Chicago Bears fans have waited a long time to see their team win a second Super Bowl. They probably should've seen back in the late 1980s but the 1985 team proved to be the ultimate one-year wonder. Since then the Bears have had two close calls. They lost Super Bowl XLI to the Indianapolis Colts and came up short in the 2010 NFC championship game. Since then they've been on the outside looking in as other teams get to celebrate.
For the first time in almost a decade, it genuinely feels like the Bears have a roster that is talented enough to compete for a championship. GM Ryan Pace took four years to completely rebuild the franchise from the ground up. There were some setbacks along the way. Still, he's done a tremendous job under difficult circumstances. Now Chicago has a young and deep array of players and a smart, motivated coaching staff led by Matt Nagy to guide them.
Even so, the Bears know it's hard to win a Super Bowl. The competition around the league is fierce, especially in the NFC. Teams like Philadelphia, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Seattle remain dangerous road blocks to that goal. Not to mention the always tough divisional rivals like Minnesota and Green Bay. Can they really navigate through all that?
Some notable experts think so.
Chicago Bears in perfect spot to get one of next 5 Lombardis
The MMQB of Sports Illustrated ran a poll of their entire NFL staff with a simple question. Name the next five Super Bowl champions and why. Most of the answers were the typical ones like New England, Kansas City, or Philadelphia. Two though, Kalyn Kahler and Bette Marston, both picked the Bears to get one during that span. Kahler explained her reasoning for such confidence.
"The Bears have a young defense, with the majority of starters locked up for the next few years, and a quarterback on a rookie deal for the next two seasons. Chicago is built to win now and after a shocking exit in the wild-card round, they'll be back in the postseason with even more motivation to see it all the way through."
She has a strong point. Just look at the Bears "core" of top talent they've constructed. Between Akiem Hicks, Khalil Mack, Kyle Fuller, Eddie Jackson, Mitch Trubisky, Tarik Cohen, Allen Robinson, Cody Whitehair, and Charles Leno Jr.? All them are 29-years old or younger. In fact, all but Hicks and Mack are 27 or younger. So this is a group that is still very much trending up.
Throw in the fact their focus towards righting the wrong of their playoff lost back in January and it's easy to see why they're a reasonable choice to get a championship in the next couple of years.
