Lincicome: How will Bears fare this season? That largely depends on QB Fields
The Bears have cleverly dodged expectations for the football season, meaning that success is a surprise and failure is an assumption. The general view among those who view such things is that the Bears are, pick one, a footwipe, a hand towel, a doggie bag.
Those are not actual NFL terms, or even LOL terms, but handy disguises for last place, where last we saw the Bears, the worst team in professional football with the No. 1 draft choice to prove it.
Can the Bears go from worst to first? This is an annual question answered consistently, yes, by some NFL team or other. A loser is always doing just that, the most recent example being last season's Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Bears have done as much as well, as recently as 2018 when the other Matt was head coach and Mitch Trubisky was poised in the Justin Fields position, full of possibility. Also back in 2001, the Bears went from 5-11 to 13-3, if memory serves and if it doesn't, well, that's what Google is for.
Bears fans tend to adopt optimism wherever it can be found and bits and pieces of it do exist, my favorite being one first-guesser's reckoning that the Bears are a "sneaky dark horse," merging two insults into one compliment.
Still, combining most predictions, the Bears are losers, in the 5-12 range. The Bears are fourth in general judgments, not fourth in the NFL but fourth in the NFC North, there being no fifth.
Green Bay has no Aaron Rodgers, Minnesota was a fluke and Detroit, off to a stunning start in Kansas City, is, after all, still Detroit. I see 11-6, maybe 10-7, eyes open, no squinting. I see playoffs where others see failure, I see progress where others see imperfection, I see hope where others see repetition, I see a new day where others fumble with the sleep alarm.
Even my optimism leaves the local heroes a long way from the Super Bowl, clearly still an ambition if not a prospect. The aim has been lowered of late, the postseason being considered a bridge too far and third place forward motion.
Any measurable progress will be nice for a change, and change is the word that most identifies this Bears team. Half of last year's team is gone, and that must be considered a good thing. Change is good, change is necessary, change is a challenge to expectation, change causes confidence.
My examination of all the various gibberish on this subject unavoidably converges at a single point - Justin Fields. It is right to consider this as Fields' season of truth. Based on something called DVOA, which is football jumping onto baseball's metric bandwagon, Fields is the worst quarterback in the league, a fantasy league freak. Not having the patience nor the inclination to figure out how that is so, I await more traditional proof, like wins and losses.
All the off-season dickering, the readjusted offensive line, the newly leased linebackers, the assurance that it is easy to fit in a D'Onta Foreman for a David Montgomery, none of this is quite as crucial as how goes the unfinished Fields.
I look at this Bears team as a bit of a mutt, sort of like strays who have wandered onto the lawn, sniffing for scraps, leaving traces. The Bears will win because it is about time; winning is what matters, not the contempt of. strangers.
It may remain fashionable to think the Bears defense could not stop a moth with a snow shovel, but I say cynicism is the perfume of inspiration.
These Bears do not have to measure themselves against the past, regret the present, nor concern themselves with the future. This Bears team only has to do what is enough. Win one, lose one, win three, lose two, win three, lose two, win a couple more and the addition will take care of itself.
A new NFL season allows the foot to be wiped clean, the hand towel to tumble dry and the doodoo bag to be handy. Dog walkers know there are receptacles with warnings every 20 yards or so, although a Bear still does have the woods.