Arts & Entertainment
Bears End Disappointing Season on a High With Rare Win Over Packers
Chicago Bears fans had high hopes for this season.
A No. 1 draft pick quarterback and wins early on had some dreaming of the playoffs.
But a 10-game losing streak put an end to those dreams and cost head coach Matt Eberflus his job.
Now Bears fans find themselves in a familiar spot — contemplating another season of failure and hoping for better to come.
Longtime Chicago Bears offensive lineman James “Big Cat” Williams joined “Chicago Tonight” to share his thoughts on the Bears’ 2024-25 season.
On what the Bears should be looking for in a new head coach:
“I think first of all you need to bring someone in here who’s going to take charge and who’s going to stick to his guns. Who is going to come in with a plan and who is going to stick to that plan. The message (needs to) be the same to the players whether it’s Year 1 or Year 4 or Year 8. This is how we get better. This is how we do things. This is how we go about being a good organization. And it’s going to have to change from the bottom with the players all the way up to the top, and they’ve got to figure out what is going to make things work.”
On finally beating the Green Bay Packers after 11 straight losses to their division rivals:
“I was happy. I did not want to see them have to go into the offseason with an 11-game losing streak and with a loss on their mind at the end of the season. So for them to be able to get that win and get that win against the Packers, it was good. I was proud.”
On rookie quarterback Caleb Williams:
“Just listening to him talk, he’s been consistent all season. He has talked about the things that you want your quarterback to talk about. It has been more ‘me, me, me’ than ‘we, we, we’ when we’re losing — the things that I need to work on, the things that I need to take care of. … There were definitely situations where he could have thrown people under the bus, but he has not taken that road, and I think that’s a good beginning for a young quarterback.
He’s done some of the things that we thought he was able to do coming out as a young quarterback and being the first overall pick, … but then you also have to go back and look at some of the things that he’s regressed on. Is that because of the line in front of him? Is that because of the things that he was being taught? Those are things that we won’t know because we’re not in that locker room.”
Big Cat’s Super Bowl pick:
“With the Bears being out and our division being so tough, I’d love to see the Detroit Tigers be able to go all the way. I just don’t know if they can because of all the injuries they’ve suffered over the last couple of weeks, but if during that week off they can get a couple guys back, I feel like they have a very good chance.”
