Arkush: Chicago Bears clearly NFC North's most improved team
It is possible no team in the NFL had reshaped or improved itself more as the first day of the NFL's 2018 free agency period came to an end than the Chicago Bears.
Not only did they completely redecorate their wide receiver room with Allen Robinson and Taylor Gabriel while hanging an exclusive rights tender on Cameron Meredith, add the best move tight end on the market in Trey Burton, find their place-kicker of the present and future in Cody Parkey and add one of the more stable and dependable backup quarterbacks in the league in Chase Daniel, they turned a potentially desperate need into an extremely solid position by retaining all three of their top cornerbacks in Kyle Fuller, Prince Amukamara and Bryce Callahan allowing them to ignore that spot with valuable draft capital in the higher rounds and focus on other needs.
They also addressed arguably their greatest need by re-signing Sam Acho, leaving them with work to do at outside linebacker but adding valuable depth.
The defending NFC North champion Minnesota Vikings certainly can't match the Bears quantity of moves but found some real quality adding the plum of the free agent crop in Kirk Cousins.
While there is little doubt Cousins is an upgrade at quarterback as compared to Case Keenum based on their overall bodies of work, when you realize Keenum was actually the better player in 2017 with a 3,547, 7.4, 22 TD, 7 Int., 98.3 slash line as compared to Cousins' 4,093, 7.6, 27 TD, 13 Int., 93.9, it's hard to say the Vikings are improved.
The Detroit Lions have also moved slowly so far with just two under-the-radar signings in former Bears linebacker Christian Jones and former Giants linebacker Devon Kennard.
Other than running back, linebacker is the Lions' greatest need, and Jones will be missed in Chicago more than Bears fans realize, but it's hard to say Detroit is a significantly improved football team.
If any NFC North club will give the Bears a run for their money chasing the most improved handle for now, it's got to be the Packers, who added two Pro Bowlers at significant areas of need with Jimmy Graham signed up to play tight end and Muhammad Wilkerson at five-technique.
The view from here is that Graham is somewhat overrated at this stage of his career, but he is coming off a 10-TD campaign in Seattle and does give Aaron Rodgers a weapon he's needed for some time.
But part of the price for Graham was the release of Packer great Jordy Nelson, and even if Nelson is on the backside of the hill, his '17 production catching passes from Brett Hundley wasn't that different from Graham's.
Wilkerson, on the other hand, could be the biggest prize of Day One of free agency. From 2012-15, he was arguably the best five-technique in football with the Jets, and then he got paid and disappeared.
Newly motivated with a one-year, $8 million prove-it deal, if he is the Wilkerson of old the Packers are a much better defense.
So, back in Chicago is the improvement just about quantity and a lower bar than their division mates, or are the Bears now a truly competitive football team?
In Carson Wentz's second season in Philadelphia, after going 7-9 as a rookie, the Eagles rebuilt their receiving corps, and behind Wentz, crucial backup Nick Foles and second-year coach Doug Pederson - Bears' coach Matt Nagy's mentor - won a Super Bowl.
In Jared Goff's second season, the Rams hired another offensive whiz kid, Sean McVay, as their head coach, rebuilt their receiving corps and went from 4-12 and losers of 11 of their last 12 games in 2016 to 11-5 and the NFC West title.
It is far too early to know if either Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky or this year's Bears will be ready to make those kind of moves or have closed the gap on the three clubs ahead of them, but it isn't hard to identify the formula they're using to try.
And it isn't unreasonable for Bears fans to be excited by the effort.
• Hub Arkush, the executive editor of Pro Football Weekly, can be reached at harkush@profootballweekly.com or on Twitter @Hub_Arkush.