Alex Shapiro: The Bears will beat the entire NFC North this season

Alex Shapiro: The Bears will beat the entire NFC North this season

[Music] and covering all that excitement with bears riter Alex Shapiro when he joins us now Hello Alex how you doing I’m doing great thanks so much for having me Dave the countdown is on right now how excited are you to cover a Bears training camp which I think has as much anticipation as any I can remember in in many years oh yeah this is extremely exciting this is going to be the time where you know OTAs are fun but it’s guys running around in shorts this is the first time we’re going to see them in pads this is the first time we’re going to see something that looks like like real football and obviously it is the most exciting training camp in recent memory probably more exciting even than 2021 because remember Justin Fields was in town but he was splitting rats with Andy Dalton so we weren’t seeing Justin Fields a whole lot with the ones uh so yeah extremely extremely exciting that’s why HBO wants to Chronicle it on Hard Knox you talked with Shannon Ferman one of the directors and producers of Hard Knocks here’s what she had to say about this upcoming Bears season one of our position groups we’re most excited about is probably the wide receiver room um DJ Moore his daughter we’ve seen um we think that she’s going to be a lot of fun um and just the guys in like romad dun also um there’s a lot of young guys on this team even like the defense I think the defense was like a top five defense last year and like people probably don’t even realize that so I think the DB group seems like they have a lot of characters we have a meeting next week where we’re like really going to go in depth and kind of dive into the roster and figure out like what we’re targeting going into it but that usually ends up working out where like you kind like kind of 50% of that happens and then the other 50% happens out on the field so it’s like half and half you kind you think you go in with a plan but then you also you end up finding the other half of the plan just from listening to wires and things that are happening out there that’s the nature reality TV what was your biggest takeaway from that interview it really was just that you know that they go and they do all this research and they have all these story lines and characters that they want to follow and then sometimes things just happen and it’s really really exciting and it makes for really really good TV so about half of that stuff is completely unplanned uh another big takeaway was that they have players on their staff who go through and make sure that they look at all the content they look at all the video and say hey maybe don’t include that because he might be giving away some competitive Advantage you know hardox isn’t out here to break news is basically what they’re saying if they learn about an injury maybe before the team announces it they’re not going to be the ones who break that on that television show so while we still get that unbelievable access we get that behind the scenes look and we get to see what these players and coaches are doing in their personal lives how they interact with each other in the meeting rooms on the practice field you know it’s not like we’re going to be getting these crazy breaking news moments happening on Hard Knocks uh we’re we’re going to know about those things beforehand before they show it on the show I wonder if they’ll be there when Caleb Williams finally signs his contract you know that thought actually did cross my mind as to okay why haven’t romad dun and Caleb Williams sign their deals yet oh maybe they’re waiting for the HBO cameras so that they can show that on TV because that would make for some good TV the flare for the dramatic all right let’s look at tonight’s best bet presented by fanatic Sportsbook Vegas has the Bears win total at 8 and2 still that hasn’t changed since the schedule was released what has however is how good betters think the Bears actually will be take a look at that look at the numbers in May in June and then today notice how the over has changed pretty significantly that means a lot of people putting their money on the over a lot of belief in the Beloved here’s the bare schedule all right Alex can you hit the over do you see nine wins on that schedule I think I do I don’t know if you agree I do you know nine wins kind of seems like the floor given they were a seven and 10 team last year and they should be a lot better with Caleb Willams in a revamped offense so you know let’s just go through it one by one and I I’ll try and do this really quickly so we don’t belor it the Titans a w yeah gotta win that one Texans as probably an L the Texans were a surprised team last year playoff team playoff winning team so I’m going to give the Bears their first s there and now here’s where things get a little dicey Colts and the Rams I’m actually both giving L’s there’s always going to be one game every year that’s kind of like a wait how did the Bears lose this game every team goes through that how did they lose this game I think that could be the Colts early on who might be sneaky good and then the Rams are still one of the best teams in the NFC so all of a sudden one and three we’re like whoa we’re never going to hit this over I still think it can happen Panthers I would hesitate with the Colts and agreeing with you but I I respect where you’re coming from one and three would be Bleak in Chicago it would be really Bleak that’s what I’m saying so people would be kind of like whoa what’s going on here but it’s fine I think they can reset I think the Panthers is a w then the Jags in London I think that’s another l so now we’re at two and four it’s not great but they get back from London they have their break they have their mini buy they do their self scouting and they go on a little streak commanders W Cardinals W Patriots w Packers at home and I think that’s important the Packers at home this team really really really wants to beat the Packers it does not sit well with them that they did not manage to like dominate them recently A W and then the Vikings at home a w so that stretch right there is going to be really key uh and then I think they’re going to be riding high and I think this is a team that matches up really well against the Lions they have given the Lions a lot of trouble in recent memory even if the win record hasn’t really shown it they’re beating the Lions the Lions you think they’re beating the Lions beat the Lions do you think the Bears are beating the Packers and the lions in two out of three and then they’re beating the Vikings in between so you got them going on a three- game NFC North winning streak in the middle of the season I think they can do it I think they’re going to be riding so high maybe they lose at Ford Field maybe they lose at Ford Field and they win at Solder Field but I think the Bears will beat the Lions one out of their two times uh this season so let’s count one of those Lions games is a win and then you look at the back end of the schedule it it’s kind of tough I think the 49ers is going to be a loss I think the Vikings is going to be kind of a surprising loss they are still incredibly talented right with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison they added Aaron Jones uh TJ hackinson is is kind of Forgotten over there they got a lot going on and whether Sam darnold is still the guy he’s still going to be the guy because he’s playing well or maybe JJ McCarthy is taken over by then you know they might have not going to be the quarterback the Vikings in week 15 there’s no there’s no way that’s going to happen you’re probably right but my point is so like if JJ McCarthy is is the QB he’ll probably have had some reps by week 15 and if it’s not JJ McCarthy if it is Sam darnold and I agree with you I don’t think that’s going to happen but if he is still the quarterback it’s because he’s playing really well so either way you go I think it’s going to be better quarterback play than maybe people are giving the Vikings credit for or expecting out of the Vikings at this point uh and then I do think the Bears are GNA end the season with an L against the Packers at Lambo field but importantly the Seahawks that’s going to be a w that Seahawks win I see as the ninth win of the season so even even with that you know bad start that I’m kind of predicting and even with the bad finish at the end I think the middle of the Season sets up in such a way that the Bears can hit nine I think they can hit nine I don’t have the same nine I think the way they end the season could be strong I don’t think they’re going to beat the Packers this year they don’t have history against Matt laflor so that would make me question their ability to do that still maybe we’ll be wrong who knows the the best thing about this division is it looks very good and deep and one of the best in football yeah absolutely so again you know yeah the the NFC North all of a sudden after being not so great for the past few years looks like one of the best so that’s why I do think you know they they’ll they’ll split but I don’t think they’re going to do better than than splitting right you can see them winning against the Lions based on how they’ve matched up I do think they can beat the Packers at home I’m still wondering what you see in the Colts to make you think that bears can’t beat them in September when Anthony Richardson may be hurt by then already he hasn’t played a lot he doesn’t have much more experience than Cayla Williams no you’re absolutely right I kind of just picked the Colts as that random head scratcher loss because I do think there’s always be so maybe it’s the Colts maybe it’s the Commanders maybe it’s the Cardinals game or the Patriots game but one of those games one of those games is going to be a head scratching loss I just kind of arbitrarily picked the Colts because it’s early in the year and I do think the Colts are talented you know Jonathan Taylor is still one of the best running backs in the NFL Michael Pitman is still one of the best wide receivers in the NFL and Anthony Richardson he’s he had flashes of really exciting moments yes he did he did I’m just kid you know with bears losses they’re always going to be a head scratcher in the first month of the season so I I think that you might be you know on the right track but I think this team can win more games than they lose that’s the main thing the the progress that that would imply absolutely at at the at the end of the day this is a team that should win at least two more games than they won last season so take the over Alex Shapiro says so thanks for joining us tonight Alex thank you Dave congrats you finished the video if you want to build on that success download the NBC Sports Chicago app it’s got high highlights exclusive insights and push alerts tailored to you everything you need to be a real Chicago sports fan download it now

On this episode of Football Night in Chicago, Alex Shapiro joins David Haugh to talk about his interview with “Hard Knocks” producer Shannon Furman, give his Bears game-by-game win predictions and more.

#ChicagoBears #hardknocks #NFCNorth

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