It’s Day 70 of the Chicago Bears offseason. I wasn’t surprised to see Packers jerseys out and about on St. Patrick’s Day weekend in Chicago. Those trolls are never late to a party they weren’t invited to attend. But seeing someone in a Plaxico Burress New York Jets jersey stopped me in my tracks. What a deep cut. Unexpected, too.
- When we wake up 42 days from now (lord willing) we’ll be done with the 2025 NFL Draft. Granted, our draft coverage won’t be over. We’ll have prospects to analyze, roster fits to discuss, and more. Heck, we might even look at a 2026 NFL Mock Draft if the mood strikes us (it probably will and that way-too-early next-year mock draft always hits different than the others). In the meantime, we have 39 days until this year’s draft.
- Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio has a worthwhile breakdown of the latest when it comes to the Aaron Rodgers situation. In short, it seems like Rodgers’ options are the Steelers (a good team that seems to want him and is willing to wait), the Giants (a not-so-good team, but one that appears willing to satisfy his desire to call the shots), the Vikings (a good team and potentially a weird fit — but a place Rodgers seems to want to play), or retirement. Frankly, I’m rooting for retirement. No one wants to see a 41-year-old on their last legs embarrass themselves as they whimper to their career’s finish line. Wait. On second thought…
- Speaking of the Vikings, they cut a deal with the San Francisco 49ers to acquire running back Jordan Mason. ESPN reports the Niners are getting a 2026 sixth-round pick in addition to a pick swap (SF gets pick No. 160, Minny gets pick No. 187) in 2025. Mason, who is getting a two-year deal worth up to $12 million upon his arrival to Minnesota, will pair with veteran running back Aaron Jones. A move like this makes me wonder how the Bears will bolster their backfield in the upcoming NFL Draft.
- The Bears continue building out their tight end depth chart (h/t Aaron Wilson) by re-signing Stephen Carlson. A 28-year-old Princeton product, Carlson has 26 games of playing experience under his belt and has spent much of the last two seasons on the Bears’ practice squad.
- The folks at Windy City Gridiron ask who your first ever favorite football player was — and as you might imagine, the results are fun when you read through the comments. Mine was Deion Sanders. A two-way player who was a star on the gridiron, a tremendous baseball player, and wore my favorite number (21) had a young version of Luis starstruck. Heck, the No. 21 is one of the reasons I gravitated toward Bears cornerback Donnell Woolford. As for my first favorite Bear, it was Raymont Harris. Although, I was also really fond of Curtis Conway. Those were some dudes I enjoyed watching play football!
- An old friend finds a new home: Velus Jones Jr. is signing with the New Orleans Saints, per reporting (on Twitter/X) from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. Jones was a third-round pick by the Bears in 2022 and was the first player on the offensive side of the ball selected by GM Ryan Poles. Unfortunately, Jones’ athletic skills never translated to excellence in Chicago and instead will be remembered by Bears fans as someone who (both literally and figuratively) muffed every opportunity he had to make something awesome happen. The guy worked hard, but never put it together. I wish him well in the future.
- Elsewhere in the category of former Bears finding new football homes this week: Defensive end Jacob Martin has a deal with the Washington Commanders. Martin played in 11 games for the Bears last season and appeared on just 222 (32 percent) of the team’s defensive snaps. For what it’s worth, Martin played on 206 special teams snaps last year — only five Bears players saw more action on that front.
- Over at Pro Football Focus, Jonathon Macri has a fantasy football slant on the biggest moves to start NFL free agency. No current Bears are mentioned. And you know what, I’m OK with that because Chicago’s football team needed to focus in on upgrading in the trenches. Also, I feel as if fantasy football can really muddy the water around football discourse. There are way too many times I’ve had conversations about football that got hijacked by fantasy football talk that had nothing to do with anything relevant. Don’t get me wrong. I love fantasy football. But you are doing yourself a disservice if you can’t separate the fantasy stuff and the real thing.
- META: Ad-free Bleacher Nation has arrived! You can go ad-free with BN Pro — and can do so with a 50 percent off discount. BN Pro is officially live, and Michael shared an update here. If you want to browse the ad-free version of the site, gain access to our private Discord (which features Brett, Michael, yours truly, and the rest of the BN gang), and support BN, here is your chance. ALSO: It is worth pointing out that nothing is going behind a paywall. PHEW!
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