I don’t know if the Chicago Bears have more team meetings than wins in 2024, but I feel as if we’re getting dangerously close to that number.
One week after the Bears felt the need to have a team meeting to address the Tyrique Stevenson situation, the team held yet another get-together after a disheartening road loss. Chris Emma of 670 The Score shares details with a transcription of what linebacker T.J. Edwards had to say during his weekly visit with Dan Bernstein and Marshall Harris:
T.J. Edwards said the Bears had a team meeting yesterday with several individuals speaking: “It was real. It was everyone understanding that what we’re doing right now isn’t good enough. It’s not to our standard. … I think we needed that a little bit.”
On the one hand, I appreciate that the Bears know that something isn’t working and that coming together for a team meeting in an attempt to hash things out is an ideal way to go about righting the ship. We’ve seen it far too often when teams splinter when things go south instead of working together to get back on the right track. But on the other hand, it is unsettling to know that this is at least the third meeting this team has had in 2024 because things aren’t going well.
Will the latest Bears team meeting yield positive results?
For what it’s worth, Chicago’s offensive captains held a meeting with Offensive Coordinator Shane Waldron in late September when that side of the ball was slumping. The Bears followed that with a three-game winning streak highlighted by back-to-back 30+ point games from the offense. Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was looking sharp, and tight end Cole Kmet saw heavy involvement. Even DJ Moore and Keenan Allen got in on the fun. Maybe there is something to be said about the value of a productive meeting among work chums.
And yet, I can’t stop thinking about how this gives me flashbacks to last season when the Bears were having leadership council meetings in September 2023 after a slow start. I fear that these meetings will grow tiresome and unproductive if they become too repetitive. Don’t get me wrong. I understand that meetings like the one T.J. Edwards describes are held to battle complacency. But when you have to bang that drum one too many times, you risk turning the message into something that goes in one ear and out the other.
For what it’s worth, I do like that T.J. Edwards — one of the team’s eight captains — was the one to speak up about the meeting. The Bears need leadership in times like these. And if this team isn’t getting it from the coaches (you know, the ones they publicly came out questioning last week), then it needs to come from the players. More specifically, the leadership this team seeks needs to come from its captains. It makes sense that the captains are the ones at the forefront of these meetings. But with that being said, I hope I don’t have to write about another team meeting for a while.
Let’s face it. If we have to hear about another team meeting, it probably won’t be because good things are happening at Halas Hall. The vibes are so off right now. However, a meeting leading to a Week 10 win against the New England Patriots could be a turning point in this season. Stay tuned.