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Javon Bullard Pokes the Bear as Bears-Packers Rivalry Reignites

The Chicago Bears' dominance in 2025 clearly got under the skin of one of their rivals.
Pete Martuneac|
Matt Marton-Imagn Images

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The Chicago Bears' period of organizational incompetence that stretched from the firing of former head coach Lovie Smith up until the 2025 NFL season nearly killed the NFL's oldest rivalry. Despite 100 years of history, the one-sided beatdown that it had become couldn't properly be called a 'rivalry'. Luckily for both the Bears and the NFL (and the Packers, too, in a way), the Bears finally got themselves a head coach and quarterback who know how to win. The result? An eleven-win season, the NFC North crown, and a triumphant Wild Card victory over the Packers.

Additionally, the Ben Johnson-Matt LaFleur handshake that went viral after Chicago's Wild Card win gave the rivalry some genuine animosity. Add in DJ Moore's foam cheese grater hat and Austin Booker's wrongly-labeled "dirty" hit on Packers quarterback Jordan Love and you have a rivalry that hasn't been this heated since the days of George S. Halas and Curly Lambeau.

As for the Packers, they're finally beginning to fire back. Safety Javon Bullard, a second-round pick by the Packers in the 2024 NFL draft, recently spoke to sports blogger and Packers fan Tyler Dunne. Yes, that's the same Tyler Dunne who dropped a Caleb Williams tell-all blog post last September, in which Dunne interviewed anonymous personnel from the fired Matt Eberflus coaching staff who alleged that the quarterback was the problem in 2024 rather than the coaches. I'll allow Caleb Williams' breakout season to do the talking as to whether their allegations held any credibility.

Dunne is back with a new tell-all piece, this time about a Packers player, called "Javon Bullard is the dagger". Bullard had a lot to say to Dunne, including some venomous trash talk directed at his biggest rival, the Chicago Bears. Bullard, who is 2-3 against the Bears in his career, dismissed Chicago's two wins over the Packers last year and promised a tougher test next season.

"They got two little wins last year. But don't forget who the big brother is," Bullard told Dunne. "We're still big brother. They got a long way to go before they can try to [talk trash to] us. But we got to show them, too. We can't just talk that [trash]. We've got to be about it. So it's going to be hell next year, man... it's going to be hell."

History won't save the Packers from a resurgent Bears team in 2026

I do appreciate hearing Bullard fire back at the Bears, even if it is in the safety of the offseason. As Ben Johnson said, the Bears and Packers should not like each other, and the NFL is a better product when these two teams are trading shots. However, I would advise Bullard to hop off of Aaron Rodgers' coattails and stand on his own record, which isn't good.

As aforementioned, from about 2010 through 2024, the Packers thoroughly owned the Bears, and they still possess a sizeable lead in the all-time series, all thanks to Aaron Rodgers. But Rodgers is gone, and these Bears are not your father's Bears. Since Caleb Williams came on the scene, four out of the five Bears-Packers games have come down to the final play, and the fifth was settled in the final minute. Most importantly, the Bears won three of those five games, including the only one that truly mattered, their miraculous Wild Card win over the Packers.

Dunne also wrote that Bullard "saw the dread in their eyes" when the Packers were "crushing the Bears". If that's what Bullard saw, he needs to book an appointment with an optometrist. Teams with dread in their eyes don't pull off two historic comebacks against a division rival in one season. The only dread I saw in that Wild Card game was in the eyes of Christian Watson, who could do nothing but stare in disbelief at Williams' electric fourth-and-eight completion to Rome Odunze.

The Bottom Line

This kind of back-and-forth trash-talking between Chicago and Green Bay is great for the rivalry, and it's great for football. For too long, Bears-Packers games were foregone conclusions. Now, after just two years with Caleb Williams, these rivalry games have become must-see TV. However, Bullard will have to adjust his expectations in this rivalry. The Packers may have been dominant at the time he was drafted, but he's on the losing side now.

He was right about one thing: the two Bears-Packers games next year are going to be hell. I just don't think he understands for whom hell is coming.

Chicago Bears
Matt Marton-Imagn Images

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Pete Martuneac
PETE MARTUNEAC

A former Marine and Purdue Boilermaker, Pete has been covering the Chicago Bears since 2022 as a senior contributor on BearsTalk. He lives with his wife, two kids and loyal dog.

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