Quick Slant: How Will the Bears Respond to Meeting Their Heroes?
Bears @ Texans, Sunday @ 8:20 PM EST
In 2021, the Houston Texans found themselves sideswiped. After a 4-12 season, their young star quarterback – the reigning NFL passing yardage leader on a Hall of Fame career track – wanted to be traded. Unwilling to be bullied, the Texans resisted accommodating him. Then, the bomb dropped. Deshaun Watson faced 24 civil lawsuits for sexual assault and was placed on the commissioner’s exempt list. Vultures circled the desperate franchise, looking to pick its bones clean. However, the Texans wisely waited nearly a year until a new off-season increased the urgency for QB-needy franchises. Or maybe they resisted long enough for the rest of the league to recognize they weren’t suckers. They eventually found a suitor in the Browns and washed their hands of Watson in the spring of 2022.
One year later, many assumed the Texans had a bottom-five roster; they had dwelled so low that those two years felt like twenty. But they hired DeMeco Ryans, drafted a QB, and got busy livin'. C.J. Stroud was a star; Houston made the playoffs and were suddenly realistic 2024 Super Bowl contenders. Knowing the space they had on the cap with a young stud QB, the Texans scooped up playable assets this spring like it was World War II, and they needed to exhaust every resource for the greater mission.
I can’t help but wonder if the 2024 Bears are trying to copy off the Texans’ paper a bit. Their story varies, but many conditions are the same. A unique shot at one of the best-regarded QB prospects of a generation materialized, and they dropped him onto a competent roster. The ensuing reaction was to buy, buy, buy. They added Keenan Allen, D’Andre Swift, and Gerald Everett; they drafted Rome Odunze and signed Jaylon Johnson and Kevin Byard on defense. This off-season, the Bears have been acting as if Caleb Williams will work out. Then again, the power players in Chicago are fighting for their professional lives. Maybe they are acting as if Caleb Williams must work out.
