The Chicago Bears don’t think they are going to be good in 2022. Teams that think they’re going to be good don’t sell off Khalil Mack for (essentially) future cap space. Teams that think they’re going to be good don’t enter a season with 3/5 of their offensive line unsettled. Teams that think they’re going to be good don’t balk at just about every available free agent, including several at positions of extreme need. The Bears don’t think they’re going to be good in 2022 because being good in 2022 is not essential to this new leadership.

Rebuilds are a weird discussion in the NFL. In baseball, a rebuild requires selling off every viable commodity and losing for a decade while stockpiling draft picks and minor league assets. In the NBA, there are teams with multiple superstars and teams without them; everyone else is irrelevant. In hockey…I don’t know anything about hockey. There’s something with a forecheck I think?

In the NFL, rebuilds don’t exist. There are teams with top-level quarterbacks and teams without them. The teams with them are relevant each and every season and the Bears believe Justin Fields will get there. They do not believe, however, that he’s there right now. (And no one watching the 2021 tape would objectively disagree.)

When it comes to the roster around the quarterback, and when there is turnover at the head coach/GM positions, it takes no more than a single off-season to dump men and money and start the whole program over. Poles and Flus have followed a repeatable template, specifically one engaged by the regime running things in Buffalo currently.

But next season will be Fields’ third in the league and second in the system. No more excuses.

Next off-season the Bears will be loaded with cap space, chock full of draft picks and operating with endless roster flexibility. No more excuses.

The Bears are not going to be good in 2022 and that will be understandable. But the excuses end entirely in 2023. The new leadership will have had two drafts. They will have had two full off-seasons with the quarterback. They will have had the economic flexibility to craft the roster in their image. And while they took over a franchise that hadn’t won a playoff game in many-a-moon, the cupboard was not entirely bare when they arrived.

If the 2023 Bears aren’t competing for January football, questions can again be seriously asked about the men in charge of football operations in Chicago, including the quarterback. But in the meantime, we will all try and find minor joys in a season replete with minor expectations. This team needs to play hard. They need to play fast. They need to display, on Sundays and not Thursdays, they are a well-coached group. They need to show fight, even when they are undermanned talent-wise. And perhaps most importantly, they need to provide entertainment to a fan base tired of being bored to death when they turn on their televisions to watch Chicago Bears football.

After all the mediocrity, that’s not too much to ask from 2022. In 2023, we’ll all expect much, much more.

Thought 5. On the Coaching Staff

A point on each of the three major coaches on this staff.

• Agree wholeheartedly with Adam Jahns’ belief that it is impossible to come to a conclusion on John Fox due to the number of injuries this roster has sustained. Has he been good in-game? I laid out my rationale from moving on from Fox just a week ago. But there won’t be serious pressure on Fox until he’s playing with a somewhat-full roster or possibly until September, 2017.
• Dowell Loggains found his rhythm as a play caller after the Dallas game but much of that has to do with improvement along the offensive line allowing the run game to thrive. Loggains had his starting QB for six quarters against two solid defenses and then made Brian Hoyer look like the second coming of Chad Pennington. I mean, Loggains himself can’t throw the ball to Alshon Jeffery when he’s wide open in the end zone.

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Ask yourself two questions when evaluating the current state of the Chicago Bears “rebuild”.

Question #1. Are you confident in John Fox’s ability to oversee the development of young talent and take this team deep into the postseason?

Question #2. Who will the Bears quarterback be in September in 2017?

Adrian Amos can play. Eddie Goldman can too. The Bears have two terrific guards, a developing center and reason for hope when it comes to Howard, White and some other scattered young players.  But as much as we spend time discussing the importance of protecting and rushing the quarterback, sustained success in this sport still comes down to three principle elements: player acquisition, coach and quarterback.

How can your answer to Questions #1 be yes? John Fox is 6-13 as Bears head coach and has been significantly out-coached by Bill O’Brien, Doug Pederson and Jason Garrett. Sure the Bears are battling injuries but this team lacks fight. It lacks character. And, crazy for a Fox team, it lacks toughness.

How can your answer to Question #2 be rendered with any certainty? Cutler is still clearly the best option for the Bears but he’s never on the field anymore. And with his resume, the Bears won’t be breaking the bank for his services moving forward if another option presents itself on draft weekend.

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