The Bears’ offense is slowly turning green.
When general manager Ryan Poles signed tight end Marcedes Lewis on Saturday, he gave the Bears their fourth former Packer on that side of the ball. That group — wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown, backup guard/center Lucas Patrick and tight ends Robert Tonyan and Lewis — have a combined 19 years of experience as cogs for the Bears’ rival. Add offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, who spent seven years in Green Bay, including three as Aaron Rodgers’ quarterbacks coach, and the Bears start to look even more like the team up north.
Consider: The 2023 Bears have four members of the 2018 Packers team on their two-deep roster on offense. The 2023 Packers have only two.
If you can’t beat ’em, have ’em join you.
The Bears’ four former Packers played at various points between 2017 and 2022. During that span, the Packers went 60-37-1, won 13 games three times and outscored opponents by 193 points. The Bears, during the same span, went 42-56, lost 11 or more games three times and were outscored by 116 points.
A McHenry native, Tonyan has been on both sides of the rivalry, starting as a fan. Even when he played for the Packers, he kept a signed Brian Urlacher jersey displayed in his basement.
It’s a “little weird” to have so many former Packers in the building, he admitted.
“But definitely the right guys for sure,” he said. “Those are quality men that are in this building. I’m excited.”
Poles’ desire to add veterans this offseason dovetails with a Packers culture that has valued stability and experience. In praising Lewis on Saturday, Poles said he was “someone the guys can lean on to understand how to be the ultimate pros and win a lot of games in this league.”
That approach is a change from Poles’ first season, when the Bears added young players and jettisoned veterans while spending a league-high $93.3 million for players who were on other rosters.
“A lot of guys didn’t have that [veteran example] last year,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “We were really young. But when you can point to guys who are very successful in this league and have been doing it a long time, and you can see how they operate and how they just go about themselves in the building and whatnot, that’s a really good thing. Guys soak that stuff in. . . . When you bring those guys in, you kind of shut up, listen and see how they do things.”
Learning the Packers’ way couldn’t hurt. The Bears have been drubbed by their rivals in recent years, losing eight straight games, as well as 13 of 14, 17 of 19 and 23 of 26.
Lewis said Halas Hall feels different than the Packers’ locker room at Lambeau Field, but he argues the energy is the same. He compared the feeling to that from an internship he did with Google five years ago. Everyone had a voice, he said; the company would host powwows with an open mic in which employees could make suggestions and share concerns.
“When I walk into the building, that’s what I feel that’s here,” he said. “And it just feels good. It feels right. It feels in alignment.”
The availability of Lewis and Tonyan coincides with the Packers’ new developments. Lewis played five seasons with the team from ages 34-38 in part because Rodgers adored him as a blocker. He joined the Bears in March, about a week after Rodgers requested a trade that eventually landed him with the Jets. Two Rodgers favorites also joined the Jets: receivers Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb.
“Green Bay has certainly won a lot of games, and they’ve always had older vet guys that can teach younger guys,” said St. Brown, who had a locker next to Lewis his entire time in Green Bay. “It’s good to have older guys to teach the younger guys, and they pass it down. It’s a cycle. Once you get a good culture going, you pass it down, pass it down.”
Tonyan said he was lucky to have veteran tight end Lance Kendricks and future Hall of Famer Jimmy Graham show him the way as a rookie. Now it’s his turn to pass it down — even if the lessons came from Lambeau.
“They are not Packers now, so it doesn’t even matter,” said a smiling Kmet, a lifelong Bears fan. “They came to the good side.”
