LAKE FOREST, Ill. (104.3 The Score) — Bears tight end Cole Kmet has seen the highlight countless times since Jan. 18.
Bears quarterback Caleb Williams backpedaled and backpedaled on a fourth-and-4 play with the game on the line and heaved a throw off his back foot to the corner of the end zone. Waiting for the pass was Kmet, who hauled in a game-tying touchdown in the final seconds of regulation of the Bears' showdown against the Rams in the divisional round of the playoffs.
It was yet another extraordinary moment in the Bears’ breakthrough season.
"I have to remind people that we lost the frickin’ game,” Kmet said Monday.
Chicago is still overjoyed by the Bears' breakthrough 2025 campaign, one in which they went from worst to first in the NFC North and earned their first playoff victory in 15 years with a win over the rival Packers in the wild-card round.
But that's now in the past. That’s the message that head coach Ben Johnson has delivered to his Bears.
Monday marked the start of the offseason program at Halas Hall. It means the Bears must move forward and put the past away.
"Last year is over with,” Kmet said. “The reality of the NFL is there are seven to nine new playoff teams every year. This league, they want parity and they get their parity. We see that year to year, and we’re not excused from that. We’re looking to not only get back to where we were last year with the chance to go to the NFC Championship game but to exceed that and go win the Super Bowl."
Johnson began preaching that message to the Bears shortly after Rams kicker Harrison Mevis hit the game-winning field goal to lift Los Angeles to a 20-17 win over Chicago in the divisional round. Johnson told his players that change is natural in this league, and it would be coming.
The Bears certainly had their share of change this offseason. Veteran receiver DJ Moore was traded to the Bills, linebacker Tremaine Edmunds was released in a salary cap-clearing move and safety Kevin Byard walked in free agency for a one-year deal with the Patriots. All three players were once captains for the team.
The Bears welcomed in newcomers like center Garrett Bradbury, safety Coby Bryant and linebacker Devin Bush this offseason. The NFL Draft, which begins Thursday, will offer another chance to fortify the roster for the present and future.
The Bears do boast continuity with the most important relationship on any football team, the connection between head coach and quarterback.
Johnson and 24-year-old quarterback Caleb Williams offer Chicago hope for many years to come.
"It was good for me to be able to see, to be able to feel, to go be able to go out there and win games," Williams said. "But that wasn’t my goal. That’s not my goal. That’s not where I want to be. I want to be the best. I want to go win. I want to be a world champion, a Super Bowl champion. I want to be the best Bear quarterback, the best quarterback. So, my goals, that was a good stepping stone for me, but that wasn’t the last stepping stone.
"That last year wasn’t really anything. It was a good year, and we have many more good years coming up."
One goal for the Bears in 2026 will be to enhance and adjust their Johnson-led offense to keep it one step ahead of opposing coaches who try to expose tendencies. The big challenge will be to improve their defense and create an identity on that side of the ball. No longer is this an upstart team out to surprise the league.
The Bears have aspirations to continue ascending, but they'll start 0-0 like every other team in the league. They know there's so much more to accomplish.
“Our expectations in the building don’t ever change,” Kmet said. “It’s to go win a Super Bowl. That’s the expectation; that’s what our goal is. I know the talk of last year was, ‘Oh, it’d be great if the Bears could go make a playoff,’ and that’s a success. Yeah, there’s success in that, but that’s not what our ultimate goal is.
“Our ultimate goal is still to go win a Super Bowl. It’s not an easy thing to do, but those are the expectations within the locker room and quite frankly those are the only expectations that we look at.”
Chris Emma covers the Bears and the Chicago sports scene for 104.3 The Score.
