New Era in the Windy City

Labor Day Weekend is over and we can already feel the fall air settling into the Windy City. Fall is here, hoodies are on, and football is back. After one of the most eventful offseasons in the franchise’s history, it's time to play some ball. CAPTAIN Caleb Williams and the boys are slated to open the season at home against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday at Noon Central. Hopefully a good warmup game for the rookie QB. The Bears are 4.5 point favorites, which I will be HAMMERING.

The Bears typically bring heightened anxiety and a bad end to the weekends in the fall. This year, we have some hope. The defense is returning 10 of 11 starters and has some promising young players including Austin Booker to play opposite of Montez Sweat, and Tyrique Stevenson entering year two. The offense speaks for itself. Expectations are all over the board including Nick Wright claiming the Bears will reach the Super Bowl in Caleb Williams first year. I don’t see us going quite that far, but I will stand here today and say with confidence this is a playoff caliber team.

“Bears fans have too much scar tissue from the past to believe, but the rest of us aren’t burdened by the cautious optimism. This team is going to be fun and could be damn good.”

Diante Lee - The Ringer

If the defense can pick up where they left off at the end of last year, they will be a top 5 defense that Caleb and the young offense can lean on. After giving up 30+ PPG regularly early in last season, the Monsters of the Midway seem to be returning to form. Tyrique Stevenson and Jaylon Johnson headline the secondary, with the aging Kevin Byard as a new addition at safety. The biggest room for growth still needs to be the defensive line and pass rush, which improved drastically with the addition of Sweat. However, someone else in that interior seven needs to step up and help carry the load. Matt Eberflus will be less involved in the play calling with Eric Washington coming in as DC who came from Buffalo. Hopefully, this will allow Flus to stay focused on head coaching duties, and will limit some of the game management mistakes we saw last year.

Keeping Eberflus is still a bold decision to me. Matt Eberflus is 10-24 all time as a head coach, which does not instill confidence. I will give him the benefit of the doubt with Alan Williams resigning unexpectedly forcing Flus to call the defense, and plenty of problems on the offensive side. Eberflus made plenty of mistakes as a head coach the last two years, and personally I think he remains one of the biggest question marks heading into the season. I am high on Shane Waldron, and hope his 2 years as OC in Seattle is an improvement from the hellfire of Luke Getsy, who was a first time coordinator when he first darkened our doors. Waldron historically leans on 3 receiver sets which match perfectly with Moore, Odunze, and Allen. He also leans heavy on the run which should take some more pressure off of Caleb and the passing game. Deandre Swift as a runner and pass catcher should fit very well in this system.

The offense is the biggest story entering the season. Hard Knocks on HBO gave the nation an inside look at this group, and you can tell these guys truly care for each other. Caleb Williams looked very confident in preseason, but there were still more 3 and outs than I would have liked, but I won’t jump to any conclusions from preseason. All eyes across the league will be on Williams, and he still looks ready to face that challenge. He is surrounded by savvy veterans in Keenan Allen and Marcedes Lewis, and has more weapons than maybe any Bears team in the last 10 years. Fans can be GENUINELY excited about this offense instead of talking themselves into defending subpar players, which has rarely been the case in my lifetime. The O-line will need to stay healthy, which was a problem through camp and the preseason. They showed flashes last year, but need to improve to a top 15 unit to reach the levels we are hoping for. Rookie QBs are 0-7-1 in openers in the last 5 seasons, but none of them were Caleb Williams.

My one promise to myself this week is to not overreact, one way or the other. I think a turnover or even a score from the defense would kick start this whole team. I see the Bears going 11-6 this year, a dramatic improvement from 7-10 last year. Is the expectation unrealistic? Maybe. However, for the first time in a long time I am ready to watch the Chicago Bears and root for a real Quarterback.