NFL exec sounds alarms about Bears after Williams injury

The Chicago Bears lost more than just one game when they fell to 1-1 on the season via a 9-3 home defeat against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, as Chicago starting quarterback Caleb Williams suffered a scary-looking hamstring injury midway through the contest’s fourth quarter. 

Back in August, second-year Chicago head coach Ben Johnson generated headlines when he acknowledged that his goal was for the 2026 Bears to be responsible for “the highest-scoring offense ever.” Following Sunday’s action, Mike Sando of The Athletic spoke with an unnamed NFL executive from another team about the Johnson-led Bears. 

How will the Bears respond to getting “smacked in the face?”

“The Bears are entering into this world where it’s like Ben Johnson is constantly out over his skis and they have come through,” that executive said. “Well, now, guess what? They got smacked in the face and scored three points. What does that mean?” 

In the opening week of the season, Williams played like a potential MVP candidate when he helped Chicago earn an impressive 59-37 win over the Carolina Panthers on Sept. 13. He then came back down to earth when he completed 15-of-26 passes for 138 yards and one interception before he was carted off the field on Sunday. 

“Their defense isn’t very good,” the executive added about the Bears. “So it’s just fascinating to me where they go mentally. To me, it’s like Ben Johnson has been thinking, ‘The more I double down, the better it is. I’m going to throw this s— out there, and I’ll live up to it. I want to lead the league in points scored.’ Which they still may. Whatever. The s— is hard to do.” 

Not everybody is panicking about the Bears after Caleb Williams’ injury

A report from Sunday night claimed that the Bears believe Williams has “a Grade 1 injury…the lowest level, with minimal tearing of the muscle fibers.” That said, his status for Chicago’s Week 3 “Monday Night Football” home game against the 2-0 Philadelphia Eagles on Sept. 28 was unknown as of Monday morning. 

Against the Vikings, backup Tyson Bagent completed 5-of-9 passes for 54 yards. He drove the Bears offense to the Minnesota 12-yard line in the game’s closing seconds, but he then took a sack that iced away the win for the visitors. Meanwhile, a different executive told Sando that he would “be much more concerned” about the Bears “if they had three points in a dome.” 

“They drove with a minute left from their own 35 to the Minnesota 12 with their backup quarterback and no timeouts, and got three throws to the end zone,” the second executive added about the Bears. “A lot of teams don’t do that with their starters.”

Johnson will now wait to see when his starting signal-caller will be able to return to the lineup.