How Bad Do People Think the Bears Are?
The Bears are not the worst team in Pro Football.
At least according to the analytics experts at Pro Football Focus, they aren't.
PFF has released its actual power rankings, a little later in the process than most websites, but after an offseason when opinion of the Bears has plummeted throughout the media and among analysts, the team is not worst in the NFL according to Sam Monson and his often-quoted website.
The Bears are 31st out of 32 teams.
Hey, it's better than 32nd.
Monson follows this with an understanding of how GM Ryan Poles is operating with an eye on a completely clean salary cap for 2023 during a total rebuild.
"New general manager Ryan Poles inherited an ugly situation in Chicago and has done what he can to set the team on the right track in his first offseason," Monson writes, before going into the overused and now totally trite statement about how they didn't do enough to help Justin Fields.
It would be refreshing to hear some other, deeper analysis from people than that tired line of thought. It's low-hanging fruit this year.
All of this is well and good but the really interesting thing about the power rankings by PFF is not how the Bears are better than only Seattle this year.
What's most interesting are the teams ranked just ahead of the Bears who also are on the schedule for Chicago this year.
Most offseason analysis is based on projections of wins and losses from opponents last year. They aren't going to play last year's teams. They're playing this year's.
So if PFF's power rankings are to be believed, the Bears this year will be playing nine games against teams ranked in the nine spots directly ahead of them.
The Bears are playing a schedule loaded with not just medocre teams but many other really bad teams.
It can mean wins when the Bears would be losing against playoff-type teams. Beat the other weaklings and win one or two upsets and you could even be in—it's almost difficult to write—the playoffs.
The Bears play the Falcons, who are ranked 30th by PFF. They play the 28th-ranked Texans, 26th-ranked Giants, 25th-ranked Jets and 23rd-ranked Commanders. And they play two games against both the 24th-ranked Lions and 22nd-ranked Vikings. Nine games constitutes more than half the schedule against teams barely better, in the eyes of PFF anyway.
Some other analysts actually have the Bears rated better than many of these teams. ESPN and Pro Football Network have ranked them 24th. So it's not unreasonable to expect they could be respectable.
In the end, all of these offseason rankings amount to so much garbage.
PFF had Cincinnati ranked 27th in its preseason power rankings for 2021, not in the Super Bowl. So much changes or happens in the course of a year and plenty is guessed wrong by the experts.
After all, these are only guesses.
Here is where all the major power rankings have the Bears rated after the draft.
It's a good table to save and refer to in the future if the Bears prove far better than they're credited for by the experts. Links are in the table but if they've expired there is a URL list at the bottom of the page.
Where the Bears Rank
| Site | Bears Ranking | Author | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
SI | 32nd | Conor Orr | |
PFF | 31st | Sam Monson | |
NFL.com | 30th | Dan Hanzus | |
ESPN | 24th | Staff | |
CBS Sports | 27th | Pete Prisco | |
NBC Sports | 28th | Peter King | |
USA Today | 31st | Nate Davis | |
Bleacher Report | 31st | Staff | |
Pro Football Network | 24th | Dalton Miller |
PFN: https://www.profootballnetwork.com/nfl-power-rankings-post-free-agency-2022/
CBS: https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/powerrankings/
NBC: https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2022/05/23/2022-nfl-power-rankings-fmia-peter-king/
ESPN: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/33899053/nfl-power-rankings-2022-offseason-1-32-poll-plus-players-benefited-most-draft-trades
USA Today: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/columnist/nate-davis/2022/05/05/nfl-power-rankings-2022-draft-aj-brown-eagles-ravens-jets/9656235002/
Bleacher Report: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2955829-nfl-power-rankings-where-does-every-team-stand-after-the-2022-nfl-draft
PFF: https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-power-rankings-ahead-of-the-2023-season
NFL Network: https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-power-rankings-which-teams-improved-most-after-2022-nfl-draft
SI.com: https://www.si.com/nfl/2022/05/11/nfl-power-rankings-after-draft
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
