Greenberg: By winning the NFL tanking race, the Bears are No. 1 going into the offseason

CHICAGO — The Bears are No. 1! The Bears are No. 1!

For the first time since 1985, Bears fans can raise a finger at the end of a regular season that isn’t their middle one.

The Bears are No. 1! The Bears are No. 1!

With their own No. 1, Justin Fields, being held out for the season finale and Nathan Peterman and Tim Boyle spelling him at quarterback, the impossible dream was realized for the Bears on a sunny Sunday on the lakefront. They lost their 10th consecutive game Sunday, 29-13 to the Minnesota Vikings, and that loss, combined with a thrilling Houston Texans win over the Indianapolis Colts, locked up the top slot in the draft for the Bears.

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The Bears are No. 1! The Bears are No. 1!

How does it feel, Chicago? Sure, the Bears are always No. 1 in your heart, but now they’re also No. 1 in the NFL Draft. They did it. They were the worst team in the NFL. In his first year in charge, general manager Ryan Poles showed all the haters he could tank with the worst of them.

Before the season, I doubted this team was bad enough to finish with the 32nd-best record in the league. I naively thought this was a six- or seven-win team, that a developing Fields, a stout running game and an undermanned but well-coached defense could scratch out a few more wins than everyone thought.

And, you know what, I wasn’t totally wrong.

After a rough start, Fields thrilled Bears fans with his development, setting a franchise record with 1,143 rushing yards, the second most of any quarterback in NFL history and just 63 yards shy of Lamar Jackson’s record. With Fields leading the way, the Bears set a single-season franchise record with 3,014 rushing yards. (Don’t ask about the passing stats.) And the defense certainly had its moments of competence, even after Poles executed trades, in consecutive weeks during the season, of the team’s defensive captains.

In their 10-game losing streak, the Bears lost by an average of 33.1 to 18.8 points, but four of those losses were by five points or fewer. It got really ugly in the last three weeks, which is what you would expect at the end of a 14-loss season, but only a few times during the season were the Bears really embarrassed. A handful, tops. Half of their losses were by eight points or fewer.

No, the Bears couldn’t win, and for once, it was for the best. As much as it might pain the traditionalists who, you know, root for their teams to have the most points at the end of each game, having the worst record in the NFL is a very good thing for this team’s future, even if it won’t be using that pick.

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Yes, the Bears are No. 1 only for now.

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The Bears don’t need a quarterback, so the utility of having No. 1 is trade value. And with Alabama quarterback Bryce Young available, the Bears find themselves in a seller’s market with quarterback-needy teams looking to leapfrog No. 2 Houston, predicted for most of the season to select Young. Who knows, maybe the Texans have to trade up to get their pick back. Having the second pick would’ve been nice, but the desirability of the top pick is going to be much greater this offseason because, after Young, there isn’t a surefire second-best pick.

Of course, the Bears couldn’t get to No. 1 on their own. Our old friend Lovie Smith did the Bears a solid with that win. Chicago loves Lovie once again.

Sports reporters surrounded the 16-inch TVs in the back of the news conference to watch the end of the Texans-Colts game, oblivious to the meaningless action on the tired grass of Soldier Field. When Houston quarterback Davis Mills found Jordan Akins in the end zone on fourth-and-20, the press box was suddenly abuzz. I’m not going to say there was cheering, but there was a lot of reacting. Loud reacting.

It was hard to blame them. “The Bears are No. 1” is a man-bites-dog story angle. It hasn’t happened since 1947. “The Bears are No. 2,” that’s the reality on a lot of Bears Mondays.

The Bears have the top pick of the draft and the most salary cap space in the league at approximately $119 million. They already have their quarterback. The top pick will turn into multiple picks over multiple years, and even if it doesn’t result in the gold mine of talent that the most hysterical fans and sports radio hosts are expecting, Poles should get a robust return on his investment in awfulness. He just has to not screw it up. Bears coach Matt Eberflus said he has “high confidence, no question” in his boss.

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“The first thing of a personnel manager is the ability to pick players, and he can do that,” he said.

With Poles in charge, the Bears tanked the correct way. He stripped the roster — have you ever seen defensive captains traded in back-to-back weeks? — and the team still competed hard. Most weeks, anyway. Fields’ growth this season made him the biggest and most exciting story of 2022 in Chicago. It also led to Poles making what could be a sizable mistake. In the midst of a trade deadline fire sale, he shipped the Bears’ second-round pick to the Steelers for receiver Chase Claypool, an investment in Fields’ development. Thanks to injuries, Claypool, who is signed only through next season, and Fields barely connected on the field, and now the No. 32 pick is going to Pittsburgh. Hopefully, for Poles, it was a mistake he’ll learn from this offseason.

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As of now, the Bears have eight draft picks, including five in the first four rounds. They’re going to need all of them and all the money they have to build a competitive team that posts actual victories and not just moral ones. The roster needs a lot of work. Expect a lot of new faces in 2023 and fewer excuses after losses. Rebuilds don’t last long in the NFL. Losing brings about new coaches and new GMs.

“It’s going to be up to the coaches to develop those guys and to fit them into the scheme so we can play winning football,” Eberflus said.

As 3-14 seasons that end with a 10-game losing streak go, this one was less painful than it sounds because of Fields’ development — it’s always about the quarterback in the NFL, and even more so in Chicago — and the context of rebuilds in the modern sports age. Chicago fans are used to rebuilds. Sometimes they work, as they did for the Cubs. Sometimes they don’t work, as they didn’t for the Bulls after Michael Jordan and Derrick Rose. The White Sox are hoping they didn’t waste their rebuild on Tony La Russa. The Blackhawks are just beginning their own tank job, which could very well result in the top pick of the NHL Draft. The Bulls are in a state of limbo. The Cubs, after signing Dansby Swanson, are hoping to win again in 2023.

It’s easy to build a loser and stockpile draft picks or prospects. It’s much more difficult to construct a winner.

Chicago’s five biggest teams were awful in 2022. It was a truly wretched year for sports in our city. So bad that a three-win Bears team stands out because it looks like Fields is the quarterback the franchise has been searching for since Sid Luckman. With Fields in tow, Bears fans have a real reason to be optimistic even in the face of this cold reality.

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The Hawk will be whipping off the lake for the next few months, but Chicago fans should be smiling through the pain. Because winter doesn’t last forever, and this spring, the Bears will wake up from their hibernation rich in cash, draft picks and actual promise that brighter days are ahead.

(Photo of Velus Jones Jr. celebrating after scoring on a 42-yard touchdown run against Minnesota: Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press)