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‘The canaries in the coal mine’: Why teams like Man United invest in player care
Each day, Manchester United‘s players drive down Birch Road, occasionally stopping for the horses from the Carrington Riding Centre or a cyclist, and turn into the club’s training ground. When the autograph seekers are satisfied and the entry barriers are lifted, they turn in front of the red neon “Manchester United” sign and head toward the first team parking lot behind the main building.
With their sports cars and luxury SUVs locked and their travel bags under their arms, they walk inside.
Once in the area known as the “players’ corridor,” an office behind glass panels is immediately on the left side, with a large desk in the middle and chairs on either side. On the back wall is a large flat-screen TV, and there are telephones and laptops in the room. The door is always open.
But it’s not an office for manager Ruben Amorim, CEO Omar Berrada or director of football Jason Wilcox. Instead, this room is reserved for the player care team. It’s the department that works to ensure each squad member has everything they need off the pitch so they can perform on it.
Player care departments aren’t unique to United. Across the Premier League, clubs are investing more to make sure their players have everything they need to perform at their optimum level. At United’s training ground, these services are front and centre for a reason.
The goal? Players leaving their problems at the door, feeling better and heading into training with a clear mind, ready to focus on football.
What is player care?
If the manager’s job is to oversee what happens at the training ground, it’s the responsibility of the player care department to look after the rest. Anything and everything a player might encounter can land on their desk, most of it not football-related.
“It’s based around the person rather than the player,” player care expert Hugo Scheckter told ESPN. “A very vague way of putting it is that it’s everything that affects a player that’s not football or medical. For three or four hours a day, players are at the training ground. Everything outside of that can be covered by player care.
“It could be personal-developmental stuff, giving them the life skills to improve themselves, welfare stuff like signposting to mental health provisions, or operational things like relocations and problem-solving. We’re trying to be that resource where they can remove the stress away from life to focus on football.”
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Scheckter has worked for Premier League clubs, including West Ham and Brentford, and in 2020, he set up the Player Care Group. He has years of experience helping players find houses, pick schools for their children, tax cars and sort match tickets.
Other times, it means dealing with emergencies such as a car accident or home break-in. Occasionally, the problem is more unusual.
“I had one player who asked me to hunt a bird that was scaring his girlfriend. He wanted it shot, and I had to say, ‘We don’t do that in England,'” Scheckter said.
“My solution was to get an ultrasonic bird that basically scared it away, but his first thought was can we [kill it]? Ultimately, they wanted a problem solved, and I can understand that. The bird was tapping on the window all the time, and his girlfriend was scared of birds. So we got a little £10 thing on Amazon to scare it away.
“It can seem a small thing, but then on the other hand, if he’s awake all night or always getting complaints from his girlfriend, it can affect performance. It sounds silly, but it can be quite important as well.”
‘The canaries in the coal mine’
In the search for marginal gains and a competitive edge, clubs are increasingly taking player care more seriously. Foster and Partners, the London-based architectural firm responsible for the £50m revamp of Manchester United’s Carrington training ground, purposely put the player care office toward the front of the players’ entrance to the building.
It’s a similar story at clubs all over the world.
“The player care team are like the canaries in the coal mine,” one high-level source at a Premier League club told ESPN. “Often, they’re the ones who can spot the first sign of trouble.
“Coaches and medical staff will know everything about a player’s performance, but the player care or player support team know far more about their non-football lives than a manager or coach. And the two things are intertwined. One impacts the other.”
Scheckter adds: “I think it used to be a very reactive service where a player would bring a problem in, and they would try and solve it. Now, I think you’re seeing more and more clubs who are trying to get ahead of those problems, so they don’t even appear at all. Or if they do, that they’re well-managed, and there’s a process in place.”
Investment in player care varies from club to club. Player care teams can range from one or two employees to five or more. Most Premier League clubs have separate departments for their men’s, women’s and academy sides.
Most of the time, however, the department’s effectiveness depends on how seriously it’s taken by the first-team manager and his staff. Some coaches can be quite dismissive of anything that goes on outside the training ground, but others are keen to take a more holistic approach.
“A lot of time, it’s club culture-dependent,” Scheckter said. “I’ve had managers who are not negative towards it, but kind of apathetic. It depends from manager to manager. With some, you just stay out of the way, and with others, you’re really involved at the top table in management meetings every day. That’s really exciting as well.”
There are clear benefits to including the player care team in performance meetings that include other key heads of department.
“You’ve got the nutritionist there, you’ve got the fitness coaches there, you’ve got the coaching staff there, the manager there. And the conversation can be about a player who has lost three kilos in the last month,” Scheckter said.
“I can be like, ‘Oh well, that’s because his girlfriend is away and he doesn’t cook.’ So next time his girlfriend goes away, we need to make sure he’s getting food delivered or we get a chef in, or whatever it is. The nutritionist in isolation might be thinking he’s unwell or he’s skipping meals. It’s good to have that joined-up approach.
“I’ve gone to managers before and said privately, ‘Look, his mother died a year ago on this day, just so you are aware,’ and they’ll go, ‘OK, thank you. That’s why he was off today in training.'”
With football becoming an increasingly global game, there’s pressure on player care teams to help players new to the country settle quickly. It’s not unusual for departments to be in touch with counterparts at rival clubs, especially if they have players of the same nationality.
“If we’ve got a player from Brazil, we might get in touch with another club local to us if they also have a Brazilian player,” one Premier League source said. “It’s in our interest to do that, share intelligence, and help build a wider network for a player’s family to help them feel settled.”
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In many circumstances, the role of the player care team extends beyond the players.
“The partners, especially at the Premier League level, none of them tend to work or very few of them tend to work, and so you have a situation where they’ve just sat around and so trying to provide a purpose for them and a direction for them is really important,” Scheckter said.
“We see it more and more where the player is really happy, but the partner or the family aren’t, and so we’re seeing clubs invest more and more into family programs.
“It can be hard moving to a new country. We’re definitely seeing that as a bigger issue, where players are happy, partners are not, and then that’s leading to a player either wanting to leave or talking about potentially having to leave, which is a disaster for clubs.”
Whether it’s to take on the role of wellness professional or concierge, the job of the player care team is to keep players happy. But that doesn’t mean clubs want to pamper their stars.
“There’s a balance,” one source told ESPN. “We don’t want players who are detached from everyday life. But we also don’t want players worrying about renewing a passport or a dispute with a landlord because that takes up mental space.
“There’s a growing understanding throughout sport that mental well-being is important to performance. We want to take away the burden of the stresses associated with everyday life as much as we can so players can focus on training and matches.”
‘Make sure the athletes are the best they can be’
More often than not, the player care team members work in the background. On other occasions, they’re thrust into the spotlight.
After West Ham failed to win for more than two months, new manager Nuno Espirito Santo revealed that the club’s player care department sourced baby pictures of the players to decorate the dressing room to serve as motivation ahead of Newcastle’s visit to the London Stadium. It worked, and West Ham won 3-1.
“It was a surprise for everybody,” Nuno said afterward. “The player care [team] really do things really nice. They did it in a really nice way, the player care. The players didn’t know.
“It’s nice to see when we are young and had dreams. For us, it is important to go back to that feeling of being young and happy and try to enjoy things.”
Scheckter tells a story about a player he encountered at the start of his career in player care who appeared to be fine on the surface but left at the end of the season because his partner hadn’t settled.
There also have been small wins that can make all the difference.
“There was a player who was consistently late for team meetings and he was an African player, and he got dropped from a game,” Scheckter said. “The manager was basically like, ‘He’s just not professional, he’s not focused.’ So, I went and spoke to him, and he was very upset about it.
“I said to him, ‘Why are you late? He said, ‘Well, where I’m from … we don’t have reliable transport, we don’t have reliable timekeeping devices, and meeting time in my culture and my life has always been a suggestion.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, OK, I appreciate that, but in the UK or in England, if you’re not five minutes early, you’re late.
“And so I said, ‘OK, let’s work with you.’ I would go and knock on his door or go get him before everything he had to be at for a couple of weeks, and after those couple of weeks, then he kind of got it and was on time. It’s about working proactively to solve problems and make sure the athletes are the best they can be.”
In the end, the goal is always the same, whether the issue is timekeeping, staying on top of the pressures of the game, or dealing with a bird that won’t stop tapping on a window.
Raphinha scored twice as Barcelona beat Real Madrid 3-2 in an enthralling Clásico on Sunday to retain the Supercopa de España in Saudi Arabia.
The Brazilian struck the winner in the 73rd minute as Barça celebrated a third successive final victory over Madrid under Hansi Flick, following last season’s Supercopa and Copa del Rey successes.
Heading into the final 20 minutes, the tie had been delicately poised following a wild first half, which yielded three stoppage-time goals after Raphinha’s opener in the 36th minute.
First, Vinícius Júnior leveled, then Robert Lewandowski nudged Barça back ahead and there was still time for Gonzalo García to restore parity before halftime.
Madrid brought on Kylian Mbappé, back from a knee injury, in the second half, but it was Raphinha who proved the hero as Madrid’s Álvaro Carreras and Raúl Asencio spurned great late chances to take the game to a penalty shootout after Frenkie de Jong had been sent off. — Sam Marsden
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Barça win first trophy of the season, avenges October’s Clásico loss
Barça can now look back on the LaLiga defeat to Madrid in October as a blip. After winning all four Clásicos last year, there was the slight suggestion earlier this season that the tide could be turning after Xabi Alonso’s side earned a 2-1 victory at the Santiago Bernabéu.
For that reason, Barça’s players were desperate to reassert their dominance over their biggest rivals and they will feel they did that in Jeddah on Sunday.
For large parts of the game, they completely controlled proceedings, accumulating almost 70% of the possession by full time. They deserved their lead when Raphinha netted, with Madrid’s two equalizers feeling like sucker punches.
That’s not to say Madrid didn’t also create chances on the counter. Both teams ended with eight shots on target, but the xG totals paint a better picture of who created the best openings, with Barça’s 2.6 considerably more than Madrid’s 1.38.
That is now four trophies Barça have won under Flick. The German coach spoke this past week about the Supercopa last season, providing the platform for them to go on and win LaLiga and the Copa del Rey. With a four-point lead at the top of the league, more silverware looks likely, although it’s the UEFA Champions League that this set of players is so desperate to get their hands on. — Marsden
Vini Jr steps up, ends 16-game goalless streak
With Mbappé fit enough for only a place on the substitute’s bench — eventually being introduced in the 76th minute — there was more pressure than ever on another of Madrid’s star names to deliver: Vinícius Júnior.
But Vinícius hadn’t scored in 16 games, an unprecedented dry spell. It’s not just that he hadn’t been scoring; his lack of impact has seen him whistled by the Bernabéu crowd. His performance in the semifinal in Jeddah was notable only for his touchline war of words with Atlético Madrid coach Diego Simeone.
But when Vinícius picked up the ball late in the first half, in the second minute of added time, none of that mattered. Wide on the left, one-on-one with Jules Koundé, this was suddenly Vinícius at his absolute, unplayable best: teasing Koundé with the ball before smoothly nutmegging the right back, dancing into the box and finishing low past Joan García. His celebration, racing across to kick the corner flag, was an explosive release of emotion.
Vinícius badly needed this goal, and so did Real Madrid. As the second half began, he looked like a different player than the one we’ve seen in recent weeks, freed of so much tension and baggage. Twice, he went close to scoring again, Koundé unable to cope. Only late in the second half, perhaps tiring, the Brazil international was less of a threat, and he was replaced by Arda Güler in the closing minutes.
Vinícius’ goal didn’t end up mattering. Madrid lost the game. But if there’s one positive they can take home from this final, and this tournament, it’s that one of the world’s best players — on his day — has refound the form that made him a Ballon d’Or contender. Now we wait to see if it was just a mirage or something more concrete. — Alex Kirkland
Madrid’s safety-first setup almost works
Madrid started this game with what looked like a deeply conservative, defensively minded system. Often, when Barcelona had the ball and were pushing forward, Madrid were dropping into a deep block with a back five, as Federico Valverde dropped into right back, and Aurélien Tchouaméni joined Dean Huijsen and Raúl Asencio in the middle, with Carreras on the left.
Logically, Barça dominated. In the first half, they had 76% possession to Madrid’s 24%. There were legitimate reasons for Madrid’s approach: They were without key defenders such as Éder Militão and Antonio Rüdiger, and with the team having struggled to really convince for months now, they could be forgiven for taking the risk-averse, cautious approach.
Madrid suffered some heavy defeats to Barça last season, including a 5-2 loss in the Supercopa final. They could not afford a similar scoreline this time, especially given the precarious situation coach Alonso finds himself in, where a humiliation in this final might have cost him his job.
And in that sense, the night was a success: Madrid avoided that kind of defeat. There were five goals, but divided between the teams in a way that allowed them to emerge with some credit. They competed, they fought, and they lost by a single goal.
But it wasn’t the “rock ‘n’ roll” style we were promised from an Alonso team, and it wasn’t an approach Madrid can expect to replicate frequently without facing criticism for a playing style unbefitting a big team.
On Sunday night, it worked to a point. Madrid were in with a chance right until the very end, when they spurned two great opportunities to equalize in added time. But it isn’t a template for the future. — Kirkland
Raphinha continues his scoring streak
Raphinha absolutely thrives against Madrid. With the benefit of hindsight, it is perhaps no coincidence that Barça lost their first Clásico under Flick in October when the former Leeds United forward was sidelined with an injury.
Madrid had no such luck here. Raphinha returned at the end of November and has been slowly regaining his top form since. He sent a warning to Madrid with two goals in the semifinal win against Athletic Club and should have opened the scoring in the first half in Jeddah, shooting wide after receiving a fine pass from Lamine Yamal.
Given his tireless running, it didn’t take long for his next chance to arrive, and he took it brilliantly to open the scoring in the latter stages of the first half. The winner was slightly more fortuitous, taking a deflection to deceive Thibaut Courtois, but if anyone had earned it, it was Raphinha.
His recent record against Madrid is phenomenal. That is now seven goals and three assists in his past six appearances against them. Three of those matches have been finals: two now in the Supercopa and one in the Copa del Rey.
Meanwhile, he has 11 goals in 19 games this season. If this latest trophy is to prove a springboard for more Barça success this season, you would imagine they will need to keep Raphinha fit. It’s not just goals and assists he contributes, but the energy and intensity he supplies in heaps in defense and attack. — Marsden
Barca’s defensive and clean sheet mirage ends
Barcelona’s run of five straight clean sheets in all competitions, their longest such streak since 2020, always felt a little deceptive and so it proved against Madrid.
Vinícius deserves credit for his brilliant equalizer, but that is unlikely to alter how the first-team analysts dissect the defending beforehand. Questions need to be asked about Kounde’s role in the goal, as the Brazilian player skipped past him. The Frenchman has been below par throughout this season, although he could also have benefited from some help from Pau Cubarsí this time. The young center back was a spectator as Vinícius came on to his right foot.
The defending for the second goal was arguably worse. Cubarsí again didn’t deal with a corner well, while Pedri, who had just supplied a fine assist for the Lewandowski goal, was also too loose on García. Barça complained about stoppage time overrunning, but they would have done well to take some advice from Roy Keane and, rather than worrying about that, do their jobs.
So, there is still work for Flick to do at the back. Whether the arrival of the attacking full back João Cancelo will help remains to be seen, but for the neutral, it means much more fun, such as in the recent run of Clásicos and last season’s Champions League semifinal loss to Internazionale, should always be just around the corner. — Marsden
What does it all mean for Xabi Alonso?
So, where does this leave Real Madrid’s coach?
Alonso has faced several match points now, and he’s saved them all. Before Christmas, when the pressure on him was near-unbearable following losses to Celta Vigo and Manchester City, Madrid won three games in a week to ensure Alonso stayed in the job over the Christmas break. On their return to action in 2026, Madrid beat Real Betis 5-1 before a narrow, 2-1 win over Atlético Madrid in Thursday’s Supercopa semifinal. And now this: a 3-2 final defeat to a good team.
In a way, it all leaves Alonso back where he started. The doubts about him among senior figures at the club remain, because nothing that’s happened since has been significant enough to shift them. But there also hasn’t been anything bad enough to force a change. Madrid have been winning, without playing especially well — or here, they lost, while doing OK.
It means that barring something unexpected — always a possibility at Real Madrid — the most likely scenario is that Alonso stays in his job, and stays under pressure. For that to change, Madrid need to not just win games, but do so playing with a persuasive shape and style that feels like the team’s future, rather than a reaction to circumstances.
“We have to move on as soon as possible,” Alonso said afterward. “It’s the least important of the competitions we play. We have to look forward.” — Kirkland
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ESPN star Dick Vitale wasn’t pleased with Ben Johnson on Sunday after the Chicago Bears coach’s explicit reaction to a playoff win over the Green Bay Packers went viral.
The cameras were on and the mic was hot when Johnson rallied his team in the locker room following a 31-27 comeback victory. He was heard saying, “F— the Packers! F— them! F—ing hate those guys.”
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Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson stands on the sidelines against the Green Bay Packers during the second half of an NFC Wild Card Round game at Soldier Field on Jan. 10, 2026. (David Banks/Imagn Images)
Vitale, the legendary college basketball commentator, appeared to be appalled.
“Total CLASSLESS attitude in winning by BEN JOHNSON coach of the @ChicagoBears in the fab comeback to beat the @packers. Main theme should have been the gutty comeback not the childish F__ Packers comments,” Vitale wrote on X.
The rivalry between the Bears and Packers is certainly revved up. Johnson threw gasoline on the fire when he first joined the Bears. He was asked at the time why he chose Chicago. He said he “kinda enjoyed beating Matt LaFleur twice a year.”
Dick Vitale is on hand at Coleman Coliseum for the college basketball game between Alabama and Kentucky on Feb. 22, 2025. (Gary Cosby Jr./Tuscaloosa News)
49ERS’ GEORGE KITTLE CARTED OFF FIELD WITH ACHILLES INJURY DURING WILD CARD ROUND VS EAGLES
The message sparked a few icy handshakes during the season, including one after the playoff game. Chicago went 1-1 against Green Bay in the regular season and defeated them when it counted the most.
The first-year head coach praised his players for their gritty performance, coming off two losses and going into halftime down 21-3. Johnson said his team was “built for pressure.”
Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson stands on the sidelines against the Green Bay Packers during the first half of an NFC Wild Card Round game at Soldier Field on Jan. 10, 2026. (David Banks/Imagn Images)
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The Bears will face the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Divisional Round.
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The wild-card round of the 2025 NFL playoffs is heading toward completion, and the divisional-round matchups are taking shape. The NFC pairings are set, with the San Francisco 49ers set to play the Seattle Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams heading to play the Chicago Bears.
To look ahead at these games, we asked our NFL Nation reporters to pick out one thing we learned about the teams they cover during the wild-card round. (For the Seahawks, who didn’t play this week, Brady Henderson provided some info from what they did during the bye week.) Seth Walder also explored how each team can win to advance to the conference championship games, and we also provided projections from ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI) and opening lines.
Let’s start with the 49ers against the Seahawks.
Jump to a matchup:
SF-SEA | LAR-CHI
NFC
When: TBD Saturday or Sunday
FPI projection: SEA, 61.3%
What we learned about the 49ers in the wild-card round: Common sense would suggest that a team playing without so many of its biggest stars — edge rusher Nick Bosa, linebacker Fred Warner and, as of Sunday, tight end George Kittle — would eventually run out of the magic that’s defined their unlikely postseason run. Sunday was not that day. Despite another devastating injury to a team leader, these Niners continue to defy conventional wisdom and carve a path few could have foreseen before the season. Sunday’s lesson was a familiar one — as long as these Niners get to keep playing, it’s unwise to count them out. — Nick Wagoner
What the Seahawks did during their bye week: It was hardly an off week for the Seahawks. They practiced outside in the elements on Wednesday and Thursday — in a light rain Wednesday and with temperatures in the low 40s and the wind blowing both days — as Mike Macdonald tried to get his team accustomed to playing in the kind of weather the Seahawks might get in the playoffs. “We’re not treating it like a regular-season bye week where guys are flying to Mexico and Hawaii and enjoying their time,” Pro Bowl defensive lineman Leonard Williams said. “I think we really celebrated that win against the Niners, but immediately that next day you could tell guys were like, ‘Hey, the job is not done. We’ve got a lot of work to do.'” — Brady Henderson
Why the 49ers will win: Because Sam Darnold is not the same player he was at the beginning of the season. Ten weeks into the season, the Seahawks’ quarterback led the NFL in QBR (77.8). But in Week 11, the Seahawks lost to the Rams and from that moment forward, Darnold ranked 27th (36.9) in the same metric! The 49ers will not fall into the trap other teams have against Seattle: matching the Seahawks’ big personnel with base defensive personnel. San Francisco is a nickel-heavy team, which will either invite Seattle to run or force Darnold into less favorable passing situations. And for all that went wrong in the 49ers’ season-finale loss in Week 18, they still held the Seahawks to just 13 points.
Giving Kyle Shanahan two weeks to study film after that loss might be enough for him to find some new ways to beat that seemingly-impenetrable Mike Macdonald defense. And the 49ers have a good passing game; they’ve averaged 0.17 EPA per dropback, which ranked sixth best among all teams and fifth best among those that made the playoffs. With All-Pro offensive tackle Trent Williams expected to play (he missed the Week 18 matchup), the 49ers definitely have a chance here.
Why the Seahawks will win: They proved it Week 18 in the battle for the No. 1 seed. Seattle shut down the 49ers offense with their ferocious defense, holding San Francisco to only three points. It was hardly an aberration: Seattle has the best defense in football and the stats are undeniable. No. 1 in EPA allowed per play. No. 1 in opponent’s success rate. And one of my favorites: Minus-30 first downs over expectation allowed on opponent runs according to NFL Next Gen Stats, doubling up the next-best team in the regular season (the Houston Texans at minus-15).
But there’s another reason for Seahawks optimism. While their passing game has not been the same in the second half of the season, they can offset that with a more reliable rushing attack against a 49ers’ defense that is hurting at linebacker. Both Fred Warner and Tatum Bethune are out, and Dee Winters missed San Francisco’s wild card game, too. — Walder
Matchup background: These teams met two weeks ago in the regular-season finale at Levi’s Stadium, with the Seahawks beating the 49ers 13-3 to clinch the NFC West and homefield advantage throughout the NFC playoffs. The 49ers defeated Seattle 17-13 in the season opener at Lumen Field, with San Francisco forcing a late turnover to hold on. These franchises have split two previous playoff matchups, with Seattle winning the 2013 NFC Championship Game and the 49ers knocking out the Seahawks in the 2022 wild-card round. — ESPN
Stat to know: Darnold led the NFL with 20 turnovers this season (14 interceptions, six fumbles lost). This is the first time dating to 1978 that a player on a No. 1-seeded team has led the league in turnovers. — ESPN Research
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Purdy finds McCaffrey for TD to put 49ers ahead late
Brock Purdy throws a touchdown pass to Christian McCaffrey to give the 49ers the lead late in the fourth quarter vs. the Eagles.
When: TBD Saturday or Sunday
FPI projection: LAR, 61.2%
What we learned about the Rams in the wild-card round: The world once again saw why the Rams feel so confident in those got-to-have-it situations due to having Matthew Stafford at quarterback. Stafford led the Rams on two go-ahead touchdown drives in the fourth quarter against the Panthers, including one with 38 seconds left. “That’s why we’re advancing, because of his leadership,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said. Stafford now has four career game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or overtime of a playoff game. According to ESPN Research, the only quarterback with more since Stafford joined the Rams in 2021 is Patrick Mahomes (6). — Sarah Barshop
What we learned about the Bears in the wild-card round: The Bears continue to be one of the best second-half teams in the NFL. After trailing Green Bay 21-3 at halftime, Chicago scored 25 points in the fourth quarter to come from behind and beat the Packers. But as they’ve been saying all season, the Bears need to start faster on both sides of the ball. Chicago’s defense pressured Packers QB Jordan Love on only 18% of his dropbacks in the first half (versus 32% in the second half, including four times on the Packers’ last drive). Caleb Williams and the offense struggled until the Bears quarterback turned his deep-ball passing around in the second half, when he was 7-of-13 for 166 yards and a touchdown on passes of 15 or more air yards. In the first half, Williams was 2-for-5 for 40 yards and interception on such throws. — Courtney Cronin
Why the Rams will win: The Rams are arguably the best team in football — and the Bears are not. Don’t get me wrong, Chicago deserves plenty of credit for its remarkable season, but the numbers clearly favor Los Angeles. This is the team ranked second in EPA per play on offense, has the MVP favorite at quarterback, the best wide receiver in football and a solid offensive line that will give Stafford all day to throw against the Bears’ lacking pass rush.
The Bears have a strong running game, and we’ve certainly seen Williams have incredible moments. But in terms of EPA per play, the Rams have the advantage on both sides of the ball. Plus, we could argue that we didn’t see the true version of the Rams in the wild-card round after Stafford suffered an early finger injury (but still managed to orchestrate a comeback, anyway). And if wide receiver Puka Nacua had not had an incredibly uncharacteristic drop on what surely would have been a touchdown at the end of the first half, the Rams might have beaten the Panthers more comfortably.
And while the Rams’ defense is not perfect, each of the major players on defensive line — Jared Verse, Kobie Turner, Braden Fiske and Poona Ford — can create mayhem for their opponents.
1:04
Recapping the Bears’ comeback win over Packers
Kimberely A. Martin recaps the performance of Caleb Williams and the Bears against the Packers.
Why the Bears will win: They can never be ruled out. Chicago added to its season of improbable victories with an incredible come-from-behind win over the Packers in which the Bears entered the fourth quarter down 15 points and exited it up four. In between, we witnessed the Bears at their absolute best. Williams made the throw of a lifetime on fourth-and-8 to keep their hopes alive and coach Ben Johnson used an imbalanced line to sell the screen of a screen-and-go, fooling the Packers’ secondary and freeing DJ Moore for a touchdown.
But what makes Chicago so threatening is that it won despite not even being the best version of itself. In the regular season, the Bears averaged a 48% success rate on designed runs (third best), but that number dropped to 28% against Green Bay. And even in victory, Williams had a 28% off-target rate and a minus-14% completion percentage over expectation (per NFL Next Gen Stats) — both solidly worse than his regular-season marks. They’ll be home underdogs against the Rams and Los Angeles’ offense should have a serious advantage over the Bears’ defense. But the Bears can generate turnovers, forcing a league-high 33 in the regular season. They’ll need more of that turnover variance to go their way against the Rams, but it’s doable. — Walder
Matchup background: The Rams and Bears did not play this season, with their most recent matchup coming in Week 4 of the 2024 season. Chicago prevailed 24-18 at Soldier Field, breaking a three-game losing streak to Los Angeles. This is only the third postseason matchup between these franchises and the first in 40 years. The Bears defeated the Rams 24-0 in the 1985 NFC Championship Game en route to the Super Bowl XX title, which is Chicago’s most recent NFL championship. — ESPN
Stat to know: After being sacked two or more times in 15 games last season, Williams has been sacked one or zero times in 11 games in 2025 (including Saturday’s playoff victory). The Rams had 47 sacks in the regular season and added two more in their wild-card win over Carolina. — ESPN Research
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