Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Best of the Bears: Week 1 at Panthers

Episode Date: September 13, 2026

In the Best of the Bears this week, Tribune reporter Brad Biggs joined the Haugh & Payton Show to preview the Bears-Panthers game Sunday in Charlotte; Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote discussed how the Bears will look to split up opportunities for their various offensive playmakers; and Haugh, Jarrett Payton and Ruthie Polinsky shared their predictions for the Bears-Panthers game.

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. Box football with you. Welcome back.

It's on Payton, Chicago Sports Radio 1043. The score on this beautiful Friday morning. It is definitely week one. We are reacting to Thursday night's game in a street. between the 49ers and the Rams. Ruthie Polinsky is in for Jared today. And welcome to our Chicago Sports Network audience, Ruthie, one you know well.

They recognize you from our Chicago lead to the big pro football show, which will be doing later today. I think I'll change my shirt, even though now I'm wearing the colors. Where's your CHSN gear? I have a long day. You do have a long day.

You have a long day. I have a longer day than you for the first time in a long time. You do because you're doing White Sox pre-game and post game after that. White Sox pre-and-post tonight with Ozzie. Wow. Wow, that is hard work, one something our next guest can relate to. And the segment with Brad Biggs is sponsored by S-Wing Professional Tools,

made in the USA for over 100 years, s-wing.com. And Brad Biggs, it's Biggs time, the football man from the Chicago Tribune, the best source of Bears News Anywhere, joins us now on the Plumbers 911 hotline. Plumbing Emergency, call 1833 Plum 9-1-1, local 130 plumbers, get the job done right the first time. Morning, Brad.

Morning, gang, what's going on? Doing well. It's Friday morning. Brad, I know you watched last night, and I know you saw the opener between the Seahawks and the Patriots. Seahawks win by scoring 13. The Rams, the best team in a long time, according to the preseason prognostications, they score seven. Should we take anything that's happened in the first two games and look at that and attach it to what the Bears' offense might be able to do or not do, on Sunday in Carolina.

No, and I'd remind you what I said yesterday morning that you can get some oddball results in week one. Things can look dramatically different shortly after week one. So I just, and Fortinbaugh could talk about it later this morning, you know, from his perspective that the greatest, you know, kind of misconceptions in the NFL are formed after one week of football. The Rams didn't look great. You know, I talked to Tori Taylor, the punter yesterday, just about the NFL playing over in Australia.

And he said he didn't know which plan ahead was better. The 49ers going almost a week early or the Rams showing up not long before kickoff. he said whoever wins obviously everyone will say that that was the best strategy but he said I'm just glad I don't have to play in a game in Australia you know make that trip and play a football game so we'll see it's going to be exciting on Sunday the two best units on the field are probably going to be the Bears offense or the Panthers defense that would be my estimation here beforehand So what does that look like?

Because Carolina's get some high-paid guys at every level of the defense. Do you feel that way still, Brad, even with the injuries on the Bears defense, do you think Panthers are going to have a difficult time moving the football, even with some of the injuries? With that being said, what can we make of the Xavier Woods popping up on the injury report? Yeah, he looked pretty chill in the locker room yesterday. After practice, I didn't talk to him. we'll have to see there, you know, so if he can't go,

you're looking at Cam Lewis there or maybe Elijah Hicks. I don't know how they would juggle that, but Bear's defense is going to be facing an offense that is looking to improve this year, is looking to build off some of the things last year. Ted McMillan, it looks like he's going to be a monster. in the league for a while. But that Carolina offense was mostly underwhelming last year until they get in a home playoff game against the Rams

and they, what they have, 31, I want to say in that game. So we'll see. And Carolina, one of the few defenses in the league that had a less impactful pass rush than the Bears a year ago. Now they go out and they spend a boatload on Jalen Phillips, $120 million over four years. I said earlier this week, David, that I think Phillips is going to have a hard time

playing up to that contract based on what he's done to this point in his career. But the market's the market. And they're hoping that he can kind of be what Brian Burns was for the Panthers previously. So Brad, the Panthers are turning over play-calling duties to Brad Idzik. He's a young first-time play caller. he was inserted into this role of calling plays because as the reports are coming out of Carolina, wanted to be more aggressive.

Not sure how that translates into what to expect from Bryce Young or how ready he might be for that shift in approach. But is the element of the unknown something that should concern Bears fans about the defense against Izik, the way that made it. There's really no previous tape. There's tape on Bryce Young, but there's no previous tendency.

on a guy who's never called plays before? Yeah, there's no tendencies, but, you know, I think what you're doing is you're looking at what they do with Dave Canales, because, listen, Canales isn't going to hire an offensive coordinator that isn't, you know, down with a lot of what he's doing. I think what we're looking at is a guy who's going to come in,

maybe have some tweaks to what they want to do, but you've basically got a, you know, same ingredients different chef right where you're basically cooking the same meal um bears have just got to go out and fundamentally they got to play well they've got to be better against the run this season and we'll see if that defensive line can can hold up a little bit help keep the linebackers clean and they can accomplish uh that goal right Brad, what's the latest on Romadun's Day? I know back out there yesterday, limited.

It seems I felt as though Ben was a little, was more optimistic about him being labeled as day to day and potentially being able to go out there on Sunday. Yeah, yeah. We always got to be a little bit careful interpreting, um, entry stuff and reading between the lines with entry stuff. But sort of the overall vibe I got was that it was,

positive for Rome so provided things go well today and they've got to practice a little bit later on in Lake Forest I would think there's a strong chance he plays on Sunday. This is a guy who did play in 17 games

as a rookie and last year he was trying to gut it out with that foot issue for a bit there so I think he's he's a relatively tough customer and we've got a good chance to see it in play. This segment with Brad Biggs brought you by four seasons, heating, air conditioning, plumbing, sewer, and electric. For all the right reasons, call 866 four seasons.

All right, Brad, so when the number one defense runs out to the field for the first time on Sunday, what's the front four look like? And then how does that change during the first third and seven, long, third down passing situation? and does it change in terms of the edge rusher? I'm just curious, we talk a lot about who is in the mix and the committee and all the guys in terms of depth. But who's the starting front for and how does that change on passing downs?

Yeah, well, I think you're looking at Grady and Contagius Street as you're starting defensive tackles. Montes-Swett, obviously, he's going to be out there, you know, 80% of the snaps for the season. And then I think Dio's probably the base, defensive end, but with Booker certainly being on the field in passing down situations. And I see some type of, you know, I also see Booker playing in base downs against Carolina. It's not going to be a situation where Austin Booker is only on the field.

If it's, you know, second and seven or more or third down in a passing situation, they thought he played the run relatively well last year as well. In those passing downs, you can see Dio moving inside the defensive tackle with maybe street coming off the field, but you're going to see a rotation of defensive tackles. You're going to see Booker worked in there. And then just Chroma, do they give him a little bit of run? you've got to have

probably going to have a fourth end up so we shall see there I know a bunch of the guys have been talking in the locker room with locker room back open including I know Tori Taylor you mentioned you spoke to what's he saying about Bo Gardner

I loved what H.T. said about him yesterday and just sort of the pressure he's under and what opposing you know what these opponents are going to maybe throw at a rookie long snapper Well, I mean, it's going to be pressure straight up Broadway. You would think, right?

There's only a couple, few different ways you can rush the punter and hope to get there. And one of them's coming, you know, right up Broadway. So he'll have to handle that. It's a challenge that's in front of them. H.T. made the point, hey, these jobs don't come open that often. Pat Man only had one here. for forever, 16 years. Jansen, the snapper in Carolina,

I think he's going into like year 18. So there just isn't a whole lot of turnover. So that's why it's been forever since the Bears have had a snapper that hasn't had any previous NFL regular season experience. They believe that Bo can handle it. They're kind of excited to see how it looks, and they're going to have to, you know, whoever H.T. thinks is the absolute best at sort of supporting him is going to be right next to him on the line of scrimmage.

And we'll see. But they felt good about the preseason. They felt good about what he did during the offseason program. He certainly got the size. You talk about holding up in protection. I mean, this guy's about 6-5. He's probably 2.45. He's certainly able to fill out that frame a little bit more as he goes.

But he's not one of those guys you take a look at because some of these snappers have gotten a lot smaller. He's not one of those guys that you look at. Like, they had Jeremy Kane before who was great in coverage. It's been a long time. But it wasn't a very big guy. Gardner's got certainly the length and in some room to, so out. Brad, I know this has very little to do with maybe Sunday's outcome, but I wonder,

has anybody asked Mr. Intensity, Ben Johnson, what it means to be going back to North Carolina, close to where he grew up in Asheville, how he feels about this homecoming Sunday, being the head coach of the Bears, back in his home state in front of friends and relatives that maybe he grew up with. I know you're tight with Chase Rice, the country saw singer. Has he addressed that at all? No, I would guess that's something that probably comes up today. That's a Friday question for sure.

Yeah. I would guess that comes up a little bit later on today because, yeah, you would expect certainly some people who have supported his career throughout and now are considerable Bears fans will be in attendance in Carolina. It's fixing to be a hot day Sunday day. going to be a warm one and I believe the way the sidelines are

set up there they're both going to be in the sun when that game starts but a little bit later on in the day Panther side might be covered by a little bit of shade not the bear's side though can we ask for your prediction Brad what are your thoughts

yeah I mean it's just so it's tough early in the year when you don't know exactly what you're going to get. You know, Ben even said it like they don't know what their identity is going to be. It's going to take four weeks or so for them to kind of wrap their arms around that. So it's certainly going to take a little bit of time for us to determine what we believe the identity of these teams are. I think the Bears are well positioned to go get a win.

I have questions about the defense, and I expect to probably have them over the course of the entire season. But with their offensive line, their ability to run the football, they're healthy in the backfield. That's important. I've got bears 30 to 28. High scoring, Brad. High scoring. We're pretty close, Bigsy, believe it or not. I had 3127.

We got them both scoring 30. That's surprising to me. That would be a hot start. Like that would that would be the kind of start where you get to Monday for that Bears offense and you're not saying what the hell just happened. Right. Rams fans are saying this morning, well, Rams fans are still asleep right now. And Patriots fans were saying after that absolute clunker Wednesday night.

Miles Garrett never really woke up. He still was kind of ins lumbering. He was nowhere to be found last night. Yeah, well, Big Faye's, I'd have to feel that unless they can hit with some injuries, Sean McFey's going to get it figured out with the Rams. Brad, before we let you go, just curious, this is maybe slightly away from the Bears, but it affects him as well. Ruthie and I were talking before the show, and big picture, you look at the NFL, and we saw George Kitto play last night, and he's coming back and recovered quickly from what used to be an injury that would keep him out a lot longer than he. missed. Achilles, right?

Achilles, yes. Patrick Mahomes is starting Monday night. Coming back, he was, he tore his ACL in December. The Bears, you mentioned, a dangbo last, I think it was late. November. It was November. He was injured. And the Ozzie Chappillo story is remarkable.

Medical science has made these returns harder than ever to project and predict. Each guy is different, but isn't that remarkable that we're dealing? with these guys coming back as fast as they are? Yeah, I mean, it is. And, you know, it was funny you say that because Dan Rochard yesterday said that, you know, in their earliest conversations with Andre Tucker after the Tripillo injury that, you know, might not be back at any point this year. And some guys don't come back from this.

and so for Tripillo to be where he is, certainly a credit to him and the staff, but yeah, I guess medical science has improved a little bit, but man, you've got to start watching the injuries. We've seen a bunch of them through these first couple of games, Donald and A.J. Brown being two of the big ones,

and the bears will hope that they're fortunate on Sunday, and maybe Kyla Gordon can come up with some medical science that has him in the mix from a soft-issue deal. sooner rather than later. Last thing, Brad. So we saw this off-season running backs around the league be rewarded, and I think the value of the position

has made a comeback a little bit. DeAndre Swift, in that context, he had a career high, 1,087 yards rushing last year. The way that he has approached this off-season, everything you see and hear about DeAndre Swift suggests that, he may top that. This may be at 1,200.

Is it too much to expect? Could this be a 1,200-yard season for DeAndre Swift, and will he be the focal point of this bear's offense? I think he could get close to 1,200, yeah. I think he could approach that. I think he could, you know, 1650, 1,700 in terms of yards from scrimmage, maybe. He looks fantastic, and you just want to, like, he's not a huge guy, so I think you want to make sure that you don't give him too many touches.

And that's why they've got a really good setup right now, a nice mix with Menungai and him. I think your time share is something approaching 60% for Swift with Minangai, you know, more around 40%. And you lean on both those guys to help lead that offense. but Swift was very good last year, and you won't find a person in the building that isn't raving about what he's done all off-season and then through the summer. Great stuff, Brad.

Have a safe trip to North Carolina. Look forward to talking to Monday morning. Have a great weekend. Brad Biggs, football man from the Chicago Tribune and another guy that predicted them to score at least 30 points. Now are you going to make fun of me? No, I think you're both out of your mind. getting the snap and handed the ball off and throwing the ball to the right receiver.

And he's doing all the things that good quarterbacks do. So he's going the right way. I know we talk about him every session we get. Guys, he's had a really good camp. And I'm really looking forward to seeing how it comes together for him, 17 plus games this year. We're going to talk about Caleb Williams. It's Rahimi and Grody as we are broadcasting live from Cody's public house in Lake

view right now. That's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, everybody. Come on by, say hi. We just had a gentleman, Evan Silva. You may know the name, does fantasy stuff, big time guy. Roto World, yeah. It does a lot for NBC. He's spoken at the Sloan Sports Conference. The smartest of the sports brain people. That's pretty cool. So he stopped by. If he stopped by, you can. Yeah, just like, I love that kind of stuff. He was in the neighborhood. He was listening. His daughter Blair is wanting to go into broadcast. Big fan of Laila Rahimi. I can't believe that.

So shout out to Blair as well, which is very cool. Yeah, hi, Blair. You're an influencer, Laila Rahimi. That's what you are, whether you want to be or not. A terrible decision. I'm sorry, I'm still quoting the Mike Tariko call, which cracks me up earlier today. Oh, man, that's so funny. Yeah, that's what, that's, just left sitting there.

A terrible thing. I can't wait until I open my fridge tonight, and I hear Mike Tariko go, A terrible decision. It's happening. Oh, man. It just sat there, too. Everybody in the NFL world. Texting somebody I shouldn't.

A terrible decision. Terrible. The worst. I don't know. I might have made some terrible decisions in the recording of the Take the North podcast yesterday, which I believe the latest episode is up and running right now of Take the North. And we appreciate your support.

It is our Bears podcast that is performed by myself, me, Mark Grody, and my guy from the athletic Dan Weederer. But we do an episode every single year, Lela, where Dan and I challenge each other to make some uncomfortable predictions about the very season. Yeah, you guys put yourselves in a real pickle, and every break you were stressing out

over what you were going to do. I was, and I guess the one that I was especially stressing over, because it's, and by the way, we do the prediction episode. We've got seven or eight predictions we make, and at the end of the season, we then revisit it to show you where we made all of our mistakes. And most predictions do not come true. Most people are wrong on predictions. What?

Yeah, I know. I know. Except for you yesterday about the game. Yeah, I did have that prediction correct. That's right. I predicted a bad interception and a Seattle three point win. I had a higher score. I'll admit that.

But one of the categories that we had was most disappointing player on the Bears. I don't know why you guys do this to yourself. It's torturous. not good for anybody. It's not good for our relationship with the players. It's not good with our audience. But you keep doing it. We keep doing it. Um, because we're not Barbies. You know what I'm saying? Like, we're hardcore. You can bend your elbows. Yes. You don't have to stand on your toes. Fully pliable human beings. But we did. Yeah, most disappointing player, breakout player. That's fun to do. Team MVP. I chose an MVP for the team. A Bears record. A Super Bowl pick. And we'll do some

these picks tomorrow on Rahimi and Grotie, by the way, at least a bear score for you and maybe a Super Bowl pick. We'll tone it down a little bit for our program, but Caleb Williams' numbers is an interesting thing, too, because I think, Leila, we all expect the next level out of Caleb Williams. I know you do. You hit up at number six in your power rankings. Seven. Seven. Sorry, seven. Out of the top ten quarterbacks in the league. Yes. The five is really hard. The five is, can you will your team to victory and also prevent them from losing? Also prevent them from losing is a big part of this. Because sometimes Lamar Jackson has thrown a late game interception,

but can he will his team to victory? Yes. I think Caleb Williams has that potential. But, you know, we've talked about this. There's a clear directive for Caleb Williams this year, and it is do the basic plays. We know you can run the hard plays better than anybody else. We know you can make the impossible possible.

That I do not ever doubt. But it's how are you going to fine-tune the stuff that, you may not love. It's not sexy, but keeps everybody in business. Exactly. Exactly. And he's talked about, look, I've heard him saying the other day. He's like, I'm a shot taker. I've always been an explosive playmaker. So there are times when Caleb Williams is going to do what he wants. There are going to be times where Ben Johnson would be like, ah, ah, and then maybe he'll make a spectacular play, or maybe he'll throw into triple coverage and get the ball batted down. I was going to say get intercepted, but that's not really a huge part of his story so far.

hates throwing interceptions? He does. I don't think he makes the interception, for example, that Drake May did last night the end zone. Probably not. I don't think he does that. That was a one. I think he throws it away. Yeah. A terrible decision. He did get better at that. Obviously, an interception ended the bear's season last year, but we don't have to do the... It wasn't like that. No, it wasn't like that. That was a, that was classic Caleb Williams, though. I mean, there were some easier passes to be made really quick before we get into this, because I want to talk about Caleb Williams and the chemistry with his past catchers. Should note this, that on the Bears' estimated injury report,

Roma Dunzee does pop up on there. We'll learn more today. Not with a foot injury, though, with a calf injury. So initially, Ben Johnson had said it was the other foot, not the stress fracture foot, but his other foot that he was dealing with. That's all wrong. Scratch that. It's been a rough year to getting things right for Bears' injuries.

It's a cap injury for him. Tyson-Bajon. limited or would have been. These are estimations because they didn't have a full practice yesterday. Limited due to a back injury. And of course, Ozzie Tripilow, you know, Patelor tendon, knee, but limited. So he is still practicing. He hasn't gone all out as of yet. So with that said, that's right. That's right. Of course. It is a pillow. It's going to be interesting to see your two with a lot of these wide receivers and the chemistry continuing to build. What is Caleb Williams saying right now about his wide receivers? Let's take a listen. were saying they talked to the receivers and told them like at this point he's not really sure which

receivers are being which packages or which groups have you had enough chance like you with all those guys and if so what's the advantage to having so many of them yeah uh i have one yes i have i've gotten a multitude of reps you know between all the guys and then and then two having so many i mean we got we got we got we got a speedy group and so uh i think at one point we had seven or guys and 21 miles per hour plus, you know, which is fast. And so, you know, it's, you know, coach said it and he said it best. It's that, you know, he owes it to us as a group. He said that. I mean, the coaches. And so putting the best guys out there, putting the guys that know what they're going to do, we owe that to each other to be able to go out there and know where,

you know, what we're exactly supposed to do and go out there and do it. And so, you know, it's up to them, you know, who goes out there. That's what coach said. It's up to them. It's up to them. Who's going to be in on, you know, this many plays. you get this many packages and things like that. You got to block. You got to run off the ball. You got to do your job. You got to know where you are. You got to know where you need to line up. And so, you know, I think, like I said, it's up to them.

And, you know, we got some good guys out there. I get so excited thinking about this with the progression of the guys that were rookies last year, especially Luther Bird and Colson Lovell and who were so good towards the ones. They got going. Your most disappointing player from last year. That's right. It was Luther Burton. It was. And I had a reason. It was because he was injured in the offseason program.

And for what? whatever it's worth. Here I am trying to justify my bad prediction from last year. Luther Burton did not. It took a little while. It took a while for him to get going, though. Can you give me that at least? You did this to yourself. I don't know why. It's, I, yeah, it's a mystery to me why you guys want to include this category every time. I blame weeder. I blame weeder for anything that goes wrong on the pie. I'm sure he loved it. Yeah, that's right. Weed man. Big part of the Rahimi and Grotie show, by the way. But don't you love thinking about like, If last year they did what they did last year, Luther Burton and Colston Loveland and Roma Dunesay, Wiley was healthy, and then you add on Zavian Thomas and a couple of other guys in that wide receivers room,

like the sky's the limit with the command that Caleb Williams seems to have with the authority he seems to have with these receivers and tight ends. I heard a directive there. I heard run. If he's talking about receivers going more than 21 miles an hour, D.K. Metcalf comes to mind. He had interesting comments yesterday about Antarctica. But when it comes to the skill of your receivers, if you know you've got guys who can just blaze downfield or blaze across the field or they can create space, they can get open. And Tyree Kill's Prime, what did we say about him? He who had tremendous speed.

Every game, you'd go, how did Tyree Kill get this wide open on display? That's the goal. With guys with that kind of speed, that is your goal. So can they have that possibility? And then you know what Caleb Williams is thinking, because he can throw that deep ball so well, take the top off the defense. I know that that is something they want to do.

I think that the play they ran with Xavier and Thomas and Tyson Vagent was a preview of what they would like to do. So how does that turn out in the regular season? I thought about picking Zavian Thomas as my most disappointed player. Unbelievable. What did he do to you? Because of the, I think it's the caution with which the coaches were speaking about him, especially Press Taylor, and saying, yeah, we got something really awesome out of him in that preseason game.

We all saw the speed, but he gave the, he's got a long way to go before he gets the full boat. That's your trigger, because now you were talking about possibly Malik Mohamed, and I just stand, you can't keep picking rookies, especially ones who, are being responsible for some key roles on this team when their fourth round picks, for example. Well, then you make the predictions, Layla. All right. Well, I told you I was thinking about it.

Like, could it, is it Jedrick Wills? Jeddrich Wills? Well, you could have done something easy like Braxton Jones, like, because he's easy pickings. No, but Brxton Jones is the guy who gave you a year contract. So he gave you the discount supply-wise and demand-wise for left tackle. And then he's just doing his job as best he can. So he's not your most disappointing. Right, and it's just easy to do, because he'll probably eventually be replaced by Ozzie

Tripillo at some point in this season. So it's easy to say that, unless he's a revelation. And Braxton Jones again, he's having a great career relative to where he was drafted. Yeah, no, I don't think that's the answer either. No, that's not. You've got me stumped on this because I believe in, I believe in topic development before something hits the air. Well, we're negotiating this right here.

You guys have painted yourselves into a corner. Okay, how about this? Tori Taylor. Because how many times did we think he was going to boot the 60-yarder and then he barely had time to get the punts off? But he had a great preseason. Exactly. He was booming balls.

What does he set you up for? Disappointment. Okay, I see the logic. Okay. All right. Layla Rahimi has chosen Tori Taylor as her most disappointing player this year. For a season that has not happened yet. That is, that's too easy as well.

take it up with Torrey Taylor later, I will. Oh, man. Well, check out the podcast. It's up now. If you want to know the answer, it's Take the North. Caleb Williams, this is also the great part of this whole thing, because we all play the game of who's going to have the most yards, who's going to be targeted the most for the Bears this year. And we know that the sort of cliche wide receiver wants the ball, the diva thing that we always place on wide receivers,

which I think is like kind of a, it still exists. wide receivers still, Terrell Owens, give me the damn ball and all of their. Kishon Johnson, give me the damn ball, all that. I don't think that it is prevalent as it once was, but that's still part of the ego. Your job as a receiver is to get the ball.

Give me the ball because I can make a play. No, give me the ball because I can make a play. So it's every receiver worth their soul wanting the football. Here's Caleb Williams on how he's going to negotiate all of that. It was just about kind of going through your progressions as coach calls the plays. Is there anything on you to try to manage how those guys get fed and if they're all.

No, I don't, I don't do that. That's not a coach has a long play sheet with the list of guys and, you know, plays and, like you said, packages with those guys. And, you know, that's, that's, that's part of his job. His specialty has been able to get the guys the ball. My job is to go out there and read defenses and not force the ball somewhere and try and get a completion, keep the, you know, keep the offense on the field as long as possible to be able to go and score.

And so I typically, I think I do a good job over my years of playing, QB that the ball gets spread around quite a lot for me. I'm not having tendencies or anything like that of who it's going to in certain moments. You know, it's just delivering the guys a good ball and having trust in them. Well, and that sort of system was in play last year where so many guys were had similar numbers. Like everybody had like 600 yards receiving last year except for Colson Loveland who had 700. So I thought he did a pretty good job distributing the ball last year. I do wonder what it would have been like if Roma Dunesay had played the entire season.

I think we would have seen a huge jump in his numbers and maybe a little bit more lopsided. But I think I believe Caleb Williams when he says that. And when I think about the personalities of those wide receivers, I don't think there's the, I got to get mine or I'm going to pout and be pissed off. No, I think that's the function of the Ben Johnson offense. If there's only two or three guys catching passes, something hasn't gone right in the game plan. That's never seemingly how this thing is gone.

their best games. They had four or five guys catching balls. And that is indicative of the stats that you talked about. It's Colston Loveland in the regular season with 58 receptions, 713 yards. It's DJ Moore with 50 receptions, 682. Roma Dunesay with 44 on 90 targets, though. So he's still finished this season as the leading targeted receiver. That's what I meant. Like if he would have played. 61 yards. But that's that that's the number where you say okay receiver wise where did Caleb Williams's completion rate go. Well 44 catches on 50 on 90 targets. That's that's what's got to improve. Then you got Colcombat at 347, Elamade at 313. He had 65 targets by the way. Alamede Zakiya was targeted 65 times compared to Colquette's 48.

Your guy. Alameda. Oh wow. I just got the stare. He's my most disappointing player for 2026, and I don't even know who he's playing for. See, you do it the easy way. You do most disappointing after the fact. No, no, no. I predicted Tori Taylor just because of what we saw last year. Okay. I'll be ready regardless because I don't have a choice.

That's my job. He's a good, hey, Australian football happening tonight. Shout out to Tori Taylor. Australian football, but not Australian rules. No, no. They will not be like that. They will not be wearing shorts. out there. We, Rehimi and Grotie,

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Week one for the Bears, what is your prediction for Sunday? What's the score and what will be the main focus of the conversation, the reaction on Monday morning when we get back together? All right, I think we should start with our celebrity guest picker like we're going to have on Fridays, except for. This isn't necessarily a guest. He's still a celebrity. And he's the guy with the day off today because he's attending Matt Suey's funeral.

Let's bring in Jared Payton. Jared on the Han Payton show, your show. Good morning. How are you? Wearing his Miami hood. Looking good. Looking good, JP. You know I'm wearing this Miami gear, you guys.

After 77 laid down on the Bamu last night, you know your boy's smiling. Shouts out to Ruthie. Thank you for filling in and holding down. for it for your boy and I would be remiss if I did not start first with my two boys. What up Brandon? What up, Dustin? All right, guys, listen, here we go. I'm going with the Bears here, man.

I don't care what anybody says. Bears are going to win this game 27 to 23. I'm going to go down with it. Ben Johnson in this offense is going to figure it out. He's going to have a plan. But I think what we're going to be talking about on Monday is how. the run game was established early on. That's how you're going to win this game.

Establish the running game early on. I think with the play action pass off of that, it's going to give opportunities for them to take shots down the field, some explosive plays. And the bears just have more ways to score than the Panthers do. But as you look at this on your betting sites, they're getting, they're favored by three. So we're talking about the field goal here.

So people think it's going to be close. So maybe we're also talking about that this game comes down to the fourth quarter and the bears just have a little bit more in the tank. Jared, great stuff, great prediction. Before we let you go, just want to express our condolences again. And I know it's a tough day for your family, for the Suey family. I know you're close and you're attending the funeral for Matt. And the wake was last night.

Our thoughts are going to be with you all day today, buddy. Hey, man, I really appreciate it. Yesterday was very tough. but when you're around people who loved him as much as I did, man, just the stories and just the smiles and the hugs, the tears yesterday was made it all worth it for me, just to have my heart filled.

So today will be another tough day, but I appreciate you. And Ruthie, thank you for holding it down. Someone's got to keep David in line, man. It's not easy, but at least I know you got experience with it. Yeah, you'll learn.

You'll learn soon. All the best, JP. Have a great weekend. Love you, JP. I love you, guys. I'll see you soon. All right, so Jared's got the Bears winning 27-23. I have the Bears winning, too. 31-27.

No way Ben Johnson goes back home. No way he goes back home to North Carolina and has an offense that's a dud. I know. I know the Rams scored seven. I know the Seahawks scored 13. I know that you think the offense is not going to be functioning at a high level this early in the season. And I don't know what I was thinking,

I do have 3127 Panthers are going to lose, bears are going to win, and I'm sticking to it. Dustin? Bethy over, if you're with Jared and David, lots of points.

Wow. 2413 Bears. The theme, the theme on Monday, I'm going to go with Jared. I think it's the Bears running game, the time of possession, and the use of,

wait for it, David, 13 personnel. I have the Bears winning, and I initially had 2320. I almost want to go 2319 just so they like officially cover, you know, like cover handily. The total is 46 and a half points. This is not going to be a high scoring affair. Maybe. And I think what the Rams showed you, what the Patriots showed you, what the Seahawks showed you, is that week one is a warm up.

And I think on Monday we're going to be sitting here. Not me, but Jared and you will be sitting here. And you will say it wasn't pretty. There's a lot to clean up. But they got the job done in a game they should win on the road. And it's a lot to build on. I think Colston Loveland has a touchdown. I think Dandre Swift has a touchdown.

And I think everyone's really excited about the possibilities. I think there's going to be some holes on defense. And that's what we're going to talk about. It's going to come down to the end. and Caleb Williams does it again. Brandon? Real quick, I'll say Bears 24, Panthers 16. We're going to be talking on Monday about Caleb Williams on the road to the MVP

and Colston Loveland being the best, one of the best or the best tight end in the NFL. He's on the road for that too. All right, I like it. Those are our predictions. You got them all on the record now.