The Chicago Bears are 6-3 and right in the thick of a playoff hunt, but the evaluators around the NFL do not believe it quite yet.
In a recent ESPN article, their insiders were asked which team around the NFL is getting contender treatment but is the biggest pretender. Dan Graziano said that he believes many around the NFL are skeptical of the Bears' start.
"In the NFC, the Bears are 6-3 and tied with the Lions atop the NFC North, but a lot of the folks I talked to think they have a suspect defense and have benefited from some miracle comebacks that aren't likely to keep happening."Dan Graziano
Are the Chicago Bears the NFL’s biggest pretenders?
This is a fair thought, as the Bears do not have a statement win yet. They beat the Dallas Cowboys, but CeeDee Lamb got injured during the game, throwing their game plan out of the window.
They barely beat the Las Vegas Raiders and Washington Commanders, who are both having disappointing seasons. They needed last-minute comebacks against the Bengals, who are 1-5 without Joe Burrow, and the New York Giants, who just fired their head coach. They even lost to the Baltimore Ravens when Tyler Huntley was starting, and the game was not close.
This could easily be viewed as a flawed team that has found a way to beat some bad teams at the last minute. That explains why the team is more than a field goal underdog against the Minnesota Vikings despite the Bears having two more wins, and the Vikings' offense looking confused with J.J. McCarthy as the signal caller.
If the team loses this weekend, the noise surrounding the team being pretenders will only get louder. At the same time, it is amusing to consider that a win wouldn't do much.
Perhaps if the Bears blew out Minnesota, some around the league would recognize that the team is getting hot and winning legitimate games. Still, a close win would have these same evaluators thinking that McCarthy is not good, the Vikings are spiraling the Bears remain unproven.
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The Bears have two road games against the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers in two weeks. That will likely be the time when the Bears can prove that they are real contenders. Until then, they must avoid a slip-up to prove that they are not among the elite.