After a season that started with a lot of big talk and finished with the Bears plunging to 5-12, general manager Ryan Poles regretted that expectations got away from them early. The team, as well as fans, would be wise to rein them in this time, even amid the excitement of the offseason.
The Bears are off to a good start by winning the sweepstakes for coach Ben Johnson in January and stacking roster upgrades through trades and free agency over the past two weeks, but those moves don’t automatically vault them into championship contention. There’s still a lot of work to do.
The best teams, by the way, usually avoid coaching searches and free agency spending sprees. The offseason has been relatively quiet for the Eagles and Chiefs after playing in the Super Bowl.
Indisputably, the Bears got better over the last two months. How much better is yet to be determined.
Their most glaring flaws last season were the disastrous coaching of Matt Eberflus and his staff, the unreliable offensive line, rookie quarterback Caleb Williams not being as NFL-ready as they anticipated and a defensive line that put little pressure on opposing quarterbacks.
That basically spelled out Poles’ to-do list. He began with an aggressive pursuit to land coach Ben Johnson, then the two of them went to work on the offensive line by trading for Chiefs guard Joe Thuney and Rams guard Jonah Jackson, then agreeing to sign Falcons center Drew Dalman.
The acquisitions of Thuney, Jackson and Dalman represent about triple the salary-cap investment next season compared to what the Bears spent on their three starting interior linemen last season, with most of that money going to problematic guard Nate Davis, and Johnson’s contract dwarfs that of Eberflus.
The exponential expense reflects some overdue urgency at Halas Hall.
The combination of competent coaching and a sturdy offensive line will make life easier for Williams, but he still needs to hold up his end of the deal by making strides in his development.
Poles then attacked the defensive line, which has been challenging throughout his tenure, by agreeing to terms with Colts defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo and Falcons defensive tackle Grady Jarrett.
All those moves will become official with the start of the new league year Wednesday at 3 p.m., and it’s possible the Bears will begin introducing some of their new players later that day.
All of them should help. The incoming players have Pro Bowl selections, Super Bowl appearances, high-end potential and track records of durability among them.
As always, though, NFL rebuilds are competitive. Not only must the Bears solve their various problems, but they must solve them in a way that outdoes their peers.
This offensive line is stronger, but is it better than the Lions’?
With better infrastructure, it’s reasonable to expect improvement from Williams, but will he overtake the Lions’ Jared Goff and the Packers’ Jordan Love?
There’s progress on defense, but is it at the Vikings’ level?
Those are just the questions the Bears aspire to answer within their own division, let alone the fact that they’re also sparring in the NFC with the defending champion Eagles, the fast-rising Commanders, the perpetually tough Rams and whoever emerges as the surprise darling of next season.
From 5-12, there remains such a long way to go. This is a Bears team that narrowly avoided getting swept in the NFC North last season. Doubling their win total, an ambitious goal for any unproven team, might not be enough merely to make the playoffs next season.
Williams and Johnson still are the ultimate influences on their success. They’re the ones who must make great use of Poles’ good additions, and the Bears won’t know how much they actually accomplished this offseason until they see how good those two are.
