Commentary: Yet another season of mediocrity for Bears |
It's the day after Super Bowl Sunday!
Like every year, but in February of 1986 and 2007, the Bears didn't make it to the big game. This year, they made the playoffs. This year, they beat the team that represents the NFC, but it’s clear that these Bears are far from being a Super Bowl team. Think of it this way. The Bears were carried by their defense all season long aside from the final five games. In those five games, the defense could barely make enough stops for a hot offense to win games. (That ‘hot’ offense was up against the Lions, Vikings, Jaguars, and Texans). Then in back to back weeks with the season on the line, the offense sputters, and the Bears lose back-to-back games to end their season. Yet another season of mediocrity and a middle of the road pick. It was clear the Bears had a hole at quarterback and quite possibly at offensive coordinator. The Bears were also pretty obviously missing a weapon or two offensively. Defensively, the Bears have a solid defense, but it’s aging, and the day to pay Roquan Smith is rapidly approaching. But because the Bears were able to make the playoffs — with an extra seed because of COVID, mind you — the organization decided to keep Ryan Pace (who has drafted Mitchell Trubisky over Patrick Mahomes, who is playing in his second Super Bowl) and Matt Nagy (who has decreased in wins and offensive production in every year since his initial hiring). Not exactly a great recipe for a team trying to make a change and be better? Take it this way. While two teams are preparing to play on Super Bowl Sunday, and 10-12 other teams are celebrating MVPs, Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year, Coaches of the Year, Comeback Players of the Year, Rookies of the Year, and a new class of Hall of Famers — the Bears are making headlines for putting together a massive package together to acquire a wildly overpaid quarterback that was benched last season. That just sounds like the Bears. And a second layer on that, Allen Robinson — who is the Bears best offensive player — was unable to get an extension with the team, potentially staining his relationship with the front office and damaging the odds of another playmaker wanting to come to Chicago. And even more so, everyone around the NFL is aware Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy are on thin ice, entering a lame-duck season. That makes an assistant coaching job so unattractive because the Bears may be cleaning house in 6-12 months anyway, meaning an assistant could be out of a job as well. It’s a sticky situation for the Bears — that once again points to a season where they are too bad to reap the benefits of being good and too good to reap the benefits of being bad—just the same old Bears.
