Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Bears head to Carolina for first game of 2026 season | Take The North

Episode Date: September 12, 2026

It's time for our first game preview episode of the 2026 season! Dan Wiederer and Mark Grote bring you a full preview of Bears-Panthers. What's the latest on the injury front? Will receiver Rome Odunze be good to go against Carolina? And left tackle Ozzy Trapilo continues to make remarkable progress as he recovers from his knee injury. In our first game spotlight of the season, all eyes are on Bears quarterback Caleb Williams. Will we see him take the next steps in his career? We also have our three things to watch during the game and predictions!

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Dan Weiderer and Mark Grody. We're going to take the North and never give it back. Hello again, everybody, and welcome in to the Take the North podcast, along with Dan Weiderer of the Athletic. I am Mark Grody of 1043, the score. We've reached a crucial. day of the week. It is the Thursday of the week ahead of Sunday's game against Carolina, which means we get all sorts of good stuff, including the Take the North game. Spotlight.

We'll do some predictions. Dan will have his three things to watch. It's all happening, Dan Weeter, what's going on, man? It's great. It's great to be immersed back in a game week, to get back in this rhythm, to feel the absolute anticipation build that comes with walking toward the season opener. I'm excited to go to North Carolina this weekend to get on a flight Saturday morning and be back on the road chasing the bears around and hoping that this season brings as many sort of adrenaline rushes and and unforgettable experiences as 2025 had should be fun it should be fun and I think we've put in a lot of time getting ready for this team to play a game and so now it's time to go play that game yeah the best part about it is it's the unknown it's the unknown of the

start of a season where anything can happen we think we might have a good idea of what might happen with the bears and Caleb Williams and the defense but nobody really knows and it's the beautiful exciting, scary part of the entire season. And we will, like I said, we'll do our predictions at the end. And I hope you guys watching and listening, enjoyed our predictions episode, which we just performed. It's the previous episode to this one. That would be episode 524.

If you haven't checked it out, do it quickly before the season starts. So you can laugh at us or praise us and applaud us in that particular episode. Always a very controversial episode. But let's get right into the happenings of the day. I am looking at the injure report from Thursday at Hallis Hall. I'm going to run through it. And then, Dan, I want to see what you think of it. And I'll tell you what I think of it.

Roma Dunesay, again, for a second straight day. And this was an actual practice as opposed to an estimated injury report like Wednesday. They actually practiced on Thursday. Roma Dunesay limited with the cap injury. Tyson Bajun did not practice due to a back injury that he is dealing with. Ozzie Trapillo limited with the knee. I see that Xavier Woods, the bear's safety, has popped up on the injury report limited due to a groin injury. And then you get the veteran days off for Grady Jarrett and Joe Tuny.

Dan, where do you start when you look into this injury report for the Bears? Yeah, I mean, you start with the Dundze. You start with the idea that he was back on the field on Thursday. And that would give you some optimism that he'll be kind of ready to go on Sunday. Now again, for a guy that dealt with injuries last year, you want to take the caution into account so that you make sure that you're not putting them in a position where you could have a setback and then he misses more time than he needs to. But that's certainly where you start there.

Xavier Woods, as you mentioned, the safety seemed to be moving around okay in the locker room. So I'm not sure what the significance of that is if Cam Lewis had to move back there. Maybe Cam Lewis would move back there. But I think Woods should be good to go. And then we'll see what Friday brings with official designations. And clean injury report overall, honestly. And we did have a chance for a minute or two to talk to Kaumanungai in the locker room today. given how serious his knee injury looked when it occurred in August,

the fact that he's not even on the injury report and he's ready to roll is a really, really bright sign for the period. Yeah, I think we had been anticipating that he would miss at least one game of the regular season. So some of these guys have been as annoying as this training camp has been with some of the dramatic injuries, some of the recovery has been dramatic as well. So count him in as that. Speaking of dramatic recovery, it continues for Ozzie Tripillo, who obviously, limited on the injury report, but it looks like despite that, he might be taking the next step,

as we learned today, that it is possible that Ozzie Tripillo will be doing, finally be doing something he has not done. It's the next step, doing 11 on 11 drills as we get closer to this fully miraculous recovery from Ozzy Tripillo. We're not there yet, but Dan, that's a huge step as he is to take it here in short order. Slight aside before I give you the meat that you desire, but it's an absolute disaster out there at House Hall right now in terms of the media schedule. If you're trying to get to the people that you want to talk to, it's impossible. As you know from last year, similar where the coordinators are speaking at the same time as the assistant coaches in the locker room, half the team is in the wait room. They've got lift during

the 45 minutes that we're in there. That's an aside for another day that I'm sure we'll get into it. It's just hard. I am glad. Like I like this is really weird. And for the audience's sake, that don't know. I am now a full-time host on the score five days a week, so I am no longer the official Bears reporter. I am not out at Hallis Hall every day. I'll be at all the home games and all that. And obviously, we talk Bears about two hours out of every one of our shows. So I'll be on top of everything. But it's an odd place because I'm not there for all of this. I don't have my microphone in the locker room anymore. It's sort of an awkward transition. But I don't miss that part. I don't miss that part.

of it, the weirdness that goes on with open locker rooms at Halles Hall sometimes. Yeah, and the coach availability too. And the reason I bring that up is because you know the headache. You know the headache of like, oh, man, should I sit in this room and listen to, you know, Dennis Allen, give me the lowdown on the defense. I've probably got a couple good questions I want to ask him, but I can't miss some of these guys out in the hallway that might have some insight. And today, Dan Rochar had some insight on a number of offensive line topics, including

what you asked me about, which was Ozzie Chappello. And Dan was very clear in saying that it looked like his mind has been blown. by how rapidly Ozzy has come back from this injury. And that they had conversations with Andre Tucker, the trainer, after the injury occurred, from the vantage point of like, do guys always come back from this? And getting the answer of like, no, this could be bad. And now way ahead of schedule, he's not only been practicing for several weeks, there's an opportunity soon the Bears believe to mix him into team drills,

soonish, I guess I would say. And from there, they will just kind of gauge what he looks like. And they want to see him looking like he looked at the end. end of last season before they give him the green light to roll into regular season game action. But certainly from my vantage point, it's going to be well ahead of where I would have put the over under on Ozzie Trillo's first day back on the football field in terms of team drills and then ultimately game action. We'll see where it goes. I will say that Rashar was very adamant and saying we've all agreed inside the building. It's better to start him one day later than we should

than one day earlier than we should. And so you understand that vantage point as well. And yet, and still in my head, as transparent as the bears have been, and honest as the bears have been about everything with Tripillo, because of the miraculous recovery, I'll believe it when I see. Sure. You know what I mean? No doubt. Him playing full, all out tackle football at one of the most crucial positions on the team.

I will believe it when I see him out there playing football with the bears. I trained you well, young Skywalker. I guess so. Am I a Jedi now? It is the eye test. Right. But like to Ozzy's credit, like we have watched him going through individual drills and there's nothing where you go, ooh, that doesn't look quite right. You know, and there have been cases in the past where players are coming back and you can just see like, that's not the gate you want him to have. That's not exactly the explosion that we've seen in the past. So we'll see where this whole thing goes. That's an offensive line story. The other nugget I'll give you from Dan today is he left the door open for the possibility that Theo Benedict gets some reps at left tackle on something. Whether the bears are dabbling with the idea of kind of rotating him in there for a series or two, whether he would just come in simply to be, you know, a third tight end or, you know, whatever it may be there.

Well, they did do the extra offensive linemen at times last year. So I don't know if that's what he meant that. I don't know. Like, that seems odd to me. That one seems odd to me. The idea that he would actually go in and get reps at left tackle, weren't they sort of kind of doing that in training camp, but not until the very end of training camp. We barely saw him at left tackle.

No question. And he's kind of the swing guy and we'll see where that whole thing goes. But, you know, like somebody else asked me, they're like, what did you make what Dan said there? And I'm like, well, he's not really typically gamesmanship. I'm going to throw this out there to kind of trick the Panthers. He's a, you know, says what he means and means what he says kind of guy. So it did catch my ear when he mentioned the possibility of Theo playing. And so we'll keep our eyes on that. It would certainly be a storyline Sunday if that were to occur.

Okay. Before we get into more of the meat of this episode, any other, and this is the part I really miss, as being in the locker room and getting all those nuggets and talking to players, any other, anything else from the locker room before we move on to our Take the North game spotlight. Well, two quick ones. One more fun than the other yesterday on, I guess it was Tuesday because they didn't practice on Wednesday. We had a very short casual conversation in the back corner of the locker room with Tyreek Stevenson and none other than Dejan Love. You may know Dejaun Love will be fake 49ers fame.

So if you're going to get a guy to kind of be interested in having that conversation, Tyreek was certainly on the short list. 100%. He said not only was he completely blown away by the idea that people could be tricked by this, he's like, maybe we're too close to this, and we just understand how phony everything that guy did looked. It blew his mind that people would fall for it. But along with that, you know, he said he's gotten down some rabbit holes here in recent weeks

of just wanting to learn more, wanting to see another video, wanting to see some other things. And so Brad Biggs and I had an entertaining little back and forth in time. I'm a dick shot on love topic. There's nothing more fascinating in this whole story than the player's reaction to it because they're just like, oh, this guy, man, look at it. You know, because they're living the real life of an athlete, to which there are many advantages. And this guy, oh, let's see how you do this, man.

And I did ask Tyreek when the last time he took his helmet to the beach was. And he said, ah, no, so that was there. Less fun, which I was hoping. hoping to be more fun was at the end of Colston Loveland's group scrum in front of his locker, I asked him where he was Saturday night. And you might know Saturday night as the night that Michigan got an extra second on the clock. And I was hoping that Colston would have a little fun with that. And he just said, I was at dinner. I looked down. I saw that we were going to lose. I looked a few minutes later and we won. And that's about all I have to say about that.

Really? Come on. Play along, Colston. Let's have some fun with this. You know? Oh, man. Maybe these Michigan folks just don't want the, want to smoke at this given time. I guess, right, because it's most people are not on, like if you're into the conspiracy theories of it all, most people are not on the Michigan side of it because everybody loves a good upset at the beginning of a season. No question. And what a wild, wild scene that was.

Oh, my God. We had a running joke in the Bears press box. Patrick Finley, I believe is our local chapter president of PFWA, which means that at home games at Soldier Field, he's responsible. if anything controversial happens that involves the officials, he's got to go do the pool report. Right. He represents the pool report means that he represents all of you guys in terms of asking the questions and then disseminating the information to the other beat writer.

So everybody has the information. Yes. And so the running joke up there in the press box is anything remotely close to an officiating controversy, we always say, Pat, can we get the pool report? And we're not sure Pat would have been able to handle Saturday in Ann Arbor. I think that might have made him short circuit. Yeah, I think a lot of people with short circuit in that scenario. That's hilarious.

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Are you prepared emotionally, mentally, physically, in all the ways? Probably have never been more prepared. Oh, because you've had all preseason to prepare for this. Yeah, and it's just sitting there. It's sitting there at the rim. You just got to dunk it. There's been a lob thrown up there and to dunk it. Let's fucking go, man.

Week one, game one, take the north spotlight, Bears, Panthers, Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, Sunday, noon, kickoff, Chicago time. There's only one place to put the spotlight, isn't there? It's Caleb Williams. It's the quarterback of the Bears. We've spent months and months and months trying to figure out where he's grown, where he needs to grow, what Ben wants out of him, what he's getting out of Ben. There's been so much talk about the buildup to Caleb's third season and second with Ben.

It's time to go take the test. I've got a piece of audio for you in a minute that I think is very appropriate for a lot of things we talked about. But I will also say this is Caleb Williams versus Bryce Young. And Bryce Young is also a number one pick who the Panthers took. Grotie, you might have heard after acquiring a draft pick from the Bears. Heard. You did hear that. We've documented that. But I'm actually a little bit surprised that that storyline hasn't gotten the kind of hype that you would figure it would. You know, number one pick in 2023 versus number one pick

in 2024. Both of them went to the playoffs last year. Both of them won a division. Both of them showed obvious growth in their situations last year. So I'll start there with your thoughts on kind of the matchup of Caleb versus Bryce, who have had very different careers to this point, but

there are some similarities with the dysfunction that they had to navigate through to get themselves on steady footing. Yeah, I mean, at one point in time, Bryce Young looked like a bust. looked like it wasn't going to work out. It looked like the, and, and, look, I think the jury is still out more on Bryce Young than it is, quite frankly, on Caleb Williams.

I don't think that any of us thought that Caleb Williams was going to be a bust, but in his rookie year, I wondered if he was as special as everybody was saying he was. And that probably had a lot to do with the infrastructure and the coaches that were around him. And then at the same time, I give both of these guys a ton of credit. for the rebound that they have had. We know exactly what Caleb Williams did last year. We know that Bryce Young got to that 3,000 yard mark last year and was much better and got to a playoff game and they almost beat the Rams.

Like I said, I don't know that they're convinced yet that Bryce Young is a $50 million a year quarterback who is going to be their franchise quarterbacks. I still think Bryce Young has more to prove than Caleb Williams does, but their trajectory has been similar. but the big step has not been taken yet by Bryce Young. Yeah, and now he'll get an opportunity, right? So maybe he turns some heads if he's able to pull off an upset at his at home on Sunday over Caleb Williams. Maybe that turns the heads of some folks around the league and says, man, we should be talking about Bryce's young.

Bryce Young's has sent a little bit more. It's going to be a fascinating matchup, I think, for both of those guys. You know, they both won Heisman trophies during their college career. Again, a lot of similarities. And it should be a fun matchup. It feels like once upon a time this would have been one that attracted a bigger spotlight, maybe a bigger stage, but it is what it is, right? Yeah, and the last, I think this was the last time they played October of 2024 at

Soldier Field, Bears beat Carolina 36 to 10, Caleb Williams 300 yards and two TDs to DJ Moore, by the way. Andy Dalton was the Carolina QB, though, I believe, on that day. So that's what I got there. Yeah. And so look, like there's a lot folded in here. leave you or transition here with some audio from Ben Josson. And this was Tuesday. Okay. This is good seven weeks after training camp opened. It's after a long off season. Ben has

talked a lot about Caleb Williams since last season ended. And so this is a back and forth where he was asked a question about Caleb. I just want you to listen to the question and the answer. And it fits in very nicely to a lot of what we've talked about over the last like seven to ten days. How about Caleb are you most certain about entering his third season? Getting the snap and handed the ball off and throwing the ball to the right receiver. And he's doing all the things that good quarterbacks do. So he's going the right way. I know we talk about him every session we get.

Guys, he's had a really good camp. And I'm really looking forward to seeing how it comes together for him 17 plus games this year. Gordon, I thought that was appropriate to play because it was the head coach mirroring our own feeling that we got to go play a game. I'm tired of talking about this. I've gotten some variation of this question. Every single day I've stood at this lectern for six months. The little laugh at the beginning. Okay.

Let's get that again. What about Caleb are you most certain about entering his third six? Um, okay, I'll play. I'll play your little game. I'll, uh, we'll, we'll do the dance one more time. You don't save any of the quotes that I've given you over the last seven weeks that you could use in the story that you're going to write for tomorrow. Like that was the reaction from Ben and I thought it was appropriate. And I, and I'm with them on that like handing the ball off, throwing the football.

Yeah, yeah, you're finding the receiver, you know, everything I've talked about, it's all still stance. right. Like there's been no change. Sunday will offer a change. It will offer a game. It will offer a performance. It will offer a result. And suddenly the narrative will move forward, probably too far in one direction or another for sure. But I certainly think the head coach is an agreement that it's time to go play some

real football. To that end, I'm going to give you a couple more little nuggets. J.T. Barrett, quarterback's coach at Alice Hall today, was talking about some of the growth that he's seen in Caleb. We don't hear from J.T. quite as often as we hear from Ben. So a little fresher from his mouth. And he felt like the preparation for practice has shown a level of maturity that's impressed him over the time that they've been

together. Caleb doesn't have any instinct whatsoever anymore to just come to practice and try to wing it and figure it out as it goes. He understands the ownership of the position he has and how he has to be ready when that practice begins to accomplish what needs to be accomplished in that practice. That was a great endorsement to hear from the quarterback's coach and a guy who's done it, you know, and understands kind of what that investment is. For Caleb to do that, that's great.

And then JT also talked a little bit about what we talked about 100 times. The elevated buy-in and the coaching staff where a year ago at this time, there's probably a little bit of skepticism from Caleb when he's greeted with a criticism or a suggestion or, hey, you might want to do this. And it's like, now he knows that what this coaching staff sells to him works. And they've gotten the results. And so I think the whole building feels that tailwind where they're all going in the same direction. and they all believe in one another. I think that's a big deal.

And then the last thing that he shared was just from the book of Breeze, you know, J.T. Barrett spent time around Drew Breeze in New Orleans and said that one of the things that Drew was elite at was living by the philosophy of nobody adjust better than us. Right. And so like when curveballs come and adversity hits and struggles are there, nobody adjust better than us. It's a mindset of like, okay, this isn't all going to be perfect. It's not going to be the way we drew it up in May and June and July and August. There's going to be things that are, you know, just out of left field and things that hit us. Nobody adjust better than us.

He feels like Caleb has found his way to that place. Those are great things to have going into the open. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's music to everybody's ears. I mean, we all want adjustments in every way, shape, or form within a game, before a game, the training camp, the whole thing. And then as per the piece of the maturity, I mean, that's really what, when Ben Johnson was talking about Caleb being less goofy this year.

Like, that's what it is. It's maturing, a maturing quarterback who has gone from a little immature and maybe a little goofy, as Ben Johnson said, in the best possible way, as he said. And I think you and I knew exactly what he was saying. I think our audience understands what he was saying, not to denigrate him, but just to say, he's a goofy, kind of immature, 23-year-old kid who needed a little varnish. And that's what Ben Johnson and this entire coaching staff has provided. and maybe he's not even 100% there yet,

but he is so much farther along in that regard than he was when he walked into the building two years ago. You and I, I think you would agree with me on this. We are both deep into adulthood at this point. Yes, yes. Unfortunately, that's true. We're old, yeah. And so you have to remind yourself at times that, yeah,

like Caleb walked into the building in his lower 20s, you know, for the first time. And so, like, he should be allowed that grace to mature and that time to mature and to understand, okay, like there are different demands on me at this level in this position, in this market for this coaching staff with the things that I want to accomplish in my career. And so I think that word is an important one, the maturity part of it, because it's not like, oh, he had to change who he was. He's just growing up, you know what I mean? And like figuring it out.

And like you go home at night, how do you spend your time? Do you, you know, like do you eat right? Do you recover right? Do you rest right? Do you do all those things? There's a lot to that. And so that's definitely part of the maturation process. Right. And I think the diet was part of that. And he never said the bears dictated that he needed to lose weight. But Caleb offered it to us upon the Mark Carmen question that he lost the weight. And he's been eating healthier and sleeping better. And I'm sure these are all little nudges he probably got from suggestions. Maybe he got from the bears, whether it was trainers or from inside the building. And it's nice that he is listening because as it all comes back to, as we said, Ben Johnson and the coaching staff and the credibility that it has.

Dan, you ready for three things to watch? You got three things you want us to watch on Sunday? I sure do. Are you ready for it? Are you ready for it? I've been waiting since the offseason program for this, Dan, since the rookie minicamp. Let's go. All right.

We are going to start with the Carolina Panthers offensive line because it's a really interesting setup up front where they have two guys in the interior in Damien Hunt and, I'm sorry, Hunt and Lewis up front in the interior. and they are dealing with some flux at the tackle positions with Rashid Walker and Monroe Freeling and two guys that had to come in and replace guys that left. And so you've got some vulnerability on the outside. In order to expose that vulnerability as the bears, I think you have to be really stout on the inside. You have to make sure you stop the run first and then turn the game situationally into opportunities

where you can then get after those tackles on the edge and leave them vulnerable to a big mistake that changes the game. So those guards up front, I think, are going to be a big deal for Carolina. Mark Grotty and the Bears are going to have to figure out how to match them. Dennis Allen was asked about those guys today and how they enhance what Carolina likes to do. Let's hear from DA. Big physical guys inside. They do a great job of protecting the integrity of the inside of the pocket, which I think is important for Bryce.

And they're mallers in the run game. So I think their offensive line, I think, starts with, you know, the interior and their ability to get movement in the run game and protect the interior of the pocket. Damien Lewis and Robert Hunt, for those who caught my brain cramp there right as we were going into that. But that is certainly something to keep an eye, and particularly with this defensive tackle room that the bears are really believing has strengthened numbers. They believe in the depth there. They believe in the style that those guys like to play. And as Dennis Allen told us a week ago, effort is a talent. And they feel like they've got a high level of effort from their guys on the interior of the D-line.

Yeah. And I can't wait to see kind of what the rotation is that Dennis Allen uses in this game. Like, when are we going to see Jordan Vandenberg? I mean, Contabious Street sort of supposedly had this great camp the way Dennis Allen was calling it. And Neville Gallimore, one of the new bears. The other part of this, too, is, is look, And you mentioned it about Monroe Freeling, not only is he a rookie, but this is a guy who they kind of thought of as a project almost.

I don't know the plan was to not play him. Of course, he's the future of the team. And they're going to protect him, you know, which they weren't doing in the offseason just the same way the bears treated their left tackles, leaving him on the island one-on-one. They're going to help these guys. But you got to get to that guy. I mean, you've got to find a way out.

Like, this is, you know, Dennis Allen, you know, year two, you do have to figure that out. So does Montez sweat, right? Yes, yes. If you have a one-on-one there and there's a moment there to change the game, go change the damn game. And that's where this whole thing is going to kind of swing. So that'll be a fascinating thing to watch. The second thing to watch Sunday Grotie is we're going to go to the Panthers defensive side of the ball. And they made a couple of investments back in the spring to really bring more talent and disruption to their defense.

It's three, four defense that they run there. They can cause some problems. Jalen Phillips signed a $120 million contract, which was a huge, huge investment for a guy whose sack production hasn't been elite, but can bring a lot to the table in terms of the way that you can just make you sort of aggravated and he can create pressure and he can make the quarterback feel uncomfortable.

And by extension, everybody in front of them gets a little bit jumpy. So that's one guy to look at. And then Devin Lloyd, who is kind of this all-purpose linebacker, who just happened to have some overlap. in Jacksonville with the Bears' offense coordinator, Press Taylor. And so Devin Lloyd is a guy that can really do a lot of different things to change a game and keep an offense off balance. Press was a good little resource on kind of giving the skinny on Devin Lloyd.

I have a ton of respect for Devin. You know, we drafted Devin in the first round there when I was in Jacksonville. He was a guy you could not get out of the building. He's going to pour himself into learning the scheme there in Carolina. He's, you know, as good as it looks in terms of off the hoof for a linebacker position. he can run, he can cover. He had a knack for taking the ball away. I remember that his rookie year especially.

Did a good job just being around fumbles, forcing fumbles, having interceptions. So he's a player that can do everything. He's a pretty good blitzer. Our running backs have to be aware of that as well. If they get in situations where they're in past protection against them, but tons of respect for Devin. Grody, your thoughts?

Yeah, I mean, he's good. He's super versatile, stands out in coverage. And look, I mean, the Carolina Pans and the Chicago Bears had similar issues. Their defense on the overall was ranked better than the Bears. They were middle of the pack where the Carolina Panthers last year, 15 or 16, depending on which defensive statistic you like most. But I think I'm pretty safe in saying middle of the pack.

However, the bears and Carolina were bottom feeders when it came to getting to the quarterback. The Bears had 35 sacks last year. Carolina was worse, ladies and gentlemen, they were obsessing in their offseason, in their fan base the same way the Bears fan base was. And on paper, at least, I suppose they did a little bit more than the Bears did unless some of these younger players start to sprout for the Chicago Bears in getting Jalen Phillips of the four year $120 million deal. Not now.

And then Kevin Lloyd, who is capable of blitzing and getting the quarterback, as you mentioned. But they did themselves well with those two players for sure. Was that an 80-style landline phone ring there that you had? they're going on. It's just my landline style phone. It just makes me comfortable. But it is, it is a very new iPhone, actually. Waiting for you to have your rotary phone and your long cord.

It just kind of kind of help us out with the who's on the line. Weaving my way through, picking it up over my cat. Yeah. All right. Third thing to watch in this game, the rookies, the Bears rookies. There's a lot of them that are probably going to play Sunday Grotie. And rookies are always a really, really fun story. summer, they become less fun when they make mistakes and big games and big moments. And so there's a lot of

guys here that are going to be under the microscope and really under some pressure on Sunday as they get their first taste of NFL regular season action. That starts on the back end of the defense with Dylan Thinemann, the first round pick with Malik Mohamed, however much volume he gets playing the slot corner position there for the bears. It continues on with a guy you talked about a few minutes ago, Jordan Vandenberg in the defensive line rotation. You're going to talk about Zavian Thomas and what he might be able to do as a returner points in this game and can he avoid, you know, a big mistake and also try to make a big play. And then I give you Beggs Barnum Gardner. What?

You may not have thought about Beggs Barnum Gardner. Oh, Bo. They call him Old Bo. He is the 2025 Patrick Manley Award winner on Drafted Free Agent. Goes to the starting gate. I believe Brad Biggs said on the score on Thursday morning or Wednesday morning that he's the first long snapper to play in a regular season game for the Bears without previous NFL regular season experience since I think 2002. Correct. He's going up against a long snapper for Carolina in J.J. Jansen,

who is now in year 17 and has never missed a game. Wow. It's a big gap in experience there. And so obviously, I'm sure Carolina has taken note of that, both with the way that they're going to go attack him with some rush plans and some other things that they're going to do on special teams and begs barnum gardener's going to have to be real sharp with any balls that he snaps back there to troy taylor who will be punting or holding p a t's or field goal attempts for cairo santos it's a big moment for that we don't know a lot about and i think chicago would prefer that we don't know a lot about them for a while yeah let's let's not hear that full name that you just ordered right there thanks barnum gardner let's let's hope that's the case but no man the rookies are a big deal on that list too. I think he's your breakout player.

Yeah, Sam Rauch was my breakout player. And quite frankly, Malik Mohamed was my disappointment candidate just because fourth round rookies who play that position, cornerback, they get exposed a lot. So, and The Annaman was a threat in my world to be that as well. Like, I think

Thineman's going to be really good. But it takes a while to get it right. And I guess hopefully, I'll say all of us are patience with these rookies, especially the ones that are going to really be put on the spot right win that'd be Dylan Thieneman for sure and justifiably. And without question the long snapper who's got one job.

Do your job, man. Oh man. Don't make him regret that. Yeah. So that's it. The rookies. The rookies will be on our radar on Sunday at Bank of America Stadium. I love it.

I love it. Drink up, baby. Fantasy football happy hour is here to get you wins and have some laughs. Matthew Barry here and my podcast, Fantasy Football Happy Hour, has the sleepers bus and starts in advice you need to win your league. We're diving into the tape. We're crunching the numbers to bring you sleepers. Bus weekly starts it advice,

whether you're defending a title or desperately avoiding last place. I've got you covered every single weekday. The bar is open. It's fantasy football happy hour with Matthew Berry, wherever you get your podcast. All right, it is time now for another one of our new segments. It is time for our well-oiled machine segment.

The well-oiled machine segment is being brought to you by of Roorman Automotive Group, home of the $50 oil change. Dan, you want to take the first crack at this one, or would you like to have me take the first crack at this one? I'll take the first crack at it. My menu was short this week, and I was choosing between two guys that we highlighted in our season predictions episode as guys we expect big years from. And so I was kind of seesawing back and forth between the tight end and the running back.

And I landed with the running back, because I think it's going to be very, very valuable to the Bears to take some pressure off their quarterback by establishing that early in. So it is DeAndre Swift, who is my well-oiled machine for week one. I'm thinking he can get over 100 yards, even with Kyle Minunga back in the mix. I'm thinking he can visit the end zone one time. Give the Bears everything

they need with that ground game. And so DeAndre Swift, your week one, well-oiled machine. I love it. Well, I did pick him, DeAndre Swift, as my MVP for the Bears this year. So you know I love that. But I'm going to go with Montez Sweat as my well-oiled machine for this game. For

what we were just talking about. The two starting left tackles for Carolina are out. Monroe Freeling, who in theory would be the one that would be blocking Darnall or Montez Sweat. I'd like to see Montez Sweat

breakthrough no matter who he's going up against, and this would be a nice way to do it. He had momentum towards the end of the season, getting the double-digit sacks. I'd like to see him get a fast start unlike last year. So Montez Sweat is my well-oiled machine. So there you. you have it. DeAndre Swift and Montez Sweat are well-oiled machines for game one week one

Bears at Carolina. The well-oiled machine segment is brought to you by the Roorman Automotive Group. They're our friends. They're the home of the $50 oil change, you know. So we appreciate that for sure. And now another really important part of this podcast every single week will be our predictions on the Bears and Carolina. And hopefully all three of us can do this. You, me, Adam Stizinski, as we have done through the years. I guess I'll go first on this one, this time around. I was a, as I've been saying, a threat to pick Carolina to win this game.

But I have changed. I have changed. And we've laid out some of the evidence and the reasons. We just talked about the office. offensive line. Bryce Young is good. I don't think Bryce Young is great. Tetero McMillan is an excellent wide receiver, but it feels like there is a drop off after him from a thousand yard guy to Jalen Coker, who has 394 yards. Xavier Leggett with 363. A relative, like, kind of regressed, and that doesn't mean that they won't be good this year. So I just don't

have a fear factor on offense. They, you know, they, you know, they lost their time. running back and Rico Doudal, who had 1,000 yards last year. They are depending on Chuba Hubbard and Jonathan Brooks to be the guys at those positions. So I just think that the Bears will be able to outscore Carolina in this game and the defense. While it's going to have its challenges, I just don't look at this as an overly challenging game for the Bears defense. 27, 24 of the Bears beat Carolina. I was waiting for you to give an identical score to me. It would be further evidence that I'd have to submit to Odyssey that you keep looking over my shoulder while we're taking the

I'm just glad we didn't have the same well-oiled machine player, to be honest with you. I thought that was the win of the pot. I thought for sure you were going to go with Montez Sweat. I'm not even kidding. So I have the same point total for the bears as you. I have the Panthers scoring one less. I've got it at 27 to 23 bears. Okay.

All right. We're way different now. This is a vote of confidence in the coaching staff and the character of this football team to be ready for Sunday. Now it's potentially going to be hot there in Charlotte. Yeah. They're going to have to deal with that heat. You know, you're going to have to go out there and be able to navigate that a little bit. But I just think that they're going to have enough steadiness within this game to write themselves when things go a little bit off.

And they're going to be able to pull this one out. I don't think it's going to be a spectacular day from Caleb Williams, but I think it's going to be steady. And we're going to be back here on Monday being like, man, that's just the kind of steadiness you need from your quarterback in a game like that. And so 27, 23, bears get to want to know. And by the way, you look down at what follows this game, where you've got, you know, a division game against the, Vikings. You've got a Monday nighter against the Eagles. You go to Green Bay. Like, you better get this one, right? And that's not to put any pressure on them to look beyond this, but we can look beyond this and say, you better get this one. Yeah, they did not get this one last year. And that was the home game against

Minnesota on night one. So hopefully the Bears will start the season one and all. You don't want to have the stress of losing this first game. And Adam Sizinski, who is just giving us attitude this year and pulling out of predictions and stuff, reluctantly. has given us a prediction. The predictions are hard, man. Life is hard. You can't just quit. He says, okay, fine. I'll take the Bears 30 to 23.

This guy. I tell you what, man. So we're all picking the Bears to win in week one. Isn't that delightful? Dan, happy opening weekend to you. I can't wait. I honestly got it. I mean, I'm just so excited and thrilled. This has been, even for us,

one of the most anticipated seasons the Bears have ever had based on last year. It's been a grind over the last couple of weeks getting to this point, but we are here. We are all out of preview. We are run out of preview. There's none left. There's no more list to be had. There's no more predictions.

It's on to the regular season. I have not been inside Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte since 2014. That's the last time the Bears played there in front of a full crowd and a full media contingent because they were there in 2020, but that was the COVID year and it was a little bit weird. I believe Colquette's first touchdown

career-wise came in Charlotte and there was just a handful of people in attendance including his mom. I covered that from my living room here, which was crazy. So it's weird. I bring that up because on Sunday night, I got to go find a place in a press box I'm familiar with to do the post-game episode of Take the North with you who are going to have

a ton of post-game duties this weekend, right? Like you are going to be spewing takes left and right once 315 kicks in. Yeah, I'll be doing the Scores official post-game show with Olin Crutes and Patrick mannally after the game and then you and I

will get together and do take the north. So it's all fun, man. It is a labor of love when it comes to the Chicago Bears and covering the NFL. And I will leave you with this good vibe here. Because the Bears and Carolina do have some, obviously talk about the trade, historical moments. You had the awful 2005 divisional round loss

where Steve Smith had the 12 catches, 218 yards and two TDs. Bears fans. Remember that. It was a loss. at Soldier Field. But I am choosing to remember 2017 at Soldier Field where Eddie Jackson had a 75-yard fumble return for a touchdown and a 75 or 76

yard pick six in that game at Soldier Field. In his rookie year in their year 2017. That was the announcement, the arrival. I remember Vic Fangio leading up to the regular season there being like, this kid can be a player for us. He's really got a lot of skills there. He was trained well at Alabama and then he does that. I remember that vividly. I don't think the Bears' offense

gave much help that afternoon. It was just Eddie Jackson visiting the end zone a couple times. And I actually did a story on Eddie shortly after that. And his brother, who was behind one of the end zones that afternoon, had sent his cell phone video of Eddie's second touchdown. And the absolute euphoria of like, oh, my God, he just did it again, was off the charts. It was like goosebumps-inducing because you're like, man,

that's a cool moment for a family and a rookie where you're like, hey, everybody, here I go. and Eddie Jackson ended up scoring a bunch of touchdown for the bears where you thought that he was on track to set many, many records until it kind of plateaued. Yeah, it did. I mean, a great 2018 and then, yeah, just kind of trickled the way a little bit.

But I'll always remember Eddie Jackson is at the very least a very good Chicago bear. I think that's it. I think that is it. That's going to do it for this episode of Take the North. Hold on your butts, everybody. For Dan Weederer of the Athletic, For our executive producer, Adam Sizinski. I am Mark Grody of 104.3, the score saying thank you so much for watching

and continuing to listen to The Mighty Take the North podcast. Great talks. You out there. Thank you, everybody. Good, best.