It might be comprehensible in case your expectations for the 2025 Chicago Bears had been low when the season started. They’ve two playoff appearances previously 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 will have been simple to chalk this up as a rebuilding yr. Or at the least a transition yr.
Johnson doesn’t need to hear any of that speak and made it clear on Friday that his expectations for this season are to compete.
Ben Johnson shouldn’t be in Chicago to rebuild
With the Bears sitting at 4-2 going into Sunday’s sport in opposition to the Baltimore Ravens, it is an incredible 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 at all times been to win and to win now,” Johnson mentioned. “I mentioned that in my opening press convention and I’ve been in step with that with the group. 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 group 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 go away for. It needed to be the precise job, and the precise scenario. That alone made it sound like he was not fascinated by any type 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 ability place gamers they’ve assembled round him. They simply wanted one thing to convey all of it collectively and the precise offensive thoughts to maximise their abilities.
Thus far, Johnson appears to be doing so.
However it is usually value noting that final yr’s Bears group was in a really related 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 shedding streak that didn’t finish till a meaningless Week 18 win over the Green Bay Packers.
This can be a huge stretch of video games the place they must keep away from that type of fall off, and it begins on Sunday at a Ravens group which may have quarterback Lamar Jackson again within the lineup. If they will win that sport, they’ve winnable video games in opposition to the Cincinnati Bengals and Minnesota Vikings to comply with.
