Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles had a feeling this spring, confident that his team is built to last.Promising young quarterback. Dynamic head coach. A connected locker room. The momentum felt real.Sure, building on last season’s surprise breakthrough will be difficult. Coach Ben Johnson has made that crystal clear to everyone inside Halas Hall for months. But even with the heart-stopping path the Bears took to an NFC North championship and a riveting playoff win over Green Bay last season, Poles is optimistic his crew can navigate the path to sustained success.“This is a new year and we’ve got to get back to work,” the Bears’ GM told The Athletic in March. “But you see this hunger from this young group of guys who want to string year after year after year together.”Chicago Bears building momentum as offseason program endsDan WiedererWith an eye on fortifying their roster with conscientious and passionate players, Poles and Johnson believe they have found a catalyst for their future.“You feel the hunger to put the time in to get back to where we were,” Poles said. “It’s kind of an addiction you sense from these guys.”For a franchise that hasn’t been to the playoffs in consecutive seasons in 20 years and hasn’t strung together three straight winning seasons since the late 1980s, the difficulty of this climb is well-documented. A tougher schedule is on tap for 2026. The division is still loaded. And the Bears must again find ways to create their own luck to keep the vibes good and to dodge regression.With training camp beginning later this month, we explore four key questions for the Bears as they look to extend this run.Will close-game execution carry over?The Bears’ late-game heroics last season were numerous and exhilarating, evidence of a breakout team playing with dangerous levels of belief under pressure. Here are just a few examples: