The Chicago Bears playoff chances are not good. At least when it comes to asking ESPN about the idea. This shouldn’t be a surprise. There have been times over the years where it feels like the longtime sports powerhouse has had a certain “distaste” for the Bears. That may just be the ramblings of a Chicago conspiracy theorist but I digress. Bottom line is the research and “moneyball” style math would seem to indicate this team is doomed in 2017.
In order to gauge the odds for every team, something called the Football Power Index (FPI) was created. Hank Gargiulo of the ESPN analytics team broke it down as such.
“As we edge closer to the start of the NFL season, ESPN’s Sports Analytics team has calculated our initial Football Power Index rankings for 2017. In short, a team’s FPI rating combines its efficiency ratings on offense, defense and special teams — based on each unit’s expected points added per play — with the sum of all three squad ratings yielding the overall FPI rating.”
In other words it’s just another fancy version of a power rankings with a slight twist. Pretty much the usual suspects are at the top. New England in the AFC. Seattle, Green Bay, Atlanta and Dallas in the NFC. It was mildly surprising that the Seahawks were favorites to win the #1 seed in the playoffs this year. As for the rest of the NFC North?
Chicago Bears playoff chances are…almost invisible
Suffice to say the math seems to have way more faith in the Packers, Vikings and Lions than the Bears at this point. Understandable since all three have made the postseason since 2015. Something Chicago cannot boast. Still, is it really that bad? Well looking at the chart, it doesn’t get a lot worse.
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
There’s just no getting around it. The Bears have the second-worst odds of making the playoffs in the NFC. Only San Francisco is worse. In fact their chances of securing the #1 overall pick in the draft are better and that hasn’t happened since 1947. Ouch. Suffice to say 2017 is going to be a massive proving ground for this young team.
Last look shows that 79 of the 90 players currently on the Bears roster were acquired by GM Ryan Pace. This is unquestionably his team now and his grace period is nearing an end. The third season is when some sort of progress is expected from a rebuilding team. Okay the playoffs are a little too much to hope for, but 6-10 to 8-8 is a reasonable goal to shoot for.
