Chicago Bears: 3 things to address during the bye week

As the Chicago Bears enter the bye week there are a few things they must work on in order to set themselves up for a playoff run.

Currently, the Chicago Bears have a 3-1 record and sit alone atop the NFC North division. How many of you thought you would be reading that sentence as the team heads into their bye week following Week 4?

Prior to this season, the Bears had not had a winning record since 2012 when they went 10-6 and had not been to the playoffs since 2010 when they went 11-5 and lost in the Conference Championship to the cheeseheads.

While their hot start may have caused some to forget, it wasn’t that long ago fans and experts were very down on the Bears this year. You would have been hard-pressed to find a prognosticator who picked them to finish anywhere but last in their division.

As the season has progressed, the bandwagon has gotten a little more crowded. After Mitch Trubisky and the offense lit up the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for 48 points last week, even more people have been hopping on. In fact, ESPN’s most recent power rankings have the Bears at 10th overall, up from 18th the prior week. CBS Sports has them all the way up to 5th from 16th the week before.

And yet, there are still a number of things this team needs to address if it wants to make a push for the playoffs, as the schedule gets significantly more difficult after the bye week. So what is it that Matt Nagy and staff has to address? We take a look below.