The Chicago Bears enter the final four games holding two simultaneous mentalities.

They have to continue their “go 1-0 each week” mantra, and they know that they likely need 11 wins to make the playoffs.

“With the amount of good and talented teams in the NFC, 10 wins, I don’t think that’s gonna get it done,” safety Kevin Byard said Wednesday. “Last year, Seattle had 10 wins and didn’t get in. I think it’s going to be the same thing this year. Understanding that — we’re focused on each week, but that’s just the reality of the situation. You need to go out there and continue to stack wins. Starting this week, I don’t necessarily want to call it a must-win, but we have to keep stacking wins.”

Call it a goal of going 1-0 each week at least two more times in four chances, and even that doesn’t necessarily guarantee the Bears their first trip to the postseason since 2020.

This team has proved its resolve all season long. Chicago is 4-0 when favored. Nothing is easy in this league, especially with the presumptive Defensive Player of the Year, Myles Garrett, on the other side.

“We have goals, and we know what’s out in front of us,” said coach Ben Johnson, whose Bears (9-4) play Garrett and the Cleveland Browns (3-10) in Week 15 at Soldier Field. “It’s just that awareness that every game matters. Every game matters. That’s where this week, you go from an emotional rivalry game like we just played, this week is equally important. We need this win. We desperately need this win.”

Now, on to your questions.

Is DJ Moore going to be traded before next year’s draft and why? — Steve H.

This week’s mailbag featured a handful of questions about Moore, who needs 291 receiving yards in the final four games to avoid his least-productive NFL season. As a rookie, he had 788 receiving yards.

Moore hasn’t missed a start, continuing a streak that dates to 2021. He’s been a good and willing blocker. He was the team’s candidate for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, which is not taken lightly, especially at Halas Hall. That’s all to say that the perception of who Moore is inside the building is different than outside. The numbers just don’t match the salary or expectations.

“He’s a very explosive player with the ball in his hands,” offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said. “I really enjoy the person. I enjoy who he is in the building. … Every time we’ve asked him to go do something, he’s doing it.”

The lack of receiving production is a problem, though, for someone scheduled to make a base salary north of $23.4 million next season and the three seasons that follow. He’s signed through 2029. His cap hit for 2026 ($28.5 million) ranks eighth among receivers. Even though Moore was prolific in bad offenses, now he’s on the best team he’s been on and having his worst season. Maybe “The DJ Moore Game” is still coming, but after one catch against Green Bay at Lambeau Field, he was a frequent topic during news conferences this week.

“Obviously, you’re looking at it and you would say, ‘Oh, there’s a little less production than maybe we would have anticipated,’” Doyle said. “But I don’t think that’s any part of what he’s doing. I think he’s doing a great job of just staying the course, and, like a lot of our guys that have had breakthrough games … you just stay on it, and eventually you just keep pounding and pounding away, and it shows up.”

Moore is sure to be a talking point in the winter. If the Bears trade him, it would be because he’s simply not as much of a fit in this offense as Rome Odunze, Luther Burden and Colston Loveland appear to be, and his role wouldn’t be in line with the contract. Any move would probably happen pre-draft or even pre-free agency so that the Bears could use those avenues to add a receiver. But even if they come to that conclusion, what team is willing to take on the contract? Does Moore do enough good things in games and on the practice field to take on the salary, with the hope that it can improve in Year 2 in this playbook?

It’s a conundrum. It hasn’t gone as planned from a receiving standpoint, but there are still (at least) four weeks left for Moore to be impactful and maybe alter the offseason conversation.

Does the lack of pass rush make this a three-game sprint to the playoffs? The only games the Detroit Lions have lost or struggled in are when the opponents have been able to get Jared Goff off his spot and rhythm. If the Bears let this reach the last leg of the four by four, I don’t like the way the chessboard lays out. — Aaron B.

The Athletic’s playoff simulator does lay out a lot of scenarios that require a Bears win in Week 18 over the Lions just to get into the postseason. Winning the next three would likely clinch it for them. But let’s play out this hypothetical, because yes, in a win-to-get-in scenario against Goff and the Lions, the Bears would have to rush the passer better than they have of late.

The Bears are 3-1 this season when they don’t register a sack. That one loss was in Detroit in Week 2. From 2014-24, they were 1-23 in such games. It’s another 2025 Bears statistical quirk, which might speak to the team’s ability to finish games.

The Bears rank 25th in sacks per pass (6.02 percent). They have three sacks in their last four games, including two games without getting one. They accumulated only one QB hit on both the Packers’ Jordan Love and the Philadelphia Eagles’ Jalen Hurts. However, they were credited with 10 pressures of Love, who did have to scramble around a bit in Sunday’s loss.

Injuries have limited the defensive front. Injuries in the secondary likely play a role, too. And they just haven’t gotten a breakout campaign from anyone in the pass rush.

“I think each and every week, we’re improving a little bit in that area,” defensive coordinator Dennis Allen said. “I mean, you always want a little bit more. But I do think we did some things to get the quarterback off the spot a few times. And look, they do a good job getting the ball out.”

For some context with Sunday’s opponent, the Browns, Garrett has 20 sacks, and the entire Bears team has 24. Garrett has 31 QB hits, one more than Bears defensive linemen Montez Sweat, Gervon Dexter, Austin Booker and Grady Jarrett combined.

Sometimes sacks can come in bunches, like when the Bears had 16 sacks from Weeks 6-10. The Browns are 20th in sacks allowed per pass.

The Bears have overcome their lack of pass rush this season, but with the level of opponents they’re facing in the final three games, including quarterbacks who can play at an extremely high level, the front has to get home. It didn’t against Green Bay. And if it doesn’t on Sunday, rookie Shedeur Sanders could take advantage, too.

I’m just gonna say it — this feels like the biggest trap game. Please tell me something good about how our defense stacks up this week. — Benjamin T.

Johnson technically was asked about a “letdown spot,” not a “trap game,” before the matchup against the New Orleans Saints, but his sentiment still holds up.

“I don’t know what that word means,” he said in October. “We’re coming back in the building today and we’re gonna embrace what the mission is, and that’s to beat a really good football team coming to town.”

Every player should be well aware of the schedule and be in playoff mode. It’d be foolish to look past a Browns team that ranks so highly on defense and that already beat the Packers this season.

One potential problem with the Bears’ defense is that it gives up a lot of yards per play, which can allow mediocre offenses to hang around. With that said, the Browns rank 31st in yards per play, 29th in yards per carry, 31st in yards per pass and 29th on third down. There’s an opportunity for either side’s weakness to step up.

If the defense can get Cleveland into third-and-long often, Allen has to like his group’s chances on a cold day against a rookie quarterback at home.

How do the Bears improve their defensive line play this year and in the future? Our inability to pressure the opposing quarterback with four linemen is holding our defense back. Who do you think can step up this season? Dayo Odeyingbo and Shemar Turner are unlikely to be ready at the beginning of next season. Do you think the Bears will try to make a splash in free agency or in the draft? — Phillip K.

Pass rush will be a primary focus of the offseason. The Bears have to get better production against opposing quarterbacks. The only free agents on the defensive line are Dominique Robinson, Daniel Hardy, Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, Andrew Billings and Chris Williams. While they could re-sign any number of those players for depth, they bring back all their top pass rushers but still have to look for a jolt. If Booker or Dexter can finish the season strong, that’d make the team feel better about the group.

This will also be a full offseason for Johnson and Allen to come together and find players who fit the scheme. While they don’t have the cap space or draft capital they had last year, they have a clear need, and it might need to be only two or three players because so many guys are back and several on rookie deals. Maybe it’s a free agent in the second tier and then a first- or second-round pick.

Rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders will try to lead the Browns to their first win in Chicago since 1969. (Jason Miller / Getty Images)

Bears-Browns fun facts

• The Browns lead the all-time series 11-7, including wins in the two recent matchups, both in Cleveland (20-17 in 2023; 26-6 in 2021).

• The Bears have won all four times the two teams have faced off at Soldier Field in the regular season (2017, 2009, 2001, 1986).

• The last time the Browns beat the Bears in Chicago was in 1969 at Wrigley Field, a 28-24 win. Gale Sayers rushed for 126 yards in a losing effort.

• The Bears haven’t been favored by more than a touchdown since 2020 (at the Jacksonville Jaguars). The last time they were home favorites of at least 7.5 points was 2018 against the Lions.

• Since 2005, the Bears are 18-3 as 7.5-plus-point favorites.

Game picks: Bears (-7.5) vs. Browns, noon CT on Fox

Kevin Fishbain: Bears 19, Browns 11

(9-4 straight up, 5-8 against the spread)

This might not be a game that will be shown across the sport of football, except for punters. The weather could make it a grind, but the Bears have won clunkers before and this is lining up to be another, where the more talented team — and one with a lot more to play for — ultimately gets the victory.

Dan Wiederer: Bears 23, Browns 13

(7-6, 7-6)

Trap game, schmap game. The Bears are very aware of the chute last week’s loss in Green Bay sent them down, dropping them from the top spot in the NFC down to No. 7. Now it’s time to take advantage of a ladder, a gotta-have-it home game against a three-win Browns team with a young quarterback, a vulnerable offensive line in flux and a defense that just gave up a season-worst 184 rushing yards to the Tennessee Titans. The urgency of this moment could not be more obvious.

Dan Pompei: Bears 20, Browns 16

(9-4, 9-4)

The Browns are a team the Bears should beat but could lose to, given that Cleveland arrives in the middle of a Packers sandwich and the Bears could be susceptible to looking behind and ahead. But so far under Johnson, the Bears have been a team that focuses as they should. A fascinating aspect of the matchup will be Garrett — one of the greatest finishers in NFL history — trying to take down Caleb Williams — one of the best at escaping pass rushers.

Jon Greenberg: Bears 20, Browns 9

(8-5, 5-8)

The Bears have to be hoping the big story out of this game is the weather and not Garrett, and I think it will be. Yes, Cleveland has a menacing defense, but it’s also 3-10. And Sanders is in trouble. I was reminiscing about that frigid 2013 game against the Dallas Cowboys, memorable for the minus-9 wind chill, Josh McCown’s star turn and Mike Ditka getting his number retired at halftime and yelling, “Go Bears!” We talked to him afterward, and man, Ditka looked cold. He didn’t wear a hat, I assume, because his always well-coiffed hair is his calling card. If you’re going to the game, wear two hats, gloves and four pairs of socks.

Zac Jackson (Browns beat writer): Bears 24, Browns 10

The Browns have a lot of problems. The offensive line injury problems don’t overshadow the progress Sanders is making, but the line play is going to make things more difficult for Sanders on Sunday. Expect a slow start for both sides, then a comfortable Chicago win.