Now that the 2024 NFL season is done and dusted, early 2025 NFL Power Rankings are making their rounds throughout football media. And even though the Chicago Bears made one of the league’s biggest power moves with the hiring of Ben Johnson as head coach, there’s little to no belief in the team’s ability to improve on their current standing among the NFL’s worst squads.

Johnson, the former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator, was the most coveted coaching candidate this offseason. His innovative offensive schemes helped turn Jared Goff into a top-tier quarterback and led the Lions to one of the best offenses in the NFL

Now, Johnson inherits a Bears team with a young, dynamic quarterback in Caleb Williams, who showed flashes of brilliance in his rookie campaign. A second-year leap for Williams under Johnson’s tutelage should be expected, not ignored.

But none of that matters, according to The Athletic’s NFL Power Rankings. The Bears check in at No. 24.

“If new Bears head coach Ben Johnson is as good as everyone expects him to be (although let’s be honest, it’s always a crapshoot), then the NFC North will be the new cradle of coaches,” Josh Kendall wrote. “Campbell, Kevin O’Connell and LaFleur have already proved their chops, which is the reason it’s a little surprising this is the job Johnson decided to take.”

To be fair, the Bears were ranked 27th by The Athletic before the Johnson hire. He at least moved the needle a little bit.

Still, ranking the Bears 24th is absurd. Teams with worse quarterback situations and less overall talent are ranked ahead of them (the Las Vegas Raiders are ranked 22nd), and it feels like this is simply a continuation of the Bears being an easy target for national media criticism. While Chicago still has work to do to become a legitimate contender, they have the pieces in place to compete for a playoff spot in 2025.

With a franchise quarterback, an elite offensive mind in Ben Johnson, and a defense on the rise, Chicago should be viewed as one of the NFL’s most intriguing teams next season, not an afterthought buried in the bottom third of NFL power rankings.