Kevin Byard is having one of the best seasons a Chicago Bears safety has enjoyed in several years. He already has five interceptions this season and has seven games remaining to improve that tally. Yet the better part is the team is winning. After that ugly 5-12 season a year ago, the Bears are 7-3 and in control of the NFC North. Most agree their chances of making the playoffs are high. However, you'd better not mention that around Byard. Nobody has put in a greater effort to snuff out postseason talk at Halas Hall than the veteran safety.
He explained his reasoning to the press on Wednesday. It comes from hard-bitten experience of what can happen when you celebrate too early.
"We're not thinking about playoffs and that's something I try to preach to the guys. We haven't done anything yet. We're 7-3, 1 get it, the city's excited - you know what I mean, it hasn't been a whole lot of winning here, but we haven't accomplished anything. And honestly, nobody remembers what you do in October and September and even this early part of November. People remember what you do in November, December and January, so that's what we want to be remembered by.
So we have to do as much as we can - more study, more film, more whatever we have to do to try to win games, because if you want to be remembered as a great player in this league or a great player in this city, it's all about what we do from here on now, it's not about what we've done before."
Kevin Byard knows the trap the Bears are trying to avoid.
The Tennessee Titans had gone 12-5 in 2021, winning the AFC South division title. Many had them pegged as a Super Bowl contender going into 2022. It looked like they were right. Through the first ten games, the Titans were 7-3 and cruising. Then they lost seven games in a row, missing the playoffs entirely. The next year, Kevin Byard was traded, and the team eventually crumbled. Mike Vrabel was fired and the Titans entered a perpetual rebuild. All of it stemmed from that stumble in late November three years ago.
It's no wonder Byard is on a crusade to smack down any postseason discussions. He understands how quickly the sin of looking ahead can doom a team. There will be none of that on his watch. All of the focus will be on Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Everything else is irrelevant. It is nice to hear the Bears have such a leader in their locker room.
Byard knows his time in the NFL is running short. At age 32, there is no telling how many more chances he'll have to compete for a Super Bowl. He wants to make sure he maximizes them. To do that, it starts with finishing the job in the regular season. A young team like the Bears hasn't yet learned how to do that. It's his responsibility to guide them.
