Check out the debut article from our newest writer, longtime WCG member, Donald Gooch!
I wasn’t born yesterday. And that’s the problem. I, as is true for many of my fellow Chicago Bears fans, have endured years—no, DECADES—of watching our favorite team lurch from mediocrity to almost comical awfulness (if we weren’t Bears fans, we could laugh at the respective befuddled looks on the faces of Trestman, Fox, Nagy, and then Flus in Detroit). As we cycled through, again and again, failed general managers, failed head coaches, and failed QB1s, we have become inured to the repetitive losses. Fans that were born the last time the Bears were in the Super Bowl are in their freshman year in college (or are of that age). Over that time span, the Bears have mostly put up losing seasons. Which consequently gets the GM and head coach fired. Which starts the cycle over again.
What’s worse, we have seen this era of failure punctuated by shining moments of hope. A season here and a season there that suggested the Bears were ready for an extended period of winning, if not championships in the division, conference, and yes, maybe even the Super Bowl. Marc Trestman’s 8-6 season, featuring a high-flying passing attack in 2013, gave us hope. Matt Nagy’s improbable 12-4 season, behind a QB1 drafted second overall and with Fangio and Mack on the attack, gave us hope…only to double doink it all away. The unfulfilled promises of Rex Grossman and Jay Cutler. Justin Fields, yet another flash in the pan that ultimately proved to be a mirage. All have produced moments of optimism among the Bears fandom. But the Chicago Bears, decade after decade, have dashed our hopes again, and again, and again.
And so, it is difficult to sit here in June of 2025, after the Bears have been crowned the “winner” of the offseason for the third year running and not entertain that small voice in the back of our heads that says, “what makes you think its going to be any different this time?” That fear is born of deep experience with this organization. Indeed, one definition of insanity is “repeating the same action, expecting different results.” Is it not, then, insane to believe in the Chicago Bears? To believe that this time—this time—it’s going to be different.
Well, my friends, I am here to deliver a message: be not afraid. Yes, all the past failures happened. They are part of our history. And yes, the ownership that presided over those decades still owns the Bears. But let’s take stock, not of the similarities, but of the differences. Because the Chicago Bears have not been insane. They have done things differently. And we can confidently expect different results. Let’s catalog what they have done differently.
1) The Chicago Bears hired the top coaching candidate on the market for not just this season, but for the past three seasons.
2) The Chicago Bears paid that head coach a lucrative contract that dwarfs any contract they have offered to a head coach in their history.
3) The Chicago Bears did not neglect the offensive line either in free agency nor in the draft. The Bears have gone from having perhaps the worst interior OL in the NFL to the best – in one offseason. The Bears have layered prospects and retained veterans on their offensive line.
4) The Chicago Bears have, potentially, one of the deepest rosters of offensive weapons in the NFC – if not the NFL.
5) The new head coach was able to bring in coaching talent on both sides of the ball – not since Nagy retained Fangio have the Bears had as experienced and as accomplished a defensive coordinator as Dennis Allen. And while Nagy was unable to bring any one of consequence over from KC, Ben Johnson snagged Antwaan Randle El from Detroit and has experienced and talented coaches all over his staff – on both sides of the ball.
Whether it’s the players or the coaching, this may be the deepest and most talented Chicago Bears team in two decades. And yes, folks, even for us battered Bears fans, that is reason for hope. Are there question marks headed into training camp? Of course, there are? Does all of this greatly depend on the development of Caleb Williams? Yes, it does. But I, for one, am tired of listening to that little voice in the back of my head. We aren’t crazy to be optimistic about the 2025 Chicago Bears. Objectively, there is reason upon reason to confidently expect a winning season from this team. So brush off that inner skeptic, Bears fans, and indulge your inner optimist. Believe. It would be crazy to do otherwise.