The Bears saw defensive lineman Kentavius Street leave Monday night’s win over the Seahawks with a knee injury and it is going to keep him out for an extended period of time.
The team placed Street on the injured reserve list on Wednesday. Street will have to miss at least the next four games due to the move.
Street appeared in all eight games for the Bears this season and he started seven of them. He had nine tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack in those contests.
The Bears signed tight end Stephen Carlson off of their practice squad in a corresponding move. Carlson appeared in one game for the Bears as a temporary elevation.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced five nominees who have advanced to the next round of consideration for their 2027 class on Wednesday.
The five nominees who will be under consideration for election are Ralph Hay, Robert Kraft, Virginia McCaskey, Doug Williams and John Wooten. A subcommittee for the Contributor category will discuss the five nominees and select one for the full selection committee to vote on ahead of the Super Bowl.
Kraft was that choice last year, but the Patriots owner fell short of election from the full committee. Hay, who owned the Canton Bulldogs and took part in the founding of the NFL, also advanced to this round during the last cycle.
McCaskey owned the Bears from 1983 until her death in 2025 while Williams won a Super Bowl as Washington’s quarterback before working in the team’s front office. Wooten played in the NFL, worked as a scout and became chair of the Fritz Pollard Alliance in 2003.
The Bears will not get offensive tackle Braxton Jones back in the lineup this season.
Jones was placed on injured reserve after Week 3 due to a knee injury and Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune reports that Jones had surgery that will end his season on Tuesday. Jones suffered a partially torn patellar tendon and delayed surgery to see if it would be possible to rehabilitate the injury enough to return to the team.
Jones opened the season as the left tackle in Chicago and this marks the second straight season that’s been interrupted by knee issues. Jones was limited to six games in 2025 by a knee injury.
Theo Benedet has taken over as the left tackle for the Bears.
When the schedule is released every May, plenty of standalone games that look good at the time morph into something not quite as appetizing as the season unfolds. Some standalone games get better with time.
This year, there’s a trio of massive games lurking on Christmas Day.
At 1:00 p.m. ET, it’s the Packers at the Bears. At 4:30 p.m. ET, it’s the Bills at the Broncos. At 8:15 p.m., it’s the Rams at the Seahawks.
With the Bears emerging as a threat to win the NFC North and the No. 1 seed in the conference, the rematch with their biggest rivals (who beat them 31-7 in Week 5) becomes must-see TV. Bills at Broncos, a rematch of a postseason overtime classic that got Buffalo coach Sean McDermott fired, should have direct implications on two division races and the chase for the lone bye in the AFC.
The nightcap shapes up to be not a battle for the NFC West title and/or the top seed but a potential elimination game, given that both Seattle and L.A. are currently 4-4.
Regardless, all three games should be significant. Impactful. Consequential.
And they’ll more than make up for the Christmas Eve game, which has the 2-5 Texans at the 2-6 Eagles.
In recent weeks, Simms and I have raised once or twice the question of whether Bears quarterback Caleb Williams belongs in the top tier of NFL franchise quarterbacks.
Based on Monday night’s 34-point performance against a Seahawks defense that held the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes to three points a week earlier, it’s time to render a verdict.
Yes.
The new top four, in our view, are (in no particular order), Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and Caleb Williams.
Lamar Jackson previously had been the fourth. A lost season due to multiple injuries puts him at No. 5, until he reestablishes himself in 2027. (And there’s no reason to believe he won’t, if he can get and stay healthy.)
For now, Caleb has crashed the party.
In Week 7 at Seattle, Mahomes completed 19 of 33 passes for 165 yards, no touchdowns, and one interception. His passer rating for the game was 58.9. In Week 8 at Seattle, Williams went 24 for 34 for 247 yards, one touchdown, and no picks. Williams also sparked a 39-yard gain on a key third-down backward pass to receiver Khalif Raymond, which set up the score that turned a 20-17 margin into a 27-17 clincher.
And before anyone says Mahomes didn’t have any support in the running game, Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker III and Bears running back D’Andre Swift averaged an identical 2.6 yards per carry against the Seahawks’ defense.
So, yes, Caleb is a top-level NFL quarterback. Despite missing three games with a hamstring injury, his odds to win the NFL MVP award are down to 5-1, behind only Allen, Brock Purdy, and Burrow.
If the Bears keep doing what they did on Monday night — and if they finish the season with the No. 1 seed in the NFC — Williams will get plenty of votes. And he has a real chance to win it.
Even if he’d much rather win the MVP award not for the regular season, but for the Super Bowl.
