Hub Arkush: Are the Chicago Bears getting better or worse?

As the second week of the NFL’s 2022 free-agent market comes to a close, the Bears have lost Khalil Mack, Allen Robinson, James Daniels, Bilal Nichols, Jakeem Grant, Tarik Cohen, Eddie Goldman, Deon Bush, Patrick O’Donnell, Damien Williams, Alex Bars, Joel Iyiegbuniwe and Artie Burns. And Akiem Hicks, Tashaun Gipson, Alec Ogletree, Germain Ifedi, Jason Peters, Jimmy Graham, Marquise Goodwin, Damiere Byrd, Christian Jones and J.P. Holtz among others remain on the street.

They have added LB Nicholas Morrow, DE Al-Quadin Muhammad, DT Justin Jones, CB BoPete Keyes, LB Noah Dawkins, LB Joe Thomas, WR Byron Pringle, C Lucas Patrick, RB Darrynton Evans, OG Dakota Dozier, WR Equanimeous St. Brown, FB Khari Blasingame, RB Darrynton Evans, QB Trevor Siemian, OG Willie Wright and P Ryan Winslow, and have an offer sheet pending with OG Ryan Bates.

Only Morrow, Muhammad, Jones and Patrick have been regular starters with their prior teams.

Suffice to say, the Bears today are a much less talented team than the 6-11 club Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus inherited.

That in and of itself is not a bad thing. Team chairman George McCaskey determined a couple of months back that his team was headed in the wrong direction, and he brought in Poles and Eberflus to right the ship, a chore unlikely to be accomplished without significant change.

But what blueprint Poles is using and how he hopes to get the job done still is an open question. And the only thing we know for sure is if Justin Fields doesn’t become the long sought-after franchise quarterback the Bears have been missing, his regime could be just another doomed to failure.

It’s OK to get worse overall in Year 1 if that’s the price of cleaning up the mess left behind by the last guys in charge. This first season doesn’t have to be measured in wins and losses.

But if anyone believes a new system and better coaching is all Fields needs to show the dramatic improvement he needs to in Year 2, giving the Bears hopes of being ready to compete before he gets to year four of his rookie deal, they aren’t in tune with the difference between success and failure in today’s NFL.

Let’s look at this a little differently. Were the regular season to start this week, this is the team the Bears would field:

QB Justin Fields; RB David Montgomery; WRs Darnell Mooney, Pringle and Dazz Newsome or St. Brown; TEs Cole Kmet and Jesper Horstead; OTs Teven Jenkins and Larry Borom or Lachavious Simmons; OGs Cody Whitehair and Dozier, Wright or possibly Bates; and C Patrick.

DEs Robert Quinn and Muhammad; DTs Jones or Mario Edwards Jr. and Khyiris Tonga or Angelo Blackson; LBs Roquan Smith, Morrow and Jeremiah Attaochu or Ledarius Mack; CBs Jaylon Johnson, Kindle Vildor and Duke Shelley or Thomas Graham Jr.; and safeties Eddie Jackson, DeAndre Houston-Carson or Michael Joseph.

You’re talking about at least seven of 25 starting spots being manned by guys who’ve never been more than bottom-of-the-roster or practice squad players and a handful more that are career backups and special teamers.

The defense, although not nearly as talented as last year, might still have enough talent to compete on some Sundays, and the offense would be one of the most suspect in the league.

Clearly Poles isn’t done. He has six picks in the draft, including three fairly high on Day 2, and when he talks about a third wave of free agency, I suspect he may be talking about after June 1.

Each club is allowed to designate only two players now for post-June 1 cuts, but there will be a number of other cap casualties that become available once June 1 arrives.

Poles will be judged on two fronts: whether he can build a Super Bowl contender, and whether he can make an elite quarterback out of Fields.

He has time to build a winner, but he needs to get Fields some help right now, and the lack of urgency he appears to be demonstrating is more than likely to make the natives a lot more restless a lot more quickly than anyone would like.