Lincicome: Even the national dunderheads know, these Bears are not Super Bowl contenders

Searching for optimism is pointless and annoying, yet duty demands it when another NFL season is underway. Accordingly, the Bears at best will win nine games. They will still miss the playoffs but will learn if Caleb Williams is a fraud and if Ben Johnson is a coach.

These are modest and necessary goals, although not unfamiliar. If the Bears have a lasting tradition, it is finding a quarterback and a coach, not always at the same time. Like party guests, the Bears are forever rummaging for cashews in a bowl of mixed nuts.

Relying on reality is futile and no fun, yet scores will be kept and standings maintained. Realistically, the Bears will finish last in their division again. I see 7 and 10, just as I saw exactly 5-12 last year, and the DMV just checked my eyesight.

All of this is guessing and a deep search among those who know; i.e., anyone with a laptop and an opinion, finds the endless analysts in general agreement with me, noting that Detroit, Green Bay and even Minnesota are Super Bowl contenders while the Bears are not.

Optimism implies permission to fail. Pessimism demands to be proven wrong. As much as I would like to tell the national dunderheads that they do not know what they are talking about, I am afraid that they do.

The Bears are fourth in most judgments, not fourth in the NFL but fourth in the North, the football division, not the mythology.

This would leave the local heroes a long way from the Super Bowl, vaguely considered an impossibility and not a measurement. The aim has been raised to making the playoffs, generously considered forward motion.

A division title would be nice for a change, and change is the word that most identifies any Bears team. Change is good, change is necessary, change is a challenge to expectation, change is a Bears business plan.

The Bears play only four teams not considered playoff contenders, most agreeably the New York Giants and the New Orleans Saints. The Bears have the second-toughest schedule (after the Giants) and have as much chance of reaching the Super Bowl as a cat does of learning to eat with a spoon.

The Bears will not be as good as we might wish, nor as bad as they probably should be after much off-season spackling, most notably another untried head coach in Johnson.

Considering the hard facts, the Bears have a completely refurbished offensive line, improved receivers and, alas, a pass rush yet to make itself obvious. A quick check of assorted lists of the best of the best in the NFL, meaning players worth watching, worth having, worth their worth, not a Bear can be found.

This is going to be a team of shared shortages, no game breaker, no game stopper, no game definer and a third-tier quarterback. This must be a team without egos because no one deserves to have one, including the coach.

My examination of all the various gibberish on this subject unavoidably converges at a single point, Caleb Williams. The Bears are where they were when both Mitch Trubisky and Justin Fields still had that new car aroma, and we know how that turned out. But Williams seems to be causing more doubt, causing concern. To paraphrase Churchill, never have so many been so right.

With all the off-season dickering, none is considered quite as vital as how goes our young Caleb. Is Williams up to it? We’ll see. Does he have the tools around him to work with? Maybe. Must he be better? Absolutely.

Of course, the Bears can win if Williams does fantastic things. The Bears can also win as long as Williams does not do stupid things.

The Bears need to win because winning is all that matters, not notoriety, not the expectations of strangers, not the acclaim of experts. Danger comes only when those things begin to matter.

This Bears team does not have to measure itself against the past, regret the present, nor concern itself with the future.

To sum up, this Bears team is a mediocre team in a harsh division chasing an unlikely result. The place to start is Monday night.