PosterToBeNamedLater

Free athletic article from Dan Pompeii about spending a day with Ben Johnson. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7503680/2026/08/12/behind-the-scenes-for-a-day-with-bears-coach-ben-johnson/?unlocked_article_code=1.41A.hkUO.0-gF8PjyMVm_&source=athletic_user_shared_gift_article_copylink&smid=url-share-ta

I don't know if this is true about the bears, but I remember hearing something like this about the Bengals a year or so ago when the topic of paying Jamar Chase came up. The reporter was saying it was hard for a team like the Bengals (whose owners aren't as rich as other owners) to sign big contracts because when you give a contract with guaranteed money, you have to put the guaranteed money in an escrow account. So in a player like Chase's case, whose contract had 112 million in guaranteed money, the owner has to have the liquidity to pay out 112 million at the time of signing, even if it will be paid to the player over a number of years. Maybe that is what they were referring to. Obviously the bears owners, like the Bengals, aren't as rich as many of the other team owners since their wealth has come from the team and not some outside source, but I have never heard that they don't have the money to do these things before.

I'm seeing on another site that the tweet they mentioned on Rich Eisen about the Bears offering two firsts was fake.

Watching the patriots game earlier and seeing the Diggs TD catch and then the Boutte catch and I was like, "I don't know if I can remember a catch by a bears receiver as good as those all year (maybe the DJ overtime catch against the packers was like the Diggs catch). We usually have a decent amount of dropped catches." Then Rome starts the game off with that drop. Unbelievable.

Richard Sherman in the postgame had me laughing when he was talking about the Bears being like Bane from the Dark Knight Rises. He said something like, "We were born in the darkness, we've been coming back the whole season. The packers, they merely adopted it. You haven't lived this way. You could see it with the lack of execution and mistakes down the stretch. The bears are like, 'hey this is where we've been. Welcome to the party. Oh the playoffs are different for you?' " I don't know if they are just great at halftime adjustments. Or maybe with Ben's whole make different things look the same, his early plays help set up later plays. Not that they aren't trying to be successful in the first half obviously, but things like the go-ahead touchdown to DJ. Wasn't that the same play in the first half where they threw the screen? Then at the end of the game all of the defenders bit at the fake to the screen and DJ is wide open for a score.

I hate it. Not because they have lost before or whatever, but it just looks so much worse than Navy with white pants.

Wasn't that bichette who was still hurt and couldn't run very fast?

Me neither. I didn't like the hire when they first hired him. His San Fran unit was one of the worst in the league and if I remember correctly, were getting worse each year. I was looking forward to him being replaced this year. There were rumors they were looking into the Saints guy, but maybe when that fell through, they just kept him because of a lack of options.

Yeah, and I'm kindof surprised the Cowboys didn't run more. It seemed like they would get minimum 5-7 yards with Williams and then they just stopped doing it. Not even when they were down big, but before that, too. I didn't understand why they didn't just keep feeding him the ball. That said, I do think Dennis Allen was an upgrade over Eberflus (he just might not have good enough players). Its kindof great that we could massively upgrade head coach with one of the best offensive playcallers, and even though we are replacing a defensive head coach, we upgraded at defensive coordinator as well. Just another one of the reasons I hated the Eberflus hire from the moment it happened. He wasn't even coordinator that ever had a dominant defense and he still somehow was our head coach.

Yeah I didn't feel good after that first drive at all. I mean, great, a touchdown... but when ESPN would show the replays and you could clearly see someone breaking wide open downfield and Caleb either not seeing it or not throwing it gave me a really uneasy feeling. As you said, it definitely didn't feel like the drive had any flow. My confidence level that he will ever be very good is extremely low right now.

I already naturally root for Canadian teams over hockey teams in places like Florida, Las Vegas, etc. But I am definitely rooting harder for the leafs now.

I found this. It was in response to someone saying a self-proclaimed mets insider was saying that the cubs asking price for Bryant was PCA.