The Chicago Bears are going to be doing very little winning this season, and it looks like their main goal from now until the end of it will be trading away expensive players so they can start 2016 with a clean slate and a team in the mod of John Fox and general manager Ryan Pace.
Jared Allen, who didn’t fit the 3-4 and his best days are behind him, has been traded to the Carolina Panthers. Matt Forte seems to be on the trading block. Maybe even Alshon Jeffery, although he’s too young and too “in his prime” to move away. The Bears do have some assets worth keeping. Not a lot of them though.
Jay Cutler isn’t staying beyond this season. If the Bears could have, they would have moved him by now, but Cutler is immovable. He’s not such a terrible quarterback to have, but at the salary he’s commanding? Not worth keeping him. He needs an elite offensive line to prevent him from doing stupid things, and it’s easier simply finding a new quarterback then going into the offensive line building progress, which takes years to do, especially without a very good quarterback.
Where did it all go wrong for the Bears? They haven’t been to the playoffs since 2010, despite having a few good teams in 2011-2013, and possibly missing out on it because of Cutler injuries. Keeping the wrong players on an aging defense might be one of those issues. Going with Marc Trestman could be another. Right now, it doesn’t matter anymore. The Bears are sinking, crashing, and it seems only a complete overhaul will put this team on the road to success.