February Mailbag, Part II: Matt LaFleur debate, "Indiana" Bears, kickers, NFL straying from its base?
Rolling along with your exceptional questions, from Kevin Warren to LaFleur/Gutekunst getting extensions to the Packers' absence of heart at key moments in '25 to an NFL riding a dangerous fine line.
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Part I of our extended February Mailbag is here.
Let’s get to Part II below.
Inside Part II…
The Chicago Bears may be heading to Indiana? It’s a mess. We shouldn’t be shocked by this mess.
Matt LaFleur is back. Does he deserve Year 8… 9… 10 in Green Bay? New CEO Ed Policy inked both the head coach and GM to contract extensions.
There was a distinct lack of guts from the 2025 Packers at critical moments last season. Can this be fixed?
Kicker accuracy entered a new stratosphere this season. Is that a problem?
The NFL goes global. What’s next? Roger Goodell and the owners also better be careful. Relentless growth could come at a cost.
Hi Tyler,
You wrote extensively about Kevin Warren in your House of Dysfunction series.
Now, it appears the “Indiana Bears” are coming.
Any more thoughts?
Will
Former Bears coaches were critical of Caleb Williams. Many people inside Halas Hall — and fellow GMs around the NFL — view Ryan Poles as quite the narcissist, even by lofty NFL standards. The most scathing stories, however, might’ve been reserved for the man who runs the show in Bears Country: CEO Kevin Warren.
All three parts are unlocked to read. Here is how one exec put it in Part III:
“The great ruse is ‘Hey, everything is great here in Camelot.’ Well, it’s not actually Camelot. Ask anyone, and if they’re honest with you, it’s going to be quite the opposite. That’s the reality. Everyone is scared for their job, worried at any moment he’s just going to call — well, not him, he won’t do it, he has somebody else handle that shit.”
Warren is described as a czar hyper-obsessed with image, right down to orchestrating an elaborate feature story written about himself at the team site. Of course, George McCaskey brought Warren in from the Big Ten — three years ago — to get a new stadium done.
Despite trumpeting “shovels in the ground,” Warren has failed to deliver.
The drama drags on and I don’t blame Bears fans one bit for being irate over a potential move.
Halas Hall is 66 miles away. The mayor of Hammond, Ind., Thomas McDermott Jr., said the Bears could move their entire operation across state lines. Obviously, it’d be nice if owners of pro sports teams paid for their own stadiums, instead of holding their taxpayers hostage. Chicago politics are notoriously cutthroat. Insular bureaucracy cuts deeper here. Throw Warren into the mix and we shouldn’t be surprised this has become such a circus. At this point, all governor JB Pritzker and Warren need are a pair of boxing mitts.
All of this comes after the franchise purchased 326 acres in Arlington Heights at $197.2 million under previous president, Ted Phillips. Last August, Warren was welcomed right inside the Fox broadcast booth to wax poetic about this Arlington location 31 miles from downtown. As cheery music and B-roll footage looped, Warren expressed optimism that the stadium would get approved in the fall veto session. When Greg Olsen asked how important it is to “keep the stadium in Chicago”— which wasn’t the case — Warren tap-danced. Warren rationalized that Arlington Heights and Chicago are both in Cook County.
Now, the team may move double that distance.
To a different state.
Or not.
Who knows.
In a statement Saturday night, Warren told Crain’s Chicago Business: “We continue to work with Illinois’ leadership and appreciate the progress being made.”
What a shame after these Cardiac Bears rode a wave of breathtaking comeback wins to finish 11-6. There were overtime thrillers, playoff prayers into the end zone and turnover parties almost weekly. Williams — to his immense credit — bought into Ben Johnson’s hard coaching. Hope returned to a downtrodden franchise. The owner who didn’t allow swear words on “Hard Knocks” was even OK with Johnson’s “Fuck the Packers!” battle cry in the locker room.
These should be happy times for the organization. For Warren, a man very in-tune with PR, all of this horrid PR cannot be a pleasant experience.
I think people are missing the big picture with the latest stadium issue. If an owner cannot afford to keep the Chicago Bears in Chicago, that owner should probably sell the team to someone who can.
Hey Tyler. Since this is the “calling all mailbag questions” section I’ll ask this: When will you be posting a longform article about the Packers decision making process regarding the contract extensions of the GM and HC? I look forward to it.
— Dap
Time to pivot a few hours north to Chicago’s archrival. If this Packers regime goes south, we’ll all look back at the end of the 2025 season as Ed Policy’s missed opportunity. The Packers’ new CEO easily could’ve punched the reset button on at least his head coach following a wild-card calamity in Chicago.
The meltdown was that wretched. Instead, Policy chose calm.
Soon after the loss, I chatted with a coach on the Packers staff. His answer surprised me.