Bears and Caleb Williams Earn Little Respect in First On SI Poll
On SI has begun polling all of its website publishers for a complete NFL ranking and the Bears come across here just about the way they did in most power rankings.
In other words, they're not really close to being a playoff team at this point.
The first ranking has them at 22nd overall based on the vote of all sites.
Perhaps the most difficult challenge ahead for the Bears is that all three of the other NFC North teams are rated 13th or better and the Bears won't even face any of them until the second half of the season. So they need to make up ground now while Caleb Williams is still in the process of trying to figure it all out.
The Packers are ranked 13th, mainly because they lack Jordan Love at the moment.
The Vikings are rated 11th, with Sam Darnold's career taking a route like he's the 2024 version of Geno Smith.
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And the Lions remain sixth despite losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 2.
On an overall scale, the Chiefs, Bills and 49ers are no strangers to playoff discussion and are rated at the top of SI's poll.
The Bears will need better running, pass blocking and accuracy from Caleb Williams to ascend. They may even need Keenan Allen healthy, as well.
Obviously they won't need better play from their defense. That's really not possible unless they make even more takeaways. They have allowed three points in the second half of games this year.
All this and they haven't even had a sack yet from Montez Sweat.
Twitter: BearsOnSI