It's reasonable at this point of the season that the Chicago Bears have more skeptics than supporters, but the fate of this team in 2025 is firmly in their own hands.
Regardless of what anyone thinks about the job the Bears have done up to this point, or the sustainability of their status as the first-place team in the NFC North, this team has shown some impressive resolve and grit under rookie head coach Ben Johnson.
With seven games left to play this season, the Bears control their destiny in the NFC North. There's a lot of football left to be played, which is the biggest reason skeptics like those at Bleacher Report view Chicago as a "pretender" rather than a true contender.
Bears labeled playoff "pretender" because of daunting gauntlet over the final 7 games
Here's what Bleacher Report had to say about the Bears being a playoff pretender at this stage of the season:
"Verdict: Pretender. This team is strong and on the right track, but there are still too many flaws for the Bears to survive facing the Steelers, Eagles, Packers (twice), 49ers and Lions between now and the finish line."
This is just one opinion, but it's obviously a widely shared one right now. People have seen the Bears give up a ton of points to the Lions and Bengals this season, an imperfect (and inconsistent) offense, and they don't view it as sustainable.
That's understandable.
But when the Bears have been at their best on both sides of the ball, I don't think they've gotten enough credit. This team has absolutely lit up the scoreboard with a dynamic group of offensive weapons, as well as Ben Johnson operating the whole thing. Defensively, the Bears have been ballhawks and have forced more turnovers (22) than any other team in the league up to this point.
There's no doubt that the Bears are facing a gauntlet the rest of this season:
- vs. Steelers
- @ Eagles
- @ Packers
- vs. Browns
- vs. Packers
- @ 49ers
- vs. Lions
It's not a carbon copy, but remember the Bears were in somewhat of a similar position last year coming out of the bye week. Nobody has forgotten the brutal loss against the Washington Commanders that took the team from 5-2 to 4-3 in the blink of an eye, and the train came off the rails from that point forward.
This is the 2025 team's opportunity to atone for those mistakes and do what they couldn't last season. Is it going to be easy? Absolutely not, but the Bears can start exorcising some demons by getting a small measure of revenge against Aaron Rodgers, who has historically dominated them.
Then, if they can get that win, they need to learn how to be road warriors. This team is just like many others around the league. They've had some inconsistencies, but they are still scoring the eighth-most points per game in the league, and a defense that can create takeaways at a high rate will always keep a team in every game.
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People can say the Bears are pretenders all they want. This team has a chance to prove everyone wrong.