Comparing the Detroit Lions offseason to the rest of the division

The Chicago Bears

The winners of the North last year, the Chicago Bears, went from last to first (12-4) in 2018. The strength of the team was its suffocating defense under the influence of newcomer, Khalil Mack. Mack is an elite talent that do everything as a defender, rush the passer, tackle, and even cover. However, their playoff season ended on a missed field goal against the Philadelphia Eagles in the wild card game.

Even by the estimation of most Bears fans, they didn’t do much and seemed happy for their roster to tread water in a year that they had few picks (five) and not much cap space. Their defense, ranked first in scoring, only gave up 17.7 points per game according to the NFL website, so they didn’t need a ton of help.

Their biggest draft picks were their first two, running back David Montgomery and receiver Riley Ridley who give their quarterback, Mitchell Trubisky, a new target and a replacement for departed (via trade) Jordan Howard.

Safety HaHa Clinton-Dix, cornerback Buster Skrine, guard Ted Larsen, running back Mike Davis, receiver Cordarrelle Patterson, and linebacker Aaron Lynch round out their big offseason. You remember Clinton-Dix as the player our receiver, Kenny Golladay, stiffed armed through the turf in a game versus the Packers, his former team.

Perhaps their biggest loss, though, was along the sideline in Vic Fangio, the defensive coordinator. Fangio has been given a lot of credit for the success of the defense, while head coach, Matt Nagy, is considered more of an offensive mind.

If you had to summarize their chances at repeating as division champs you’d have to say that it rests on other teams not figuring anything out about the Bears and their quarterback having to make big strides from his 3,223 yards, 24 touchdowns to 12 interceptions performance. Most articles, like the one linked here from USA Today, must put on rose-colored glasses to see another title as inevitable.