Packers Player Fires Shot at Bears' Ben Johnson Ahead of Week 5 Rivalry Game

Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur may not get into any Bears-Packers rivalry trash talk, but some of his players are more than happy to step into that arena. Packers safety Evan Williams spoke to the media on Wednesday ahead of their Week 5 showdown with the Chicago Bears, and he fired a clear shot across head coach Ben Johnson's bow.

"It's easy to have a camera in front of you and say whatever you want," Williams said. "That's not going to stop you from getting hit in the mouth on any given Sunday... It's not going to show up on Sunday. It's not going to save you."

But Williams wasn't the only Packer to fire shots at the Bears on Wednesday. Left tackle Jordan Morgan was asked about Ben Johnson's cursing out the Packers after their Wild Card win and if that bothered the team. "He's dissing us. He's dissing the Packers. A lot of people in here, I'm pretty sure take that to heart," Morgan told the Packers media. "We got a chance to prove to everybody on Sunday that we [are] the best team."

Even new linebacker Zaire Franklin seems to be embracing the rivalry, telling Packers reporters, "Most rivalries are just on social media and in the offseason you're hanging out. I don't think [anybody] wants to hang out with the Bears in the offseason."

Packers fans should be grateful for what Ben Johnson has done to this rivalry

Ben Johnson may be Public Enemy No. 1 in Green Bay, and for good reason, but Packers fans should also be able to appreciate the life that he's breathed into a rivalry that had grown comatose. Prior to Ben Johnson's arrival in Chicago, the Bears had dropped 11 straight games to the Packers before finally pulling off a dramatic, yet ultimately meaningless, Week 18 win to end their 2024 season.

In just one season with Chicago, Johnson has flipped this historic rivalry on its head. Taking two of three matchups last year, including a playoff win, has put the Bears in a rare position of being able to punch down on the Packers. Adding insult to injury, the Week 5 NFL power ranking consensus has the Packers near the very bottom of the league; the Bears, on the other hand, sit comfortably inside the Top 10.

I'm not saying Packers fans should root for the Bears or be glad that they seem to have finally figured out the head coach and quarterback positions, but they should at least be grateful that the NFL's oldest rivalry finally has some real stakes, and Johnson is the reason for that. No one outside of Green Bay truly enjoyed watching Bears-Packers football at any point over the last 20 years. Now every matchup is must-see TV.

Well, almost every matchup. The NFL flexed the Bears-Packers game on Sunday into the 1:00pm ET slot, most likely because both Micah Parsons and Caleb Williams are still rehabbing their injuries and won't suit up.

The Bottom Line

The Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers are the flagship franchises of the NFL, and the NFL is just better when they're both good. No one wants to see the oldest rivalry in football reduced to a one-sided beat down, even if Bears fans might prefer it that way in order to catch up in the all-time win-loss record.

At the end of the day, a heated, passionate rivalry between these two teams is good for the sport and good for each other, and it warms my heart to see Packers players taking shots at Ben Johnson after all the trash he's talked. As Jordan Morgan noted, the Packers have a chance to go out on Sunday and shock the world by winning as home underdogs.

On the other hand, a Bears win would give them three consecutive victories over the Packers, a feat they've not accomplished since Week 1 of the 2006 season. If they can pull that off, then we'll have to consider the possibility that the power dynamic in this rivalry has taken its biggest shift since the first time Brett Favre donned a green-and-yellow jersey.

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