Bear Weather Fans

I was doing what everyone does when they get online - waste time while dabbling in cyber-stalking at a level that would've been criminal before George Bush took office - when I stumbled across this: So Velus Jones has blocked our twitter account, which is both— A : Totally understandable when you consider just how much we've crapped on his Bears career on the podcast— and— B : Absolutely wild when you consider that I never tweeted at Velus Jones . I never would  do that. So... ... ...how did VJJ find BWF? Was it our millions of fans? Our award-available podcast? Our zipcode-topping handsomeness? All valid theories. Mine is simple - Velus Jones Jr is a huge fan of the Bear Weather Fans podcast . Or I guess was . He's blocked us now. So, Velus, on behalf of at least one half of the BWF podcasting team, I'd like to formally apologize if we've ever done anything that made you feel disrespected. Though unlikely. We're a frankly exhaustingly professional organization ...

Your EXTREMELY professional and frankly OVERQUALIFIED hosts go over the final 53-man roster, discuss the emergence of Jordan Van Den Berg and the rest of the rookies at the cost of Gervon Dexter and more. Is this defense good enough to compete? ...maybe?

 We all know and love Ben Johnson, and a big part of that love is about playfully ignoring the clear and obvious signs that it's being spent on a psycho who would gladly strangle the light from Matt Lafleur's eyes if it could be done without accruing penalty yardage. Being a fan of Ben is a lot like being a single cat owner - you can't help but dote on a creature whose response is silently waiting for your death. Naysayers are already pointing out that this isn't a perfect analogy - after all, your cat's response to your death is a muted blink before  blissfully consuming your corpse . Ben Johnson is different in that he doesn't blink. But how well do you know Ben Johnson the brilliant, infamous psycho from just your normal brilliant, infamous psycho? Find out if you can beat our in-house ringer Coach Bob in this exclusive* BWF Quiz: Ben Johnson, Or the Unabomber? (These are different people) *(I think this is exclusive. I mean I haven't done an exhausti...

 The first BWF Podcast episode of the 2026 season is HERE . It is thorough. It is emphatic. It is unnecessarily long. Don't believe me? Really? Why not? Well jeeze Here it is sorry my feelings were just kinda hurt there No but I get it Hope you have a nice day

 The time is now. We're in the window for a Super Bowl. It can happen. But if it's going to happen, we have to be ready now . And I'm afraid we're not. Why? First, let's talk about draft capital. Here's the total draft capital teams have had over the past 4 seasons: (Draft pick values based on Spielberger-Fitzgerald model) Yes, the Bears have had the third-most draft capital over the past four seasons of any team in the NFL. Why cut it off at 4? Because rookie contracts are 4 seasons. Drafted players within the last 4 seasons = on the cheap. We have players making a fraction of what they will once their rookie contract is up and their second contract comes due. That net difference between what the player is "worth" (aka, what they will be making on their second contract) and what they're currently being paid is what football nerds call "surplus value". So how much surplus do the Bears have? First, let's talk offense. Darnell Wright...

  The always-great Fitzgerald over at Over The Cap had a really great article on the success rates teams have on finding top players at each position using top-tier draft picks vs top-tier cap spending.  TL;DR - there are some positions that you can consistently expect to find a top player for readily available in free agency (for example, linebacker), and some for which you will never, ever find one available (IE-DL [abbreviations are fun! So are parentheticals!]). So which is which? So when we look at positions of need over the last two years (so ignoring QB and WR), we see that far and away defensive lineman are found in the draft - Edge players around 75% of the time, and interior defensive lineman like 90%. If you need them (we do) you draft them. On the other hand, the most freely available top players are in the positions of Center, Tight End , and Safety , and to a lesser extend LT. Alright, no need to spend draft capital there - they're easily available any free agenc...

Hey, Patrick here, the guy whose words you're reading. The past three weeks, I had the great pleasure/disorienting nightmare of joining Travis and Kyle over at Start Kyle Orton to try to read and explain Tyler Dunne's absolute atrocity of journalism that is the three-part "House of Dysfunction" series via a 3-part series of our own. Thus was born — "A Dramatic Reading of Ty Dunne's B.S." with a simple goal - attempt to explain the madness in all its blubbering glory: A Dramatic Reading of Ty Dunne's B.S., Part 1 ( Spotify link ) ( Youtube link ) A Dramatic Reading of Ty Dunne's B.S., Part 2 ( Spotify link ) ( Youtube link ) A Very Ty Dunne Final ( Spotify link ) ( Youtube link ) We did not succeed. We didn't come close. Over the course of a combined 3.5 hours of podcast across a three-part series, we got through reading maybe 10% of the (suspiciously erotically charged) words Tyler Dunne wrote on Caleb Williams. We processed maybe 1%. How c...