Locker room chemistry served as catalyst for comeback victory
Story by Gabby Hajduk
"We [are] changing the culture around here, but the culture is not defined until we go through adversity."
Inside the Bears locker room at Soldier Field Sunday afternoon, safety Kevin Byard III shared that sentiment with the team he joined back in March. Following the team's season-opening comeback win against Tennessee — where Byard spent the first eight years of his NFL career — the veteran expressed pride in the group's resiliency and unity.
Those intangibles were needed in the season-opener as the Bears were presented with adversity early, falling behind the Titans 17-3 at halftime. Through two quarters, the Titans had 12 first downs and 179 total yards compared to the Bears' five first downs and 50 yards of offense. But rather than placing blame for the deficit during the break, each player kept their focus.
"During the halftime they were great," coach Matt Eberflus said of the players. "They looked each other in the eye and leaned in and leaned on each other and looked at each other and said, 'We got this.' That's a different attitude and a different culture that we've developed over here the last couple of years."
Throughout the 15-minute break, the team made the necessary halftime adjustments free of hostile energy, refocused on the goal at hand and expressed confidence in each unit.
"I just think that's the type of team we are," defensive end Gervon Dexter Sr. said. "We got the leaders in the room. I looked at everyone when we came in, nobody had their head down. Everybody was ready to go. We knew the game wasn't over. It's four quarters for a reason. The momentum was still there. We knew what the goal was, and we finished."
That shared understanding of the task at hand and confidence in each other to accomplish it stemmed directly from the elevated locker room culture formed inside the Bears organization this offseason.
The development of that team chemistry dates back to April 15 — 10 days before the NFL Draft — when offseason workouts began across the NFL. Eberflus went into his third offseason program as head coach with a more curated plan to strengthen personal relationships from player to player as well as player to coach.
One part of that plan was the continuation of "skull sessions" where players meet in small groups — both within their position group and across different units — to discuss personal topics like hardships they have faced or who their heroes are.
"I can feel the closeness and the bond that they are forming earlier than ever before," Eberflus told reporters Aug. 28. "I can just feel that with these guys. That's not just coaches, that's players, leaders. That's everybody – staff, front office, everybody. So, it's important that we are all on there. We have been very intentional about that, and very authentic in terms of our approach to that. That's going to be a big part of it."
Another building block was group activities outside of Halas Hall. During OTAs, Eberflus took the entire team to Strawberry Creek Golf Course in Kenosha, Wis. for an annual team bonding event. The players went head-to-head in long drive competitions then split into teams to play the first and ninth holes, resulting in a victory for kicker Cairo Santos.
Later in the summer before training camp, Eberflus also hosted the team in three smaller groups for hangouts at his house which were headlined by food trucks and competitions such as basketball, golf and bags. The activities conducted off the practice field allowed the players to see each other not just as teammates but as people — building a deeper layer of trust than ever before.
The concentrated focus on those relationships by Eberflus and the Bears coaching staff resulted in the players initiating additional non-football plans with their teammates throughout training camp.
"Guys are hanging out outside the building, going out to eat, maybe you go to the mall, go to the pool, whatever it may be," linebacker Tremaine Edmunds told reporters Aug. 19. "Guys are finding a way to connect; guys are finding a way to learn more about the individual. When you sit down and really have a conversation, you may be like, 'You know what? I didn't know this about you.'
"But now that we chilled a little bit more, now I know you more, [there is] that trust factor going to the field knowing your brother is going to show up for you and make that play. That's the game that we play. Just having that experience and being able to do that, it's going to make this team 10 times better."
For newcomers like quarterback Caleb Williams and Byard, that tight-knit culture is all they have experienced since coming to Chicago. But returners like Edmunds and nickel back Kyler Gordon understood the gravity of the group's energy shift ahead of the 2024 season.
"The kind of culture we all created within the locker room is kinda uncommon culture," Gordon said Aug. 19. "[It's] not the same as everybody else and we know we want to strive to do stuff like that, so I would say [there's] a real positive surge of energy."
That heightened energy was felt not just within the team, but across Chicagoland and deep into the Bears fandom. The excitement for Week 1 so palpable that it shook Soldier Field Sunday as Williams and the offense ran out of the tunnel during player introductions.
Despite the 14-point halftime deficit, the unwavering camaraderie inside the locker room prevailed.
Through the final two quarters, the Bears defense and special teams units took charge — shutting the Titans out and allowing just 65 yards of offense. Tennessee's second-half drive chart went blocked punt, punt, punt, fumble, pick-six, punt, interception.
Despite the Bears offense being unable to get in a rhythm, Byard — who played his first eight NFL seasons in Tennessee — made it clear to Williams that the defense wouldn't back down.
"It was a couple times [Williams] came to the sideline," Byard told reporters Monday, "may have been frustrated with a throw he had or something and [I] said, 'We've got your back. Don't even worry about it.'"
The rookie quarterback was the first to acknowledge the necessary improvements needed from him and the offense, but he didn't want to shy away from the obvious excitement of celebrating a Week 1 victory.
For Williams, seeing the resiliency of the group as well as the willingness of his counterparts to pick him up through the struggles symbolized the core of this team.
"It shows the personality, how much everybody believes in ourselves, the Chicago Bears," Williams said. "Defense believes in the offense, offense believes in the defense, special teams and so forth. [It's] great to get this win, happy to get this win. Celebrating in the locker room, it was pretty cool, first time celebrating in here."
Before the team left Soldier Field Sunday and the 24-hour rule of moving onto the next opponent began, Byard left the group with those powerful words of confidence.
When Byard and the Bears regrouped Monday morning to watch film, receive grades from the coaches and reset for the team's Sunday night matchup in Houston, the veteran felt just as strong about his message for the team.
"I truly meant that and that was really from the heart," Byard said of his locker room speech Monday. "The true culture of a team is only defined when you go through some adversity. Obviously [Sunday] didn't go exactly the way we wanted it to go. I'm pretty sure the offense felt like they wanted to play better. But at the end of the day, when you talk about culture and you talk about a team, we could have easily went into halftime and from probably years past, been like 'OK, here we go again. Boom, boom.' We really stayed together."
