Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Is Mitch Trubisky back? Would you rather have Jay Cutler or Kirk Cousins? These and many more Bears-Vikings questions

Episode Date: December 16, 2020

Matthew Coller connects with old colleague and noted Bears fan Ramie Makhlouf get together to talk about the important things during Bears week, like who the Bears' QB will be in 2021, whether Chicago would have won more games in 2020 if they stuck with Mitch Trubisky and Ramie's what-ifs with Chicago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Matthew Collar here, and joining me, as he always does and forever will, Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collard here and joining me as he always does and forever will in any Bears week is Rami Maklov, the biggest Bears fan I know and also former co-worker of mine here in the Twin Cities and basically the person I enjoy harassing most about the Chicago Bears quarterback history. What's up, Rami? I don't know that I've committed to a lifetime of Bears Weeks appearances, and if this quarterback crap keeps up, I don't know that I will continue to do this, but let's see how it goes, Matthew. Well, look, you and I are YouTube TV partners for life, so as long as that agreement keeps going on, I have something to hold over your head like

oh you want to pay that full bill do you if you don't then fine you don't have to come on for bears week i know other people who want to buy into my plan all right i don't i don't need you matthew collar i i let you on my youtube tv plan so okay i do appreciate it it's been uh it's been good it's been a lot less than what I was paying before. And honestly, the DVR thing works great, but it really is. So there's your, if they would like to sponsor the podcast, I would appreciate that and would not share the money with you, Rami. So before we get going into the hot routes that I have prepared for you, five questions relating to Vikings Bears.

And, yes, there is a little Bears trivia involved. Are you back on the wagon, Rami, with the recent performances of the Chicago Bears? Come on, man. The Lions and the Texans are actually blowing a lead to the Lions. They lost to the Lions. They blew it against the Lions. No, that didn't convince you? No, when you lose six in a row, including to the Lions, like that's, this thing is off the rails and there's no bringing it back. No, I'm not going

to buy into this thing. And I refuse to buy into this thing. They need to blow the whole damn thing up. Okay. Well then we'll definitely get into that. So why don't we just get started here right into the hot routes and the questions I have prepared for you, Rami, because it starts out with one Mitch Trubisky. I have to go there to begin. There's news in the NFL today, and it's time to break it down in the only way we know how. Hot route style. Earl! Johnny! With our spin on football headlines with a mix of frozen tundras.

Let's be a cold weather team. Neck rolls. I want a hot dog! And grass stained jerseys. The good old fashioned guts was probably the biggest difference in the game. He has played two of the worst defenses in the NFL, but produced a 75% completion percentage, four touchdowns, zero picks, a 117.4 quarterback rating over the last two weeks.

I want you to give me A, his stat line against a mediocre Vikings defense, and tell me this, if he wins out and makes the playoffs to the bears stick with Mitch Trubisky. Me and my brother were joking while that game was being played last week. Like this is the week that the decision to not take Deshaun Watson for Mitch Trubisky starts to make some sense, but it was, it was purely a joke. I mean, I, you know, I'm somewhat of a Mitch Trubisky apologist. I never thought it was a good idea, including the night they drafted him to take him ahead of Watson or ahead of Holmes, but, or Mahomes, excuse me. But I do think that there's more there than what the bears have gotten out of

him. And I think you've seen a little bit of that this week as the offensive coordinator bill laser because matt nagy has handed over play calling duties has played to mitch trubisky's strength something you and i talked about all the time that gary kubiak was so good about when it comes to kirk cousins which is playing into his strengths and i think you're seeing that with the bears a little bit more play action a little bit of bears a little bit more play action, a little bit of more, a little bit more of getting him on the move and out of the pocket. And you've seen the results of it.

I don't think he can keep up those numbers that you just reeled off, but I think against the Vikings, he can go, let's say 24, 33, a couple of hundred yards, two touchdowns and an interception and maybe 30, 40 yards on the ground. But no, I don't stick with him beyond this year. I think, not to say that he can't have a future in this league, but as far as Mitch Trubisky in Chicago, it's broken. Like, I don't think there's any fixing Mitch Trubisky in Chicago. I think he could go somewhere else, get a new coach, get a new system,

somebody who believes in him and at least have a, a good run as a backup. And maybe who knows a Ryan Tannehill like resurgence. Yeah. Sometimes you're Ryan Tannehill and you resurge and sometimes you're Marcus Mariota and you go to the Vegas Raiders and end up as the number three behind Nathan Peterman, which, uh, you know, collecting a check, still collecting a check. That's that's true. A hefty check to be Nathan Peterman's backup. And, you know, Mike Lennon kind of followed the same sort of thing. Like at one point, people think the guy is going to be the starter and then he goes somewhere else and then he falls even farther down the depth chart. Here's a question off of that though, because I mean, of course, I agree with you that sticking with Mitch Trubisky based on how they end the season would be silly and a terrible decision. And maybe he can be like a Mariota level backup where you would

trust him to start and win some games if you've got a great team, but he's more of a 500 quarter backup quarterback type of guy, maybe at best and not someone you want to pay. And you don't want to make the Blake Bortles mistake of, Oh, well, you had that good end of the season and let's pay him some more money and keep him around. You don't want to, you've seen enough of the flaws with him, but here is a question though. Nick Foles comes to the bears to compete. As I use finger quotes, compete with Mitch Trubisky but

it seemed like that wasn't really a real competition that Trubisky was going to win the job and then they pull the plug really quickly and stick with Foles for way too long until he gets hurt and they're forced to put Trubisky back in if If they just stick with Mitch Trubisky the whole way, rather than going to Nick Foles, what is their record right now? I think they might have a couple more wins. And even if you look at Trubisky's numbers before they pulled him, Matthew, I don't think it didn't make a whole lot of sense. Things were going bad in that Atlanta game when they pulled him and they were

going bad for Mitch Trubisky along with the rest of the team. But you look at his numbers for the two and a half games leading up to that benching and it didn't make a whole lot of sense I think Mitch Trubisky lost Matt Nagy and last lost his confidence at some point last year and if we had a regular off season with off seat with the the mini camps and training camps etc etc cetera, et cetera, and Nick Foles a chance to be in person, I don't think Nagy ever even gives Trubisky a chance to start the season at the starting quarterback. I think he was itching to go to Nick Foles at the earliest that he possibly could.

As soon as he felt like Foles had a handle of the system and of the offense and the playbook and everything else. He was going to go to him if Mitch Trubisky gave him any inkling of a reason to do so. And he did in Atlanta. I never believed in Nick Foles. I didn't think he was a dramatic improvement, if any improvement at all, over Mitch Trubisky. And I do think we're looking at one, maybe two more wins if you never make that move. And with as tight as the playoff picture is right now,

one or two wins is a world of difference in the NFC. I think it's very likely that they beat the Vikings. Now, Trubisky was hurt, I think, at the time. They were starting to use him as a runner, which was even more preposterous. Just like, get in there and run a read option or something. Like, what are you doing? Like, go beat Taysom Hill, and he is not Taysom Hill.

He's not Taysom Hill at all. Right. We'll save all the, he can be go be Taysom Hill and he is not Taysom Hill. He's not Taysom Hill at all. We'll save all the, he can be the next Taysom Hill for draft season. When they look at every athletic quarterback, like could be a Taysom Hill, you know, like you can play tight end and then move to quarterback. But it's such an odd decision. And I wonder if they beat the Vikings.

I mean, that first game ends up that Nick Foles struggled so much to react to the pass rush. That's the only time we could say that for the Vikings defense, but struggled so much with that that he couldn't move the ball at all. And you wonder if Trubisky could escape even a little. This is where he's given the Vikings some problems before in the past when he's beaten them is he can escape. He can run and he's a very athletic quarterback. And that would be in terms of this week what's going to happen the biggest concern I think you have is the Vikings

are okay he's not going to drop Tom Brady 50 yard touchdowns down the field all that often but if you don't rush him up the middle if you don't keep an eye on him if Eric Hendricks isn't playing then he can beat you with his legs and he's just torn up two terrible defenses. You're not that much different than the Texans and the Detroit Lions. I mean, I think that the Bears season is maybe not very, very different, but at least a little different. I think that they would be in that seven spot right now if they stuck with Trubisky. Right. Like I said, one or two wins and they are in that seven spot. So yeah, I don't disagree with you at all. Next question for you. Speaking of that seven spot,

the Vikings and bears, both six and seven here, whoever loses this game is pretty much out. I don't know if what the percentage would be technically, if there was some odd balls situation, but it's probably almost zero. If're the bears of the vikings and you go down to the bottom uh do the circumstances of this cornacki to break that down yeah i do yeah that's right yes absolutely yeah the khaki pants he is really into those it's a great bit though i enjoy it i mean so do i since america spent like what 11 straight days watching this guy at the thing saying well you know whatever uh during the, which we won't discuss and we'll just move on to the question. Oddball circumstances, no fans in the stands.

It's just been a weird year at any given time. Someone could just get COVID and not be able to start football games like what's happened to Lamar Jackson and Cam Newton. Do you think that that increases the chances of this new seven seed making any noise in the playoffs? Like, does this matter to you if you're watching the Bears or the Vikings? Or do you say, look, it's a participation trophy. They literally invented it for this year.

Right. I mean, like you said somebody somebody could come down with COVID like if Patrick Mahomes has COVID on a random Sunday in January or February and he can't play the playoff picture completely changes on a dime you know what I mean so but like anything else and I mean you never know when anybody is going to go down and not be able to play on any given Sunday because the NFL is a brutal league and injuries and guys missing time are such a big part of it. If they decide and all indications, unless something has changed and you can tell me, Matthew, all indications is they are they're not going into a bubble, then it doesn't change a whole lot for me. There are home field advantages that I think weigh more than other home field advantages. I think Seattle and the 12th man there, I think

it can get loud in the Superdome and New Orleans. Green Bay hasn't proven to be a huge home field advantage over the last few years. They don't seem to take advantage of the cold or whatever the Lambeau mystique was at one time. If we were talking about a bubble like we were in the NBA, where you just completely changed the environment that these guys were living and playing in, you were changing what time of day they were playing. They weren't with their families. They were all locked in one secure place like that. Just from a human nature standpoint, I think that can change what level you compete at, especially when we're talking about such routine oriented people as most athletes are. I think other than the slight home field advantage that comes with crowd noise and the other things that play into it in an NFL stadium,

I don't think it changes a whole lot, Matthew, the way that it did in the NBA. So by the numbers, the home field advantage on the whole has changed a little. It's gone down a bit, as you might expect. I mean, with no fans. But I also agree with you that last year, the Vikings went into New Orleans in supposedly the toughest environment.

And from a reporter perspective, the loudest stadium that I've ever heard, when Delvin Cook fumbled that didn't turn. And from a reporter perspective, the loudest stadium that I've ever heard when Delvin cook fumbled, that didn't turn out to be a fumble and the entire place exploded. And that was the loudest single stadium event I have ever heard, including the Minneapolis miracle is that loud. And you're not going to have that type of thing, but yet the Vikings still overcame it. I mean, they still had all the, you know, fans going crazy and overtime and Kirk cousins made great throws and made plays. And we see this every year where somebody goes on the road and wins, but I don't think it changes the fact that you're probably going to have a tough time going on the

road and winning multiple times. If you're this number seven seed against stronger teams. That's why when people use an example hey just get into the playoff race and see what happens they have to go back to 2011 for that opinion to make sense since then it's been entirely teams that have had one and two seeds that end up winning the super bowl so if you're the seven seed i say hey congratulations if you're the bears it's sort of like Hey, congratulations. If you're the bears, it's sort of like, I don't even know. Do you get a trophy for that? Like you lost six in a row in the middle of the season. So that's not great. And for the Vikings, you went one in five. That's not great, but congratulations. You had to turn it around to get in and you can tell your fans that,

but it is to me a complete participation trophy. And as long as the number seven seed exists, it will be. And I'll admit that I'm wrong when one of those teams wins it, but I don't think they ever will. I think we're going to go a very, very long time until we see a number seven seed come in and have to go on the road and then on the road again, and then on the road again, in order to get to the Superbowl. Yeah. It's borderline. I mean, it's borderline impossible, and partly because you're just not as good of a football team, Matthew. Over the course of 16 games, that one seed has bared themselves out as the better football team. Home field advantage doesn't play itself out necessarily because of home field advantage. It bares itself out because those teams earned home field advantage by being the better football team,

and more times than not, the better football team ends up winning the football game. Follow-up though, could the Bears beat anyone in the NFC in a single game? Because I say this year, almost any team can beat almost any team in the NFC, not in the AFC where Kansas City is a different kind of monster, but in the NFC,

even the strongest team in the NFC lost to Philadelphia last week. I don't see a huge separation from the top of the NFC playoff picture to the bottom of the NFC playoff picture. And with the Bears defense and the way that when they're clicking, they can turn a game on their own. Yeah, I think they can beat almost anybody in this conference on any given week because it is that type. But as you just laid out the route to the Super Bowl and having to do that three times and beat the better team on the road purely through defense and getting turnovers, which you and I both know are somewhat random, is is a tall order for the Chicago Bears to make any sort of deep playoff run.

OK, next question for you. I don't know if you saw on Twitter, but I wrote a book on the 2017. Really? I did. And I haven't seen you promoting that at all. Well, then I will tell you exactly where you can find it before I get to the question. See if everyone wants to go to amazon.com and then search making of a miracle and add the word Vikings too. So it pops up,

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sitting in the press box at U.S. Bank Stadium, a very empty U.S. Bank Stadium, or if it's at home on your couch, which I've had to do this year for road games, Pepsi is the refreshment you need to power you through any game day because Pepsi isn't made for those who play the game. It's made for those who watch it. Pepsi, made for football watching, go to made for football, watching.com to check out the latest football, watching content from Pepsi. Thank you, Rob. As, as I was writing the book, one of the biggest things I kept coming back to was the, what if, what if Sam Bradford had been healthy for that entire season like Case Keenum was able to have a top 10 offense in the season and you think about the teams that had quarterback injuries like Aaron Rodgers going down and how the NFC played out Carson Wentz goes out

and Nick Foles is quarterback I think fans will always think about that like would they have had a top three offense if Sam Bradford is in there the way that he played in week one? Give me the equivalent for Bears fans. Like, in your Bears watching life, what is the biggest one that sticks in you as the like, ah, what if this happened? And do not give me what if they drafted Mahomes,

because that one to me is- That's pretty easy. It's too obvious. You win the Super Bowl probably with that defense. If you draft Mahomes and end the story or you screw them up entirely, who knows? But aside from that, give me your Bears. What if I'm going to keep it recent? Because I can go back to the 80s and say, what if they give Buddy Ryan the head coaching job instead of Mike? That could be a whole different story. But more recently, what if they hired the right coach instead of Mark Trestman? Because I don't know if, I don't know if you remember where the bears were positioned at that time collar, but

Jay Cutler was playing his, the best football that he's ever played and was surrounded by Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffrey, Martellus Bennett, and Matt Forte. That's four guys who are in the top five, at least, of their position group at that time. Like Jay Cutler was surrounded by crazy talent. And the defense was starting to fall apart, but they still had some guys who were productive. And if you just plug some holes on that defense and have a head coach who could actually control a locker room and a locker room with some strong personalities,

I think that bears team can go on some kind of run where they at least are the team in the division for a few years, and maybe even a real contender for a Super Bowl for two or three years there. But Trestman just lost that locker room so fast. And once you start to lose guys like Brandon Marshall and Martellus Bennett, things can start to spiral, along with some of the big personalities and veterans who they had on defense, who felt like they were being forgotten and were losing some of their leadership in the locker room.

And Mark Trestman just couldn't corral what was a very talented but very volatile locker room at the time. And they just had to blow the whole thing up when it fell apart. So really fascinating to look back at the shift from having a great defensive team with Lovie Smith to with Mark Trestman. The first year that Mark Trestman is there, they have the second best points for in the NFL and 30th best in terms of defense, which is not lovey like, or generally bears like, um, what I am not really like that familiar with what went terribly wrong with Mark Trestman, but the next year they dropped to 23rd in offense. I mean, what was it that went so sideways? Cause the next year Jay Cutler stats fell off. The first season was when

Josh McCown went crazy for like five games. One of my favorite journeyman quarterbacks ever, of course, Josh McCown. So what, what happened there? He just started to lose. Martellus Bennett wasn't happy with his place in the offense. Jay Cutler seemed to be disgruntled. Actually, I remember Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall, I think, had a bit of a blowup before that season in the preseason. And the defense had fallen off, and I think that that was just a defense that was getting old and not as productive

as it once was. But I really do think that was just some big personalities in that locker room, not buying in, not, not believing in the Mark Trestman vision and just kind of doing what they wanted to do. I mean, there were, there were plenty of stories that year of, of blowups in that locker room and guys who were just kind of not bought into the whole system and the whole vision that Mark Trestman had laid out. Question for you. Side question off of this, Kirk cousins or Jay Cutler, which one would you rather have? I think this is all other things, all other things being equal. I think give me Jay Cutler.

Maybe. I don't know. I mean, it's same coach, same system, same weapons, same offensive line. Yeah. I think Jay Cutler is the more, more talented, more gifted guy. Is he not? I think he is more gifted. And I also think that even though cousins does turn the ball over Cutler is also more reckless as well and so more likely to win you the game with something amazing and more likely to lose you the game with something ridiculous I mean both of them in terms of their career records are about same I mean Jay Cutler is around a 500 quarterback let's uh kind of throw out maybe the very end of his career and he's a 500 quarterback but that's basically what you know Kirk Cousins has had And he's a 500 quarterback. But that's basically what, you know,

Kirk Cousins has had and he's had teams that have been really good with lots of talent. And he's been on teams that haven't quite been as much. Cousins has better stats, but also I think the stats have changed in the NFL, even since like 2010 to 2015, that they've really gone up in terms of passing efficiency. But I mean, Cutler twice led the NFL in interceptions. I mean, so I think, you know, there is that,

like if you're going to be the gunslinger, he's going to gunsling you out of some games too. For sure. Yeah, absolutely. They're both going to make mistakes. Jay Cutler's mistakes were more, not all the time, but Jay Cutler had more mistakes that were just like, ah, this might be an interception, but F it. I think I can squeeze it in there. Whereas Kirk Cousins, his, his interceptions and turnovers seem to be out

of pure panic. He makes bad decisions because there are defenders in his face. Give me the, give me the guy who knows he might make a mistake, but is taking a chance versus the guy who's just like, ah, I got to get rid of this football and gives it to the other team. I do. This might be, this is a tough one. I think I might go Kirk Cousins personality a little slight ahead of Jay Cutler, but I'm not sure. I don't know Jay Cutler well.

I don't think either of them are necessarily the personality you want from a quarterback. Like a lot of people think think and there may be something to this that the quarterback has to be the leader on the team uh jay cutler was not a leader and and he would he would tell you that himself i think kirk cousins tries to lead but i don't know that a whole bunch of people are a whole bunch of guys in that locker room are are following following kirk cousins or looking to him for any sort of leadership you would know better than i would but he doesn't strike me as a type of guy who is magnetic, who people go, yeah, that's the guy I got to follow, his lead, his example. Right. He's not exactly a fire breather. He's more of

very prepared and all those things for every Sunday and very knowledgeable about the offense and he knows how to run it. But I also think that he has a tendency to rub people the wrong way with some of that as well. Maybe the guys now have gotten used to his personality, but when he first got here, I think that some of them were like, oh, you are very different from Teddy Bridgewater or Case Keenum. He's very much the buttoned up kind of guy, which I think is the exact opposite of Jay Cutler, who strikes you as much more of a disaster and a mess. So it's an interesting like dichotomy because they're the opposite quarterback,

but kind of the same in some ways. Next question for you here. This one might take a lot of brain power. So if you just melt down trying to talk about this, I understand. Since you have covered in some way or another, both teams, tell me the path to the Superbowl within the next couple of years for the Chicago bears and for the Minnesota Vikings. If I told you, Hey, one of these two made the Superbowl, how would it have happened? For the bears? I think it starts at quarterback right i think that the defense i don't think a lot of people have a lot of questions about this defense at its worst it's top 10 and at its best it's maybe the best defense in the league but at least top five and and when healthy i think that

the bears offensive line is okay alan robinson is is top 10, top 15 wide receiver in this league. I like David Montgomery and Tariq Cohen at running back. I think they have some tools. They have big holes that they need to plug. So go get Dak Prescott. I think if you go get Dak Prescott, get healthy at offensive line, see some maturation of some of the younger guys on offense, and this defense

continues to be dominant, I think that's the way to go. Because if you're talking about drafting a rookie quarterback right now and getting to a Super Bowl in the next couple of years, that would have to be a guy who comes on the scene and does Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, or an example this year, Justin Herbert type of things to compliment that defense, just come in and set the league on fire. And that's, that's a, that's a rarity. You don't see that a lot at the quarterback position. So if you're talking about getting to a Superbowl in the next couple of years, I think it starts at the quarterback position. I don't think a rookie can get there fast enough. So the only quarterback who might be available, who would

be good enough to take the bears there and be that dude for them would be Dak Prescott for the Vikings. I don't think, I don't think it's crazy to say that they could win a super bowl in the next couple of years. I think they, they kind of have the flip side of what the bears have going where they're, they're a productive offense and they have Justin Jefferson and Irv Smith who are just going to get better. They're Dalvin cook is one of the best running backs in this league.

I don't need to tell you about Adam feeling. I think that offensive line continues to get better as those guys get more and more used to the league and you have players on defense. I think losing to Neil Hunter this year was a huge loss for them because that could have covered up a lot of the deficiencies in the secondary. If you have one of the best pass rushers in the league, I think get healthy on defense, see some maturation from some of the guys who they've used draft picks on,

on that side of the ball, and maybe go get a playmaker or two and free agency if they come available. And the Vikings are right there with anybody. You and I talked all the time in collar about how people want immediate impact from guys, whether it's free agency or in the draft. And more times than not, the best way to improve a football team is from within and to make good draft picks and watch guys make that leap from year two to year three and year three to year four. I think the Vikings have a bunch of guys who are poised to make those leaps here in the next couple

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That's BLUEWIRE, all one word, BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. I could hear, you know, fans who have been around for a long time, the Vikings shutting off their phones when you said it could happen, that they could win. You know, I actually agree with you on the bones of the offensive line that they have things to work with there, but the weaknesses have been so weak that that's where they get dominated. And even Kirk cousins had a long thing today about how he makes the offensive line worse when it comes to the sack percentage and stuff like that

about how it's a quarterback stat. And so you have to build the offense to be a top five scoring offense. And then you've got a shot because Zimmer can scheme the rest. And some of these players will mature. The biggest question for me with the Vikings is, is Zimmer ever going to let them fully maximize what they can do on offense? And at the moment, it seems like the answer is no, especially the way that they, they played their last game. I would love you to put odds on who

the quarterback of the Chicago bears is next season. I mean, you mentioned Dak Prescott, but I think that there's a lot of options that are sort of fun to talk about. Even, I mean, here's the thing, Ben Roethlisberger has kind of been bad this year. Like he hasn't been good. Like would they move on from Ben Roethlisberger? And then he spends his last year with the Chicago bears. I mean, there's, there's so many things like I would have never expected to see Tom Brady in Tampa Bay. There's so many things that can happen. They could trade up again, take another big swing at it and go Zach Wilson or something like that. Cause you know, Cincinnati's probably trading out of that pick. So I wonder who you have as favorites for this potential job.

Another guy, maybe Matt Ryan. Another guy who intrigues me is Carson Wentz. And that, that's a huge contract that who, if, if the Eagles decide to move on from him, that's a huge contract. Somebody is going to have to take on, but that's a guy who for, what was it? 11, Eagles decide to move on from him. That's a huge contract. Somebody is going to have to take on, but that's a guy who for, what was it? 11, 12 games before he went down and Nick Foles stepped in for him was at,

was leading the MVP conversation that year. And, and was a top, I don't, where'd he go? Top five in the draft Carson Wentz. Yeah. I mean, that's a guy who has a lot of ability, I think. And he's a much better quarterback. He's a much more talented and skilled guy than Mitch Trubisky, but you might be able to say the same thing about him in Philadelphia that I said about Mitch here in Chicago, which is that it's probably not going to work for him there. He might be broken as far as figuring it out in Philadelphia, but that's not to say that he couldn't figure it out somewhere else. So I think if Carson Wentz is on the move, I think you could see the Bears involved in that discussion. I do think you and I talked about this

last time I was on your show that Dak Prescott might be a possibility if the Cowboys are looking to move on from him, because if Ryan Pace is still the general manager of the Chicago Bears, and I do think that's a possibility. I don't like saying it, but I do think it's a possibility that bears ownership decides to give this, this core of guys one more year to try and figure things out. He's shown himself to be aggressive and going and getting players and going and getting quarterbacks. So I think you can see them in the hunt for whatever veterans you talked about, Matt Ryan, Ben Roethlisberger and throw in Carson Wentz and Dak Prescott.

I think that if Ryan Pace is given another shot at this thing, he sees the same thing that I do, which is that a rookie probably isn't going to get to where you need him to get too fast enough to capitalize on a championship level defense. So he's going to have to go out and get a veteran. And I don't think he settles for the Nick Foles type of veteran. Again, I think he tries to make a splash. I'm not sure that there's enough left of Cam Newton to bother with that Sam Darnold how about this plan call it the AFC East plan Sam Darnold and Ryan Fitzpatrick for next year right I mean Fitzpatrick can still win some games he was winning games with Miami before they benched him for Tua. I wouldn't hate it if you play Darnold and it's not good. And he looks like he was with the Jets. Then you say, well, we've still got a quarterback who can win games when it comes to, you know,

having a good defense and a team with some bones around it. Yeah. I don't hate Sam Darnold either. I think, I think that's another guy who's got plenty, plenty of talent and plenty of tools to be a good quarterback in this league and has just been saddled with Adam Gase and a mess of an organization in the Jets. So I wouldn't be against that move either, to be honest with you. All right, final question. This is trivia for you because I have to always harass you

in some way or another about the Chicago Bears. And this was a Twitter request, and I loved it. I want you to give me the top five quarterbacks in bears history since 1980 in rushing yards. So Chicago bears quarterbacks in rushing yardage, not in order, right? I mean, if you do it in order, it's really impressive, but if you just give me the top five. Okay. Guys who played in the 80s and 90s, 2000s, 2020s. I got to think Trubisky is number one. Let me check again.

Hold on. Let me check again. Because I think you're right. But I just got to check again. Because I didn't have him as number one, but now I'm questioning why I didn't have him as number one. So hang on. Take another guess and I'll just confirm this.

I think Jay Cutler is in the top five. All right, hold on. I may have messed this up. Hang on. Oh no. Yeah, that's okay. It's okay. I'm going to keep going though. And you tell me if I got him right. Okay. All right. Because I don't, I don't have, let me look. Okay. There he is. Okay. No, no, no. He's he's not number one, but number one, but he's on the list. I just overlooked him. He's in the top five. He is. Trubisky is number three. Okay.

Is Jay Cutler in the top five who bears rushing quarterback since 1980? Jay Cutler is. Okay. Indeed, he is. Okay, let me start this again. I entirely botched this. Okay, so from the top do you not have the list of bears rushing quarterbacks 1980 up before you ask me this question i just i just messed this up because i when i made the list i overlooked uh cutler so then it screwed everything up for the list. So Cutler is number three.

Trubisky is number four. Oh, okay. All right. Okay. I'm going to say the punky QB, Jim McMahon. He liked to run around a little bit. Is he in the top five? Jim McMahon is number two.

There we go. All right. Man, this is where it gets hard for me. They didn't have a lot of very mobile quarterbacks other than those guys. Is Jim Miller on the list? He wasn't mobile, but he would take off from time to time. Is Jim Miller in the top five? Jim Miller is not in the top five. No.

How many X's do I get? How many wrong answers do I get? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Man. Rex Grossman? Is Rex Grossman on the list? No.

Rex Grossman was not. Rex Grossman had 80 yards rushing. 80 rushing yards. Okay. So you're missing a guy from the 80s. Mike Tomczak? Mike Tomczak was almost. Oh, Doug Flutie.

No, he didn't play enough. He never played for the Bears. Let me see how many he had. Doug Flutie had 36 rushing yards. Running quarterback, Doug Flutie. It's a good guess, though. Yeah, I'm out of guesses, man. I don't know.

Moses Moreno? Okay, the first quarterback on the list is Jim Harbaugh. Oh, why didn't I think of Harbaugh? Harbaugh ran a lot. Yeah, he did. And the other one that you missed was Vince Evans. Hold on. That was post 19. Yeah, that was post 1980. Wasn't it? Vince Evans started in the late seventies. So, I mean,

he played into the eighties. I would have said Vince Evans. I thought that was I thought that was predating the question. So my apologies for screwing up the football reference. Your apologies for even asking me to go through this. Yeah, you're right. Now, also not far behind Vince Evans, Cade McNown and Mike Tomczak, which is hilarious. Wow. So, yeah, it's not a great list.

So it's Harbaugh, McMahon and a Trubisky Cutler and Evans, and then McNown and Tom's act would have been great picks though. Wow. Well, thank you. Thank you for making me relive that. Yeah. Yeah. That was one of the penalties that you pay for joining the show and liking the Chicago bears and growing up in Chicago. So there you have it. Rami, always great to catch up with you. Super fun, great conversation. And I apologize for everything with the Chicago bears. You are stuck with that burden. There's nothing I can do about it,

except for mock you. Anytime Matthew go get his book people. It's a great Christmas present. Thanks Rami. Take care. See you, dude. Thank you.