Steve Rosenbloom at the Chicago Tribune comments upon the Super Bowl and points out that both teams were formerly coached by Bears head coach John Fox. That leads him to this statement:
“Fox’s history says he’s a quick-turnaround coach. Fox’s history also suggests someone else will have to win a Super Bowl for the Bears.
“But first, Fox’s Bears must reach the playoffs next season. Must. Period. End of discussion.”
Then he says this:
“[D]efense is the fastest way to respectability, and Fox starts with defense.
“His influence, or maybe I should say his obsession, is seen on the Super Bowl teams. It has been seen here already and will continue to be.
“In Fox’s first season, the Bears defense finished remarkably well considering it needs improvement at almost every position.”
Rosenbloom is setting both himself and other Bears fans up for major disappointment if he expects a playoff berth with that defense. As Rosenbloom says, they have needs literally everywhere on defense and they don’t have a single defensive playmaker to work with. Fox is a good coach with a very good staff. But even good coaches need at least some talent to succeed.
Is it possible that the Bears will make the playoffs next year? If they have a great season and everything falls their way it’s possible. But I wouldn’t expect it. I’d save that for 2017 after the Bears have a couple more drafts to get themselves together.
It’s way too early for this but since Rosenblom brought it up, off hand I’d say 0.500 would be a reasonably good season next year. That’s assuming that Jay Cutler doesn’t pull a disappearing act, they have a reasonably good draft, use free agency to fill a couple holes, and stay reasonably healthy. We’ll see what happens after that.
EDIT: I thought this video from Sports Talk Live on CSN Chicago might be interesting as an addendum to this post.