Chicago Bears: New regime inspires more life in the team

In just the second year in control, Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus have injected new life into the rebuilding team.

After seven years of Ryan Pace as the general manager and four years of having Matt Nagy as the head coach, it seemed that the Chicago Bears sank into an abyss. Despite a one-year blip in which they had a good season (that ultimately ended in the worst of ways), the team lost all semblance of the proud franchise with a great history.

Little by little, the team fell into irrelevancy and lost life. It became just another franchise that existed to provide wins and players for the contending teams in the NFL.

The McCaskey family, owners of the Chicago Bears, decided they needed a change. They decided to try out Rayn Poles, an executive who had his hand in the resurgence of the Kansas City Chiefs. Of course, many feel that the main reason for the resurgence was the Bears’ failure to draft Patrick Mahomes.

Poles’ first move as general manager was to hire tough-minded Matt Eberflus. While he seems like a rock of a person who demands certain things from his players, he is actually a player’s coach. The players he coached on defense with the Indianapolis Colts all love him and have nothing but nice things to say about him.

New Chicago Bears regime made sacrifices and the players worked hard

The new regime’s first season didn’t seem like it was one to write home about. The Bears finished the 2022 season 3-14, the worst record in the league. They ended up losing their last ten games to earn that title.

It was not as bad as people thought it was, however. Poles made the decision that the season had to be sacrificed so that the rebuild can progress in the right way. He slashed a great number of big contracts and replaced them with short-term, low-priced deals.

As a result of that plan, the Bears ended up with the highest salary cap room in the league. Additionally, with the worst record, they ended up with the top pick of the draft. That gave Poles a lot of tools to greatly overhaul the roster, and overhaul he did.

This is a completely different roster than last season. Is it a title contender? Probably not. However, they can win a lot more games than they did last season. Also, even if they don’t win the NFC North, with the division up for grabs Chicago could contend.

As for Eberflus and his staff, they did a marvelous job last season. No, their efforts did not result in many wins. When dissecting the team, though, they were more competitive than they should have been.

In 2022, the Bears just didn’t have a good roster. Their leading receiver ended up being Cole Kmet with 544 yards. Their best wide receiver, Darnell Mooney, missed the last five games of the season but still finished second on the team in catches (61) and yards (493). The defense struggled against the run and could not get close to the quarterback.

Despite that, Eberflus and his staff had the team competitive in many games. They had eight one-score games and two others that were within one score in the fourth quarter. Some of those games were against quality opponents, like the NFC Champs Philadelphia Eagles.

There were many games in which the Bears had no business in being competitive. They were, though, and that was a testament to Eberflus and his coaching staff.

The team has new life

Now in Year 2, there is renewed life with the Chicago Bears. Poles worked hard this offseason to improve the roster. Not only that, he acquired more key draft picks for the future.

This is a more competitive roster now. With that comes new life. There is no longer an expectation of the Bears being doormats. They were competitive in many games last season but ultimately talent prevailed. Now that the Bears have more of that talent, some of those losses could turn into wins.

Eberflus has a principle he wants his players to play with called his HITS principle. HITS stands for Hustle, Intensity, Takeaways, and (playing) Smart.

Some players had a hard time buying into Eberflus’ philosophy. They might have thought it was a little corny. However, they slowly saw how much better things could be with that philosophy.

Cornerback Jaylon Johnson was a skeptic at first. Being involved in it, though, he changed his tune.

"It was just something that I wasn’t familiar with, something I wasn’t used to doing, so naturally there’s going to be some back-and-forth. But really coming in, being in it, going through it during the spring, and now, like I said, it’s becoming second nature."

Poles wanted to make sure that he signed players who could buy into Eberflus’ ways.

The Bears have more life now

The Chicago Bears seem like a rejuvenated team. There is more hope than gloom. Furthermore, the players are not afraid of starting things up.

Defensive tackle Justin Jones did just that earlier this week. He is in his second year as a Chicago Bears, fighting for a starting spot. That did not stop him from teeing off on the fans of Chicago’s biggest rival, the Green Bay Packers. While many players in the NFC North were happy to see Aaron Rodgers leave, Jones was upset.

"I wish he played one more year with Green Bay, honestly. We went up there and we played a pretty good game… But their fans are really sh*tty. So I wanted to go back up there and I wanted to play them and I wanted to beat them and I want him to be there so he can see it."

He continued to rip into Packers fans.

"Just the way they’re freaking obnoxious, just yelling and all that other stuff about things that don’t even matter…Half of ’em don’t even know football. It’s so weird to me But I’m just ready to go back out there and… I want to beat the hell out of ’em on their field. And I want to hear it. I want to hear the boos."

This isn’t coming from a native Chicagoan. Jones grew up in Georgia and played at North Carolina State. He played in only one game in Green Bay and he’s already in with the rivalry.

Tight end Robert Tonyan, who just came over to Chicago after spending his four-year career in Green Bay, liked what Jones said. He, unlike Jones, is a native of the Chicagoland area.

"It’s funny. . . . JJ is a little opinionated on that and I like that. I like that fire in him."

They haven’t even started the preseason games and these Chicago Bears players have some fight in them.

Of course, we have yet to see what kind of fight they have once the season begins. Will they fight through the down times and get through it, or will they just fall and stay down? What we do know is that this is a different team from previous years and the life is back at Halas Hall.