Why the Bears could take a step back despite Caleb Williams' breakout season and playoff run

Some teams seem to have a franchise identity. Maybe that’s because a coach has been there forever and he is a defensive- or offense-focused coach. If you think of the Steelers, you probably think of defense. If you think of the Colts, it probably is more about offense. With the Chicago Bears, they had relied on defense forever, but their offense was finally getting attention last year. Will it last this season?

This was the Caleb Williams coming-out party. He still made some dumb mistakes, but he also had some moments where he was absolutely fantastic. He can make all the special plays in the world, but there are times that it seems like he can’t make the simple ones. You have to hope that can be taught because those magical ones can’t be taught. To start the season, the Bears suffered two straight losses and then ran off four wins. The rest of the season, they went 7-4, losing to the Ravens, Packers, 49ers, and Lions. Only the Ravens loss was by more than one score. In the postseason, they beat the Packers, which is basically winning the Super Bowl if you’re a Chicago fan. They had a miracle from Caleb Williams to keep the game alive against the Rams before they blew it in overtime to end the season.

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The team dropped DJ Moore off to the Bills and took home a couple of solid draft picks. Moore never seemed to have a great rapport with Williams, so maybe it was the right thing to do. They tried to upgrade some of their secondary because their defense was actually really bad last year outside of creating turnovers. They also had to replace their center, Drew Dalman, because he retired at just 27 years old. They drafted one and signed a free agent to protect themselves a bit.

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I’m concerned about this team. Their defense relied basically on turnovers to keep them in games. Their offense was opportunistic and good, but I don’t really think Luther Burden or Kalif Raymond are going to scare too many guys. Ben Johnson can make the most out of this team and these players, but I’m not exactly thinking there were upgrades this offseason. Defensively, we need to see what happens. It is hard to be much worse than last year, but I don’t see a ton of guys on this roster that are going to keep opponents from moving the ball.

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I don’t see much of a reason to take the Bears to win 10 games. I like the Lions better, I like the Packers better, and I even think the Vikings could be better. The Bears will have a tougher schedule after making it to the postseason last year. There aren’t too many easy wins on this schedule. Maybe the team takes a big step forward, but with their offseason and the roster, I’m thinking this might be a down year. I do like a shot at two wins after five games at +300.

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