The Chicago Bears are currently looking for ways to improve after a successful 2025 season that saw them make it to the divisional round of the playoffs, and very nearly further than that. Along the way, the Bears beat the Packers two times in comeback fashion, including in the Wild Card round of the playoffs, after which head coach Ben Johnson went on an expletive-laced rant about his distaste for Green Bay in the postgame locker room.
Johnson echoed a similar sentiment during a recent interview at the NFL Combine, which is taking place this week.
“Who likes the Packers?” Johnson said, per Mike Florio of NBC Sports' Pro Football Talk, via Mike Pendleton of BearsWire. “The Bears and the Packers, they should not like each other, I think it's as simple as that. That's going to make this rivalry, this game, something that people are going to watch going forward. “
Indeed, the Bears and Packers' disdain for one another was on full display in the three meetings between the teams this past season. After each game, Johnson and Packers head coach Matt LaFleur engaged in some of the shortest handshakes in recorded NFL history, which added further fuel to the rivalry between both the teams and the fanbases.
Meanwhile, the Bears are currently looking for ways to make sure that their success in 2025 wasn't a one-off. Skeptics have already pointed to the fact that Chicago performed insanely well in close games this past year, a trend that likely isn't sustainable moving forward, as the Washington Commanders found out this year after a similar fairytale season of their own in 2024.
However, with Johnson leading the charge and quarterback Caleb Williams continuing to emerge as a burgeoning star, the Bears seem to have all the tools to establish themselves as a contender in the NFC for years to come.
