Chicago Bears receive brutal 2025 skill position ranking from ESPN

The Chicago Bears are predicted to be one of the few teams with a real chance to go from worst (or close to worst) to first in their division in 2025, largely because of the excitement new coach Ben Johnson has brought to the franchise, and more importantly, the offense.

It's an offense that's led by second-year QB Caleb Williams, who will have no shortage of weapons at his disposal, including wide receivers DJ Moore, Rome Odunze, and Luther Burden, and tight ends Cole Kmet and Colston Loveland.

Even D'Andre Swift has value as a pass-catching running back who can flip the field with chunk gains now that he's running behind a rebuilt offensive line.

But in a new ranking of every team's skill group by ESPN -- which includes wide receivers, tight ends, and running backs -- the Chicago Bears rank near the bottom of the NFL at No. 25.

And while that ranking is surprising enough, the fact that this team fell 19 spots from last year's No. 6 ranking is downright shocking. Remember: Loveland and Burden were added in the first and second rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft; the only skill player they lost from 2024 was the dusted Keenan Allen.

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According to the author of the rankings, Bill Barnwell, the fact that he was so wrong about the 2024 team is, in fact, impacting his 2025 rankings.

"There are reasons to be optimistic about Chicago's playmakers, but that was also the case a year ago," Barnwell wrote.

It's extremely unfair and somewhat odd that Barnwell would use his rankings failure from last year to impact his methodology in 2025, but here we are.

And, it's not like Barnwell was alone in his praise for Chicago's skill group last year, either. Remember: Swift was coming off of a 1,000-yard season with the Philadelphia Eagles and Allen looked like he'd be a rare wideout who could defeat Father Time.

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No one could've predicted how bad the Bears' offensive line would play a season ago, or how incompetent head coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron would be at their jobs. Those were the main reasons why the skill players struggled; it wasn't because they lacked ability.

Now, with Johnson calling plays and potentially four new starters along the offensive line, we'll get a chance to really see how much damage this skill group can do, including Swift, who's been given a clean slate by the new coaching staff.

Just as Barnwell's rankings proved to be wrong in 2024, his ranking of the Chicago Bears' skill players in 2025 will be, too.