Chicago Bears

A year after the Chicago Bears announced that they were eyeing the lakefront in Chicago in their plans to build a new stadium, a new location has emerged as a possibility.

Per ESPN's Courtney Cronin, Bears team president and CEO Kevin Warren said at the NFL annual meeting on Wednesday that the franchise is expanding its options to include Arlington Heights, Illinois, where it owns the 326-acre property that was the previous home of the Arlington International Racecourse.

"The focus now is both downtown and Arlington Heights," Warren explained. "These are not linear processes or projects. They take time, they take a lot of energy and effort. I am very, very pleased with where we are. I think we, collectively as a group, are where we thought we would be."

The Bears have owned the Arlington Heights property since Sept. 2021 when they purchased it for $197.2 million in hopes for a multibillion-dollar stadium project that included restaurants, retail space and real estate. However, development has yet to begin at the site, and they began exploring alternatives in the summer of 2023 after it was announced that their plans were "at risk" due to a $100 million impasse in negotiations over property taxes.

The Bears later revealed the day before the 2024 NFL draft that they planned on building a domed stadium on the museum campus in Chicago, but another impasse eventually arose due to concerns about the burden that would be placed on taxpayers to fund the infrastructure around the stadium.

Arlington Heights re-emerged as a possibility when the city's Board of Trustees unanimously approved a tax settlement with three school districts in December for an annual tax bill of $3.6 million. Warren acknowledged the "progress" in Arlington Heights but maintained that there's more work to be done before the new stadium becomes a reality.

"Because these projects are so complex and so difficult, they're literally virtually impossible to do if you don't have all hands on deck and everyone committed," Warren said. "Even if you have that they're difficult. So that was important to see the focus on it."

Warren added that he still has a goal of breaking ground on the new stadium at some point this year.

"Yes, my goal still remains, to be able to move dirt around in 2025, which is important because there's a lot of preconstruction work that needs to go into these projects, whether you're at the museum campus, Michael Reese [hospital site] or downtown, to get things ready to go, and so we're only one-quarter of the way through the year," he said.

How successful head coach Ben Johnson is during his tenure with the Chicago Bears will ultimately come down to whether he can unlock quarterback Caleb Williams' full potential, and he revealed some of his early plans in their first year together.

"You go back to the basics," Johnson said Tuesday, per Larry Mayer of the team's official website. "It's the fundamentals of the quarterback position: What's our footwork going to look like under center? From the shotgun? What are we calling the formations? What's the defensive identification going to look like? So that we're all speaking the same language.

"We've got to get on the same page because it'll be a little bit different for him than what he experienced last year, and if we can mesh together and start speaking the same language, that's when things will really start to take off."

Part of that will include Williams becoming more comfortable working under center after taking so many shotgun snaps during his rookie season and collegiate career at USC.

And part of that will include getting more comfortable behind the team's new-look offensive line.

Chicago added Joe Thuney, Drew Dalman and Jonah Jackson on the interior of its offensive line this offseason, which should bolster what was a significant area of concern last season.

Giving Williams more time to throw will make an offense that features no shortage of playmakers in DJ Moore, Rome Odunze, Cole Kmet and D'Andre Swift all the more dangerous, especially if the unit adds another piece or two during the NFL draft.

Johnson is an ideal candidate to help that offense become far better this season.

The Detroit Lions led the NFL in points in 2024 after finishing fifth in that category in 2022 and 2023 when he was the offensive coordinator. His ability to scheme receivers such as Amon-Ra St. Brown open for quarterback Jared Goff all while working in a run game with David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs made the Lions nearly unstoppable.

The plan is to do the same in Chicago, and it all starts with Williams going back to basics as he begins to work with his new coach.

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams took center stage in a recent video promoting the release of the 2024 Topps Chrome Football card boxes. During that spot, he managed to get a dig in at the archrival Green Bay Packers.

During the spot, Williams is being tutored on his signatures by ex-Chicago Bears Super Bowl-winning quarterback Jim McMahon.

At one point, McMahon is looking over Williams' work on inscriptions.

The first one ("The Best-Looking Chicago QB Ever") did not meet McMahon's approval.

McMahon liked Williams' second one ("Green Bay Sucks"), but it did not pass his test either.

The third one (Chicago, Let's Shuffle), in honor of McMahon and the 1985 Super Bowl-winning Bears' Super Bowl Shuffle, was the winner.

Williams, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft, endured a tough rookie season. The Bears' 4-2 start was washed away with a 10-game losing streak. However, the Bears did end on a high note, defeating the Packers 24-22 in the season finale.

Chicago is now entering a new era with former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who just oversaw the highest-scoring offense in the NFL, taking over as head coach. Optimism now reigns in Chicago as the Bears hope Williams' sophomore season brings more prosperity.

Virginia Halas McCaskey, who was the longtime principal owner of the Chicago Bears, died at the age of 102.

The Bears announced her passing on Thursday:

McCaskey was the daughter of George Halas, who was the Hall of Fame founder of the Bears. He also coached the team on four different occasions, including during their first 10 years of existence and before they were even in the NFL as the Decatur Staleys.

"While we are sad, we are comforted knowing Virginia Halas McCaskey lived a long, full, faith-filled life and is now with the love of her life on earth," the Bears said in a statement. "She guided the Bears for four decades and based every business decision on what was best for Bears players, coaches, staff and fans."

Virginia was one of George Halas' two children, and she moved into position to inherit the team when her brother, George Halas Jr., died in 1979.

She then inherited the Bears in 1983 when her father died.

Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times noted she named her husband, Ed, the team's chairman shortly after inheriting the Bears. She also named her son, Michael, the president and CEO, although she later demoted Michael in 1999 to chairman when Ted Phillips took his place.

Michael retired in 2010, and one of her other sons, George, took over the role.

Virginia represented 13 different family members and approximately 80 percent of the Bears on the NFL's board of directors.

"How that voting bloc will be affected after her death is unclear," Finley wrote. "When asked in recent years about the team's future, George has said repeatedly that his mother had a plan that would keep the team in the family after her death. The NFL mandates each team have a succession plan, though public details are vague."

Virginia Halas McCaskey was a direct line to the NFL's founding, as her father purchased the Bears in 1920 and attended a meeting that led to the founding of the American Professional Football Association that became the NFL two years later.

George Halas even brought his daughter along when he helped legitimize the sport at a professional level with a barnstorming tour with Red George following the 1925 college season. She was in attendance at the NFL's first ever championship game as well.

"It's a special feeling to be part of that Bears history, which was very significant in the survival and history of the team," she said in a previous interview, per Finley. "And for George Halas."

While she was not seen as often at games in recent years, she attended home and away Bears games late into her life.

The team won six championships with her father as the head coach and won its only Super Bowl during her tenure in the 1985 season. It also reached the Super Bowl during the 2006 season.