The popular narrative behind the Bears is the great improvement they'll have after three consecutive strong offseasons.
As the saying goes, the Bears won the offseason, again.
In fact, CBS Sports' Josh Edwards and NFL.com's Bucky Brooks both use these terms in ranking the Bears at the top in the offseason derby.
"For the second consecutive year, the Chicago Bears are No. 1 on the list with hopes of ascending in the NFC," Edwards wrote, forgetting the strong offseason in 2023 when they made "the trade."
That deal eventually landed them Caleb Williams and numerous others.
The Chicago Bears got
Caleb Williams
DJ Moore
Darnell Wright
Tyrique Stevenson
Tory Taylor
And a 2025 2nd
For this ⬇️⬇️⬇️
pic.twitter.com/Q8jLchotlV
— Max Markham (@MaxMarkhamNFL) September 15, 2024
"The table is set for the Bears to make a playoff run this season," Brooks concluded. "They have upgraded their play-caller, playmakers and pass protectors to ensure Williams sparks a turnaround as a sophomore."
The firepower and the points are all well and good, but did anyone consider for a minute how their defense might not be everything Matt Eberflus thought it was.
Marc Trestman was a better coordinator than Matt Eberflus.
Marc Trestman actually had a non-losing season.
Flus is the worst coach in Bears history. https://t.co/ATxIKdfrKK
— Velus Jones Memorial Scholarship (@DarrylConrad) June 19, 2025
While they weren't the worst in the league, they definitely weren't among the top 10 defenses last year. Their defense has a tainted record of sorts, and it's easy to doubt them.
In 2013 they brought in offensive expert Marc Trestman to rectify all the years their offense was neglected while Lovie Smith's defensive expertise was in charge of the entire show. Trestman built a good offense in one year, and their defense completely collapsed.
And pass defense.
Billings was 6th best DT at pass rush win rate when he was injured last season, despite being double teamed at the 3rd highest rate of 72%
Only Chris Jones & Dexter Lawrence were double teamed more
His loss a big part of why pass defense fell off a cliff pic.twitter.com/Y0iZq4jSvL
— Kirsten Tanis (@kct2020) May 30, 2025
In this case, it's entirely possible the Bears defense was never good enough, and something similar to the 2012-13 turnaround could happen with a team that scores a lot of points and allows way too many.
The uncomfortable truth for the Bears is they won games against almost no good quarterbacks over the time Eberflus was here. The defensive personnel didn't change that much this year, Dayo Odeyingbo and Grady Jarrett aside.
Here are the QBs they managed to beat during the Eberflus era:
Gervon Dexter on why he got the DL together in Florida, what he’s asking Grady Jarrett & he found some new hobbies!
& Tyrique Stevenson (@dreamchaserTy10) makes a cameo & takes over as reporter! Good times at #Bears minicamp. @fox32news pic.twitter.com/8QEq1MQb06
— Cassie Carlson (@CassieCarlsonTV) June 4, 2025
My bounce back candidate for the #Bears this year is Montez Sweat
He wasn't bad last year, but he's getting paid too much for 5.5 sacks to be the norm. I'm not sold on Dayo Odeyingbo yet, so Sweat bouncing back would be huge for that pass rush https://t.co/OxQfPccFtj
— Jacob Infante (@jacobinfante24) June 23, 2025
Within each of those seasons, the starting quarterbacks the Bears defense beat owned won-loss records of 10-19, 24-43 and 17-29. Add all three years up and the QBs the Bears defense beat under Matt Eberflus had combined records of 51-91 as starters within the respective seasons.
#Bears DE Montez Sweat acknowledges he was dealing with an injury last season but does not specify what it was. He is healthy now. #DaBears pic.twitter.com/CIzfpniTDh
— Josh Buckhalter (@JoshGBuck) May 28, 2025
The Bears defense did not step up and beat Love, Brock Purdy, Goff indoors or even last year at Soldier Field. They couldn't beat Drake Maye and lost the second time against Murray. They lost last year to Sam Darnold and Goff twice, C.J. Stroud, Jayden Daniels, Geno Smith, and even Anthony Richardson.
Their list of conquests is not the kind to suggest this Bears defense is big time and capable of stepping up to defeat NFL heavyweights in any kind of showdown after they allowed 29 points or more in five of their last 10 games.
#Bears defense allows quick score and the agony drags on. pic.twitter.com/6zIY2Ky3B7
— 𝙰𝚕𝚍𝚘 𝙶𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚊 (@AldoBarkeeper) November 17, 2024
“I'm looking at the first game of the year," linebacker Tremaine Edmunds said. "I'm fired up about it. Anytime you can open up the season at your house, prime time, like I can't look past that. That’s a big game. So we just got to take it one day at a time, man."
It's Minnesota and J.J. McCarthy, who has never started a game.
#Lions Jared Goff, #Packers Jordan Love, #Bears Caleb Williams & even the #Vikings J.J. McCarthy each have the ability and the support to be the best QB in the NFC North where it looks like defensive backfields will go to die. pic.twitter.com/8O0iu6RBXl
— Chris Malumphy (@DraftHistory) June 18, 2025
They need to be fired up because after that it's Goff, Dak Prescott, Smith, Daniels and later Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Aaron Rodgers, Love, Jaylen Hurts, Purdy and maybe even Shedeur Sanders.
With DA (Allen) and Ben, I think that the main thing we're trying to get accomplished is really shifting the culture, changing the culture and not trying to do what we've done in the past and just try to look forward towards the future," safety Kevin Byard said.
They should because even their successes in the past came with asterisks.
In Bears fan defense, we have all been optimistic before and gotten burned, a lot. I think Bears fans are hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. Since frankly, the bad has happened more recently than the good. pic.twitter.com/03phjVZFDP
— Gohan (@ridinnerdy87) June 24, 2025
X: BearsOnSI