Bear Digest

Denying Up Arrow for Bears Becomes More Difficult Every Day

Analysis: The number of optimistic projections from unusual sources for this Bears season have become almost alarming considering how early and pervasive they are.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams scrambles free of the rush against UCLA.
Caleb Williams scrambles free of the rush against UCLA. / Jason Parkhurst-USA TODAY Sports
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There are always optimists long before every Bears season.

They're still a little less than a month before the Bears draft and this time the optimism is so pervasive for so early of a point that it's almost impossible to ignore.

Even sources normally less optimistic about their chances have quickly fallen into line. It's not as if Packers rans are wearing Bears jerseys but there are plenty of people who don't normally see something positive for them and now are thinking they can jump from 7-10 to a winning season or even better.

The Caleb Williams interest has a good deal to do with this. NFL.com analyst Adam Schein has labeled the Bears his "Cinderella team" for 2024 as a result.

Schein makes an annual habit of naming his Cinderella team. The Bears last earned this title in 2018 and Schein was spot-on during a 12-4 division championship season one ended by Cody Parkey’s miss.

Schein had also predicted this for Jacksonville before their run to the AFC championship game in 2017 and for the Bills in 2019 when they went 11-6. His last bit of success with the call came in 2022 with Miami and the Dolphins went 9-8 to make the playoffs after acquiring Tyree Hill.

There are numerous reasons cited by Schein for this prediction but one stands out above all of them and that's the Caleb Williams comment.

"In fact, as I've written before, I think Williams is one of the best QB prospects of the past 25 years—and I think he's going to have the greatest rookie season ever by a No. 1 pick at quarterback," Schein wrote.

Fox Sports 1 host Crag Carton pins all of their hope for improvement on one player.

"The Chicago Bears have a chance to win the division next year if Caleb Williams figures out the speed of the NFL game" he said.

Chicago Tribune Bears beat columnist Brad Bggs borders on optimistic both about Bears chances and their possible quarterback, which is unusual.

“I'm not going to make any predictions this early, but they've got a completely different team,” Biggs said during his regular appearance on WSCR AM-670's the Mully & Haugh Show. “They've got a lot of talent. They've still got youth on their side. There's credible reason for optimism at Halas Hall."

Even Vegas oddsmakers are looking at the Bears and seeing a team to notice. They started out the offseason at 7 1/2 for an over/under win total and are up to 8 1/2.


It's the highest win total projection by Vegas for the Bears since the 2019 offseason when they were coming off Parkey’s double-doink.

Considering how much of a factor injuries can play in the NFL, it's probably safer to tone it down more until they've finished training camp.

However, it’s a better general outlook than the team has had for years and comes after they traded away Justin Felds, easily their most popular player since Bran Urlacher.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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Gene Chamberlain

GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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