Chicago Bears 2023 Season Preview: Welcome

By Kevin Schroeder
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Updated: September 7, 2023

It’s a new day in Chicago. [Photo: Soldier Field on Twitter]

The calendar turns over, the players report to camp, and another season approaches. Soon, the leaves will turn and then fall, the air will gain that pleasant crispness, and our Sunday afternoons will once again be filled with our favorite thing. We made it, friends.

I wrote last year in this space that, in retrospect, we should have always known that the previous year was going to be a disaster. I am now writing that for the second consecutive year. While I knew the team wasn’t going to be truly good, I expressed a belief that they could show legitimate promise, that Fields could make the leap, and that the team could at least be fun. Your author predicted 8 wins. If the season was 50 games long, they might have gotten there. Fields didn’t make any leap or show any real progress. He ran for a lot of yards, but we already knew he was fast. It’s not entirely his fault, though, as *gestures broadly at everything.*

So now we enter year two of the rebuild, but really year one of actual building. A gift from our old buddy Lovie Smith got us the number one overall pick, which Ryan Poles dealt to Carolina for several other draft picks. Oh yeah, and D.J. Moore. That Texans win by Lovie was the best thing any coach had done for the Bears since the man was the coach here. The lone splash move in free agency was the signing of star linebacker Tremaine Edmunds. The move in and of itself was nice, but it felt a little extra nice because the Chicago Bears should always have a great linebacker and now we do again.

The rest of the free agent signing of the offseason weren’t flashy, but solid players as Poles went about his duties pragmatically. Rome wasn’t built in a day and the Chicago Bears won’t be, either. But it is time to see progress now, as the cap situation has been reset, the draft capital has been reset and then some, and the roster now is largely comprised of players Poles himself selected.

The quarterback is not one of those players, however, so now we watch Fields’ progress throughout the 2023 season. A Jalen Hurts-type leap isn’t impossible and in fact, may be necessary if Fields wants to remain starting quarterback of the Chicago Bears in 2024. He’s got the weapons to get there, he’s in year two in Luke Getsy’s offense, it’s on him now.

More than anything, your author wants a firm answer on Fields one way or the other. If he doesn’t make the leap, a generation prospect awaits in the draft as does a prospect who would be QB1 most years. If he makes the leap, this year could be awfully fun and next year could be even more fun. I hope it’s the latter. I really don’t want to write about a disaster we should’ve seen coming again next year.

Welcome to the 2023 season, Bears fans.

Whatever Elmo’s calling it now, Threads: @312sportsguy