Chicago Bears projected to regress in 2019 season
While there is a lot of optimism for the Chicago Bears in 2019, there are some who expect a regression. It’s okay since they were underestimated before and came out fine.
Now that we’ve had free agency and the draft to add personnel for the Chicago Bears, we look forward to how those pieces fit so the team goes further in 2019 than they did in 2018. After those added pieces, Bears fans are feeling optimistic for the new season. They are excited for the entire NFL world to watch them open up the season against their hated rivals, the Green Bay Packers. Players and fans alike are ready to show the message that the Chicago Bears are a team to watch out for in 2019.
The Bears revamped their running game, made the wide receivers corps one of the most athletic in the league, and added to the defense to make up for some departures (as well as change defensive coordinators) so the excitement level at Halas Hall is at its highest we’ve seen in about a decade.
The narrative outside of Chicago is a little different, however. The national media aren’t as optimistic as the fans. There are many who expect a regression from the Bears. There is not a lot of faith in quarterback Mitch Trubisky, and many feel that the defense won’t dominate as much as the unit did in 2018.
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We’ve seen this before, however. Remember this tidbit from former NFL general manager Michael Lombardi on the VSin Best Bets podcast:
"You couldn’t get me to buy Mitchell Trubisky if you had him on a discount rack at Filene’s Basement. There’s no chance. There’s no chance. He can’t throw the ball inbounds half the time. It’s a joke. I was in Chicago this week and all I saw was Trubisky jerseys. I was thinking, You people are crazy! You’re going to be selling them in three years."
You also remember this from NFL.com’s Gregg Rosenthal, who ranked general manager Ryan Pace as the worst in the NFL, right? We also remember that Pace won the Executive of the Year award, too.
The disrespect continues in 2019. Yes, some experts have seen the light and predict big things for the Bears, but most are again taking shots at them.
Pro Football Focus has the Bears finishing under 9.5 wins for 2019. Rosenthal, while writing that Pace fans look smart after 2018, only moved him to the middle at 15. He has John Elway (Denver Broncos), Jon Robinson (Tennessee Titans), and Rick Spielman (Minnesota Vikings), people running mediocre teams, ahead of Pace.
Trubisky had to learn three offenses in three years (his last season with North Carolina, his rookie season with John Fox, and his second year with Matt Nagy). He didn’t have to learn a new offense this offseason. He knows the playbook now so he just has to learn how to read defenses better and run the proper play. There were a few times in 2018 in which some plays didn’t work too well.
Yes, Nagy took responsibility for them, but if Trubisky could diagnose the defenses better, he could have audibled out of some of those plays. If he could do that in 2019, and with the revamped running game giving him more options, the Bears offense could become a scoring machine. With their problems on offense last season they still ranked 9th in scoring.
There is one thing that leads me to believe the Chicago Bears could be better than last year, however. Jason La Canfora recently wrote an article on the Bears, saying they are the “poster boys for regression.” He even said he’d have an article on that subject coming this week.
dark. Next. 2019 NFL All-Overpaid Team
All these “experts” were wrong about last season and will probably be wrong again this season. The Chicago Bears have a good nucleus of players and a good depth to help them through a tough season. Pace built this team differently from how the Bears are normally built. This is a new-look team that competes in the modern NFL and, whether the experts like it or not, they’ll be in the mix for a title for seasons to come.