans were begging him to address the offensive line after allowing 58 sacks in 2021. Rather than lean into that need, the Bears opted to focus on their secondary in the early rounds. He didn’t take an offensive tackle until the 5th (Braxton Jones). Poles did this because he felt the talent wasn’t there, but would be the next year.

Sure enough, the Chicago Bears drafted Darnell Wright 10th overall. Ironically, that 2023 draft was one that fans hoped he’d go after a quarterback. He had the #1 overall pick. Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud felt like obvious targets. Again, Poles passed. He traded the pick for a boatload of picks from Carolina and took Wright. He knew the 2024 draft class was shaping up to be much stronger, headlined by Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, and Drake Maye. We’ve all seen how that turned out.

Good drafting is about timing as much as positions.

Rest assured, the Bears want to find that stalwart defensive lineman as much as anybody else. The problem is you can’t force the issue. When you do that, the odds of failure go up. Reaching for defensive line help in a weak draft is a bad process. Waiting until the class is strong enough to give you a better opportunity is the smart thing to do, even if it may cause short-term headaches. That is what we saw with the Bears this past April. They focused on safety and center in the early rounds.

Why? It was because both were among the stronger positions in the class. Dillon Thieneman and Logan Jones are fully capable of starting immediately. Experts believe they have Pro Bowl upside in the right situation. By contrast, not much is being said about the defensive line options they could’ve taken with either of those picks. This is what “taking the best player” is really like. Sometimes you’re not going to satisfy that sweet tooth immediately. Each the vegetable first.

It isn’t a secret by now that Green Bay Packers fans hate Caleb Williams. The feeling is very much mutual. The Chicago Bears’ young quarterback has achieved more against the green and gold in his first two seasons than most have in the past 30 years. Across five games, Williams is 3-2 against the Packers, with all three wins coming by way of 4th quarter comebacks. The two most recent were arguably two of the most backbreaking losses Green Bay has ever suffered in the rivalry’s history. The fact that Williams isn’t afraid to rub it in with celebrations during and after games only ramps up the hatred dial even further.

Most Packer fans are content to bash the Bears quarterback online at every opportunity, calling him overrated and overhyped. However, one industrious fan put this heated dynamic to good use. Packers Point is a prominent TikTok channel for a Green Bay fan. He decided to shoot a video that had him reacting to Williams’ highlights until he became impressed. It was quickly revealed that he was being forced to watch them against his will, tied to a chair, and gagged.

It was a perfect encapsulation of the trauma he’s given Packers fans. Not to mention an A+ skit.

Caleb Williams is creating entrepreneurs everywhere.

Most Packer fans would produce the normal types of videos. Podcast-oriented discussions where they break down all the reasons Williams isn’t nearly as good as people think. He got lucky last year. Luck doesn’t last in the NFL. You’ve probably seen variations of it all offseason. Full credit to this kid. Rather than follow that path, he decided to get creative. He leaned into the pain and torture the Bears caused him last season, acknowledging that Williams was the root cause of it all.

Unsurprisingly, it cracked 69,000 views in just a few days. Credit where it’s due. Most Green Bay fans wouldn’t have the courage to set their bitterness aside in the name of entertainment. Moments like this are what make the rivalry fun. No doubt the Packers have reveled in the misery of Bears fans for decades. They chant the “Bears still suck” all the time. Nobody is innocent in this. It comes down to how you handle the darker moments. This is one of the more productive ways.

Here’s to more creative ideas in the future.

Caleb Williams isn’t going anywhere. He is establishing himself as a legitimate franchise quarterback. He has Ben Johnson and an assortment of capable weapons. Most of all, he has a clear dislike for Green Bay. When those ingredients come together, it often results in competitive battles. This isn’t the Happy Time of previous years when the Packers got to breeze through a laundry list of not-good-enoughs like Erik Kramer, Jim Miller, Rex Grossman, Kyle Orton, Jay Cutler, Mitch Trubisky, and Justin Fields.

It was only a matter of time before the Bears finally got it right. Nothing lasts forever. Green Bay isn’t handling this new normal too well. They’d best get used to it. Otherwise, they run the risk of underestimating Williams, which never goes well for his opponents. Every era where Chicago has had the superior quarterback has seen them dominate this rivalry. Are we getting the first tastes of that again? They’d better hope not. Else what Packer Point showed will become a recurring nightmare.

Kyler Gordon was supposed to be a central part of the Chicago Bears‘ rebuild. He was general manager Ryan Poles’ first draft pick. His mixture of athleticism and physicality made for a great nickel corner in the NFL’s evolving defensive era. For stretches of time, he lived up to the hype, playing with excellent range and instincts. It was enough to earn him a lucrative contract extension. However, even during his best seasons, there were always signs of health problems. Gordon has never played a full 17-game season in his career.

However, 2025 was by far his worst. The cornerback missed 14 games with various injuries, all of the soft tissue variety. It’d be one thing if he were enduring the bad luck of a knee, Achilles, or other such setbacks that are difficult to prevent. Soft tissue injuries are typically a sign of someone who isn’t conditioned properly. So you can imagine the frustration when Gordon missed all of OTAs and minicamps with another injury. Fans were growing frustrated. It’s always something with him.

So imagine the reaction when the Bears announced that Gordon would go on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list before the start of training camp.

Kyler Gordon should be thankful for his new contract.

Since it’s still so new, he is protected by the guarantees owed to him. The Bears can’t cut him because it’d result in a massive $14 million cap penalty. Otherwise, there is a strong likelihood that head coach Ben Johnson would’ve cut the cord by now. He already expressed clear frustration with Gordon’s availability after last season. One can probably guess his mood upon learning the cornerback was going to miss at least the first few days of training camp as well. Johnson has little patience for players uselessly occupying roster spots.

It hurts even more because the Bears don’t really have a notable name on the roster who can play nickel cornerback. Tyrique Stevenson and Terell Smith are strictly boundary cornerbacks. Rookie 4th round pick Malik Muhammad got some work in the slot during spring practices, so he might be someone the Bears are looking at. Do you consider moving Jaylon Johnson inside? It’s possible, but that feels like a desperation move and taking your best player away from his natural position.

Gordon’s future doesn’t look great.

Unless he somehow returns for most of camp and plays the majority of the games this season, it is difficult to imagine the Bears keeping him around another year. It has reached a point where they just can’t trust him. This has nothing to do with his talent or effort. It is about his availability. It’s the Mike Brown situation all over again. He is a great player when on the field. He just wasn’t on the field enough. Sooner or later, you have to accept reality and move on. Gordon is backed up to his 1-yard line now, and he needs to score a touchdown.

Next offseason, the Bears can unload his contract with a post-June 1st designation. It would only create $800,000 in cap space and saddle them with $12.5 million in dead money, but it would at least get an expensive player off the roster. Poles has already shown in the past that he doesn’t mind taking big dead money hits if it benefits the organization in the long run. There is a strong probability we’ll have an answer to all of these questions by midseason at the latest.

Anybody who has watched football since at least 2000 knows the name Steve Smith Sr. The former wide receiver was not only one of the best of his era, but also one of the most outspoken. He wasn’t afraid to trash-talk and could do it better than most. After he retired, those same people quickly realized there was a deep intelligence hidden behind that mouth. Smith had a sharp eye for talent at his position coming out of the draft every year, and soon began sharing his thoughts on his own YouTube channel.

That brings us to this past week. Smith spent time evaluating what the Chicago Bears accomplished last season, specifically regarding their young wide receiving corps. He came away with two realizations. The first is that head coach Ben Johnson is a mad genius who fears nobody. The other is that Rome Odunze and Luther Burden had no real clue what they were doing last season and still managed to put up respectable numbers. Going into this next season with far better knowledge of the offense, he believes the Bears are about to explode.

Steve Smith Sr. knows what to look for.

He played in the NFL for over a decade. Few know the intricacies of the position better and how it’s supposed to look. If it doesn’t take casual fans long to see the Bears’ wide receivers weren’t always running routes correctly, one can only imagine what Smith saw. When he says they didn’t know what they were doing, that was probably him being diplomatic. Yet for him to maintain his excitement about Rome Odunze and Luther Burden in spite of that is a welcome sign.

Don’t forget the two of them combined for 1303 yards and eight touchdowns last season. That was with Odunze missing five games with his foot injury and Burden getting just 15 targets through his first seven games. Imagine what they could do with a full season together if both stay healthy. Steve Smith Sr. can see. The two of them on top of their details, with Johnson calling the offense? There is no way defenses are stopping it, no matter what they try.

Early signs are already encouraging.

Johnson stated during his early press conferences that it’d be smart to buy Burden stock. The young receiver has been putting in tons of work this offseason. His progression from where he was at the same time last year is night and day. Odunze also looked healthy in OTAs and minicamps. This doesn’t even mention rookie Zavion Thomas, who had multiple standout moments in practice as well. Smith has stated his speed will be a genuine problem for defensive backs to deal with.

Remember, Caleb Williams threw for 3,941 yards last season, even though his receivers didn’t really know what they were doing. Even if they take a modest step forward, it’s not crazy to think this passing game can clear 4,000 with relative ease. Smith already sees the future. Everything is in place. All these kids have to do is learn how to execute. Much will be on the wide receivers coach, Antwaan Randle El, to have them prepared.

When the Chicago Bears hired Matt Eberflus as the new head coach in 2022, lots of people were skeptical. The man, while semi-successful in Indianapolis as a defensive coordinator, hadn’t earned a glowing reputation. He wasn’t on the short list of top candidates. It didn’t take long to figure out why. As you listened to the man speak, it became clear he lacked certain factors that made great head coaches. One was charisma. Eberflus came off as corny and rigid. Nothing summed it up better than his infamous H.I.T.S philosophy, an acronym for Hustle, Intelligence, Turnovers, and Smart. You could hear the eye rolling through the screen. This guy is the best replacement for Matt Nagy that the Bears could find?

Well, we might owe Eberflus an apology. At the time, most thought there was no way a coach could come up with a worse acronym for trying to describe an offensive or defensive philosophy. Ironically enough, Nagy found a way. The former Bears head coach was recently hired by the New York Giants as their new offensive coordinator. He knew he’d have to establish an identity for his group, so he came up with four words that make up the core philosophy.

• Physical
• Tough
• Smart
• Detailed

PTSD.

When they say some jokes just write themselves, they weren’t lying. The poetry of this revelation is as chef’s kiss as it gets.

Matt Nagy continues to show how tone-deaf he is.

The man arrived in Chicago eight years ago with serious credibility. He’d helped oversee the career peaking of Alex Smith in Kansas City and the early development of Patrick Mahomes. He came with a glowing recommendation from Andy Reid, one of the best future head coach groomers in the league. Early signs were so promising, too. The Bears’ offense came out hot in 2018, finishing top 10 in scoring and sending quarterback Mitch Trubisky to the Pro Bowl. It was characterized by a mix of a strong running game and lots of creativity.

However, it didn’t take long to realize Matt Nagy was less flexible than he wanted you to believe. He clearly had a specific way he wanted the offense to function. It involved having the quarterback sling the football. Running the ball became secondary. He once said he wasn’t brought to Chicago to run the I-formation. This was telling because the Bears were having lots of success doing exactly that. It was a clear warning sign that Nagy was ignorant of his players’ strengths and weaknesses.

Some things never change.

The hilarious part about Nagy getting the job in New York is that things had grown tense in Kansas City. After winning the Super Bowl in his first year back as their offensive coordinator, the Chiefs’ offense started experiencing a considerable decline in effectiveness in 2024 and 2025. Nowhere was that clearer than with Mahomes at quarterback, who had his two worst seasons as a professional. The Giants’ bringing him to New York was fortuitous for Kansas City. It makes it look like they elected to let him go out of courtesy for a new opportunity, rather than because they didn’t want to bring him back.

Sure enough, one of the first things he does is establish an offensive philosophy with the most ironic acronym in football history. Bears fans can’t help but laugh. It is too perfect. Maybe Nagy ends up having success out east. He’ll be under the strict guidance of another great head coach, John Harbaugh. However, history says otherwise. The man lacks that certain something that makes good offensive play callers. Sooner or later, defenses will find his tendencies and exploit them.