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First things first. Now that the schedule is out, here’s the road to the Chicago Bears finishing with a 10-7 record:
W, L, W, L, W, W, W, L, W, L, W, L, L, W, W, W, L.
Agree? Disagree? With a few exceptions, my picks coincide with the early point spreads.
Chicago Bears are underdogs 7x this year.
11 games have coin-flip spreads.
Biggest dog spot +5.5 at SF.
Only Lions are favored at Soldier Field.WK1 – CHI (-4.5) vs Titans
WK2 – CHI at Texans (-3)
WK3 – CHI at Colts (-2)
WK4 – CHI (-1.5) vs Rams
WK5 – CHI (-5.5) vs Panthers…— Sammy P (@spshoot) May 16, 2024
Will 10-7 be good enough for the Bears to make the playoffs? That’s the goal this year. With Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze in tow, Bears optimism, like the Dow Jones Index, keeps going up. It’s not just the Grabowskis either. National pundits are actually positive about this team. It’s a bizarre feeling.
“Caleb Williams *could* lead the Bears to the Super Bowl in his rookie season. … I can see them shocking everyone but me.” 😳
— @getnickwright on why he’s flirting with the idea that Chicago can reach SB LIX: pic.twitter.com/FplgVzlHaJ
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) May 16, 2024
And when the Bears have the makings of a competitive team, I have a history of offering mildly sunny predictions for the Bears before the season.
What’s the harm in being optimistic in May (or September)? In the last three years, I’ve publicly predicted the Bears going 8-9, 7-10 and 9-8. They actually finished 6-11, 3-14 and 7-10. So who says I’m always negative? (Don’t answer that, White Sox and Bulls employees.)
Around the beat (and on social media) we all joke about “Hoge & Jahns” podcast host Adam Hoge’s infamous 2019 prediction of the Bears going 13-3 and winning the Super Bowl, but I had them at 10-6 that year and even wrote: “Even with a brutish schedule, I’m optimistic in thinking this team can make a Super Bowl appearance this year.”
A season after a double-doink ended the team’s Super Bowl hopes, the 2019 Bears finished 8-8. It was the beginning of the end for Mitch Trubisky and Matt Nagy.
If the Bears win 10 games this season, it will mark just the fourth time they’ve finished with double-digit wins since I started covering the team in 2009, which, more importantly, is the unofficial start of the franchise’s “QB or Bust” era that saw a handful of GMs invest heavily in fixing the team’s curse at the most important position. That 2018 Bears team is the only one to finish with a winning record since the Bears fired Lovie Smith after a 10-6 season in 2012. Eleven seasons, one winning record. It explains why we’re already crushing on Caleb.
Williams is giving everyone hope that he’s “the one,” and I confess I’m buying in that he’s at least better than the previous two.
The season moves pretty fast.
If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. pic.twitter.com/MpXMPEcTD6
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) May 16, 2024
As for the schedule itself, Williams and the Bears really need to make hay with their three games in October, only one of which is at home. I have them winning all three, beating the Panthers at Soldier Field (Oct. 6), the Jaguars in London (Oct. 13) and after a bye week, the Commanders in far-flung Maryland.
Weeks 11-16 are going to be wild, with five division games and a road trip to face the 49ers. If Williams is healthy, maybe he’ll also be more comfortable by the end of his rookie season. A stout defense and a running game could be his best friends early, which is why I have the team getting off to a decent start and not going on a long losing jag at any point.
As for me, I like the schedule for one main reason: only three evening games (so far). Why? Because I’m getting old and I hate writing at night.
Tommy Pham made an amusing first impression when he joined the White Sox. Known as a straight shooter, he said he accepted GM Chris Getz’s offer for a simple reason: money.
Tommy Pham said money was the tiebreaker in picking the White Sox over the Padres rather than opportunity, saying he wanted San Diego’s offer to account for higher taxes.
He said he lost weight and is looking forward to playing CF.
— James Fegan (@JRFegan) April 26, 2024
And that’s what Pham has been for the Sox with a .319/.365/.464 slash line for the offensively challenged team. The Sox are 11-6 when he starts and 3-24 when he doesn’t. If Getz doesn’t trade him — he should do so immediately — and this keeps up, give Pham the downvote MVP love he deserves! (I’d also consider making him player-manager.)
Getz’s first crack at assembling a makeshift roster to keep the team afloat looked like a Titanic disaster, but things have stabilized in recent weeks in conjunction with his arrival. They’ve won four of their last six series and are starting to make our “Worst team ever?” conversations seem almost foolish. Heck, they’re only two games off the pace from last year. People have even stopped picking on the new play-by-play guy.
Considering that the Sox can’t draft any higher than 10th next season because of new anti-tanking rules (they pick fifth this year), it’s more conducive to the entire business that the team plays passably entertaining baseball. So while Getz should be entertaining future trade offers for Pham (along with starter Erick Fedde), it’s also helpful that he’s around now.
Not that the fans are flocking to the South Side to see him or the team play. Depending on which attendance figure you use, the Sox are averaging either 14,787 through 24 games (Baseball-Reference) or 16,131 through 22 games (ESPN).
The disparity comes from how doubleheaders are counted. Baseball-Reference counts the rescheduled game but gives it a zero for attendance, while ESPN doesn’t count the extra games at all.
So either way, the Sox, which had the biggest attendance drop in baseball last season, have drawn a paltry 354,899 at home this season, which is better than just Miami and Oakland (among teams that have played at least 23 home games).
Ah well, at least they have the fun milkshakes.
It was a tough scheduling break for the Chicago Sky, who play three road games to start the season before returning home for a May 25 game against the Connecticut Sun. It mutes some of the excitement over Angel Reese’s debut, but the home opener coming on the Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend should make for a good crowd. That’s the first of three straight home games before the Sky venture to Indiana for a game against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever that will be featured on ESPN. … The Bulls didn’t move in the draft lottery, and given the uncertainty of the first round, I think they’re in a decent spot at No. 11. Off the top of my head, I’d go with Duke center Kyle Filipowski, Colorado forward Cody Williams or Baylor wing Ja’Kobe Walter. Artūras Karnišovas could do the funniest thing ever, as the kids say, and draft Bronny James, 14 years after John Paxson (who is still hanging around) couldn’t land LeBron. … Cubs left fielder Ian Happ was hitting .301 going into this four-game series against his hometown Pirates. Oh wait, that was his slugging percentage. It’s been a tough start to the season for the veteran, whose no-trade clause is a moot point considering he’s in the first season of a three-year, $61 million extension. Happ hit his second home run of the season in a 5-4 loss Thursday. He’s now slugging .320. … The Athletic’s Shams Charania appeared at a Chicago Fire game, marking the first time the team has been relevant in years. I’ll be here all month. Try the veal.
(Photo of Caleb Williams: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
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