A Rooting Interest for Bears Fans

Bears fans are used to rooting for some other team in the Super Bowl and Sunday there's one team in particular they should be supporting.

There are plenty of reasons Bears fans on Super Sunday need to be singing Fly Eagles Fly.

None have a thing to do with being in the same conference or the fact Andy Reid draws on players' faces. It doesn't really have to do with the fact Matt Nagy is an assistant on the Kansas City Chiefs staff, although the latter probably would be good enough for many Bears fans.

There are reasons related to the future of the Bears and some related to the past.

Sure, it's easy to root for Patrick Mahomes, especially now that they seem to have stopped showing the commercials with both him and Aaron Rodgers in them together.

1. The Running QBs

Sure, both Mahomes and Jalen Hurts are mobile passers but Hurts is more like Justin Fields. He is a running threat on every down and with sub 4.6-second speed while Mahomes is iquick-footed but not necessarily a fast threat to produce big gains with his feet unless the defense completely abandons an area of the field in coverage. Mahommes ran 4.8 in the 40, slower than Jack Sanborn or Cole Kmet.

It's often said a running quarterback can't win the Super Bowl. The only real example of it happening was Russell Wilson but the year he won it his rushing yardage total was only 539 yards, about 250 less than what Hurts had this year and 600 less than what Fields did. There have been other runners, possibly Steve Young the next best. But by the time he won a Super Bowl in 1994 he was running for less than 300 yards.

A true running QB like Hurts winning it could be more inspiration for Fields and Bears fans. This would be a QB not totally unlike theirs hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.

2. Rapid Rebuild

The Eagles turning it around from 6-10 in 2020 to winning the title for the 2022 season is proof it can be done, as if further evidence was needed after the Bengals got there in the third year of their rebuild.

There are differences from the Bears. Philadelphia retained a strong offensive line and many pieces of its defense. They just added key receivers and some defensive backs, a player here or there, and let Hurts grow into the attack.

The Bears aren't as fortunate. They tore apart their defense and are going to build it now so it could take longer but the Eagles are nothing but encouragement for the Bears and their process.

3. Similar System

The offense Luke Getsy turned to last year after the Thursday night loss to Washington made use of Fields' legs in a way the Eagles do with Hurts, except minus the crouched down cheating quarterback sneaks.

They run plenty of RPO and zone read with a strong emphasis on receivers being able to block downfield, much the way the Bears have tried to do. It's definitely not a conventional NFL offense but one copied in parts off of the Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson by Philadelphia and now by the Bears. If the Eagles can make this work, the Bears can too.

The difference now being the Eagles can pass to better receivers when they're not running and can keep defenses more off balance. Also, an extremely strong defense supports them.

4. Free Agency

These are two Super Bowl opponents with plenty of free agents between them but more of them with the Eagles look like fits for what the Bears are doing now on offense and defense, like defensive tackle Javon Hargrave and cornerback James Bradberry and linebacker T.J. Edwards.

Kansas City has tackle Orlando Brown Jr. in free agency but he could very well be tagged and kept by the Chiefs another year. Brown isn't the most mobile run blocker and, in fact, was graded well below Bears left tackle Braxton Jones by Pro Football Focus as a run blocker. If he was willing to be a right tackle this might be a player the Bears would pursue in free agency, because it's an open position for the. But in the past he has expressed strong feelings about staying at left tackle.

5. The Mahomes Story

Every time Mahomes is in a big game or faces the Bears, the old stories about how the Bears passed on him for Mitchell Trubisky resurface. Now Mahomes even has his father out telling stories about it on Chicago radio.

There's no reason to bring this up anymore. The people who perpetrated this bit of football malfeasance are long gone from Chicago and everyone in Chicago is well aware how stupid the mistake was they made.

The person who brings it up is officially a bore.

6. Ex-Bear Factor

Wide receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette is on the Chiefs practice squad and cost the Bears a game against the Vikings this year by getting the ball stolen out of his hands on the final drive, before he was cut in Chicago.

And besides, Matt Nagy is the Chiefs quarterbacks coach.

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