The Chicago Bears ended up missing the playoffs this year after such high expectations and will have an easier schedule in 2020. Can they bounce back and get back to the playoffs in 2020?
After winning the NFC North last year for the first time since 2010, the Chicago Bears headed into 2019 with such high expectations and Superbowl aspirations, but that won’t be happening. After the loss against the Green Bay Packers, the Bears were officially eliminated from playoff contention.
Last year, us Bears fans remember that we ended the Packers season, and this year they ended ours, but I guess what comes around goes around. The Bears currently sit at 7-8 after a loss on Sunday Night Football to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. They face off against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, and the best the Bears can finish this season is 8-8, or if they lose it’ll be a 7-9 season.
Well, the 2020 schedule has been released for the Bears, and with them finishing in third place, is that they’ll be playing a third-place schedule. This means that they’ll be playing every third-place team from each NFC division, which is huge if they plan on getting back to the playoffs. Along with the Bears playing the entire NFC North, they will also be playing the NFC and AFC South in 2020.
NFC South games include the Bucs, Saints, Falcons, and Panthers. If you remember back in 2017 when Mitchell Trubisky lit up the Buccaneers defense after throwing six touchdowns. Can he repeat that performance against the Buccaneers again in 2020? We’ll see. In the AFC South, the Bears will be facing off against the Texans, Titans, Colts and the Jaguars.
Trubisky will be facing off against Deshaun Watson for the first time in his career, who will perform better between the two top 10 picks in 2017? We’ll see. Hopefully, the Bears don’t open the 2020 season against the Packers, because that was a very tough opponent to face in week 1 of last year. Honestly, I would like to see the Bears open up the season against an easier opponent, say they open up against the Lions or Panthers, I’d be okay with that.
If the Bears plan on having a better start to the 2020 season, then Matt Nagy and Trubisky will need to start the season off fresh and get on the same page immediately, the offense can’t take half the season to get going like it did in 2019. Trubisky has a lot of potential to be a franchise quarterback in the NFL and yes he does show a lot of improvement and flashes of greatness, but it’s time for all of us Bears fans to believe in him.
As I’m currently looking at the Bears schedule next year, I can easily see them going at least 13-3 with how easy their schedule is, but it’s the NFL anything can happen. I just think this team has too much talent and potential to miss the playoffs again, but we’ll see.