The Chicago Bears roster is a bit of a mystery. Such is the reality when a team goes through an extensive overhaul as they’ve done over the past few months. GM Ryan Pace and new head coach Matt Nagy had a vision in mind and they seem to have executed it the way they wanted. Most experts tend to agree that between free agency and the draft, this team has significantly improved.
The question is how much does that matter when in comparison to the rest of the league? The Bears weren’t the only team that likely got better over the past few months. Some of them were teams that already made deep playoff runs. So it likely would’ve taken a drastic uptick in talent for them to close that gap.
Pro Football Focus collaborated with ESPN in determining the overall strength of the projected starting rosters of every team in the NFL going into the 2018 season. Then they placed them in a ranking of 1-32. It’s no surprise that the Philadelphia Eagles were #1 and the Cleveland Browns were #32.
What might be surprising is all that happened in between, including with the Bears.
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Chicago Bears roster ranked 22nd in the NFL
According to the grading system, PFF is known for, the entire Bears roster draws a ranking of 22nd overall this year. That may not sit well with a lot of fans. Just more disrespect. Except in truth it’s actually pretty fair given much of the depth chart is unproven and the Bears haven’t had a winning season in five years.
“Biggest strength: Akiem Hicks has been a force on the Bears’ defensive front since arriving in Chicago in 2016. While his 49 total quarterback pressures in 2017 fell just one short of matching his career mark set the prior season, his play against the run was even better. His 37 run stops led all 3-4 defensive ends, and his run-stop percentage of 10.7 ranked sixth.
Biggest weakness: With free-agent pickup Trey Burton expected to factor in more heavily in the passing game, the Bears will lean on Dion Sims for blocking. Unfortunately for Chicago, Sims struggled throughout 2017, ranking 62nd out of 69 qualifying tight ends with a grade of just 38.4 on run blocks.”
The interesting part about this isn’t so much the ranking itself. It’s who the Bears have actually placed ahead of. Among the teams who found themselves in lower spots including the Denver Broncos (25th), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (27th) and Houston Texans (31st). These are teams picked by a number of people to contend for the playoffs this season.
The Texans are even a dark horse pick to reach the Super Bowl. For the Bears to be rated ahead of them despite guys like DeAndre Hopkins, J.J. Watt, Jadeveon Clowney and Deshaun Watson on the roster is quite the eye-opener. It certainly puts the coming season in greater perspective.
