Bear Digest

Chicago Bears given familiar pretender tag by future opponent

The offseason champions title is something many people have said about the Bears based on recent years and now Dallas receiver Cee Dee Lamb has joined the crowd.

Gene Chamberlain

Dallas receiver Cee Dee Lamb beats Giants safety Julian Love for a big catch.
Dallas receiver Cee Dee Lamb beats Giants safety Julian Love for a big catch. / Matthew Emmons-Imagn Images
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The Bears' home schedule could be more interesting than usual next year with a possible rematch against the man who said he owned them, Aaron Rodgers, should he turn up in Minnesota or Pittsburgh.

The Dallas game already looked like it would be that way because of Matt Eberflus being Cowboys defensive coordinator, but now there's another reason.

Wide receiver Cee Dee Lamb, in a widely circulated video, labeled the Bears as a team that never is good after being extremely active in the offseason.

"Free agency is always fun because you never know what the next team is going to look like," Lamb said.

His example:

"The Bears, they were terrible last year," Lamb added.

Before people get too worked up about it, all Lamb did was point out how the Bears win the offseason every year.

This is actually the reputation everyone has been pointing out, but this label is a bit simplistic and this time there really is reason to see them as drastically improved.

They finally attacked the real problem on the line of scrimmage. They brought in the absolute hottest head coaching candidate.

Peter Schrager of NFL Network labeled them as most improved team, but didn't say they were winning anything, and that probably makes more sense than doing what Nick Wright did last year on Fox by putting them in the Super Bowl.

This is only the third straight year they've created an offseason stir. They didn't normally do enough in the offseason when Matt Nagy was coach and definitely didn't when Eberflus was coach his first year when they had no first-round pick or salary cap space because of dead cap from dumping salaries— that is, unless Byron Pringle or Justin Jones were your idea of big acquisitions.

Even in 2023 free agency didn't cause the change. It was the trade down that brought DJ Moore and a largen number of draft picks, and then they did improve by three wins.

The hype last year came from a new QB in Caleb Williams, but rookie QBs are not usually going to uplift teams by themselves the way Jayden Daniels and C.J. Stroud seemed to do the last two years.

In a league where what a team did three or four years ago is quickly forgotten, two years builds and cements a reputation. So the Bears probably need to own this tag for now.

Lamb speaking a perceived truth is no reason to have extra incentive to win. Facing Eberflus is, though.

The Bears will get to hold him accountable on the field that day.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.