Bears' locker room points toward eventual success after this season
Make no mistake about it, the Chicago Bears are in a tough position as a team after their 3-8 start to the 2023 NFL season. Last Sunday, the Bears hit an all-time low after blowing a late lead on the road against the 8-2 Detroit Lions, in a game everyone believes the Bears should have […]
Make no mistake about it, the Chicago Bears are in a tough position as a team after their 3-8 start to the 2023 NFL season.
Last Sunday, the Bears hit an all-time low after blowing a late lead on the road against the 8-2 Detroit Lions, in a game everyone believes the Bears should have won. In the end, the embarrassment on the field continued.
Even though it's been a lost year, and one that started with such high expectations, the Bears locker room hasn't never wavered and in fact are one of the closest groups in the entire league. The reactions from the players after the loss in Week 11 show some promise toward the future after this season.
The Bears are consistently playing hard each and every week and truly seem to be playing for the man standing next to them. The tight-knit group in Chicago is built to handle intense adversity (like a winning team is supposed to do) and they showed it in Week 11 despite the loss.
The Bears defensive leader T.J. Edwards spoke highly of the Bears locker room and the connection they share with each other when asked about how his first year in Chicago has been compared to his time with the Philadelphia Eagles.
"I've only been to one Super Bowl so I've had some times where we lost some games at the end of the year and I understand what it feels like to lose a game you feel like you should have won," Edwards said after the game on Sunday. "At the end of the day, the only thing you can do in this league is grow. As soon as you start to feel sorry for yourself and start to point fingers and things like that, that's when stuff gets really bad."
"We don't have the guys in here that are doing that," he added. "We don't have the coaches that are doing that. We got the right guys in here to build this thing and keep growing."
Bears head coach Matt Eberflus has consistently commended the Bears locker room for how close the players have been throughout the tough season, even if he likely won't be around to see it pay off.
It's a forgone conclusion that the Bears will have a new coaching staff in place by next season and the new regime will be inheriting the strong bond of players that are together in Chicago. That's definitely the one thing the Bears have going for them going into next season that a lot of other teams don't currently have.
The Bears have a great core of players, and most importantly strong leaders, currently on the roster. All they need is a coaching staff willing to guide them and believe in them along with filling some more pieces on the roster.
Seeing the team continue to rally and lift each other up after every tough loss proves that they have what it takes to eventually become a great team, even if the Bears are still miles away from being defined as such. It's a long road ahead but the road is finally beginning to be paved.
T.J. Edwards playing at All-Pro level for Bears
Will he get his recognition?
