After a season of general manager Ryan Poles and coach Matt Eberflus grimacing through a series of predictable losses amid the demolition phase of their rebuild, the Bears are back in the real world.
And that’s a world full of expectations.
Now that actual construction is well underway, the Bears will be held to real standards of winning. While Super Bowl contention is way beyond even the most optimistic dreamers, the criteria for success this season can be fairly calibrated to where this team stands. Poles has more work to do leading up to 2024, but plenty has already been done.
The internal benchmarks reflect that reality. Poles mentioned taking aim at the now up-for-grabs NFC North, and quarterback Justin Fields and wide receiver DJ Moore floated the goal of a winning record and a playoff berth.
Those are relatively modest ambitions, by the way. The Bears hired Poles from an organization that sets the conference championship game as its minimum requirement. But for the Bears, who have won eight or fewer games in nine of their last 10 seasons, making the playoffs would be remarkable.
“I want our team to walk into the stadium believing they can win,” Poles said, “not hoping.”
That’s the very high end of what the Bears could do, but the range of possibilities is wide as Poles bets on many unknowns.
If Poles proves to be right about everything — a long list of choices that include committing to Fields, trading for Moore, signing linebacker Tremaine Edmunds to a $72 million deal in free agency and various maneuvers in a draft that began with him holding the No. 1 pick — the Bears likely will be a playoff team.
And that’s what he should demand: the maximum this roster can possibly be. Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy all too often seemed to settle for less and always had a load of reasons why it felt short. The Bears hired Poles to be far more ruthless in his evaluations and more astute in his solutions.
“I’m tired of the same old standard that the Bears have —the same results in and out every year,” veteran safety Eddie Jackson said. “It shouldn’t be acceptable... This year is one of the best years I’ve felt where we have a lot of key pieces. We really can turn it around.”
Even with the upgrades, it’ll be a significant undertaking for the Bears merely to double last season’s win total to six. That’d be progress by definition, but underwhelming. There’s no way Poles and Eberflus believe they’re about to go 6-11.
Doing better than that and making the playoffs would be a meaningful stride this season and set the stage for something special in the next one. But everyone needs to be firing at full capacity for that to happen.
That starts with Fields, of course. No one at Halas Hall has more effect on how this season will go. But Poles also needs to see it from the other pieces he has installed.
That applies to Eberflus, too. He’s no longer steering a sinking ship. This one might be viable. He didn’t do any better or worse than any other coach would’ve done with the roster the Bears had last season, but this time there’s an opportunity for him to be a factor.
“The better talent you have, you certainly can expand your scheme,” he said.
The Bears need hypotheticals like that to materialize. They got a one-year break from being under pressure because Poles inherited a roster short on talent and overextended financially, but now it’s back to normal. And so are the expectations.
