Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Best of the Bears: Could Colston Loveland be the team's No. 1 receiver?

Episode Date: March 21, 2026

In the Best of the Bears this week, Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris discussed if second-year tight end Colston Loveland could emerge as the team's leading receiver in the 2026 season; Matt Spiegel and Laurence Holmes evaluated the Bears' center and left tackle positions following changes at those spots; and Bootleg Football Podcast co-host and All 32 creator Brett Kollman joined the Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show to discuss the Bears' dire need to improve their pass rush.

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. This hour is brought to you by Cars for Kids. William Slings and Wood.

That is credits of CBS. This is Rahimi Harrison Brody on 1043, The Score. And you're thinking about it. something, Marshall Harris. Your face says it all. What's on your mind? No, I'm interested in the Colson Loveland aspect of everything really because of the way he came on strong after, remember he was hurt part of the last season. And what he did the backhand. He and Luther Burden. Yes. Oh, the irony. And so like they were behind schedule coming out of training camp. And so when they actually got up to board back half of the season, and I don't know,

Caleb Williams took off. That's not a coincidence. No. And I think, especially now, now that DJ Moore is out of the building, as they go, the bears will go. That's part of this. We talked about Garrett Bradbury in our last segment. That's crucial because that's where the play starts. And then you wanted to end with that type of result that we just heard. So in the search for trying to figure out who wide receiver one or receiver one, because Loveland is a tight end, is going to be.

Our friend of the show, Robert Mays of the Athletic Football Show, sat down with Colston Loveland. This is at Radio Row and discussed how his and Caleb's connection had grown through the season. What about the connection that you had with Caleb by the end of the season? Do you think allowed you to have the playoffs that you did and kind of the back half of the season that you did? It was definitely a long time coming because I wasn't able to get with him in the summer.

After practices, really started like week four. We hit every route we needed to have. If we missed it in practice, we'd hit it. Or if we didn't even get the rep in practice, we'd hit it. Just so we had bank reps on. everything. You know, we'd have third down days, base down days, red zone days. We'd get all those reps. So that when it came to game time, it was just, it was easy. I'm sorry. He makes it sound so easy. I'm going to cry. We just, we just practiced a little more and then, you know,

Bing, Bang, Boom. Layla, here's why this almost brought me like that, that single solitary tear down my cheek. Do you remember where they were the year prior? Do you remember where they were a year prior? And so for him to discuss it and to remark on it as succinctly as he just did. You forget. It's not that you forget. You block out sometimes Caleb Williams' rookie season

and everything that went wrong. People were freaking out of the net drill. I was not one of them. And when you hear a rookie who obviously did not partake in that season, doesn't know anything about what happened the year before he arrived as a Chicago bear,

as a guy with high expectations is not only a first-round pick, but the first tight in taken off the board. High expectation. Yes. It's just so reminding you that things are so much better than they used to be. It's not even that, Marshall. We never got guys talking about their process at all.

At all. Occasionally we would get the Darnell Mooney stayed late after practice to work with the gun, you know, the gun that heroes of football, not the jug's gun, but the jugs machine. So, machine. But you know why? right? Because the process was indefensible before, so nobody wanted to talk about it. The players knew that. Also, because he was having trouble

catching the ball in the lights and whatnot. So the point is it was redemptive. It was something that he was doing to try to earn his keeper or to try to get right. And credits to Darnell Mooney for doing it, for example. But you just didn't hear guys talk about

watching film casually and how much Caleb Williams famously in the Seth Wickersham book is talking about how he didn't know. So what? We're just going to leave the guy out there buys lonesome. You go look at the sun and chart that while you're at it. Like the processes and people talking about it and just being able to simplify it is one thing, which you're hearing Colson Loveland talk about.

But then to execute it and back it up, this is not something functional that we had seen in a long time. To hear, I longed for the days of Bears quarterbacks talking about watching film and just seeing what they pick up. because how many times do we hear that out of other people? You know, for example, Sean Payton talks about the trick play that he got from the Bears,

the one that was the whiff of Javon Wims in the playoff game that I refuse to think is a real playoff game because that's where Nick Trubisky got the MVP, the fake playoffs. But that's a good example of, oh yeah, we watched film, we thought we could do this. You hear stuff like this now. And then to hear it out of a rookie is even better.

So, Robert Mays, to his credit, because this is what they do at the athletic football show. He sat down with Loveland and they went over some film. So this is them going over the Eagles game, which you and I think is one of their exemplary games of the season, talking about what he was able to identify pre-snap and how it ultimately worked out. So when do you feel like you got a sense of the physicality you could bring to these sorts of moments? Do you think that early on, even at the beginning of the season, you're like, oh, I can do this here? Or do you think it took a little bit of time to kind of sense, like, I can play this way the same way I could in college? I think I always felt

like I could do it, but actually going out and doing it, that's when I learned like, okay, okay, I can actually really do this. The fact that they trusted you, like, this is one of the biggest plays of the season. The fact that you are where they're going with the ball. That happened a lot this year. I mean, it's like, do you feel like that kind of developed over the course of the year when you, it seemed like Ben and Caleb and everybody else was kind of putting that level of faith in you in some of these high leverage moments?

Yeah, that was my biggest thing. Earned the trust of my teammates and my coaches. And, you know, throughout the year, it was like the production might not, might not been great in those first couple games, but you see there was a crucial third down or crucial four down that I'm just like, all right, I'm just bankrupt, you know, stacking them, knowing that they can trust me in those situations. And then ultimately, I had some more opportunities at the end of the years. With him, he understands so much. And I think this is why he was so high on so many people's draft boards, not just because of what he could do on the field, but the mind. And he walks you through

the processes, as you just described. And every time he's talking about whether it's a specific play or just the mindset or his general approach, you're like, yeah, I'm glad that guy is on the team that I'm following, that I root for, that I share for, because it gives you a certain level of confidence, right? In the future of your program, when a rookie is discussing things in the manner that he is. Well, and that's it. It comes down to what we were just talking about with the process and how he's reading the field, reading what they're seeing, especially when you know that a lot of what they do

is a similar look, it's a similar formation, similar routes, that the sail route came a lot, of course, with Loveland and came up a lot in discussion. And really, we saw that come alive in the playoffs. You know, how many conversations did you and I have with Clay Harbor where that was discussed? But when you hear him talk like this and you understand the void that DJ Moore leaves, who do you think steps in then? When you hear him speak like this, I don't think there's a doubt that, number one, he's earning his keep to be able to be considered for that role,

and you're seeing the mental process match what we saw in the field. The overarching thing that I'm going to say here is that everybody eats and everyone is going to eat more now without DJ Moore there because they have to. Roma Dunez has to make bigger plays. Luther Bird and the third, has to have a bigger role in this offense. Colston Loveland should be and will be a bigger focal point,

not only for Ben Johnson to find a way to see the mismatch, recognize it through the eyes of his quarterback Caleb Williams on any given play, but also, you know, that's where Garrett Bradbury steps in too, and like he's got to be the one orchestrating things up front, right? And Colson Lovelin is going to be involved in some of that along with Colquemette and whoever they end up with a tight end. And so I'm seeing this as everyone's going to eat more. But if you're looking at who the best chess piece is offensively from a receiver standpoint,

you got to convince me it's not Colston Loveland. Because from what I saw at the end of last season, once they figured out they had him in a position they wanted to have him in, he was not unstoppable, but pretty close to unstoppable. Well, what do you think it says to when we're talking about this in a rookie tight end, came away with the most receiving yards in the regular season? Well, first of all, people were hurt. Like, Roma Dunes, they missed a chunk of time. But overall, if you just go back half of the season,

he clearly had become a primary weapon, if not the primary weapon. DJ Moore had probably the biggest plays of the season. Yeah, the place of consequence. Well, minus the one ridiculous throw, obviously in the playoff game against the Rams. Well, and there were two. You know, there was the Kayla Williams backup, run back a billion yards throw it to Colquamette. And there was also the fourth and eight to Roma Dunzee

where one of the Packers is wrapped around his leg in the game before. Both those plays. But I'll say going forward, how can Colson Lovell and not be your guy in that? Like, I see Luther Burden is more of the guy who can get tough yards, get in his hands and let him do the work. The yak, the yards after the catch. But as far as just catching the football in a big spot,

it's got to be Loveland slash a Dunesay and I guess we're figuring out who is primary between those two and right now I know Loveland can catch the ball a lot better than Roma Duns Day. Well and we're going to examine this just because this is what we're doing. You know, we're going to examine this throughout the offseason we're going to examine this going up to the draft.

We're going to examine this going into minicamps during the regular season during training camp. But I also follow the production to the targets. So Loveland had 82 targets last season for a total of 713 yards, six touchdowns. It's good for a 12.3 average. DJ Moore had a 13.6 average per catch,

85 targets, 682 yards. Rome was targeted 90 times, had 44 receptions out of those 90 targets for 661 yards and a 15 yards per average on the catch. So that part of it, that's the discrepancy where you're going. Okay, so where are the plays, where are the routes, what do we want to fine tune, what do we want to do to get that completion percentage up? And as we know, I'm saying this because I'm looking at it

from a receiver standpoint, I don't think it's just quarterback. But if he's going to be targeted 90 times in a season where we still saw DJ Morgan 85, that number's going up. Colson Loveland is going up. So then

where in there do you see the targets and the receptions matching up more. I think based on that alone, based on the stats that are already in front of you, you know Loveland is going to have a higher percentage. It's up to Rome, and Ben Johnson talked about how the entire receiving corps has to bring that number up,

but that's an indication of just some work to do there when it comes to matching the stats. When you take out DJ Moore's 85 targets on which he caught 50 balls, and you take out Alameda Zakias is 65 targets, which he caught 39 balls. Alameda Zakias was targeted 65 times. Yes.

Remember, like, remember early season he was a guy. I know, but that is a high, high number. So that's my point. Like DeAndre swept out a career year, and he was targeted 48. Like, Alameda Zakias was targeted 65 times, and Colquette was targeted 48. So what I'm saying is, because of the removal of DJ Moore and Alameda Zakiya and their 150 combined targets. I would be surprised, injury notwithstanding,

if all three of those guys that were talking about, Burden the Third, Colston Loveland, and Roma Dunzee didn't all have at least 100 targets. Alameda Zakias was targeted 65 times. Yet. So that's improvement. Only had 39 receptions. And Ben Johnson's like,

oh, we want to get better at catching the ball. Salute Rome. So that's improvement. Salute Alamede. Ian Cunningham. Rome is not my, Rome is not a problem. I have time for Rome.

You say that, but I do as a person, as a human, I have time for Rome too, but I just want to point out he caught less than half the balls that came his way. Oh no, the targets, yeah, the reception to target number

is indicative of why when people talk about Caleb Williams' his completion percentage, it's not just stopping there. But we say all of this to understand how crucial Loveland becomes and it's just nice to hear him talk in these ways. It's nice to have him understand

and practice those reps. You know, the question becomes is we heard Loveland talks to the athletic football show and he talks about adding in the reps and making sure they did it immediately, the timing being a key part of that. What's Roan going to do? You know, what are Caleb and Rome going to do?

because that was supposed to be a part of this discussion from the very beginning. And last year at this time, that was part of it. Let me ask you a question. Yes. How confident are you the Bears will have a 1,000 yard receiver next year based on what you know? Very. Okay. I would put it at 80%.

How confident are you, the Bears will have multiple 1,000 yard receivers? I don't know that for sure. I can say you probably have at least one. But I don't, I don't, the way Ben Johnson constructs an offense, I can't say that you would have multiple. Who's the most likely to be the 1,000 yard receiver you're talking about? It's Loveland. Okay. Okay.

See, my argument would be if Loveland is a 1,000 yard receiver, Roma Dunesay is also going to be a 1,000 yard receiver. And I'm not saying that because I think Rome's going to have more receiving yards than Colston Loveland. I'm just saying it's not going to be that disproportionate in my mind. And I like where you're going with it. But then that gets into mapping out the offense differently. That gets into, do you think the bears are going to be a top. five rushing team.

No, I think that could still be a top five rushing team and still get that done. Hmm. Because, let's start with this. Do you believe Caleb Williams is going to throw for 4,000 yards? If you divide up DJ Moore's 682 and you give it to Rome, who had 681, that puts them almost to 1,000, and then Colson Loveling goes over if you divide those yards in half. And you just give them to those two. Don't forget about the 313 yards from Malamadez Achias, though.

That's kind of my point. And the 65 targets? Yeah, that's a lot of targets. And if Caleb Williams is passing the ball all of next season, like he did at the end of this past season, you believe he's going to hit 4,000 yards. And if he's going to hit 4,000 yards, I think he's going to have to hit a couple of guys for 1,000. He got close. That's my point.

Got real close. And that was spreading out. That's with 1, 2, 3, 4 different guys getting. over 600 yards and two other guys getting over 300 yards. Kolkometten, Alamede Zakias. I know we're going to do this. We're going to get back to it. It's fine to do it.

We're going to re-examine it the entire offseason. It's non-fanty football, fantasy football. That's it. That's what this is. So you're right about the Zakias targets. There's something about reading it and when you're reading it out loud, comparing it to the other numbers. Like, you see it.

Yeah. But I understand. it because here's why I understand it. The majority of those Alameda Zakias yards if we're being like straight up about it and the way that it went for him, it's not like he was pulling

in a bunch of catches at the end of the season. He had, I'm going to tell you, because I can count them because it's that low. Well, he got grounded after not wanting to block. He got 70 yards receiving after week eight, total. 70 yards receiving after

week eight total. And you know, I think it's fair, like we've got people reacting on our text line. 312, 64, 64, 67 is our number. Like, Rome caught fewer than half his targets. My God, that draft pick is looking bad, this text says. Still don't know why he's on the team and DJ Moore isn't. I don't think you're wrong. I don't think you're wrong in questioning that.

I think the difference that was for what the bears had to do to clear up cab space and also have a good trade partner, they had to give away someone of value. And so that's why that happened. but to be fair if you want to keep track of that and that's something that matters to you I think you're well within your right to do so as a fan

like that's going to be something I think we all monitor together as a group once the season actually gets going yeah that that's the way it's going to be and again DJ Moore is a lot more expensive than Roma Dunzee and they got a second rounder for him and a fifth rounder it all makes sense to me so I have some news for you guys

What are you doing Thursday? From 7 to 9, you say? Are you nearby? Are you around Wrigleyville? Join me this Thursday from 7 to 9 at Old Crow Smokehouse in Wrigley for the finals of Bud Light's official mini hoops mania. Hang out with Bud Light and the score as one Chicago winner heads to Vegas for a chance at $10,000. So are you really good at Popa Shot?

You really think you know what's up? Sounds like this might be the place for you. That is Thursday night at 7. starting at Old Crow in Wrigleyville. Marshall and I have had an ongoing conversation during the breaks of our show the entire day to day. We need to get to this because the person who I didn't think

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your business in Bedford Park. And thanks to the nice folks over at Village of Bedford Park for the nice caps that they have sent us as part of their sponsorship deal for this segment where we break down the bears. It's going to be a lovely retirement home for both you and I. We'll move there together and live together. They clearly want you in Bedford Park when it's all said and done. They want both of us.

They need both of us, Lawrence, really to elevate the Bedford Park experience. But yeah, we appreciate them and their sponsorship. and I look forward to these segments. We got a lot to chew on here with the offensive line because Drew Dalman's retirement sent things in a tizzy right away. We'll talk plenty about left tackle, but how do we feel about the center position now that they filled it with a veteran,

Garrett Bradbury, traded from the Patriots to the Bears for a fifth round pick? I feel fine, I guess, about it. Considering the situation that the Bears were in, there weren't a lot of great alternatives for them unless they really wanted to spend with Tyler Linderbaum. And so you make a trade for a guy that's fine. And you hope that with the guys that you have around him, that that play is elevated. But that's kind of the interesting thing and why we felt like we needed to add that part in. because the four guys elevated the left tackle position last year.

Yes. So now you're asking them to elevate the left tackle position and kind of help elevate the center position too. So one cannot be taken without the other in the conversation. I thoroughly agree because you felt so good about your interior three that you knew Caleb was going to be able to step forward. and you knew that all of the teaching and the help and the support would be there, and that may still have to be the case for left tackle.

And you feel great about your right tackle going forward? Like, that's a guy that you're going to end up paying, probably. But, you know, everybody that we talked to about what they should do at Center before they made the Bradbury move said, you've got to go get a veteran. You have to go get a veteran. There's no one who said they should move in. into this season with a rookie at center. I think that may, like, if you had a veteran left tackle,

and then it was like, your guards and your tackles were all veteran guys that you really trusted, maybe you could drop a center into that. Maybe. Maybe, but I remember when we asked Tarran Armstead, or you're going to hear from about the left tackle in a minute, he said, look, I strongly, strongly recommend you go out and you get a veteran. So they go and they get Bradbury. So what do you have with Bradbury?

We talked to Olin about it, but we also talked to Brandon Thorne about it. And Brandon Thorne is great at talking about the middle of the offensive line. And he gave us some real talk on what the step down is, skill level-wise, between Drew Dalman and Garrett Bradbury. It's definitely a step down, but I think it's a similar archetype of player. And I think, again, in this system, it's a pretty seamless fit. you're just not going to get quite as much, I would say, sturdiness as Dolman brought. You know, some of the improvements I mentioned with him in pass protection,

I don't know that Bradbury has ever quite got to that point, although I do think last year that was the best year of Bradbury's career that I've seen. So that's nice that he's playing, you know, at the level he did last year. It was definitely kind of a, it was definitely a step up for him compared to 2024. especially, you know, the playoff games and stuff against the Rams. I still think about that game. He had a really rough one to not won a couple years ago. But last year, he improved, I think.

And in terms of the count, like the amount of step down it'll be, I think it's definitely like a tier step down, you know, from like a very good to more of like a good to average level player. But I think his skill set and what he'll be asked to do just make, makes sense for kind of a downgrade, but again, he's going to fit really well and I think he'll be functional at least. So,

not too bad. Functional at least at the end of that, doesn't feel great. Olin said some similar things on Twitter. He was working through it and I think people didn't quite understand what he was saying where he was explaining that he thinks

that Bradbury and Dalman are similar but not the same. that like Brandon Thorne is saying that it's a step down at least, but you do know that Bradbury is capable of doing some of the stuff from a movement standpoint that Drew Dalman did, but maybe isn't doing it at what was last year an elite level that Dalman was doing it at. All right. So you don't have to change your playbook.

You don't have to ask, you know, a lot of different things out of the way. of the blocking schemes and sort of the group approach from the centers. But you might have to ask your running backs to keep an extra eye on the middle so they can chip if need be or pick up somebody who runs free, something like that. You might also need to think about a team trying to attack you up the middle, either if they have a real stout defensive tackle or maybe sending a linebacker on a mug blitz, something like that, right? There'll be some different kind of attacks, I think, that the bears will have to be ready for. It might just be sitting a heavy nose tackle on top of Gary Bradbury and

being like, block him. Which, to be fair, teams did to Drew Dalman at the end of last year as well. You're right. They did do that. So it's similar in that way. The other dynamic that I think is going to be similar to what the Patriots did is they drafted a third round center from Georgia last year and Jared Wilson. Played in the guard. And he's likely going to, move over and be their starting center now. A very common occurrence. Don't you think the Bears will draft a center in this particular draft? It would make sense for them to unless there is, is there a undrafted free agent project that they would want to take a look at? Is there someone playing guard who's on a practice squad somewhere that they'd want to take and convert over

to center or maybe has a background in playing center? But this is strangely enough, a decent draft for centers. And maybe not you're going to do it in the first round if you're the Bears. No, no, no. But there are guys in the third and fourth round that would make for interesting prospects for them. And Alex Coon, as always, has ignored his girlfriend to scout the college football talent that we need on this show. You got centers that fit what the Bears would do, Alex? Yeah, well, if you're looking for smaller zone blocking centers, there are a few of them.

And a lot of people have pointed out that the Bears were at Kansas State's pro day to see Sam Hect out of Kansas State, who was right at the top of the list with Logan Jones out of Iowa and Jake Slaughter out of Florida. I know Connor Lou from Auburn is a bigger, as Brandon Thorpe would say, sturdier center, but maybe not quite as good in zone blocking. and there's a guy out of Texas A&M to keep an eye out on who was a left tackle last year for the Aggies, but did get 126 snaps at center and had some pretty good tape there that you could get in the fourth or fifth round by the name of Trey Zoon, who had the best overall pass blocking grade in all of college football at left tackle. So do we trust Dan Roushaw and Ben Johnson, if not Ryan Poles, to come together and find them?

themselves a center project from all this list. I mean, I think that's what we're going to have to look for. Sure. And the thing is that you look at Bradbury as a stopgap and you say, all right, this guy is here to help. And the hope is that Caleb also takes a step in recognizing and calling out protections. And Brad Barry can help in that regard. You did a wonderful job of doing that with Drake May this past season.

But yeah, this gives you an opportunity to find it. developmental center if that's what you want to do. Let me say one more name, and that's Pat Coogan, Marist High School graduate Pat Coogan, who went to Notre Dame, and then transferred to Indiana in the portal and helped lead them to a national title, a big part of what Kurt Signetti did at Indiana with Fernando Mendoza. So, but I don't know if Pat is big or is mobile enough to do what he would need to do in the Ben Johnson scheme.

That's certainly a question, but the thing about Pat Coogan is he has really good position flexibility. He could play guard too, right? He could play guard as well. Which will make his stock somewhere in that four, around four to five range, I would think. And of course, there's the sentimental favorite of this show

and others, Joshua Cruz. Yeah, have you broken down Josh Krutz's tape? I know you're going to be shocked about this, but he can move. Like, I sent you guys some of the some of those cutups of him reaching three techniques and sealing them off. So another athletic.

Is he smaller like Olin was? Because Olin, Olin was, like there was some doubts about Olin, but he showed that he was strong enough, but was a great mover. And he could move and he like really took to the position and learning about the position, which Joshua has his whole life, right? He had to see on his chest at Illinois for a reason. That's fascinating, man. It's crazy. It's a crazy world. to look up and be like, wow,

Olin Cruz's son could be a bear. Yeah, and hopefully we'll be an NFLer somewhere with a similar breakdown and rep with the smarts and the athletic ability. It is fascinating. All right, so we'll keep an eye on all those things. I think we've covered Center pretty well. Bradbury's the guy, and then they'll draft a project

or find a project to be the future. Let's talk left tackle. We talked with Tehran Armstead, and he's great because he played for Dan Rochard. So he has a real window into what it is that Rochard is looking at, especially at the left tackle position. Somebody that go about is his business the right way and not skip steps, not cut corners,

show up and strive for excellence. Like literally, every day strive for greatness. You never get bored or tie with the process. You never feel like you made it or get content. You never, that's it, really. You got to have talent. No question about it. And the Bears are doing a good job of evaluating talent

and bringing in guys that can get the job done. Can he stop power? Can he move people? Can he create lanes for the runners? You know what I mean? Like you got to have people that have these abilities. But then the tangibles, like all the stuff that really makes a guy go from good to great. That's the small pieces that you guys have never seen.

That Dan really does a great job getting out of you or getting you out of the builder. So it's really that simple. You come in with this right approach, intentionally trying to be the best version of yourself, or you go play for somebody else. Man, it's good stuff. And I have a lot of faith in Dan Rochard as an offensive line coach and Ben Johnson's ability to work with him. I got a lot of faith in that in a way that I have not had for Ryan Poles on the offensive line, to be honest.

Well, because we were... Because Karan Amagaji is not even thought of, you know? At a certain point, like, with Ian Cunningham and with Ryan Poles, like, you look at, like, hey, here's the position that we played. Does that necessarily make you better at judging what those players look like in the draft? Not necessarily. You know, my whole thing has been that they draft dudes who fit their profile of slightly under-talented. players. Really hard workers.

Really hard workers. And they think that they could just coach them up, that they draft and scout offensive linemen who remind themselves of them. And if they have the coaching that those guys didn't, then they could bloom. And I don't think that has worked pretty much in their offensive line acquisition process. I do not in the, I would say in the draft. I would say in the offensive line acquisition process, I think that they have a lot of wins. And one of them is in the draft. Darnell's a win in the draft. That's true. That's true.

And then what they did last season was also a win. That's your pro personnel department that's doing that. Right. And Jonah is Ben's guy. And Ben said, go get Jonah. No, I know he can play. When Sean McVeigh was done with Jonah. Right. So, but.

So it's adding that part in and does that make, like I look at it and say, is Ryan Poles better because Ben Johnson is in the building? And I think it's hard to argue the negative on that. Well, it's interesting. We'll get a chance to see Braxton Jones, your likely starter at left tackle, at least at the beginning of the season, just like he was last season. I mean, I guess that's going to go down as a Ryan Polls win. That's a fifth round draft pick who started a lot of games in the NFL, and is surprisingly

coming back at $5 million with a chance to start some more. And Ryan thinks because he's healthy, he commented on Braxton Jones the other day, saying that because he's healthy, they think he's got a chance to, to be a chance to be the guy. And now that's with Bannon and Rochard's input as well. It's fascinating to think about that. When will they draft a tackle?

When will they draft a tackle to add into this mix? Alex, what does your work tell you about the tackles in this class? It's not a good tackle class. That's what it tells me. It's an interesting one though. There's a bunch of like, hey, if you squint and turn your head sideways

on some of these guys, you're like, that guy could be really good. It starts to the top, right? Like, you look at the first two, the guys that are ranked as the top two tackles and Francis Maui Noah out of Miami and Spencer Fanow out of Utah, and they don't have a lot of length. Like, they went to the combine and I think Spencer Fano had under 32 inch arms. And the thought is those guys might have to slide into tackle and because of our sliding into guard or center. And because of that, I think a guy like Monroe Freeling out of Georgia who doesn't have the experience, only 16 starts, and yes, he did improve a lot, but his run blocking is kind of lagging

behind his pass blocking and is still raw in a lot of areas. He's catapulting all the way up into the top 15. So are we going to see Caden Proctor get drafted in the top 15 or Caleb Lomu out of Utah or Blake Miller out of Clemson guys that would probably be like that second round grade, find their way into the first round. Because of positional need and traditional philosophy. And I would add, in the case of of Proctor and Lomu, two guys who have athletic

ability that people can go, if we can just get them in our building, if we can just get that guy with this coach, or we can just get this guy on a pro diet, this guy can be a dynamo. In the opposite, in the opposite way, right, for Proctor,

like trim him down. And then with low moods. He's like he's got to have power. He's a little light in the ass right now to be a starting left tackle in the NFL. So Caleb Tiernan out of Northwestern is interesting because he's tall but doesn't have a whole lot of length. And they're wondering, yes, he's a really good pass blocker, but is he going to have to slide into guard? Max Ionichore out of Arizona State has only been playing football for three years, but has some traits that you're looking for. 33 and 7 eighth inch arms for Max Ionachore at 6.6.321. By the way, Tiernan, 6-8-323, the Northwestern kid.

Yep. But you notice what Tehran Arms said there? He said, guys that can handle power. He didn't say athleticism is what he's looking for in a left tackle. And I just wonder at what point, since we're starting to see old school offense return, are we going to see some more old school left tackles like Caden Proctor being valued high, like Markell Bell out of Miami? Oh, let's talk about him. You love him. Six foot nine, three hundred and forty-six pounds. Get your Trent Williams on. He is an absolute monster, almost 37-inch arms. And like when he gets his hands on you,

it's like seeing a mouse caught in a trap. He's not, he is not. He is not. going to let go of you. The question is his foot speed isn't the greatest. His feet are a little inconsistent because of how tall and he's so massive in his upper half but he's like kind of skinny

in his lower half. He's very strange build but I like he got so much better at Miami in his last year there did not allow a single sack. He was a reason that Francis Maui Noah was playing right tackle at Miami instead of left

tackle. And I heard him in an interview with Brandon Thorne where he's only been playing high-level ball at Miami for two years. He was a junior college guy who has really taken to the coaching, really loves the game of football. And towards the end of the year, he was playing as well as any tackle in college football. Do we even need to hear from the great Todd McShay at the ringer? I don't think so. I think that Alex knocked it out the part. Alex just crushed that. Also, if you're wondering, like, okay, why did you start watching film? Well, this started when my younger brother, Gabe, who you can hear on our Odyssey station down in Memphis, 9290 SPN, I put together his highlight tapes.

When he was getting recruited by Memphis, he ended up going to Memphis playing 51 games there. Point of order. Maybe this is better for a show meeting. Why haven't we had Gabe on to talk offensive lines? He's a former... Oh, he's on while we're on. So what? We'll tape something.

It says your brother? Yeah, yeah. We had my nephew on yesterday. Okay? Is that who that was? I've been requesting Lawrence's mother as a guest on this show for months. Months, I say. We'll make it happen eventually.

For God's sakes. Sean, do you have any family members you'd like to get on the air? My mom would like to talk about the Cubs, I'm sure, but we don't have to push her on. Okay. All right. But anyway, your brother, former offensive lineman, you put his highlights together. Yeah, and that's how, and we've been, we've sent many living. rooms and watch

broke down offensive line play for years and years and years. So this position that's how I got started. It's amazing. I love it. I love it that's happening. Yeah, me too. All right, well, I think we've covered it, right? Like, they're going to draft a left tackle somewhere, I would think, in this

draft and a center? I think they might do both. I think they might what? They might draft both, but if I had to guess, I would say draft a left tackle, UDFA a center. All right, I got one more because the Boston College pipeline, remember last year when

Ozzie Tripillo had to move to right tackle at Boston College? Because they had a guy who couldn't play left. Well, there's a guy named Jude Bowery. That guy's name is Jude Bowery, who may be a fourth or fifth round pick, and they are not lying when they say that he cannot play on the right side. He went to the Senior

Bowl and was really rough at every other position other than left tackle, but is another interesting traits-based prospect that we have to take seriously. because of the B-C. to the Bears' pipe. All right. Hey, Jude.

One other thing, Bowery. One other thing, there's some free agents still out there, including Taylor Decker, the former lion. You don't know when these guys' contract needs are going to come back to the pack, and the Bears could readdress this after the draft, if not before, with Taylor Decker. Cam Robinson is still out there.

Older guys, like Kelvin Beecham, and then some younger free agents, like Spencer Burford. There are some dudes still out there if you wanted to go that route. There are dudes, and they're all out there. They're all out there. It's true. When we come back, let's talk about the Cubs rotation.

As the mayor of Worrytown, there is something I would like to ask you, speaks. Understood. And I also placed a futures bet on an award for a member of the Cubs rotation. Okay. I like that type of party. We'll do that next. You're on the score. Chicago's number one most listened to sports morning show

5.30 till 10 a.m. Craig Counsel talked around it and just the description of Sayas Suzuki in the clubhouse in a knee brace. Lipping around. It seems hard to imagine Saya coming back and being at full strength, as careful as they will be and as cautious as they should be, given the stakes and given his importance to the lineup. You fear the worst.

Mullian Haugh, mornings 530 till 10 a.m. On Sports Radio, 104, 3, the score. I think I've mentioned this over the years. constantly just looking at short-term, long-term, what's going to help this football team now, but also being conscious of what's going to happen down the road. We want to sustain success. We've talked about that a lot.

In order to do that, we have to be very cuckily with the moves that we make. So when we were looking through different situations, we took that into account, and we felt like sticking with our plan and going into for agency, that was the best thing for us to do. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3, The Score, and that is Ryan Poles talking about spending more on edge rusher.

Gee, wonder why that would pop up. You know, maybe more on the draft capital. Gee, wonder why that would pop up. Oh, we know why. So to talk about that, we've brought in one of the experts of the game talking football, Brett Coleman. He is at Brett Coleman on X. He is also the creator of all 32. He has an outstanding YouTube channel, and he is the co-host of the bootleg football podcast.

Brett, how are you? Thanks for coming on. I'm doing wonderful. Thank you for having me. Brett also joins us on Twitch. You can find him there at twitch.tv slash the score Chicago. That has been the biggest discussion here, Brett, is the desire for more pass rush out of the bears, knowing how much capital they spent in free agency on it the previous year and two years, really. What is your impression of just the bear's lack of pass rush? or maybe what the lack of it is for what they spent.

How do you assess it when you look back at the season? I mean, the, the Dio acquisition hasn't worked out how they hope. The Grady Jared acquisition hasn't worked out quite like they hoped. You know, Dexter had a strong start to his career. Hasn't quite developed the way that they hope, let alone the other DTs they brought in. Like Montez, Montez, I guess, worked as an acquisition and a payment. if you're looking at where the edge market is now.

But when they first paid him, he was what, like the sixth highest paid edge when that contract first happened? And I don't think he's ever really approached being any of the top 10 edges in the league since he got that deal. So it's just kind of one move after another that, like, at the time you understand it, but none of them have really hit and given them like an anchor, edge rusher or even just pass rusher, whether it's interior or edge to build around. And so now I look at the draft where, okay, they made a move to shore up linebacker, bringing in Devin Bush. You know, they short up safety.

Corner, we still have some questions about what Tyreek is going to be long term, but like you can get by with the corners they have. They just need to go all in again on defensive line and just keep taking swings until somebody hits. Luckily for them, this is a good edge rusher class to do it. And I would probably take two of them with their first three picks. Wow. So two of three there.

We're trying to figure out if they're going to use those picks, the first rounder and the two second rounders, to do that and or fix, I don't know, offensive line. There's just so many different directions they go. Let me ask you this. As we get into this second wave of free agency, is there an area where you feel like the bears can improve through that avenue before we get to the draft? There's not really a whole lot else out there at the moment. This was a very thin, free agent class. You know, general managers have gotten wise over the last four to five years that if you sign. guys early, you get a discount because the cap is jumping 8 to 9% per year, which is translating

to a $20 to $25 million jump in the cap every single year at this point. So if you get guys done early, you know, it'll kind of, the off ramp, I guess, I would say, is smoother, right? Especially when you're throwing in void years and everything like that. So you see teams like Buffalo paying guys, a slew of guys after their third year. You know, the Eagles are just throwing like four void years under their kind. contracts to fit everybody in. So it's just teams are getting better about retaining their own core, unless you're the

Ravens. They'll let everybody go. But, you know, because of that, the free agent classes are relatively thin compared to what I would say they were 10 years ago. It's just not a lot of guys hitting the market that are of quality. So you really have to be a draft and developed team. And unfortunately, when it comes to pass rush, the bears have not been a good draft and developed team since, ooh, God, 2005?

if I had to guess. Oh, goodness. Bark's covered the Bears for a very long time. You feel like that's the year? You feel like that checks out. Like in terms of having a legitimate pass rush? No, in terms of like drafting. Because like 2018, like Kalil was brought in.

Yeah. And Robert Quinn. Yeah. Like who were the home grown? Like when's the last Tommy Harris? So you're thinking, yeah, Tommy Harris and you had, and I was going to go Keith trailer, Ted Watt, but those guys were free agent signings as well. So, yeah.

I think Tommy Harris. It's been like 20 years since they drafted a guy. Yeah. And then Tommy Harris's story was sad because his career ended too early and he was not as effective. But he was legit when he was here. So yeah, Brett, that kind of blows my mind. But I think you're right. One of the biggest act where I would say probably so far the biggest signing, Brett, that the Bears have had in this wave is Kobe Bryant as we go to the secondary. What does his film look like relative to Kevin Byard? I guess what I'm really. asking you is, is Kobe Bryant better than Kevin Byard? At this stage in his career, I think he has more range than Byard. I think Byard, you know, obviously his instincts were incredible, you know,

was in the right place and the right time a lot throughout his career. But I think they wanted somebody who could be more of a post player when they do play single high safety structures, which Dennis Allen does like to do. He likes to be in single high, whether it's cover one or cover three and have somebody with the range to go from numbers to numbers in the back end. And Kobe Bryant can do that at this point in his career better than Kevin Byard can. As for the style of defense they played towards the end of the season, you saw Dennis Allen start to come out of his shell a little bit.

He blitzed a lot more later in the year. He did play a lot more quarters later in the year. He did stuff that we don't normally see. But I think that was really more out of like necessity than him actually wanting to do it, even though it worked really well. So I think that the signings they made, particularly the back end, signal that, like, nope, this is going to be a cover three team. And if they have the people to do it, that's what they're going to be.

We're talking to Brett Coleman. He's the creator of the All-32. Has an amazing background on Twitch. If you ever get to see it, Twitch.tv slash the Score Chicago. He also is the host of the bootleg football podcast. And I did want to get your thoughts because Ryan Poles Brett last week, acknowledged at the very end of his press conference, acknowledged that there was talks with the Bears and with the Raiders regarding Max Crosby.

He said we were in on it. He alluded to that. What do you think about the whole trade situation falling through like it did? What's next? And if you thought that he would have been a good fit for the Bears? I mean, obviously, I think it would have been a great fit for the Bears. He would have been the best edge rusher on the team. But at the same time, every single ball club is looking at the 2027.

draft. Like everything is orbiting around 2027. And I don't think anybody really wants to give up picks in that year, especially high picks in that year. Next year's draft class is utterly absurd at almost every single position. You know, like this year, like really good linebacker class, you know, some sneaky tight ends, everything like that. Jeremiah Love at the top. Like I don't think there's a running back next year that's as good as Jeremiah I love, but they're pretty darned close. But you also have the quarterbacks. You have receipts. You have receipts. receivers, you have edges, like it's, I think, I think next year's class is going to be like a 2014 and go back and look at the 2014 draft and you'll see what I'm talking about. So they didn't

want to give up access to that class. And I totally understand it for an edge rusher that's about to be 29 is coming off a major injury and already has a major contract sign. So you're not just trading for the player, you're trading for the contract. And I think they believed in this draft, because there are so many edge rushers, I think they believed in their ability to patch that hole through that while retaining access to the 2027 draft next year, which is absurd. Brett, I believe truly that this draft is bigger than last year's draft for Ryan Poles just because they have on offense everything they need in the quarterback and the head coach,

the two most important things, but they have not yet, at least under Ryan Poles, and you just talked about it going back to 2005 with the draft and developed. They have not been able to draft. defensive linemen who have been stellar above average. However you want to put it, there has not been a game changer that has been brought in by Ryan Poles. Do you agree with that kind of assessment that this is bigger than last year because of the importance of that position? I mean, just look at the last two Super Bowls. Well, I think the fact they were even in on Max to begin with was them kind of acknowledging like,

yeah, this has been a weak point for us. The reason why the Ravens were in on it is because, boy, you think the Bears are bad at drafting developing edges. Look at the Ravens Graveyard since, you know, basically Zedarius Smith and Matthew Judon walk out the door. They have consistently had to bring in older edges in Baltimore to fix their problem. And Trey Hendrickson was their this year's solution to that. But like they were in on it for the same reason.

Like both of these teams, they're just like, God, we can't, we can't get a guy. And some franchises are very good at that. You know, Chiefs got Chris Jones in the second round. Pittsburgh got T.J. Watt late in the first round. You know, Houston is consistently found. edge rush. I mean, even Will Anderson, he's a top five pick, but like they've consistently found other pass rushers through other means that don't cost a high first round pick.

The bears just haven't been able to do it, basically since the Killeleel Mack era. And we're, we're almost approaching a decade since that 2018 defense. I know time has flown, but it's been a while. So I think Ryan, I think he understands the pressure to just finally nail getting a pass rush. I think he's going to throw as many resources at it as he needs to in order to finally get it done. Brett, the fixer for everything, any hole that the Bears might have going forward in theory is the quarterback, is Caleb Williams. That we all know that good, great elite quarterbacks clean everything up. The question is, Brett, I'm just wondering from your film review throughout the season,

what do you think about Caleb Williams right now and the trajectory that he is on? So you saw the progression from the start of the year to the end of the year as far as like Ben Johnson's chosen style of offense, right? It was very under center heavy. It was very play action heavy. But it wasn't the same type of play action or under center play action that he was doing in Detroit. In Detroit, Jared Goff, it was very much like I am picking on linebackers. I am picking on hook zone droppers. Like between the numbers, intermediate depth, like we are going to work the middle of the field off play action because play action is going to. to move those players and I can pick apart those windows. Whereas with Caleb, like when they were going under center play action, it was big game hunting all day long, right? Like they were, they were attacking down the field. So everybody looks at the completion percentage, but it's like you got to look at the average

depth of target too. Like they were attacking. And it didn't work all the time. But when it would hit, they would get a chunk play and then they would build off of those explosives and chain them together. Like they very much wanted to be an offense similar to the Rams. And the Rams, if you're looking at you know, getting an explosive pass play, one play after an explosive pass play and chaining those two together. The Rams were by far number one in the league at that last year. And that's really what Ben Johnson wanted to be. He wanted to build an offense out of explosives. Sometimes they would stall and they would stall for a while when they just weren't hitting them.

And then you would get to the fourth quarter and all of a sudden all they're getting is explosive plays. So really what I think this offseason is about is just being able to hit those explosives earlier in game. So the fourth quarter isn't so stressful because we see what they can be when they're actually hitting those. It's just we're only getting it for one quarter every single week. We're talking to Brett Coleman, the creator of the All 32. He's also the host of the bootleg football podcast and Rahimi Harrison Grody. And you mentioned this a couple times. You've alluded to the Ravens and that's your latest video on your YouTube channel. It is entitled, when you build a team for second place. What is a, what? What is a, why? Why?

Why were the Ravens the focus for you today? And what are your thoughts on how you put this together? It's a cautionary tale about, you know, trying, trying or rather sticking too much to the process, I would say. And if you're looking at a lot of the best teams in the league, they get a core of players, right, at a certain age range. And then they're retaining that core and they're stacking another generation on top of it, right? And you look at like the Eagles,

they have an older core, they have a younger core, they mesh those two together, they won a Super Bowl. You know, the Chiefs had an older core with Mahomes and Jones and Kelsey, and then they stacked a younger core on top of it after they traded away Tyreek Hill and got a bunch of picks. They drafted a younger core of guys, including Trent McDuffie, won a few Super Bowls. And so you have to have multiple cores together, but to do that, you have to retain your talent. And I feel like the Ravens have consistently either let guys walk, that they probably shouldn't have walked, or B, they would draft a good player in the first round, but not necessarily one that they felt confident enough in retaining. So they would let them

walk anyway. And I feel like the Ravens don't draft as well as maybe the reputation is. And because they draft guys that aren't outright bust, but they're also drafting guys that are only there for one contract because they're just not good enough to retain. And so that's how you end up with a situation where you're spending three out of your five first round picks over five year period on receiver and the best one you get is Zay Flowers, right? Or you spend two first round picks within seven years on a linebacker, only, neither one of them stays for more than one contract, and you're also spending a second on Roquan Smith, and you pay him a top of market deal to fix your linebacker issue.

So when you have to spend that many picks on linebacker and receiver, and you're not really getting any long-term contributors that you can stack one core on top of another, like that's how you end up just building a team that's good, even very, very good, but never going to actually win a championship. And so my criticism of the Ravens is like they're kind of a victim of their own process sometimes. Like I understand they let Tyler Linderbaum, or they weren't going to match $27 million for Tyler Linderbom.

I get it. But they had an opportunity to extend Tyler Linderbom a while ago when he wasn't going to be $27 million. Maybe you should have done that. And, you know, they're like, oh, we're not going to do a. fifth year option for a center like that number is egregious i don't know it's not 27 million so you probably could have done that and saved yourself the hole you probably could have retained isaiah likely instead of retaining a much older mark andrews you didn't have to keep marlin humphrey you're keeping him because you want to

you could use that money on tarik woolen so it's just the the loyalty to the guys that they probably shouldn't retain while letting the guys go that they probably should retain and they just keep creating holes for themselves that they have to fill in the first round over and over and over again rather than actually getting better and stacking talent on top of each other. Brett Coleman, we appreciate the time here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. If you want to check out his work, you can go to that YouTube channel. It is at Brett Coleman. That's where you can check it out.

He's the creator of the All 32 and he is part of the bootleg football podcast. Thanks again, Brett for joining us. Thanks, Brett. Thank you. Coming up next, we have. have to ask the question because it's been floating around and we can't quite get a handle on it. How much money do the bears really have? Depends on who you ask. So we'll point, counterpoint next.