With the most recent off-season, the Chicago Bears have made the most significant changes they’ve made in the past decade, with signings dedicated to fixing the offense and firing coaches. The biggest improvement of all is their new head coach, Ben Johnson, who took charge as the offensive coordinator of the 15-2 Lions last season. As well as major trades for improving the offensive line due to being last out of all 32 teams in the NFL last season, with a record-breaking 68 sacks. With the addition of coach Ben Johnson, he brought along the Saints head coach, Dennis Allen, as the Bears’ new defensive coordinator, who, while on the Saints, was 14th place in allowing yards or points from 2018-2023.
Offensive Line
With the struggling offensive line last season, the Bears organization decided it was time to invest their cap space in signing new players. Right away, when the Bears signed their new head coach, the organization signed veteran Offensive Lineman Joe Thuney, who in the past guarded the two-time Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, and played alongside 7-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady. Along with many other key players, such as Center, Drew Dalman, and Guard, Jonah Jackson. With these new moves, the Bears’ offensive line has moved up to 17th in pass protection in just the first 4 weeks.
Coaches
With the new staff members included, Ryan Poles, general manager, decided to carry on their team with new Head coach Ben Johnson, and defensive coordinator Dennis Allen. Although to acknowledge what it took to finally get a reasonable staff organization, we have to see last season’s atrocities. The team went 5-12, having a horrible losing streak after the tragic Hail Mary loss to the Commanders after their bye week. The Bears, however, on paper, were having a losing season; the players never gave up and always kept it close. The coaching of the team really started to influence and show the lack of discipline in the Thanksgiving game versus the Detroit Lions, having another tragic loss strictly from the coaching side, not having enough time management to win the game. After this game, a statement was released that the Bears were moving on from head coach Matt Eberflus, with his record of 15-36 in all games with the Chicago Bears, and due to his lack of urgency and quality he brought to the team. It was stated by many players that there were often weeks where rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was stuck watching film all day instead of practicing and creating plays for next week’s game. Coming after the Lions’ loss, Chicago hired temporary head coach Thomas Brown as a fill-in until the team found a proper coach. The Bears finished the season with Thomas Brown ending on a win against the Green Bay Packers, whom the team had not beaten since 2018. Although things seemed better, the Bears decided to move on from him and spend the rest of the season finding the perfect head coach. Ultimately, after the Detroit Lions’ loss in the playoffs, it was later revealed their offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was gonna take the job and since then has made a 2-2 record starting the new season.
Record
The Chicago Bears are just coming off their bye week, and a lot can be taken away from their recent games. They fell 2-2, losing their first two games, and had a good bounce back with 2 straight wins. This puts the bears at basically ground zero all over again. The rest of the season will be no breaks as they no longer have their bye week; however, the Bears are on the chopping block as the next few games really depict whether or not this team is good. We have seen the ups and we have seen the downs of this team this season, and we’re hoping they take what they’ve done well and what they’ve done badly and fix it throughout this bye week. If not, then the Bears have a tough schedule and will end up losing 50% of those games if not taken seriously.