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soulman

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Sports Illustrated predicts Bears will finish last in NFC North in 2019

Lorin Cox,NBC Sports Chicago 10 hours ago
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If not for upset Colts fans following the retirement of Andrew Luck, the Twitter mentions of Sports Illustrated writer Andy Benoit would be a war zone of angry Bears fans who read his NFL predictions for the 2019 season.


In the latest print edition of the magazine, Benoit projects Chicago to finish 7-9 this year - last in the NFC North.

How disrespectful! It's crazy how Sports Illustrated could place the Bears at 4th in the NFC North. I guess we'll have to prove them wrong again! @ChicagoBears @SInow #BearDown #ChicagoBears @FiftyDeuce

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His NFL predictions don't have a web version as of yet, but he sees the Minnesota Vikings winning the division and taking the No. 3 seed in the playoffs at 11-5. The Green Bay Packers finish second at 10-6 with a wildcard spot, and even the Detroit Lions end up ahead of the Bears at 9-7.

Bears at 7-9 and last in North is ridiculous from @SInow

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Benoit's analysis is based on expecting a step back from Chicago's defense that led the NFL in 2018. He also foresees "mixed results" from Mitchell Trubisky during his second season in Matt Nagy's offense.


Benoit ranks the Bears quarterback, running backs, wide receivers and tight ends all outside of the top 20 position groups in the NFL, with the offensive line ranking 10th. He still likes the front seven as the best unit in the league, but he sees the secondary as average at No. 17.


He's not the first analyst to forecast regression for the Bears this season, but not many have gone as far to put them at the bottom of the division after last year's 12-4 breakout.The pitchforks and torches may fly off the shelves faster than Sports Illustrated magazines in Chicago this week.

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1 hour ago, Superman(DH23) said:

17th ranked secondary, with the best S in the league, and an arguable top 3 CB is downright disrespectful.  Thanks for the fuel si.

Seriously, what are their criteria? TWO 2018 FIRST TEAM ALL PROS in the secondary. The other two starting DBs would have to be you and me to justify that grade. 

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SI just dropped off my "let's see what's up list".

We've got some tough games but then so do those who have to play us.

My guess is it's all part of the disbelief that Mitch will continue to ascend and will regress instead.  They see Mitch Bortles.

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2 hours ago, AZBearsFan said:

Seriously, what are their criteria? TWO 2018 FIRST TEAM ALL PROS in the secondary. The other two starting DBs would have to be you and me to justify that grade. 

And with the pass rush we get up front, even then it would be top 5 at worst.

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56 minutes ago, soulman said:

SI just dropped off my "let's see what's up list".

We've got some tough games but then so do those who have to play us.

My guess is it's all part of the disbelief that Mitch will continue to ascend and will regress instead.  They see Mitch Bortles.

I said it in a thread in gen, when somebody said Mitch wasnt a good QB: the rest of the league sure hopes so, otherwise the Bears are going to be really damn good, for a really.long time.

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I know this feel disrespectful, but it's not out of the realm. Look at 2016 Raiders. 2017 Jaguars. Teams that looked promising who feel back to earth a year later.

Majority of the Bears wins in 2018 came against teams that would be picked top 10 in the draft. Their is a change in DC. The QB is still a question mark and their depth on the Oine is suspect. 

They play a much tougher scheduled this year. The defense will be great, but it's natural to take a step backwards scoring wise.

Basically if Trubisky is it, they will be fine. But if he doesn't take the next step forward, an 8-8, 7-9 season could be realistic.

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6 hours ago, Superman(DH23) said:

17th ranked secondary, with the best S in the league, and an arguable top 3 CB is downright disrespectful.  Thanks for the fuel si.

I guess Skrine is suddenly bad, and Callahan on IR is a better option. And Amos was an All-Pro, as I recall.

23 minutes ago, big_palooka said:

I know this feel disrespectful, but it's not out of the realm. Look at 2016 Raiders. 2017 Jaguars. Teams that looked promising who feel back to earth a year later.

Majority of the Bears wins in 2018 came against teams that would be picked top 10 in the draft. Their is a change in DC. The QB is still a question mark and their depth on the Oine is suspect. 

They play a much tougher scheduled this year. The defense will be great, but it's natural to take a step backwards scoring wise.

Basically if Trubisky is it, they will be fine. But if he doesn't take the next step forward, an 8-8, 7-9 season could be realistic.

It's not out of the realm of possibility that the Bears take a step back (although they won't). The thing about the SI prediction is that he attributes most of the falloff on the defense. Which, if he'd been paying more attention, he probably wouldn't have written what he did. The change in the Bears DC is, at worst, a wash. 

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They have heard of a place called Detroit right? 😉😂...

Seriously though their position ranks are laughable and baring the injury bug striking I see no way we end up bottom of this division...anything but winning it would be a disappointment IMO.  

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58 minutes ago, big_palooka said:

I know this feel disrespectful, but it's not out of the realm. Look at 2016 Raiders. 2017 Jaguars. Teams that looked promising who feel back to earth a year later.

The 2016 Raiders didn't have nearly the defensive talent that the 2019 Bears do, and the 2017 Jaguars don't have nearly the offensive talent that the 2019 Bears do.

Majority of the Bears wins in 2018 came against teams that would be picked top 10 in the draft. Every team in the NFC North played the Jets, Cardinals, 49ers, Bills, and Lions. Green Bay lost to Arizona (at home), lost to Detroit twice and barely beat SF in Lambeau. Minnesota lost to Buffalo at home. Detroit lost to the Jets in primetime. It's the NFL, anything can happen. Who you're playing makes no difference. Hell, the Jets beat the Colts, the Raiders beat the Steelers and Browns. The Niners somehow beat the Seahawks. Their is a change in DC. But no change in the top 9 players on the defense. The QB is still a question mark and their depth on the Oine is suspect. Fair.

They play a much tougher scheduled this year. The defense will be great, but it's natural to take a step backwards scoring wise.

See this is where I get aggravated. Yeah, their schedule got tougher, but they also played the Vikings, Patriots, Rams, and Seahawks last year and went 3-1. If the Bears are as good as we think, the "tough schedule" won't matter. New Orleans, NE, Seattle, etc have been playing tough schedules due to finishing 1st or 2nd in their division for the last 5+ years. The Bears will also play more 2018-non-playoff/bad teams in 2019- Oakland, Giants, Washington, Denver, Green Bay twice, Minnesota twice and Detroit twice.

And yes, the defense probably won't score 74 touchdowns again this year, but they'll also probably have a better offense than 26th or whatever it was in 2018.

Basically if Trubisky is it, they will be fine. But if he doesn't take the next step forward, an 8-8, 7-9 season could be realistic.

If Trubisky is as good as last year, they'll still win 10 games this year.

 

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49 minutes ago, Madmike90 said:

They have heard of a place called Detroit right? 😉😂...

Seriously though their position ranks are laughable and baring the injury bug striking I see no way we end up bottom of this division...anything but winning it would be a disappointment IMO.  

Yeah, I don't get the big improvement in Detroit this guy is obviously seeing. I mean--to elevate to that level? Weird.

23 minutes ago, beardown3231 said:

Also, these articles suck. If the Bears go 11-5 and people rip this guy on twitter, he'll say "well I said they'll be worse so how was I wrong?"

It'll be funny to see what happens if they go 15-1. 

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