Tyler Dunne's piece on Caleb Williams is DAMNING

[GunnerBill]

10 hours ago, FireChans said:

Ty Dunne picks the angle, then finds the sources and writes the article to find the conclusion he planned to find all along.

 

Calling the predraft process where they eventually selected the clear cut #1 QB prospect all year at 1.1 “rigged” tells you all you need to know.

 

It was totally “rigged” when the Jags took Trevor Lawrence too, I bet.

 

This is absolutely what Ty does. He can write and I don't think he makes ***** up. But he decides the narrative first and then finds the sources that fit the narrative. There is no attempt to find balance. It is why the blogging game is much more his bag now than proper traditional journalism. As someone who has done that job - written articles and subbed articles - you wouldn't get these pieces published in say The Athletic. He has found his niche and I hope for his sake he is making some money from it. 

[BillsVet]

6 hours ago, Thrivefourfive said:

 

Nah, you're listening to your mom yelling to you in the basement that the meatloaf is ready.  

[tigerthelion]

12 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

This is absolutely what Ty does. He can write and I don't think he makes ***** up. But he decides the narrative first and then finds the sources that fit the narrative. There is no attempt to find balance. It is why the blogging game is much more his bag now than proper traditional journalism. As someone who has done that job - written articles and subbed articles - you wouldn't get these pieces published in say The Athletic. He has found his niche and I hope for his sake he is making some money from it. 

And that makes him different from the other writers, how exactly? Real journalism died a while ago.

 

[GunnerBill]

Just now, tigerthelion said:

And that makes him different from the other writers, how exactly? Real journalism died a while ago.

 

 

I disagree. There is still a lot of good journalism out there. And I say that as someone who got disillusioned with the profession and quit a long time ago. I think the coverage at The Athletic in particular is excellent. 

 

Real journalism requires some sort of third party editorial supervision and standard. What Ty is doing isn't worthless, but it isn't what I personally class as proper journalism. And the nature of the model he is running with his blog is that it requires the sensationalism to get eyes and, ultimately, buys. 

 

Do I think there is truth to Caleb Williams being an over-sensitive man child who wasn't a great teammate or student in 2024? Absolutely. Do I believe this piece is a fully rounded exploration of how last year went down for the Bears and their QB? No. 

[4merper4mer]

21 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

This is absolutely what Ty does. He can write and I don't think he makes ***** up. But he decides the narrative first and then finds the sources that fit the narrative. There is no attempt to find balance. It is why the blogging game is much more his bag now than proper traditional journalism. As someone who has done that job - written articles and subbed articles - you wouldn't get these pieces published in say The Athletic. He has found his niche and I hope for his sake he is making some money from it. 

Writer’s version of ambulance chasing.

[Beck Water]

12 hours ago, uticaclub said:

Nothing Dunne said was incorrect

 

Which you know because?

[Buffalo716]

1 minute ago, Beck Water said:

 

Which you know because?

He's Tyler dunne? 🤣

[Beck Water]

11 hours ago, estro613 said:

 

Fast forward to about 20 minutes mark to hear Tyler on Caleb and the Bears 

 

Caleb is an absolute disaster. I already was super low on Caleb, but after hearing some of this stuff......wow.

 

 

 

Bleacher Nation has an article on the Ty Dunne article

https://www.bleachernation.com/bears/2025/09/05/tyler-dunne-caleb-williams/

 

Quote

What to make of the Ty Dunne piece on Caleb Williams, Ryan Poles, and the Bears

In fact, this basically reads like a hit piece … which is not something I’d toss out lightly given the subject matter.  Most of the quotes and stories come off as if they are from the perspective of someone with an axe to grind. And who has more of an axe to grind than staffers who were moved out after the failures of the 2024 Bears season? And that’s to say nothing about why it’s only coming out now, a few days before the Bears’ season is set to begin.

With that being said, this is clearly something that has the attention of the Bears fan base. So it’s not as if I could just dismiss it out of hand. And, indeed, there probably ARE fair questions to be asked about GM Ryan Poles’ process ahead of the 2024 NFL Draft. This just isn’t it.

And perhaps more to the point, based on what has been reported about Caleb Williams’ work habits and the previous staff’s shortcomings when it came to working with him, I struggle to put any validation on the “Caleb doesn’t work hard” narrative that this piece attempts to illustrate so vibrantly.

 

Where have we seen something that "reads like a hit piece" before?

The author of the BN piece suggests this as alternative viewpoint:

https://www.bleachernation.com/bears/2025/09/05/caleb-williams-post-0905/

 

 

48 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

This is absolutely what Ty does. He can write and I don't think he makes ***** up. But he decides the narrative first and then finds the sources that fit the narrative. There is no attempt to find balance. It is why the blogging game is much more his bag now than proper traditional journalism. As someone who has done that job - written articles and subbed articles - you wouldn't get these pieces published in say The Athletic. He has found his niche and I hope for his sake he is making some money from it. 

 

You're spot on with the first part.   But I think you have cause and effect mixed up.  When Ty Dunne was let go from Bleacher Report, he decided he wanted to try to make a living at writing long articles modern journalism doesn't have much time for.  But it turns out, writing long, balanced and fair articles doesn't attract a lot of readership.  Dunne discovered if he can slant his articles with a controversial take, well, that brings him more subscriptions and more money. 

 

So he abandoned traditional journalism for muckracking.  Apparently, it works.

[ChronicAndKnuckles]

I can’t believe I even entertained this. Grown ass men gossiping like teenage girls. 

[Coach Tuesday]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

 

This is absolutely what Ty does. He can write and I don't think he makes ***** up. But he decides the narrative first and then finds the sources that fit the narrative. There is no attempt to find balance. It is why the blogging game is much more his bag now than proper traditional journalism. As someone who has done that job - written articles and subbed articles - you wouldn't get these pieces published in say The Athletic. He has found his niche and I hope for his sake he is making some money from it. 

Well this one might make or break him.  He’s really putting sh— out there in this piece.  He’s basically calling the entire Bears front office a clown show, this is going to be put on blast I would think (again, very curious about the late summer Friday release) and if he got material parts of it wrong he’s going to get roasted and possibly even canceled.  This is a bigger story than McD having a tight sphincter - Poles just basically gave himself an extension, they spent a ton of money on a mercurial QB whisperer coach but then also paid their young untested backup QB a surprisingly large amount in a new contract before the season.  Chicago is a potential powder keg and Dunne may have just lit the match - we will quickly find out if the flames engulf him instead.

 

EDIT: I guess the timing is bc Tyler is hoping it gets absorbed all day today in time to be the hot pregame topic on opening day Sunday.  Which I agree is diabolical.  But I mean he appears to be relying on a whole army of sources - if he’s full of it, he’ll get absolutely skewered to the point of being dunzo.

Edited September 7 by Coach Tuesday

[Coach Tuesday]

48 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I disagree. There is still a lot of good journalism out there. And I say that as someone who got disillusioned with the profession and quit a long time ago. I think the coverage at The Athletic in particular is excellent. 

 

Real journalism requires some sort of third party editorial supervision and standard. What Ty is doing isn't worthless, but it isn't what I personally class as proper journalism. And the nature of the model he is running with his blog is that it requires the sensationalism to get eyes and, ultimately, buys. 

 

Do I think there is truth to Caleb Williams being an over-sensitive man child who wasn't a great teammate or student in 2024? Absolutely. Do I believe this piece is a fully rounded exploration of how last year went down for the Bears and their QB? No. 

“For this three-part series, Go Long chatted with 32 sources. Coaches, scouts, execs, players and staffers inside Halas Hall guide readers through the sludge. Many have landed new jobs. To share their experiences without fear of retribution they’re granted a condition of anonymity.”

[Beck Water]

14 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

“For this three-part series, Go Long chatted with 32 sources. Coaches, scouts, execs, players and staffers inside Halas Hall guide readers through the sludge. Many have landed new jobs. To share their experiences without fear of retribution they’re granted a condition of anonymity.”

 

I mean, he did that with his hit piece on McDermott as well: said he interviewed a huge number of current and former Bills players and coaches.  What that statement hides, is how many of those sources he actually drew from for the major themes of the piece.  I can talk to 32 people, but if I only use information from 3 or 4 of them for the major themes and points of my piece, why bother?

[Coach Tuesday]

1 minute ago, Beck Water said:

 

I mean, he did that with his hit piece on McDermott as well: said he interviewed a huge number of current and former Bills players and coaches.  What that statement hides, is how many of those sources he actually drew from for the major themes of the piece.  I can talk to 32 people, but if I only use information from 3 or 4 of them for the major themes and points of my piece, why bother?

True.  And it also hides whether he heard opposing perspectives that some of the 32 sources told him - if so that’s poor journalism, you’d think he’d at least PRESENT the other side (which he even kind of did with McD).  But this thing reads like a consensus opinion.  Again, he’s really putting himself out there I would think.  If he’s over his skis his goose could be cooked forever.  But then again maybe we’re just so post-norms no one will hold it against him.  That would be sad.

[FireChans]

2 hours ago, Coach Tuesday said:

True.  And it also hides whether he heard opposing perspectives that some of the 32 sources told him - if so that’s poor journalism, you’d think he’d at least PRESENT the other side (which he even kind of did with McD).  But this thing reads like a consensus opinion.  Again, he’s really putting himself out there I would think.  If he’s over his skis his goose could be cooked forever.  But then again maybe we’re just so post-norms no one will hold it against him.  That would be sad.

I don’t know why you’d think he’d be done.

 

He is in a no-lose scenario. He gets to write a nice editorial narrative sandwiched in between probably true quotes, and if he’s “wrong,” he can fall back on “just reporting what my sources told me.”

 

he gets to live in an island where he can pretend to be just following journalistic standards if he’s wrong, and look very smart if he’s right and rinse and repeat.
 

What are the odds the next long form piece Ty Dunne article is inside the Cleveland Browns dysfunction and the Shedeur Sanders drama, with a bunch of quotes from an anonymous Stefanski or whoever gets fired from that hellhole next year? Even money I think.

[Mikie2times]

How many unnecessarily glowing pieces have been written about Caleb Williams? The same for McD or anybody else in his cross hairs. The balance is the complete saturation of positive news angles for most of the people he is writing about. Not that Caleb hasn't had some critical pieces, especially of late, as has McD.  But take his "hit piece" on McD. People actually DO feel that way about him. That is the case. Other people don't feel that way about him. We read those articles all the time. The actual truth is probably somewhere between these stories. I don't believe the truth is just the the droves of news that is all but Buffalo Bill sponsored content. Somebody SHOULD be writing about the other side because it gets as closer to what is real. I can't believe either the exceptionally glowing or the exceptionally negative. Nothing is ever so black and white and the reader should understand as much. So I don't mind his content. It actually gives balance in my opinion.     

[nedboy7]

Is this the best thread ever?  I think it’s close.  I never read 4 pages straight like it’s a novel. 
 

 

Edited September 7 by nedboy7

[GunnerBill]

7 hours ago, Coach Tuesday said:

Well this one might make or break him.  He’s really putting sh— out there in this piece.  He’s basically calling the entire Bears front office a clown show, this is going to be put on blast I would think (again, very curious about the late summer Friday release) and if he got material parts of it wrong he’s going to get roasted and possibly even canceled.  This is a bigger story than McD having a tight sphincter - Poles just basically gave himself an extension, they spent a ton of money on a mercurial QB whisperer coach but then also paid their young untested backup QB a surprisingly large amount in a new contract before the season.  Chicago is a potential powder keg and Dunne may have just lit the match - we will quickly find out if the flames engulf him instead.

 

EDIT: I guess the timing is bc Tyler is hoping it gets absorbed all day today in time to be the hot pregame topic on opening day Sunday.  Which I agree is diabolical.  But I mean he appears to be relying on a whole army of sources - if he’s full of it, he’ll get absolutely skewered to the point of being dunzo.

 

He has a ton a sources he is relying on. I am not doubting any of those sources are genuine. I am doubting that he was ever looking for dissenting voices though. I agree with @FireChans he starts with his story then works to find the sources who will back that up.

[GunnerBill]

7 hours ago, Coach Tuesday said:

“For this three-part series, Go Long chatted with 32 sources. Coaches, scouts, execs, players and staffers inside Halas Hall guide readers through the sludge. Many have landed new jobs. To share their experiences without fear of retribution they’re granted a condition of anonymity.”

 

Sure. I just don't think he was interested in speaking to anyone who disagrees with his narrative. And when you think about the number of people let go from the Bears over the past 12 months: from coaches, to support staff, to players, to personnel guys... it wouldn't be difficult to find 32 people with axes to grind. 

 

Again I am not doubting that his sources are honestly sharing their truth of what happened and what it felt like. I am doubting that is a fully rounded view of what went on in Chicago last year.

[FireChans]

6 hours ago, Mikie2times said:

How many unnecessarily glowing pieces have been written about Caleb Williams? The same for McD or anybody else in his cross hairs. The balance is the complete saturation of positive news angles for most of the people he is writing about. Not that Caleb hasn't had some critical pieces, especially of late, as has McD.  But take his "hit piece" on McD. People actually DO feel that way about him. That is the case. Other people don't feel that way about him. We read those articles all the time. The actual truth is probably somewhere between these stories. I don't believe the truth is just the the droves of news that is all but Buffalo Bill sponsored content. Somebody SHOULD be writing about the other side because it gets as closer to what is real. I can't believe either the exceptionally glowing or the exceptionally negative. Nothing is ever so black and white and the reader should understand as much. So I don't mind his content. It actually gives balance in my opinion.     

What you are missing is the pursuit of the truth.

 

Wholly negative propaganda to offset positive propaganda doesn’t seem right.

 

I wouldn’t say the reports out on Caleb Williams this year have glowing at all, I don’t know what you’ve seen otherwise?

[uticaclub]

11 hours ago, Beck Water said:

 

Which you know because?

Because it wasn't disputed and no one said he was wrong. He was just called mean and that the article was uncalled for, never wrong.