Chicago Bears: The Optimist/Pessimist Views for 2016
By Erik Lambert
The Chicago Bears are by far one of the most unpredictable teams going into the 2016 season. So how high could they fly, or low can they sink?
The answer to that question depends on who one asks. Is the person a glass half full type or glass half empty? An optimist or a pessimist? Well each of these different viewpoints have rather predictable outcomes in regards to the season itself. So the best thing to do is paint a clear picture of what each side would entail (within the bounds of reason).
Optimist: Finish 11-5 and steal the NFC North
Remember this is keeping in the context of reasonable expectations both ways. Going from 6-10 to 11-5 would be a tremendous turnaround in just one season for the Bears. In this scenario everything starts to click. Jay Cutler finally gets to throw to healthy wide receivers. Alshon Jeffery accepts the challenge and plays like a Pro Bowler. Kevin White starts producing big plays and the committee rushing attack of Langford, Carey and Howard just wear opponents down.
On defense the added explosion up front of Leonard Floyd and Jonathan Bullard invigorate their pass rush while Eddie Goldman, Akiem Hicks and the two inside linebackers of Danny Trevathan and Jerrell Freeman plug up their leaky run defense. These two improvements ease the pressure on the secondary, which begins to force more turnovers thanks to more experience in the system and help from the rush.
To top it off, they silence the doubters by prying the division crown away from the dual monarchy of Minnesota and Green Bay.
Pessimist: Remain at 6-10 and revert to square one
Sure, regressing to a worse record would be bad but even then the Bears will have seen something that went wrong and could work to fix it. There is no greater feeling of helplessness than posting the same exact record as the year before. It gives the feeling of jogging in place. Still gets the body a workout but the scenery never changes. Through this lens the offense remains frustratingly inconsistent. The offensive depth is exposed again by injury. Cutler is left running for his life again, unable to do more than his trademark improvisation mixed with the occasional bad decision.
Defensively things just don’t seem to click as expected. Floyd proves to be a flop as a rookie while opposing quarterbacks expose an undermanned secondary without much help of a reliable pass rush. The season ends with the whispers beginning of whether John Fox might be losing his magic touch for turnarounds and if the clock should start on his job security. No signs of progress and the first real hole appears in the Ryan Pace plan.
Kind of depressing, right? The truth is neither extreme usually ends up being the result. It typically rests somewhere in between. One can only hope it’s more towards the optimistic side of the seesaw when that happens.