(670 The Score) There’s a renewed hope surrounding the revamped Bears entering the 2023 season. The optimism stems from coaches, players, fans and pundits alike, but it isn’t shared across the entire NFL landscape.
Scouts aren’t quite as high on the Bears, Dan Pompei of the Athletic told the Mully & Haugh Show after he wrote a detailed story with such insight.
“There’s kind of a perception about this team, a public perception, and then there’s the reality of the team,” Pompei said. “What a lot of the focus has been on – and understandably so – is the roster improvement. There is improvement, almost throughout the roster. There’s no question it’s a significantly better roster than it was last year, especially at the end of last year when the team was depleted by injuries, some trades and some different things. But it’s still not a roster that you would expect to be able to compete with the better teams in the league – unless, of course, Justin Fields has the kind of breakthrough that Jalen Hurts had last year maybe and he’s able to lift the entire team around him. Of course, the difference between the Bears this year and the Eagles last year is you wouldn’t expect the Bears to be able to play the kind of defense that the Eagles played. They certainly don’t have the kind of front that the Eagles had.”
Pompei pinpointed the Bears’ defensive line as a weak link in the eyes of the scouts he spoke with, and the offensive line is a question mark as well. They were high on the Bears’ receiving core, tight ends and secondary.
“It’s a better team, but as you say, you have to be a little sober when you look at them,” Pompei said.