What the Bears’ 5-3 start says about their playoff chances in 2020

The Bears’ playoff odds took a massive nosedive with Sunday’s loss to the Saints. Here’s where they stand heading into Week 9.

The Chicago Bears remain stuck in the middle tier of the NFL, which isn’t a good place to be. It’s not good enough to make a postseason push and it’s not bad enough to be in a position for a high draft pick.

Following Sunday’s loss to the New Orleans Saints, the Bears appear to be in free-fall. After starting 5-1, they’ve lost two straight games, and it seems as if Matt Nagy has finally lost his team.

While another loss isn’t going to ruin the entire season, if this team continues to play like this, playoffs aren’t even going to be in consideration. Especially if the season ended today, Chicago would be on the outside looking in at a wild card spot. But the Bears are still 5-3 through the first eight weeks, which isn’t terrible not good good either when it comes to their postseason chances.

Over the last 10 seasons, NFL teams that have started the season 5-3 have made the playoffs 68% of the time, which is a substantial dip from the 90% odds after starting 6-2. And it’s not going to get any easier as the Bears are going to face an angry Tennessee Titans team coming off two straight losses.

If the Bears had won on Sunday, their playoff chances would’ve risen to 90% and they would’ve been in first place in the NFC North.

The odds of making the postseason do get better for teams that start 6-3 — 82 percent — as the Bears have a chance to do against the Titans on Sunday in Week 9. But it’s quite the possible the Bears could go from 5-1 to 5-4 in a matter of three weeks.