Chicago Bears: NFC North rivals proving to be tougher in 2019

As the 2019 NFL regular season continues, the Chicago Bears have more than just the quarterback position to be concerned about.

The Chicago Bears may not have played a game in week three, however, if you watched any NFL football yesterday, what you saw was all three NFC North teams come away with victories. That’s right, to kick off week three, the Lions, Packers, and Vikings would each win leaving the Bears alone in the NFC North cellar.

While the Bears will play the Washington Redskins later tonight, in what is a must-win game, the start that the rest of the NFC North has had in 2019 cannot go unnoticed. The Packers have yet to lose a game through the first three weeks of the season while the Vikings look like a team that’s slowly figuring things out just in time for the NFL’s playoff race to heat up. Then there’s the Detroit Lions, who sit at third place in the division but have shown enough to the point where they might not finish last in the division this year.

The bottomline for the Bears here is this: The NFC North won’t be a cakewalk like most thought it would be. The NFL is truly a year-to-year league. Just less than a month ago, many thought that this was the Bears division to lose. However, there’s a new feeling in the air in places like Green Bay, Minnesota, and Detroit.

Over the next three games, the Bears will play the Washington Redskins, Minnesota Vikings, and Oakland Raiders before the team goes on a bye week in week six. To keep pace in the division, the Bears need to win all three games. This would leave the Bears sitting at four wins before the most critical three-game stretch of the season begins in October where the Bears will play the Los Angeles Chargers, New Orleans Saints, and Philadelphia Eagles.

While the Bears have the toughest schedule in the division due to their 2018 record, it’s clear that the rest of the NFC North is taking advantage of easier schedules. Sometimes, a weak schedule is one of the many factors as to why a team can go from worst to first within a year.

The Bears still have the best roster in the division. Nobody knows who the NFC North Division Champion will be in 2019. It could be any of the four teams in the division, however, one thing is clear: Winning the division in 2019 for the Bears will be harder than it was in 2018. The Bears should take note of the Packers and Vikings fast starts to the 2019 season. A lot can happen between now and the end of the season, but the NFC North certainly has been much tougher in 2019 than most expected.