Bear Digest

Lions labeled vulnerable how are Bears any closer to capitalizing?

One analyst sees the defending NFC North champion Lions as most vulnerable of all division winners but task ahead appears no easier for the Bears.

Gene Chamberlain

Ben Johnson surveys the rookie camp crop. Johnson is co-favorite for NFL coach of the year according to Draft Kings.
Ben Johnson surveys the rookie camp crop. Johnson is co-favorite for NFL coach of the year according to Draft Kings. / David Banks-Imagn Images
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No matter what level of improvement coach Ben Johnson brings to the Bears, the huge obstacle to improvement remains the NFC North.

No better explanation of their plight exists than the betting odds.

They are the longest shot of the four NFC North teams to make the playoffs, even at decent odds of +160. Their Super Bowl odds aren't even poor at +350 per DraftKings, but is still last in the division. Yet, their head coach is currently that websites co-favorite with Mike Vrabel to win coach of the year at +600. He had been the sole betting favorite but has slipped.

So the odds say another last-place finish with Johnson winning top coach. Go figure.

The biggest obstacle for everyone is the Detroit Lions as defending division champion and NFL.com's Judy Battista gives Bears fans hope—not to mention Packers and Vikings fans—with an assessment of the division champions.

Of all the division winners, Battista has concluded the Lions are the most in danger of dropping.

This might not make sense to some when, on the same website, Jeffri Chadiha has the Lions among the six most likely teams to dethrone the Eagles. 

However, there is a very good argument for slippage with the Lions. It's the coaching staff, as Battista points out Detroit "...must must adjust to two new coordinators after Johnson and Aaron Glenn got head-coaching jobs. Even if that process turns out to be seamless, it’s easy to envision the division again coming down to the final week."

It goes beyond the coordinators. The Lions also lost receivers coach Antwaan Randle El and QB coach J.T. Barrett to the Bears, tight ends coach Steve Heiden and passing game coordinator Tanner Engstrand to New England and defensive line coach Terrell Williams to New England.

Their coaching staff includes the following new assistants: running backs coach Tashard Choice, defensive assistant Caleb Collins, offensive assistant Bruce Gradkowski, defensive assistant August Mangin, offensive quality control coach Justin Mesa, tight ends coach Tyler Roehl, defensive run game coordinator/defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers, passing game coordinator David Shaw and offensive assistant Marques Tuiasosopo.

After all of those new faces came in and other coaches were promoted into new roles, Dan Campbell could find the task ahead quite different even if he has improved personnel.

If coaching stability is everything, though, the Packers and Vikings should be tough for the Lions to hold off but no easier for the Bears to climb past.

Virtually their entire Bears staff has changed, but it's obviously viewed as a positive after last year's fiasco.

The bottom line is Detroit kept its head coach, many of their coaching staff members are the same but in different roles, and their personnel looks improved.

In that regard, the NFC North looks no easier for the Bears or either of the other NFC North teams that finished behind the Lions. Last place is last place.

No last-place team has ever made the playoffs. Even when the old NFC Central put four in the playoffs in 1994, Tampa Bay was in fifth and in last.

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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.