Bears’ win over Panthers also a win for their future

Carmen Vitali

NFC North Reporter

The Chicago Bears were in a win-win situation on Thursday night… even if they had lost.

The Bears hold the Carolina Panthers‘ first-round pick in the draft (and a few others) thanks to trading out of the No. 1 spot last April. The Panthers moved up from No. 9 and selected Bryce Young to be their franchise quarterback. November 9th was then circled because it would be when the two teams played one another.

Chicago entered the showdown with a 2-7 record, with Carolina sitting at 1-8. The two teams currently account for two of the top three picks in the 2024 NFL Draft. A win by the Bears, and they would match their season win total from last year while pushing Carolina further down the draft order. A loss, and they would currently keep their own top-three pick while the Panthers’ selection stays stagnant.

It was maybe the lowest-stakes game this season, and under those circumstances on national television, the Bears beat the Panthers 16-13 in extremely ugly fashion.

But a win is a win — especially when you hold all the cards.

Of course, those cards don’t come into play until the season is over. No one is arguing this is a pivotal point that will propel the Bears into the playoffs this year. The Panthers are currently the worst team in the NFL. This is what the Bears were supposed to do, and you could argue they should have won by more on Thursday.

But the focus for both of these two teams is the future, and like the lights glittering on the Chicago skyline, the Bears’ future looks a lot brighter.

The Bears are going to have two first-round picks in 2024 (potentially both in the top 5). They have four more picks after those starting in the third round after trading their second-round pick away for Montez Sweat. But general manager Ryan Poles has already shown he isn’t afraid to flip draft picks. It would be surprising if the Bears ended up only making six picks by the time the 2024 NFL Draft is over.

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On top of the draft capital, Chicago has monetary capital, too. Even after the Sweat extension, the Bears are projected to have over $63 million in cap space. That will allow them to add experience to one of the youngest teams in the league through free agency.

Given the moves Chicago made this offseason (and midseason), they don’t have a ton more holes to fill, especially if you take the quarterback question out of it. The Bears need help along the trenches (both sides) and they could potentially benefit from another running back, but outside of that, you’re talking mostly depth pieces. We’ve seen incremental improvement on the defensive side of the ball, especially with the addition of Sweat. The Bears’ run defense ranks first in yards per play allowed with 3.26. They rank fourth in rushing yards given up per game with 79.7. Their pass rush has been anemic but on Thursday night, they had three sacks. It was the third multi-sack game of the season and the first time they’d recorded a sack at all in three weeks. Chicago is now up to 13 on the season, which is still last in the league, but with the addition of Sweat and a little bit of creativity, the pass rush seems to be trending upward.

They’re a heck of a lot closer than Carolina.

Carolina is in a bad way at this point. They leveraged their entire future for Bryce Young and haven’t done enough to help him since he arrived in Charlotte. They don’t have the capital to make meaningful adds this offseason, either. They’ll have about $40 million in cap space, but with as many holes as they need to fill on each side of the ball, many of them among the expensive skill positions, that might not be enough. They’re in between a rock and a hard place and the remedy isn’t immediately clear.

Thursday night was a matchup of two struggling teams. There isn’t much to be gleaned from comparing them except for their outlooks. Chicago can take solace in the fact that theirs looks a lot brighter.

Carmen Vitali covers the NFC North for FOX Sports. Carmen had previous stops with The Draft Network and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She spent six seasons with the Bucs, including 2020, which added the title of Super Bowl Champion (and boat-parade participant) to her résumé. You can follow Carmen on Twitter at @CarmieV.