5 Chicago Bears 2023 New Year’s Resolutions

The 2022 NFL season (and calendar year) is quickly coming to a close. Just two games remain on the Chicago Bears’ schedule, and for a club with only three wins on its scorecard, the end of the season couldn’t come soon enough.

The good news for the Bears is that despite such a terrible win-loss record, optimism remains inside Halas Hall. Chicago’s healthy salary cap and high-first-round pick in the 2023 NFL draft will enable GM Ryan Poles to add the talent required to be a playoff contender. And with Justin Fields proving this season that he’s one of the NFL’s truly special talents, the Bears are a prime candidate to go from worst to first in the NFC North in 2023.

Before that kind of jump in the standings can happen, Poles and the Bears organization have to ensure they have their offseason priorities straight. In a way, they have to make a few Bears resolutions as the calendar flips to 2023.

Here are five that should be near the top of the list.

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More weapons for Justin Fields

Seems obvious, right? Sometimes, it’s the obvious strategies that are most often ignored. Look at what’s happened with the Green Bay Packers throughout Aaron Rodgers’ career. The Packers have refused to invest significant resources in Rodgers’ wide receivers, and while they’ve managed to get away with it for a while, it’s finally caught up to them. The Bears can’t do that with Fields, they have to give him the weapons he needs to fully mature in 2023.

Trading for Chase Claypool was a great start. Don’t be misled by Claypool’s lacking production since joining the team at the 2022 trade deadline. He’s learning a new offense at a time of year that erases any chance of being a consistent contributor. Claypool is dealing with a knee injury, too. We won’t see his real impact on the Bears’ offense until 2023 after he’s had a full offseason and training camp to work with Fields.

Claypool and a healthy Darnell Mooney is a strong 1-2 punch at wide receiver, but it isn’t enough. The Bears must spend an early-round pick (perhaps the second-rounder they received from the Baltimore Ravens in the Roquan Smith trade). Adding weapons at wideout in free agency is a good strategy, too. There won’t be any elite options available on the open market, but the choices for a quality veteran WR3 will be plentiful.

Don’t overlook tight end, either. This isn’t meant to suggest Cole Kmet is a bad player or will be unseated by a rookie or veteran free agent. But the Bears would be wise to find a complement to Kmet at tight end, a guy who can threaten defenses with his speed and athleticism. Kmet can’t do that, and it’s hamstrung the offense a bit.

At the end of next offseason, the Bears will look back and determine whether they stuck to their resolution. The roster and depth chart won’t lie. It’s like stepping onto a scale after promising you’d stick to a new diet and drop a few pounds. The numbers on that scale will tell you whether you accomplished your goal. If Poles and the Bears have a wide receiver room with Claypool, Mooney, and a collection of Byron Pringles? They’ll have no one to blame but themselves.

Keep Justin Fields upright

It won’t matter how much money or how many draft picks Ryan Poles invests in wide receivers if the Chicago Bears’ offensive line can’t protect Justin Fields.

The Bears have allowed 50 sacks through Week 16, which ranks fourth-most in the NFL. That kind of offensive line failure is the easiest way to ruin a young quarterback. Fortunately, Chicago’s young quarterback is cut from a different cloth. His mental fortitude is unlike any we’ve seen in many years. No quarterback is unbreakable, though. And if the Bears don’t invest big (BIG) free-agency money into as many as three new starters on the offensive line, Poles will have some explaining to do.

The only starting offensive linemen who appear to have a first-team gig locked up in 2023 are left tackle Braxton Jones and right guard Teven Jenkins. Right tackle is wide open, as is center. Left guard is a question mark that depends on what the Bears decide to do with Cody Whitehair. His dead cap number cuts in half to just over $8 million in 2023. It would seem illogical to cut one of the team’s most reliable starters since 2016, but there are whispers that Whitehair’s time as a Bear could end.

The Bears will have their pick of the free-agent litter in March, and there’s a chance they could trade back in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft and select one of the top offensive tackles in this year’s class. The offensive line will look very different in July than it does now.

Make the right call at running back

This probably seems like a weird resolution. It’s an unclear goal. It’s more like a demand or request. But it’s critical.

Poles has to decide whether it’s best to re-sign running back David Montgomery to a (rare) second contract or let him depart via free agency and hand the starting backfield duties to Khalil Herbert.

The good news for the Bears is that this year’s cluster of free-agent running backs is one of the best it’s been in years. Montgomery isn’t the top runner available. Not even close. New York Giants star Saquon Barkley will be the belle of the ball, while Josh Jacobs (Las Vegas Raiders) is hitting the open market as one of the NFL’s leading rushers in 2022. There’s Miles Sanders (Philadelphia Eagles) and Kareem Hunt (Kansas City Chiefs) too.

Bears fans value Montgomery a bit more than NFL decision-makers do. He runs like a Chicago running back. He’s tough. He’s physical. He’s giving 100% effort, even for a three-win team. But he isn’t a special athlete, and unless a running back has a special quality about them, it’s hard to cash-in in free agency.

It’s bad news for Montgomery, but the Bears may be able to keep him in town on a team-friendly short-term deal. Here’s the tricky part: that’s only half of the decision Poles and the Bears’ coaching staff has to make. Even if Montgomery re-signs, will it be with the understanding that Herbert is the new RB1?

Herbert has outplayed Montgomery as a runner and playmaker all season. He was better than Montgomery in 2021 as well. He isn’t nearly the player Montgomery is in pass protection, but this could be why we see a shift in usage. The Bears can use Herbert as the lead runner in 2023 while Montgomery is the passing-down back (mainly because of his superiority as a blocker). Again, this is all contingent on Montgomery signing a team-friendly contract.

Maybe the Bears’ starting running back in 2023 isn’t on the roster right now. Maybe it’s Chicago who will pursue Barkley or Jacobs. Or, and humor me for a second, maybe Poles trades down in the first round, not for an offensive tackle, but instead for Texas running back Bijan Robinson.

Justin Fields and Barkley? Fields and Robinson? My god. Absolute fireworks.

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Don’t ignore the defense, especially the pass rush

The Chicago Bears defense has been all-around bad this year, but no group has been worse than the team’s pass rushers. When Ryan Poles decided to trade Robert Quinn to the Eagles, the Bears were left without any established edge rusher. And it’s shown.

Through Week 16, the Bears are last in the NFL in sacks with just 18. Quinn totaled 18.5 by himself in 2021.

The no-brainer solution for the team’s pass-rush dilemma is in the first round of the 2023 NFL draft. As it currently stands, the Bears are in striking distance for Alabama’s Will Anderson Jr. A rare prospect with annual double-digit sack upside, Anderson would flip the defense from one devoid of pass-rush ability to a club that has one of the NFL’s most gifted young quarterback hunters.

One player usually isn’t enough to resurrect a dead pass rush. The Bears must add a free agent like Yannick Ngakoue (Indianapolis Colts) or Marcus Davenport (New Orleans Saints). Remember: none of these suggestions are pipe dreams (assuming players don’t get franchise tagged). Chicago has the most money to spend in free agency (by far) than any other team in the league in 2023. Poles has the resources to enter 2023 draft weekend with three of the biggest soon-to-be free agents under contract with the Chicago Bears.

Don’t get greedy on draft weekend

A huge faction of Bears fans will clamor for Ryan Poles to trade down in the 2023 NFL Draft. And while adding more draft picks is always a sound roster-building strategy, adding good players — elite players — matters too.

Assuming the Bears end the 2022 season with the second or third-overall pick, the lowest Poles should trade down to is No. 4. It would all but guarantee the Bears land either Will Anderson Jr. or Jalen Carter (Georgia). Teams that trade up, especially into the first three picks, usually do so for a quarterback. And that would mean two quarterbacks are off the board in the top three selections, leaving an elite defender for Chicago with their post-trade first-round pick.

If the Bears end the 2022 season with the fifth pick or later, then all bets are off. The difference between Anderson or Carter and the next-best prospect is massive, trading way back won’t matter at that point if both are out of reach.

The bigger point is this: Poles has to be careful not to be lured into a blockbuster deal because of multiple draft picks thrown his way. Draft picks can be a Siren’s song. Quantity doesn’t always equal quality, and if the Chicago Bears can land an elite player in the first round, hand in the card and make him a Bear.