Now that we know what the Bears roster will look like what are your expectations for the season.  I will be surprised if they are less that 9-7.  They have retooled their entire offense.  Not one of their top four wide receivers and tight end were on the team last year.  And they played in an offense that was stuck in the forty's.  You bring back a defense that was a top ten with two new young players in Smith and Mack.  A new head coach who is suppose to be cutting edge on not only scheme but also play calling.  How does that not translate to four more wins?   I know we're in a tough division but what do the Lions really have.  And take away Rodgers and the Packers are below average.  They have an all new back end.  I think if Mitch T. makes any kind of step forward we should be more than competitive in our division.  A little time to gel and we should be ready to kick some ass in the 2nd half of the season.

I would say 9-7 is the low end of the projection now. Looking at the schedule by quarter, I can see us going 2-2 (GB/SEA/ARZ/TB) followed by 3-1 (MIA/NE/NYJ/BUF), then 2-2 (DET/MIN/DET/NYG) followed by 2-2 (LAR/GB/SF/MIN). That's 9 wins right there without making a hard argument. 

If you break it down by Division's, we should be able to split the North at 3-3, go 3-1 against AFC East, split with NFC West (2-2), and split TB and NYG (1-1). If we can beat DET twice, then split GB and MIN, there is a 10-win season, and if we beat both NYG and TB, that's 11 wins, again without too much reaching. So 9-11 wins seems like it is the new window. 9 wins is probably borderline Wild Card, and 11 wins is the Division.

I'm thinking 9-7

Looking back at last year, 6 of our losses were by a score or less (3 by a FG or less). With a little luck and some better officiating, we would probably have ended up at 7-9 with THAT team. To me, this team was probably already at 9-7 before the Mack deal, and he is easily worth 1 to 2 games. 

Odds to win Super Bowl went from 100-1 to 40-1 over night. 

In a first year for the new coaches and with Mitch still widely an unknown I’ll be satisfied with 8-8.  That said, this team has playoff level talent and coaches so taking it to the next level in a single season wouldn’t surprise me.  

I am drinking a lot of blue and orange colored liquid. I see us as 10 to 11 wins this year. This sounds stupid for predictions but after going 3-1 in the first quarter of games, you guys will understand where I am coming from.

Mack and the D will put the offense in great field position for most of games and Nagy will know what to do in the red zone this year after the grey Fox put us into a coma.

I could see a couple losses that we aren't counting on because of the new rules on defense regarding the helmet. It's a joke and was proven during the preseason. I could see many games being completely changed because of it. So with that and the relatively brand new group of guys on offense im conservative with 9 wins

38 minutes ago, bowlingtwig said:

I could see many games being completely changed because of it.

I hope you’re wrong about this.  The calls seemed to lessen as they analyzed the prior weeks.  I think the way it’ll be called has already and will continue to evolve.  

52 minutes ago, bowlingtwig said:

I could see a couple losses that we aren't counting on because of the new rules on defense regarding the helmet. It's a joke and was proven during the preseason. I could see many games being completely changed because of it. So with that and the relatively brand new group of guys on offense im conservative with 9 wins

So we are the only team that will be negatively impacted by the rule? Sure it could change the outcome of a game or two, but why does it have to be against us? We could win an extra one or two because of it.

1 hour ago, adam said:

So we are the only team that will be negatively impacted by the rule? Sure it could change the outcome of a game or two, but why does it have to be against us? We could win an extra one or two because of it.

I wasn't referring to just us in particular. Just pointing it out as 1 of the reasons I'm not drinking all the Kool aid and going double digit wins. It's very difficult to jump from 5 wins to 10-11 in a single season. Sure I love the additions and I'm thinking more for 2019 with this yr showing the steps in the right direction. I'm tempering my expectations. Sure our entire WR corps was revamped and on paper looks good but can our team start healthy for the 1st time in 4 yrs?  Shaheen is hitting the IR again. TE was supposed to be a very good group now has 1 guy we can truly count on. Plus what about Floyd who's already hurt and has had a hard time staying on the field in his career. 

On 9/1/2018 at 11:25 PM, adam said:

I would say 9-7 is the low end of the projection now. Looking at the schedule by quarter, I can see us going 2-2 (GB/SEA/ARZ/TB) followed by 3-1 (MIA/NE/NYJ/BUF), then 2-2 (DET/MIN/DET/NYG) followed by 2-2 (LAR/GB/SF/MIN). That's 9 wins right there without making a hard argument. 

If you break it down by Division's, we should be able to split the North at 3-3, go 3-1 against AFC East, split with NFC West (2-2), and split TB and NYG (1-1). If we can beat DET twice, then split GB and MIN, there is a 10-win season, and if we beat both NYG and TB, that's 11 wins, again without too much reaching. So 9-11 wins seems like it is the new window. 9 wins is probably borderline Wild Card, and 11 wins is the Division.

With a win against ARZ and even with a loss against TB we go 2-2 into the BYE. This seems to be right in line with projections. I am starting to think that Detroit is going to be a little easier than we originally expected and we have a much better shot at sweeping them this year. That would take the projection up to 10 wins. The tie between GB and MIN really complicates the situation if both win 9+ games. There won't be a tie-breaker against them this year.

I'm still sticking with 8. 9 wins tops right now.