The 2023-24 NFL regular season is now officially over, and the Chicago Bears fell short of expectations this year but did finish the year off strong. The Bears finished with a final record of 7-10 after starting the year off 2-7 and last in the NFC North. Many people thought this team had the possibility to make the playoffs or even win the division in the NFC North that was thought to be one of the weaker divisions at the beginning of the year.
The offense played worse than expected with now former Bears OC Luke Getsy calling the offensive plays and later being fired after the season and being replaced by former Seahawks OC Shane Waldron.
The only bright spots on the offense this year was DJ Moore and Cole Kmet with Moore going for 1,364 yards and catching 8 TDs and Kmet getting 719 yards and 6 TDs on the year. The rush game wasn’t the best with a group of 3 backs splitting the carries, but Fields ended up being the leading rusher of the year with 657 yards and 4 TDs. Some disappointments of this offense being Darnell Mooney taking a big step down with DJ coming in only getting 414 yards on 31 catches and only getting 1 TD the whole year. Another player who came up short of expectations was Justin Fields finishing with 2,562 passing yards with a td/int ratio of 16/9 and missing 4 games due to a hand injury mid-season.
The defense on the other hand started off bad but ended up finishing the year great with Eberflus taking over play calling and the huge addition of Montez Sweat. The best part of this defense was huge contributions from new additions TJ Edwards leading the team in tackles, Montez Sweat leading the team in sacks, and Tremaine Edmunds being tied for most INTs with 4 and being tied with All Pro CB Jaylon Johnson and rookie CB Tyrique Stevenson. After this season my hopes are high for this defense playing so well as a young group with ability to make it even better in free agency or the draft.
Going into the offseason, the Bears now have the 1st overall pick (from Carolina) and the 9th pick in this year’s draft and have the 9th most cap space in the league before cuts. This leaves GM Ryan Poles having to make the most important decision whether to take consensus number one pick Caleb Williams from USC and have a QB on a rookie contract with a high ceiling or give Fields one more shot and draft Marvin Harrison Jr. but having to pay Fields soon.
In conclusion the front office has some big decisions to make, but regardless of who the QB is, the hopes should be high for Bears fans next season.