Two years removed from representing the NFC in the Super Bowl, the Chicago Bears are looking at another season of mediocrity and are projected to finish at the bottom of the very competitive NFC North.

Once again, the Bears will have to look to their defense to keep them in games. With the return of safety Mike Brown from a season ending knee injury and the contract extension for linebacker Brian Urlacher, the Bears should once again resemble their championship form. AccuScore forecasts the defense to allow just 19 points per game in 2008 (down from 21.8 in 2007).

Chicago Bears Projected Wins

Click here to visit AccuScore's NFL Team Win Projections

The real question marks remain with the offense. The Bears showed they are looking to improve the running game by drafting Matt Forte and then signing Kevin Jones, which increased their playoff probability by 3 percent. However, with Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton at QB, the Bears are only averaging slightly over 18 points per game in simulations.

AccuScore expects Rex Grossman to enter the season as the starter. In simulations where Grossman and Orton each played 50 percent of simulations the Bears made the playoffs 20 percent of the time. However, with Grossman getting the lion's share of snaps, the Bears chances of making the playoffs did increase to 24 percent. Of course, if the Bears somehow managed to get Brett Favre they make the playoffs over 50 percent of the time, but this is highly unlikely.

Now that the Bears have come to terms with Devin Hester, AccuScore is projecting that the Bears will finish 7-9, identical to their 2007 season and are projected to make the playoffs only 24.4% of the time.

For more information on AccuScore projections for the Chicago Bears, click here to see how the Bears forecast in their season opener against the Indianapolis Colts.