Chicago Sports: State of the Union, Version 10.0
Our latest look at where the Bears, Blackhawks, Bulls, Cubs, Fire, Sky, and White Sox stand today, and where they might land tomorrow.
THE CHICAGO BEARS are hibernating.
The Chicago Bulls are in Cancun.
The Chicago Blackhawks are licking their wounds.
And the Chicago White Sox are sucking.
So what better time than now to take another one of our macro views of the Chicago sports landscape?
Chicago Sports Stuff’s State of the Union is our monthly(ish) look at what we’ve seen from our franchises in the last 30(ish) days, and what the following four(ish) weeks might have in store.
The whole schmegegge will be quantified by the official Chicago Sports Stuff-O-Meter (CSSOM) score, which is compiled utilizing no algorithm, analytics, or metrics whatsoever, just my eyeballs and gut.
So let’s get eyeballing and gutting.
CHICAGO BEARS
FUN FACTS:
Acquired offensive linemen Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson via trade.
Signed free agents Drew Dalman (C), Grady Jarrett (DT), and Dayo Odeyingbo (EDGE).
Drafted Colston Loveland (TE) and Luther Burden III (WR), among others.
PRESENT:
Grading NFL Drafts is a thoroughly enjoyable endeavor.
Unless a team’s draft blows.
The Chicago Bears 2025 Draft most definitely didn’t blow.
Sometimes you get the draft you want, and sometimes you get the draft you need. A week removed from the festivities, it looks like this one’s closer the latter.
Would we have preferred to come away with Jeanty and one of the top EDGE rushers? Most of us would give that a hearty yes.
But Ben Johnson’s first draft as the Bears head coach has his fingerprints all over it. We begged the football gods to get us Johnson, and they delivered, and since we wanted him, we have to trust him.
[It] was a very good weekend for the improving Chicago Bears. Not great, mind you. But it’s what the Midway Monsters need.
I gave their haul a B+, and I’m not the only pundit who bestowed upon the team a big ol’ thumbs up:
I could go on.
Props to Bears GM Ryan Poles, who rebooted 2024’s woeful offensive line, landed some potentially electric rookie skill players, and tweaked the defensive front. He put together five weeks that might both define the Bears for the next decade and keep him employed in Chicago.
CSSOM Score: 10
FUTURE:
Save for a legit RB1, sophomore quarterback Caleb Williams is, as they say, set up for success.
His O-line barely resembles last year’s. His pass-catching corps has the potential to be elite. And his defense will (fingers crossed) keep him from having to dig his way out of double-digit first-half deficits.
First-year head coach Ben Johnson is an offensive savant, so it’s fair to assume that his newfangled unit will put up points galore. Since the defense is still a work in progress, we can expect 2025 to be filled with track meets…and who knows — maybe the Midway Monsters can win ten of ‘em.
CSSOM Score: 9
Total CSSOM Score: 19 ⬆️
(Previous total CSSOM: 18 )
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS
FUN FACTS:
Finished the 2024-25 season with the NHL’s second-worst record (25-46-11) and point total (61).
Connor Bedard led the team in points (65) and assists (44).
Ryan Donato led the team in goals with 31.
The net-minding quartet of Arvid Soderblom, Petr Mrazek, Spencer Knight, and Drew Commesso combined for a goals-against average of 3.65, second-worst in the NHL.
PRESENT:
Two positives came out of the Hawks’ season:
The weren’t the NHL’s worst team (H/T to the San Jose Sharks).
Connor Bedard is officially a beast.
Beyond that, the entire year was one big cringe:
They were lousy on both sides of the rink, finishing up the year with a -50 goal differential.
They managed just 15 wins at the United Center.
Bedard and Donato were the team’s only players to top 60 points.
They posted six losing streaks of five or more.
You couldn’t watch them on television unless you had a digital antenna or subscribed to a pricey streaming service. (This also applies to the Bulls and the White Sox. Thanks for nothing, Chicago Sports Network.)
Another lousy, entirely unsurprising year. Boo.
CSSOM Score: 1
FUTURE:
NHL Draft weekend kicks off on July 27, and the Hawks will be making the third pick in the first round. They have holes all over the ice, so it’s little surprise that the various mock drafts floating around the interwebs are all over the map:
Bleacher Nation: Caleb Desnoyers, C
ESPN: Michael Misa, C
NHL.com: Jake O'Brien, C
USA Today: James Hagens, C
The Athletic & The Score: Porter Martone, RW
The only consensus seems to be that the team needs a center. Which means they’ll draft winger Martone. Sigh.
CSSOM Score: 1
Total CSSOM Score: 2 ➡️
(Previous total CSSOM: 2)
CHICAGO BULLS
FUN FACTS:
Finished the season with a record of 39-43, tenth in the Eastern Conference and 18th in the NBA.
For the third straight season, they were eliminated from the Play-In Tournament by the Miami Heat.
Coby White led the team in scoring with 20.4 PPG.
Nikola Vucevic led the team in rebounding with 10.1 RPG.
Josh Giddey led the team in assists with 7.2 APG.
Their 119.4 points allowed per night was the NBA’s third-worst average.
Their 15.4 three-pointers made per game was the NBA’s third-best average.
PRESENT:
Yes, Coby White took a leap. And yes, Josh Giddey looks like he’ll grow into a player. And yes, the front office managed to shed Zach LaVine’s contract.
But all of that amounted to exactly nothing, as the Bulls’ win/loss total was identical to that of 2023-24’s.
The good(ish) news is that the losses were more enjoyable than last year’s, as the three-point-happy unit seemed to take great joy in hurling up trey after trey after trey. It didn’t translate to wins, but still.
CSSOM Score: 1
FUTURE:
The NBA Draft Lottery is still three weeks away, so we don’t yet know where the Bulls will be picking, but barring some very friendly ping-pong balls, they’ll be stuck at the 12-spot, a draft slot that rarely produces a needle-moving player.
That said, there are some intriguing options, about whom I wrote here. Any of the four I discussed will contribute. None of the four I discussed will drag the team into the postseason.
The upcoming summer’s crop of unrestricted free agents doesn’t offer much in the way of game-changing help (Malcolm Brogdon? Clint Capela? D’Angelo Russell? Ugh.), and considering Chicago’s jacked-up salary cap situation, the chances of the overmatched front office being able to make a realistic offer to, say, a Jonathan Kuminga or a Isaiah Jackson are slim, especially considering that Giddey is an RFA, and Coby White will hit the market in 2026, and might expect — and probably deserves — an extension this summer.
They’ll likely try to put and end to the Nikola Vucevic era, something they couldn’t do at the February trade deadline. But since his contract comes off the books after this coming season, he might be far more appealing to a contending team in need of a double-double machine.
Vooch likely won’t fetch more than a rotation player and a low first-rounder or high second-rounder in a trade, but moving on from the 34-year-old veteran would signal a change in philosophy.
And man, could this franchise use a change. Any change. Please.
CSSOM Score: 1
Total CSSOM Score : 2 ⬇️
(Previous total CSSOM: 4)
CHICAGO CUBS
FUN FACTS:
As of this writing, the Cubs sport a record of 22-15, good for the NL Central lead.
Their 222 runs scored leads MLB, with their +60 run differential placing them in second.
Kyle Tucker leads the team in batting average and RBIs with, respectively, .290 and 31.
Tucker, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Seiya Suzuki each have nine home runs, tied for ninth in the league.
Starter Justin Steele is out for the season, while starter Shota Imanaga is on the shelf for at least a month.
PRESENT:
These dudes can mash.
Credit where credit is due, President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer put together a roster that, to this point, has been a veritable offensive juggernaut. I mean, they’ve topped nine runs in five of their last eight games, five of which were wins. Dayum.
With Steele done for the year and Imanaga sidelined for who-knows-how-long, the starting pitching will be an issue — sorry, Jameson Taillon, Matthew Boyd, and Ben Brown, but you know I’m right.
CSSOM Score: 8
FUTURE:
The talent level in the NL Central is relatively flat, with the top four teams separated by four games, thus even a brief losing streak could knock the North Siders out of first.
If Tallion and Boyd can bring it on a regular basis — and if minor league sensation Cade Horton rocks the mound after his inevitable call-up — the Cubbies should be able to fend off Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Cincinnati until Imanaga is healthy.
But if the starters falter, or if Kyle Tucker cools off, it could be another typical summer at Wrigley.
CSSOM Score: 6
Total CSSOM Score: 15 ⬆️
(Previous total CSSOM: 12)
CHICAGO FIRE
FUN FACTS:
As of this writing, CFFC sports a record of 3-4-4 (13 points), placing them 11th in the Eastern Conference.
Hugo Cuypers leads the team in goals with seven, and is tied for the team lead in total points (11).
Keeper Chris Brady has started all but one game, allowing 21 goals while racking up 33 saves.
PRESENT:
For a team that most of us expected to stink — and stink a lot — mediocrity has to be considered a W.
Sure, they suffered an embarrassing 7-2 loss to Nashville last week — allowing four goals to Sam Surridge will do that to you — but for the most part, they’ve been in every game.
And unlike last year’s Fire, the club seems to have a semblance of joie de vivre, making them — gasp — watchable.
CSSOM Score: 3
FUTURE:
The remainder of May will tell us if Pinocchio is a real boy, as they’ll stare down a couple of legit contenders in New York City and Charlotte.
If they can hang with those heavies — and if they can take care of relative cupcakes Detroit City, Atlanta, and Orlando City — things could get mighty interesting in June, when three of their four matches are at home.
CSSOM Score: 3
Total CSSOM Score: 6 ⬆️
(Previous CSSOM: 2)
CHICAGO SKY
FUN FACTS:
Drafted PF Ajsa Sivka, PG Hailey Van Lith, PF Maddy Westbeld, and SG Aicha Coulibaly.
Took down Minnesota in their first preseason game, 74-69, with a fully healthy Angel Reese nearly double-doubling in 19 minutes.
PRESENT:
Like the Bears, the Sky had a highly-graded draft, and justifiably so. Van Lith will contribute immediately, while the 19-year-old Sivka has star potential, but needs a bit of seasoning.
If their first preseason outing is any indication — and preseason outings very rarely indicate anything, but whatever — head coach Tyler Marsh will let the entire roster eat, a logical approach, as if the Sky is going to make any inroads, they’ll need more than Reese.
That said, I loves me some Angel, a charismatic performer who makes this team worth a look each and every night.
CSSOM Score: 5
FUTURE:
The WNBA’s schedule gods weren’t particularly kind to the Sky, sending them to Gainbridge Fieldhouse on opening night (May 17) to take on Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever. (That said, Reese is probably licking her chops for the inevitable smack-talk-fest with rival Clark.)
That’s followed by a home tilt against the mighty New York Liberty, so the Sky might find themselves in an 0-2 hole to start the season.
But the team comes into the year with low expectations — Vegas gives them a +5000 shot at the ‘chip (ugh) — so if we look at this as a transition season, we’ll be happily surprised with any success.
CSSOM Score: 6
Total CSSOM Score: 11 ⬇️
(Previous total CSSOM: 12)
CHICAGO WHITE SOX
FUN FACTS:
As of this writing, the White Sox have a record of 10-26, worst in the American League and second-worst in the Majors.
Their -28 run differential is eighth-worst in the league.
Lanyn Sosa’s .252 average tops the team.
Andrew Benintendi leads the squad in homers with 5.
Luis Robert Jr. leads the Sox in RBIs with 15.
Starters Sean Burke and Jonathan Cannon are tied for the team lead in wins with two each.
PRESENT:
Two good things:
The Sox’ 2025 record after 36 games is four games better than that of their historically awful 2024 unit.
The Colorado Rockies are possibly even lousier than the ‘24 South Siders and could overtake (or undertake) them for the worst record in modern MLB history.
And that’s pretty much it.
CSSOM Score: 0
FUTURE:
One good thing:
ESPN ranks the Sox’ farm system as the league’s second-best, so expect to see LHB Noah Schultz, C Kyle Teel, LHB Hagen Smith, SS Colson Montgomery, OF Braden Montgomery, and C Edgar Quero decamped at Guaranteed Rate Field sooner than later.
Their arrivals won’t add up to a significant number of wins here in ‘25. But come 2027, this team might be worth...something.
CSSOM Score: 1
Total CSSOM Score: 1 ⬇️
(Previous total CSSOM: 2)