PTI - What are Reasonable Goals for the Bears?

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

Tony Kornheiser and Pablo Torre discuss the Chicago Bears, the Big-10, and Rafael Devers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Pardon the interruption, but I'm Pablo Torre and Tony's scientists have found that something like feathers grew from a 247 million-year-old reptile. Tony Kornheiser, hey, same gear on my inner left thigh, something like feathers. Yeah.

You could probably get that checked out. Measure them. At some point. How do they measure that it's a 247 million-year-old reptile? I mean, we grew. I believe it's carbon dating. I don't want to sound like Woolbone, but we can't be that exact. You just can't be that.

Come on. You're anti-dinosaur analytics? Come on. I'm not what Wilbon would be, but I'm not. I'm just questioning it. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. Wilbon has a day off. I'm joined by our great friend, the host of the podcast, Pablo Tori, finds out.

Mr. Pablo Tori. And we begin this all football segment with word from new Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson that his goal for second year quarterback Caleb Williams is to complete. 70% of his passes this season. Williams agreed with that and then volunteered. He wanted to go for 4,000 yards. Last season, Williams passed for 3,541 yards. He completed 62.5% of his passes. The NFL produced 4,070 from four quarterbacks last season, Gino Smith, Joe Burrow, Baker Mayfield, Jared Gough. Pablo, are the Bears and Caleb Williams setting reasonable goals? Yeah, I think it's reasonable because 4,000 yards, you know, again, back in my day, that was a big deal.

It's less so now, a very passing heavy league that feels like it's something that's achievable. Also, 70% completion is also something that feels doable for a parallel point. But the thing about this and why I'm so glad to be here with you as always sitting in Mike Wilbon's chair is that I get to be the one to say, the Bears have had as many 4,000-yard passing seasons as you and I have. That's the comedy of this. The bar for them ain't that high. You know, Drew Breeze has done it alone by himself five times. Bears zero entering 2025.

So reasonable, quietly achievable, but also very funny because of the tragic comedy of Bears' quarterbacks. I agree with all of that. I mean, it's obviously achievable because four guys did it last. year, but only 10 lifetime have ever done this. And I would point out this, that none of the people who did it last year were in their second years as quarterbacks. And none of the people who did it last year were on a losing team. And the Bears were five and 12. Let me check my notes. Yeah. So it's a steeper hill. It's a steeper hill for Williams. But I agree with you. This is, it's an odd context given that the Bears have never had a 4,000 yard passing season.

Given that the Bears are not a passing first team, given that the Bears' great. offensive players are usually running back. So it's a culture shock to how we associate the bears. And I want to concentrate on Ben Johnson for a second. And I understand setting a goal of 70%. He's just spent a few years in Detroit with Jared Goff. Jared Goff is one of the four people who did this last year. I believe, and I could be mistaken, that Jared Goff has gone over 4,000 yards, I think maybe three years in a row. So I'm wondering, Pablo, does Ben, Ben Johnson have stars in his eyes? Do Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams, are they setting a realistic goal for them?

That's the part I don't know. Yeah, I'm checking my stats here about Ben Johnson. And look, you're right. The whole thing with Ben Johnson and Jared Goff, the reason why Jared Goff was sort of reinvigorated, almost revived relative to his reputation, is because he and Matt LaPorter figured something out. You know, they have a tight end in Detroit. under Ben Johnson, where he was a key aspect of the passing game. And good news for Mike Wilbon is that Caleb Williams has Cole Komet.

So they have the ability to do something quite parallel this season. That's why Ben Johnson should be actually quite optimistic about all of it. And Caleb Williams can do it. We saw that at USC. But again, you got to point something out. As a rookie last year, he was overshadowed by another rookie, Jaden Daniels. And Jaden Daniels numbers were about 3,600 yards and 69% completion. so he didn't hit those numbers either.

I just don't want this to seem like a walk in the park because it is not. It is not. Well, it's not because it's also, once again, the Chicago Bears. But I want to move to money issues at Maryland, college football now. Head football coach Mike Loxley told reporters yesterday, Tony, that he lost the locker room during last year's four and eight season because picking and choosing which players to spend money on

led to a culture of halves and have nots. Now he said that he will not let those divisions have. happen again this season, adding, quote, if I have to put my desk in that locker room, I will, end quote. So, Tony, what did you make of that explanation? Okay. So Mike Loxley is trying to explain away a four and eight season, one and eight in the Big Ten. He had three winning seasons in a row, I believe, and went to three bowl games in a row. Now, let's not get carried away with what that means, because he never, ever contended for the Big Ten title. And it takes a lot of gas at Maryland, by the way, because his combined record against Ohio State and Michigan and Penn State is one in 14.

All right? So let's look at that context. But what he says merits a discussion here. He is saying, because of money, I lost this team. And this ought to be a lesson for every college football coach out there that if you don't, now that money is available, if you don't smoothly and skillfully handle the payments of that, Your team could dissolve. I would think that Nick Saban, if you asked them,

what are some of the reasons you left? One of the reasons would be just this particular thing. And Alabama has tons of money, and nothing matters more in the state of Alabama than college football. That's not true in Maryland. Maryland's a basketball school. In fact, their basketball coach, their most recent basketball coach, Kevin Willard,

quit at the end of the year because he said, we don't have enough money to compete in the Big Ten. Right. Tony, I think about this the way I think about the Internet, and I think about you when I think about the Internet, you have a position that I find to be validated every day. You hate the internet. It's the worst thing you. It's terrible. Quote you four seconds ago. You're also not on the internet. So that's one solution if you want to hate the way that the world works. Just get out of the

business of the internet or college football because this is the way it's going to be from now on. And so for Mike Loxley, this is a bit of an existential dilemma for him, particularly because his self-appointed nickname is the locker room king. He calls himself this, like he's the sturgeon king and it's Barney Greengrass, right? He's the locker room king. And so if you're the locker room king, you should know that this is a part of the job description that is changing. There are a lot of coaches, Tony, who are great walking into living rooms, who are great managing locker rooms, and all of that stuff is getting subsumed by the business of dollars and cents.

It's a lot more like the pros. The ways that used to be distinguished, they're just not as relevant if that's your main thing. And so Mike Laxley, yeah, I fear you. I just don't know what you're doing about it outside of leaving the business. Yeah, he gave himself that nickname the way Paul George gave himself playoff P. How's that working out? It doesn't mean you can't criticize Mike Lockley's coaching from last year, but you do have to concede that once you start paying players, they're all going to want money and they're going

to want equity probably by position and they're not going to understand it if somebody else is making a lot more. And so it becomes a very tough thing. and I would just say about what Loxley said, it's an astonishing comment. I never thought I would hear that from a... I never thought. I agree.

We move on. We stay in college. We even stay in the Big Ten, where Commissioner Tony Petiti is cheerleading from more automatic bids to the college football playoff for Big Ten teams, Big Ten teams. And he's saying a six and three record

into Big Ten is, quote, a great record. Petiti says this because the Big Ten plays nine conference games and the SEC plays eight. So this is a way to persuade people that the Big Ten walks a harder road. Pablo, are you with Petiti that Six and Three is a great record in the Big Ten? I think he should make this case. And I think he should make this case because he recognizes that the business of college football at the very top is the SEC in the Big Ten,

and there's a big drop off after that. And so the real question, as the Big Ten in the SEC wonder, are we going to just go off and make a Super League at some point is, okay, in the meantime, how do we compete with each other? And yes, he is saying, when it comes to the expanded playoff field, consider a six and three on a curve, consider it in context, that we are, in fact, a great league in which we play more games. So, hey, six wins over here.

That means something quite different, as does the three losses. So I get it. It's smart. It's marketing. It's the only argument he has, really, when it comes to plausibly comparing against the SEC in that way. So let me just be definitive here. Six and three is not a great record in a big ten.

It's not a great record. Here's where it's a great record. If a Big Ten team went to the NFC North and went six and three, that would be a great record. Six and three in a Big Ten is good. It's not great. Who are the three you lost to? Who are the six you beat? If you pull a Maryland and you lose to Ohio State and you lose to Michigan and you lose to Penn State,

then get out of here. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear about your wins against Northwestern and Purdue. I don't want to hear that. That's nonsense. I rather enjoy that the Big Ten and the SEC are trying to push each other off a cliff. I like that. I mean, should the SEC go out and play nine conference games just like the Big Ten?

Well, maybe they should. But if I ran the SEC, I would say, why don't you worry about your league and we'll worry about our league? The SEC for a lot of years has made a lot of money and gotten a lot of guaranteed wins by playing the Citadel. But this is an important but. They've also won a lot of national championships, and the Citadel was not in those. Not in those. In the last 20 years or so, we've seen Alabama and Auburn and Georgia and LSU and Florida. They've won national championships in a comparable period of time. How many big 10 teams? Probably two. Probably Ohio State and Michigan. So as Petiti is screaming, let us in when we do well in conference.

The SEC is saying, no, look at our overall ranking. So I enjoy the battle that's going on where I agree with you completely as they are the two best by miles. By miles. Yeah, these are the sorts of conferences where, again, we talked about this yesterday. It's a type of conference where you're like, please, can we pay you to be in them? That's the type of conference that these things are. And they're saying to each other now, look, if we got to elbow each other for those final slots at the end of the playoff field, when they show that sad boardroom and everyone has to make a call in which everyone's mad, they're going to say, remember that time I told you, six and three was great. That's why he's doing it.

It's political as much as it is, actual merit. Sure. He's cheerleading. That's what he's doing. Let's take a break. Coming up, Raphael Devers plays first base for the Giants, something he refused to do for the Red Sox. What's the word for that? And how best it described Venus Williams becoming the second oldest woman in history to win a top tour tennis match? Look, they should have most of the bids. Those two confidences should have most of the bids. And no question about that. And you don't see Memphis putting up money to get into the Big Ten. They're not listening to that.

No, they're not going to do that. Yeah, yeah. Time to get it on with Lexicon, and what's the word? What's first, please? It's blank that Raphael Devers apparently enjoyed playing first base more than D-Hing last night. My word is heartwarming. Can you feel the sarcasm? Because maybe now Devers will be a better teammate in San Francisco than he was in Boston, right?

Maybe he'll do what is asked of him. He did not do that in Boston. He told them in Boston when they took him off third bases, I'm not playing anywhere else. I'm just going to DH. I'm not doing anything you want me to do. So they traded them as far away physically as they could and to another league. And there are some numbers here that are consequential. Since arriving in San Francisco, Devers is batting 227, even with two hits last night. He has two homers and 11 RBI in 30 games.

That's not great. The Giants are 12 and 18 with him in the lineup, and that's not great. Boston, without him in the lineup, is 17 and 13, and that's not great, but it's a lot better than 12 and 18. And so maybe Raphael Devers has realized that he has to try to rebuild his shattered reputation. That got romantic at the end, rebuilding the shattered reputation. My word, by contrast, is ex-boyfriend-ish. This relationship, the new relationship Devers is in, is not going well, as you surmise. And it's sort of like when the only revenge you have is to do the thing finally that your ex kept on asking you to do, that you refused to the whole time only to reveal that I'm kind of into this now.

I hate dancing. Now you're on the dance floor. I hate doing the dishes. Now you're Mr. Clean. This is Raphael Devers just trying to twist the resemblance of what is left of a knife in the Red Sox because they're thinking, this is all we wanted from you. And finally you do it when we're apart. It's romance gone wrong. It is ex-boyfriend-ish.

That's why you went to Harvard. That was a screenplay. You just wrote a screenplay on the PTI show. I really like that. I'm going to shut up on the next one. What's next? It's blank that Venus Williams won a professional tennis match

at the age of 45. So my word is terrific. And most of why I say it's terrific is because my son and his wife and their boys went last night. And they saw Venus Williams. And they were enthralled by Venus Williams. This tournament, this DC tournament, is sort of a stepping stone tournament for the U.S. Open.

It's on hard court. It lasts for about two weeks. And it draws some pretty big names. Francis Tiafo is in it. Ben Shelton is in it. I think Taylor Fritz is in it. Emma Navarro is in it. Jessica Pagul is in it.

I think they Omiozaka is in it. Venus is in it because she played for team tennis for the Washington. castles and the owner of the Washington castles, Mark Eynne, runs this tournament. So they have a lot of history. Look, 45 is 45. She's not going to win a tournament. I didn't even think she'd win any matches at all. I don't think she's going to win the next one against the five seed. But she won last night and that was great because she's an all-timer. She has seven majors. This is a wonderful moment. Yeah, I'm going to go high finish again, though. I'm going to go no hitter-like. Because

listening to you talk about how Michael took the family to go see this. Of course, in person, in person, you see a no-hitter and it's fantastic. And you say to everybody you know, you won't believe what I saw. But then you get the push alert, Tony, on your phone, a little alert and says a no-hitter. And you're like, there are a lot of these. And you don't really think about it. No-hitter-like, because what is so spectacular at this point in modernity happens often enough 40-something-year-old athletes doing good things that it feels kind of almost expected, which is kind of sad, I must admit.

Not of a 45-year-old. No, no, no. Oh, but we're in the era of LeBron and Tom Brady. This is the thing that mid-40s... I'm just saying, I wish I reacted in a different way, but I didn't. Yeah. No, it's objectively incredible, but... I think it's a very small special moment.

I think. That's final word. Let's take one last break, but still to come, Jacob Young and the Nats. We're doing the Nats on this show? Makes it a probable catch the Nats made this show? Really? And L. Messi, meanwhile, in the real world, decides whether he'll be playing in tonight's MLS all-star game. Have you ever been to a no-hitter?

Have you been a no-hitter, a perfect game, anything like that? You've never seen it. Neither. Neither. I've just been dumb. With the earthquake and San Frater. Thank you, Sisko. Happy time, people.

Happy 64th birthday, Woody Harrelson. Here's the connection for the actor to a sports show. One, the possibility that Cheers was a sports bar, considering Sam Malone was a former Red Sox pitcher. Two, Harrison was tremendous in white men can't jump, as was Wesley Snipes. Three, he was a bowler in that very weird movie Kingpin. Harrelson has been nominated for three Academy Awards,

most recently in three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri. I love Harrelson now on those commercials he does. does with Matthew McConaughey, particularly the one where McConaughey gets splashed by a passing car. I have no idea what product they're selling, but I really like the commercials. I have no idea the product either. I just remember that we talked about magic mushrooms at the top of yesterday's PTI show. And there is a podcast in which Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson apparently reminisced around how Woody got dosed pretty heavily and loved it while Ted Danson was absolutely horrified and had a panic attack.

So also happening in that universe. Yeah, podcast in the news. Happy anniversary, No-Marcia Garcia-Para. We could have done No-Mar's 52nd birthday today, but instead we're doing this anniversary. On this day, 23 years ago, No-Mar had three consecutive home runs in a span of two innings,

accounting for eight RBI and a 22-4 drubbing of the devil race on his 29th birthday. Nomar's career batting average was 313. He won two American League batting titles, rookie of the year, and was a six-time All-Star. Over a 20-year period,

beginning in the early eight, the American League have the following people at shortstop. Cal Ripkin Jr., Nomar Garcia, and Derek Jeter. That's as good a group of short stops as any league has ever had. And Nomar, who I was remember for both hitting 372 at one point, also his, of course, routine at the plate, Tony, and also the way that his name got pronounced by everybody in Boston, including my future father-in-law, it turned out.

It was the aesthetics. Nomar. Nom. Nom. Nom. Nom. Happy trails to a quarterback competition for the New York Giants. Head coach Brian Dayball named Russell Wilson

the starting quarterback of the team today. That means that first round draft pick Jackson Dart, free agent arrival James Winston, and third year backup Tommy DeVito will compete for supporting roles. The 36-year-old Wilson is a 10-time pro bowler. But he joined the Giants on a one-year deal, which makes you wonder how deeply committed the Giants are if Wilson gets off to a slow start.

Yeah, look, they have options, but the whole thing with the middle class level bridge quarterback is that you could make it work, Tony. We saw this with Sam Darnold and the Vikings. You don't need him to be Mr. Forever. You just need to be Mr. Right now. And Russell Wilson could be that for them. Yeah, they're playing the season this year.

You don't have to worry about next year. We got one other note here, a note on 40-year-olds, 42-year-old Justin Verlander, got his first win in the season. He is now 1 in 8. Here we go to the big finish if we could. Go ahead. No, Todd, I just hit another homework, by the way. Yeah.

Well, if I say, okay, there we go, but he's not 42, is he? UNC football announced it's completely sold out for Bill Belichick's first season. You impressed, aren't you? It's a 51,000-seat stadium, and of course I'm obsessed with Bill Belichick. Everybody knows that. Leo Messi and Jordi Alba will not play in tonight's MLS All-Star game, Tony. Your thoughts? My thoughts are the All-Star game doesn't mean squat.

And Lino Messi will play in whatever into Miami game he wants to, and nobody's going to tell him he can't because he is the league at the moment. T.J. Watt told Graham Ben Singer that it really bothers him, that his Steelers teams have not won a playoff game. That makes sense, doesn't it? I think it does. I mean, he's an amazing individual player, but you're going to end up getting a bit of the Lamar Jackson stuff, right,

if you don't actually win in the postseason. Jacob Young of the Nats robbed Will Benson of the Reds of a home run this afternoon. Are you impressed? He's a great fielder. He climbs the wall. He brings it back. He's not a power hitter. His bobblehead for the Nats is actually him reaching out to make a catch.

And they lost, of course. Last one, a 12-year-old little eager suspended from the New Jersey State Final for bat flipping. Your thoughts? I am told that the family is filing for a temporary restraining order, but I believe that's good parenting. A good bat flip is good parenting. That's funny. We're out of time. We'll try and do better the next time.

I'm Tony Kornhotra. And I'm Pablo Torre. Thank you for watching. Pablo Torre finds out is the podcast.