Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Anthony Herron reacts to optimistic injury news for Caleb Williams

Episode Date: September 21, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote were joined by Score football analyst Anthony Herron to share his observations from the Bears' ugly 9-3 loss to the Vikings on Sunday. Herron reacted to quarterback Caleb Williams going down with a hamstring injury and also praised the Chicago defense for its strong performance after a poor effort in the season opener.

Anthony Herron, score football analyst. B-Flow is bringing it. He's bringing the house. He's doing it against almost everyone. There was a big question mark, though, coming in, because in the two times that the Bears faced the Vikings last season, we saw one approach in the first game, where he did lay back in coverage far more often than we were accustomed to seeing a Brian Flores defense. And then the second game was when he decided to heat things up, get after Caleb, get after

the Bears' offensive line, throwing a lot of baseball. bodies. Former NFL defensive lineman and Iowa Hawke. Anthony Herron received credit for it. Tenacious job by Anthony Heron number 99. Mr. Haddon, I want to compliment you. He's doing a fine job. Big Ann Herron on 1043 The Score. Looking forward to talking to Anthony Heron here in just a moment on Rahimi and Grotie

on 143. The score, there is breaking news on the score. It is brought to you by IDOT. At some point in the day, everyone is the pedestrian. slow down and give them space, share the road. It's not a game. There is news on Caleb Williams. Bears quarterback, per Tom Pellisero. Bears quarterback Caleb Williams avoided any major injury to his hamstring Sunday. Test confirmed today. And the team isn't even ruling him out for next Monday's game against the Eagles. sources tell the ringer and Netflix and then Tom Pellisero goes on to say a massive sigh of relief in Chicago.

I'm feeling that. Anthony Herron, are you feeling that? Grotes, I mentioned this on the post-post show last night that I do feel like this is going to be a pretty fascinating decision that the bears are going to have to make, whether it's this next game in the games to come at some point. When we're talking about a hamstring for your quarterback, for the franchise QB, for the future of the bears, how will the bears navigate the level of aggression in perhaps getting Caleb back into the lineup? It's safe to assume Caleb at some point is going to be pushing to get back out there,

perhaps as soon as this coming Monday night. We've seen veteran QBs, certainly, and at times young guys as well, who've been out there at a lesser version of themselves, something going on in the lower body, whether it's a soft tissue thing, a bum wheel, you name it. In Caleb's case, because his mobility, that 20-plus mile per hour speed that we all marvel at now,

it's such a big part of what accentuates their ability to look for the chunk play, to hunt up big downfield passes in the passing attack, and also enhances the run game because of the way the defense has to honor Caleb, maybe booting out the back door. All those things, you know, don't mean he can't play, and we know he's progressed so much from within the pocket. But it would be a lesser version of Caleb in what is now in year three,

a contract year. How much do you want to put him at risk? There are some of those other factors within this, but they're also in a season where they're hoping for a championship. And so do you got to put your best people out there nonstop? or do you say, you know what, we'll get by. We'll survive a little bit with Tyson Bajenton there because we feel good about him and hope that Caleb will just get fully healthy as quick as possible.

There's a lot to factor in with it. Yeah, and I don't know about you and Mark, but I feel like until I hear from the head coach himself or somebody actually associated with the team, given all the confusion regarding bears injuries, I'm not saying Tom Pelliserra isn't good at his job. I wasn't saying Adam Schaefter wasn't good at his job. But there's just been too many times where the sources and the information that is actually coming from Hallis Hall are two different things.

So I feel like I'm still in a holding pattern. Like this is a good sign. But I'm not official with my exhale by any means yet. It's Pelliserra though. Maybe you split the difference between the other two guys. But think about Ian Rappaport. Some optimism here. I'm still waiting for that too.

Well, that's what I mean. We're outside of the other. The Shepter Rapaport Steel House. This guy saw me standing right on Instagram, so I work with him now. Our segment with Anthony Heron is brought to you by Plumbers 911. Plumbing Emergency, call the plumbing professionals available 24-7 at 1-833 Plum 911. I think what we saw yesterday, all the credit is due to Brian Flores because that was a work of art. Like how many times on the TV broadcast were they counting the men on the front before people would drop back or they would,

they would blitz look, then blitz fake, then half blitz. There were so many different ways they were trying to mess with the bears yesterday. And sadly, A lot of them worked. They were messing with them. And the bears felt messed up in the midst of everything. They were trying to decipher pre-snap. As much as anything, even if you don't fully confuse the opponent, what you're trying to accomplish when you put that many bodies at the line of scrimmage

is just to create one-on-one matchups. even if it's on a rundown, but when you get linebackers mugged up in on the interior where those guys from the second level walk up toward the line, and that threat can be there for them to blitz, but it's also an additional blocking surface to have offensive linemen not necessarily be able to feel as quick of a release when they're trying to work through the shoulder

of the guys with their hands in the dirt, the defensive line. Now they can't be as a great. with that surge to the second level because they do have these additional defenders who are up on the line. So we think about all those bodies at the line of scrimmage as far as how it relates to

pass protection, how it makes folks uncomfortable because these blitzers may come from different angles. It matters a lot on rundowns, too, because now you create a bunch of one-on-one matchups or proposed one-on-one matchups, potential matchups there, the offensive

line is occupied by mentally and physically. So those landmarks they have to hit. The way they work in unison, especially on some zone schemes, where they're trying to work in tandem to be able to move guys before the backside blocker

overtakes the defender on the front side to get up to that next body. All those things end up mattering. And so Brian Flores certainly had the upper hand on Ben Johnson throughout the day yesterday and the Bears offensive line and what we're certainly sloppy weather conditions. But we've seen now,

Garrett Bradbury, a similar start to the season that we saw from Drew Dalman last year. He's certainly not as physically talented as Dolman. But when you think back to those initial games last year, we were talking about some pre-snap infractions on the center with the ball being flinching around, snaps that were errant all over the place. There was some confusion there early last year too. There's a lot of volume to Ben Johnson's offense and motions and personnel groupings. and when you face a defense like the Vikings,

it can have a very big impact on whether or not you feel you can dictate terms to them. Because Brian Flores is essentially the Ben Johnson of defense. He finds a way to be the schematic aggressor and dictate terms to you. And Ben Johnson was not able to solve it yesterday. Well, let me follow up on that because you said it that Flores had the upper hand. From what you saw, I don't know if you've gone back and watched the tape. or studied the tape or done the second deep dive. But we're Benj, you're going to have some plays that you don't like.

That's the way it's always going to be for an O.C. Did Ben Johnson have a bad game calling plays? Or was Flores just that much better? I would say Ben Johnson had an average game, I think, calling plays. We're accustomed to thinking of Ben Johnson having such an exceptional game calling plays. And, you know, we were having the quarterback conversation a bit earlier, too. If it's Tyson Bajent in the lineup for however many, whether it's one game, four games,

whatever we end up seeing play out with Caleb's hamstring, the play calling won't need to change, but the execution of the plays will certainly be different than we're accustomed to. Tyson Bajun will be confined by the X's and O's in a way that Caleb just isn't because of his physical attributes. So there are times, and Ben Johnson has gotten to the point late last season and even early this year where he's fully admitted. Caleb's made us look right a number of times just because of his physical capabilities.

And there's that yin and yang of it where there are things Ben Johnson will draw up that if they are done on script may seem more open, may seem more easy. And we've seen Caleb develop through those first couple of games here so far in just doing the basic, checking the ball down, getting it out on time and in rhythm. Tyson Bejant is going to need to live in that world more. but the ability to extend the play is there. But one thing we saw yesterday is, as Caleb was able to extend the play at times in the second half, that became a bigger part.

His escapability became a more consistent part of how the Bears operated in half number two. That was a part of what gave the run game some life, because now that backside defender is less aggressive. Ah, this QB may scramble. Well, this QB is on the move. They're calling him into some movement, so you don't have those backside defenders just screaming towards the interior. to swarm the football in the same way.

Just that little bit of additional hesitation provides the running backs an additional moment to try and crease the defense as they're getting vertical. And that's a part of what played out in the second half. That's not as likely to be there. It's not like Tyson-Bajun can't move, but he's not going to strike fear in the defense

in the same way that Caleb does. So if Bejan ends up being in the lineup, the schematic advantage, that edge that Ben Johnson gives, that'll have to be accentuated, highlighted that much more if we're hoping to see the Bears' offense have the same degree of success that we, you know, that we're hopeful about with all the talent they can put out there. We're talking to Anthony Herron, NFL analyst for us at the score, Big Ten Network, Fox 32,

and NBC Sports on a Plummers 9-1-1 football Monday presented by Bucie Bank and Great Clips. And as a former player, multi-year NFL veteran, is it as simple as, you know, when the coaches are sending messages through the media about how you guys are still talking about last week. They're also trying to communicate it to their team. And do you think that maybe those messages didn't land in a way that suited the Bears yesterday? Well, that'd be human nature, right, Leila.

After 59 points in the opener, everybody just wowing at the way that the Bears offense looked. And then the knowledge is one thing to say, well, we could have been even better. We could have put up even more than 59. Like, that was our worst game we're going to have this year, even though we just made NFL history. That all sounds good, but human nature is still that you might relax after that. You might not admit it to yourself, but you might feel like, you know what?

We got this thing figured out, man. You get out there in the next game and it's a monsoon and you got an aggressive defense. A defense is kind of ticked off of folks assuming that you're just going to run and pass all over them. And I don't think it's, it doesn't overtly become a thing where you relax or you try, not to prepare as hard or you don't spend as many hours watching film. If you looked at Ben and Caleb in the middle of the week last week when they addressed the media, they looked like neither one of them had slept the entire week.

They looked haggard. You know, like beards and hair was all over the place, bags under their eyes. They were prepping, but yet and still, we did see a game that I'm surprised the number of penalties was only eight. I don't know how many penalties were not accepted. They had 10 call down the big end and they accepted eight. They accepted eight. All right, good.

Yeah, that's, you know, 12 in the first game, eight accepted, 10 total in the second game. And a lot of them just drive killers, especially in those conditions. So the penalties continuing to be an issue, yeah, it's a difficult condition to catch the football. But just even the crispness of the offense wasn't there. It wasn't as sharp. Now, who did seem more assertive, more locked in, more sharp was the bear's defense.

because they looked bad in the first week. They were the side of the ball that needed more of a response mechanism. That's also where human nature is easy to assume that they stepped onto the field, feeling like they really needed to be a better version of themselves, and that showed up in their attack. Now, there are some open receivers out there that we can get into. There are some things the Vikings and the weather did to help the Bears defense out, but you hold an opponent in the National Football League to nine points.

You get off the field pretty frequently, They were striking. T.J. Edwards, I thought, all throughout the game. Big open field tackle. More and more like himself. Tyreek Stevenson, his best plays are when he's just being super physical. And yeah, he's made some nice plays and covers throughout his career also. But the Bears' defense was the one that was kind of downtrodden from the previous game.

And they stepped up. The Bears' offense was the one that was placed on this pedestal, and they weren't as sharp. And that's just kind of how human nature tends to work out. Yeah, no, that's a good call by you. In this segment with Anthony Herron is sponsored by great clips. It's going to be great. Yeah, it should be pointed out. Last week, they gave up 478 yards.

This week, they allow 246 yards, which is pretty good. You had an Austin Booker sack, a Dio O'Dangbo sack. And then there he was again. Malik Mohamed, making a play, man. Making a play. On the third and seven, he gets the blitz, and he gets home. What more can you say about Malik Mohamed through two weeks of his young NFL career? And at one point with the sack that you referenced,

like Diio Dangbo getting a sack, the sacks between Austin Booker and Diala Dangbo, the Austin Booker sack was a coverage sack. So that was a good thing because there were some receivers that were running open at times for Minnesota. But on that particular one, Carson Wentz is back there, patting the football, and it gave that extra beat for the D-line to get home.

And Dennis Allen is not a guy who's usually, like there's some individual games. You can kind of go back and question the overall level of aggression with the frequency of his blitz package last year. But for the most part, he's not a defensive mind that's reckless with the blitz. You know, the blitz is at this exponential rate. That tends to allow him to time things up in a way that can catch the offense off guard. And with some of the slot pressure that he brought in the boundary pressure,

like the short side of the field when you blitzed the corner, he did that multiple times in game with both Jalen Johnson, who is thought of certainly as a cover guy, not somebody who, you bring on the blitz, but they'll occasionally blitz Jalen Johnson, and, you know, he just kind of takes up that physical presence where he's screaming around the corner, but he's not a guy who's really hitting the quarterback, lighting him up that frequently, but he blitz both Stevenson and Johnson at points in the game, blitz Cam Lewis and Malik Mohamed from the slot. So you did see him mixing some of that in, and that worked out really well, I thought.

And to see James Lynch get the start at defensive end. The conversation we tend to have is who's the other. guy opposite Montez sweat is Austin Booker going to overtake Dioa Dangbo but they're trying to fit up the run. That's what that lynch move tells me is yeah they still feel good about Dioa Dangbo but if they're

putting another body in there it's going to be another body that gives them a chance on first and second down to control the run then you can get into your sub packages and get Austin Booker on the edge and have he and Dioa Dengbo matched up together and then you run these tech stunts, these TEs where you can

have a Dengbo penetrating up the field, Booker becomes the looper and gets some pressure out of that sub package. So I thought schematically, Dennis Allen was doing some things very specific with personnel and still having a rotation in there. You saw Xavier Woods get a little bit of work

at safety also. He's got some pieces moving around. Yeah, yeah, no doubt about it. We have another segment with Anthony Heron. I do have another question defensively, specifically about Jalen Johnson. We've got more questions. Oh, that's also my question. Okay, well, then maybe I'll... We have the

Same question about Jalen Johnson next. I came up with a few pros and cons and Jalen Johnson is on my pros and cons. Let's, okay. Well, this is great. I think I chose the right topic. When we return, we'll talk about number one for the Chicago Bears. That's Jalen Johnson. We will discuss him next with Anthony Heron on Rahimi and Grotia on 1043, the score.