Optimism is high around the Chicago Bears for the first time in years. It doesn't feel manufactured, either. This isn't your usual off-season overflowing with hopium. It genuinely feels like the Bears have put together a competitive roster. Start with the defense. It started 2023 playing bad football but finished among the league's best after Matt Eberflus took over play calling and Montez Sweat arrived via trade. They also have one of the league's most talented secondaries and a strong linebacking group.
Yet the biggest story is the changes on offense. Shane Waldron, the new offensive coordinator, brings his proven track record from Seattle. Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze drastically bolstered the wide receiving corps. D'Andre Swift adds explosiveness at running back. Gerald Everett brings another receiving presence at tight end. Lastly, #1 overall pick Caleb Williams gives them a legitimate chance at quarterback. One can understand why people believe this is the year Chicago makes a run at the playoffs. Conor Orr of Sports Illustrated believes that will happen.
The best part is who they knock out to get there.
Chicago Bears
At the expense of: Dallas Cowboys
That said, I think there’s a good deal of positivity in Chicago surrounding Caleb Williams. His early dealings with the organization have been overwhelmingly positive, the Bears upgraded the offense and Shane Waldron is a really skilled designer of offenses. Peppered throughout Chicago’s schedule are plenty of winnable games and what I’d like to consider “breaks,” though I know the mere mention of any NFL game as easy would cause a coach’s blood to boil. While the end of Williams’s first season will be brutal—with dates against Detroit (twice!), San Francisco and Green Bay—it will be the end of Williams’s first season. In theory, he’ll be better than in Week 1 against the Tennessee Titans.
The Cowboys catch a stray bullet here, though I’ve thought all offseason that this team did not do enough to guarantee itself a playoff spot. Dallas isn’t markedly better than the Giants anymore. The team’s list of opponents includes the Browns, 49ers, Lions, Ravens, Bengals and Atlanta Falcons, among others. The Cowboys could be considered an underdog in almost every single one of them. They have a lame-duck coach, a taxed staff on uncertain footing and a decaying foundation on which to support a great quarterback, wide receiver and pass rusher. That worries me.
The Chicago Bears feel like a team on the cusp of something big.
Dallas feels like a team that just missed their window. They went 12-5 each of the past three seasons, having the #1 offense in two of them and a top-seven scoring defense in all three. The Cowboys not only failed to reach the Super Bowl, they didn't even reach a conference championship game, going 1-3 in their playoff appearances combined. Their recent loss to the Green Bay Packers was by far the most traumatic, getting thumped 48-32 in their own building. It wasn't even as close as the score says. Since then, Dallas has lost multiple key pieces, including left tackle Tyron Smith, running back Tony Pollard, wide receiver Michael Gallup, pass rusher Dante Fowler, cornerback Stefon Gilmore, and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.
Worse still, head coach Mike McCarthy is rumored to be unhappy with Dallas' circus atmosphere, and quarterback Dak Prescott is in a contract season. Meanwhile, the Chicago Bears have no glaring locker room issues. They're a young team with lots of hungry players led by a coach who proved he can survive some ugly bumps in the road. If their young quarterback lives up to his potential as a rookie, the Bears will make the year of many fans around the NFL by knocking Dallas out of the playoff picture.
