Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Bears are talking to NFL about getting draft compensation for Ian Cunningham (Hour 1)

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote listened and reacted to the highlights of Bears general manager Ryan Poles' press conference at the NFL Combine on Tuesday. The Bears have appealed to the NFL to get draft pick compensation for assistant general manager Ian Cunningham's departure from Chicago to become the Atlanta Falcons' new general manager.

This hour is brought to you by Chicago Golf Show. The views and opinions of Laila Rahimi, Marshall Harris, and Mark Grody should not be taken too seriously. Especially when they give advice. Do not take Marshall's analogies, literally. Especially when it comes to Russell Dorsey. The sports thoughts of Rahimi Harris and Grody may change at any time. It's just sports. Okay, thanks.

Bye. Rahimi Harrison Grody. 10 to 2 on 104 3, The score. Emery Hunt, that is good stuff. He is the analyst for CBS Sports HQ. He was at the HBCU Legacy Bowl this weekend. He is the owner of football game plan. Thanks for coming on, Emory.

You know what's fascinating about that is the fact that, you know, when you look at this thing holistically and I'm not a fan of any team, I'm just a fan of being right. Okay, look, you don't trust me. You can trust one thing. I love to be right. Is there going to be something at 25 that can help them immediately? And is that more likely to happen at Edge or left tackle if so?

You're glad you asked that question because I've been compiling a list of things in life that were a mistake. Number one, speakerphone. Speaker phone number one, and number two might be airports, but... Why airports? I know you, don't I? I'm usually very good with names, but I'll be damned if I haven't forgotten yours. You stole my cab. I've never stole anything in my life.

I hailed a cab on Park Avenue this afternoon, and before I could get in it, you stole it. You're the guy who tried to get my cab. I knew I knew you. you. Yeah. I just flew back from the Legacy Bowl like you mentioned. It was 10 a.m. in the morning in New Orleans Airport. There were three young ladies sitting there eating a big plate of nachos. Like, how you even have the taste for that at 10 in the morning? Well, Chris, since your royalty now, I made your favorite. Dinner for breakfast? Third and fighting hall for third might be mock draft. Have you done a mock draft yet? And where would you, who do you have going to the Bears at 25 if you have?

I only do two a year. Okay. One is a small school only mock draft. Small schools are schools that are FCS D2D3 because what they've now tried to do nowadays, that made me add to my list to the things that were a mistake. They're adding now,

oh, this guy goes to a small school. Oh, yeah, what school? And you think it, Illinois State, you think it's Southern Illinois. Oh, no, he went to Iowa State. Let me get out of my face. Lila Rahini, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Midday's 10 a.m. to 2

on Chicago Sports Radio. One of four three, the score. Every Hunt, philosopher and football analyst, and spot on on a lot of both. This is Rahimi Harrison Brody on 1043, The Score. Happy Combine. Is that a thing? I think so? Okay.

You know, you say it out loud, it doesn't always sound how you wanted to. And what's that, Ray Diaz? We have this fresh Ryan Poles audio ready to go. Just wanted to let you know in your ear there. No expiration date. You know what? This is what we like to do on Rahimi Harris and Grady. We are going to be getting news all day here on the Combine real time on 104.

We also expect to hear from Ben Johnson in just a little bit. Thanks to our producer, Sean Sears and Tyler Buehberball for also helping us out with this. In addition to Ray Diaz, so without further ado, we're going to pause when we want to react to something, but we will play Ryan pulls his comments to the media here from the Combine this morning. Questions? What's your interpretation at the NFL's one? Yeah, it's a great question. I think I kind of put that whole thing in the two buckets.

One, I'm really proud that Ian has an opportunity to be a general manager. Something we've talked about for a long time before we ever employed by the Bears. It was our vision to climb through the ranks, get the seat, the GM seat, and then help the other one get to their position as well. So I'm really happy for him. how we do that and why we do that has nothing to do with compensation whatsoever. I want to make that very clear. On the other side, there's a set of rules that we're put in place that I think can be applied to this situation.

So we've communicated through the right channels, so we'll see what happens as we move forward. I'm not sure. We'll just wait for a response. No one personally called me from the league, so. said that he thinks you should and you think you should. So the bears think we should and the mountains think you should. It seems like... Yeah.

So it'll be up to the league and how they see it. So you formally have to be able to the league? We've had conversations, yeah. What's your overall heading up the road itself? Are you heard from your state? Yeah, I mean, I'll be honest. I think it's, it is a little strange. I mean, at the end of the day,

you should want to develop your staff, regardless of the color of their skin. I think that's important. I think we take a lot of pride with the bears on how we have our setup. And I take a lot of pride in that. So to be compensated for that's a little strange. I mean, I saw the chiefs get a pick because of me, and then I watched that player go and play.

It's just a little odd. But at the end of the day, if they think that's what's best to help incentivize, then that's what they wanted to do. But at the end of the day, like I said, that's not the purpose of why we develop our staff, but if that's the rule they have in place, and I think it's very clear in the situation on what should happen. Bravo to Ryan Poles for advocating for himself,

for advocating for the Bears, and then also speaking to his personal experience. So that is Ryan Poles from the Combine. Our press conference coverage is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3, the score. And right out of the gate, that's the first part of the discussion, because as we know, this is the first time that Ryan Poles is, spoken since the news of Ian Cunningham going to the Atlanta Falcons.

He's listed as the general manager for people who may not know that, but Matt Ryan, who is a former college teammate of Ryan Poles, the former Falcons quarterback, is considered the president of football operations. So because of that, there's a lot of understanding in the NFL that the Bears will not get compensatory picks for promoting, like Ryan Poles mentioned, his career arc coming from Kansas City, getting a promotion of running a front office. and the rule is being selectively applied. So what do you two think?

And Mark, I'll start with you because you're not at the combine this time around. You're with us. Sorry, Mark Grody. When you hear that from Ryan Poles, what do you think? I love that they're, I didn't necessarily think that this would be the route for Ryan Poles. It's been so quiet on this front. But the fact that they're having conversations in regards to an appeal regarding the compensatory picks is heartening. I don't think at the end of the day

they're going to come out with anything out of this, but I do think that this is the time now to clean that up, make it more clear, make it more concise, and then going forward. I don't expect them to get compensatory picks, though, still.

This seemed like a layup for Ryan Poles. He knew he's going to be asked about it. He's known for weeks he was going to be asked about this specifically since the hiring of Ian Cunningham and the news that they weren't going to get the picks. I thought it was interesting that he wasn't given necessarily himself an explanation, but he says not necessarily a formal appeal, but that they've had conversations, which made it sound like the conversation is still going, which is a good thing,

I think. You're probably right, Mark, they're probably not going to get the picks, but exhaust every avenue to try to find out, hey, this process seems like it didn't work in the way it was intended by the way you guys set it out. Me, I can speak to this personally because I actually got a job with the bears and saw the extra players that the chiefs got. So the fact that they were on the field tells me that you guys do give out the picks. It's not something that doesn't happen. Why is it not happening here? And, you know, we've heard the explanation, but you pair this with what Ian Cunningham said. And it seems like the NFL is getting a consistent message from both camps. Well, and that's it. Ian Cunningham also spoke at the combine today. And he said that he

thinks that that should be in place. And if you guys don't advocate for yourselves when the league has already selectively applied this rule, you know, you're not doing yourself any favors if you don't. So credit to Ryan Poles, credit to Ian Cunningham for being in their positions. The Combine is as much a front office business as it is looking at potential players for the league business. You know, this is where everybody talks. What did Bragg Biggs call it?

Legal tampering is done, but let's face it. we know that everybody talks about players in the NFL. Lots of room to do that. I'm not here to legislate it. I do want to let our listeners know we are going to listen to this, pause it. You'll hear the whole thing with us, but we do want to react when we hear stuff. Just because it's the easiest way, you know, that's how we do it. So you will hear Ryan polls in the entirety throughout this hour here on 1043,

the score with Rahimi, Harrison Grotie. We want to get back to it. One more thing I wanted to say from that first little part there, When Ian Cunningham first came into the building with the Chicago Bears, it felt like from day one he was being ushered out because they wanted him to get an opportunity. So it was always hilarious to me that that was, okay, let's see. Every like two or three months, Ian Cunningham has, you know, has heard from this team or that, or we're trying to give him the opportunity.

And so get to know Jeff King because he'll probably be gone soon as well, the new assistant GM for the bear. if the Bears are to continue to succeed. Yeah, Jeff King is the director. He was a director. He's now the assistant GM. He was the director of player personnel. And from what everybody says, and this seems to be the overall sentiment,

a well-deserved promotion for him, for sure. We continue our Combine Press Conference with Ryan Poles brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers here on 104-3, The Score. We'll see what they think. Yeah, I think there's a vision for it. I think in the next few weeks, We'll see if we can get some clarity on that, just in terms of retaining our own.

I want to see how that plays out. As I said, at the end of the season, we have more constraints now than we ever have before. We're further back in the draft. From a cap standpoint, we've got to clear some room there. So we have to be strategic, and also, like I've always said, it takes two to make that happen. So we want to be really smart with the guard rolls that we put up. And if it falls under that, then great. If not, then we have to pivot to the next deal.

Yeah, we'll have conversations over the next, you know, probably 10 days here and see if we can make that happen. You're trying to look at a little bit for a couple of companies with the next. Yeah, I'm really fortunate to have Matt Feinstein. I think he's one of the best cap guys in the league. He gives us a lot of different scenarios for us to operate in, but also showing us the short-term and long-term effect of each one of those decisions. because we want to stay in that sweet spot where we have maximum amount of flexibility as we move on not only from this year but three years down the road. I hope eventually to have a quarterback situation too where we got to pay a young quarterback.

So that comes in a play as well. I think we're getting closer and closer to clarity and that side of things, which helps us start to build those models to make sure that, again, we're doing the right thing for us moving forward and we're not put ourselves in a situation or we've got to make really, you know, tough or bad decisions down the road that hurt us. That's big. So Ryan Poles acknowledging Caleb Williams' rookie contract. Feinstein, as he mentioned, Matt Feinstein is, I think we just, what do we refer to him as the cap guy for the bears? He's going to help try to figure out how to make contracts more flexible so the bears have more room.

the elite year starts on March 11th, so they need more room under that salary cap right now, according to overthecap.com. They're about $5 million over. So that's important to keep of note here as well. Matt Feinstein, by the way, his official title on the Bears website is vice president of football administration. Well, I thought polls put it perfectly too that we hope to be in that position to be paying a young quarterback that they'd like to do it. And maybe he's already hinting at let's do the restructuring of the contract before we give out the contract so we could other people and get more creative because it is one of the biggest issues in all. The chiefs are going through it right now with Patrick Mahomes that you can't, like when you're in that rookie contract, life is good.

But when you pay what we hope to be an elite quarterback, that's a lot of dough. Yeah, the chiefs have gone through it for so long now. It's really been the better part of a decade that the chiefs have been trying to figure things out because their quarterback, you know, when he got paid that half a billion dollar deal, it was like, all right, well, now every year you're going to have. have to figure it out. And we've seen things like the departure of Tyreek Hill. And obviously, it gets to a point, and correct me if I'm wrong guys, but what I've seen is, once you have an elite quarterback getting paid, let's say top five, even top 10 money, you put your money

in your defense and you tell your quarterback figure it out. Additionally, that's how the Bears got Joe Tuny. Joe Tuny, they had to move from Kansas City because they didn't have enough cap room to pay everyone. And they had drafted offensive linemen. that were on lower parts of the depth chart in high rounds, like the second round or the first round. So because of that, yes, you know, you reap the benefits of it when you've got Caleb Williams on a rookie deal, but Patrick Mahomes' deal with the Chiefs does affect it.

So for Ryan Poles to say that, I think there's a couple pieces here that he's establishing. Number one, they already have not the best amount of cap flexibility to work with, as we mentioned. And then, number two, that contract, extension, I wonder if it comes a little bit earlier than we're used to seeing because remember, Caleb Williams was a guy who wanted to do things at this combine differently. He wanted to structure his contract differently. Remember how long it took for he and the Bears to come to an actual

contractual agreement? So I wonder if that comes into play here sooner than we may think. I'm not saying like this year, but I'm saying perhaps maybe before even the fifth year option gets discussed. Well, that would be next offseason, basically what you're talking about. And that wouldn't surprise me at all. I think everything that they do, whether it's Ryan Poles, Matt Feinstein, Jeff King, it's got to be geared to, we need to make the most out of this rookie contract, but also be malleable when we know Caleb's got to get paid. And so everybody that they sign, everybody that they draft, understanding this guy who's here right now definitely won't be here when Caleb gets paid because, well, that's just the way life is. Even if they're good and the better

they play, the more money they're going to want to make. That's kind of an issue already with certain members of the secondary right now. Unless I'm missing a name somewhere along the line here, I do believe the last time the pairs gave out a second contract was to a gentleman by the name to a quarterback was Jay Cutler. Unless I'm missing somebody. Yeah, and they didn't even draft him. Through the years. So you got to go way back. And they didn't even draft. And some people, as it turned out, that was, I remember being for the payment of Jay Cutler and the second contract, but it didn't ultimately work out with him getting that, or was it a third come. I might have been even been a third contract with Jay Cutler, but he's the last one that I can remember.

So in other words, that would be a pretty big moment for the Bears whenever it does come. We're going to listen to Ryan Poles for the rest of this hour, kind of react with us. If you like, you can join our conversation. 312, 644, 67.67 is our number here at 104.3. The score, you can text us, and you can call us. And we're going to listen to this and also what Ben Johnson has to say, pause it, discuss, and then reassess and evaluate because combine news is happening fast and furious here in Indianapolis. We heard from Brad Biggs earlier on the morning show with Mully and Haw, Ruthie Pallinsky filling in for

Mully. We also heard from other people talking about what they expect the bears to do. Chris Emma will join us live from the combine at one o'clock, so you don't want to miss that. And in the meantime, we broadcast live from the Scores Hyundai Studios, brought to you by your local Hyundai This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043 The Score. Our producers, Ray Diaz, Tyler Buterbaugh, Sean Sears helping out today. And you can join us on Twitch. We have moved on Twitch. I know a lot of you guys don't know.

It is twitch.tv slash the score Chicago. So you can find us there. Let everybody know because I know we changed our address on Twitch. So we are there as well. You can join our Twitch chat. Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, and Cody Westerland. help us out there. So we have a lot more to come. Don't go anywhere. We will play and continue to discuss and listen to what Ryan Poles had to say here at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis happening. Now,

we will listen to Ben Johnson. After that, you've got 1043, the score. Rahimi Harrison Grody, Midday's Tyndal 2 on Chicago Sports Radio, 1043, the score. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043 The Score. We're listening to Ryan Poles' press conference from the Combine. It is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. Let's resume. Yeah, philosophically, I feel the same. It's going to be the best player available.

I know that may not be the most popular thing because people see kind of like on my board have yellow tags where we need to fill in. But at the same time, I do believe, especially in early rounds like one, you really got to stick to best player available. We saw that last year. I know there's a lot of questions. You got Cole, why would you take Colston?

I think we found out that it helped us along the way. So we'll continue to lean in that philosophy. How tricky is it to navigate the linebacker position with some of the injuries of Coach's? Yeah, it's really difficult. We spend a lot of time working through that process. There's some unknowns there. There's some projections just in terms of return time. And then you want to know, is that athlete going to return to be the same player he was before?

Or could they go downhill? So there's a lot of projections in that make it a little bit difficult. But I think that's when you lean into versatility, flexibility, and making sure that you get the right person in the room to make sure that that group can be filled out the best they can. Yeah, I think the big one, and it's not just in Kansas City, you can look across the league. I think you, and it sounds really simple, but you want to take a good football player.

that meets the criteria that you're looking for in terms of culture fits, play style, intelligence, all of those things. You really want to lean into that. I think sometimes you can get caught in flashy. You're trying to, you know, that guy should have went in the top 15, and he slid because of this reason, but we'll fix that, and I think you want a good football player that matches the DNA that you're looking for. Right, what you just said about Taylor?

You're not going to prefer quarterback now. There are teams who are. I didn't mean to say that on the air, but let's pause it. My mic was off. So, no, if you want to stop it, let's just say stop it and they'll stop it. Right, guys? Everybody's on board. We're good.

Stop it makes it sound like it's condescending like the old dick is segment on ESPN where he'd say, stop it. Okay. Pause. How about that? Is that where it? Yeah, which is something. It's like Stacey King with the Telestrator. Let's go ahead and pause that right there.

You just go ahead. Pause it right there. That is where I got that from because Stacy does it all the time. So can I get my signature on that poster now? Okay, good. Okay, so that's big to me that Brian Polsetti wants to still go with best player available at 25, and he knows that's not what everybody loves. And I understand why he wanted to use Colston Loveland as the comp here,

although I actually think the Bears needed another tight end who is more known to be a pass catcher in his arsenal than what Colquemette was known for. So I think that those are two different roles that we're seeing with Colson Loveland and Colquette. if a best player available is another receiver at 25, I'm not real sure how that would work. I completely agree with Ryan Poles, especially in early rounds about taking best player available. Better example than Colston Loveland would actually be,

I was going to say Colson Montgomery, but that jokes passed. It would actually be Luther Bird and the 3rd, because I think the Luther Bird in the 3rd was more of a head scratcher, eyebrow raising pick in the draft. in the draft last year than Colston Loveland. Everyone could see them taking a tight-in because of Ben Johnson's offense and how things were. He's like, oh, is it going to be Colson Loveland?

It's going to be Tyler Warren. But when that Luther Burton III came in, wait a minute, they already have, and you just go down the list of DJ Moore and Rome and all the other guys. I think the biggest thing here is to understand that there's so many good players at so many different positions

that at 25, someone's probably going to fall to them. And it's probably going to be better than what they thought they were going to get at 25. That's usually how it works late first round. I also think that Ryan Poles is for the first time in a long time in showing up the combine. He can

have a little pride in his draft. Not only the fact that the Bears won, there is that, and he had a good draft year last year. Colston Loveland, hit. Luther Burden, hit. Ozzie Tripillo hit. Kyle Munnungai, hit.

Still, still in question. Shemar Turner, Ruben Hippolyte, Zay Frazier, and Luke Newman. But he had at least four guys who made big contributions to the roster last year. So when he steps up there and says, best player available, I don't think we roll our eyes as much as maybe we would have in the past. And by the way, most GMs are going to say best player available. It doesn't necessarily mean they take the best player. I think there was an example of best player available at 39 with Luther Burton. I don't necessarily know if the best player available once again at 25 as a receiver.

How much, like, that's the real test, right? If you see that the best player available in the draft is a position you absolutely know they are stocked at. I don't necessarily know if they sincerely subscribe to that concept. Right. They could definitely turn and say, well, we thought that player was the best player available, even if we all think it's a wide receiver. So, yeah, I think that they would pivot unless something happens in the wide receiver room. And we know that there's one person who we are monitoring and his name is DJ Moore in terms of, although there hasn't been much talk about that recently, still have to keep your eye on DJ more. You do have to keep your eye on DJ.

You also know that he is a possibility for a restructure of a contract because he's got so many years to work with. So, you know, that's part of it too. The Bears don't have a ton of long-term deals where they could rework and help get some room under the salary. Check this out, Leila. If they did, if they restructured the contract of DJ Moore, that they could save 17.5 mil-dough. So that's a big deal. And that was from Fishbane's article. Moore, Sweat and Grady Jarrett, if they were to restructure their contracts, that would create 33 million.

Old Joe Tooney, Jonah Jackson, $14 million for potential contract. restructure. We haven't talked about that much yet, so I'm glad you brought that up. Well, because Joe Tooney was a restructure, right? It was like an extension, and then they worked with the existing years to be able to... Oh, when they brought him in initially, yes. He was traded for, then he had existing years on his deal, then they decided to extend him to help kick that out, I think. Kick it. I think the restructure is important because of what's going to happen when Caleb gets paid, but also you restructure, you make a key cut. Sorry, Tremaine Edmonds. All of a sudden, you've got real estate that you didn't have a runway to add

to your roster and improve your roster that you didn't have. And I'm a big fan of kicking the can down the road in the NFL. Best example, Howie Roseman. That man just keeps kicking the can down the road. And it's looked pretty good for those Eagles. I'm glad you brought up Tremaine Edmonds as well, because I want to get to that. So Ryan Poles was asked a question about the linebacker situation. And that is a very injured group right now. And you consider Noah Sewell out with the Achilles. T.J. Edwards had to be carted off the field. He had the broken leg, my goodness sake.

And I thought there was a really good comment that Ryan Polson made when he said, you know, we're trying to figure out timelines. And then also, when they return, are they going to be the same player? When you heard that, who did you think of? My initial thought was Sewell because of the Achilles, because Achilles can't hurt people? That's not who I thought. Did you guys both think of T.J.? Oh, absolutely. 100%.

Because TJ had not just one but two debilitating injuries throughout the season. And it wasn't even just the broken leg. You know, he was dealing with multiple injuries. And he wasn't a player known for injuries until this past year. So that was also something that came to mind. So when you heard that comment about the linebacker, what did you think? Yeah, no, that was the first thing I thought. And of course, you think about Tremaine Edmonds and the possibility of him getting away

because that's what we've been hearing from, from everybody. But yeah, no, I worry about T.J. Edwards. The good thing about T.J. Edwards, though, is he doesn't necessarily depend on, like, high athleticism and speed to do his job that a lot of what he does well, and he has all that, but he's more instincts and being in the right place. I always go to Lance Briggs as an example.

Like, Briggs, obviously, a better player than T.J. Edwards, but Briggs didn't have that, like, outstanding speed, but he was quick as hell, and he knew where to be on the field at all times. Yeah. That's T.J. Edwards. The instinct plays in this. Look, they understand that they have a lot of injury questions that they will not have answered until probably after the regular season starts.

Well, in 847 on our text line says the fact that the easiest to most obvious cut this year, Edmund, hasn't happened yet as interesting. Polls in years past has made these moves prior to this week. There may be other plans for him, trade extension, just weird he hasn't been cut yet. So this is his last year of his deal. So I don't necessarily know that an extension is on the table there when you're in your last year like that. Well, Darnall Wright's the guy that you've got to think about too. And maybe he will be asked about it.

I'm curious if Darnall Wright will come up in this conversation because that he is a candidate for a potential extension. And just to keep people refresh on Tremaine Edmonds, if they were to release him, that's a $15 million cap saving. Cole Commet would be an $8.4 million cap saving. and while we're at it, DeAndre Swift, number three with a bullet, a 17, or excuse me, 7.47 million. I'll take that team you added on the end of the seven. He would be a $7.47 million cap saving. So those three guys that, let's see if there's more questions about that. Yeah, and the DeAndre Swift one, that's the one where I really bristle.

You know, that's the one where I want to give serious pause if I'm putting a GM hat on. In terms of. Because he's been, in terms of good, in terms of, you want him on this team. In terms of good. And I hope that some of you understand when I said that, what I meant. And if I hear about any goofy games at the combine this year, where they're playing put putt putt or whatever,

I better hear the results of these putt putt games, okay? I need to know why that's happening still. Because DeAndre Swift is good. That's what you're saying. He was a good player and he fits in the offense. He's relatively cheap. So let's ride out DeAndre Swift for a more year. Everyone while you are calling him good.

That's inappropriate. The way the mantra starts is good, but then it goes to two other words. And so good might not be good enough in Ben Johnson's eyes. That's all I'm saying. Well, in terms of good was a reference to Mattie, or Fluse. Oh, no, I got you. Where we're at in terms of good. But I'm saying...

I think we should bring it back. Good better best. Take it back. Never let it rest. Bring back Fluse? No, bring back where we're at in terms of good. Oh, okay. were never at good.

But yeah. Our culture is awesome. Just to close the circle on past Bears' coaches, I saw Mark Tresman tweeted for the first time in a while, and it was complimenting the Team USA hockey team. There's your past Bears coach update. He's proud. That actually sounded like a real segment. There's your past Bears coach update.

I'm Lila Rahimi with your past Bears coach update. Oh, just because we respect the Olympics. Next hour, Dick Duran! Wade Larvie. Here is one notable, by the way, 847 was on with the spot on with the roster move discussion because this did happen earlier today. Ian Cunningham, how about this? Ian Cunningham rolls up to the scene in Atlanta.

We know that per Matt Ryan, he's going to be running things. And then it's like, oh, by the way, we're going to release Kirk Cousins. Now that's a move. That is a massive contract, as we know. I hadn't done the math on the dead money, but we do know that the Falcons plan to release Kirk Cousins on the first day of that new league year, which is March 11th. We continue to listen and react to Ryan Poles and his press conference is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers here on 104.3, the score, he is live from the combine.

So before we get into anything else, let's just let you know what he had to say already. They gave us some pause. Number one, he thinks that the bears should get compensation for Ian Cunningham, leaving the bears as assistant GM, going to the Falcons, is. general manager. Cunningham has been quoted on the record at the combine already saying that as well. Matt Feinstein was brought in to discuss football flexibility. He's now the VP of football administration. The bears are trying to get some of that per polls when it comes to flexibility under the cap. He acknowledged that Caleb Williams is on a rookie deal and then they also want to get the best player available at 25.

So that's where we're at in the conversation. There's more from Ryan polls coming up here on 104.3 of the score. This is Rahimi Harrison Grody. We'll hear it next. Rahimi Harris and Grody. Midday's 10 to 2 on 1043, The Score. We're back here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043 The Score. The segment is brought to you by Almost Free Teeth.com because confidence should never cost a fortune.

And our Bears press conference that we're listening to with General Manager Ryan Poles is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. And I know what you're thinking. you're thinking, well, it's been a couple hours or so since anybody's brought up the name Tyson-Bagent. Not to fear. And I do think it's worth discussing because frankly, Tyson-Bagent's name is one of those

that can come up in a lot of trade conversations. I think he's got a lot of value in this league. We're not the only ones. Without further ado, let's get back to it. Yeah, we anticipated that just because of the environment, both, I think it would be peace and kind of do a overlay of the draft and for agency. We anticipated someone like Tyson is going to get some, you know, interest. We've gotten a few calls there.

Obviously the tough thing is with, you know, what Ben thinks about Tyson, what I think about Tyson, what our locker room thinks about Tyson. That's a really tough decision for us. But for Tyson as well, like I think he would have an opportunity to go and perform for our team and do some really good things. But again, you got to weigh the short term and long term. So now what's the cost of replacement, right, to get someone like Tyson. We spent a lot of time developing him.

Ben spent a lot of time developing him. So you got to replace that as well. So interesting dynamic there that we're going to have to work through. Okay. So it sounds like the Bears, I would assume the Bears have gotten some calls about Tyson Bayesian. I think that's pretty safe to... You just said that, yeah.

To say. They have gotten calls, it sounds like. I'm sorry, I had Ray's at our computers, and he's working on our computers, so it was kind of hard to do both. They're talking about the interest in Tyson Bayesian, but I completely understand where Ryan Poles has come from because he's saying, yes, if we trade him, cool, we'll get something for him. But at the same time, that's a lot of development that went into that guy. You've got to have a replacement for him someone else to fill that quarterback spot as the true backup quarterback. And they just said, I mean, they've put a lot, they have truly committed to this gentleman as a backup. I believe it was the Bears current assistant GM, Jeff King, who has gotten the most credit for having scouted Tyson Bayesian and having brought him to their attention.

And then he got that extension last year. So in other words, I believe it would take a lot for the Bears to part ways with Tyson Bayesian. We'll see how serious those other teams actually are about Mr. Bayesian. Like Bejan seems like a valuable guy. If other GMs do think that he is the goods, like if a quarterback is to get injured, right, throughout the season, stand by on Bejant. Tyson Bejant is set to make $4.75 million next year, which congratulations, Tyson, Bejant. It's only 1.6% of the estimated Bears' salary cap allotment. So maybe it's enough to entice Ryan Poles, but you know,

he also could be doing there. Like he's like, hey, he's not going for free, guys. You know, like we put it, we invested in Tyson, Bajit, and he may be trying to establish value even there in that discussion at the combine. Well, I'd even play it out further and be like, let's be honest, if a team has a quarterback who's hurt and therefore they're interested in Tice and Bajon because of that, isn't that the type of quarterback you want to keep on your roster in case Caleb Williams gets hurt? Of course.

That's the point to me for me. Well, and then it depends on, you know, as he says, as he's, as he's, as he's, said. He brought up the cost of it too. Okay, what resources would we have to use? What would we have to pay then to bring in another, what in theory would be, well, maybe they would draft a quarterback. They do have a couple of seventh round picks. Maybe they'd take a flyer on somebody at some point in time in the draft. But again, what resources would they then have to use to get a veteran backup quarterback behind Caleb? Let's face it. It's a good problem. It's a compliment to the front office. As you mentioned, Jeff King deserves credit for that. So does the rest of

Bears front office for being able to put themselves in the position to have that asset. So very compelling at least. And I think probably a story will continue to discuss, you know, all offseason until maybe something happens. Let's resume listening to the Bears press conference with Ryan Poles, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. The first time that the Bears said that I felt that way about it. Yeah.

How does that change the equation? I know that you feel that that piece is sound on you? Yeah, I would say, and I want to be clear, you know, we've, anyone that's watched the league long enough knows that it's, for the quarterback play, it's consistency.

You can use stack years on top of each other. So we still have steps to go here. I don't want to make it like he's already in. Like, he knows he's got work to do. Ben's been very clear with the vision. And I know he's going to put the time in it to get to that. that needs to get to that point. But if all of that falls into place,

again, I think we strategically have to understand how does that change our formula as we move forward and make decisions in the future. But for the organization, that's a great thing, to be on that path. I feel like you have a long-term quarterback solution. It makes me excited. Obviously, he's excited, Ben's excited,

so it's good for everybody. the roof of window where you're really hit the top level quarterback playing at it just now. Yep. So how much do you feel the pressure of clock ticking on that? Yeah, I wouldn't say there's pressure of the clock taken. I think you want to take advantage of those opportunities to get as much talent on the roster as possible. But again, like, how you make all that fit is the part that we've got to be really strategic about. What did you did with the offensive line last year?

It's possible if you ran on the defensive line side at that quantity and that kind of part? Yeah, I think it's always possible. Things got to come together. That mindset was there from the day I walked in. But those opportunities, the clarity that we needed wasn't all there. So we were able to capitalize on some cool situations there through trade and for agency. I'm not sure how that's all going to line up now. I know from a cap perspective, we probably don't have enough to make all of that work on the defensive line.

I do think on our D-line, I think there are some situations, mostly injury, that didn't allow that to really come together the way it was supposed to. So I look forward to that happening. But we're also going to have to continue to bring talent in to create competition so that our defense can take the next step. Yeah, I would say from what we know now, and not until we leave here and gather the information from medical interviews, will we have complete clarity on the draft?

But as it sits right now, I feel like the edge, is deeper than the interior. Right, what is... Okay, under this CDX kind of golden idea winning a championship of young football about the first time Why do you think that has it? Say that one more time?

Why do you think it hasn't happened to winning the championship but the young team for you have spent the experience Yeah, I think you've seen some teams have some success in terms of winning a championship in the Super Bowl. I'd say that's a, yeah, it's a pretty deep question that starts all the way back in how we're developing talent from high school, college, NIL, transfers, coaching, where the focus is for some of these kids. I think it's a lot deeper than just what we see in the league. But I would say, I would, development is probably the place I would lean into. These guys have a lot to learn coming into this league.

Simply as, I mean, it was just until last year you're throwing up a card, right, to put the play in for everybody. And they got to go in and now hear it through a headset, regurgitate it, give it to the huddle, get to the line of scrimmage on time, and then maybe just flip the play to the other side. it's really complicated. And I think the game has gotten more and more complicated to create a tactical advantage for offenses. And that's really hard for young quarterbacks because it's all brand new. It's a different language. So I would lean into development to answer your question.

That's Ryan Poles as we continue to listen to his press conference at the combine, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. So he was asked about Caleb Williams. I'm pretty sure by Jason Leisure guys. And it doesn't sound like, polls is at the point yet where he wants to talk about an extension. That's my overwhelming impression of this. I know we're up against a break. We'll get to a little bit more of the discussion afterward as we continue to listen, but really quickly, just your initial thoughts on that alone. I think that makes sense. I mean, there's no pressure here to get something done this off season. It's a first-round pick. There's a fifth-year option. We're going into year three. I think it's a little premature to have that kind of conversation. Oh, Mr. 10-year

contract that's coming from. Interesting. Yeah, yeah. I stand by what I said. He is the franchise quarterback for the next 10 years. Just like the Cubs, I ain't paying PCA yet. Same, same vibes. I loved what, they have remained steadfast since this

season ended in evaluating Caleb Williams and I'm talking about Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson. He said these one, two, three, four words. We still have steps. That's what it is. There are still steps to go. There is still learning. And they're not going to be skipped.

There are ways, believe it or not, for Caleb Williams to be a better quarterback going in the next year, as grand as things were for number 18 this year. I think that's a really good place to pause our conversation. We are listening and reacting to all of what Ryan Poles had to say. We're not done yet. So we're going to take a break. They are speaking live at the Combine right now. The Bears in Indianapolis.

It is Ryan Poles. It is Ben Johnson. We are listening and reacting together. 312644-67-67 is our number. And we're on Twitch, The Score Chicago. Twitch.tv.tv. slash The Score, Chicago, if you want to hang out and listen with us there. Let's do more from the NFL Combine next on 1043, The Score.