Expert Projection? Bears Ranked 22nd

Spot on.

And how much (little?) we were able to upgrade ourselves during the off-season, 22nd is probably a pretty accurate assessment. However, one thing that people forget is that Forte played just about the entire season injured, last year – and that hurt our running game and our offense tremendously. Missing Urlacher for the year hurt a lot, as well. Now we’ve got 2 key players back healthy, this year.

Maybe it’s a fair ranking, but we also may end up surprising some of the experts this year…

and I have no prooblem with being 20. The thing is though, I don’t think there is a big difference between 10 and 20 (9-7 to 8-8?). I think injuries will separate alot of those teams. Until the Bears prove they have worked out some of their issues why should anyone be optimistic? Prove them wrong which I think we will. We did beat the mighty Vikings at the end of last year…

If this link is accurate. Interesting.

I think the Packers and VIkings (given Favre returns) are ranked appropriately. Although, there are a couple concerns on both teams, none are significant or “glaring problems”.

Thus far in the offseason (June), I think the Packers are the team to beat in the NFC. They have all the weapons on defense and offense and have a very good schedule slotting (as the VIkings did in 2009).

The Bears are ranked where they are supposed to be at this point. Although, most glaring weaknesses of 2009 have been addressed, there are too many question marks on this team in terms of will things gel/pan out in enough time. The biggest concern is will the offense improve under Martz. Although, there is clearly enough room for optimism, there just isn’t any proof that it will at this point.

If the Bears disappoint, I think that Jerry Angelo will survive and maybe some of the coaching staff. I think Lovie Smith might be the “Ron Turner” of 2010. I think what Halas Hall wants to see is the Bears compete in the division. I think Super Bowl is ALWAYS the ultimate goal, but I think they would be satisfied with a playoff run.

Take a look back at Rick’s 2009 Pre-season prognostications. He ranked the Bears 13th and added this little gem…“What a difference a quarterback makes. By acquiring Pro Bowler Jay Cutler from the Denver Broncos, the Bears have the best quarterbacking in the NFC North for the first time since the Jim McMahon era in the 1980s. Matt Forte can complement Cutler with his legs and Devin Hester can with his hands. But the Bears need to regroup on defense.”

The Bears were 7-9 last year, they couldn’t have gotten worse through free-agency, experience, and getting healthy could they?

THE ******* LIONS!!!!

You know…
I get it that people know more about something have their opinions respected.

But being a SPORTS analyst is one of the easiest jobs in the world. Specially if you indeed enjoy the boring part of it (research).
But it’s easy to opinionate on the OBVIOUS and make a prediction.
I’ve met people in forums that are more accurate in analysis than some heralded “experts” on the Net.

I know the Bears, based on their recent past haven’t proved much.
But the Bears in 2004 we were pretty bad on Defense too. Yet…2005 came and we were a TOP 3 defense.

These analysts douchebags, forget that Teams that are good aren’t going to be good FOREVER and teams who are bad aren’t going to be bad FOREVER either.

Ranking us near the LIONS is downright offensive.
They don’t have ANYTHING besides Suh and Delmas on defensive side of the ball to be called a DEFENSE. And Suh is an unproven rookie.

Teams with BAD OL win too.
WHY THE HELL people come telling this brain-wash mumbo jumbo.
Some idiot said “well sirs, you can’t win without an pro-bowl studded OL”
Bears in 2006 had a bad OL and went to the superbowl.
THE PACKERS last year, had THE most ridiculous lame OL of the league.
Vikings’ OL was totally overrated. They get off on AP being the mauler he is. It’s rarely on the Offensive Line’s merit.

DECENT does the job.
Bears need to SCORE and PREVENT scoring, and ERASE screw-ups with big plays.
All the other “what ifs” are overlookable details.

I think the Bears will win 10 games this season.
The schedule is favorable.
Man i CANT WAIT for the bears to make these idiots eat their words.

In my opinion it all rests on the Martz/Cutler situation. If Jay picks up the offense and can be more accurate than he was last year, we should be a factor in the division. If he plays as poorly as he did last year or doesn’t get on the same page with Martz, this offense tends to turn the ball over more than most anyway so, if you couple that with poor results the pressure on the defense will be incredible. While I like the Peppers signing, the release of Alex Brown without a proven replacement is still worriesome. Despite people’s response to Gale Sayers’ comments, he is correct about not knowing if Urlacher will return to form at his age (I’m not saying he won’t, just that it is a question). Until we see consistant effort from Tommie Harris over an entire season, DT is still not settled either.

I hope he is wrong, but I can understand anyone being hesitant until some of these things are answered and/or proven false, so I can’t argue too much with his ranking for the Bears. I don’t agree, however, that the Pack and Vikings should be that high, especially if Favre doesn’t return.

means the team will ultimately exceed national expectations. 9-10 wins should be attainable even with a tougher schedule. Will it be enough to make the dance? Possibly.

I think Green bay defense is likely to come back down to earth this year. They have question marks with their pass rush, secondary, and outside protection at both tackle position. I just don’t see super contender with that team at all.

Bears finish as a top 10 team and are a Wild Card making it to the playoffs out of the NFC North. And no, I am not one of the most respected one’s in the Country.

he said the top 6 are elite, the bottom 6 all are crap, and the teams in the middle are all capable of 10-6 or 6-10 depending on how things go

We all know what an “expert” he is.

22nd?? I doubt it. I suspect we will be a TOP 12 team in 2010. We still have many many question marks, but we will be at least a 10-6 team this year.

Gone are the predictable play calls on offense, the half-assed pash rush attempts, the geezers on the ends of the line. This is 2010 baby, the Bears WILL be a FORCE in the league.

Expert, HA !! , an expert douche.

We all have seen the prejudice to ranks the Bears as crap, over and over again.

What we have is Upgrades on paper, and we should be all able to agree, onfield and paper are two totally different stories.

We have a whole new O system, many state it takes 3 years to fully implement. We have coaches and a GM who have to be feeling the heat. Some thrive under pressure, some collapse. A young WR corp and a ProBowl QB who struggled last year.

Add all that together and we have unknowns, so in the reporter world, it just add more room to rank us down. Thats OK though, hopefully they will prove them all wrong and we will continue to laugh at their "expert"ness.

Before pre season ratings are fun but they can’t rate heart , guts or injury. All of the mentioned really determine where a team will place in the league. Oh , and luck !
 I’m more excited about Chester Taylor than Matt Forte. When I compare optimum performances of each – it’s Chester’s quick line hits into the D backfield that win out.

For sure the other teams in our division got more depth in the talent draft. But none of them got an obvious Julius Peppers in the draft. We got HIM. What we need is to keep everybody healthy -which is nuts due to the nature of the game. They’re are our soldiers of game. But they are also human beings. Remember our Gale Sayers , Dick Butkus , Wally Chambers , Doug Plank ,Jerry Aszumah , Dan Hampton . . .a long list of injured players NOT to be forgotten. So let’s not take our present guys risks for granted.

Last year sports illustrated predicted us to go all the way to the superbowl against the patriots, and you know how that, and many other “expert” predictions for past seasons have played out, so I beleive it’s not in our best interest to fret over these things, and just wait and see.

I just read that guy’s entire list. Bloody hell, it’s an absolute pipe dream…
-Come on, Tennessee in front of Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Philly?
-He called the Bengals a contender… That guy just deserves a smack in the face for that…
-The Jets at 10??? Who cares that Thomas Jones is gone? They still have a excellent defense which is better, Greene, a RB on th rise, and Sanchez who has handled his role perfectly.
-Houston at #9? Hmmmm, maybe not.
-Vikequeens at 6? I’d say reasonable, but take into account that the williams wall is one year older, and a 40 year old qb can only do so much magic. Who do they have to replace him? No one. Gerhart is good, but i doubt he’ll be able to fill Chester’s shoes immediately, and with the way AP likes to cough the ball up on 3rd down, watch out!
-How on earth is SD at 5th? This team is inches away from falling down the toilet, mark my words.
-I like Baltimore, but still, draft picks are never for certain.
-At second, wade phillips better watch out because a few scrapes, a couple tears, and some words by have the his daycare in shambles. Although I do like Dez Bryant.
-The Colts I agree will still be beast, but no team is invincible → ’07 Patriots

Hand the man his Ass Hat.