A Note on This Site Moving Forward

Many of you have noticed that the family of DBB has grown substantially in recent times. There are many reasons for this but primary among them is this: these guys are good. Andrew’s fiery columns change the tone around here. Wood’s data-driven analysis is not only unique to this blog but unique to the entirety of the Bears-writing landscape. And now Bill Zimmerman, a professional in the sports radio business, is going to provide expert podcasts.

But I’m not going anywhere, folks. Because when the fans of the Chicago Bears are gearing up for a huge division tilt late in the season, SOMEONE has to provide a silly limerick at the top of their game preview.

Tweet of the Week

A Message from Alex Trebek: pic.twitter.com/LbxcIyeTCF

— Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) March 6, 2019

Video of the Week

This might be my favorite Trebek sequence in the history of Jeopardy. And I’ve watched more hours of Jeopardy than any other TV program by a wide margin. (It’s football, so watch it.)

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Chicago’s defense was awesome in 2018, leading the NFL in points allowed, turnovers forced, touchdowns scored, and passer rating against. They also finished third in yards and sacks and were generally the best defense in the NFL by a wide margin. Their play propelled the Bears to a 12-4 finish, NFC North title, and the franchise’s first playoff berth in eight years.

It’s hard to expect much improvement from that unit in 2019. In fact, they’re almost certainly not going to repeat that level of dominance. So when I write that I expect the Bears to improve in 2019 and be one of the top Super Bowl contenders, that must mean I expect it to happen because of the offense.

Unlike the defense, there is plenty of room for improvement on that side of the ball. Chicago had a pretty mediocre offense in 2018. They finished:

• 21st in yards per game
• 20th in yards per play
• 9th in points per game
• 20th in Football Outsiders’ DVOA rankings, an all-encompassing metric intended to evaluate an entire unit.

Outside of points per game – which was likely aided by all the turnovers and defensive touchdowns – the offense was pretty consistently below average in most important metrics. So why am I so confident the offense will improve next year, even though they probably won’t be making many significant personnel changes?

To put it simply: NFL history strongly suggests that significant improvement is coming.

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