It Has To Work
Is Bears angst higher or lower?
One byproduct of the NFL having the longest offseason is that by the time the actual season rolls around, I can't remember what the general emotion was a year ago. I can say that it feels like the shpilkes and agita around the Bears feels higher than most seasons previous. I know it's higher than at this point in 2024, because we were mostly just optimistic, with Caleb Williams in town and a team that was seemingly (very seemingly, it turned out) geared toward him.
Of course, last year's campaign of cry-puking only turns up the heat on this season. It's understandable that Bears fans and media are in "Fool me twice..." territory, because of just what a miserable experience 2024 became. There is aggregation, not only from 2024 but from just general "Bears-ness" in our lifetimes.
Doing last night's podcast, as I thought about the season to come, just sitting there in our darkened office (I like that ambience for the pod, which probably explains why it's the way it is), I couldn't help but feel an uneasiness, too. I think I get why.
Because it has to work.
A year ago, the Bears were adding the quarterback they had to have. We'd heard about Caleb Williams for two years before he was drafted. Everyone couldn't help but point out how it was going to line up for the Bears to be able to ignore one #1 overall pick because they would get a second, which is where Williams would be. It was ordained. Pretty much every draftnik said this was the QB to move mountains for. He was the least likely to miss. His selection was a defining moment, not just a mountain of hope or a calculated wish.
Moving to last January. Ben Johnson was the coach they had to have. He had passed up every opportunity last winter because he was waiting for a job like this one. Was waiting for this exact job, in fact. Was waiting for Caleb Williams, to be even more clear. This was the most prized coaching candidate in the league. Perhaps the most prized in a few years. He was the coach most unlikely to miss. His hiring was a defining moment, not just a really hopeful hunch.
Now they're combined. It has to work, right? This is the marriage a lot of teams dream about. The QB dripping talent out of his ears in need of shaping and the creative genius of a coach who sees the angles that no Bears coach has before. It's how anyone would draw it up.
Because what if it doesn't work, what's left?
We can't say the Bears have done everything right, or anything close. But the two major points for an NFL team, coach and QB, these were the best choices. They were clearly the best choices. They had danced toward each other for two seasons. Now they're here. It has to work.
Longtime readers will know I really hate dealing in the theoretical or the intangible. The Bears aren't "cursed." Everything that's gone wrong is a result of a fish rotting at the head, the trickle-down of an overmatched and under-informed family at the top. The helpless GMs who hire the bewildered coaches who together assemble mangled and decrepit rosters. There's a reason for everything, and it can all be traced.
But if this doesn't work? The QB and coach that are supposed to be as close to sure things as any team can get? What's the explanation there? The Bears actually did most everything right to land each. If this doesn't work, then the only thing left is the unexplainable or the unquantifiable. Which is truly depressing.
It has to work, because if Williams isn't it, the Bears are on search for the quicker answer. They won't have the top picks to get a new, hot rookie. They'll have to find a new QB in free agency or via trade or reclamation project or scheme their way to the top of the draft again. Those either have definite ceilings or require a huge slice of fortune.
If Johnson isn't it, then too much of Williams's career will have been sacrificed to become what was teased or promised. There will be too much to undo, and a ceiling will be installed on the Bears anyway. It has to work.
That doesn't mean 10 or 11 wins this season. It could just be clearly identifiable progress, along with the bonus of hope. We've been fooled by what we thought were those things before. Bears-dom seems to be holding out for more this time. There's a higher threshold in 2025 to clear the doom.
But it has to be this time. That's why it feels like there's so much anxiety already around the Beloved. Because if this doesn't work, what will?