LAKE FOREST, Ill. (670 The Score) — Since he stepped into Halas Hall in April 2024, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has set out to rewrite the history of his franchise.
Williams has wanted to be the one who leads the charge of change for a Bears organization that has a troubled quarterback history and which has failed to find sustained success. His opportunity has now arrived.
The NFC North champion Bears are set to host the rival Packers in a wild-card game Saturday night at Soldier Field, and the 24-year-old Williams is the starting quarterback with his eyes on a deep playoff run.
Williams and the Bears believe Saturday is the beginning of what's to come in these playoffs and for years beyond.
“It’s the start of it,” Williams said.
Williams and the Bears have enjoyed a breakthrough season under first-year head coach Ben Johnson's direction. A year ago, Chicago was the lone team in the NFC North that missed the playoffs. Now, the Bears are the winner of a strong division in which every team finished above .500.
The Bears have struggled to establish success over the last three decades. Sustaining their success has been an even more difficult task. In the 33 seasons between 1992 and 2024, the Bears made the playoffs just seven times. Only once in that span did they have back-to-back postseason appearances (2005-'06).
Johnson is the eighth permanent head coach for the franchise since Mike Ditka departed after the 1992 season. Chicago has seen countless quarterbacks come and go in that time.
"We’re mentally prepared to play for five more weeks,” Johnson said. “That’s our intent. How do you do that? You go out and win the first one.”
While Williams sought to learn about the Bears’ history and their struggles in the pre-draft process in 2024, Johnson has often dismissed that storyline when speaking publicly. He's more concerned with the present and future than the past. The same can’t be said for sixth-year tight end Cole Kmet, who grew up in nearby Lake Barrington rooting for the Bears.
Kmet is the lone player on the current roster to have played in the Bears’ last playoff game, a 21-9 loss to the Saints on Jan. 10, 2021. At the time, he believed there were more postseason opportunities awaited in the near future. It took five years for him and the Bears to get the chance again.
Kmet appreciates the Bears’ history, but he also wants to build on it.
"I feel like that with Chicago sports in general,” Kmet said. “Always felt like that with the Cubs, here obviously in Chicago with the Bears, it’s kind of felt like that recently with the Bulls. You talk about the ‘90s and that’s kind of far away now at this point. I’m not taking shots or anything, but that’s kind of what it is. I think Chicago is just a city deeply rooted in history, which is awesome and it’s what makes it such a special place. But that being said, we want to build our own history here. We have a chance to do that on Saturday."
The Bears have faced the rival Packers just once in the postseason during the Super Bowl era. That was 15 years ago, when Green Bay earned a 21-14 win at Soldier Field in the NFC Championship game.
That Bears team was largely past its prime, and it represented the lone time that quarterback Jay Cutler ever reached the playoffs in his NFL career. In 2018, first-year head coach Matt Nagy led a breakthrough campaign that ended with the Bears suffering a heartbreaking loss to the Eagles in the wild-card round. That team wasn't set up for sustained success like this one.
These Bears have the potential to be a championship contender for years with Williams at quarterback, Johnson at the helm and a healthy infrastructure in place. For now, the Bears just want to win Saturday at Soldier Field.
“We’re going to go all out for this game,” Johnson said. “And we’ll worry about the future when the time comes."
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago’s sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on Twitter @CEmma670.