Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Bears won the NFC North in 2025 — will they give it back in 2026?

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote discussed whether the Bears can keep their grip on the NFC North after winning it in 2025.

We're going to take the North and never give it back. You sure about that? You sure about that? This is Rahimi Harrison Brody on 104-3 The Score. And I love the pump-up music, Tyler Beaterbaugh. Thank you for playing a good jukebox today. We talked a lot about the Bears part of free agency, how when you're a good team, you've signed good players already.

You probably don't have a lot of money to move around. You're probably not winning the off season. But in the meantime, are you replacing people and improving where you can sufficiently? So that part of it said, we then thought about the rest of the division. So we're going to check in on the NFC North when it comes to all of free agencies so far. You know, there's a lot of offseason left. In the meantime, this note from Draft Kings, they're projecting the NFC North to stack up like this in their most recent win totals. The Lions are at 10 and a half.

the Packers are at 10 and a half. The Bears are at 9 and a half and the Vikings are at 8.5. So that would indicate some regression. And that would also indicate the Lions, with their year of missing the playoffs, is somewhat of an aberration. I don't know how ready I am to say, the Packers, I guess because of a healthy Micah Parsons,

they get back to 10.5 wins. But they lost a lot of players. And that's what got us to thinking maybe we should check in with the rest of the division. You want to do the exercise, too, on these teams, on the over-underers? You want to do a little, you know, see the Lions at 10 and a half wins. I think that's a pretty good place to put it. I would say the Lions over-under on that, over.

Okay, so let's kind of consider their off-season so far. You trade David Montgomery to Houston. He gone. You decide to replace him with. Isaiah Pacheco. Is that an upgrade? I think Montgomery is still probably the more established and for that system the better running back. I agree.

Pacheco pretty good, but Montgomery better. As far as the fit. Now they didn't have the surprise retirement of Frank Ragnow to deal with this time around. They get center Cade Mays. They also got Larry Boreham. And if you'll remember, they picked up Juke Scruggs, the offensive lineman in that David

Montgomery trade. How does that make you feel about replacing some of the holes that they had? Yeah, I mean, and Larry Boreham too. Did we mention Larry Boreham? Absolutely. And we know the product that Larry Boreham is not bad, not bad, not great either. Yeah, I think, I think you nailed it.

With Pacheco, I think Montgomery is better. And Cade Mays signing a three-year, $25 million contract to be their new starting center. It doesn't really move me, but I still think they're there just so loaded with talent. on that offense in general. You have the quarterback, you have the receivers, you have a pretty good defense, you have Aiden Hutchinson, and all of that. So I would go over on the lines,

but not like by a lot, you know? Right. I think it's similar to what we can expect to last year, where because the division as a whole is better, even the Vikings, to an extent, you can't be predicting two 15 win teams out of the division. I don't think that that's going to be the case. It's going to be a little more spread out. Also consider the.

divisions that they're facing as well, you know, for example, AFC North. But I think right now, until we have the draft, we can't really put it all into place. I take it as this. Right now, Draft Kings is predicting the Lions and Packers too have a better year than the Bears in the regular season to the tune of an entire game. So that's, you know, that's out of a 17 game season. So I consider the percentage. But I think nine and a half wins is right now still projecting regression for the Bears. said, when we go down the acquisitions and how the free agency has gone so far, I can't say to myself, oh, the lions are a game better than the Bears vis-a-vis their move so far. I can't, I can't confidently say that. So that's kind of how I measure it. And maybe it's not to the

point where we're doing a win total yet, but we're doing the, this is how much better and worse the teams are respectively. A lot of the team, though, that Detroit has is still there from the previous year when they, years, when they were dominating. That's what I'm going on. Like the team, they had an off year last year in, in this run of, I guess, sustained success. So that's the way I'm looking at Detroit. Like, they are going to be properly motivated doing, they had to, I mean, they had to adjust to not having Ben Johnson. Yeah. To not having a bunch of coaches last year. And it was clunky. We saw the play caller change mid-season. Twice. I mean, didn't Dan Campbell take the reins for a minute and then gave them back eventually.

And now they have a new offensive coordinator. I can never think of the guy's name. Drew Petting. Thank you, who interviewed for the Bears gig once upon a time ago. So I think they're going to have their bleep together again, be properly motivated, and maybe not to the point where they put a 50 burger on the Bears early in the year. But I do have a healthy fear that Detroit is going to be back this year. So I am, I don't know, comfortable is the right word.

I'm okay with the number being set where it is relative to the Bears 10.5. I get where people are coming from with the bears, with the roster having changed, and with a tougher schedule. And then you do have to go back and look at the way the Bears won last year. And oftentimes, especially early in the season, there was a luck factor that, again, you can't depend on margin of victory. Wasn't great for the Bears either. So to me, it actually, as much as I don't like to see it, the regression factor, at least the predicting the regression factor, I understand why they're doing it. Yeah, well, they're not the only ones, apparently. We have some people among us who are.

You know, I thought about holding off, but I'll just say. Yeah, come on, bring that. So, you know how Danny was on with us on Wednesday on First Things First? Well, he was on with us on Wednesday, and then he did First Things First. Yeah. And he hosted the whole show, the whole dang show. Well, on that whole show, he said the Bears were in the category of teams that could have regression. Danny Parkins.

Parko. You go to a Bears game. You sit in the front. row. You tell everybody to be quiet while the bears are on offense. You wear a robe. Next thing you know, Parko's saying that they are a candidate for regression. For the whole nation to see. I mean, there was a graphic. It had graphs. You know, it's like one of those social media graphics where you get the bar graph going on the side. Unbelievable. Shame. For shame, Danny Parkins.

I even sent it to Ray and Tyler. I was so appalled and taken back. That is awful. You know what? He should not be well. He should never be welcome Come back to Soldier Field now. Burn his, what was the, what was the outfit he was wearing? The robe, yeah. And a crowd. He gets negative five buttes. Danny, we were docking your beutes.

We were, during that game, we were definitely, Emma and I and Haw sitting up in the press box in our little group that we have. We were definitely checking in on Parkins throughout the game, just to see if he was behaving, see if he was rocking, see if he was passing out, or whatever it is, Parkins does when he's wearing his robe. they were down at the half, you know, that he checked in with a very depressing video at half time. Oh, yeah, he pretty much called it at that point. So take Parkinson's predictions and takes for, look, we all know Danny has been wrong. Danny has been wrong. Yeah, but Danny is louder wrong than any of us. Maybe because he had a higher forum, if you will.

Well, or does. I had to give him a little bit of hell for it. But I get it because when you consider the division record the Bears had last year winning the North, you know, they were Owens. two against the lions, as we talked about. They were two and four. And I understand why that's part of the discussion. But the problem is a lot of the teams that the bears are in the same division with have similar issues right now, Mark. Like, think about the volume of what the Green Bay Packers did. You know, we talked about it when they trade Rishon Gary. Then they get Zaire Franklin, for example.

Quay Walker is out of the building. Romeo Dobbs is out of the building. perhaps most importantly, Malik Willis is going to be a starting quarterback. He's gone. And when you consider it like, do you think that the Packers would have done as well in Jordan Love's injury stead if Malik Willis hadn't played? Like Malik Willis is no slouch. I'm pretty sure he got a starting job because of that.

Played real well against the Bears, which I was like, that is not fair. No. That shouldn't happen. But any got paid, I think, for it. Well, what they have, though, is what we're talking about with the Bears. They do have quarterback and coach. You could say what you want to say about Matt LaFleur. But Matt LaFleur is a good coach.

Jordan Love is a good quarterback. You have those two things so you can be a little, you can change your parts around with a little bit more confidence if you are the Green Bay Packers than say some other teams. Well, and Tucker Kraft probably healthy. Yes. Guys will get better and I think that that factors in. But does it factor in to the tune of being one game better than the Bears in a 17 game season?

Yeah, that's a tough one. So the Packers at 10.5. Is this to building up to, are you taking the under on the Green Bay Packers? A 10.5 win so far is what they have according to Draft Kings as they're over under. I think for now. Yeah. And then there's Minnesota who had to make a ton of transactions. I think it's safe to say that they're still probably the last place team in the North.

I think that that's a reasonable assumption because they had to get rid of a lot of high-end talent because that's who they were paying. They weren't paying the quarterback, J.J. McCarthy, of course, on a rookie deal. So then they have to get rid of guys like, for example. Devon Hartgrave, Jonathan Allen. Yep, still available? There did I miss? Did Jonathan Allen sign? Let me double check because that changes constantly. Still available. But yeah, that's for sure. And then the Minnesota thing too.

Like I expressed it in five on it. I am concerned from a bear's perspective that Kyler Murray, while, yeah, I would put them in the basement. Kyler Murray could be very good under Kevin O'Connell. Bangles. What about the Bengals? Jonathan Allen went to the Bengals. And Hargrave went to the Packers. You know, there's that part of it too.

Yeah, yeah. But yeah, so Jonathan Allen goes to Cincinnati. So he's out of the conference at least. Okay, he's out of the – I don't have to have that little bit of stress in the back of my mind about the bears trying to pick him up. Another example, the bears are hiring from within. They are bringing the band back on the defensive line. But the Vikings were in such a –

a bad position via the salary cap. We knew they were going to have to make a lot of moves. So this is transition for them. And then I feel like they almost put all of their efforts or what resources they had left from a free agency standpoint into one basket with the Kyler Murray. And they were able to get Aaron Jones back on that different deal. But that's where I feel like maybe you're right. Maybe the quarterback in this case gives him at least a game or two.

I don't think it's necessarily two. Probably not. Yeah, they don't have the full squad. but you might have a really good offense. There's no reason to think that they wouldn't have, you know, they're going to have to stop people too. But if Kevin O'Connell can make, you know, bring out the best in Kyler Murray,

and man, J.J. McCarthy, maybe not so much. I don't know what's going to happen to J.J. McCarthy in his career. In a career, I don't know. No, I think we're still trying to figure out where, how much of Kevin O'Connell and his, offense he'll absorb this year and then how much they'll mesh and adjust to each other.

But you can't tell me, I sincerely believe, Mark, that the the Kyler Murray signing reported, official, the Kyler Murray deal. Deal in place. How about that? Yeah. The Kyler Murray deal is one that is going to breed competition in that quarterback room in a way that may be inherently good for everybody. Not to say that there's a knock on McCarthy's character.

But to say that sometimes that helps motivate and readjust and kind of have you look at things differently. Right. And maybe they're just shifting their plan. Maybe they are admitting Minnesota is maybe there's a fatal flaw. Maybe Kevin O'Connell's like, I can't work with this guy, sort of like Matt Nagy with Mitch Tribeskey. He's like, I just can't, I can't do it. I need help. Or they are just changing the course on their development of this quarterback.

That the hope is that they can do, Minnesota can do what they did with Sam, Darnold, have him come, dominate, and then let him go. to the world. Maybe they are planning on doing the same thing with Kyler Murray. He comes in, maybe he has a terrific year, and you let him go to another team, and then you had all along J.J. McCarthy finally getting a chance to actually learn the NFL as opposed to being thrown right into the fire like he was against the Chicago Bears, where he looked really good at the end of the game, and we all thought that he was going to be a good quarterback. He got NFC offensive player the week. He did, but remember that game. He was trash until basically the second half of the

game or the end of the game. Like, we're all like, what, okay, McCarthy doesn't look good. And then he did. Now that I think about it, I think that a lot of the NFL awards are pretty much, how did you get yourself out of the mess? How'd you get in? How'd you get in? To the mess.

Or like coach of the year. It's because the team was bad the year before. Exactly. Exactly. Where are you staying? How'd you get them out of the mess? So with the Bears at 11 and 6, that's a game and a half that you think they're going to be worse by.

that's strong. That's a strong prediction. Packers were 9 and 7 and 1 last year. Minnesota was 9 and 8. Detroit was 9 and 8. I understand the reason and the assumption for Detroit improving to that extent. I don't necessarily know that the Packers got exactly what they needed at the upgrade need that they had. Somebody on the Texts on is predicting that Justin Fields is going to land with the Packers. Is Justin? I don't even know what his... He is. Okay, because obviously he was with the Jets and they signed Gino Smith.

So, yeah, as of right now, so Justin Fields is a free agent and nobody has snagged him yet. That would be interesting if he went to the pack. We were all wondering what exactly was going to happen with a backup quarterback position in Minnesota to begin with, because that creates a domino effect as well. Where's Carson Wentz going to go? Yeah, Carson Wentz. I certainly thought there was a good chance Kirk Cousins came back. I thought that Aaron Rogers might come back just to fulfill a storyline.

That's one of those positions where because it's desirable for the quarterback, you wonder about who they would get. So what has Aaron Rogers said lately? Is he still? Well, he was on McAfee and that was about it. That's it. Okay. So everything he said on McAfee stands as of right now still middling.

Doesn't know if he's going to come back and play again. Well, and I think when you consider how long it took the last time, is it after the draft before we know? Yeah. Yeah, it could be. I mean, we were talking with Finley about like those really super late signings like Khalil Mack once upon a time ago. And who knows, maybe during the draft. Well, 6-3-0 says pretty sure they keep Kyler if he plays well this year.

I don't know why they wouldn't. Well, if they have given up on J.J. McCarthy, then yes. But if they haven't, if they still think they're developing him, then they would let him go just like they did. And maybe that would be making the same mistake twice as they let Darnold go. and he thrived, maybe they wouldn't want to do it again. I do trust Kevin O'Connell. So if Kevin O'Connell has either said, I can't work with this guy or he needs a year to watch,

I'm just going to sort of like we do with Ben Johnson. I do trust what Kevin O'Connell, what his evaluation will be considering his track record. He's in a tough spot because he was out his rookie year with the injury. So now you're in year three, which means at the end of the season, you may already have to dictate whether or not, I'm trying to remember when the Bears decided to not pick up the fifth year option on Trubisky.

Had they already made enough decisions about him at that time, where they were already preparing for the quarterback who was the next one? I think so. I mean, I think especially if they took the evaluations of Matt Nagy seriously, then, yeah, that we were planning on moving on. And Luigi and I talked about this recently with the Justin Fields and Mitch Tribes. The Bears got it right. Now, both things could be true. They probably could have had better protection, like infrastructure, development, coaching, all of that, Justin Fields and Mitch Trubisky. But ultimately, these two guys just were not first round, high level, good to great

quarterbacks. They just were not. So I do think that there probably was some naggy influence on all of that. If you're Minnesota, you're keeping Kevin O'Connell in your building. So you don't have to worry about that variable. You know that the head coach knows how to work with quarterback. Yes, yes. And that makes the decision on quarterback a lot more clear.

Or not know, doesn't want to work with a quarterback. But that's it. I can't see Kevin O'Connell saying after one season of actually playing, I'm out on this dude. On Kyler Murray. Or J.J. McCarthy, you're talking? J.J. McCarthy. Okay, so then it would make sense. I can't see that happening.

But do they have to make a decision at the end of the year? in some ways, some, because you're at that point through the majority of the contract. That's the hard part. Yeah, well, it's a one-year deal for Kyler, right? No, I was talking about JJ, though. Oh, right. So, like, his rookie deal, you're through a majority of it at that point. Yeah, it'll be interesting.

And we're all assuming that there's no competition between the quarterbacks. We're making that assumption. But, I mean, who knows? Maybe there is. Maybe JJ McCarthy will have a chance. in training camp to win the job, or at least they might say that. I would think that they would at the very least say that there's competition.

The scariest factor in all of this, the most wild card factor is that Kevin O'Connell sees something in Kyler Murray to where he knew a change of scenery just like Sam Darnold had would lead him to find another playoff caliber quarterback. And whatever he unlocks in him would somehow shake up the division again. that's the biggest X-factor or variable you can't measure when it comes to all of these moves. Yeah. And Minnesota, look, as a franchise, they never stay down long.

You know what I mean? Like, they're pretty consistent through the years and not just letting the bottom completely drop out and being like a three or four win team. That's rare for Minnesota. So I guess enjoy it while lasts. Like if they indeed are in the basement this year again, like let's maybe they'll have sustained lack of success. That would be nice. Wish casting by Mark Brody.

Coming up next on Rahimi Harris and Grody, let's head to Cleveland where the crew at 923, the fan or sister station always have their finger on the pulse of what may be happening in the NFL. And they'll also give us some insight on the new bears as well. So we'll do that next.