The Chicago Bears were miles ahead of where they should've been in the rebuild in the first year under head coach Ben Johnson.

After winning five games the year before, the Bears won the division and clinched the No. 2 seed in the NFC. They beat the Green Bay Packers in the Wild Card and nearly clinched a spot in the NFC Championship Game.

They are returning a lot of their starters on offense and have reloaded their defense with veterans like Devin Bush and Coby Bryant.

After everything the Bears accomplished last season, you would think the NFL media would start taking them seriously. That wasn't the case for First Take's Kevin Clark.

On a recent episode of the show, Clark released a list of all the teams he thought could contend for a Super Bowl.

He divided the teams into three categories. At first, there were the favorites, which included the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks.

The next category was labeled the contenders. The Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens, Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, Denver Broncos, Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots were all listed here.

Lastly, he had a group of maybe contenders. This is where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans and Green Bay Packers were.

One team that was noticeably absent was the Bears. Out of all the 16 teams who were on his list, Clark didn't consider the Bears to be a contender in 2026.

The fact that teams like the Bengals, Lions, or even the Packers were on the list and the Bears weren't is atrocious. Then you have the Cowboys, who are making their annual attempt to prove to everyone they are still contenders.

For the Bengals, Joe Burrow has been injured in two of the last three seasons. So, we can't really hold that against them. Even when he's played a full season, they haven't made the playoffs.

In 2024, Burrow played a full 17-game season, but the Bengals still didn't have enough to make the playoffs.

Regardless, Cincinnati hasn't been to the playoffs since 2022. The Bengals lost to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game and haven't been the same ever since.

Yes, the Bengals have made big splashes in free agency this offseason, but they haven't proved anything yet.

Then, you have the Lions. Detroit was actually predicted to go from worst to first in the NFC North earlier this offseason. The Lions had a good run in 2023, but have slowly fallen off since then.

Detroit made the NFC Championship that season but then lost in the Divisional Round in 2024 and missed the playoffs entirely last season.

Now, it's time to talk about Chicago's favorite team. The Packers haven't made the NFC Championship since 2020 and haven't moved past the Wild Card in the last two seasons.

The fact that the Packers are listed and the Bears aren't after Chicago beat them twice last season is the real crime here.

I understand why there's been skepticism about the Bears in the past, but this team has proven it can contend with the best teams in the league.

I mean, the Bears literally lost to the Rams by seven points in overtime. The Rams gave the Seahawks a run for their money and only lost by four points.

This take is one of the most interesting ones I have seen all offseason. If I'm the Bears, I'm just adding this to the bulletin board material.