Bears Clips
The Illinois legislature failed to pass a measure that would keep the Bears in the state. The door is now open for the Bears to exit for Indiana.
“The reality is that I wasn’t willing to give up billions of dollars of taxpayer money in order to give it to a billionaire-owned family, or team, and believe very much that the incentives that we provide for businesses are to be similar to the incentives we provide to this type of business,” Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said Monday, via Mitchell Armentrout of the Chicago Sun-Times.
“As much of an emotional connection as many of us have to the Bears, and to keeping them in the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois, [the] No. 1 principle is we’re not going to foist this on the taxpayers of the state of Illinois.”
If the Bears leave for Indiana, that will be foisted onto Pritzker’s permanent record.
There’s a chance that Indiana was and is a bluff. The fact that the Bears said they’re evaluating options in Arlington Heights and Indiana when there is no current option in Arlington Heights suggests that Indiana is all about leverage.
If it is, it isn’t working.
With the Illinois legislature ending its spring session without passing a bill that would lay the foundation for the Bears to build a new stadium at their in-state preference of Arlington Heights, Chicago sees an opening. And Chicago is trying to seize it.
Mayor Brandon Johnson has issued a statement that makes the case for the Bears to stay in Chicago.
“Chicago continues to offer the strongest opportunity to retain the Bears,” Johnson said. “We have a publicly owned site the team has already vetted and approved, an existing sports authority with a dedicated revenue stream, and a framework for moving a deal forward. . . . I look forward to continuing to work with all stakeholders to pursue a deal that keeps the [Bears] while protecting property taxpayers.”
The Bears repeatedly have said that their options are Arlington Heights and Hammond, Indiana. Unless and until an option materializes in Arlington Heights, and with the Indiana location seemingly nothing more than leverage to get a stadium in Illinois, maybe there’s a path for the Bears to stay in Chicago.
Where they belong.
EA will announce the next cover athlete for the Madden video game franchise on Thursday. In Chicago.
That has fueled rampant rumors that Bears quarterback Caleb Williams will be this year’s choice.
No Bears player has ever graced the cover of the game. The cover athlete nowadays isn’t really on the cover because the game is more commonly downloaded directly to the console. Still, the featured player becomes the centerpiece of the startup process, with video of the player playing repeatedly for everyone preparing to play the game.
Eagles running back Saquon Barkley landed on the Madden 26 cover. Before that, it was 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey in Madden 25. Bills quarterback Josh Allen got the distinction in Madden 24.
There once was a supposed jinx attached to being on the Madden cover. That chatter ended after Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes followed his involvement in Madden 20, released in 2019, with a Super Bowl win to cap the 2019 season.
EA has owned the exclusive console license since NFL 2K5 created a much cheaper and superior product in 2004. And while many complain about Madden, it continues to be the only option when it comes to playing a football video game that looks and feels realistic.
With the calendar hitting June 1, the Eagles are adding a receiver to their roster.
Philadelphia is adding Samori Toure, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.
Toure, 28, was a seventh-round pick in the 2022 draft. He’s appeared in 23 career games, 22 of which were with the Packers. He’s caught 14 passes for 1t63 yards with one touchdown.
Toure is familiar with the system new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion is implementing, as Mannion was previously the Packers’ offensive assistant.
Green Bay waived Toure during roster cuts in 2024. He’s since spent time with the Bears, Broncos, and Saints.
The Illinois House has closed its legislative session, without passing a bill that would help the Bears build a stadium.
That leaves the Bears with two options: Building their own stadium on the property they own in Arlington Heights, Illinois, without the state’s help, or building a stadium in Hammond, Indiana, where the state has already passed legislation designed to entice the Bears.
The team released a statement early Monday morning saying they are still considering both options.
“We will finalize our evaluation of both Arlington Heights and Hammond, and remain on the late spring/early summer timeline that we have previously communicated. We will provide an update when we have a decision to share,” the Bears’ statement said.
Some Illinois legislators said they still believe the Bears’ flirtation with Indiana was a bluff, and that the team ultimately won’t leave the state. We’ll soon find out whether the Bears are willing to live the state that has been their home for more than a century.
Illinois is playing beat the clock in the hopes of keeping the Bears from beating a path to Indiana.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the legislature has pivoted from a law that would create major property tax incentives to the potential creation of local stadium-financing authorities.
The proposed law would make the municipality the owners of the stadium and the land on which it is built.
It’s the final day of the Illinois legislative session. The Bears have said they hope to make a decision on a new stadium location in late spring or early summer.
Under the current proposal, the Bears would pay for the stadium, but they would owe nothing in property taxes.
The measure would also keep the door open for Chicago to come up with a strategy for keeping the Bears from moving to Arlington Heights.
Indiana is ready to go with a stadium in Hammond. The overriding question is whether the final Illinois plan, if it passes, will entice the Bears to try to get something done without crossing the border.
The Illinois legislature is playing beat the clock. But not for a new Bears stadium.
Via the Chicago Tribune, balancing the state’s budget has superseded the effort to reach an agreement that will entice the Bears to remain in Illinois.
Talks on a plan that would get the Bears to not accept an offer to build a new stadium in Hammond, Indiana, have taken a back seat to the effort to finalize a $55 billion budget. While discussions continue on a stadium deal, balancing the budget is the priority for the session that ends at midnight on May 31.
Absent an eleventh-hour resolution, the Bears will have only one viable option, for now. The question then will become whether Hammond is simply a bluff aimed at getting a deal that would finance a stadium in Arlington Heights, or whether the Bears will abandon the effort to stay in Illinois and cross the border to Indiana.
They wouldn’t be the first team to do it in recent months. After the Chiefs failed to get a deal to renovate Arrowhead Stadium, they struck a deal to build a new stadium not in Missouri, but in Kansas.
Fifty years ago, the Giants left New York for New Jersey. Eight years later, the Jets joined them at Giants Stadium and, more recently, MetLife Stadium.
The hiring of Seahawks assistant G.M. Nolan Teasley as the Vikings’ new G.M. will carry a specific benefit for his former team.
Per the league, Teasley qualifies as a diverse candidate under the NFL provision that gives the former team of a newly-hired G.M. or head coach a pair of third-round compensatory draft picks.
The only question is whether Teasley will be Minnesota’s “primary football executive.” That requirement prevented the Bears from receiving the compensatory draft picks when assistant General Manager Ian Cunningham was hired to be the Falcons G.M. The league decided that president of football Matt Ryan is the “primary football executive” in Atlanta.
The Bears appealed the decision to the league, and Bears fans continue to be mystified by the outcome — especially since Ryan has made it clear that Cunningham is a General Manager “in every facet of the word.”
Minnesota has no similar position to Ryan’s job with the Falcons. The only alternative to Teasley would be coach Kevin O’Connell. But there has been no indication that, moving forward, O’Connell will emerge as the top football executive for the Vikings, with full control over the roster and the draft.
The NFL’s full collection of diversity of initiatives have recently come under attack by Florida’s attorney general. The Seahawks getting two extra third-round draft picks undoubtedly will spark a reaction from those who, in the current climate, attack efforts aimed at enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The Bears have kept stability at the most important position, with Caleb Williams remaining in place as the franchise quarterback and both of last year’s backups, Tyson Bagent and Case Keenum, back as well. Head coach Ben Johnson likes that.
Johnson said it’s helpful that this offseason isn’t about teaching the quarterbacks his offense, it’s about expanding upon the progress they made last year.
“Everyone knows what the expectations are in the building, what meetings look like,” Johnson said, via the Chicago Sun-Times. “There’s just a different level of, I don’t want to say comfort, but they know. They know what it’s supposed to look like.”
Johnson said the command of the offense is exactly what he’s looking for from his quarterback.
“The communication in the huddle, what it looks like to break the huddle, the urgency to the line of scrimmage, the tempo that we want to stress the defense with, the quarterback plays a huge part in that,” Johnson said. “He orchestrates the whole operation. And those guys have taken that to heart and so from that aspect, feel really good about where we’re at. Now, it’s the next level of each concept. ‘What are we trying to do?’ And potentially expanding on, ‘Hey, here’s your progression, 1, 2, 3,’ to how can we accelerate our eyes, our vision? What are we looking for? Some coverage indicators to where we might take more alerts.”
With Johnson as their head coach and Williams as their starting quarterback, the Bears think their future is very bright. Johnson is liking what he’s seeing.
Veteran defensive tackle Grady Jarrett signed a three-year, $43.5 million contract with the Bears last offseason. He didn’t give Chicago much of a return on its investment.
Garrett, who had previously spent 10 seasons with the Falcons, said he’s taking good care of his body this offseason and expects to be in great shape in 2026.
“I’m 33 years old now,” Jarrett said. “It’s exciting to be feeling a lot better this year. I know I owe Chicago a better year and I’m excited to go do that.”
Last year Jarrett was a starter for the first three games of the season, but a knee injury forced him to miss the next three games, and after that he was a backup the rest of the way. He said a subpar season gave him an opportunity to reflect on what he can do better going forward.
“I got hurt pretty early in the season, tried to get through it, and had to make some adjustments,” Jarrett said. “Toward the end I started playing a lot better as I felt better, but sometimes things happen and there’s no reason for it — to me it’s like divine intervention, gave me a chance to self-reflect.”
Jarrett’s self-reflection led him to the honest conclusion that his team needs him to be better, and he expects himself to be better.
