8 takeaways from the Bears’ first 13 games of the season

From Justin Fields’ ascent to Ryan Poles’ disastrous free agent class, here are our Bears takeaways at the bye week.

It’s taken 14 weeks, but the Chicago Bears finally arrived at their bye week. The good news is that it’s a chance for the team to regroup before the final stretch of games. The bad news is they’ve already been eliminated from playoff contention and will play for pride and draft position.

The Bears (3-10) are riding a six-game losing streak in head coach Matt Eberflus’ first season and are in line for the second overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. The good news, however, is quarterback Justin Fields looks like the real deal.

Fields and the offense have looked unstoppable at times while the defense has struggled to keep opposing offenses at bay. The result more often than not has been competitive games where the Bears fall just short of victory.

The Bears were never supposed to be a contender, but has that changed our outlook on the season? Now that there’s a break in the action, here are our takeaways following the first 13 games of the season.