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Gloom Lurks Despite Justin Fields' Optimism

Analysis: Power rankings see the Bears as the NFC North's worst team despite all the off-season work by Ryan Poles and Justin Fields.
Gene Chamberlain|
Gloom Lurks Despite Justin Fields' Optimism
Gloom Lurks Despite Justin Fields' Optimism

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Chicago Bears

The visual was startling, maybe even eerie.

On Twitter Tuesday one week before the Bears report to camp, all alone in a post was quarterback Justin Fields at Halas Hall working out just past 11 p.m. 

He's this dedicated and committed to winning, and expects positive to come from it  for the team. Fields made this apparent at a youth camp he hosted at Deerfield High School on Tuesday.

"I think there's so many reasons, I don't think there's just one particular reason," Fields told several media outlets at the camp, including the Sun-Times and WGN. "We have, of course, a bunch of new pieces on defense. The amount of leaders that we have and really just the camaraderie with everyone on the team, I think that's really just the biggest thing. We really just try to have closeness to each other."

They better have closeness and optimism. They're apparently going to need it if many analysts are right.

Ryan Poles' off-season efforts to improve the Bears are all but over, save a spare edge rusher.

It's been an interesting attempt to say the least. They couldn't find the right pass rusher off the edge and the plan is to use interior pressure instead. There have to be serious questions as to where this will come from, as well.

As a result, maybe it's no surprise the Bears are still being rated the worst team in the NFC North. 

Even the Green Bay Packers, without Aaron Rodgers, are getting the benefit of doubt over the Bears.

Pro Football Focus came out this week with team power rankings heading into training camp and the Bears rank 19th overall, which is the good news.

However, the Packers are getting higher overall marks by PFF and are said to be better in certain spots by other media outlets, and as a result they are being viewed as superior to the Bears.

PFF has the Packers No. 18, one ahead of the Bears.

Typical of the judgment calls going against the Bears in rankings is a rating by NFL.com of the best two-player position combos in the league. They list Packers linebackers De'Vondre Campbell and Quay Walker as better than Tremaine Edmunds and T.J. Edwards.

In fact, the Bears duo wasn't even third. Nick Bolton and Willie Gay of the Chiefs were third.

Linebacker was viewed by PFF as the greatest Bears area of improvement but if other analysts see them still behind the Packers in this area it can't bode well for Chicago chances of moving up the NFC North ladder.

"The Bears, even after making solid moves in free agency, still have the most salary cap available of any team," PFF's Amelia Probst and Arjun Menon wrote in their power rankings. "Their defense ranked last in the league in 2022 with a 52.4 grade, so adding two solid linebackers in Tremaine Edmunds and T.J. Edwards should help fix that."

It just doesn't help enough, apparently.

SI's Gilberto Manzano nailed it during NFL off-season work in his assessment, when he called the Bears the worst NFC North team.

"Chicago’s roster was listed last primarily because of the lack of pass rushers and run stoppers on the defensive line," Manzano wrote

The type of help they need to fix this can't really be found at this point in the year, They might be able to partially address some problems but days from the start of training camp all they'll find are a few some short-term sacks.

So the Bears need to approach this season with optimistic like Fields said they're doing.

They also need to be up working out with him until 11 p.m. at Halas Hall because it would appear from all assessments that they will require any edge they can get.

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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.

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