Ryan Poles delivers talent-rich 53-man roster.

There were reasons for the defense being good in the back half of the season. Health & Sweat trade.
1st half of the season:
KylerGordon IR 4 games
Josh Blackwell out/IR 7 games
Eddie Jackson out 5 games
JaylonJohnson out 2 games
Tremain Edmunds out 2 games
Terrel Smith out 5 games
None of these guys missed games in the last 8 games*
*Jaylon Johnson missed last game
Plus the addition of Sweat obviously had a huge impact on the pass rush.
No reason to think this team's D will look like the start of 2023. Injuries happen but depth has been addressed this offseason.

You don’t have to go any farther than Trubisky to answer that question.

 Here is one for you: 2024 defense or 2006 defense?

Obviously it hasn't shown it "yet" the season hasn't started. That team also faced 9 different teams that finished below .500, and of the NFCN opponents, only Minny finished over .500, w/8 wins and a tie, so that's 11 teams(gb/det 2 more games of sub .500). That schedule was LAUGHABLY weak. You act as if that team was just dominating, of the 12 wins they beat only 3 teams w/a winning record(4 w/both Minny win's) the other 2 had 10+ wins. They beat 2 teams that year that were worth a damn. It's no surprise they lost in the playoffs, they weren't battletested. Soft as room temp butter was that schedule, and that team.

The schedule this year isn't going to be that weak, so no there won't be 12 wins; but 9-10 wins w/the current schedule is likely still better then 10 wins against scrubs. The Div alone is way harder w/both Det and GB guaranteed to finish over .500 unless there is a catastrophic set of injuries, along the lines of Minny. That def was really good, but the O was equally bad. This years team doesn't have that issue. Both sides are strong. While that def's set of starters is stronger, I'll take this defs depth. There is a lot more youth on this def also, so there isn't a clock ticking on it's key players.

The point JABF and others are making is that the talent is on both sides of the ball, which is NOT something we've have had before, it's not an aberration. There isn't one NFL team that doesn't have holes or questionmarks, hard caps don't allow it. The 06 team had question marks, the lovie teams after it had them, the Trestman teams had them, same w/the Nagy ones. But I honestly cannot remember a Bears team that looked like it had both sides of the ball w/more +'s then -'s w/more upside then oh hell we're screwed. It's normally like the 18 team where it's ya the def is amazing, hopefully the O doesn't blow it, or in the trestman years, man the O looks damn good, will the Def not implode b/c their still pissy about Lovie being let go.