ESPN's senior NFL insider reveals stunning parallels between the Jaguars and Bears, highlighting coaching impact on the two teams' surging offenses, defenses, and franchise revitalization.
Nobody would have thought coming into this season that the Jacksonville Jaguars and Chicago Bears would be playing each other in the Super Bowl.
We won’t know for about a month whether this matchup comes into fruition, but it’s possible.
In the AFC, Jacksonville is 11-4, having won six straight games -- five by double digits.
In the NFC, Chicago is also 11-4, having just clinched its first NFC North title in seven years.
Jacksonville will take the AFC South this weekend if it both beats the Indianapolis Colts and the Houston Texans lose to the Chargers in Los Angeles.
A big reason for both of these success stories is first-year head coaches Liam Coen (Jacksonville) and Ben Johnson (Chicago).
On his podcast Thursday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter laid out similarities between the Jags and the Bears.
Schefter also pointed out where the teams were before Coen and Johnson arrived.
The Jags went 4-13, leading to the firing of Doug Pederson. Chicago went 5-12, with coach Matt Eberflus being canned midway through the season.
Schefter said the Bears "entire franchise" was an afterthought.
“Nobody took them seriously," he said.
The Jaguars, too, were an afterthought, Schefter asserted, but "[t[hey’ve risen up, they’re competing for the No. 1 seed. The Bears have risen up. They’re competing for the No. 1 seed.
"Both teams have revived their rushing attacks. Travis Etienne is thriving in Jacksonville, DeAndre Swift and Kyle Mongangi have become a force in Chicago.”
Defensively, Chicago is first in the NFL in turnover margin (+21) and Jacksonville is third (+12).
“Both defenses? Great at causing turnovers,” Schefter said. “I don’t have it in front of me, but I’ll bet you Chicago and Jacksonville are, if not the top two teams in +/- ratio, they’re right near the top.
“It is amazing to be how similar Chicago and Jacksonville are, and I really do believe that it comes back to the coaches. Ben Johnson in Chicago, Liam Coen in Jacksonville, they’re rising up, and when we’re going through the coaching cycle this year again, team’s are going to be asking themselves, ‘how do we find somebody like Ben Johnson or Liam Coen that’s going to stabilize our franchise, elevate our quarterback, revive our ground attack, cause turnovers on defense and change the culture in our city.”