It might be comprehensible in case your expectations for the 2025 Chicago Bears have been low when the season started. They’ve two playoff appearances up to now 14 years, zero playoff wins in that point and haven’t even been to the playoffs because the 2020 season.
With a second-year quarterback (Caleb Williams), a first-year head coach (Ben Johnson) and coming off a five-win season, it might have been straightforward to chalk this up as a rebuilding yr. Or no less than a transition yr.
Johnson doesn’t wish to hear any of that discuss and made it clear on Friday that his expectations for this season are to compete.
Ben Johnson just isn’t in Chicago to rebuild
With the Bears sitting at 4-2 going into Sunday’s sport towards the Baltimore Ravens, it is a fantastic alternative to essentially begin establishing themselves as a playoff contender this season.
Johnson continued to emphasise the precedence on Friday at his news conference.
“The mission has all the time been to win and to win now,” Johnson mentioned. “I mentioned that in my opening press convention and I’ve been according to that with the staff. That’s the end-all be-all, that’s what we’re going on the market to do. I don’t see this as a staff in transition. That is the 2025 Chicago Bears and we’ve got an opportunity to place a stamp on what this chapter of Chicago Bears historical past goes to seem like.”
It most likely shouldn’t be a shock that Johnson has that mentality. When he was the offensive coordinator with the Detroit Lions, he was extraordinarily choosy about what job he would depart for. It needed to be the proper job, and the proper scenario. That alone made it sound like he was not curious about any form of long-term rebuild.
Regardless of the Bears’ latest struggles, and particularly just lately, there was nonetheless a ton of potential right here given the upside of Williams and the talent place gamers they’ve assembled round him. They only wanted one thing to convey all of it collectively and the proper offensive thoughts to maximise their skills.
To this point, Johnson appears to be doing so.
However it is usually value noting that final yr’s Bears staff was in a really comparable scenario.
In actual fact, it was the identical scenario with the identical file.
It was in that sport that they misplaced on a last-second Hail Mary to the Washington Commanders, beginning a 10-game dropping streak that didn’t finish till a meaningless Week 18 win over the Green Bay Packers.
This can be a massive stretch of video games the place they need to keep away from that form of fall off, and it begins on Sunday at a Ravens staff which may have quarterback Lamar Jackson again within the lineup. If they will win that sport, they’ve winnable video games towards the Cincinnati Bengals and Minnesota Vikings to comply with.
