What a ride.

The Bears’ 2018 season ended with a doink a few weeks before anybody wanted it to, but man oh man what fun it was. After four straight years of shifting attention to the draft by November, the Bears went 12-4, established themselves as one of the best teams in the NFL, and laid waste to the division. Along the way, they got to officially end the season of both the Packers and Vikings and made the entire city of Chicago go crazy with football fever.

Lest we forget some of the highlights of 2018:

• After three brutal games to start the season, Mitchell Trubisky finally had his coming out party when he laid waste to the Bucs in week 4. Just to make sure you knew it wasn’t a fluke, he followed it up with 300 yards and multiple touchdowns in both of the next two games.
• Khalil Mack, Eddie Goldman, and company embarrassed the Rams on Sunday Night football with the whole world watching (and picking against Chicago), proving once and for all that this team was in fact for real.
• Eddie Jackson just kept scoring touchdowns, Kyle Fuller led the NFL in interceptions, and the defense as a whole made big play after big play.
• Linemen and linebackers kept scoring touchdowns on trick plays, just for fun.
• The Bears finished the season winning 9 of their last 10 games, with the only loss coming on the road in overtime with their backup QB.
• The Bears finished with the NFL’s 3rd best W/L record, 4th best point differential, and 3rd best turnover differential, all key indicators of the best teams in the league.

And then…

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He’s bored. He’s currently unemployed (but not for long). So I asked my buddy, who was formerly the head pro personnel man for an NFL franchise, to break down the Bears roster. Here it is.

Quarterback: “Our college guys loved Trubisky. What he put on tape last year was unimpressive but if he can’t succeed with that staff and the talent they’ve acquired, it’s going to be on him.”

Running Back: “The strength of the roster.”

Receivers & Tight Ends: “As individuals, they are all talented. But that group has to play like a group. They have to be unselfish. They have to work hard for each other. And it’ll be interesting to see if Nagy can get those new boys, some making A LOT of money, to do that.”

Offensive Line: “I question the tackles, on the right side more than the left, and really only in the passing game. But Nagy and Helfrich are going to get the ball out of the quarterback’s hand much quicker than last season and those guys can hold up for 2-3 seconds. Underrated group.”

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Spent all day Monday reaching out to every single contact I have in the NFL. All four of ’em. Why? Because I was angry, frustrated, tired of writing about a losing team…etc. I figured I could only spend so much time yelling at my cats about the Bears’ misuse of Tarik Cohen so I might as well use the energy for good. Here’s what I know.

(None of this is based on guesswork. This is stuff I was actually told.)

(1) There is a roughly .01% chance of John Fox being the coach on January 2nd 2018. Ryan Pace will hire his replacement.

(2) There was consideration given to firing John Fox after the Green Bay game but ownership/Pace don’t believe there’s a good interim option on the staff. This includes Vic Fangio who, I’m told, would not be super keen on the assignment and has turned down extension offers from the team to stay on as defensive coordinator.

(3) George McCaskey idolizes how the Giants and Steelers are run and has decided to emulate their approach. He does not want to fire a coach in-season. This does not mean he would never do it. But, honestly, emulating the Giants and Steelers is never a bad thing, folks.

(4) If Fox loses this week to the 49ers, don’t be surprised if his tenure ends Monday morning. If he loses to the Browns on Christmas Eve, he won’t coach the finale. I don’t know why so much emphasis is being put on two meaningless games against awful opponents, other than their being at home, but that’s what I was told.

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