Be careful predicting easy 2024 NFL schedule for Chicago Bears. It's never "easy"

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As we preview the Chicago Bears' 2024 schedule, it's important to keep in mind that strength of schedule and what looks quote unquote easy on paper in May often ends up looking a lot different by the time the Chicago Bears actually play those games in the fall.

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This is Locked on Bears, and I'm your host, Lauren Cox PERSON. I'm here to bring you your daily, in-depth Chicago Bears ORG, news, and analysis. You can follow me on Twitter at Cox Sports One ORG. You can follow the podcast at Locked On Bears ORG on all of your favorite social media platforms, including the Lockdown Bears ORG YouTube channel, where you can keep up with all of our video podcasts as well.Thanks for making Locked On Bears your first listen today. We're part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by GameTime ORG. Download the GameTime ORG app, create an account, and use our promo code, Locked On MFL, for $20 off your first ticket purchase. Terms apply.On the show today, we preview this 2004 Chicago Bears ORG schedule. We're talking about this idea of strength of schedule and what people are already saying looks like an easy one for the Chicago Bears ORG, and it's easy to mark off wins in pencil in May and say, oh, man, this team's going to win this many games because all these teams are easy and it's a, you know, the strength of schedule numbersare all pretty low in terms of what the bears are facing on paper. And why that tends to be fools errand and doesn't usually translate exactly how you think it's going to in the fall. We'll also talk about some of the trends we've seen in recent years with how the bears play out in their schedule and how changes that the NFL ORG has made towards scheduling affect how the early portion of the season often tends to be different than the later portions of the season.And also what we can expect from a young Bears ORG team that we make a lot of assumptions about, but we need to be prepared for a variety of possibilities when you have a lot of young players that you're looking for growth and development from. And that doesn't always happen in the exact speed and order that you might want it to. But I think the biggest takeaway for me is that like when you look at the list of bears opponents, it's easy to get excited and say, man, they play some really bad football teams that shouldbe easy wins for the Chicago Bears ORG. And you start to add those up, and it's easy to talk yourself into, you know, playoff appearance and approaching double-digit wins. And there's plenty of reason to be optimistic about this Bears ORG team being not only better than last season, but like good this season. But I think it's really easy to just assume teams that were bad last season are going tobe just as bad this season and are not going to get better when all of those teams think they're going to get better and maybe don't assume as much that everyone else is going to get better. Like for example, you know, you look at the Bears' home and away opponents this season. You're playing the teams who picked with the first four picks in this year's draft, the Carolina Panthers, the Washington ORG commanders,the New England Patriots ORG, and the Arizona Cardinals ORG. The four worst teams in terms of win-loss record last year, you might immediately think, oh, there's four easy wins, chalk them up.The Bears are four-and-o after those four games, for sure, and then, you know, you just got to win a couple other games, and you're all of a sudden on your way up. And it's certainly the case that those four teams are on paper right now, probably the fourworst teams on the Chicago Bears ORG schedule. But I don't think that's an instant assumption that they're going to be terrible again and that the Bears ORG can easily walk all over them and that they're not going to just get better and give the bears more of a difficult time. There's other teams, too, that weren't that great last season. You know, Jacksonville ORG struggled down the stretch. Tennessee struggled quite a bit last season.Even the Seahawks and Rams had their ups and downs across the course of the season. Like, there's really only a couple of teams on here that you look at as like really, really scary. You know, the Texans being a potential Super Bowl contender, the 49ers being in the Super Bowl EVENT. So, you know, the Packers and Lions both go on playoff runs last season. Like, there's some hard games on the schedule, too. No one's saying it's 16 or, I'm sorry, 17 super easy games.But it's really easy to kind of underestimate and overlook your opponents on paper this time a year and what they've done to get better. It's worth noting that some of the teams that you think were great last season will be worse this year. Not every team that is good stays good. There's always teams that get worse and there's always teams that get better.Like I would imagine Minnesota ORG seems to me like one of those teams that I'm not expecting to be great this season. They were only 7 and 10 last season. So it wasn't like they were great last year by any means. But like that doesn't feel like a team that's got a lot better for 2020. Or they're a little more long-term focused with Sam Donald and J.J. McCarthy PERSON, you know, for the long term there.So, like, I'm not expecting Minnesota to be maybe as challenging as it was last year for the Bears ORG. They split that series. And it was, you know, certainly back and forth. But, like, I'm not expecting a worse Minnesota ORG team. But, like, other teams, maybe you're going to get better. I look at some of those teams, like Washington, for example, picking second.Not a great team, not a team that I think is going to be a, you know, a surprise, deep playoff team, but like they've got an exciting rookie quarterback, just like the Chicago Bears ORG do. They've got a few weapons for them in there. They've built up that offensive line over the last couple of seasons. Like, I know they've been losing pieces on their defense. And again, I'm not here to say that they're going to be this great team that's going to beat the Bears ORG.But like new coaching staff, fresh bloodled there on there. Like, for a lot of the same reasons that you're optimistic about the bears, I think commanders fans are feeling similarly. Like, okay, they got the quarterback, the weapons, and a better defense. Like, let's see what this team can do. I'm not 100% there yet, but I see the vision.And you never know, depending on when in the season you play Washington ORG, if it's by the end of the year and they're a little bit more of a well-oiled machine at that point, maybe that becomes a slightly tougher opponent. Or you look at the Tennessee Titans, another team picking before the Chicago Bears that's on the Bears schedule this season, new coaching staff, a bunch of new weapons for their young quarterbacks, added an offensive tackle in the first round to keep building out that offensive line,added some key pieces on that defense as well this off season. I'm not expecting the Titans ORG to go win their division, but that's a team that you look at last year and think, well, they really weren't that good, 6 and 11 witha good coach like Mike Vrable PERSON, but like they were messy. And I think even though they lost Derek Henry PERSON and there's still going to be some important turnover on that roster, like, you could see that team coming together and playing well and being better this year than they were last season. But there could also be some, you know, some different moving parts that make that challenging. Or the Jacksonville Jaguars ORG, same division on the bear's schedule.Trevor Lawrence was not healthy last season. He was not playing up to the level that we thought he was going to play last season. And they were still nine and eight. Like this was not a bad Jaguars ORG team at all. But it did feel like maybe they underachieved a little bit, albeit in a pretty tough division with the Texans ORG kind of running away from things.And they really collapsed down the stretch. But, like, that was a team that was 8 and 3 last season at one point and beat the Texans in week 12. And then things fell apart and they missed the playoffs. They finished third in that division. But, like, you could easily see the Jaguars being at least 9 and 8 again. I'm not taking another step forward because they've added some key pieces on their team.Again, like not all these teams are going to be better.

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Not every team that was bad becomes good. And not every team that's good becomes bad. But you could see where if one or two of these teams is better this year than we thought last year, it makes the Bears ORG schedule not that much easier. You know, like the Colts, Anthony Richardson PERSON coming back, like should be a better team than they were last year with Gardner Minshew. And even the Cardinals with the Bears schedule not that much easier. You know, like the Colts, Anthony Richardson coming back, like should be a better team than they were last year with Gardner Minshew PERSON.And even the Cardinals with the Bears beat last year and finished all that, like, four wins. Like, Carla Murray was hurt for half of that season. And even when he came back against the Bears, like, he was not 100% on that knee injury. They added Marvin Harrison Jr. As some offensive linemen, a big pass rusher as well in there. Like, they had a lot of key pieces.Like five or six of these teams on the Bears ORG schedule that you look at as, you know,

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easy or some degree of easy or bad or, you know, one that you pencil in as a W. All of a sudden, you can look at what they've done and say, well, those actually, those teams are better. And all of a sudden, even though the strength of schedule is easy for the Bears ORG, the teams themselves don't lend as much. And that's lend to as much,and that's not including like, hey, this NFC North Division ORG is going to be really good again and really difficult for the Chicago Bears ORG. So that's where I want to like caution on saying, like, especially when the full schedule comes out in order, going through Penns, one, Pence one saying,man, 11 wins, 12 wins, this team is going to roll with it because let's, let's slow down and account for the idea that other teams got better too, just as the Bears ORG also should be a lot better than they were the year before. I'm curious, though, how that translates to their start of the season because the Bears ORG are not the only team that has seen this, but like the league as a whole has seen a slow start to the year every year because of how they've changed the schedule.So we'll talk about how important this first quarter of the season will be and why maybe we shouldn't overreact to it either way. Next on Locked On Bears ORG. This episode of Locked on Bears is sponsored by BetterHelp ORG. Better Help ORG provides online therapy that's here to help you be your best self. I do online therapy every single week to help you be your best self.I do online therapy every single week, and it's a really important part of my own personal mental health regimen, and it's why I cannot recommend Better Help ORG strongly enough. I like to say I go to therapy to take care of my mental health, just like I go to the gym to take care of my physical health, right? I don't go to the gym because my body is like broken needs to be fixed, but because I want it to be at its strongest. And therapy is the exact same way for my brain. It's not broken. I just want it to be at its absolute best. I know that therapy can be different for everyone. And a lot of us have bigger problems than whatever going on with our favorite sports team. So it's important to get things off your chest every once in a while. If you'vebeen thinking about starting therapy, give better help a try. It's entirely online. It's designed to be flexible and suited to your schedule. Visit BetterHelp.com slash Locked On to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp ORG, H-E-L-P dot com slash locked on. We've seen under Matt Iberfluse the last couple of seasons, albeit in very different circumstances than this season, the bears have gotten off to particularly slow starts. And they've been a team that's been more inclined to finish strong.But both in 2003 and 2022, there were some rough patches over the first six or so games. Of course, like the first season in game one under Eiff was they beat the 49ers ORG, and that was a big surprise. But then this past season, of course, you know, O and 4 to start and things really bad against the Broncos there in week four, blowing a big lead. And then two years ago, you know, those lose tough games to the Giants ORG and the Vikingsand the commanders all in that stretch and ended up, you know, losing a lot of stretch. But like, we found ways in both seasons, even when they weren't winning games down the stretch in year one, that this team got better about halfway through that first season, right? After the mini buy week, they beat the Patriots ORG and kind of reinvent the offense. And then all of a sudden,they're scoring big points on the cowboys, the dolphins, the lions, the falcons, and going on a little run there, giving the Eagles ORG a little bit of a run for their money. Like, yes, they weren't winning because they'd torn everything down. But like that year one, Matt Ebrook's PERSON team turned a little bit of a corner in the second half of the season that you felt like maybe some momentum to build into 2023. But then it didn't build momentum into 2023 because they started with the bad loss of the Packersand the Buccaneers ORG. Things got ugly. The Chiefs ORG absolutely blown out. And then blowing a big lead against the Denver Broncos, a terrible O-and-4 start for Matt Eberfluse in year two. And it all reflects a trend that I think we're seeing across the NFL ORG as the league moved to an 18-week schedule and eliminated a preseason game and teams across the leaguehave changed how they're approaching the preseason generally. You're seeing that these are not sharp well-oiled machines in week one and really not sharp for the first handful of games of the season. Like, yes, someone still has to win those games. Obviously, like, every game has a winner or loser. So you're not seeing like league win.There's not win and loss data to like back this up. But this idea that like, obviously, I think we've heard before like what happened in week one tends to not extrapolate and think the Bears beating the 49ers ORG a couple of seasons ago. Like, that was a big surprise and didn't really end up being reflective of what the rest of the season was going to look like for either team.But the point being that, like, teams are taking one to two to three to four weeks before they really have, like, ironed out the kinks there because you're not playing starters that much in the preseason. You're not seeing all these guys working together so like regular season game one ends up not feeling like a preseason game but playing closer to a preseason level of execution where there's just sloppier play more mistakes more miscommunications you know more concentration errors.And it takes until, again, five, six weeks in the season where you really start to feel like, okay, now this team is who it is, is clicking and is jelling and is where it needs to be here for this stretch now to kind of like, not to get serious because you take every single game seriously, but like to really kind of hunker down a little bit and find out what's working and what's not working because you weren't really able to work that out in the preseason. That may be slightly different for the Bears this season because they have the Hall of Fame ORG game, so they will have four preseason games.But I'll be curious to see how Matt Iberflus approaches that with his starters this season, where you saw last year an 0-and-4 start, and maybe they could have used a little more pre-season action, but you don't want to risk those guys getting hurt during the preseason, but then does the math change when you have a rookie quarterback and a rookie number one first round pick wide receiver and, you know, generally a younger team across the board? Like I wouldn't imagine Keenan Allen is going to play a lot in the preseason, but like,are you going to have Caleb and Romadunze PERSON play a lot in the preseason? Or do you, I mean, do you risk overdoing it with them? And, you know, certainly you've got,you know, guys like Tyson Baygent and Austin Reed PERSON, the undrafted free agent I'm really interested in. And, of course, like players down the depth try at wide receiver that you want to get playing time too,because I don't think guys like Tyler Scott PERSON and Valis Jones are going to get nearly as much playing time in the regular season this year because of who's ahead of them. But, like, how much they play in the preseason may end up corresponding to how much this team as a whole plays well in the beginning of the regular season, right?It's not, to me, it's not about the individual player. We've certainly seen veteran quarterbacks, like, you know, I mean, Aaron Rogers every year, right, was never playing in preseason games. And he could come into week one, ready to go, playing at an MVP level from the very start, right? It's not like, it's not necessarily to me about the individual player, but it's aboutthe team operation, right? It's about the five offensive linemen having that time to work together. It's about the receivers learning their spacing from each other and like how they run certain routes and the timing in certain routes and having the whole offensive operation execute and defensive operation as well. I mean, I don't mean to overlook that side either. Like how guys are going to react in coverage.Like as much as you don't want Montez PERSON sweat playing that much in the preseason and maybe defensive line is a little less important. Jalen Johnson PERSON being in a corner or not, you know, the other corners and safety is around him. I've got to learn how much ground he can cover and what that feels like in a live NFL ORG game. And so that's where when we look at this Bears ORG schedule when it comes out. Like these first four or so games are going to be really critical. And I can't decide whether I feel like I would rather have easy games, bad opponents at the beginning or good opponents at the beginning.And I think I find myself leaning towards I would rather play some of the better teams on my schedule in the first four weeks of the season because I know that I'm not going to be at my best and they're not going to be at their best. So I have a better chance of pulling one over and getting one that I shouldn't have against a good team in those first four weeks, especially in the first week or two,then I will later in the season when that team is going to be sharp and ready to go and ready to dominate. You know, when I think about the Texans being on the Bayer ORG schedule, the 49ers, and even to some extent Green Bay in Detroit GPE, like I wouldn't mind playing one or a couple of those teams in weeks one and two. And obviously it's going to be a big challenge then right away for, you know,Caleb Williams and Roma Jersey PERSON and a young team. But like Houston in week one or San Francisco in week one might not be as sharp as they'll be in week 10 or week 12. So I wouldn't mind like getting that out of the way so that, A, I know that if I lose, I was not my best if I'm the Bears ORG. If I lose that game, well, it was my first game of the season,the first game of my career if I'm Caleb Williams, and I know I'm going to be better than that, and it was a good challenge. It would be lost, but we can move on. Or B, if I win that first game, maybe it's not me saying, oh, we're better than the Houston Texansor we're better than the San Francisco 49ers ORG. But hey, we played well and we beat a team that we probably shouldn't have been able to or beat a team that we wouldn't have been able to otherwise, so we can stash a free win there and then not have to play that hard team later on and have some of the easier teams, you know, quote unquote, easier teams a little bit later on in the schedule.Like, I didn't talk about it before, but like I still think the Carolina Panthers ORG are going to be bad. And I still think the New England Patriots ORG are going to be pretty bad. Like those are teams that I would like to account for as fairly easy wins. And I would hate to play them in week one or week two when they're probably going to be bad in week two and they're probably going to be bad in week 15. So I would rather play them in week 15 when maybe you can catch a Texans or a 49ers or a Packers team slipping in week one.And then by week 15 they're going to be really good and they're going to be even tougher at that stage of the season than they are early one because all of these teams tend to be a little bit rusty the first couple of weeks of the season. I think with the bears the last couple of seasons, they've been rusty a little bit longer and it's taken them longer to figure it out than other teams that seems like one to two to three weeks seems to be the right amount of time for all these other teams to say, all right, we've gotten through most of September. Now we know what we're doing and what we're what we look like here and can kind of tweak things then we're good to go. And those teams are going to overdrive in October, November, December. So let's get some of the good games out of the way early on and then build in some of the easier games down the stretch to kind of save your team and save your body that you're not, you know, grinding through these tough games if you're pushing for a playoff spot andneeding to kind of struggle and get battered and bruised across the finish line there at the end of the season. So keep close tabs on what the bears do in the preseason and how that reflects on their early season schedule this year. Because some of this is just going to be the result of the Bears ORG being a young team, a young team with a decent amount of turnover, at least on offense.And I think some underrated turnover on defense that I think it's easy to expectable, that all these players are going to be improving young guys who get better and take steps forward this season and that the defense is going to pick back up right where it left off. But I want to I want to not refute those assumptions, but challenge those assumptions and make sure that we're thinking about them holistically and not preparing ourselves with either unrealistic expectations or just expectations that can leave us a little bit more disappointed if things don't go exactly how we want them to. So we'll kind of look at where the Bears ORG' range of outcomes could be here depending on how things go with this new look Bears ORG team next. On Locked On Bears ORG.This episode of Locked On Bears is brought to you by our friends at GameTime ORG, the number one place to get tickets for all of your favorite live events. I use GameTime ORG all the time. Seriously, it's my go-to spot for ticket purchasing. Just this week, I used Game Time PRODUCT to buy ticketsto see Def Leopard, Journey ORG, and Steve Miller Band at Wrigley Field this summer. And I was looking on, like, the Cubs ORG website at Riggly Field FAC for tickets, and my tickets looking on like the Cubs website at Riggly Field for tickets, and my tickets were cheaper buying the exact same seats on game time. And I can see my view from my seat on the Game Time PRODUCT app,so I know exactly how I'm going to be able to see the stage at Riggly Field FAC. And they're all in pricing means that there's no surprise fees or anything else popping up at the end. Tickets for concerts, comedy shows, you know, theater shows, of course, all your favorite sports, playoff games, et cetera, are all on game time. So you got to checkit out and trust me, it'll change your ticket buying experience. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time. Download the game time app, create an account, and use our promo code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem our code, locked on NFL for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed.It's easy to assume the Bears are going to come into this season with three great receivers, a couple of solid tight ends, a improving offensive line, an exciting young quarterback, a new running back in the backfield, and a top five defense from last season, and they're just going to hit the ground runningand thrive and kind of, not coast, but have an easy path to 10, 11, 12 wins, first play through the NFC North and a division, you know, in a playoff run. And that's a great thing to be excited about and to aim for.And I'll never tell you to not be excited or hopeful or anything like that. But I think there are a lot of assumptions along that path that I want to make sure we are realistic about because I think there is certainly a path where you get there, right? You can see it. That's my point. It's like, that is not saying that there's no chance that happens.It absolutely could happen exactly that way. We've seen young quarterbacks like C.J. Stroud PERSON come in and take the league by storm when you surround them with weapons and a defense and an offensive line and a smart offensive mind calling plays for him. Like, this absolutely happens and can happen to the Chicago Bears ORG and you should hope and be excited for it to happen. But we also often see young quarterbacks and young teams come into the NFL ORG and experience growing pains that are perfectly normal and not anything to be worried about, but result infewer wins and less success than you might have hoped for. And maybe not that 12 win division victory playoff run type year one for Caleb Williams and Matt Eberfus. That, like, it's going to take time for Adunze and Allen PERSON and more to all get on the same page with Caleb Williams. I don't think it's going to take 16 games, but it's going to take time.I don't know that OTA ORG's mini camp, training camp, and preseason is perfectly enough time. It's enough time to get going, but it's not enough time to be like, you know, mastered, offense firing on all cylinders. Everything's clicking, locked in, good to go. So there's going to be some ups and downs with that along the way. So I mean, we can include Cole Komet and Gerald Everett and DeAndre Swift PERSON on the backfieldthere. Like all the weapons, especially with so many of them, are going to take time. Like, I think we forget or discount or overlook how much turnover there has been on offense and how much is going to be different. Like, you're, obviously, you're returning starters on your offensive line are the four guys, Braxton Jones, darn all right, Tevin Jenkins, Nate Davis PERSON.And DJ Moore is obviously a returning starter and Cole Komet PERSON as well. But when you think about Keenan Allen PERSON is going to play a lot of snaps to be brand new, Roma Dunzei is going to play a lot of snaps to be brand new. Roma Dunzae is going to play a lot of snaps to be brand new. Gerald Everett PERSON is going to play a decent amount of snaps to be brand new. Your center, whoever starts at center, it's going to be brand new. And obviously Caleb Williams, a brand new cord back, even for the guys that were here last year.That's a brand new connection with everyone he's throwing to or handing the ball off to you and a brand new back in the backfield. Like there's a lot of different guys there that we're not here last season that is going to take time to adjust. Like, you can't always just throw, let's see, that's count them. Caleb D'Andre, Keenan Allen, Roma Dunesay, Gerald Everett PERSON, and whoever starts at center, is like six out of the 11 key contributors there.And I guess maybe it's more like 13 when you talk about adding receivers and tight ends. But like, you've got six guys in this offense, including the quarterback who are brand new to this team. And all 10 players on the field will always be brand new to the quarterback, which is kind of the biggest obstacle there too in terms of, you know, continuity and flow of this offense being as good as it can be. So like that's going to take time.There are going to be mistakes. They're going to be adjustments. There's going to be seeing how things go and then trying some different things and finding exactly what's going to work best for these guys. And I'm not sure that, you know, week one, Shane Waldron PERSON is going to have the perfect plan.Like, they're going to try some stuff and see how it goes and then adjust. Like every team does this every year, but not every team has six brand new key contributors and a brand new rookie quarterback trying to adjust that too. Like, I don't want to just expect, okay, right away, this bear's offense is going to be a top 10 group, week one, ready to go, or even at all this season. Like, they can be, they can be a good team and a good offense without being, without expectingthem to be this 5,000 yard passing top flight offense this season. Like, they can just be good. And that's okay because it's year one of a rookie number one overall pick quarterback. Same concept, but a little bit different on defense where it's like, okay, to be fair, like the Bears did finish as the 20th ranked defense last season. Like as much as we assume, oh, they're going to come in and be a top five defense this year.They were 20th in points allowed and 12th in yards allowed over the course of the full season. They were the number one rushing defense and fifth in yards per rush allowed, but like, they got burned in the passing game a lot. And people point to like, okay, well, but they were a top five defense over the final, however many weeks of the season it was. I don't know if it's the last eight weeks or the last six weeks or whatever the range is.They were playing like the top, a top five defense in the NFL ORG over that stretch. And that is true. I don't know the exact step, but I mean, that's, that's verifiably factual statement. But it's important to remember that, like, those games were not against a ton of great quarterbacks. There were some good offenses in there. I mean, they shut down a good, or not shut down, but they held down a very good Detroit Lions ORG offense.It's not to say that the defense didn't do anything impressive. But they also maybe inflated some of their stats against Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers ORG. Josh Dobbs and the Minnesota Vikings ORG, not exactly elite quarterback play there. Flacco and the Browns ORG were not great at that time, at least from a quarterbacking standpoint. Taylor Heineke and the Atlanta Falcons ORG were a mess. Even Kyle Murray and the Falcons, like Kyler Murray in the Cardinals ORG,he was coming right off of that knee injury. I don't think Kyler Murray was 100% the guy. Like some of the teams that the Bears ORG defense was great against last season were not very good quarterbacks in passing offenses. We saw them struggle quite a bit against the Packers in Week 17. We saw them struggle even a little bit at times against the Vikings and the Lions ORG,even though they generally played well in those games. And I think it's just too easy to say, well, they were top five at the end of last season against some good and bad offenses. So therefore, they're going to pick up and be top five to start this season because we just pick up where they were at the end of last year and drop it at the beginning of this season and it's going to be exactly the same. Because it's not exactly the same defense. So far, as we stand here right now today, the Bears ORG pass rush and defensive line is worse right now than it was then.You've lost Unique and Gokwe and Justin Jones, and you've only really replaced them with Austin Booker PERSON, a fifth round rookie, who I like, but a fifth round rookie. Like, you're expecting guys who are back up last season to step in as starters this season and play better this season than they did last season. And you hope that they can do that. You're optimistic for Jervon Dexter PERSON to take a big step forward. But just like the young players on offense, new starters in new places,expecting them to play better than they have in the past. Like there's a chance they don't. And there's a risk there. And this is not to include or overlook Kevin Byard at free safety replacing Eddie Jackson PERSON. Like, he's a very different skill set safety than Eddie Jackson PERSON was. Bayard PERSON is more in the mold of a guy who's better downhill and more of a strong safety typewho's going to be playing free safety. So the Bears ORG' safety positions are going to have to be a little more interchangeable. So Matt Ibrose PERSON is going to have to run coverages a little bit differently with a currently lesser pass rush. We'll see if they still sign somebody between now and week one. There's still time for this to change.But like, right now the Bears pass rush is worse than it was last season. And the secondary is going to be at least a little bit different. I mean, you hope Kyler Gordon PERSON takes another step forward. The other safety, why can I think of the other safety's name of the top of my head? Jaquan Brisker, you expect Chiquan Brisker PERSON to be a little bit better. You expect Tyreek Stevenson PERSON to keep getting better.These linebackers to settle in. Like players on defense will get better too, but things are inherently going to be different. And maybe they're different and still a top five defense, but it's going to be different, right? And that's the key is, like, you're not just picking up last season's defense and putting it here too and expecting them to just be exactly the same as they were. Like, last season's defense struggled at the beginning of the year. Before Montes PERSON, what, I understand.Like, I think this defense will certainly be better than where they finished last year overall 20th. Like, this will be a decent defense. But I'm not ready to say it's going to be a top five defense for sure. Like, it could be. There's a path to get there. But I'm not just going to assume Caleb William gets top five defense and three 1,000 yard receivers.Like, that's not a given at this stage of the process. And that's where it's like, it's hard for me to sit here and go, okay, then if I'm not sure exactly how the defense is going to be good. We'll see how good. The offense is going to be good. We'll see how good.Like that does not, to me, scream 12 wins first place in the division playoff run. That to me screams a little like around 500, maybe a game or two above 500 and battling for the last playoff spot. Like that's kind of where this team sits for me right now until we see what else they do on the defensive line and really how quickly this all comes together week one and beyond at the start of the schedule.Plus we got to see the order of the games where the buy week is and how this schedule might play out in terms of when they have to go to London and how that might affect their performances and stuff. So we're going to break down this full schedule in order when it comes out next week on the podcast. So make sure you hit that subscribe button on YouTube ORG or wherever you listen to podcasts. That's going to be the best way to keep up with all of our daily, in-depth Chicago Bears ORG news and analysis.Thanks for making Lockdown Bears your first listen today. We're part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team, every day. Coming back tomorrow, we're going to break down this bear's undrafted rookie free agent class to look at which UDFAs have the best shot of making the 53-man roster as the team does rookie mini-camp this weekend. So make sure you come back for that. And you've got to make sure you come back every day for another opportunity to bear down.

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