The Chicago Bears are in a position midway through the season that they haven’t been in for some time. Eight games down, they sit at 5-3, and with nine games left and the trade deadline past, the playoffs are possibility

​Over the last four seasons, Chicago has been on the opposite end of the playoff spectrum, having been in on the outside looking in on the NFC playoff picture. Last season, the team was 4-4 after eight games and proceeded to lose eight straight, finishing with a record of 5-12.

​The same scenario played out in 2023, 2022, and 2021, where Chicago was under .500 through eight games and finished well outside the NFC playoff picture by the end of the season.

​You’d have to go back to 2020 to find the last time the Bears were above .500 through eight games. In that season, Chicago started 5-1 and was 5-3 just like this season at the midway point. Going 3-5 in the second half of the season, Chicago snuck into the playoffs as a No. 7 seed.

​The Bears’ crazy 47-42 win over the Bengals changed everything for the team’s potential playoff chances. A loss would have put the Bears at 4-4, and historically, teams with that record have a 20% chance of making the playoffs, versus a 5-3 record, where those percentages jump to over 50%.

​So far, the Bears have been securing their wins late in games, and at times in unattractive fashion, but it’s a change from last season. The 2024 Bears went 3-7 in one-score games, and so far in this season, the team is 4-1.

​Despite the Bears’ 5-3 record, which ties them for second in the NFC North with the Detroit Lions and puts them just one game behind the Green Bay Packers for first place, their chances are still low.

​The New York Times, Marquee Sports Network, and NFL.com all have Chicago around a 23% to 27% chance of making the playoffs. Why is that, when other 5-3 teams like the Lions and Pittsburgh Steelers are listed at 70% or higher to make the playoffs?

​Well, for starters, Chicago has only made the playoffs five times since 2000, three times since 2010, and just twice in the last decade. There could be a whole ongoing synopsis about the franchise’s struggles to find consistency, a head coach, and a starting quarterback, but it’s quite frankly the Bears remain nine games, and the teams on the schedule that could prevent them from winning a handful of games needed to make the playoffs.

Bears remaining schedule

​At the beginning of the season, Chicago was tied for the second most difficult schedule, with its opponents’ win percentage at .571, based on last season’s records. With nine games left, the Bears have the third-toughest remaining schedule, with their opponents boasting a .554 win percentage.

​Of Chicago’s remaining nine games, only two have a record below .500 at the moment. Those are the New York Giants — who the Bears play this weekend — and their week 15 opponent, the Cleveland Browns.

​The Bears’ five wins this season are all against teams with a .500 record or lower, and their three losses are against teams that were playoff contenders last season, the Vikings, Lions and Ravens.

​Aside from the Giants and Browns, Chicago plays the Vikings, who they lost to in week 1, and are currently 4-4, followed by the Steelers, who sit in first place of the AFC North, and have Aaron Rodgers who is 25-5 against Chicago, including one playoff win, and 11-3 at Soldier Field in his career.

​Then they play the defending Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, on the road, who are 14-2 at home in their last 16 home games, including the playoffs.

​With all that already listed, the Green Bay Packers haven’t even been brought up yet. Chicago plays the Packers on the road in week 14 and hosts them in week 16. Last season’s Week 18 24-22 victory was the Bears’ first win against Green Bay since 2018 and their first in Lambeau Field since Nov. 26, 2015.

​The schedule wraps up at San Francisco, where the Bears lost last season 38-13, and concludes with a final home game against the Lions in Week 18.

​So, I’m sure you can now see why the Bears’ chances of making the playoffs, even with a 5-3 record, are slim, making the next three games all the more important to try and win. To feel good about having a chance of making the playoffs, Chicago would likely need five more wins, bringing its total to 10.

​Even 10 isn’t a secure spot to make the playoffs — last season’s Seattle Seahawks missed the playoffs at 10-7, and if you go back to 2012, the Bears, at 10-6, who beat the Lions in week 17, also didn’t get in.

​“The NFL is the NFL, I’ve said this two or three weeks ago that the guys out there are all ballers. There is no slouch game, there is no any of that. We approach each game with the same mindset and all these games build confidence, all these games we’ve and all the games we’ve lost just being able to find ways, especially in the losses, find ways to find solutions to the issues that kind of helped us to lose, and when we win keeping those solutions and fine tuning them, to keep going.” Williams said. 

Why get excited?

​For starters, the 4-1 record in one-score games is a difference maker. The Bears have won games by blocking a game-winning field goal, kicking a game-winning field goal, and scoring a touchdown with under a minute left on the clock.

​In previous seasons, Chicago found a way to lose those games, which led to a trickle effect of losses derailing their season.

​Another aspect to get excited about is the increased production from the offense, just eight games into head coach Ben Johnson’s first season.

​Chicago sits as the fourth most productive offense in the NFL through eight games. With 3,027 yards, they are tied for the third most a game at 378.4, and are second in the NFL in rushing yards a game with 144.4 yards.

​The Bears also have 26.9 points per game, the sixth-best in the league, compared to 18.2 points per game last season.

​Last season, the Bears were dead last through 17 games in offensive production with 284.6 yards a game and the sixth-worst rushing team at just 102 yards a game.

​Johnson said the Bears will be playing their best football in December, a sentiment he expressed early in the season. So far, there has been gradual growth from week to week, but only time will tell how Chicago will stack up against the league’s better teams.

It was a tall task back in July, and even at 5-3, it remains a tough task, but Chicago has already tied its win total from last season, and with the Bears’ offense reaching new heights, is encouraging, but only time will tell how much work the Bears need to do, and it they can hang with the big boys of the league. 

“We need to be able to win with all three phases,” Johnson said. “So when one phase isn’t doing as well as there capable of, the other two need to be able to pick us up and take us the rest of the way. That’s going to be the name of the game. We have some really good teams coming up on the schedule, starting with this week, and the better Caleb plays the better we are going to be in the long run, obviously, but it’s going to take all of us here, coaches players, it’s going to take all of us in this last stretch.”

“It’s more of a mindset than anything else. To me, it’s pride. I can speak offensively, like when the offense is on the field, and you have a lead (late), I don’t want another phase to get on the field after that. I want to finish the game with the football. Defensively it’s the same thing. Let’s go ahead and make sure we end this thing and remove all doubt right here an now. So I think it’s a pride thing more than anything else.”