It was beautiful.
All the Bears needed in the final game of the season was to do what they do best: lose. Step by step, from offloading Khalil Mack in March to ruling out Justin Fields a few days ago, this is what they were designed to accomplish.
The Bears lost 29-13 to the Vikings on Sunday, and much like a preseason game, the details on how they reached that outcome are largely irrelevant. What matters is that it landed them the No. 1 pick in the draft for the first time since 1947.
They couldn’t have done it without former coach Lovie Smith, who guided the Texans to a stunning 32-31 win against the Colts. His team rallied for a touchdown in the final minute on a desperate fourth-down heave to the end zone and took the lead when Smith opted to go for a two-point conversion.
That left the Bears with the NFL’s worst record at 3-14, ending the season on a franchise-long 10-game losing streak, and the Texans a hair better at 3-13-1.
Those 10 consecutive losses, facilitated in part by the trades of Roquan Smith and Robert Quinn, were essential. After the Bears beat the Patriots in Week 7 — their highlight of the season — they were in line to pick 14th.
Bears general manager Ryan Poles can use the top pick any number of ways. He could take overwhelming Alabama pass rusher Will Anderson or Georgia star defensive tackle Jalen Carter. He could reboot the quarterback position by drafting Bryce Young from Alabama or C.J. Stroud from Ohio State, and make a corresponding move by trading Fields for more draft capital.
Even if he’s committed to Fields, it’d be prudent for Poles craft a public stand that shows support but still makes the rest of the league believe he’s considering Young and Stroud.
Preferably, though, he would parlay that pick into more picks. The Bears are a team with a million problems, and while whomever they took at No. 1 would instantly be a top-five player on their roster, they’d love a haul like the Dolphins got two years ago when they traded the No. 3 pick to the 49ers for the No. 12 pick and two future first-rounders.
If Poles keeps it, he better nail it. Teams need Hall of Fame talent with a pick that high. If Anderson proves to be as good Myles Garrett, for example, that’ll be worth it.
That draft pick currently stands as a pillar of the Bears’ future. Poles can’t afford for it to crumble as it did when Ryan Pace picked Mitch Trubisky second in 2017.
Whatever course he chooses, Poles can use his many draft picks and league-high $118.1 million in salary-cap space to repair the worst roster in the NFL.
The Bears had the NFL’s most harmless defensive line with just 20 sacks in 17 games.
They allowed a league-high 27.2 points per game.
They were a bottom-10 offense and let Fields get sacked 55 times.
Tight end Cole Kmet, with four catches for 57 yards and a touchdown, was the only player to reach 500 yards receiving.
The Bears knew where they were headed.
That alone is a change from the Pace era. As the team sputtered to 8-8 records in 2019 and ’20 and bottomed out at 6-11 last season, Pace was going all out at the expense of future draft assets and salary-cap tables.
Poles took over a team that wasn’t good and didn’t have obvious solutions. The only option was to blow it up.
But this season is only tolerable if it actually leads to something.
It’s easy to swing the wrecking ball. Building something magnificent on this bulldozed site is the hard part.
As Poles approaches the one-year mark of landing this job, he has mostly done what anyone would’ve done after walking into Pace’s mess.
The only time he tried to make a splash was trading a second-round pick for wide receiver Chase Claypool, who had 14 catches for 140 yards in seven games since joining the team in November.
Poles and coach Matt Eberflus got plenty of margin this season because everyone knew what needed to happen. That’s why no one is running them out of town after steering the Bears to the second-worst record in their 103-year history.
The Bears got to the playoffs (sort of) under Matt Nagy at 8-8 in 2020, and the consensus is that this was a better season for the franchise. That was empty, whereas this one feels purposeful.
But Sunday was the last time Poles and Eberflus can point to the necessary demolition and talk about implementing “championship habits” as accomplishments. When next season starts, they’ll be evaluated on wins and losses.