Entering the last few seasons, not many people expected the Chicago Bears to have all that much success. They were pretty clearly rebuilding their roster under general manager Ryan Poles, and expectations were accordingly fairly low.
But this year is different. After adding D.J. Moore via trade last offseason and Montez sweat via trade during the deadline, the Bears selected USC's Caleb Williams with the No. 1 overall pick in this year's draft and Washington's Rome Odunze at No. 9. They also traded for Keenan Allen, and Ryan Bates, signed D'Andre Swift and Kevin Byard, and retained Jaylon Johnson with a four-year, $76 million deal. Add that to holdovers like Teven Jenkins, Darnell Wright (acquired last year with the pick from the trade that also landed Moore), Braxton Jones and Cole Kmet on offense, along with Tremaine Edmunds, T.J. Edwards (both signed last offseason), Jaquan Brisker, and Tyrique Stevenson, and it looks like the Bears are cooking with some gas.
Chicago's over/under for the 2024 season is 9.5 wins, which means the betting markets expect the Bears to be a winning team for the first time since 2018. But Johnson, for one, doesn't want to hear any more about the high expectations. He's sick of it.
"I feel like I've been on some talented rosters to where we've had a lot of upside," Johnson said, via ESPN. "I feel like for me it's one of those things where I'm tired of just having upside and having potential. I want to be in a position where we actually go out there and we are that and not just what we're projected to be at."
Instead, Johnson wants to see the Bears turn the upside and the potential into actual results on the field.
"It's about action at this point, so the projections, the energy, the enthusiasm all feels good in the beginning because everybody, every team, every fan [says], 'Oh this is our year, this is our year,' so I'm not on that type of time as far as, 'Oh yeah, this is our year,'" Johnson said. "Nah, we got to go out here and we got to prove it and I think that starts with Day 1, starts with today. But that's something that's going to carry on from now until the end of the season whenever that is, if that's playoffs or not."
During Johnson's four NFL seasons to date, the Bears have gone 8-8, 6-11, 3-14, and 7-10. They've never finished better than second in the NFC North, which they did only in the year they went .500, and they bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. The defense looked much improved last year, and perhaps could be very good again this year, but the Bears will need the new-look offense to live up to lofty expectations in order to turn Johnson's wishes into reality.