Chicago Bears vs. San Francisco 49ers Rebuilding Plan

Given that the Bears started rebuilding the same time we did (2017), I thought this would be a fun topic to track over the years. ShanaLynch seem poised to "build their way out of this through the draft." I'm much more partial to the Bears plan (balance of draft + younger free agents) per my annual off season plans (for us).

Chicago Bears:


So on offense, they drafted 10 players and added 6 free agents. On defense, they drafted 9 and added 5 free agents.

16 'starters' were added on offense and defense in 2017 & 2018.

Their average age 25.6 puts them as one of the 10th youngest teams currently. They only have two players making over $9.6M (Robinson & Mack). They currently have $19.3M in cap space before the expected $10M+ increase.

Currently, their collective defense, at a 77.5 average PFF grade, is outstanding (Fangio + Donatell). Their offense, is naturally, behind them but rising each week (Nagy).

Year 2 of the rebuild:
Current record: 7-3 / 1st Place
Projected record: 10-6 / Playoffs / 1st Place Division
Playoff prediction: 1 playoff win

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It's hard to compare strategies given our perpetual injuries (had to add more 'starters') esp. with the loss of Jimmy Garoppolo but here is your snapshot in time:

San Francisco 49ers:


So on offense, they drafted 10 players and added 8 free agents. On defense, they drafted 9 and added 4 free agents.

33 'starters' were added on offense and defense in 2017 & 2018.

Their average age 25.9 puts them as one of the 10th youngest teams currently. They only have one player making over $10M (Staley). They currently have a projected carryover cap total of $65,419,090 for 2019.

Currently, the collective defense, at a 58.2 average PFF grade, is very poor. Their offense at 71.1 is above average.

Year 2 of the rebuild:
Current record: 2-8 / Last Place
Projected record: 3-13 / #1 Draft Pick / Last Place Division
Playoff prediction: None

Gonna need to review this in tiny spreadsheet format please.

Jk. Good post. We'll see...

Originally posted by Morgan49:
Jk. Good post. We'll see...

Haha. I take it you're on your phone. Just hover over, hold down for a second and download (then you can zoom in)...only if you want though.

Great post NCommand! This will be great to compare especially after the season, draft & offseason to see where we end up compared to them

Originally posted by tohara3:

Great post NCommand! This will be great to compare especially after the season, draft & offseason to see where we end up compared to them

Absolutely my pleasure. There's always different ways to rebuild and with a healthy Jimmy Garoppolo, perhaps we're close to 6-3 right now too.

Once we get on even playing ground, it'll be much easier to compare.

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by tohara3:

Great post NCommand! This will be great to compare especially after the season, draft & offseason to see where we end up compared to them

Absolutely my pleasure. There's always different ways to rebuild and with a healthy Jimmy Garoppolo, perhaps we're close to 6-3 right now too.

Once we get on even playing ground, it'll be much easier to compare.

Absolutely agreed. A healthy Jimmy G & Jet this season I believe goes much better no doubt

NFC championship game 2019 season.
All things right with the world.

We picked Tomsula over Fangio

Fail

The key here is Khalil Mack and Allen Robinson.

They acquired both of them. We did not.

I bet our records are reversed if we had acquired them instead (well the Bears are still probably better than 2-8 since Trubisky likely doesn't get hurt).

Oh well.

it aint graphs doe.

Does it factor in them giving up two draft picks to trade up one spot when they didn't need to?

Also that the Raiders are dumb and assumed their draft picks would be better if they traded Mack to them?

I agree it'll be interesting to track, however they also had a good D staff in as incumbent, and didn't have to pick the rest of their staff after Superbowl week, some 5 weeks after others

Originally posted by Fanaticofnfl:

The key here is Khalil Mack and Allen Robinson.

They acquired both of them. We did not.

I bet our records are reversed if we had acquired them instead (well the Bears are still probably better than 2-8 since Trubisky likely doesn't get hurt).

Oh well.

But if the olds are reversed for a comparison you surely have to take Trubisky and their starting rb out of the equation as well. Other injuries ought to balance out. I don't know if they would be better than 2-8 then. They have good depth at rb but Chase Daniel?

simple. they added playmakers, we added soft scrubs. They also have a legit coaching staff, unlike us.

Originally posted by Fanaticofnfl:

The key here is Khalil Mack and Allen Robinson.

They acquired both of them. We did not.

I bet our records are reversed if we had acquired them instead (well the Bears are still probably better than 2-8 since Trubisky likely doesn't get hurt).

Oh well.

Those are certainly the two big young and expensive acquisitions but they've also drafted and developed very well and got aggressive in 2017 & 2018 adding 10 FA starters to all of their drafted players.