Changing of the guard in Green Bay: Can the Bears finally take advantage?
The Aaron Rodgers era is officially over for the Green Bay Packers as he’s finally heading east to the New York Jets in a trade that’s been in the works for weeks.
On Monday, it was announced Rodgers would be traded to the Jets involving a bevy of draft picks, giving the 39-year-old quarterback a new home after a period of uncertainty in Green Bay. With Rodgers’ departure comes the end of a dominant division run by the Packers in the NFC North for the last 15 or so years.
Since Rodgers became the full-time starter in Green Bay, the Packers have won the NFC North eight times and made the postseason as a wild card team another three times with varying degrees of playoff success. They also handled the Bears with ease, going 26-5 in the regular season and 1-0 in the postseason. But now with Rodgers gone and Jordan Love taking over, the rivalry is back to a level playing field with the future of the division potentially up for grabs as well.
It’s been 15 years since we’ve seen a changing of the guard in Green Bay, coming back in 2008 when Rodgers took over for Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre. Even with a roster that was one overtime away from going to Super Bowl XLII, the Packers were in a similar transition period that next season and after a couple of up-and-down years, they defied the odds with Rodgers eclipsing Favre’s greatness.
Back then, the Bears couldn’t take full advantage of the small opening as Rodgers settled in. Even winning the NFC North in the 2010 season couldn’t stop him and the Packers as they defeated the Bears in the playoffs as a wild card team on their way to winning Super Bowl XLV.
This time, however, the Bears are more equipped to compete in the revamped NFC North for the foreseeable future thanks to an ascending quarterback, a young roster, and a front office that is getting players to buy into the process.
Quarterback
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Back in 2008 when the Packers were still learning if Rodgers could be the guy, the Bears had their own quarterback issues to work out. They were relying on an open competition between Kyle Orton and Rex Grossman to determine who would be the starter come Week 1. Two players who once led the team to back-to-back division titles in 2005 and 2006, respectively, now each vying for the starting job with limited upside.
Orton won the competition and produced modest numbers (2,972 yards with 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions) but never wowed anyone with his game. He was always considered somewhat of a game manager, unable to put the team on his back but was a solid complimentary player if a great roster was around him. With a limited supporting cast, that wasn’t good enough in 2008.
This year’s Bears team has their guy in Justin Fields, who is still scratching the surface of his potential. His passing numbers in 2022 weren’t impressive by any means but his ability to make something out of nothing puts immense pressure on opposing defenses. Most importantly is that Fields’ ceiling is still high whereas Orton had basically peaked just as Rodgers was getting started. That led to the Bears mortgaging their future for Jay Cutler the next offseason to try and reach that next level, which they failed to consistently accomplish.
Unbeknownst to the Bears, Cutler had already seen his best days in Denver and never was able to flourish in any system in Chicago. It would be disingenuous to say Fields is a lock for success, though. He still has a ways to go in his development as a passer. But it’s fair to say they’re in an advantageous position at quarterback as the Packers try and figure out their own. Love was considered a project when he was selected out of Utah State in the 2020 NFL draft and his very limited game action has looked uneven at best. He has more to prove before he can be considered a successful NFL quarterback.
Roster
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Look back at the late-2000s Bears roster and you’ll notice the team was loaded at certain positions, especially on defense. The core of the defense that carried the team to back-to-back division titles in 2005 and 2006 was still intact, with players like Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs, and Charles Tillman all in their primes.
But cracks began to form and other stalwarts such as Tommie Harris, Mike Brown, Nathan Vasher, and Adewale Ogunleye proved to be on the downturn of their careers. It was a unit in transition and for a team that relied on their defense to win games, that became a problem. Even with young offensive studs such as Matt Forte and Greg Olsen showing promise and becoming focal points, this team was built on their defense and that could only take them so far.
Moving to the present Bears, their roster admittedly isn’t as strong from top to bottom. How can it be when they just finished with the worst record in the league? But they’re young and growing with an identity forming. This isn’t a roster that’s desperately trying to hold onto the past from their glory days. This is a roster that is being built for the future. Players like Fields, D.J. Moore and Cole Kmet on offense, Tremaine Edmunds, Kyler Gordon, and Jaquan Brisker on defense, all of whom are still ascending in their careers. They can take the next step while instilling a winning program within a weak division.
Front office
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No one is going to try and dispute that Matt Eberflus is a better coach at this point than Lovie Smith in the mid-2000s. While both have similar styles and upbringings, Smith had taken the Bears to heights not seen since the 1980s and is still the most accomplished coach since Mike Ditka. But when it comes to the general manager, the Bears are already on their way towards putting the pieces in place to sustain success.
Entering his second season on the job, Ryan Poles is giving Fields the tools needed to flourish as the leader of the offense. He traded for two proven wide receivers in the span of four months, obtained additional draft capital to (likely) bolster the offensive line, and made shrewd moves in free agency that don’t set the organization back with poor deals or loss of draft picks. Jerry Angelo, the general manager in the mid-2000s, didn’t operate the same.
Angelo had a strong stretch of stellar defensive draft selections and was a key figure in building the 2006 Super Bowl roster. But time and again, he neglected the offensive side of the ball, specifically quarterback. Angelo was content having Orton and Grossman duke it out in 2008 and when that failed, he finally swung big at the position with Cutler. The problem was he failed to invest around him, putting the Bears behind the eight ball while the Packers grew with Rodgers. That ultimately led to his firing just a few years later.
Poles has already done more for Fields than Angelo ever did for Cutler. It’s ironic considering Fields wasn’t even selected by Poles in the first place while Angelo moved heaven and earth to land Cutler. But moves like acquiring Moore and Claypool give Fields that chance to grow at a time when the division is the weakest. The timing could be just as important as the moves themselves.
The future
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What exactly is the point of looking at the late-2000s Bears compared to the 2023 Bears while the Packers undergo a significant quarterback change? It’s the timing of their decisions and how their team is constructed. One Bears team was looking to reload and hang onto a defensive core that was dragged down by a bad offense. The other is a clean slate loaded with potential on both sides of the ball, a plethora of future draft capital, nearly $125 million in cap space, and a quarterback with star qualities.
The Packers aren’t built to reside in the basement of the NFC either. They too have assets both on the roster and picks in upcoming drafts to help ferry them to their next era. But when Rodgers took over, that roster was minutes away from the Super Bowl with elite talent at multiple positions. This year’s team doesn’t have that same firepower from top to bottom.
No one knows what the future holds and the Packers could transition smoothly to Love and once again finish atop the division sooner rather than later. But the conditions are right for the Bears to finally step out of the shadow that lurks to the north.
The oldest rivalry in the NFL is set to be renewed and it’s time for the Bears to take charge.
