Bear Digest

This Ben Johnson quote is everything Bears players need to hear entering Week 15

The Chicago Bears are having a great season, but more work needs to be done if they want to make the playoffs.
Bryan Perez|
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First, the good news. The Chicago Bears are 9-4 and in second place in the NFC North.

Now, the bad news. Their loss to the Green Bay Packers in Week 14 knocked them off the perch of the No. 1 seed in the NFC for the 2025 playoffs all the way down to the last and final seventh seed.

That's how quickly things can change in the NFL, and it's why Ben Johnson's comments on the state of the 2025 season should ring loud and clear for Bears players and fans as Week 15's game against the Cleveland Browns looms.

"We will be a playoff team once we earn enough wins to become a playoff team," Johnson said. "Right now we are a 9-win team, and I don’t think 9 wins is going to get you in this year, so we have to do what we can to get enough wins to find a way to get into the tournament."

Nine wins may seem like a resounding success for Bears Nation, and, in many ways, it is. It's the first time this team will finish a season over .500 since 2018. For a fan base that's forgotten what it feels like to end an NFL season as a winner in the standings, 2025 is already a big victory.

But for players and coaches who go to work every day inside Halas Hall, their focus is on one thing: winning a Super Bowl. And, obviously, that goal can't be accomplished without first earning a playoff berth.

The next four games will tell us everything we need to know about this Bears team. Week 15 should be a win over the Cleveland Browns. Then the primetime rematch with the Green Bay Packers in Week 16, followed by a showdown with the San Francisco 49ers in Week 17, and a season-ending NFC North clash with the Detroit Lions.

As Ben Johnson noted, the Bears will be a playoff team once they have enough wins to be a playoff team. And wins will be hard to come by over the last month of the 2025 NFL season.

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Bryan Perez
BRYAN PEREZ

Bryan Perez founded and operated Bears Talk, a Chicago sports blog. Prior to that, he covered the Bears for USA Today’s Bears Wire and NBC Sports Chicago. In addition to his Chicago Bears coverage, Perez is a respected member of NFL Draft media and was a past winner of The Huddle's Mock Draft competition. Bryan's past life includes time as a Northeast scout for the CFL's Ottawa Redblacks.

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