The NFL offseason is a time for every fanbase to evaluate their team and determine its ceiling for the upcoming season. For some teams, it's Super Bowl or bust. Other fanbases might prefer their team lose as many games as possible to earn the coveted first-round draft pick.
NFL analyst Rich Eisen did this exercise for every team in the NFC North, and his 'best case scenario' for the Chicago Bears might shock you, considering how poorly they've performed over the last few years.
Rich Eisen thinks the best case for the Bears this year isn’t the playoffs.. It’s the Super Bowl.. 👀 #DaBears #Bears #ChicagoBears pic.twitter.com/rOZePzbjzV
— Clay Harbor (@clayharbs82) June 3, 2024
Is is realistic to think the Bears could be a Super Bowl team?
I want to emphasize that Rich Eisen is not predicting a Super Bowl berth for the Bears this year. He's just saying that if everything goes their way this year and they don't suffer brutal injuries, he could see them in the Super Bowl. Most NFL fans and even some Bears fans will immediately scoff at this idea, but let's hear him out.
The Bears finished the 2023 season 5-3 after a horrendous start. Their defense flashed elite potential. Then they drafted arguably the best quarterback prospect since Andrew Luck, one of the highest-graded wide receivers in the draft, and traded a 4th round pick for six-time Pro Bowl receiver Keenan Allen. These offseason acquisitions earned them an 'A' from Pro Football Focus.
Look, I get it. The Bears have been a laughingstock for the better part of a decade now. But it's impossible to deny the vast improvements this roster has made in the last calendar year, the quarterback being the most important. The Chicago Bears have never drafted a quarterback like Caleb Williams, and no quarterback selected first overall has ever gone to a situation as good as Williams has in Chicago. Seven-win teams with talented rosters are not supposed to be able to draft a prospect like Williams, but the Bears did, thanks to their trade with the Carolina Panthers.
Precedent matters
The Cincinnati Bengals were recently in a similar position. They drafted quarterback Joe Burrow first overall in 2020, and in his first full season a year later, he immediately led them to a Super Bowl berth. When you get the right quarterback, the sky is the limit. And, with all due respect to the 2021 Bengals, this Chicago Bears roster is in much better shape for a talented rookie quarterback to succeed.
I'll stop short of telling Bears fans that the Super Bowl should be their expectation for the 2024 season, but when you look at the roster and the coaching on paper compared to the rest of the NFC, I have to say that I see it as a very real possibility. Count me in the Rich Eisen camp of believers.
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