Other NFC North News

[JABF]

They don't seem to have much going for them. Is this year two of the most recent rebuild? I guess you gotta give the new GM another year or two to see if he's making headway, but right now, it don't look good for da Bears.

I have no idea what to expect from the Vikes. And of course the Loins are the sexy pick this year. We'll see. They do have a helluva offensive line, though.

Last season was the tank year. The Bears were in cap hell from the previous GM's poor management of the money. They got rid of a number of players. They just nuked the roster and suffered the dead cap hits. But they did 3 things there. They quickly healed their cap - they had a very healthy cap this year... they got healthy, fast. They off loaded a lot of old/underperforming players and ended up with the 1st pick (the soft-tank was executed well... LOL, and Lovie Smith sure helped too by winning that last game in Houston). This is year-1 of the rebuild. They got D.J. Moore and a solid OL with that 1st round pick they ended up with this year. But it is a VERY young team with like 40 new players (the nuke of the roster was scorched earth stuff.... I've never seen a team torn down that far before). So don't expect much from the Bears this year. But next year they have a boatload of draft picks and two 1st round picks too. 2024 should be a decent team. This year? Maybe .500 ball with improvement, but only 8 or 9 wins.

[smuggler]

The offense will probably be better, but the defense will be worse. Fields will probably be worse from the perspective that he'll be required to throw more with other teams scoring more points. The rushing numbers will still be there, assuming he doesn't get hurt. Hard to guess on record, because small changes make drastic differences there sometimes.

I would think floor is probably four wins and the ceiling is nine. Over/under 6.5... if my life depended on it, I'd pick under.

Vegas looks to have it at 7.5, which I would guess is from the Justin Fields as Cam Newton 2.0 hype.

Bet the under.

[Fritz]

Supposedly the Vikes considering trading for Josh Jacobs.

[QBME]

Last season was the tank year. The Bears were in cap hell from the previous GM's poor management of the money. They got rid of a number of players. They just nuked the roster and suffered the dead cap hits. But they did 3 things there. They quickly healed their cap - they had a very healthy cap this year... they got healthy, fast. They off loaded a lot of old/underperforming players and ended up with the 1st pick (the soft-tank was executed well... LOL, and Lovie Smith sure helped too by winning that last game in Houston). This is year-1 of the rebuild. They got D.J. Moore and a solid OL with that 1st round pick they ended up with this year. But it is a VERY young team with like 40 new players (the nuke of the roster was scorched earth stuff.... I've never seen a team torn down that far before). So don't expect much from the Bears this year. But next year they have a boatload of draft picks and two 1st round picks too. 2024 should be a decent team. This year? Maybe .500 ball with improvement, but only 8 or 9 wins.

Nice take.
I'm also in semi rural Illinois so I have a steady stream of Bears analysis.
The new Ryan seems to really have his shit together, which is bad news for us
Looking forward to the season opener

Hope the recent new stadium issue is a real distraction.