Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Best of Bears: Players praise Ben Johnson's leadership

Episode Date: August 29, 2026

In the Best of the Bears this week, Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote discussed Chicago's strong rushing attack and reflected on running back D'Andre Swift's praise of head coach Ben Johnson's leadership; Chicago Sports Network analyst Clay Harbor joined Score Mornings to discuss the latest Bears storylines after they held an intense joint practice against the Titans; and Matt Spiegel and Laurence Holmes detailed how Johnson gets annoyed when he's asked about the 2025 season.

Thanks, everybody. The Bears. You're listening to the best of the Bears. He's it for the touchdown. And the Chicago Bears have taken the league. A weekly mix of 670, The Score's best NFL talk to get you ready for game day. Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 104.3, the score. First to go with Swift.

Nice cutback. Has a lane. To be at six yards. For his sixth, the rushing touchdown of the year, and it's six. Nothing. Bears. Bears. Highlights courtesy Fox 32. The runnings of DeAndre Swift as we welcome it back into Rehimi and Grotie on 104.3, the score. Perfect because that was his, as it was pointed out, his sixth touchdown of the season. He ended up with nine, which was for DeAndre Swift, a career high this year. He had nine rushing touchdowns, 10 touchdowns altogether, 1,087 yards, Lela. for a running game and quite frankly a running back that it felt like never was going to get going through the first four games of the season last year, but they figured it out. Oh yeah, there's no doubt about that.

Ben Solac actually did a great piece about that very thing, the adjustments from the first four weeks to the rest of the season. That's on ESPN. He talked about that, the run game and brought up, I think, not just DeAndre Swift, but the whole concept. It's really good read if you want to see it. But you're right. DeAndre Swift had a career year.

I think there were times where we thought. but, well, you were on a Ben Johnson team that decided to go with Jemir Gibbs. So what was that going to mean for you? And no better way to respond than how he did last season. Yeah, and I think we all sort of got that wrong because, and I was one of those that got that wrong, I might have been one of the reporters who asked at Hallis Hall last year, do you need to bring somebody else in? Is this enough?

Is my nun guy enough? I absolutely did. Yeah. You weren't the only one on that. Yeah, no, I know. I said that was one of the reporters that probably asked that question. and I even presented that to Swift last night. I admitted that.

So we were all asking, what's going on here? Do they need to bring somebody in? So that said, he was with us live at our Take the North live event at Gurney Hyundai last night. And I asked DeAndre Swift how he would describe the head coach, Ben Johnson. Nobody knows him better than you because he obviously played for the man while you were in Detroit. now in your second year with Ben Johnson as the head coach. We use words like maniacal and crazy in the best possible ways. Are those words accurate and how would you describe your head coach?

And moreover, DeAndre, from offensive coordinator when he had offensive coordinator power, now he's got head coach power. That's a different kind of maniacal power. Yes. You could use a lot of words to describe Ben. I would say smart, man. He's one of the smartest football minds I've been around. He has a great personality, great character about him.

He's actually funny when he wants to be. He got jokes, huh? When he wants to be. But he knows when to be serious and kind of get points across and things like that when we need to hear it. But, man, he's a great person running off to feel of somebody you can go talk to about life and whatever you need to talk to him about. But I love playing for Ben.

Yeah, it makes sense. I mean, like, if you are a running back for Ben Johnson, you are going to be featured and you are going to be circled, a lot. Well, and I think you're also going to be utilized if you've got other skill sets, which DeAndre Swift has. You know, I'm begging for a screen game out of the Bears' offense this year. Begging. You want to talk about runners' balls?

Go high percentage. Throw it even with the line of scrimmage first and then build on that later. And we didn't see a lot of that last year. I think there were other objectives, so they decided to focus on those. But I would love to see a well-developed running back screen game. 34 catches last year for DeAndre Swift. to 299 yards along the way. Let's hear a little bit more from DeAndre Swift,

and we'll get into a deeper discussion about the running backs room in general for the Bears as DeAndre Swift, like this is the part, continue to discuss Ben Johnson's love for the run game. When you have a coach that's his favorite part of the offense, man, you make sure you want your peas and cues

as the running back to go ahead and deliver when he calls you a number. But just the attention of detail that Ben has and not even just the running game and everything that he is coaching, a type of guy that, you don't even want to play for us. We got the right guy in office. That's the part. We love the explosive passing game.

We love Caleb Williams. We love Luther Burden and Roma Dunzee and Colston Loveland and all the myriad possibilities for all that Caleb Williams and the receivers can be. But at the heart of it, Ben Johnson is a truly unique master of the run game because unlike other head coaches, he's in charge. He designs that. that whole thing. The running, the running game, while we know the passing game and the fun that

exists there, that's his real baby. Yeah, and he does his own installations of it, too. And I think that that's a big piece of this. I would love to hear those guys talk more about that. Cole Comette was quoted in that article that I talked about with Soak and said he had never seen a coach to his own run game installs like that, a head coach. So I think that that kind of speaks to what we're talking about. his swift i i feel like for all accounts is thriving yeah did you ask him about just how his camp has gone because the word on the street is it's been so good like you've seen it yourself too but still yeah no we did and he is like exactly what we thought he would be i think like most bears fans are and most bears players are he's like let's get this thing going like we have officially reached the

muck of training camp it's time to put the helmets on for real that will happen on september 13 But you're right. The day of the scrimmage practice, the longest, hardest practice that the Bears had, I did happen to attend that practice. And the guy that stood out the most was DeAndre Swift. He had a day where they were tackling. He had at least two explosive runs. While we're at it, Kyle Menongai had an explosive run.

Oh. So, yeah. Kyle Manung guy. We don't, how's he feeling? That's a good question. He's week to week. listed. Yeah, there's too much week to week going on right now. We're all week to week,

my friend. I guess. I'm really day to day. Yeah, that's the actual truth. We're all day to day. But yeah, Manung guy's week to week. Tyreek Stevenson is week to week, but I think Manun guy is going to be okay. And if he's not, and you need that guy,

I have liked in general what I've seen from the Bears running backs in this camp with Savon Ahmed starting to shine with with Roshan Johnson looking pretty good relative to Roshan Johnson and barely running the football last year. And then Britton Brown as well. And we talked to Hogue yesterday. And he's right.

It comes down to special teams with these guys and who can be effective. And Roshan Johnson was pretty effective on special teams. But Svon Ahmed, pretty effective on special teams so far in this camp. Well, and I feel like in the tape that I've seen of both of those two running backs, Ahmed seems to have a faster burst. The first speed is there. I feel like he hits a whole little faster than Rochon Johnson does, just in the different types of running styles.

But I don't know about you, Mark, but I feel like there's a loyalty to Rochon Johnson because he was drafted by Ryan Poles, even though it's a different head coach. Yeah, I'd like to think that some of that has been torn down by the power of Ben Johnson, right? That while he is going to have, he respects Ryan Poles, obviously.

But I guess this goes back to the question of who's really got the power in that building. They drafted a titan in the third round. That's all I needed to know. But I'm more concerned about who's in charge of drafting for defense and who's winning the fight when you need to draft for defense. Yeah. Because I still don't have an answer to that.

And I don't know. And I don't know that we've seen one on the field, by the way. Yeah, did Dennis Allen have... I mean, Theteman was clearing away first round pick. That's understandable. Because you needed to fill that position. Yeah. But in the meantime,

and Trondexter's up? We were talking about this last night too. Montes Sweat is up? Is sweat up? Yeah. I believe so. Let me check. Yeah, I think you might be right about sweat.

But yeah, the Jordan Vandenberg factor of all of this is very interesting because, like, could we see reduced playing time from some of these guys on the defensive line if, and I know he's obviously not going to replace Montess Sweat, different positions, but somebody like Trayvon Dexter, if Jordan Vandenberg is really good. And I still don't know. Like, I am not all, I am, I'm starting to get in on Vandenberg after watching him in the Cincinnati game. but I'm not going to just say, oh, yeah, good to go. Your sixth round, Vandenberg is going to be great. I want him to do well, but I have a real issue with the fact that you are asking, who was a project in a second round draft pick in Trayvon Dexter. You did decide that, that you were going to change his style of play.

His relative athletic score determined that you wanted him to be the technique player that he is instead of what he was in Florida. And then on top of that, you've decided that your sixth round pick is going to replace him. How's your fifth round pick doing it? left tackle. Doing all right? He's just fine. He's going to be okay. I mean, it's going to be

Braxton Jones. It's going to be him as the left tackle, right? Do you got another option? They don't have another option. Is the option still outside of the building right now? I'm very concerned about that. Very concerned. So Montez, oh yeah, because it was a four-year deal

in 23. Okay, so that was the extension. So 2027, he's still locked down for another year. But the money, I think, gets perhaps easier than. I think at 27 sweats a dead cap money. This is according to over the cap.com goes to 4.08. So 4.085. And then the cap savings is 21 million. Okay. So he's locked in for the rest of this year. But next year is a really flexible year money-wise. Okay. I wonder if he's going to have a big year. Because he did have a strong second half.

He looked lost. I mean, we were all over him. We were all over Montes-Swed in the first half of the season last year. Appropriately. Right. Not winning the, wasn't what Ben Johnson said or was a Dennis Allen? It was Ben Johnson saying not winning his one-on-one battles. And then he just tells you about going up against Darnall right.

He was praising his teammate. Yeah, I think that's what, yeah. I don't think that was Montez trying to tell on himself. It made me raise an eyebrow. Yeah. But I think if he really thought that there was nothing he could do, he couldn't overcome darn all right. I don't know that he would have exposed himself like that. No.

Like he's smarter than that. Yes. But, you know, I remember last year having the bad year and talking to him by his locker and essentially saying a couple of things. First of all, he took the media shot. He's like, you guys aren't helping because we're all criticizing. My job is to not rush the quarterback. My job is to talk about the team. Yeah, that's true.

Yeah, I'm doing my job. Right. But I, of course, no, I get it. And that's why we're in the locker room. That's why we're talking face-to-face with these guys. Inside the locker room. Inside the locker room. The very highly rated shows.

Very show. Segment. It's a segment. Yeah, it's a segment. Inside the clubhouse is the show. Right. They are... Hitting and run is the show.

Right. Hit and run. Like, their ratings are like, we're just trying to catch up. We're new. We're just a baby inside the locker room. So I understand that the dominance that Bruce Levine and Matt Spiegel have, but I'm coming for both of you guys. Don't forget David Haw.

David Haw as well. I'm just giving you Bruce because Bruce has been literally doing that show for 30 years, and he's had like 15 co-hosts. We're probably angering Bruce by talking about football during Bruce season, which is baseball season. Why would he get mad, though? We're talking about Bruce. But it's Bruce season.

Oh, it is Bruce season. What times? I actually saw a clock over. Oh, it's time for Clay Harbor Handle it with poise and class befitting a veteran Football analyst for Chicago Sports Network

Former NFL player Not a quarterback, I'm a tight end But I've watched a lot of tape I've been in meeting rooms with Tom Brady Been in meeting rooms with Drew Breeze I've been in meeting rooms with Michael Vett Quarterbacks know what they can do and what they can't do And I know what a quarterback can and can't do

And when you're supposed to expect them to be able to be successful Clay Harbor on 1043, the score Happy Friday everybody Clay Harbor 9-NFFV vet in studio with myself, Gabe Ramirez, and Carmen Vitale hanging out with you here on 104.3, the score only until Monday. These guys, I'm sure we're all playing some role at some point on the station in the next coming weeks. But Monday, 5.30 a.m., the debut, David Haw, Jared Payton on the score.

Former W.G.M. sports anchor and son of Walter, Jared Payton, joins the score line up full-time, just in time for the football season. Of course, it all starts Monday. Hall and Peyton discussing the latest on Chicago Sports during your weekly commute from 530 to 10 a.m. right here on the score. Clay, or as you like to call yourself, the claymaker, because nobody else does. Nobody else does, just you. Or Andy Reid did, right? Is that that one time? He was in Jacksonville, the Claymaker. They didn't even call me clay my coach is yelling at me. He's an old Southern brother. He goes, oh, Claymaker, this ain't it right here. This ain't it. This ain't it. This how you're blocking? This ain't it. You ain't

going to be here long. You're blocking like this, Claymaker. This is what I'm talking about, Claymaker. So that's how they, that's how they called me. My name was actually Claymaker to the Jacksmill Jaguars. You are a pat on the back guy, not a kick in the butt guy. So I could see where he was trying to, you know, say he could do better. I used that on you before. So yeah, I did. I'm just going to sit back and, you know, just let these two go at each other. All right, let's discuss joint practices yesterday. A lot of things happening. Of course, let's start with the Xavier Woods hit on Wondale Robinson. You've been a part of, obviously, tons of things like this in terms of teams going up against each other when the emotions are heightened.

When something like that goes down, and you see something like that from Xavier Wood specifically, is it him trying to impress his teammates, or do you feel like this is a safety and he is just wired that way? You're asking the wrong guy, you know, because I'm going to go back to my day, back in my day. We didn't have all these penalties thrown for these defensive guy. If you went over the middle hard, you knew you were going to get hit. But that was, that's why that was something that was so important to have. It was a skill set. Catch the ball.

Get down. Make sure you're okay. You're not running around the field, running around the middle of the field, like you're picking flowers tiptoeing through dandy lions, Carmen. You've got to be aware of where you're at and okay joint practices. I know there's a point to where you can get too physical. I didn't see the shot. You don't want to take a cheap shot, especially not to anybody's head.

But it's physical. It's football. It's joint practice. You're playing in somebody else. This guy's trying to make a shot. roster. He's in a position battle. I've been there before. You might be too physical. I'm in them. I'm trying to win this job. We got Cam Lewis over here. We had an interception. He's getting some of the one reps. I want to start. I'm late in my career. I think this is a good spot for

me. Yeah, maybe he took it a step too far, but I want a guy with that mentality. I don't want a guy to acquiesce and just let him catch the football. Okay, if we're on the opposite side, this thing, we might say, yeah, that's cheap. But you know what it reminds me of Carmen? It reminds me a little bit of last year when the Miami Dolphins came in here and then for weeks after the practice, they're talking about these guys were just too physical. And look how their season turned out. Look how the Bears season turned out being the third best running team in football because of that physicality. Well, the dolphins told on themselves last year because they said the same thing when they went to Detroit right after the Bears and they were like, they were too physical

to it. I'm like, there's a common denominator here and it's not the two teams that are too physical. But I want to go back to then what Jalen Johnson had, you know, he got the team to get They weren't getting what they wanted out of practice. And he got the defense together, tried to be that leader, tried to get them going. Do you think this was kind of a reaction to that to say, hey, we heard you loud and clear. Let me go and try to set the tone by Xavier Woods. What I heard is they started out hot. The Bears did.

And then the second half came around. They did a little bit of a half time there, which I like. I don't know if they did it for the heat or if they did it because there is something, there is something to be said. When you go and you stop, you have all this, this energy, you're flowing. you stop and then you've got to figure out a way to get it all going again, right? What's your half-time routine? Are you stretching? Are you watching some iPads? You're going over coverages. You've got to do something to stay engaged in the game. So now you go back out there and the bear started slow. You heard it was a little bit sloppy. I love that Jalen brought the team together because the best teams I've been a part of were player-led teams.

When I was in Jacksonville, I talk about the Jaguars a lot. I mean, these were coach-led teams. We had a young group of guys. our quarterback wasn't an alpha type guy. And you saw that. In Philly, we really didn't have that either, even though we did have some good teams. But when you got a coach like Andy Reid, he can make up for it why we're able to make the playoffs. But then I had a cup of coffee with a couple different organizations, right?

The Patriots, the Lions, and the New Orleans Saints. Those quarterbacks were Tom Brady, Matt Stafford, and Drew Breeze. And you talk about some player-led teams. If Tom thinks of practice, we're an OTAs in seven-on-seven. If Tom's not happy, he's MFing you, and you can do with those words what you want, and letting you know. This guy's got five Super Bowls, three MVPs, we have a bad seven on seven. Let's blanking go. Come on, pull this together, get to your depth.

He's a guy that's on all the time, even in preseason. He treated every rep, every snap, as if it was game day. So now when it is game day, he's not doing it for the first time. he's seen it over and over again, and now this is just an extension of that 7-on-7 drill. So that's why he wanted everything crisp, and I love when I see players that come and do that, because they're the ones that see it the most.

You're on the field. You're feeling how everybody's playing. If a guy's a little bit out of place, if he's maybe a step slow, conserving some energy, the D-line isn't firing off as much. Bring them together. Hey, guys, we got another half hour of this. Put everything into this.

If you're tired, get a substitution in here, and let's go. So I love seeing that from Jalen Johnson. Of course, you need leadership ability, and he is a guy who understands he's going to have to. I posed a question the other day, and you guys could answer this as well. I said the Bears defense would be all right if Blank becomes a pro bowler. And my initial thought was Dylan Thineman. I said, if you can get your first round talent to make up for the loss. It's one of those questions, right, where you're not saying they're going to be one,

but the Bears defense will be okay if this individual becomes one. The other names that were thrown out there were Jalen Johnson, right, so that he can just kind of follow the number one receiver, be the Pro Bowl guy that's out there. And the last name was Montez Sweat. When you guys hear that question, because obviously there are holes and obstacles when it comes to this defense, you know, if you were to answer that question and saying the defense will be okay

if this player were to be a pro bowler, who would that be for you? All right. So Montes Sweat is going to be Montes Sweat. I think he's a fine defensive end. I've watched him on film for the last three years, all 22, everything. I've obviously spent a ton of time watching film of defensive ends and edge rushers. Montes Sweat is never going to scare me. I'm sorry.

He's a big guy, long arms. He can set the edge. You can get a sack. If he can roll out, he's not going to be a disruptor. I'm telling you when an offensive coordinator turns on the film, he's not saying, oh boy, we got a chip, we got a double team. We've got to do all this to this guy. I like him.

He's a solid pro. great. Jalen Johnson, I'm already pounced on him in as a pro-bowler. If he's healthy to me, he's one of the best in the league. He should be. He should be. He should be. Dylan Theeman, I think he's a little too early. He's had an up and down camp. I think that he can get better. I don't see a pro bowl for him.

The guy I'm going to say, he's going to sound a little bit crazy. He's actually injured right now. But I'm not going to say pro-bler, but I'm saying he can be a double-digit sack guy, and that's Austin Booker. I'm a big Austin Booker guy. I love his moves, his versatility. He's got a long arm. He's got to spin. he's a diligent worker.

Once again, he gets hurt. The soft tissue issue, the groin, it's a week-to-week thing. Ben said Tyreek Stevenson was week-to-week, then he's back the next day. He said Menongai is week-to-week, he's back the next day. I don't know if week-to-week or day-to-day. I don't know what that means. But hopefully he can get back before the season. You remember him last off-season.

In the preseason, he led the NFL in sacks. Then he comes back, and in the last few games, he has four sacks and five games, if you include the playoffs, including those late hits that didn't get counted on Jordan Love. This guy's got a relentless motor. If you can put him across from Montess Sweat and he can get you 8, 9, 10 sacks, which I think he's capable of doing. He's not the most athletic guy, but he's relentless.

He's got good moves. He's stronger than he looks. I think he's a guy that if he shows up, if he becomes a guy that can get double-digit sacks, maybe outskirts of pro bowl. There's even a pro-ball anymore. Gabe, what are you talking about? He could be one of the 88.

They're going to name them. They're going to name them. You get the honor. You don't have to play in the game. You don't have to play a t-shirt. But Austin Booker bucket right now. All right. How about you, Carmen?

If this defense is going to be successful, I think you need to have one of the guys on the interior step up, whether you get the makeup year from Grady Jarrett that he's promising, or if Javon Dexter takes another step forward. He ain't going to be here, Carmen. One of these guys, I feel like, because if you want those favorable matchups for Austin Booker, for Montez-Swed, if Montes-Swed isn't commanding double teams because, he doesn't scare anybody. That means that you have a pretty even amount of blockers on the other side of the line of scrimmage. If you want all of those one-on-one, those true one-on-one guys that are one-on-one situations for your edge blockers, I need to see someone on the interior taking up more than one guy.

I need to see you taking up space. I need to see you pushing the pocket from the interior, affecting the quarterback in that way. I need to see you controlling the line of scrimmage. And one of those guys, I don't care who. it is, but someone on the interior, this bear's defense is going to be effective. With all of the injuries you have on the back level, you now have to rely on this defensive line, and I need to see someone step up. And the funny thing is, it's almost as if when you pose the question, you say to yourself

as you assess the defense of the Chicago Bears, damn, they might need someone to be a pro bowl bowler in order for them to have a good defense. Because listen, I love, I love Denny's Island. I love him. I feel confident that he can put together a good game plan, but you still have to have the talent there. You still got to have the bodies in those situations. And sure,

we've seen you make something out of nothing with C.J. Gardner Johnson and Nashon Wright, but to duplicate that, to do it again with individuals. And then have the same takeaway luck that you had, but that's not a way to live. It's not a way to kind of build your defense. And I think you saw that.

I say this. I make this comparison a lot. The 2025 Bears defense was essentially the 20, for Packers defense, where those takeaways masked a lot of issues underneath in the first two levels in that front seven. And the Packers went out and got, after they like slumped after that, they went out and got Michael Parsons because they knew the importance of having to get that push up front. Carmen, to your point, I mean, an excellent point.

People think about the bears and the pass rush, the pass rush, the pass rush. Guess what they didn't do at all? They didn't stop the run. Yeah. They gave up the third most yards per carry of any. team in the NFL. Rushing yards allowed total, 27th in the NFL,

five yards to carry, 29th, 15 rushing touchdowns, bottom half of the league. So this is something that is, to rush the passer, it's a privilege. You got to stop the run. You need some big boys up front

up front to stop the run. And one thing Gervon Dexter doesn't do, I think he's a fine pass rusher. He's, dude, if you look at Jervon Dexter, make him the first guy off the bus. I mean, this guy's massive, long arms, tie his shoe standing up. I mean, this guy, every time I look at this guy, he's athletic, he's just laid off the snap,

and I've never seen somebody maybe worse than taking on a double-team block than Jervon Dexter. It's like they put this guy on skates. But if you give him one-on-one pass rush, he's got some good wiggle. He's going to get around this guy. So it's like he's got to figure out how to take on a double team, or you can have to get somebody else in there before. And we did hear Ben say, defensive tackle, interior defensive line is one of the most deep positions on this roster. I think very deep. I don't think they're top heavy, but I think they got a lot of guys like Vandenberg,

Cantavia Street, James Lynch, very impressive. He was playing some, he played Ed Rush, he's playing Ed Rush, he's playing nine technique all the way down to zero technique. And then you got Neville Gallimer. Who's Neville Gallimore? I remember, and I'm like, oh, this guy's physically he can play too. So they got some depth there, but one of those guys got to step up for sure. I just, I try to look at the Bears defense, and there's, I can never come to a moment

where I'm like, okay, this defense isn't going to cost. the Bears games. Like I'm not there. And I think that's the bigger issue I have when I'm looking at the outlook of the season. And listen, I have complete confidence in, oh, wait, we said we're not going to use that storyline anymore. You're two of Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams in that situation. Why can't we use that?

That's important. We talked about it earlier how we're tired of hearing that story line. Yeah, like, what storyline do we want to put on mute? And I was like, that's fair. The jump, the jump game. Year 2 game. The thing about that, too, is all right, regular season, go out and score 35. points game. And if your defense, you know, your defense can give up 30 to 35 points, you can

outscore whatever they're going to give up in the regular season. My mind already goes to the postseason and how viable that strategy is. Like, you see it all the time. We've seen it in this town. This is a defensive town. And we, we, we live and die by the fact that defense wins championships. And I am absolutely of that mantra. So when you get to the postseason, does that affect your viability if you haven't figured some things out on defense because you are no longer going to be able to let up 30 points a game because you're not guaranteed to score 30 points a game. I think that's where you look at Ryan Poles and you say, hey, man, you've been pretty active during the trade deadlines and improving this roster.

Who can you get then? And who can you get then? Who's going to be available? What kind of capital are you willing to give up to improve your team? Because you're going to be close. Your team's going to be good. You should find yourselves in the playoffs. And so you want to give yourself the best opportunity in order to do that.

You got to put the best defensive out there because you're right. You can't score 35 points and let the Browns put up 29 and beat them. But when you're going up against filling the blank, yeah, wherever you think. Anybody in this division also, I mean, they won the division without actually having a good division record last year. So that's not the end-all be-all. But to not think you're going to end up with one of these teams as a. matchup in the playoffs. Bears Eagles, Clay. First round. Look, Clay's shaking his eye at it. It's like... I was at Eagles camp. I mean, I was out there.

I mean, they got a big offensive line. People think that Jason Kelsey's gone. Lane Johnson's back looking young. Jordan Milata's still there. Cam Jorgans, Landon Dickerson. I mean, they got a bunch of guys in that offensive line. Sequon's looking quick. Obviously, we know what the Bears did to them last year. You want to see a repeat of that. But don't think they haven't forgot that they've forgotten about that. I'm out there just watching practice, some of the media coming up to me, oh, Clay, what do you think about the Eagles Bears this year? You know, Vic Fangio's not going to let that happen again.

I'm like, hey, man, I'm just here watching practice. I used to play here. I used to play for the Eagles. They're talking about it right now. That's a game I'm obviously looking forward to. But the Bears defensive line, we've been talking about. They've got to get better. They gave up 3.1 yards before contact last year.

That was number two worst team in the NFL. You can't give up 3.1 yards before contact. You're not giving your linebackers a chance. You're back in the game. their lap, Gabe. It's like the dude that reclines the seat on the plane. They're in their lap. You have no wiggle room at all. You're stuck. I said in first class, I don't even know what that is. Exactly. I know Gabe's private. He doesn't get it. But you got to have some defensive linemen that are stout up front, let these running backs, these linebackers, excuse me, run. And you don't

got the biggest linebackers this year. Devin Bush looks like a safety. Yeah, but he's fast. So hopefully he can get up to the line of scrimmage before he even get those three points. Maybe he can get up there. I'm big on the linebacking. I think DeMarco Jackson, like, I think he's one of the most underrated players, one of the most underrated linebackers in the NFL. And then we were talking about earlier Jack Chicago Sanborn. Yes. We get Chicago Jack Sanborn.

Thank you. But yeah, Chicago Land. His powers reactivate within the Chicago, the greater Chicago land area. He is always in the right spot. Always. He's physical. I love Jack Sanborn. He's really smart.

I never knew why they let him go in the first place. I mean, the guy is like, T.J. reincarnated, you know, the white TJ Edwards, I mean, but TJ's making 10 million, Jack's making league minimum. We're hanging out here. This morning, I spent my time watching the

Ben Johnson press conference, and it was great. There's some more stuff that we need to talk about later on in the show, but Speeks, we both, it caught our ear something in exchange that happened inside of the press conference today, and it wasn't, you know, like a back and forth thing,

but it was definitely worth us talking about, our guy, Jason Leisure, asked Ben about, you know, last year and why he gets so frustrated. Now, I actually really liked it because the way the Bears PR did it is they were like, okay, here are the last three questions. So no one jumped on each other. Like the last three questions are going to be big, you know, Jason, and I think it was weederer.

And so no one was jumping on each other. So he had a chance to like really get his question out. Yeah. And he asked about last year and why Ben hates talking about it. Check this out what Ben said. Ben, one of the questions that always seems to irritate you is anything that's premised on last year. Why does that annoy you? And what are some ways that you're specifically coaching this team differently?

Are you trying to annoy me right now? Yeah. Listen, all I care about is, does it help us win or not? That's really what I'm all about. We can talk about injuries up here. The guys that aren't out there, they're not helping us win right now. I want to talk about the guys that are out there helping us right now. I want stories to be written about those guys.

We've got 90 guys on the roster right now, a lot of which are fighting for their professional lives right now, and their stories are incredible. They should be out there and hearing about that. But talking about last year isn't going to do us any good in terms of winning this practice, winning the next preseason game winning week one. And that's really all we care about right now. I like the way that Jason Leisure framed that, and then Ben's able to joke about how he gets annoyed.

Are you trying to annoy me right now? Exactly. But it also, it relaxes him and then he gives you a good honest answer. All that dude cares about is winning. And he's also empathetically connected to his team. He actually is paying attention to the people who are out there and battling their butts off and he wants to make sure they get their shine. I do like a hearing.

Look, they're trying to get the most favorable coverage that they can get. and that's their job. That's Bears' PR's job. That's the front office's job. They're supposed to make their franchise look as best as they can. I also think that it's important that some of the stories about the guys who are heard, aka Kyler, like that's a thing.

But I do appreciate Ben being like, no, guys, like there are some really great stories that are here that I'd love for you to focus on. And I think that we can, you know, pat our head. and rub our tummy at the same time in some of those cases. And I think people are. I think that the people who are covering the bears right now are looking at some of the Ahmed story, for example. They're looking at the stories that are interesting.

People are raving about Jordan Vandenberg and how good he's been. Hayden Larch. Yeah. And folks that are trying to figure out, are we talking about someone being injured? or are we talking about someone being traded? Because that is a question with Javon Dexter. And Javon supposedly has a hamstring. That's what Ben said today.

Man, he's not in Nashville with the team. Dexter, I keep thinking that maybe Dexter was the main guy who Ben bitched to Dennis Allen about not teaching enough fundamentals. and then DA pointed the thumb and said, I got to teach these guys better because supposedly Dexter's been taught some specific fundamentals which are giving him a better showing here in camp. His stance.

He talked about them working overhauling his stance in the offseat, which is crazy. I think like Dexter's one of the guys, hey, I'm not getting enough out of him. Well, maybe you've got to teach him better, Dennis. And now Dennis has tried to teach him better. But yeah, I don't know, man. It's pretty fascinating some of the stuff that's going on

there. And the Austin Echler interview from the top of our three o'clock hour keeps rolling around my head. If you missed it, go back and listen to it. Go back and watch it on YouTube. For real. Yeah, watch it. Because seeing his body language, us getting a chance to talk to a dude right in front of us like that about this stuff. And him saying that he's never had a coach who didn't point the thumb and make himself accountable. Never had one. He referenced like six, seven different coaches he's had. And every one of them does what you're supposed to do, the way that Ben does it. It's amazing because in the moment, we all go, yeah, the Hail Mary sucked. And we were upset at what happened on that play.

But the play before, and everyone, literally everyone. They all knew it. Everyone was like, no, what were you guys doing on that play? Like the players were like, what's the call here? Yeah. We're just going to give away yards. Do you hear the offensive perspective from Echler saying, we knew we weren't in range?

Oh, you're giving us that? Cool, thank you. Now we're in range. Now we're in range. Now we got you. We've got a guy that can get the ball there from here. And then he does it. And meanwhile, like, I mean, I don't mean to bash.

Tyree's out there. But it just like, sometimes the people in sports make it feel like it's harder than it is or that you have to be like a Mensa-level genius. and anyone who's played Madden or watched football was like, was like, you know what you shouldn't do? Excuse me, sir. Give them more yards to get closer to throw the Hail Mary. Have you watched football, sir?

You are hired as coach because our guy apparently has not. Yeah. He needed Nick Saban to tell him a couple years into his career. You should watch the quarterback. Yeah, and you should watch from his perspective. Oh, interesting. Really? Oh, yeah, it's right.

I'm a head coach. head ball coach head ball coach glorified defensive coordinator well now he's a defensive he's Phil snow he has been downsized into being 49ers he's been downsized into being Phil snow is he here because aren't they playing the raiders Alex if you could book if you could book Matt Eberfluse get him over here get him over here and and then we can talk to him about the Hail Mary I'm sure he'd be thrilled to have that conversation you think he was with john lynch last night we did see john lynch at carbone in Did he like the rigatoni?

He was right next to the fountains. Lynch was? Yeah. That's the prime spot over there, Pelagio. I mean, we had a nice spot too. Man, these lobster meatballs are delicious. They don't have any meat in it. I'm going to be able to.

All the lobster in here. Hey, lobster. You got a new nickname for one of his bees? Hey, lobster. Lobby. Come here, Lobby. Yeah, he's going to, after being at Carbone. Now we've gone seven levels too deep into all of this stuff.