Podcast: Grading Bears offseason, why Chicago is set up well in draft, Josh Allen red flags

CBS Sports College Football Writer Tom Fornelli breaks down the Bears offseason and draft plans with Will Brinson

By Will Brinson

Apr 12, 2018 at 10:37 am ET • 2 min read

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The Chicago Bears are a potential Cinderella team for the 2018 season. Right? Maybe! I'm on board with the idea of Chicago making a big leap forward thanks in large part to them sort of reconstructing what the Rams did last year by bringing in a young offensive minded head coach, putting some serious weapons around their second-year quarterback and starting to build out a nice little defense with a veteran, successful offensive coordinator. CBS Sports CFB writer and Bears fan Tom Fornelli joined me on the Pick Six Podcast and does not entirely agree.

"The narrative and the reasoning behind it, it all makes sense. There are some key differences as well," Fornelli points out. "First of all, if you look at the two defenses, the Bears had a good defense last year. Statistically they were better than L.A. in some key areas that mattered. But the Rams were much better at getting after the quarterback and a much better pass rushing defense. They also have Aaron Donald anchoring the middle of that defense. The Bears don't have anything like Aaron Donald."

Also, while the Bears have a talented running game, they're not exactly the Rams with an MVP-level back.

"On the other side offensively, the Rams have Todd Gurley. The Bears don't," Fornelli continued. "Jordan Howard is a good NFL running back. But even though he rushed for like 1,200 yards last year, he only averaged 4.1 yards per carry. It was not a good year for Jordan Howard. Todd Gurley was the engine of that Rams offense."

The good news: Fornelli believes the Bears can claim success in 2018 if they get significant progression out of quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. It's not like Chicago has to make the playoffs. The bad news? He's setting the over/under for the win total pretty low. (6.5, which might be pretty close to what Vegas ends up offering.)

Fornelli and I played a game where we discussed what quarterbacks he would trade Trubisky for: Deshaun Watson (yes) and Jameis Winston (no) were both interesting answers.

Hear the full interview below and subscribe on iTunes here. Here's the full rundown:

1. Grading the Bears offseason

2. Buying Bears to recreate 2017 Rams formula

3. Over/under for Bears wins in 2018

4. Scarier next season: Packers or Vikings? (No offense, Lions.)

5. Best- and worst-case scenario for the Bears at No. 8 in the draft and beyond

6. Ranking the NFL Draft quarterbacks -- spoiler: Fornelli is NOT high on Josh Allen.