Let’s be real — watching Super Bowl LX today in Santa Clara feels a little bit like watching your ex-girlfriend marry a billionaire. It’s annoying, it’s frustrating, and you can’t help but think, “That should be me.” The Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots are out there slugging it out for a ring, and neither of these teams even sniffed the playoffs in 2023. They were bottom-feeders. Jokes. And yet, here they are. For our Chicago Bears — who just clawed their way to an 11-6 record and an NFC North title before getting their hearts ripped out by the Rams in a divisional OT thriller — the view from the couch is a wake-up call.
Ben Johnson has the offense humming. Caleb Williams is officially The Guy. But being “pretty good” is how you end up as a footnote in someone else’s championship DVD. If Ryan Poles and Johnson want to be the ones getting showered in confetti next February, they need to stop “trusting the process” and start stealing the blueprints currently on display.
Here are the five deep-tissue lessons the Bears must absorb from Super Bowl LX to turn Halas Hall into a trophy room.
1. Stop Being Cute and Overhaul the Defensive Front
The Proof on the Field Today
Look at the defensive lines out there today. It’s not just talent; it’s a goddamn arms race. The Seahawks are rolling with Mike Macdonald’s “Best D-Line Ever,” featuring Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy II. They added DeMarcus Lawrence as a free agent, and the dude has been a one-man wrecking crew with 14 TFLs this season.
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On the other side, the Patriots decided that “budget” wasn’t in their vocabulary. They dropped $104 million on Milton Williams to pair with Christian Barmore. The result? They’ve logged 12 sacks in three playoff games. They are 12-0 when their interior anchors are healthy. Twelve and zero. That’s not a stat; that’s a cheat code.
The Cold, Hard Chicago Truth
We need to talk about the Bears’ defense, and it’s not going to be pretty. In 2025, we ranked 23rd in scoring defense and 29th in total yards. We were the “Paper Tigers” of the NFC. Sure, Dennis Allen’s unit led the league with 33 forced turnovers, but that’s like living off lottery tickets — eventually, the numbers stop hitting.
Aside from Montez Sweat, our pass rush was as threatening as a wet paper bag. The rest of the roster combined for 25 sacks. That is malpractice. We ranked 27th in rush defense. You can’t win a Super Bowl when you’re getting bullied in the trenches.
The Directive: The 25th overall pick shouldn’t even be a discussion: it’s an Edge or a 3-Tech. We need someone who makes Montez Sweat’s life easier. Whether it’s T.J. Parker from Clemson or a premium free agent, the “Dayo Odeyingbo gamble” approach (one sack in eight games) is officially dead. If we don’t invest $100M+ or a top-25 pick into the interior, we’re just waiting to get run over again.
2. The “Macdonald” Defensive Evolution: Nickel is the New Base
The Schematic Revolution
Mike Macdonald is currently the smartest guy in every room he walks into. His Seahawks defense is the blueprint for the modern NFL. They play two-high safety shells, they stay in nickel (5+ DBs) 80% of the time, and they still stop the run.
How? By using versatile chess pieces. They don’t have “positions”; they have “problems.” Nick Emmanwori plays safety, nickel, and linebacker in the same drive. Devon Witherspoon is a chameleon. They generate pressure without blitzing by using stunts and simulated pressures that make offensive coordinators’ brains melt.
Application to the Midway
Dennis Allen has the turnovers, but he doesn’t have the stability. The Bears need to move away from the “bend but don’t break” philosophy and move toward the “Macdonald” philosophy.
We have some pieces. Montez Sweat is solid. Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon are a beasts when healthy. But we are missing that “Apex” defender — the hybrid safety/nickel who can hit like a linebacker and cover like a corner.
Data Visualization Code (Mental Model):
- Seahawks: Blitz Rate: 18% (30th) | Pressure Rate: 35.2% (5th)
- Bears: Blitz Rate: 29% (12th) | Pressure Rate: 22.0% (22nd)
This shows exactly why we’re failing. We have to sell out to get pressure, which leaves our secondary exposed (see: the Bo Melton 45-yard TD disaster in Week 14). We need a front four that can win on their own so our DBs can actually do their jobs.
3. The “Patriots” One-Year Reconstruction: The Window is Now
The All-In Approach
The Patriots went from 4-13 to the Super Bowl in one year. How? By being unapologetically aggressive. They had $120M in cap space and they spent every dime on starters — not “depth,” not “rotational guys,” but dawgs. Milton Williams, Stefon Diggs, Robert Spillane. They also hit on their rookie linemen like Will Campbell.
Why the Bears Can (and Must) Do It
We are in a better spot than the 2025 Patriots were. We have Caleb Williams in Year 3 of his rookie deal. This is the “Golden Window.” By 2028, Caleb is going to be asking for a contract that looks like a small country’s GDP.
Ryan Poles needs to stop being the “value” guy for one offseason. Yes, we’re tight on cap, but we can clear $40M tomorrow. D’Andre Swift ($9M) and Cole Kmet ($11.6M) are great, but are they “Lombardi” great? If cutting them or restructuring them allows us to land a superstar edge rusher, you do it without blinking.
The lesson from the Patriots: You don’t build a champion over three years. You build it in one violent, intentional offseason.
4. Chase the “Explosive Play” Dragon
The Great Differentiator
Super Bowl LX is being called the “Explosive Play Bowl.” The Patriots lead the league in creating them (13.6%), and the Seahawks are the best at preventing them. It’s the ultimate high-stakes chess match.
The Patriots do it with “The 3 Ms”: Misdirection, Manipulation, and Motion. They use pre-snap motion on 60% of their plays. The Seahawks do it with elite YAC monsters like Jaxon Smith-Njigba and deep threats like Rashid Shaheed.
Caleb’s Next Step
Ben Johnson is a genius — let’s get that out of the way. He turned Caleb into a 3,900-yard, 27-TD passer and cut his sacks from 68 to 24. That’s incredible. But Caleb’s 58.1% completion percentage is the “check engine” light. He’s still too reliant on the “miracle” play.
We need to give him more “easy” buttons. We have Rome Odunze and Colston Loveland — those guys are technicians. But we lack that “take the lid off” speed. We need a Rashid Shaheed clone—a vertical eraser that forces safeties to back up ten yards just by existing. While Luther Burden III flashed some of that electric game-breaking ability this season, Ben Johnson needs to fully unlock his vertical gear to keep defenses from choking the intermediate lanes.
And for the love of everything holy, we need keep having a running game that doesn’t just “exist” but “dominates.” Kyle Monangai was a 7th-round miracle, but if a guy like Breece Hall hits the market and fits Johnson’s scheme? You pay him. A run game that sets up play-action is how Caleb goes from “Promising” to “MVP.”
5. Build an Unshakable Culture (The “4 Hs” Factor)
The Invisible Edge
You hear the stories coming out of these locker rooms. Mike Vrabel has his players sharing their “4 Hs” — History, Heartbreak, Hope, and Hero. He’s chugging beers with them after wins. Mike Macdonald is so transparent about his mistakes that his players would run through a brick wall for him.
Johnson’s Chicago Foundation
Ben Johnson has already done the heavy lifting. He took a 5-12 locker room that was practically radioactive under Eberflus and turned it into a gritty, 11-win unit with six comeback victories. He’s the leader this city has been begging for since Ditka.
But to reach the Super Bowl, that culture has to become “non-negotiable.” It means the defense has to hold itself to the same standard as the offense. It means being disciplined enough not to have “clock brain farts” (looking at you, Week 14). The Super Bowl teams aren’t just talented; they are connected.
When Ryan Poles brings in new talent this spring, he shouldn’t just look at the 40-time or the arm length. He needs to find guys who fit the “Johnson Identity” — smart, tough, and resilient.
Final Verdict
Look, it’s easy to get bogged down in the spreadsheet war of who to cut, which rookie has the longest arms, or whether a free agent is worth an extra $2M. But let’s get one thing clear: these are hypothetical maneuvers meant to illustrate a much larger point.
The Bears are close. We’re “knocking on the door” close. But as we see today, the teams that actually get inside the room are the ones that kick the door down. This isn’t just about a specific draft pick or a single contract — it’s about a total philosophical lock-in.
- Seattle kicked it down with a legendary D-line philosophy.
- New England kicked it down with an aggressive, culture-first spending spree.
The Bears have the Quarterback. They have the Playcaller. They have the Draft Picks. Now they just need the balls to adopt the mindset of a champion before the first snap of 2026. If Poles and Johnson stop playing the “wait and see” game and start dictating the terms of the NFC North, we won’t be watching Super Bowl LXI from the couch. We’ll be the ones making everyone else’s ex-girlfriends jealous.
