‘It sucks to lose’: 3-12 season an adjustment for Bears newcomers

A year ago, Bears guard Ted Larsen was preparing for a meaningless regular-season finale, but with an eye on the playoffs. The Arizona Cardinals were 13-2, the No. 2 seed in the NFC and headed toward the conference championship game.

“Obviously it’s easier to come to work when you’re winning,” Larsen said. “We had the No. 1 offense [in the NFL] last year in points and yards. To not be at that pinnacle where we were last year — especially for me and Bobby [Massie], we’re so used to winning. We won 10 and 11 games one year and 13 the next. To come from a culture of winning so many games to losing, it’s definitely an adjustment.”

The Bears’ 3-12 season has been an adjustment for everybody on the Bears this season. Even the longest-tenured Bears such as Sherrick McManis and Jay Cutler have never been on a team that won fewer than five games. But this is even newer territory for newcomers from 2015 playoff teams.

Larsen and Massie were starters on the Cardinals playoff teams the past two seasons. At this time last year, defensive end Akiem Hicks was with the Patriots, who were 12-3 and headed toward the AFC Championship Game. Guard Josh Sitton spent the previous eight seasons with the Packers, who made the playoffs the last seven years and won the Super Bowl after the 2010 season.

“I’ve never been this far out of the running for a playoff position,” said Hicks, who could have returned to the Patriots in free agency but chose to sign with the Bears instead. “You’re constantly fighting to not let circumstances affect you. It’s not always going to go your way and this season for sure hasn’t been that way for anybody in this locker room.

“But that’s the challenge of being a professional. You have to break away from that and do your best to find your motivation each week.”

Sitton has not missed the playoffs since his rookie season, when the Packers went 6-10 in Aaron Rodgers’ first year as a starter.

“I’ll say this: Winning definitely makes everything better,” Sitton said. “You want to win every game. So just losing games [is the most difficult part of a bad season].”

Massie and others have felt that same pain, whether they were on winning teams before or not. “You’re just in a [crappy] mood because you’re losing all season,” Massie said. “That’s the only thing — it sucks to lose.”

In Massie’s four seasons in Arizona, the Cardinals were 5-11, 10-6, 11-5 and 13-3 — making the playoffs the final two seasons. He signed with the Bears in free agency. The Cardinals are having a disappointing season — 6-8-1 and out of the playoff picture heading into Sunday’s finale against the Rams. But that doesn’t make this season any easier.

“Any situation when you come in to work and it’s been rough for while, it’s going to be hard just to get through it,” Massie said. “But this is our profession — this is what they pay us to do. We’re in the mind-set of going out to win this game [against the Vikings]. I know nothing’s going to happen the week after that — we’re going home — but we still want to finish the season on a high note.”

Rather than rue the past, when he was headed to the playoffs, Massie chooses to look toward the future with the Bears.

“It’s unfortunate. But that’s all in the past,” Massie said. “This where I’m at now. I want to be a piece of the puzzle to get this team where that team was.”

Therein lies the solace for players like Sitton, Massie, Larsen, Hicks and others like cornerback Tracy Porter — a Super Bowl winner with the Saints — who have tasted success. As rough as this season has been, they believe they are laying a foundation for future success.

“I’m certain we are,” Sitton said. “From the outside looking in you might not be able to see that. But we’re still a confident group and we’re positive that we’ll be able to make those strides in the offseason and next season.”

After going through the rough times, the veterans want to be there for the payoff. Larsen, who will be a free agent after the season and is not likely to be a starter in 2017 wants to return to finish the job he helped start.

“I’d definitely like to be a part of the re-building process — especially with the foundation we’re building,” said Larsen, who has started seven games at right guard because of injuries to Kyle Long. “Obviously things change [in the offseason] — they always do — [but] after being through this, you’d like to be a part of affecting some change here.”

“The future here is very bright,” Massie said. ‘We’ve probbably had the most injuries in the league, [injured-reserve]-wise. We’re a very young team. There aren’t too many guys on this team over 30. Unfortunately, we’ll have a top pick in the draft. And we’ll probably hit free agency pretty hard.

“There are a lot of good things happening in Chicago. The fans don’t need to get deterred by one bad year. Look at Dallas last year [4-12] — look where they’re at now [13-2]. There are a lot of good things that are going to happen here.”