Wild ESPN computer simulation picks Bears to miss playoffs

Better. But still not good enough.

That seems to be the national narrative surrounding this season's Chicago Bears. Quarterback Caleb Williams will grow in his second year. The offense will drastically improve under new head coach Ben Johnson and the offensive line additions and drafting of two weapons in Colston Loveland and Luther Burden.

Yadda, yadda and more yadda. But when it comes time to add it all up, the folks at ESPN just don't think the Bears will be good enough to make the playoffs. In their recent power rankings, ESPN has the Bears a respectable 13th. Problem, that's the worst of any team in the NFC North.

And then comes an ESPN computer simulator of every game played in the NFL this season. Trust it at your own peril, because it has both of last year's Super Bowl teams - the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs - missing the playoffs. To be fair, it's only one of ESPN's 10,000 simulations, but they chose to publish it so it's fair game to tear it apart.

In this model, the Bears finish 9-8 and miss the playoffs. The Detroit Lions win the division at 11-6, but the Buffalo Bills win their first championship over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a 55-23 romp in Super Bowl LX.