When Ryan Poles stepped in as Bears general manager in 2022, he laid out a mission statement to “take the North and never give it back.” It sounded good, and if the Bears had done some damage in the NFC North, it’d look great on a t-shirt.
Instead, after three consecutive last-place finishes, it haunts them.
The North is arguably the most rigorous division, and the Lions and Packers have stood atop it as championship contenders for years. But the first step for the Bears to “take the North” is to establish definitively that they’re ahead of the Vikings, whom they visit Sunday.