Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears entered the night with multiple opportunities to take home hardware during the 2026 NFL Honors, and they did during the league’s official award ceremony.
Of their three nominations, the Bears took home two awards on the night.
However, none of them were the “big ones.” There was also some pushback on the Bears’ achievements and apparent slight for the NFC North champions and the NFC’s No. 2 seed.
Bears Double Up in Historic Night at NFL Honors
Bears’ Joe Thuney Makes History
In their first win, Bears left guard Joe Thuney won the league’s inaugural Protector of the Year award. Thuney beat out Aaron Brewer (Miami Dolphins), Creed Humphrey (Kansas City Chiefs), Garett Bolles and Quinn Meinerz (Denver Broncos), and Penei Sewell (Miami Dolphins).
The Bears acquired Thuney in a trade with the Chiefs during the 2025 offseason, and the four-time Pro Bowler and three-time First Team All-Pro helped solidify their offensive line.
Thuney addressed the crowd and gave thanks after his win.
The Ringer’s Diante Lee questioned the validity of Thuney’s win, saying it was “cool” for the four-time Super Bowl champion, but that it also “feels like a ‘pick the name we’ve known for the longest’ award.”
Pro Football Focus, which is subjective but offers one of the few metrics to gauge offensive line play, graded Thuney as the fourth-best pass blocker.
He was 102nd in run blocking and finished with the 34th-best overall grade.
Thuney was also one of three offensive linemen to log at least 1,300 blocking snaps during the 2025 season. The other two were teammate and Bears center Drew Dalman and his predecessor, Coleman Shelton, now of the Los Angeles Rams.
Bears Win Moment of the Year
Williams certainly appreciated getting Thuney to help protect his blindside and provide him additional time to make jaw-dropping plays, like his walk-off touchdown to DJ Moore in overtime against the Green Bay Packers in Week 16.
That play won Moment of the Year, with Moore on hand to accept the award.
The Bears were able to revel in that victory, eliminating the Packers from the playoffs in the NFC Wild Card Round.
The rivalry between the two teams is storied and received an injection of new energy last offseason into the campaign. Now, one of the biggest moments in the series has been immortalized.
Ben Johnson Gets Snubbed
The Bears’ ascension in 2025 was keyed by the hiring of Ben Johnson as head coach, and he was a finalist for the Coach of the Year award that ultimately went to Mike Vrabel.
However, more noteworthy was the lack of votes in Johnson’s favor.
Johnson finished fourth in the five-man race, garnering one first-place vote. Liam Coen (Jacksonville Jaguars) and Mike Macdonald (Seattle Seahawks) both beat him, while Kyle Shanahan (San Francisco 49ers) closed out the finalists.
The Jaguars and Patriots both won fewer games in 2024 than the Bears, and won more games than them in 2025, with the Seahawks also in the win column more often this past season.
It is not an insignificant development.
Johnson would need to overcome significant circumstances (i.e., Shanahan) or win the Super Bowl to get another crack, though he and the Bears would surely take that path back to his being a finalist.