Preseason Preview: Chicago Bears

 

Written By: Lucas Regal, of Swish Tribune

The Chicago Bears might have the most promise that a team has ever had coming off a 3-14 season. The team has the best chance to make the playoffs since the infamous "double doink" from Cody Parkey which eliminated them back in 2018. 

All of this surrounds the Bears' potential star QB, Justin Fields. For a team that hasn't had a notable quarterback in recent memory, Fields could be the face of the franchise that they're looking for. He had some incredible games at the end of last season and showed some real promise when he gets loose. He ran for over 1100 yards last season, but to carry this team he's gonna need to have more than the 2200 yards in the air.

Luckily, his front office did as much as they could to help in that area. Adding DJ Moore is huge for the team as he is Field's first real receiving weapon. Additionally, they drafted OT Darnell Wright with the tenth pick in the draft to hopefully lower the sack number from last year which was an astounding 55. 

The running game has promise too, as Khalil Herbert will be the RB1 for the Bears this year with David Montgomery gone. Herbert led the NFL with 5.7 yards per carry last year, albeit on a small sample size of 129 carries. He'll have at least double that amount of carries this year barring injury, so we'll see if he can keep up that production as a first option. 

The defensive side of the ball is a little more tricky for the Bears. They traded away their star LB Roquan Smith last year and then signed star LB Tremaine Edmunds in the offseason. They had the worst defense in the NFL last year, giving up an average of 27 PPG. They addressed these issues in the draft, taking DT Gervon Dexter with the 53rd pick and CB Tyrique Stevenson with the 56th. Will a couple rookies be enough to win this team some games? Probably not, but it might be enough to take a little weight off the back of Justin Fields. The offense is going to have to play well every game for this team to be successful because we know the defense won't. 

The Chicago Bears have an extremely promising future, especially on offense, but they also have a lot of "ifs". If Justin Fields is a star, if Khalil Herbert is as good as his small sample size shows, if the improvements to the offensive line pan out, if they don't have any major injuries, I think this is a scary team to look out for, but probably not this year. My prediction is the team goes 9-8 and misses the playoffs but shows a ton of improvement. Going game by game:

Week 1 vs Packers: W

Week 2 vs Bucs: W

Week 3 vs Chiefs: L

Week 4 vs Broncos: W

Week 5 vs Commanders: L

Week 6 vs Vikings: L

Week 7 vs Raiders: L

Week 8 vs Chargers: L

Week 9 vs Saints: W

Week 10 vs Panthers: W

Week 11 vs Lions: L

Week 12 vs Vikings: L

Week 14 vs Lions: W

Week 15 vs Browns: W

Week 16 vs Cardinals: W

Week 17 vs Falcons: W

Week 18 vs Packers: L

As you can see they have a relatively easy schedule. I could see many of these games going either way. I'd say their ceiling is 11-6 and their floor is 7-10. Whatever happens this season, Bears fans have a lot to be excited about with the future of this team.