"Experts" don't like the Bears in 2008.......

ESPN's coastal bias (east and west) is as openly apparant as the main stream media's liberal bias. The only team that seems to escape it are Dallas and any team that a former East coast or ESPN former coach is currently coaching. They can't be totally objective because they are also fans, and they openly root for their (East) home teams. Their objective isn't to report the facts, but to keep the pot stirred and provoke fan indignation. Once you recognize that, it's easy to ignore them. That being said, the Bears do have something to prove and, with a fully healthy (and deeper) defense, are going to surprise a lot of the pundits at ESPN.

I hate to attribute all the poor projections to bias, but seriously the Bears can't possibly be the 4th worst team in the NFL.  I geek on all NFL news: free agency, draft, roster moves - and the talent on the Bears roster is not in the bottom 1/8 of the league.  Now management and coaching - you can ask nolovie about that. 

I forsee a repeat of 2006 after SI's great Dr. Z forecasted the Bears to be the worst in the league, and they came out and dominated the NFC North and received home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs.   I don't put much stock in football forecasting.

NFL predicitons and pre-season ranking are pathetic.  Every year, these guys pick the same teams from the seaon prior and take one or two sleepers to make the playoffs.  If you listened to the experts last year, the Saints were about to win the Super Bowl, the Broncos would dominate the AFC West and the Panthers would have 2 or 3 SB rings already.

These people don't know anymore about what will happen next year than we do.  No one can predict lucky bounces (gb in '08), injuries (Bears in '08), near-perfection (NE in '08) or a hot streak to end the year (NYG in '08).

From my experiences, the media has never been friendly to Da Bears.   Only times anything good is said is when someone is slobbing on Urlachers jock, although its much deserved. 

And of course they all bash Rex, as it was the cool thing to do during the  Super Bowl year.

Maybe its better Chicago isn't covered extensively.  Although it kinda leaves me left out of whats going on as I did live in the midwest, I do get tired of hearing about Dallas, New England, and New York all day.

These are the same guys who think the Patriots will dominate again this year and the Giants will be a power house..2 things that are ridiculous..The Patriots offense should still be strong, but their defense took ALOT of hits this offseason and the LB's are OLD OLD OLD..And to top that off, the Bills and Jets got better, so the Patriots will not return to being the power horse this year

They also still have the Saints, Packers, Seahawks, Eagles, and Redskins in the top 15..ALL of which I disagree with..I also disagree with the Browns and Steelers being in the top 10..

So as far as I can tell, the experts have NEVER liked Chicago and always fend them to be the worst team alive, while the Cowboys somehow sit a top the top 5 every year no matter how much they stink..It is what it is and the Bears have something to prove this year which makes them more dangerous then just having a healthy defense..

They take no chances in choosing dark horse or sleeper teams. The only team in the top 17 with a losing record last year is the Saints at 11. I don't understand why the Saints are going to be any better then they were last year until they prove they can play defense and Drew Brees doesn't have to throw the ball 50 times a game. At the beginning of the 2007 where were the Packers? Now they believe the Packers are a powerhouse even with Brett Farve gone. Thats a joke!

Then they only have two teams with less then 7 wins in the top and thats the Jets at 21 and the Ravens 22. What a reach there! Jets had a down season after a playoff berth in 2006 and the Ravens still have the pieces to compete. The simple fact is there will be teams that made the playoffs that will be drafting in the top 15 next year and there will be teams that didn't make the playoffs that will challenge for a spot. According to ESPN's 2008 PR we will be watching a virtual repeat of 2007 with one execption the Saints who the media LOVES will apparently take back the NFC South from the Bucs.

jbone54 you are absolutely right about the experts never liking the Bears even when they went to the Superbowl the experts had them losing to the Seahawks and when they won there was no way they would get past the beloved Saints. I love the that the reasoning given for our 24th ranking being Rex Grossman. When he had a quality team in 2006 he help take this team to the SB and I don't care who you are even Tom Brady could not last without a LT, LG, RT, RB, and WRs that actually catch catchable balls. I personally believe they have fixed most of these problems with LG still being a question mark. Our defense will be healthy and hopefully stay that way. The Bears will be back in the top 15 at the least.