When it comes to Bears season, preparing for worst is just common sense

The Bears were perfect in preseason, outscored opponents 115-47 and, according to a heavily-edited propogand-umentary, the players seem to like each other.

Now it's time to fire up the third-down siren, lean back and watch a dynasty come to life. This is a team loaded with talent and confidence, ready to take residence atop the NFC North.

The only thing that could keep these Bears from their appointment with destiny is the fact that they are the Bears, still owned by the McCaskey family, with a long history of failure in all circumstances.

We're not saying everything will go wrong for the Monsters this season. It's just common sense to be prepared for it.

There's a reason Johnny Morris and Harlon Hill rank 1-2 in career receiving yards. Developing stars in a modern NFL offense is not part of this franchise's DNA.

First, let's start with some encouraging news. According to “Hard Knocks,” team president Kevin Warren is staying out of the way of general manager Ryan Poles and letting him do his job. The show led us to believe Warren spends his time deciding what type of seating to use in a specific lounge area of a hypothetical stadium that will never be built. This feels like the ideal working relationship. Bring in some more carpet samples just to be sure everything looks good, Kevin.

Let's now proceed to the “What could go wrong?” portion of this column. Again, we're not predicting bad results, but this franchise is what it is.

· First of all, forget everything that happened in preseason. It's absolutely meaningless. The Bears played exactly two series against an opposing team's starters, both in Buffalo. Nothing that happened will translate to the regular season. Fun to watch, maybe, but useless.

· Quarterback Caleb Williams has all the tools, but he's still a 22-year-old rookie. Few players in his situation have succeeded from the opening kick. The rookie QBs that have done well are usually chosen later in the first round or beyond and join teams that have already been to the playoffs.

· Every QB from Bob Avellini to Mitch Trubisky needs time to throw. The Bears gave up the seventh-most sacks last season and with no major changes in personnel, there's reason to believe this offensive line will continue to be better at run-blocking than pass protection. Will the Bears even start the five best guys? Don't need Williams getting jumpy about the pass rush, but you know that's what defensive coordinators will be thinking.

· We can't assume the Bears’ defense will be dominant until seeing it in action. For starters, their best interior defensive lineman, Justin Jones, bounced in free-agency. They should be OK with starters Andrew Billings and Gervon Dexter on the inside. Beyond that, who knows?

· It would also be great to have another reliable pass rusher to bookend with Montez Sweat. For now, it looks like they're riding with DeMarcus Walker and his 3.5 sacks from last season, or second-year pro Dominique Robinson, who has yet to record a full, unassisted NFL sack. Rookie Austin Booker and Daniel Hardy looked great playing against third-stringers in preseason.

· The best NFL cornerbacks seem to change every year. For example, James Bradberry was among the best coverage corners a few years ago with Carolina and the Giants. Last season, he was arguably the worst.

So even though Jaylon Johnson is coming off an elite performance, this is a new year. Tyrique Stevenson improved over the course of his rookie season, but is still relatively unproven. Will teams pick on nickel Kyler Gordon in coverage? New free safety Kevin Byard III went to the Pro Bowl in 2017 and '21, which is kind of recent.

· Concert season at Soldier Field ended with Pink on Aug. 24, but there are still some soccer games and the Chicago Football Classic still to be played. Don't rule out the turf causing problems or causing a player to slip at the wrong moment. You know it's possible.

The general rule of thumb here is not to expect the Bear to win. Six playoff trips in 30 years will teach anyone to prepare for the worst, even in the best of circumstances.