With the ink barely dry on his three-year, $33.75 million contract extension, D'Andre Swift opened Year 2 under Ben Johnson with a 17-yard run cut down to nine because of a holding penalty on wide receiver Rome Odunze. On the very next play he got the ball again and gained four yards. Then came rushes of four and five yards on the Bears' second series, and a nine-yard gain that was nullified by a holding penalty on center Garrett Bradbury. Four plays later, Swift got the ball

Seven players who made the biggest impact in the Bears' 59-37 victory over the Panthers on Sunday at Bank of America Stadium: 1. Caleb Williams By almost any measurement — starting with the eye test — Williams appeared to have taken the anticipated step up in Year 2 in Ben Johnson's offense — he was 21 of 29 (72.4%) for 269 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions for a 124.1 passer rating. For those tracking Williams' completion percentage as a measuring stick of his growt

Bears, 31-23 Ben Johnson's offense figures to start quickly in Year 2 and give Dennis Allen's defense a little margin for error — a likely theme for the season. The Panthers scored 30 or more points five times last season (including their playoff loss to the Rams), but also scored 10 or fewer five times. This could be a good test of the Bears' ability to start fast with an early knockout to save Caleb Williams from pulling a rabbit out of his hat to win the game. PLAYER TO WA

"Never underestimate the mediocrity of the NFL." The Bears are predicted by some analysts to be victims of that mantra in 2026, but instead could be the beneficiaries. The difference? Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams – a head coach/quarterback combination that allows teams like the Rams and 49ers to stay ahead of the curve of NFL parity. The Bears have their share of flaws, but almost every team in the NFL has flaws and is just as vulnerable. And while defense wins championship

I used to castigate "100 percenters" in football and relievers in baseball who could pitch the eighth inning but not the ninth as "weak" athletes — until I realized that that would be me if I could have run a sub-4.4 40 or thrown in the mid-90s. I have a low threshold of pain and an inability to focus, especially in critical situations. I'd likely have been that guy, no matter how badly I wanted to be as "tough" as Dan Hampton or as cold-blooded as Mariano Rivera. That person

The Bears' initial 53-man roster after cutdown day Sunday is a testament to the new reality at Halas Hall that this team belongs to head coach Ben Johnson — and to a lesser extent, defensive coordinator Dennis Allen. Of the 53 players on the active roster, only 20 of them were on the Bears' roster when Johnson was hired as head coach just 19 months ago (plus cornerbacks Kyler Gordon and Jaylon Jones and linebacker Noah Sewell on the PUP/IR lists). That's a significant amount

Early last season, Pete Crow-Armstrong looked more like Pete Crow-Almora than a future Most Valuable Player. When MLB.com reported in April of 2025 that Crow-Armstrong had declined a $75 million contract offer from the Cubs, it was just as bewildering that the Cubs would make the offer as PCA turning it down. At the time, Crow-Armstrong's development into a big-league star was hardly inevitable — he was hitting .224 with 10 home runs and 53 RBIs in 152 big-league games, with

Everything Ben Johnson touches turns to gold, or so it seems. He's making a quarterback out of Caleb Williams and a general manager out of Ryan Poles. Every player introduced to the Bears offense under Johnson has been a plus – from All-Pro guard Joe Thuney and center Drew Dalman to rookie tight end Colston Loveland and seventh-round running back Kyle Monangai. When 2024 undrafted free agent Theo Benedet replaced benched starter Braxton Jones at left tackle last year, the Bea

Position battles in NFL training camp are favored storylines but generally overrated. If you have two players competing for one position — it's unlikely the winner is that much better than the loser. Even when Rosevelt Colvin beat out rookie Brian Urlacher at weakside linebacker in 2000, it wasn't like Urlacher was going to wither on the bench all season. In fact, it made it even easier for Urlacher to replace injured starter Barry Minter at middle linebacker in Week 3 that s

It's forgettable now, but in 1999, Bears offensive coordinator Gary Crowton created a Ben Johnson-level excitement about the Bears' offense. With Crowton's inventive, screen-heavy passing game, the Bears improved from 23rd to third in the NFL in passing yards, from 21st to eighth in total yards and from 23rd to sixth in passing touchdowns. The Bears were still 25th in points scored, but the excitement of those pass plays and the potential for the Bears to have an offense root

It wouldn't be a Bears preseason if there weren't an eve-of-training-camp issue to worry about. Slot cornerback Kyler Gordon being put on the PUP (physically unable to perform) list with another soft-tissue injury certainly merits the usual concern and skepticism. But it comes with a twist that defines the 2026 season: As long as Ben Johnson is on the sideline and Caleb Williams is healthy, the Bears still are in better shape than they've been in a long, long time. Even if Ky

The Cubs overcame early season injuries to starters Justin Steele (season-ending elbow surgery) and Shota Imanaga (out seven weeks with a bum hamstring) to make the playoffs in 2025 and set themselves up to take a big step toward World Series contention in 2026. But already, their starting rotation injury issues are getting worse instead of better, leaving otherwise hopeful Cubs fans to wonder what's next. Starter Matthew Boyd, whose career-best season helped bail out the Cub

The Bears were 5-5 in games in which they allowed 23 or more points in 2025 — arguably the most tangible evidence of "The Ben Johnson Effect." Prior to Johnson's arrival, the Bears were 0-25 when allowing 23 or more points over the previous three seasons, and 6-82 since 2014. So they nearly won as many games when allowing 23 or more points in Johnson's first season as they had in the previous 10 seasons. The Bears' 47-42 victory over the Bengals in Week 9 was the high end of

Just like New Mexico's Brian Urlacher was deemed too big to be an NFL safety in 2000, Oregon's Dillon Thieneman is too small to be an NFL linebacker in 2026. But there was a lot of safety in Urlacher's game and there figures to be a lot of linebacker in Thieneman's game. It's always risky to compare any rookie to a Hall of Famer, but Thieneman's intriguing combination of speed, physicality and versatility have earned him that distinction. Both players shared the "hybrid" desc

With Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams in place after a rebuild-validating 11-6 season that included a playoff victory over the Packers, the Bears are in better shape for a run of sustained success — three consecutive playoff or winning seasons by my standard — since the Ditka era. But as fate would have it at Halas Hall, the Bears have had a somewhat rocky offseason for a team with the wind at its back: Center Drew Dalman suddenly retired at the peak of his career at 27. Left t

The debate over whether Cubs red-hot left-handed hitting rookie Moises Ballesteros should bat against left-handed pitchers is being framed as nit-picking with the Cubs' offense fueling their four-game winning streak. Even after being limited to five hits in a 4-2 victory over the Mets on Saturday at Wrigley Field, the Cubs are hitting .338 with 15 extra-base hits and eight home runs in the four-game winning streak after Carson Kelly and Ian Happ homered Saturday. Kelly's thre

Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's all-time home run record with his 715th on April 8, 1974. I love history. And I love documenting history. So when I wasn't playing All-Star Baseball or Bas-ket when I was in high school, I was keeping crude scrapbooks from the sports pages of the Sun-Times. Just a bound book of construction paper, a pair of scissors and some double-sided tape and I was good to go. It's as much fun to look back on these 50 years later as it was to put them together

When I moved from the South Side to Lincolnwood at age 8 in 1967, one of my first friends at Rutledge Hall was the daughter of Jack Rosenberg, was the longtime sports editor of WGN. The Rosenbergs had a really cool basement, with all sorts of sports memorabilia. The highlight — for me anyway — was Jack's glass-topped office desk, which was covered with a collage of press passes he had accumulated through years of traveling while covering events for WGN Sports. The legendary a

For the record, former Bears wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad has said he was not the inventor of the notion that Chicago "is where receivers go to die," — in response to blowback after he made that comment to Sports Illustrated's Peter King in 2008 upon his return to the Panthers after three seasons in Chicago. Muhammad said he was just referencing the sentiment that someone else brought up when he signed with the Bears in 2005. Whatever the reality, the comment has stuck throu

Enigmatic players aren't usually as likable as DJ Moore. Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall and Martellus Bennett were productive players who couldn't hide their warts no matter how hard they tried (or didn't). Moore is everything you want in a player. He's a team guy. He's dependable — he's missed three games in eight seasons, none in the last five. He thrives in bad offenses — In his eight NFL seasons, Moore is sixth in receiving yards (8,213) despite never playing with a Pro Bow