David Banks-Imagn Images

ESPN gives absurd reason for ranking Bears alongside Patriots

Originally posted on Chicago Bears on SI
By Pete Martuneac | Last updated Aug 12, 2025 9:22 AM ET

There's a term in common use among fans of the Chicago Bears, and that is 'the Bears tax'. It's a term meant to describe the apparent disrespect the team and its players get from national media outlets when it comes to rankings or awards. If you think it's just the usual bellyaching of a snakebitten fanbase, consider Roquan Smith. He did not receive a single Pro Bowl or first-team All-Pro award at any point in his four years with the Bears. Since being traded to the Baltimore Ravens, however, he's won three of each despite his stats being roughly the same as when he was a Bear.

Clearly, the facts back up Bears fans' complaints, and a new set of rankings from ESPN only bolsters their case. ESPN got a panel of their NFL analysts together and asked them to do future NFL power rankings by making projections for all 32 teams. The basis for these rankings is grading each team in four areas: roster (minus the quarterback), the quarterback, coaching, and the front office.

In this exercise, the Bears amazingly tied with the lowly New England Patriots for 18th overall. Setting these two teams on the same level is insulting enough to all the hard work the Bears have done to make a big leap forward in 2025, but the main reason for this tie is simply unbelievable. In grading the quarterbacks, Chicago's Caleb Williams got a 78.8, or average, grade while New England's Drake Maye received an 87.5, or very good, grade.

And here's the kicker: Williams' grade ranked 18th out of all quarterbacks while Maye's slotted him in at 7th best.

To be blunt, this is complete nonsense. No objective viewing of the 2024 season in its entirety would lead a person to believe that Maye is that far ahead of Williams. Listen to ESPN tell it, and you'd assume Maye is already a proven winner in the NFL while Williams looked like a UFL player. But here's the facts: Williams threw for over 3,500 yards, 20 touchdowns, and just six interceptions while cycling through three different offensive coordinators and two head coaches.

Williams succeeded in spite of coaching failures that proved his pre-draft concerns were right. Maye, on the other hand, averaged a shockingly low 175 yards per game and had just a 1.5:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio, all significantly lower marks than Williams. And he had the benefit of a stable coaching environment. Was it the best? No, but he at least had the benefit of stability.

None of this is to say that Williams deserved to be ranked 7th in the NFL. He still needs to prove that he can live up to his generational billing. But ranking him so far below his 2024 draft classmates does nothing but prove that Bears fans have a point when they complain about bias from national media. And this comes on the heels of Colin Cowherd giving the worst hot take about Caleb Williams of the entire year, too.

Suffice it to say that if Caleb Williams lives up to expectations in 2025, there's not enough platters in the world to handle all the crow that some of these analysts will be served.

This article first appeared on Chicago Bears on SI and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: