Chicago Bears out to prove naysayers wrong
BOURBONNAIS - Three-time Pro Bowl offensive lineman Kyle Long, the Bears' best player, knows the disrespectful things being said about his team around the league, and he doesn't care for it.
"I'm not thinking about it," Long said. "I know the team's not thinking about it. I know that it's not guiding our decision-making throughout the day.
"But we are aware of the fact that there's kind of a leaguewide disrespect on the Chicago Bears. I know that we're not very appreciative of it, and we're looking forward to getting after it."
You can't blame the rest of the league.
Why shouldn't they take the Bears lightly?
They're 11-21 over the past two seasons and haven't been to the playoffs in six years. The Bears followed up coach Marc Trestman's 5-11 swan song in 2014 with John Fox's 6-10 debut last year, both of which left them in the NFC North cellar.
"Whenever you're coming off losing seasons back to back like that, that's kind of how it goes," quarterback Jay Cutler said. "There's no reason for anyone to really expect a huge change from our last two seasons, which is fine.
"That shouldn't bother anyone in that locker room. Our main goal and our main objective is just to try to get better through training camp and try to win football games. As long as we're keeping it one game at a time, it'll take care of itself."
Even the most optimistic of fans would admit that the team Fox inherited needed rebuilding and it's still under construction. For every positive move, there seems to be a negative leveler.
Wide receiver Kevin White is healthy and ready to roll, but tight end Martellus Bennett is gone. Inside linebackers Danny Trevathan and Jerrell Freeman should greatly improve the heart of the Bears' defense, but can any of the young running backs fill the shoes of departed Matt Forte?
The front seven on defense appears much better on paper, but the 2016 opening-day offensive line will have new starters at all five positions from the 2015 Week 1 lineup.
Fox has an impressive track record based on his second seasons with the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos. The Panthers improved from 7-9 to 11-5 in Year 2 under Fox and went to the Super Bowl. The Broncos jumped from 8-8 to 13-3, advancing to the AFC title game.
With at least a dozen new starters expected on opening day, the Bears might be better, but history says it will take time for new players, even players better than the ones they replaced, to jell.
Fox is quick to point out that the only expectations that matter are those of the players and staff who arrived at Olivet Nazarene University on Wednesday for the start of training camp.
"At the end of the day, nobody has higher expectations than us," Fox said. "Whether on the outside they're low, high, medium doesn't make a rat's … It's what you do. We'll define who we are, and that's the exciting part about starting over every season."
The "us against them" mantra has been done to death and so has the whole bunker-mentality thing, but that doesn't mean they're not effective methods for motivation. And, if you can believe the off-season chatter, every player on the roster has arrived with a chip on his shoulder because of past slights real and imagined.
"It can work both ways," Fox said. "You're dealing with two things in life: prosperity, (when) the expectations are really high; and there's the flip side. You're dealing with one or the other, and neither one of them is easy. It's a competitive game played by super competitive people and very talented people, and it's up to you to define what you're going to be."
Fox's team begins that process and the quest for respect with Thursday morning's training camp-opening practice.
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