Bear Digest

What Texans' Success Says About Ryan Poles' Bears Rebuild

Analysis: Houston's ability to overturn its roster and go from second-worst team in the NFL to a playoff team says something about the Bears' efforts under their GM.

Gene Chamberlain

The Texans prove the Bears are taking far too long to rebuild their team heading into the 2024 season.
The Texans prove the Bears are taking far too long to rebuild their team heading into the 2024 season. / Jamie Sabau-USA TODAY Sports
In this story:

It was the final game and the final minutes of the 2022 regular season and Jonathan Owens still remembers it well.

His Houston Texans team would get the first pick of the draft if they lost. Yet, Davis Mills found Jordan Akins for the fateful fourth-and-20 touchdown pass of 28 yards, then the same two converted for two points on a pass to get the Texans a 32-31 win over the Colts, thereby handing the first pick in the 2022 NFL Draft to the Bears.

The starting safety that day for Houston was Jonathan Owens, who the Bears signed in free agency this year.

"Yeah, but like people were also telling us to try and lose that game so the Texans could get the No. 1 pick," Owens said. "But, like, who in their right mind is going to go out there and not compete to the best of your ability and put great film on there?

"Even though neither one of us were technically playing for something since we both weren't going to the playoffs, I mean we are out there trying to compete every play. Never once was it a moment of, 'Oh, let them score or don't try to score.' After the game, we realized the magnitude of how everything happened, but we were trying to win, man."

As they should.

Told he would be considered a hero of sorts in Chicago because he played in the game that made possible two years of the Bears with the draft's top pick, Owens responded, "really?"

"Yeah, that's pretty interesting," he said. "It was a Hail Mary man. Jordan Akins and Davis Mills, that's who y'all need to talk to."

Actually, the Colts had 50 more seconds to get into field goal range. Owens had a part in preventing it as the starting safety. So he did have a role.

The point of it all is to underscore how things change so much on one play, and how sometimes things are not what they seem.

The Bears were perceived to be the big winners from that day because they traded down with the first pick, got DJ Moore, still were able to draft Darnell Wright, drafted Tyrique Stevenson and have a chance at Caleb Williams now all because of the end of that game.

And the Houston Texans were the big losers by winning.

This is so wrong, and it's the reason both Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus need to realize they're operating in this draft and in the 2024 season with the clock ticking very loudly.

Caleb Williams is a good place for the Bears to start this year.

The pick at No. 9 will be the key to the draft for the Bears now, and needs to be the most immediately impactful player they can select. Picking a player who will develop for them and perhaps be solid or excellent in two or three years fails to fill a need.

The need is to win the division this season.

There have been those who step up for Poles and Eberflus and point out how the 2022 season was basically a tear-down year and they need more time.

It definitely was that. They tore it all down.

As a result, they were given free passes for the next, what, five years?

No.

Time waits for no one in the NFL. It stands for Not for Long, remember? The Texans realized this.

Poles and Eberflus had to contend with that gutted salary cap and a draft class lacking a first pick in 2022. So the first year was the throw-away year?

Tell that to the Houston Texans. When was their throw-away year?

After the Texans lost that game they fired Lovie Smith, making him their second fired head coach in two seasons. They gutted the team and GM Nick Caserio hired DeMeco Ryans as head coach, a defensive guy and not an offensive coach. They drafted C.J. Stroud, who the Bears could have picked if they hadn't traded with Carolina.

If you count slot cornerback and No. 2 tight end as starting positions, they came back in 2023 with different starters at 16 of 24 positions. That's two-thirds of the team.

They made the playoffs and then this past week struck a deal for a star receiver, Stefon Diggs, to add to an already explosive receiver corps. They're going all out to try and win it all. It might be a process but they realize how short of a time there is in the NFL to do this.

Things are looking extremely extremely bright for the Texans after that nightmarish victory to close 2022.

As for the Bears, Poles and Eberflus have had one extra year to get their ship in order that the Texans didn't have. Yet, there are no playoff games in Chicago's recent past. They have 10 wins in two seasons and great optimism about the quarterback they'll draft this year.

They think the team they've put around the 2024 QB will be formidable, but it will be up to Williams to add the final touch to what needs to be a winning year, a playoff year.

Sure, Williams is going to be a rookie and they can all need seasoning, but Stroud didn't have a problem taking a team to the playoffs with a roster gutted and rebuilt under a new coach in only a few short months.

The Texans showed what can be done given the opportunity.

The Bears have already had a full season longer than the Texans had and everyone is still waiting. It's taking too long.

WHO THE BEARS CAN DRAFT IF THEY TRADE BACK AT NO. 9

THE ONES WHO GOT AWAY FROM RYAN POLES IN FIRST TWO DRAFTS

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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