6. Chicago Bears (7)
There wasn’t a whole lot to take away from the Chicago Bears game this weekend. They played the Indianapolis Colts and scored a road win 27-17, but they were using backups for the entirety of the game — as were the Colts.
This contest had the feel of a fourth preseason game and was overshadowed at the end by the announcement of Luck’s retirement — which leaked during the game, with Luck on the sideline.
For Chicago, they will enter this season with a strategy similar to what they employed in 2018. They’re going to be a physical offense that wins by controlling the ball. And stifling teams on defense. They may have moved on from Jordan Howard but they feel good about Tarik Cohen and David Montgomery.
Defensively, they have their share of stars with Khalil Mack, Roquan Smith, Eddie Jackson and the newly acquired Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. That will be enough to keep them in games and they should once again be contenders for the NFC North.
If they want to go beyond that, they need to see Mitch Trubisky take the next step as a quarterback. He made big leaps in 2018 under head coach Matt Nagy and as long as they continue to work well together, there’s no reason to think he won’t be able to grow.