Chicago Bears 2026

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#26      
Second place is 1st loser
KBLEE said:
It's really not. They (NFC North) lucked out getting the NFC South. All of those teams were under .500 last season.
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All of the NFC North teams are going to have difficult schedules because it's the best division in the NFL. There's 6 games automatically baked into the equation.

The rest of it is based off of last year's data. There are teams that take steps back, steps forward and then there's always injuries.

Will the Packers look like the Packers team the last quarter of the year, after Parsons got hurt or does he come back cleanly?

Last year, New England feasted on a god awful schedule and an absolutely terrible division. Does Maye play at an MVP level or do we get that regression?

Seattle lost the Super Bowl MVP, chunks of an amazing defense and does Darnold regress?

We can go on and on and on.....

Ultimately, the Bears won 11 games pretty much playing for 1 1/2 quarters a game. The offense was non existent until they were down late and kicked it into gear. That can't happen again. That needs to be cleaned up.

We need answers on the defensive line and their ability to stop the run and get a decent pass rush.

There are SO many variables that go into a season. Basing anything off of last year is good for TV and radio.
 
#27      
FlyNavy
Second place is 1st loser said:
The rest of it is based off of last year's data. There are teams that take steps back, steps forward and then there's always injuries.
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Very good point. Here is what was posted at this time last year (2025 strength of schedule based on 2024 records):
  • 1. New York Giants .574 (166-123)
  • T-2. Chicago Bears .571 (165-124)
  • T-2. Detroit Lions .571 (165-124)
  • 4. Philadelphia Eagles .561 (162-127)
After the season ended, the Bears had the fourth EASIEST schedule with a .458 SOS. Many of their opponents had 5+ more losses (Minnesota, Detroit, Washington) against only the 49ers that improved more than 1-2 wins. SOS will probably drop a little this year as well (NE? Jacksonville?) but I doubt it will be as drastic.
 
#33      
jamarvelous31
See Ya Goodbye GIF by slicedbread
 
#35      
Bucktown
Mr. Tibbs said:
Bears announced they are moving to Hammond
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Such a failure by all parties Illinois, Chicago and the Bears. Certainly a win for Indiana. Final Four or Super Bowl in Hammond?? Seems a stretch especially when Lucas Oil gets them regularly. They may have better luck with concerts though. Soldier Field is a better venue, but promoters will be able play the venues off of each other.

Indiana is providing a lot of money, but it is nearly all financed by ticket taxes.
 
#36      
Ander1345
Bucktown said:
Such a failure by all parties Illinois, Chicago and the Bears. Certainly a win for Indiana. Final Four or Super Bowl in Hammond?? Seems a stretch especially when Lucas Oil gets them regularly. They may have better luck with concerts though. Soldier Field is a better venue, but promoters will be able play the venues off of each other.

Indiana is providing a lot of money, but it is nearly all financed by ticket taxes.
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People in general are quick to get their political jabs in but it is far less on Illinois than it is on the Bears.

There is simply no need for this to be moving this fast the Bears are just forcing it by strong arming the state. They would be welcome at Soldier Field for as long as they want to be and the franchise is *immensely* profitable so it's not like they're losing money.

But if they want to force this along I say let them go. As a big fan of the city of Chicago who enjoys walking the beautiful museum campus and being on Iakefront I can find other things to do on Sundays.
 
#37      
Bucktown
Ander1345 said:
People in general are quick to get their political jabs in but it is far less on Illinois than it is on the Bears.

There is simply no need for this to be moving this fast the Bears are just forcing it by strong arming the state. They would be welcome at Soldier Field for as long as they want to be and the franchise is *immensely* profitable so it's not like they're losing money.

But if they want to force this along I say let them go. As a big fan of the city of Chicago who enjoys walking the beautiful museum campus and being on Iakefront I can find other things to do on Sundays.
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The very best plan for all parties except Indiana is the one that builds a new stadium south of the existing one on the lakefront. There are enough ancillary economic benefits to make the numbers work. The Bears & City proposed a vision for a lakefront stadium with some obvious things they were willing to give on, but Brandon Johnson has been incapable of selling it to the public or the state.
 
#38      
Mr. Tibbs
The Bears are not moving to Indiana. This is a ploy to get more money out of the taxpayers. And if they are not bluffing, I say let them go to Indiana. Good luck with attendance in that ugly town.
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they will sell out regardless. the drive there means nothing . probably will have much more room for tailgates
 
#39      
Mr. Tibbs
Such a failure by all parties Illinois, Chicago and the Bears. Certainly a win for Indiana. Final Four or Super Bowl in Hammond?? Seems a stretch especially when Lucas Oil gets them regularly. They may have better luck with concerts though. Soldier Field is a better venue, but promoters will be able play the venues off of each other.

Indiana is providing a lot of money, but it is nearly all financed by ticket taxes.
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the NCAA or NFL won’t treat Hammond any differently than AH . it’s still Chicago as far as they’re concerned
 
#40      
TampaToo
People in general are quick to get their political jabs in but it is far less on Illinois than it is on the Bears.

There is simply no need for this to be moving this fast the Bears are just forcing it by strong arming the state. They would be welcome at Soldier Field for as long as they want to be and the franchise is *immensely* profitable so it's not like they're losing money.

But if they want to force this along I say let them go. As a big fan of the city of Chicago who enjoys walking the beautiful museum campus and being on Iakefront I can find other things to do on Sundays.
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The Bears aren’t the only ones leaving the state of Illinois.
 
#41      
jamarvelous31
Bucktown said:
Such a failure by all parties Illinois, Chicago and the Bears. Certainly a win for Indiana. Final Four or Super Bowl in Hammond?? Seems a stretch especially when Lucas Oil gets them regularly. They may have better luck with concerts though. Soldier Field is a better venue, but promoters will be able play the venues off of each other.

Indiana is providing a lot of money, but it is nearly all financed by ticket taxes.
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One of the biggest complaints I hear about IL/Chicago is about the taxes, this seems like IL and Chicago doing their jobs protecting tax payers? Stadium deals have been proven time and again to be bad deals for everyone but team ownership..

The Bears are asking for a $1.5 billion tax break over 40-years and want to pay 560M in taxes. They employ less folks than your average mall- Soldier Field has about 8-12 full-time employees, and relies on 250-350+ event day workers vs Old Orchard employs an estimated 1,500 part & full time employees.

Chicago will still benefit from the jobs (people will commute to Hammond), tourism (who is staying in Hammond vs Chicago), and they'll even generate more Skyway revenue. They're not going to change the name, so they'll benefit from that too.

It's a bad deal for the city and the state and the Bears' are hoping folks are too emotionally invested in to think about it rationally.
 
#42      
Second place is 1st loser
People in general are quick to get their political jabs in but it is far less on Illinois than it is on the Bears.

There is simply no need for this to be moving this fast the Bears are just forcing it by strong arming the state. They would be welcome at Soldier Field for as long as they want to be and the franchise is *immensely* profitable so it's not like they're losing money.

But if they want to force this along I say let them go. As a big fan of the city of Chicago who enjoys walking the beautiful museum campus and being on Iakefront I can find other things to do on Sundays.
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While I think that the Bears are not without blame here, but to say that this process is moving too fast is ridiculous.

It's also fact that the Chicago Park District has been screwing them over for YEARS through the Bears own terrible business dealings. Do you know that the Bears hardly get $0.70 on the $1.00 of their ticket sales? They get no concessions revenue. The CPD, City of Chicago and Cook County have taken advantage for years. The Bears wanted their own stadium to do with what they wish. They were stuck in a stadium with the lowest capacity in the league and not getting full value for their ticket.

This process started three years ago. Springfield kicked the can down the road. It was never a priority . It went public in saying that the Bears weren't a priority to be discussed, that's when they got Indiana involved. If I'm the Bears, that would have pissed me off. When Indiana got involved, they got a deal together and on the table in three months. Magically, Springfield got their asses moving and had the PILOT bill drafted, just for the state Senate to squash it, then the Senate pivoted to a privately built, publicly owned solution and the House didn't even get a vote off.

Chicago politics got in the way. Pritzger is a party first guy and even he went after Brandon Johnson, as it was the Chicago Senate Democrats (led by Johnson) that squashed the PILOT bill, claiming the Bears still wanted to build in Chicago. That specific caucus were the missing votes.

I'd agree with you a little more if the State went on record saying, hey....we just need some time to digest this bill and we'll call a special session for a vote. Nope. There was no plans for discussion until fall session.

The Bears caused their own problems by purchasing that land threw years ago, prior to any negotiations with the state. They screwed themselves in negotiations. Everyone figured they were bluffing because of how much they bought the land for. They'd never pivot, right?

Well.....they weren't bluffing. They're paying millions per month on vacant land. The Bears are a multi billion dollar franchise, but the McCaskey's aren't multi billionaires. They aren't Jerry Jones or a conglomerate. They don't have the cash on hand to do what needs to be done and the needed help.

The Bears are big business and billion dollar companies have run from the state because of their business dealings:

  • Citadel: The financial giant relocated its headquarters to Miami, Florida, shifting both corporate and personal operations.
  • Boeing: The aerospace giant moved its global headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Virginia.
  • Caterpillar: The heavy machinery company shifted its headquarters from the Chicago suburb of Deerfield to Irving, Texas.
  • Tyson Foods: Closed its downtown Chicago office (along with other regional hubs) and consolidated its corporate employees at its Arkansas headquarters.
  • TTX Company: The railcar leasing company moved its headquarters from Chicago's West Loop to North Carolina.
  • Morton Salt: Relocated its headquarters out of the Chicago area to Overland Park, Kansas.
  • PEAK6 Investments: Moved its global headquarters out of Chicago to Austin, Texas.
  • Beam Suntory: The spirits company relocated its corporate headquarters to New York City.
  • SC Johnson: Shifted approximately 170 roles from downtown Chicago back to its Racine, Wisconsin headquarters.
The Bears, though also at fault and have always been as business savvy as a rock.....never had a dance partner here. Chicago played Chicago politics, wanted no part of them being in Arlington Heights, undercut the Governor's efforts and turned their backs at the North, Northwest and West Suburbs.....who own 65% of the season tickets.

Indiana was the right move. They get deals put together and the Bears no longer have to play the political games that comes with Illinois, most notably Chicago.
 
#43      
illinistephen
McCaskey's statement in part: "voted to advance our stadium development project in Hammond, Indiana, with the exact site to be selected."
Per ESPN: "The Bears' announcement Friday does not guarantee the team will leave Illinois. Per a league source, while Indiana is "in the lead" to lure the Bears across state lines to build a domed stadium, "Illinois can still get back in the race."
1. They don't have an announced site for this.
2. When they are serious about Hammond they will announce the AH site is for sale and sell it.
 
#44      
Seppuku
The Bears are not moving to Indiana. This is a ploy to get more money out of the taxpayers. And if they are not bluffing, I say let them go to Indiana. Good luck with attendance in that ugly town.
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I'm sorry but that's such a crock of "poop." I'm not a supporter of gifting corporations and billionaires big breaks, but that's NOT the case here.

The Bears bought the land and are paying for the construction of the stadium with their own money, without asking taxpayers for anything. All they are asking for is that the state/county/city address the infrastructure needs that come with increased traffic and crowds, and for tax certainty.

I think it's pretty reasonable that the goverment(s) address the infrastructure issues. As for the taxes, when the Bears bought the land (track and all) in AH, the property tax was mere $3M. They are now asking for guarantee that the taxes won't go over $50M a year (for comparison, only 4 NFL pay property tax, and the highest property tax being paid by an NFL team right now is that paid by the LA Rams, and it's mere $14M). The issue here is that property tax is INSANE in Illinois, and the state/county want to squeeze the Bears (and that JB wants to pad his resume as he prepared a run for president).

The Bears messed up mostly by not managing the PR as well as they could, and by not committing to Indiana clearly and soon enough. If the Bears end up leaving Illinois I'd say its at least 90% on the State and its crook politicians.
 
#45      
Second place is 1st loser
The very best plan for all parties except Indiana is the one that builds a new stadium south of the existing one on the lakefront. There are enough ancillary economic benefits to make the numbers work. The Bears & City proposed a vision for a lakefront stadium with some obvious things they were willing to give on, but Brandon Johnson has been incapable of selling it to the public or the state.
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What the Bears want and what Chicago can offer don't match. There isn't enough room unless you completely wipe out McCormack Place, trash Lake Shore Drive or pile about 50 gazillion tons of concrete into Lake Michigan to create more room. That would all be on top of completely leveling the current stadium.

That doesn't even start to address all of the issues that comes with dealing with the "Friends of the Parks" group. If you threaten one leaf on a tree and they have lawyers on call. The amount of red tape that comes with building there is too much.

They want a 70,000 seat domed stadium, that they fully own, that they get the full value of their ticket on, they want 365 day a year events and they want plenty of hospitality operations surrounding that structure.

The cost of the infrastructure to do what they want is enormous. Chicago, at no level, can handle those requirements. Arlington Heights can because they own the land and Hammond can because they have to land/space to accommodate what the Bears want.

I don't think the Bears have paid for traffic or environmental studies on ANY of the locations, which is them failing in doing their own due diligence. Arlington Heights, Rolling Meadows, Schaumburg and Palatine all wanted to know what this meant for them, which is fair. The Bears dragged their feet there, which pissed off those Mayors and again..... rightfully so. Chicago refused to give the Governor the votes needed for the PILOT bill, which probably gets the deal done with Arlington Heights.

Add all of the along with the tax uncertainty......

For pure business purposes, nobody can blame them for getting TF out of this state.
 
#46      
Second place is 1st loser
Gary J said:
The Bears are not moving to Indiana. This is a ploy to get more money out of the taxpayers. And if they are not bluffing, I say let them go to Indiana. Good luck with attendance in that ugly town.
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At this point, they aren't bluffing. They will give Illinois every last opportunity to call a special session to get a deal done, but in the absence of that.....Hammond it is. This is too big of a project to just push off until the fall session. It's been pushed off for threw years. When Indiana got involved, miraculously, two iterations of a bill made it to the floor. It took what ...a month? Yet, Chicago politicians got in the way of Arlington Heights success because they believed they were a player. They weren't. They ALL think the Bears are bluffing. They aren't.

The Bears don't want to leave the state. The state doesn't want the Bears to leave. However, Chicago is a state within a state and their agenda doesn't align with anyone else's.

Illinois still has an opportunity to get something done, but they won't do what's required, which starts with everyone getting off their couches during their summer time off and getting legislation pushed through. They want to push it off until fall, fine. Let's see what happens.

The Bears are business morons and that's being diplomatic. They're insanely bad at negotiations and Kevin Warren only made it worse. At some point, even bad negotiators will find a partner for a billion dollar entity to move into this neighborhood. Both sides of the aisle in the Indiana government came up with a bipartisan plan that worked for them. Illinois is incapable of such execution.
 
#50      
Second place is 1st loser
ChiefGritty said:
Prediction: they are
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At this point, it doesn't hurt to bluff. What's the worst that can happen, they finish the move?

The bottom line is that state will not be able to come up with anything viable as long as Chicago is involved.

The State is going to have to call a special session to push anything through and at this point, they need more than a simple majority to pass a viable bill. I can't imagine the Bears getting strung along until the fall, but maybe?

Chicago will not vote for a bill that doesn't include money not cycling through them. They would rather the Bears go to Indiana versus Arlington Heights.
 
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