Early power rankings show disrespect to Chicago Bears

Most NFL power rankings have the Chicago Bears ranked near the bottom to start the season

With the NFL season officially kicking off this Thursday, many sports publications have published their initial power rankings for the 2022 season. With how vocal many have been about the lack of talent the Chicago Bears have this season, it’s no surprise that many of these power-ranking articles have the team extremely low.

NFL.com released their week 1 power rankings today, and they had the Chicago Bears as the absolute worst team in the league to start the year.

Although they believe the Bears have some nice offensive pieces, a potential league-worst o-line, and questions about Justin Fields’ development lead them to this ranking. It is also worth noting that they are not the first publication to give the Bears a last-place ranking as Sports Illustrated gave them this same ranking last week.

Football analytics website Pro Football Focus (PFF) gave the Bears a similarly harsh ranking by having them as the 31st-ranked team. Only the Seattle Seahawks rank lowered than the Bears in this one, but PFF still noted many of the same issues that NFL.com did. One interesting note is that PFF also said the Bears have one of the worst receiving corps in the NFL despite having Darnell Mooney and exciting rookie Velus Jones Jr.

By far the most generous power ranking that has been released comes from ESPN who have the Bears at number 25 in their preseason poll. While the Bears have overhauled their roster significantly this season, ESPN acknowledges they still have young talent and veterans that will make an impact. This ranking specifically highlighted safety Eddie Jackson as someone that could make a major impact this year, or lose his spot on the team entirely.

While sports outlets differ on where exactly the Bears rank, they all still agree that the team is likely to experience a lot of losing this year. This is the first season for general manager Ryan Poles’ rebuild, so losing many games will be beneficial if it can net the Bears a higher pick in the next year’s draft. Bears fans will still have plenty to look forward to this season as seeing this young Bears team develop will be more important than winning games.

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