Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Ben Johnson is carrying his anti-Packer energy into the offseason (Hour 1)

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris opened their show by reacting to Bears head coach Ben Johnson's latest comments about his dislike of the Packers. After that, they discussed a few injury concerns for the Bears.

The score. This hour is brought to you by Cars for Kids. The views and opinions of Lela 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 Harrison Grody may change at any time. It's just sports.

Okay, thanks. Bye. Bye. Bye. 43, the score. It was brought up by Ryan Poles that they had received calls on Tyson Bejant, so what does Ben have to say about it? No. Wait, is he...

I thought that was like a sound effect. I didn't think that was a real person. Is that the strongest we've heard Ben Johnson react about any player and it was Tyson Bayesian? Well, two years in a row now, Layla, do you guys remember it? It is a problem. That's a problem. It's all a problem.

It sounds like a devil sound from like the exercise. I thought it was a best of a bet. Don't do it. If we are, it hurt me. But I also love that he just like us speaks in sound effects. You love him? Yes. I think he's the greatest quarterback ever.

I love Tyson. That's one that they kind of close it to heartstrings a little bit. What do we call it passionate about Tyson, Bayton, Ben Johnson? I call it the conjuring. You can call whatever you want. What you want? Tyson. I'm sorry.

Caleb. It does sound like. He's got an exorcist vibe. Right. He's going to go crawling down the steps on his back like a scorpion. Also, no. Crab walking. Get out of the house.

It's like Amityville horror. Get out of the house. No. If you let him go, you will die with the rest of the non-believers. Also, everybody on the text line saying Bain Johnson is so good. I can see it. So good. Oh, you think darkness is your ally.

You mean. adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, but then it was nothing to me but blind. No. Lela Rahini, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, midday's 10 a.m. 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 104.3, the score. My favorite part of that is still Marshall going, that's a problem. I'm sorry, you can't be out here saying, that's my man, Tyson, above all else, Tyson, Begian.

Why is that the thing that just every single time, I watch that clip, you've got to see it on social, because I don't know which one of our editors did that if it was Cody Westerlin, Carter O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, they're all amazing. I don't know which one decided to put the red laser eyes on Ben Johnson for the no.

Genius move, but you, you say that's the, problem. It was a problem. It's still a problem. It's all a problem. I mean, you know, coaching this stuff's the problem. I don't know. That's my favorite part.

It's just you calmly being, smiling, going, that's a problem. Do you disagree? Do you disagree? No. I do not disagree. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotia. I'm 1043. The score.

Tyler Butervod, just a tremendous open yet again. And we have reports from the combine all day today. Reid Diaz helping us out, of course, our producer as well. He's our EP. Tyler is our sound producer. Does a wonderful job. Brandon Fryer helps us out too. And we do have to monitor that situation, just so you guys are aware.

Tyson Baygent is popular, not just here, but with the rest of the league. This is the time when the business gets done at the combine. So I wouldn't be surprised if something could happen. I'm not saying it will. I'm not saying it should. I'm saying it could happen where the team is excited about about Tyson Bayton knowing that relatively he's a quarterback bargain. You know, he's got a relatively low cap it.

And because of that, he is somebody who, especially with the glowing recommendation from Ben Johnson and his previous coaches, that's a heck of a reference portion of your resume. We never know. We could be ready for that. And I'm not trying to alarm people. This is not clickbait.

I'm just based on, if you were a head, coach in the NFL, or if you were one of the 10 new head coaches who just heard one of the best offensive minds in the league, once again, double, triple, whatever you want to call that down on Tyson Bayesian, it's probably going to be worth your time. I love that you mentioned double, triple, quadruple, down, whatever, because here's my question, do you, Layla, Johnson? Demon down. Listen, Layla, do you believe that Ben Johnson loves Tyson Baygent more than he hates Matt LaFleur?

Yes. I think he loves Tyson Bayjeant more than he hates Matliflor. But it's a good question because Ben Johnson is still fired up about this. Ben Johnson has been successfully radicalized by George McCasky or George McCasky just knew that it was in him the whole time. I'm not quite sure which one it was. Chicken egg scenario? See, I don't even think it's chicken egg scenario.

I think this is what happened. I think Ben Johnson interviewed with the Bears. he wanted the job. He told us so on his first ever Zoom interview with Ryan Poles and company. He got the job. And then once he got with George McCasky, he was like, oh, you feel this strongly about the Packers? Guess what? So do I. And then he found a guy who aligned perfectly with him, vice versa. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, because we already share a connection that we can sustain ourselves separately and together. Trauma bonding.

Or in this case, non-trauma bonding. The reason we bring this up is because as passionate and as intense as Ben Johnson spoke about Tyson Baygent and frankly, emotionally as well when you mentioned stuff like heartstrings, listen to what Ben Johnson had to say to our friend Mike Florio, who joins us at 11 when he was asked about the Green Bay Packers. You ever watch any Seinfeld growing up? Just a little bit.

Okay. Why do you ask? Well, because I'm going to ask you a question the way Jerry Seinfeld would. What is the deal with the Packers? Who likes the Packers? How much of that is leaning fully into your job as Bears coach, and how much of it is how you truly feel? Yeah, I mean, the Bears and the Packers, they should not like each other.

I think it's as simple as that. And I think that's going to make this rivalry, this game, something that people are going to watch here going forward. Have you talked to Matt LaFleur at all? Because I feel like he gets confused. Like, what did I do? Do you have any relationship with him? Have you heard from him?

Has he called Jop and he said, what's the deal? Like anything like that? No, we don't talk. Okay. Do you want it that way? I'm good with it. Has he tried to reach out to you? No.

he wants no parts of Matt LaFleur or the Packers or anything related to any of those things. Did you hear how the answers got shorter and shorter and shorter until it was just two letters? And if you watch him on the video portion of this with Pro Football Talk and Mike Florio, you can see his expression. Steely is what I would describe it as. Is that fair? Yes. Steely, Ben?

Yes. And for everybody who was just curious, Ben Johnson's know when he was talking about Beijing yesterday at the combine was him coughing into his hand and laughing while he did it. No. But the intensity was there. 847 on the text line. I would love if Ben's Matt LaFleur hate origin story was something like Matt LaFleur took the last donut at a coaching event or something. That's from Sean and Charlotte. If you needed further confirmation, just remember the speed of the handshake where Ben Johnson ran to Matt LaFleur as he was walking to midfield and then just a half a second handshake and then ran off.

Because that wasn't even a full pump on the handshake. That was almost like a tap, like a low five, if you will, and then he just kept it moving. Our guy Chris Tano has made that the wallpaper of this computer that Tyler Buterbaugh is using right now. His face is ridiculous. He's like, you're like, you see it. And when he moves in to shake Matla Flores hand, it's like the, you know, like, it's, it's, it's, it's, you'd hate it if you're anybody other than a Bears fan. And it goes back to my, my statement of Caleb Williams idolizing Aaron Rogers, right? Caleb Williams thought that Aaron Rogers.

And to be fair, there's a lot of quarterbacks who you could do worse than when it came. to who you pattern your game after. Pre-snap, I've always said nobody does it better than Aaron Rogers when it comes to reading a defense. But when you know that Aaron Rogers is somebody who you look to, and that's your current quarterback in Caleb Williams. And then you know how Ben Johnson feels about the Packers and Matt LaFleur, and that energy maintains. He kept that same energy right on into the combine, right on into Indianapolis in February.

He won that game and he still feels this way. You can't tell me the bears aren't becoming the villains of the league. Who likes the facts? In a good way. In a good way. It's about time that we were on the side of people fearing the bears. You have to be good to be the villain. To be a villain that is respected.

You have to be on a thanos level. You have to be good at what you do. You have to emit a certain aura. Guess what? Ben Johnson and you could argue Caleb Williams are starting to emit an aura that cannot be denied by everyone else involved. You can't ignore him and push him to the side.

And what happens with a good final boss in any good video game? You think you've got the final boss beat? You think you've slayed that dragon? No. Cue the Kung Fu laugh where you've got to go up more stairs. Are you saying that their princess might be in another castle? Princess is always in another castle.

Yeah. But when the Packers, and that's the best example we can give, third meeting of the season, when you thought you had him, no, you did not. And if Ben Johnson and maybe Caleb Williams are going to keep that same villain energy, it's about time.

The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference. So guess what? If you hate Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson on the other side of this, that means that you care. And that means they've been effective in their play and they're scheduling and the way that they go about progressing. Because at the beginning of the season, I know this seems like a long time ago, because it kind of is Monday night football against the Vikings. That's a very different dynamic than what the Bears represent now to everybody else around the league.

Well, and guess who evolved? Guess who evolved to meet their, you know, the adversaries. Guess who evolved to meet their enemies? The Bears did. The Bears adapted. With Ben Johnson as their leader taking them to heights that some people imagine they would never go. I think the reason why this is also worth discuss. and at least having a little bit of fun with

when you hear Ben Johnson talk to Mike Floreo at the combine yesterday and he's still very fired up about the Packers is that it's one thing when it's manufactured. We've seen plenty of people want to rock the mic and say, you know, something about beat Green Bay. It's the first thing you say, beat the Packers, something. You know, that conciliatory, whatever you want to call it. I don't know if genuine is the right word,

but I think intense as hell probably is. like this is this is not the typical energy that a player has and when it comes from the head coach like this he i think he knows we're going to be into it as well even now listen here's the thing if you go back to his introductory press conference and him name-dropping mat lafleur unprovoked it's beautiful because at that time ah it's it's absurd You're just trying to tell the fans, give them some red meat. It's no longer that. That's the most beautiful part of this entire arc of what I thought was going to be the 20-25 bear's season.

But now with this Combine interview and the way he's talking now, you realize, oh, no, no, this is part of the career arc for Ben Johnson as Bears' head coach. And Bears' fans have to be loving it. And I want to say this, I think a portion of the Packers fandom loves it too. that the stakes got higher. There's more emotional energy put in from both sides. Are you kidding? I kind of enjoyed

beating Matt Lafourt twice a year. No, they're appalled now. They're like, wow, wow, wait. I can't believe you said, blank the Packers. You know, wow, that's taking it, that's taking it to a different place. I mean, that's personal.

And, you know, I'm offended. And I get that there is a school of people who don't like cussing on air like that or, you know, in a public setting where you're in a locker room. But at the same time, he was in a locker room. He knew it was going to be televised. The revolution will be televised.

I thought it would not be televised. In this case? It's going to be televised. Not only will be televised. There will be Instagram Reels describing what happens behind the scenes. There will be breakdowns. There will be documentaries in the future. There's going to be so much media coverage of this dynamic of Ben Johnson head football coach.

And we're just a year in. And that's the best part is that we're enjoying the beginning. And sometimes the beginning is boring. Have you ever seen Captain America, the first Avenger? The first time I watched this movie, I'm like, I mean, I know what happens. It's kind of boring. Like the first season of a TV show that everybody says is good, but the first season is not. The first few.

The perks and wreck. Well, first few episodes of Game of Thrones. It takes a while to get into what's going on. Like, okay, why should I be invested in this? But let me tell you something. By the time Captain America, the Winter Soldier rolled around, one of arguably the greatest movies of its era, and that's regardless of comic book affiliation. And then you get to Captain America Silver War. I was like, okay, let me go rewatch Captain America First Adventure.

That's how people are going to feel about this, except for we didn't have to wait that long. We had to wait like half a season before things got spicy. And then the other thing is, if you want to just look at it as you're doing your job, what does your boss hate the most? George McCasky. The Green Bay Packers. Okay. I can get down with that. Order followed.

Even if something happens to where I don't want to say it, but I'll just say it. If the Lions season arc happens to the Bears next year where they don't somehow make the playoffs, if you still beat your rivals, you've still got that. that's what makes this an insurance policy

and also something that is fun to aspire to that the tide of the years and years and years and years and years of losing to this team may have finally turned in a way where at least, at least you know you can hang your hat on knowing that guy's not going to let you down when it comes to this I don't know the last time I could say that about especially a Bears coach no I mean the landlord existed

Aaron Rogers was doing his thing for years and years and years and years. And now the tide has seemingly changed, if not but for one season. And my favorite part of the Ben Johnson first year story isn't just his hate for the Green Bay Packers. It's the fact that he comes in here foul-mouthed at times, doing whatever he wants, saying whatever he wants, leading by example. And you know what? His boss is like, yep, I'm good with that. Even though my history says I would not be good with that. I'm good with that.

By the way, let's just reset and listen to what George McCasky had to say. Let's remind you of what he had to say to Jared Payton on WGN talking about when Ben Johnson said, blank the Packers. We talked before the season. And a couple of things that I share with them are if you look at 100 years of history, whether the Bears have a successful season has a lot to do. with how we do against Team Voldemore. Not 2 and 15 or anything like that,

but if you sweep, you get a pretty darn good chance of having a successful season. If you split, you still have a good chance. But how that series goes has a big impact on how the season goes. And the other thing I told them was when you're with your players,

is you've got to be authentic. They can spot a phony. You've got to do what comes naturally. So, yeah, we talked and we're on the same page. Shout out to Herb Lawrence, who told me that Lela, Elizabeth, Rahimi, Parks, and Rexlander will not be tolerated. That first season, we had to suffer through it. That old Brandenowit's storyline. Sounds like slander.

Also, I totally forgot that George McCaskey called the Bears team or the Packers team volleyball. He will not say their name. They who shall not be named. team Voldemort. So Team Voldemort is a thing. But the point is, if you thought that what, if you had any doubts about how Ben Johnson felt or if that was just firing himself up for the playoff game,

I don't think that's the case. And I think Mike Florio is right to be like, if you're Michael Flore, you're like, why am I, like the Nini clip from Real Housewives? Why am I in here? Why am I in it? Which frankly happens to you and me a lot where we're just like minding your own business

and then somebody's like, well you know Saturn's in orbit and Rahimi doesn't like it and I'm like why am I in here? Like this is nothing to do with me. Trust me. You don't want to invite me to that kind of party because you'll end up being annoyed by me because I will talk back in a not kind way. I could use your assistance on some things. I pick my battle. You don't want me to pick your battle is my point. I'm just like, does your wife know your messaging about me at one in the morning

and what you think my weight is on our Instagram page? Anywho, point being, keep that same energy, boss. And if you thought it was, if you had any doubts, I think it was reaffirmed at the combine. Where let me guess, Packers Brasses, you know, they got their extensions all in place, Goudicunst and LaFleur and them. When you said extensions, I did think of somebody going to the hair salon

and getting extensions. I just want to point that out. No, that's fair because we brought up the real housewives. That's Marshall Harris. I'm Leila Rahimi. This is Rahimi, Harrison Grody. We're on 104 3, The Score. We thank you for joining us on this Wednesday.

Our address changed, by the way, on Twitch. It is now Twitch.tv. TV slash The Score, Chicago. Tell your crew, our Twitch mobs up there chatting. They hang out with you all day. We are also able to be texted and called. 312, 644, 67, remains our number.

And thanks to everybody who texted us. and informed us about Jade Cargill, you know, reminding us that she's married to the red Brandon Phillips. That's pretty cool. Love Brandon Phillips, his style of play. I love Jade Cargo. Yeah. How can you not? Shout out. And also, like, I love it. You know, I love it when people support each other. So for everybody chiming in, that was great. That's why we're here to hang out. Ray Diaz, Tyler Bueberbaugh are our producers, Brandon Fryer as well. I mentioned them earlier. They deserve another shout out. Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, Cody Westerland, and Connor O'Donnell. Manor. They are our social guys, and they do a tremendous job. Coming up next to her on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, we have tried to report on this. We have all tried to get information about this. We have reached out to other sources. As we focus on the Bears defensive line,

there is a mystery surrounding now one of the highest paid players on the team in the top five when it comes to average annual salary. That needs to be reported on further. So we're going to tell you the latest on what we know next. Rahimi Harrison Grody I don't want to break time I want to yell at a portion Can we handle more

Anthony Heron? Midday's 10 to 2 on 104 3 the score Third down and 4 McCarthy Time runs out and down he goes Just tripped up And it'll go down as a sack Pressure by Dio O'Dainbo

Who was brought in by the front office to beef up the pass rush for Chicago. That courtesy of ESPN, and this is Rahimi Harris and Grotie on 104-3, the score. Dyer Dengbo did not have enough highlights last year because his season got shut down by an Achilles tear. Dio tore his right Achilles, and he was one of the big free agent sightings that Ryan Poles had whenever last season happened and last off season happened. Dyer O'Dangbo was supposed to really help this bear's defensive line. He was supposed to be one of the edge rushers.

He was signed away from the Colts. And in doing so, the Bears had hoped, I think that based on his pressure numbers, the season before, that he was going to be a compliment to Montez Sweat and able to rush the passer. As of the 2026 latest on Spot Rack, Daya O'Dangbo is still, the fifth highest paid player on the team when it comes to the cap hit. DJ Moore's number one, 28 and a half, Montez Sweets, second, Jalen Johnson, third, Joe Tuny fourth, and then it is Dio at $20.5 million. Last season is washed. You can't get it back.

We're trying to figure out what kind of version we're going to get of Dio O'Dangbo. And the reason this has become, I think, a little bit more newsworthy. We're going to have Bull Zimmerman on of Windy City Gridiron to talk about it at 1225. with us is that this is not Dyerra Dengbo's first Achilles tear. This is his second. But what none of us can seem to find out, because it happened prior to when he was drafted in 2021, is which Achilles he actually tore the first time.

And when you consider that there's now two, and he was paid this much money, and unfortunately, another tear of Anne Achilles happened again, that's what makes this even more concerning. There's a lot of ways to look at this and to understand that Dioddingbo is in what's supposed to be the prime of his career. He's 26 years old. And after playing at Vanderbilt, he did suffer that Achilles

while getting ready for the draft and training for the draft. It caused him to slip all the way down in said draft to the second round and 54th overall pick at the Colts. And the Colts were like, I think he'll be good once he gets in there. And so he did play 10 games in that rookie year. And when he joined the Bears last offseason as their big line addition, you mentioned the payroll hit that he took, and the money invested tells you what they expect out of him.

He played eight games, started all eight, before being taken out by the Achilles. He had one sack. He had two tackles for loss. He had four quarterback hits. He is a big part of why Ryan Poles, and I'm guessing, because Dennis Allen hasn't been as vocal as we hear from Ryan Poles, he's the guy in charge of the front office, he was supposed to play a bigger

role than he did, even before he was hurt. And you can say, okay, it takes some time to get adjusted, but at the same time, you can look at what he did last year and understand because of the cap hit, because of the injury risk now going forward, it's a big deal. that he tore his Achilles because my biggest thing, Leila, is when you tear your Achilles, no one is expecting you to be what you

were in that first year back from a torn Achilles. And some people never recover from a torn Achilles. His position, first step to Achilles, not knowing if it's the same Achilles, and let me tell you something, if it's the same Achilles, I don't expect him to be the same player. Right, and

that's part of the concern. We're going to talk about it a little bit more of Bill Zimmerman because he brought up the concept of perhaps an injury settlement. But the reason we're even talking about this to this extent, and the reason this is so crucial, is not just because of the money we mentioned. It's because that money doesn't allow you enough flexibility to perhaps do what so many people want,

which is for the bears to improve the defensive line. Like, think about all the money they spent. I just mentioned Montez Sweat. We'll do this again. It's worth repeating. Grady Jarrett is set to make $18.925 million dollars next year. Those are three guys. Then you have Dervon Dexter as we try to figure out his future with the team. So you add it all up and there's perhaps not a lot of financial room to work with.

And I think that when Ryan Poles was asked about Dio Dainbo's injury status alongside Shamar Turner, who had a torn ACL, Poles talked about at the Combine yesterday, listen to the tone he uses and how it sounds like we need to understand that their timelines are very crucial to how he's planning this out. Dio and Shamar, do you just give us kind of a sense of your outlook for both those guys just in terms of both their injury and then what you kind of saw from them during the season. Yeah. So Dio was a little bit unfortunate.

He was the guy we brought in that we wanted to work inside and outside. And due to some of the injuries, I thought both was coming along in training camp. he had a I think any injury at some point in the beginning so we really didn't get to flex as much as we wanted to to try to improve a rush from the interior and exterior but he was coming along there's a lot of positive things there both in the run which I know we don't talk much about but getting that they're done is a huge deal so I thought he was coming along and we're looking for him coming back and I know he's training and in his return to play protocol Shamar was another one has to flex that we were trying to find out where he was going to be the most productive and it was coming along at end which was great because he would have versatility inside and outside which is what we want and so it was a bummer kind of a freak deal with him and his knee both guys are on track training hard again you know I'm hoping in the spring but if anything training camp would be the spot where to come back and there's a process through that of playing the game

and getting comfortable and healthy that we'll go through. But I expect both those guys to help us next year. He expects both of them to help him next year. And before we get into this Schmar Turner discussion of it, let's get into more regarding the edge rusher. And I know we've talked about him a lot, but I think it goes back to something that you saw Marshall back in training camp. You were concerned when you and Clay went to training camp

about what you were seeing out of the edge of, Rush or Dio Dengbo when it came to just whether or not he was going to make the difference that he was going to be paid to make on this team. Well, it wasn't so much what I saw. It's what I did not see in that I didn't see a guy who popped. And I was like, well, it's training camp. And you try to weigh that, right? Okay, he's getting acclimated.

But I guess I expected more. And when you look at the date of his torn Achilles, November 2nd, just hearing Ryan Poles talk about it. Like, how long does it take to recover from Achilles? I feel like it takes longer than, you know, six, seven months. I feel like a year is a good estimate when you can be back to full strength. So when he says help, like is he saying help in the back half of next season? Like I'm trying to make it make sense.

But I think, and I feel like, and this is unfortunate, that Ryan Poles is trying to just give you an optimistic view. and understanding he ain't got the money to spend on more defensive linemen. Yeah, but you also spent money on a guy who had torn his Achilles previously. And what we can't figure out that's so crucial to this is, is that timeline, can you tell by the timeline if perhaps it was a different one than the one before? And what also concerns me, this is a real big if, but this is just part of what we ask in injury discussion surrounding things like this, is did was there because the other Achilles got torn say it's the other one right say he say the right

achilles that he tore in 2025 wasn't the left any tour if that's the one he tore in 2021 okay so was that one overcompensating for a weakness on the other side and you know add to the fact that he's six foot five he doesn't weigh 200 pounds either he's 282 listed so that to me also would make it a little more difficult in the process a little more lengthy. But when Ryan Poles gives us that timeline, does that indicate that it was the opposite one? But either way, is there a reasonable doubt here that there's some sort of drop-off in athletic production? Yes, I think that's my point, Leila. It happened on November 2nd.

He's shortly thereafter has the surgery, right, to repair the Achilles. What kind of help are you expecting him from? Certainly you're not getting your value as far as what it would be worth, what you paid him. because maybe if he said, okay, this wouldn't surprise me. If training camp starts, he's still ramping up, he's still ramping up, regular season starts, he's not going to be, he's going to be on IR or whatever. Listen, if they said he'll be ready for a playoff push, I could see that because that's, you know, what, 13 months away.

But the idea that he would be ready at all, the first half of next season, it's a year just to like get back to normal, not elite athlete. Normal, especially if you're that. I think when you're that tall, too, that's a lot of tendons. And it's the Achilles. Like that is the power muscle from your lower half as start first step. Achilles. Yeah.

And it would make sense either way, it would make sense if either one was compensating for another when the right tour for the left, if that's what happened, or if the right tour again, what are we looking at here? 312 in our text line. you're correct. I thought it was a 12-month recovery for an Achilles tear as well. I thought that a year is kind of the baseline, similar to Tommy John. You just kind of go with a year.

ACL, what, nine, ten months to a year? That's how I feel about that one as well. With the ACL, though, they are shortening the timeline on a recover. We've seen that now over the course of the last decade or so, where if you tear an ACL, you can be back before a year doing whatever sport you were doing. It's been done. but Achilles is just different. And as we said, it's the size thing for me.

It's also what you said, though, about the next year understanding that you're not going to get the best version of that person. It's like we talk about it with quarterbacks. You know, Kirk Cousins gets cut yesterday by the Atlanta Falcons. We understand that. But there was an anticipation that after he tore his Achilles, it was going to take another year after that, you know, a two-year process before you kind of see who he really is.

Aaron Rogers, I think we can agree that after that happened with him, he was more himself in the second year after that occurred rather than the first. There seems to be an NFL understanding there. But when you got a three-year deal, so, okay, year three is when this is supposed to pay out? And by then, that's when there's not a cap hit like there is in year two. So you could understandably get rid of him if he's not performing. And then, I mean, next year basically becomes not a contract year, but the closest thing. to it because of the way the contract structured. I think overall, Lela, my point is I'm very uncomfortable with Ryan Poles talking about

these guys being guys he's depending on for next year to do anything. That should be gravy on top. No, I completely agree. And that's part of the problem. So, you know, knowing what we know, trying to figure out how he got injured in 2021 is a massive part of this. We have more to come here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104.3, the score. We haven't even gotten to the other side of it, which is the injury to Shemar Turner.

We mentioned ACLs, so when Ryan Poles talks about those two and how they factor it on the defense, Shamar Turner's presence is going to be crucial. We'll get into that next. Rahimi Harrison Grody. That sounds so crazy. 104.3 score. Wow. I like that. Midday's 10 to two on 104.3, the score. On second in goal, this is Gentile. unable to slip the initial tackle. Good push was Dominique Robinson and Shamar Turner. But Robinson was the man who forced that first maneuver as Genti loses too. That was courtesy of CBS.

This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3, the score. A lot of news coming out from the NFL Combine. And we talked about what Ryan Poles had to say for a possible timeline regarding Dio O'Dangbo, who is set to make the fifth. most on the team in 2026. Then there's also trying to figure out how Shamar Turner fits into this. Now, Dio tore his Achilles. We don't know if it was the same Achilles he tore in November against the Bengals that he tore before the draft in 2021. We do know about Shamar Turner and his ACL that he tore in October. So as far as Turner is concerned, we expect him to be a big part of this Bears pass rush

because they drafted him in the second round to do so. And then additionally, we know that they're spending a lot of money on the free agents that we mentioned, or on Montes Swear, who they extended. So Turner's availability, I think, factors in to figure out the success of the 2026 defense and pass rush. Except just like what you and I were talking about, Marshall, I don't think that he can be available right away either,

which is where I'm kind of surprised that Ryan Poles mentioned, these aggressive timelines for these two players. In looking at Shamar Turner, and you have to remember going back to when he played last year, it was five games, and he wasn't even ready to go at the beginning of the season. And so you have to wonder how much did he miss out on development-wise by missing the back half of last season. And I know the Bears believe, because who doesn't believe, their choices, their picks, their guys,

that he's going to step up this offseason and be ready to go after playing a handful of games in Dennis Allen's system and be a major force. But the problem is it's not just them believing it, it's that they need it, like have to have it. Right. That's the issue here. The margin for error for the Bears defense

is so different than the margin for error for a very established Bears offense trending in the right direction. You've got all pro guys, on that side of the football, that you know we're coming back, because, you know, they had an all-pro and Kevin Byer, but we don't know if Kevin Byers coming back. No, we do not.

And so when you look from front to back of that defense, it's just too much weight being placed on both Diodingbo and also Shamar Turner. And what you need from them just to be a functioning defense to not be one that says, hey, if we didn't lead the league and takeaways, where would we be? Let me tell you, not a good place. Well, and consider also, you know, linebacker injuries, and Ryan Poles did address that a little bit yesterday.

I feel like maybe it sounded like based on what we heard from the linebacker injury concern, T.J. Edwards, Noah Sewell, you know, the phrase that stuck out to me was, you know, who they're going to be once they return from injury. And you and Mark, and I also, briefly after Sewell, all thought about T.J. Edwards there. Because, of course, we did. You know, the visual of him getting carted off the field. You feel terrible for. him knowing that he had a pretty injury riddled season this past year after previously not having injury problems. That was not a part of his resume.

So when you have all these question marks at every single level of the defense, then the first thing you're doing is starting with who you know is going to be on the team, but you can't tell what necessarily they're going to be able to be back and in what condition they're going to be.

You know, the other thing about Turner is they're adjusting what he does. You know, the bears want to adjust his skill set a bit. And up until the point he got injured, he only had a 51.4% pass rush grade according to pro football focus. Work and progress, and I understand that, I'm giving him time. He was a rookie. I'm still going to consider him basically a rookie when he comes back. But the pressure might be high on him just because of all these other needs and the fact that you don't know what kind of production you're going to get. Grady Jarrett looked better in the latter games of the season after coming back from injury,

but he had to work his way back to health. Now, do I know that Grady Jared is going to do everything in his power in the off season to be healthy? Yes, he has that reputation, so I'm looking forward to seeing a better version of him this next season. But when you put it all together, though, I think it's pretty easy to understand why this would be a massive concern for anybody observing the team. Well, you wonder what Dennis Allen's ultimate goal for him is, whether it's to play inside edge, because he can

move around. That's one of the strengths. You could argue Dio and Shemar Turner is that they can be chess pieces. They can run. When they're healthy, they can run. So Dennis Allen likes chess pieces. That's what we know. The way he going back to his introductory press conference, the way he checked

Kyler Gordon at the door. Yeah. And looking at Dennis Allen's board right now, he's missing a lot of pieces, whether that's guys who are now free agents or that's guys who are coming back from injury. And I'm interested to see how Ryan Poles Ben Johnson, Dennis Allen get together and prioritize what they need just on the defensive side of the ball. On offensive side of the ball, it's pretty simple. You need a left tackle. Can we depend on someone on our roster or maybe a Braxton Jones resigned to be the left tackle?

Or do we have to get one from the draft because we don't believe in Ozzie Tripillo's road to recovery in the way that, a normal injury would, because it's not a normal injury what Ozzie Tripilla is going through. For Shamar Turner specifically, ACL's pretty standard. He should be back. I believe Ryan Poles statement about contributing next year,

much more when you're talking about Turner than what he said regarding Diolo Dingbo. The question is, how much more pressure is that on Turner? And will he be able to answer the bell, especially early in the season? Well, and remember, his last game with the Bears was at defensive end,

right? So if that's the case, was that done because of other defensive concerns? Was that done out of need or was that done out of desire to put him in that position? Right. That's one of the questions we're trying to get answered. And it's probably going to be until training camp. Or they may answer it with what they decide to do both in free agency and more importantly through the draft because I think a lot of this has to be done through the draft because of the cost restraints.

Which is why the combine is so important. And that's why this question being asked by our friend of the show, Kevin Fishbane, was so crucial. I've talked about that. When you have a lower draft pick, when you don't have as much money to work with, these are good team problems. This means you signed the right guys. At least we know for sure on the offensive side of the ball.

You sign the right guys, you know, Kevin Byard, you sign the right free agent then. You sign the right guy off the street and Nashan Wright. And all these guys have to get paid more money. too. And when you are lower in the draft, this is a good problem to have. But unfortunately, there's still some holes on this team where you know you

want to do better. And how much, if you're really best player available like Ryan Poles said he was for pick number 25, how can you not consider a defense if there's a tie break, you know? Yeah, but I think if there's a left tackle,

I would consider that too. But I get your point. especially because this draft is built for a team looking for defensive help because of the depth at edge and defensive line. That depth, I think, is going to work in Ryan Poles and the Bears favor for this draft specifically. I think that's one place you can get not necessarily cheap help, but cheaper help than what you would get out on the free agent market.

Yeah, and that's the concern here is they just don't have that wiggle room yet. Now, the league year begins on March 11th. How are they going to restructure some deals? but you could tell even in polls's comments yesterday that it's a major concern as far as what decisions they have to make as a team. Sounded too much like hoping and wishing to me, but maybe I'm just being overly skeptical. I think it was really just quelling a lot of what we're saying.

Like for everybody who wants some major change on the defense, just know that they made a lot of major changes last year. And some of those contracts are going to have to be sat with. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotia on 1043, the score. More news from the combine because it just got underway yesterday. This is where the business is done in the NFL and Mike Florio, who talked to Ben Johnson. We heard his statements about the Packers earlier. Floreo is the one who had that conversation with him yesterday. We'll talk to him today next.