The Road to the Super Bowl Starts in Training Camp. But Is There a Bridge Out Ahead for the Bears?
It’s been more than three months since I’ve been on here.
And now we’re only 35 days away from 1:00 p.m. at Carolina.
Football is back.
Thank fucking God.
And somehow, since the last time I wrote one of these, my Knicks won the fucking NBA championship and I finally got a chip.
So I'm already playing with house money this year.
I’m writing this from one of my favorite bars in NYC, drinking a beer and thinking about the Chicago Bears, which means football season has officially started in my brain, whether anybody else likes it or not.
My wife, and executive editor of this blog, is especially excited for another season of hearing me yell at the television about dominant run blocking, speed-to-power, pass-rush technique, and why the Bears should have run the fucking ball on 3rd-and-2.
She can't wait. LOL.
But beneath all the excitement, there’s a serious question hanging over this team.
Are the Bears actually built to make a Super Bowl run?
Because this isn't last year anymore.
Last season was magical. Caleb had a season for the ages. The Bears found ways to win games that probably shaved several years off my life.
But eventually Cinderella has to stop relying on the fucking glass slipper.
If this team wants to take the next step, it needs to start winning differently.
And that brings me to my biggest concern.
WHO THE FUCK IS RUSHING THE PASSER?
Seriously.
Who wins a Super Bowl without a pass rush?
This is Football 101, bro.
Al Davis gave us one of the great football commandments:
The quarterback must go down. And he must go down hard.
You want to beat the best teams in January?
At some point, you're going to have Matthew Stafford, Jalen Hurts or another top quarterback standing across from you in the fourth quarter.
Somebody has to put his ass on the ground.
And I'm still waiting for the Bears to show me who that somebody is.
The biggest problem I had with this draft was watching the Bears go through the first 100 picks without seriously attacking edge rusher.
Yes, I know Van Der Berg is making noise in training camp.
Great.
I love training-camp noise.
Every August there’s some dude who apparently turned into Lawrence Taylor because he beat the third-string left tackle twice on Tuesday morning.
Show me in January.
Austin Booker showed some encouraging things during the second half of last season. I like Booker.
But now the league has tape.
They've seen his pitches.
They've seen what he likes to do.
The question isn't whether Booker flashed last year.
The question is whether he has another move when an NFL tackle knows what's coming.
That's the difference between a promising young pass rusher and a guy offensive coordinators actually lose sleep over.
And right now?
The Bears need A GUY.
AND YES, I'M STILL TALKING ABOUT THE FUCKING DRAFT
No disrespect to Sam Roush or his family. He seems like a nice guy, and I understand exactly why Ben Johnson wanted him.
He fits the offense.
He gives Johnson another piece for 13 personnel.
He can block.
Fine.
But we're talking about a third-round pick.
And Sam Roush isn't sacking Matthew Stafford in the fourth quarter to send the Chicago Bears to the NFC Championship Game.
That's my problem.
At some point, drafting can't just be about collecting interesting pieces.
You have to build the spine of a championship football team.
Pass rush.
Offensive line.
Secondary.
Depth.
You can't fix everything in free agency.
You have to build through the fucking draft!
And after four years of this Actress GM shit, I'm still waiting for Ryan Poles to prove he can consistently do that.
We've already seen the strange picks.
A fourth-round punter.
A third-round returner who's not even on the fucking team anymore.
And now we're spending premium draft capital on another luxury offensive piece while I'm sitting here wondering who's hitting the quarterback.
Stop jerking me off about "drafting for depth."
We're about to find out whether this roster actually has depth.
Because depth isn't having a bunch of names underneath the starters on the depth chart.
Depth is losing a starter in December and not having your entire fucking season collapse.
That's championship depth.
AND THEN THERE'S LEFT TACKLE
Jonathan Ogden.
Walter Jones.
Andrew Whitworth.
Jason Peters.
Tristan Wirfs.
Look at great playoff teams over the years.
Look at Super Bowl teams.
What do you keep finding?
Great offensive tackles.
And somehow we're four fucking years into the Ryan Poles experience, and I'm still wondering whether the Bears have solved left tackle.
How?
You're going to tell me we're making a Super Bowl run with a left tackle position held together with popsicle sticks and glue?
Come on, bro.
Caleb can be Superman.
Ben Johnson can scheme his ass off.
The Bears can have weapons everywhere.
But when it's 3rd-and-8 in January, and the other team's best edge rusher knows you're throwing the football, somebody has to block that motherfucker.
There isn't a scheme on Earth that completely eliminates that problem.
My Martial Art master has told me since day one: "Power on power never works."
But in playoff football?
Sometimes it fucking has to.
Eventually, your guy has to beat their guy.
That's football.
THE DEFENSE HAS ANOTHER PROBLEM: WHERE DO THE TAKEAWAYS COME FROM?
This one isn't getting talked about enough.
Think about how many times the Bears survived last season because the defense created another possession.
Those takeaways weren't decoration.
They changed games.
Without them, I'm not sure the Bears even sniff the playoffs.
So can they do it again?
Turnovers are funny.
You can coach punching at the football.
You can teach defensive backs to attack certain routes.
You can emphasize ball awareness every day.
But you can't just order 25 turnovers on Amazon and have them show up at Halas Hall.
And if the takeaway numbers come back toward earth, something else has to replace them.
Usually that's where the pass rush comes in.
Pressure creates bad throws.
Bad throws create interceptions.
Sacks kill drives.
Which brings us right back to my original question:
WHO THE FUCK IS RUSHING THE PASSER?
See how this works?
AT LEAST THE SECONDARY GOT SOME REAL HELP
I'll give Poles credit where it's deserved.
The Bears solidified the safety position, and I think Dillon Thieneman is going to be a fucking stud.
I still can't believe he fell into Chicago's lap.
But let's not start building a statue yet.
Sometimes the board falls your way.
You still have to make the pick, and Poles did.
Good.
Now let's see what the kid becomes.
Because the secondary is already taking punches.
The big free-agent signing gets hurt during the first padded practice.
Coby Bryant suffers a knee injury, and suddenly we're hearing no firm timetable.
Nothing makes Bears fans feel better in August than hearing:
"There is no timeline."
Beautiful.
Football is back, baby.
And Kyler Gordon arrived at camp hurt.
What else is new?
I've been bitching about this forever.
The problem is that NFL games require you to actually be available to play football.
At some point, availability stops being bad luck and becomes part of the evaluation.
You can't have NFL load management.
This isn't the fucking NBA.
BUT THERE'S PLENTY I LIKE ABOUT THIS TEAM
Believe it or not, I don't hate everything.
I was walking around the other day proudly wearing my Luther Burden shirt.
I think that kid is going to have a big year.
And I think the DJ divorce was ultimately the right move for everybody.
It's football.
It's business.
Sometimes a relationship runs its course.
And in Luther, the Bears might already have the younger version sitting in the building.
That's exciting.
I'm also happy my boy Jack Sanborn is back after a solid year in Dallas.
I've always loved that dude.
Effort.
Hustle.
No bullshit.
He plays like somebody told him before every snap that the opposing running back insulted his mother.
I'll take that guy on my football team every fucking Sunday.
And thank God the Tremaine Edmunds money is finally off the books.
NOW FOR THE BIG ONE: CAN THE BEARS FINISH?
This might matter more than anything I've written so far.
Can the Chicago Bears finish football games?
Because as entertaining as those Cinderella comebacks were last season, you cannot build an entire championship run around miracles.
They're fun.
They're incredible.
They're also fucking exhausting.
You only get to reach into that emotional tank so many times.
Eventually it runs dry.
Championship teams don't spend every Sunday crawling out of a burning building.
Sometimes they go up 24-10 and finish the fucking game.
That's the next step for Chicago.
Not another miracle.
Control.
When you're better than somebody, beat them.
When you've got a lead, protect it.
When it's 3rd-and-4 with six minutes left, move the chains.
When the other team gets the ball back, put their quarterback on his ass.
That's grown-up football.
That's January football.
And that's where we're going to find out what this Bears team actually is.
THIS ISN'T LAST YEAR'S TEAM
That's the reminder I keep giving myself.
A lot has happened since the draft.
Free-agent signings.
Injuries.
Draft analysts losing limbs.
Fucking stupid stadium drama with that fucking pimp president.
My boy Charles Davis getting fired, which genuinely hurts, because Charles is an OG when it comes to football and the NFL Draft.
Meanwhile, Mina Kimes apparently retains her title as VP of Being Full of Shit.
And somehow, through all of this, the McCaskeys have mostly stayed quiet.
Thank God for small miracles.
But none of last year's magic gets carried over.
The Bears don't start the season with bonus points because last year was fun.
The league adjusts.
Teams have the tape now.
They've studied Caleb.
They've studied Ben Johnson.
They've studied Booker.
They know the Bears aren't some cute little rebuilding team anymore.
Now comes the harder part.
Expectations.
THE ROAD STARTS NOW
That's why training camp matters.
Not because Van Der Berg beat somebody during a Tuesday practice.
Not because somebody is "in the best shape of his life."
Not because a rookie looked unbelievable without pads.
Training camp is where you start finding the answers to the questions that will matter when the weather gets cold.
Can they protect Caleb?
Can they rush the passer?
Can they survive injuries?
Can the young players take another step?
Can they replace those takeaways if the football stops bouncing their way?
Can they finish games without requiring every Bears fan in America to keep a defibrillator next to the fucking couch?
And most importantly:
Can this team go from a great story to a great football team?
Because there's a difference.
Last year gave us the story.
This year is supposed to give us the next step.
Thirty-five days.
1:00 p.m.
Carolina.
The road to the Super Bowl starts here.
I'm just hoping we don't get halfway down the fucking thing and find a sign that says:
We're waiting…
