Bears seem to finally be making sense: Silvy

My mantra for the Bears has been “make it make sense.”

It’s hardly a philosophy that makes me football Socrates, but it’s something the Bears have lacked for many years.

Allowing the Commanders an easy 14 yards before their Hail Mary? Make it make sense.

Tyrique Stevenson not paying attention on the Hail Mary play and blowing his assignment? Make it make sense.

Not calling a timeout in the last minute against Detroit? Make it make sense.

Not fixing the offensive line for Caleb Williams’ rookie season? MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!

I can go on and on.

Handing the ball off to Doug Kramer in a crucial goal line situation? Say it loud: Make it make sense.

Teams are going to lose games. Teams are going to miss on draft picks. Failure is a part of sports. BUT ... if a lack of common sense leads to these failures, then the missteps are egregious. It’s the one word I always land on when describing the Bears’ decision making for most of the 30 years I’ve covered the team.

Hold on, this is not a doom-and-gloom column because maybe there are signs the Bears are getting out of their own way. Forgive me for overloving what I hear from Ben Johnson before he’s won a game, but every time the new Bears head coach speaks, it is a thoughtful answer that we haven’t heard around these parts in a long time.

This is what Johnson said this week at the NFL owners’ meetings about Caleb Williams, “It’s not going to be, necessarily, linear growth. There’s going to be gains, and we’re going to drop down, we’re going to have a bad game. As a coaching staff, our whole thing is: ‘Hey, let’s not have one bad play lead into another bad play. Let’s not have one bad game lead into another bad game.’ Because that’s where you fall into a spiral, and it’s hard to get out of that.”

Williams may learn more from Ben Johnson in OTAs than he learned from his coaches all of last year. Johnson went on to describe how Braxton Jones needs to gain weight to help his pass blocking and how Cole Kmet has to improve his run blocking.

It’s a far cry from the Eberflus HITS principle and is much more than just coach speak. Also at the owners meetings, Bears CEO Kevin Warren is finally selling the positives of Arlington Heights for the new stadium.

For the past year plus, Warren was only selling why building on the museum campus was the only way to go. The Bears already had purchased the land in the burbs and spent more money to demolish Arlington Park. It’s where they would own their stadium and not lease from the city. It’s where they could add tailgate spots to meet the demand of their fans, development an entertainment district, and have a blank slate to do whatever their heart desires.

Metra already has a station to deliver fans to the entrances. How did it make sense to build new in a small footprint, with less tailgate spots than Soldier Field, while fighting friends of the park, where you must be a tenant, are asking for more public money and traffic makes it virtually impossible to arrive and leave in a timely fashion?

Maybe Warren used the past year to gain leverage on tax certainty in Arlington Heights, but whatever the reason, it appears common sense is starting to prevail. Let’s hope they make the right choice and get shovels in the ground soon.

Speaking of building, nothing in sports dominates like the NFL continually growing in stature. A bunch of billionaire owners hold a meeting in Florida, and we can’t get enough. Even with the Final Four and baseball opening, the top story is about pushing the quarterback in the tush and other rule changes. Hopefully, the Bears are tired of getting their tushes kicked.

As I was writing this column at a local coffee shop, someone stopped me to vent about their job and simply wanted to talk about the Bears. As I was leaving, his final words to me were, “I finally feel like the Bears are on the right track.” I agreed.

And while their record will be the ultimate factor, the Bears seem to finally be making sense.

• Marc Silverman shares his opinions on the Bears weekly for Shaw Local. Tune in and listen to the “Waddle & Silvy” show weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m. on ESPN 1000.