The 2024 Chicago Bears are the team to beat in the NFC

Going over the new look Chicago Bears & explaining why they are going to suddenly become one of the teams to beat in the NFC

An exercise in Sports writing, this writing sample was originally written on April 3rd, 2024 by Tom Searfoss given a prompt for a YouTube Script.

Introduction

The Chicago Bears are going to the Super Bowl!

Is something you wouldn’t expect to hear out of many Football fan’s mouths, considering the team hasn’t seen the biggest game the NFL has to offer since a 2006 loss to the Colts. In fact, the Bears seem to have one of the most lukewarm public images in the league. Whether it’s the fact they’ve failed to make the Playoffs since 2020, or that they’ve only had one winning Season across 4 different Head Coaches in the past 11 years, the Bears have not been an exciting team to watch since the Lovie Smith era. The hype of Justin Fields being drafted in 2021 cooled down quickly across three losing Seasons, but everything is about to heat up in the 2024–2025 Season — and I don’t mean global warming at Soldier Field. The Bears have made some powerful Off-Season moves that are primed to “Shuffle” them back to another Super Bowl.

The Caleb Williams Factor

At the helm of everything is the Bear’s 1st overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft — an acquisition that has roots in the same trade with Carolina that got them DJ Moore last year. This put the Bears in the position where they could use the pick to acquire the Rookie QB everyone is unanimously calling the top pick of the Draft — Caleb Williams from USC. With Field’s departure to the Steelers sealed, the de facto choice for Chicago is that it’s time for the Caleb Williams era.

This isn’t that different from when the Bears originally drafted Fields in 2021 with similar fanfare. Both QBs are a solid, more muscular build with Williams measuring 6’1” and 215 lbs — just a tad shorter and lighter than Fields on draft day. Both QBs were heralded for their arm strength and accuracy with their throws. Williams boasts a solid 66.9% Completion Percentage in his NCAA Career, with over 1,099 Passing Attempts — almost double the amount Fields threw in College. While Williams might not have the Rushing stats to back up his Passing game, he does have something that is turning heads across the League — Creativity in the pocket.

Players and Analysts alike are whispering praise about Caleb Williams being “the next Patrick Mahomes” and it’s for good reason. Watching Williams take a snap can be like watching a dancer glide across a stage with ease — making Defenses look silly given any space at all. His size and finesse turns tackles into misses, and the accurate, powerful throws he touts standing tall in the pocket translate to his on-the-run game play. Only being sacked an average of 2.24 times per game with just 14 Interceptions in his College career — Williams has all the abilities a franchise-star QB needs. The one thing that he may lack comes with time and comfort within a team environment, and that’s the consistency to do what he does every week.

Bear’s New Look Offense

Putting all their eggs in the Caleb Williams basket meant that the Bears needed to build up the environment around their Rookie QB in order to set him up for success. Learning from their previous QB draft years, the Bears made some major acquisitions on Offense heading into next Season.

The highlight of their moves has to be the signing of 6-time Pro Bowl WR Keenan Allen. A Charger for all 11 years of his career, Allen brings with him not just 6 seasons of 1,000+ receiving yards and the 47th most All-Time, but a wealth of experience and reliability to the receiving core of the Bears. More importantly, it brings a 2nd big target to allow DJ Moore some extra space from opposing Secondaries.

The other big signing comes in the Bear’s backfield, as they bring Veteran RB from the Eagles — D’Andre Swift. Swift is coming off his first 200+ carry, 1,000+ rushing yard Season where he was ranked 5th in the NFL. This is a huge upgrade to a team that had their QB leading the team in Rushing last year.

The Bears have also been busy bolstering their Offensive Line to protect their top prospect pick — most notably snagging Lineman Ryan Bates from the Buffalo Bills. Originally the Bears wanted Bates back in 2022 — so this is a deal a couple of years in the making. This is just the tip of the O-Line iceberg though, as Tackle Jake Curhan, Lineman Matt Pryor, and Lineman Coleman Shelton have all joined the Chi-Town team.

TE Gerald Everett came over from the Chargers alongside Keenan Allen, making for a rotation of great receiving TEs between himself and Cole Kmet — the latter of which had the 9th most receiving yards for TEs last Season with 719. Everett compliments their receiving core as a reliable 3rd down option for the newbie Williams, as he has the 2nd-most forced missed tackles for a TE across the last 2 Seasons.

All of these moves are not only to accommodate Caleb Williams, but ensure that the Bears can pull the Passing game out of the bottom-half of the NFL rankings. Last year they averaged just 182.1 Passing Yards per game — only 40 more yards than they ran for. These moves look to give the Bears one of the most improved Offensive cores in the NFC, and frees up their 2nd pick in the first-round of the Draft!

Drafting Superstar Power at #9

Not only do the Bears have the first overall pick of the Draft — they also have the 9th pick! This sets them up to grab a top rated Rookie to plug any holes they couldn’t fix with trades or signings. But what exactly are the holes that the Bears still have?

You could look at their WR acquisitions and think that with Darnell Mooney gone, the Bears might need a 3rd target. There are a few things working against them though, some of which include the speculation that Marvin Harrison Jr, Malik Nabers, and Rome Odunze are all snatched up before they even get to pick number 9. There’s also the combination of having two great receiving TEs on their roster, and extending the contract of WR Collin Johnson in March, so picking a WR seems less appealing.

You could look at their Defensive side, which was one of the best against the run last Season with just 8 rushing TDs allowed and league low 86.4 rushing yards allowed per game. But their game against the Pass was…not great. Allowing the 4th most Passing TDs with 31, the Bear’s Secondary could use some help. While they’ve re-signed CB Jaylon Johnson, who tied for 4th across the NFL in INTs last year — they’ve also signed a pair of Safeties to help defend in the air. Veteran Kevin Byard joins the team after recording 80 Solo tackles last Season, while Jonathan Ownes defects from division rivals Green Bay. While their Defensive side has seen some improvements, the depth chart still has 8 rookies on it — including Starters Gervon Dexter Sr at DT and Tyrique Steveson at CB. Adding another in the Draft might be risky, but CB Terrion Arnold or LB Edgerrin Cooper are both picks with a lot of potential. Cooper’s praise for his coverage of TEs in College and Arnold’s 2023 Season filled with 17 deflections and 5 interceptions could both be big assets to their Pass Defense.

The Bears have made a point of setting up their Offensive Line so that Caleb Williams can have the best possible pocket to make magic from. The Bears should have their pick of the litter when it comes to top O-Line prospects at 9. OT Taliese Fuaga is unanimously touted as the best of the bunch when it comes to the Linemen in the Draft, and could still be available if all the teams are looking at the spectacular WR core in this draft class. If not, the Bears could look at OT Troy Fautanu — who has experience across multiple positions on the Line and could fill in the remaining gap.

Overall, I’m looking at one of the Offensive Linemen to be the pick for the Bears at 9. The immediate impact they can have on the roster alongside Caleb Williams is too good to pass up if the Bears plan on winning the NFC North — which they will.

Road To The Super Bowl

So how exactly do the last place NFC North Bears win their Division, let alone make it to the Super Bowl? It all starts at Home.

The big issue for the Bears lies within their own Division. Last Season, the NFC North had two of the Top 10 Passing Offenses in the NFL — the Lions and the Vikings. In addition to this, the Packers touted the 3rd most Passing Touchdowns in the NFL — while the Bears were a bottom-half team in the Defensive Pass rankings. Their Division preyed on their own weakness last Season, which they’ve fixed with the pickups mentioned earlier in their Secondary. Even with their weakness, The Bears split games against the Lions and the Vikings, but lost both bouts against the Packers.

At the same time, the Vikings have lost QB Kirk Cousins in favor of either their own Rookie QB, or Sam Darnold — which is not an upgrade. While they added RB Aaron Jones from the Packers, the Viking’s Rushing Offense was near the bottom of the rankings last season, and the Packers were middle-of-the-pack. The Bears arguably have the best Rushing Defense in the NFL, so this could easily be a Bears-favored matchup all Season long.

While the Lions have set a high standard for Off-Season moves themselves, the Bears played them close in a Week 11 loss 31–26 before defeating them 28–13 in Week 14. While the Lions still look like a strong team their moves this Off-Season have been Defense-sided ones, while they’ve lost some members of their Top of the League Offense from last year. A better Bears and a single score less from the Lions makes the another Bears-favored matchup.

The hardest opponent to overcome might be the Packers, who won both games against the Bears. The deciding factor here is going to be how much magic Caleb Williams can bring to the Offense. The sheer number of tools he has at his disposal now can account for the difference in score Packers QB Jordan Love was able to create in the contests last year. DJ Moore is more than capable of putting up another Top 10 receiving yard Season, while veteran Pro Bowler Keenan Allen creates equal pressure on the other side of the field. D’Andre Swift gives the Bears a threat at RB they didn’t have last year, and a pair of exceptional TEs should be able to take a game off Green Bay.

The Bears were 6–6–0 within the NFC last year, and with the way things are shaking up this could easily be a winning record. The Dallas Cowboys have all but imploded, while the New Orleans Saints are stuck in a bad salary cap position to make too many upward moves. The Seattle Seahawks are also in an awkward position, as they may be facing down a QB duel for a starting spot. A revamped Bears Offense can seize these instabilities and turn their Conference record positive.

Even the slightest improvements gives the Bears double-digit Wins and all but secures them a Playoff berth. After that, it’s just two more wins until they take the NFC title and the field for the Super Bowl. Do you think they have what it takes? Or can you Bear-ly believe what we’re saying? Let us know in the comments below, and tune in for the NFL Kick off on September 5th to be there from the start!

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