The Chicago Bears are prepping to face the Minnesota Vikings in Week 11, but the NFL had some items to address with the franchise, and a pair of players in particular, over their Week 10 win against the New York Giants.
Starting safety Kevin Byard and fill-in starting defensive end Austin Booker both received fines, totaling $29,004.
The league also docked Giants linebacker Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles.
Bears Fines Lead News Roundup Before Vikings Game
Bears’ Kevin Byard & Austin Booker Fined Before Vikings Game
Per the NFL’s Football Operations portal, Byard received a $23,186 fine for “unneccessary roughness” over the “improper use of” his helmet. That is the third-highest penalty of the week, behind Ale Kaho ($46,371) and Javon Kinlaw ($28,555) of the Washington Commanders.
The play came during the third quarter with just over eight minutes to go.
Byard tackled Giants wide receiver Wan’dale Robinson on a pass from quarterback Jaxson Dart on a third-and-8 that New York failed to convert.
The Giants ultimately went for it and converted on fourth down. Dart scrambled for 10 yards and a fresh set of downs before Byard tackled him. Byard and Booker are the fifth and sixth Bears players to receive fines this season.
After three over the first four weeks, the Bears have received three fines over the last two.
They join Cole Kmet and Noah Sewell (Week 1), Roschon Johnson (Week 4), and D’Marco Jackson (Week 9).
Booker’s infraction, also an “unneccessary roughness” call for “improper use of the helmet,” cost him $5,818. It occurred before Byard’s, on a tackle bringing Giants running back Tyrone Tracy down during the fourth quarter.
Neither play drew a flag during the game.
Notably, Bears defensive tackle Andrew Billings also avoided receiving any punishment over apparently grabbing Dart’s facemask.
Giants LB Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles Fined After Bears Game
The league levied a fine against Flannigan-Fowles for a play on Bears starting running back D’Andre Swift. Flannigan-Fowles not only failed to bring Swift down on the play, but he also injured his pec. He took friendly fire from Jevon Holland during the play.
Flannigan-Fowles received a $7,292 fine for the same infraction the NFL dinged Booker and Byard for.
It was a costly game, but one that the Bears are surely happy to have emerged victorious from.
For the Giants, it led to head coach Brian Daboll’s getting fired. He departed in the middle of Dart’s rookie season. It is a situation not dissimilar to what the Bears went through with Caleb Williams last season, when they fired Matt Eberflus after Week 13.
The decision has worked out for the Bears, who are on the right track under first-year head coach Ben Johnson.
Bears Make Expected Decision on Jaylon Johnson
The Bears made waves on Friday, listing two-time Pro Bowl and 2023 Second Team All-Pro cornerback Jaylon Johnson as “questionable” for the Vikings game despite him practicing for the first time since Week 2.
In a move that was apparent from the moment of the announcement, the Bears ruled Johnson out for Week 11.
Johnson remains on injured reserve for at least another week, but most likely longer.
He is working his way back from a groin injury, core muscle surgery, and the effects that it all has had on his body. If the Bears can get him (and, potentially, Kyler Gordon) back before the end of the season, though, they would get a significant boost to a maligned secondary.