It’s time.
For the last twenty years, writing over at DaBearsBlog.com, I have preached patience. Not because I’m a patient human being, mind you; my friends will all tell you that patience is not a virtue I possess. No, I have preached patience because it has always seemed like the Chicago Bears were in the middle of a process. The GM just had his first dinner with George. The coach had just closed on his lavish Lake Forest estate. The quarterback had just landed at O’Hare and learned how cold the winters can be in the Midwest. Nobody ever seemed settled, the program never seemed primed. The only plausible exception in the post-Lovie Smith era was 2019 – a team I predicted to win the Super Bowl if Mitch Trubisky took the next step. He did take the next step. He stepped right into oncoming traffic on Lake Shore Drive.
That’s over now.
The GM tore down the whole megillah and built a competitive roster. The quarterback, a star prospect, is entering his second year, a pivotal one in monitoring historical development. The new coach is projected to be a shining star in a league where those types of fellas don’t take time to start winning. Would it be easy to show patience and allow a season for this new trio to find their collective footing? Yes. Am I doing that? No. Why? Because I’m getting old, damn it, and I want to start enjoying my Sundays again.
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The 2025 Chicago Bears need to win. They need to win significantly more than they lose. And they need to be playing in the knockout tournament once the calendar shifts to 2026. Anything less – ANYTHING – will make this upcoming season a failure in my eyes. “Signs of improvement” are no longer enough in a league where championship windows open and close faster than a Turkish taqueria in Yerevan. (Apologies to former Monday Night Football commentator Dennis Miller.) “Signs of improvement” is just another way of saying “prolonged mediocrity” in the NFL.
And with the Chicago Bears, with a few exceptions over the last twenty years, it’s been prolonged mediocrity…at best. That has to end. These men have to end it. And they have to start in 2025.
