Post by Deleted on Dec 28, 2017 8:45:05 GMT -6
Column: At 5-10 heading into finale, Bears are who we thought they would be
Brad BiggsBrad BiggsContact ReporterChicago Tribune
Link: www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/ct-spt-bears-biggs-20171227-story.html
With one game remaining in what looks like John Fox’s final season as coach, it’s safe to say the Bears are who we thought they would be.
A majority of observers pegged them as a five- or six-win team in 2017 and at 5-10 heading to Minnesota as a 11½-point underdog for a game that has playoff-seeding implications for the Vikings, the Bears will wind up on one total or the other.
That also happens to be where Las Vegas oddsmakers slotted the Bears this summer, posting an over/under for total victories this season at 5½. Those holding tickets on that bet will have more than casual interest.
It wasn’t hard to forecast the Bears remaining deep in the throes of their second rebuild since the Lovie Smith heyday as they were coming off a brutal three-win season and used their first-round draft pick on quarterback Mitch Trubisky, who they originally intended to sit and watch for much longer than four games, and their second-round pick on tight end Adam Shaheen, counting on him to make the major leap from Division II to the NFL.
Those were picks made with the future in mind, a future that has looked for some time like it will not include Fox and the majority of his coaching staff. It’s not that drafting Trubisky, or another quarterback at the top of the draft, was a bad move. It was the right move. The Bears had to do that and they really should have in 2015 when general manager Ryan Pace and Fox came in with a regime change.
Fox, whose contract runs through the 2018 season, was in a challenging spot no matter what the Bears did in the draft. He likely was going to have to win this season — more than five or six games — to get a contract extension or have the chance to finish his deal. So none of this should be a shock. Not to observers. Not to those on the inside at Halas Hall. As ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported in April, Fox didn’t learn the Bears were going to select Trubisky until the day of the draft and that is accurate. That’s when Fox found out exactly what he would be working with — a first-round pick that might signal great hope for the future of the franchise but might not help win games right away.
Fox didn’t address the draft class until the three-day affair ended in April. He was asked how the team was going to improve this year drafting players that might not contribute a lot as rookies?
“Well, I think we would’ve been much better last year if we could’ve stayed more healthy,” Fox said. “I don’t know that we were blessed with a lot of depth going into the season and obviously that takes its toll. I had to visit with you guys every Monday after those. But I think just getting healthy will be real important, plus the additions we’ve made in free agency and now with the draft.”
When getting healthy is the biggest factor you can pin to improvement coming off a three-win season, it spells that those improvements probably are going to be measured in steps not leaps and bounds.
Now, if Trubisky can make major gains in the coming offseason and the team can outfit him with better skill position players, maybe they can really jump forward.
The real question for the Bears now is as much as people saw this coming, how prepared are they for what lies ahead? Fox has marched to the podium dutifully to face questions about the organization five days each week over the course of the season. He’s the guy who has stood up and taken the bullets and he has done so without questioning any elements of the roster or embarrassing the club. He knows how the game works. Others will have to step forward, probably Monday, and answer the tough questions the Bears face moving forward.
It will be time for them to act decisively to convince people they know what they’re doing. By then we will know if the Bears are over or under 5½.
bmbiggs@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @bradbiggs
Brad BiggsBrad BiggsContact ReporterChicago Tribune
Link: www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/ct-spt-bears-biggs-20171227-story.html
With one game remaining in what looks like John Fox’s final season as coach, it’s safe to say the Bears are who we thought they would be.
A majority of observers pegged them as a five- or six-win team in 2017 and at 5-10 heading to Minnesota as a 11½-point underdog for a game that has playoff-seeding implications for the Vikings, the Bears will wind up on one total or the other.
That also happens to be where Las Vegas oddsmakers slotted the Bears this summer, posting an over/under for total victories this season at 5½. Those holding tickets on that bet will have more than casual interest.
It wasn’t hard to forecast the Bears remaining deep in the throes of their second rebuild since the Lovie Smith heyday as they were coming off a brutal three-win season and used their first-round draft pick on quarterback Mitch Trubisky, who they originally intended to sit and watch for much longer than four games, and their second-round pick on tight end Adam Shaheen, counting on him to make the major leap from Division II to the NFL.
Those were picks made with the future in mind, a future that has looked for some time like it will not include Fox and the majority of his coaching staff. It’s not that drafting Trubisky, or another quarterback at the top of the draft, was a bad move. It was the right move. The Bears had to do that and they really should have in 2015 when general manager Ryan Pace and Fox came in with a regime change.
Fox, whose contract runs through the 2018 season, was in a challenging spot no matter what the Bears did in the draft. He likely was going to have to win this season — more than five or six games — to get a contract extension or have the chance to finish his deal. So none of this should be a shock. Not to observers. Not to those on the inside at Halas Hall. As ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported in April, Fox didn’t learn the Bears were going to select Trubisky until the day of the draft and that is accurate. That’s when Fox found out exactly what he would be working with — a first-round pick that might signal great hope for the future of the franchise but might not help win games right away.
Fox didn’t address the draft class until the three-day affair ended in April. He was asked how the team was going to improve this year drafting players that might not contribute a lot as rookies?
“Well, I think we would’ve been much better last year if we could’ve stayed more healthy,” Fox said. “I don’t know that we were blessed with a lot of depth going into the season and obviously that takes its toll. I had to visit with you guys every Monday after those. But I think just getting healthy will be real important, plus the additions we’ve made in free agency and now with the draft.”
When getting healthy is the biggest factor you can pin to improvement coming off a three-win season, it spells that those improvements probably are going to be measured in steps not leaps and bounds.
Now, if Trubisky can make major gains in the coming offseason and the team can outfit him with better skill position players, maybe they can really jump forward.
The real question for the Bears now is as much as people saw this coming, how prepared are they for what lies ahead? Fox has marched to the podium dutifully to face questions about the organization five days each week over the course of the season. He’s the guy who has stood up and taken the bullets and he has done so without questioning any elements of the roster or embarrassing the club. He knows how the game works. Others will have to step forward, probably Monday, and answer the tough questions the Bears face moving forward.
It will be time for them to act decisively to convince people they know what they’re doing. By then we will know if the Bears are over or under 5½.
bmbiggs@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @bradbiggs