Bear Digest

Playoffs? Bears now have better than 50-50 shot in some projections

The schedule gets much tougher for the Bears going forward, but the numbers say a 6-3 team is favored to get into the playoffs.
Gene Chamberlain|
C.J. Gardner-Johnson celebrates one of his two sacks in Sunday's win over the Giants.
C.J. Gardner-Johnson celebrates one of his two sacks in Sunday's win over the Giants. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Bears just went over the top by winning for the sixth time in seven games, according to one way of looking at it.

Now at 6-3 after their win over the Giants, the odds favor the Bears making the playoffs for the first time.

According to Playoffstatus.com, the Bears now have a 56% chance of making  the postseason, 44% chance of not making it.

The website charts it at 27% chance of winning a playoff game. They are at 11% chance of getting to the NFC championship game, 5% chance of making it to the Super Bowl and, gasp, 2% chance of winning the Lombardi Trophy.

No word on their chances if they drop six passes again like they did on Sunday.

The Athletic's playoff predictor is based more on teams and not just numbers like many of these charts. They have the Bears finishing 9-8 and one spot out of the playoffs, much like Detroit in Ben Johnson's first season as offensive coordinator in 2022.

The Bears have the most difficult remaining schedule in the NFL. Their opponents have a .580 winning percentage. Carolina has the second-toughest schedule at .569.

At least some of the other playoff contenders in the NFC have remaining schedules similar to the severity of the on the Bears face.

The Packers' remaining schedule is .561, Lions at .557, Rams at .548 and Seahawks at .547.

Tankathon, on the other hand, has a projection model putting the Bears in the playoffs as the seventh seed.

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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.