Most teams in the NFL aren’t dynasties or dominant teams for years upon years. The vast majority of teams are average, or even subpar teams that are all jostling for their spot to get to the playoffs to simply have a chance to win a Super Bowl title. Playing in the NFC North is a place that garnishes a lot of attention. And with all the attention that they receive they’re going to be scrutinized for anything that doesn’t go very well. And for a team that hasn’t had a lot of success lately they had a little better feeling going into 2025 and 10StarPicks will break it down for you.
The Chicago Bears were not great, going 7-10 in 2023, going into the season they had much higher hopes in their visions with their new WR, DJ Moore and Justin Fields. Then, after starting 0-4, they went on to be a train wreck, losing 7 games by 7 pts or more, to finish below .500 for the year. For a team that had the fan base pretty excited early on thinking that maybe they were going to make the playoffs, make a strong run, to suddenly just fall by the wayside, was a real heartbreaker for Chicago fans. The Bears haven’t been a real playoff contender in years – and let alone, haven’t been a serious contender for the championship, probably since Jim McMahon was their QB.
The bright spots for this team quite honestly were few and far between, but there were several things on this team that were huge disappointments from what they expected going into the 2025 year and Vegas sportsbooks likes their chances of an improvement. The offense had major issues, and that became wildly evident as they only scored 27 or more on 5 occasions throughout the season.
There were plenty of occasions when Chicago fans were left with their heads hanging, and their chins on their hands as the team that had so much hope for, let them down again.
First and foremost, the play that the Bears got from the QB position was just bad. Justin Fields was not a good QB in any sense of the word. He had no leadership, he lacked accuracy, and his ability to make plays downfield with his arm was just terrible. With just 3 games of 260+ passing yards and just 2 games with 2+ TD passes in a game, he was easily one of the bottom 5 QBs in the entire NFL. Hence the reason they moved off him and grabbed Caleb Williams, who has been slowly coming along with 5 TDs and 218 YPG this year so far.
Secondly, their running game lacked any explosive ability at all. They had nobody from the backfield that had that breakaway ability, that made a team very cautious or concerned. Overall, they had a good running game that got 4.5 yards per carry as a team, but Khalil Herbert was below spectacular as their lead back with just 2 TDs and 611 rushing yards. He showed some high potential when he ran for 124 yards and 5+ YPC during a few games last year but overall his running ability was not incredibly impressive. D’Andre Swift has been struggling, but has shown some versatility with his ability to catch out of the backfield.
This roster needed a brand new vision as to what their culture is going to be. They have some talent at DB and they also have some WR threats with rookie WR, Rome Odunze and DJ Moore who can both catch and move the ball at an extremely high level. This is a team that I don’t believe currently, are championship contenders, but I do think, with time together – this team could challenge for the NFC North, as their defense has been really strong with some really good pass coverage and giving up just 17ppg. Having a defense that can hold things down is a great way for a young team with new parts to get better, growing with each other.