Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Clay Harbor shares his wish list for Bears in free agency

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris were joined by Chicago Sports Network analyst Clay Harbor, who shared his wish list for the Bears in free agency.

Clay Harbor, former NFL play. Clay Harbor, slot to the left. Here's a big pass, and it's caught touchdown by Harbor. That's a touchdown. Clay Harbor makes that catch, and they've got Harbor for the touchdown. Football analyst for Chicago Sports Network. I think the Bears have two really good tight ends. I've been in tight-in rooms, meeting rooms, practice fields, game field.

These two guys, three guys, you can even throw Dermas Smyth in there, but Colton Loveland and Colk Met are extremely tough. and physical players. These are guys that can do everything. Clay Harbor with Rahimi Harrison Grody on 1043, the score. Dreams and nightmares. That's Clay Harbor's theme. Also the Philadelphia Eagles, which he was won.

So, you know, that's how it works around here. This is Rahimi Harrison Brody on 1043, the score. Talking a little bears kind of wrapping up the Super Bowl, wrapping up the NFL season. And I know we talked about this, your free agency targets. But before we get to that, We were talking about the cap casualties too. Kevin Fishpain had a really in-depth article in the athletic.

We were talking about the decision-making process, and Marshall brought it up. So, like, if you're Ryan Poles, how do you face Dennis Allen? You know, and how does Dennis Allen try to champion for his guys? You know, what goes on in that type of discussion where you're having to make so many decisions about guys who are free agents, guys who might have a really favorable cap hit for a team, like a Tremaine Edmonds, for example? Yeah, you go to your coaches and you, you, you say, how valuable is this player to you? Is this a guy you need? Do you think you can find a replacement at a lower price? Because we got to do some restructuring. One thing that I will say is

the restructure potential, which is the 2006 cap savings through simple restructures, which is basically turning salary into a bonus. So what can you do with contracts based on just turning them into a bonus? And the bears are very high. They're the seventh team listed. million dollars that they can turn into salary cap via just changing that into bonus. That's without changing years on the contract. So sometimes you'll hear guys say it's more cash than cap. So if McCasky, George McCasky is okay with paying more. Some rosters cost more than other rosters, even though you have to be under the salary

cap because the bonuses don't count towards a cap. So if George McCasky is okay with it, they have a lot of money that they can turn into bonuses. And also something I want to say is like the combine coming up in less than two weeks, that's when you find everything out. As a player, as an agent, your agent will go in, they'll have meetings with every team, and they'll go, okay, we like this guy. We like this guy. As a player, that's the first time you'll find out.

When you're a free agent, does your team want you back? Does this team want you? Does this team want you? That's when all the trade conversation happens. That's when all the free agent conversation happens. That's when as a player you find out, okay, there's going to be a big market. You find out, okay, there's only two or three teams interested in me. Unfortunately, for me, that was typically the case.

You got three teams for a lot of my other buddies. They'd be talking to me like, yeah, this team, this team, this team. Like, man, you got 10. I got three. But all you need is three. You need three good ones that really want you, and you can get a decent deal. It's just like house hunters. Collecting valentines, like in elementary school.

And kids, you're looking over at a desk and some kids got 12 Valentine's on his desk. And you've got four. And you're like, why doesn't anyone want me to be there Valentine's? I would say that Clayport. probably gets more Valentine's now than NFL team interest. I'm just going to throw that out. Burn. Yeah.

We've been playing this buzzer the whole day, and it's just living rent-free in our heads. I love that buzzer. It's very TikTok-coded. Very TikTok. It's very FN. You know, I do think, though, that that is an interesting aspect of the combine that we haven't really talked about because we have been, as Bears observers, so obsessed with who they going to get.

How tall is Caleb Williams for real? How tall is everybody else? For real. Who's jumping really high? Underwear Olympics. The free agency aspect of the combine was not something that we necessarily discuss. But also, who's going to be number 10? And now you realize they don't have a top 10 pick.

That's different around here. Very. Yeah, it is different. But I think there will still be some players available. You know, at some point we'll talk about my draft prospects. I did that yesterday in the big pro football show. I had to give David Hall, Ruthie, Polinsky, some of my favorite picks that will fall to 25. And I think there's some solid options, left tackle, edge rushers, because the class

is deep in both those positions. Like that running back class was deep. And that's why they waited until the seventh round to take a running back. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, well, I just, I got to tell you, it's not just that it's been a surprise. It's the marriage of the offensive line blocking so well and how he's run, Kyle Minangai, that helped make that work so well. Like when you think about that part of it, and let's just shout out of it. also the run game. Eric Biedime was a real game changer, I think, in that room as well. Yeah, I think you got a really good running back coach,

Studsville, the guy's coached 12, 1,000 yards rushers in his career. He's been a coach for almost 30 years in the league. He's a guy that will come in, he will command respect. He's been an assistant head coach. He's been an interim head coach. He's been a guy that's been a coordinator. So he's done so many things in football that when he walks in that room, you're running back, you're standing at attention.

This isn't like the substitute teachers here now that Eric B. Enamey's gone. This is still another guy that is an alpha guy. He's a guy that will instill discipline. He will have that right kind of stuff that Ben Johnson likes, that players, they will have to respect. I'm interested in what you have to say, Clay, and you kind of dialing up your own thing on Blake Pro Football Show. First of all, I'm just behind the scenes. Is this a producer directive or is this like you coming to them saying, hey, I really want to talk about these three guys. No, this is a producer directive, say, hey, I want to, it's collaborative,

but do something with free agency. Go and find three guys that you think would be a good fit for the Bears' free agency. And it's very open window. I could just say, Trey Hendon, the top three guys come to my head, but I actually go, I watch film, I look at how these guys play, look at numbers, and I come up with three guys, positional need for the bears, that I think could be potential good fits. And I think that's a good segue to get into where we're going. as far as the free agent targets, I think the bear should consider. My third guy, Chicago, you're not going to like this. Nobody's going to like this one.

It's a safety. The reason you're not going to like it because this is a dude that ended the bear season. His name Cam Curl. You know, Marshall, when he goes to gym, all he's doing is curls. Camcirls can play. I do hamstring curls. But this guy can play. He's only 26.

I turned on the film. This guy's playing in the box like Brisker, but unlike Brisker, he can also cover. No. Yeah, when I look at this guy, he does everything well. He's physical. He's good. You can put him in the box. You can play him deep.

He's a strong safety, so you can still bring back Byard if he want to, and he put some analytics with it. He was 15th among all safeties in pass rating when targeted in coverage. He was 16th in coverage grade per PFF. He was second in run defense grade per PFF. And when I turned on the film, I saw exactly that. It's a guy that fits a Dennis Island system. We saw what the Seahawks were able to do.

Nicky Meen Wetherstone, two versus. players in the defensive backfield. You got Kyler Gordon. Give me another guy like Cam Curl that you can move around. I think that would be a really good piece for Dennis Allen. And you know what Cam Curl does that is really savvy is he makes in-game adjustments. Like you can see when he would start to like sneak a route or when he would start to jump around. He's, he's a detail-oriented guy when it comes to just how he's able to kind of start to pick apart a team when it comes to the routes they're running or what the route tree is for that specific game. I felt like that was happening against the Bears. And he also played 16 games at least the last three seasons.

Like this guy's never hurt. He plays. He is going to be healthy. And I know that was one of things with Briskine. I know he played 16 games. To get to number two, he's ready for this one. John Franklin Myers. Okay, this guy has three names so you know he can play. Is that how that works? Yeah, he's a defensive tackle. I think it just means he was named a certain way. Yeah. He's a defensive tackle. He's a three-four-de-end, but he's de-tackle. This guy's going to play three technique. Same position is Gervon Dexter. He can play little nose, but he can line up at six. He can line up outside.

He can line up anywhere along defensive line. He's 290 pounds, 6-4, Dennis Allen-type guy. The last two years, he's had 14 sacks all coming from inside. So if you want a guy that can get some inside pass rush, we saw what that was able to do, Seattle. I'm not trying to steal the Seattle Seahawks blueprint, but that blueprint looks pretty good. Okay? So this is a guy that can do a lot of good things for you. As far as interior rushers, fifth and sacks, eighth and hits, 21st in press.

pressure 6-4-290. Versatile player can line up all over the defensive front. So that's why I like John Franklin Myers. I'm sensing a theme here with the versatility and more of not just getting guys, but getting chess pieces that could be moved around like Queens for Dennis Allen. Yeah, exactly. And he's a guy that will give you someone that can get that pressure that you're hoping Grady Jarrett could from the inside, that were hoping Jervon Dexter could from the inside.

and I think he'd be a perfect piece in that Dennis Allen system. And finally, hold on one more thing on him though. Do you think because he's coming from a Broncos defense that was considered top five in the league that the price will go up for him? I think there could be a bidding more for this guy just because there's not a ton of interior defenders on free agency that are really good. So you might overpay maybe like you did DiO Dainbo. That's not good. But I think this guy is a player. when I looked at Dio, I said, I don't know what they're doing here.

You know, as a tight end, I'm like watching this guy as an edge rusher, I go, I don't need help. I'm a tight, I shouldn't be saying that. As a tight end, why are you bringing me this guy? He's like, oh, he's good against the run. I feel like I don't, I feel like you can block this guy in pass rush, okay? I shouldn't be able to feel that, Marshall. If John Franklin Myers lines up out there, I'm going, hey, give me a couple chips. I need some help.

So this dude can play, and I think you'd be a better look according, you know, as far as my history goes and blocking guys, like, that. And finally, Ed Rusher, I know there's been people pounding the table saying, trade for Max Crosby, trade for Miles Garrett. I don't want to give up no first round picks. I don't want to give up another big time player. You got Trey Hendrickson and for agency. You also got this guy. I turned on the film and I said, how come nobody's talking about him? You're going to say, no way. I'm going to say Adafi Oway, okay? This guy can play. He started with the Ravens. He got traded to the Chargers, right? The only game you have to watch is the Charters playoff game

versus the Patriots. This guy had three sacks and two fourth fumbles. I turn on the film, he's great at rushing the pass, or he's also versatile. He plays for a three-four defensive end. They might have him his outside line. He can play D.N. in a four-three. He's not the typical

build that a Dennis Allen likes, you know, the long, bigger, stronger guys, but this guy is really good against the run. He can set the edge, but he can get some pressure too. I really liked what he was able to do after he moved. from Baltimore to the Chargers. His win rate, after he made that move, was 16.5,

which was 11th among all edge rushers in the National Football League when he moved from mid-season from Baltimore to the Chargers. So I would love to have Adafi Owe on the Bears. I noticed there were three defensive players when you talked about free agents. My issue is, do they have money to invest more into the defense based on where they already have money going into this? had an argument. I said, yo, listen, like people want all these new defenders, do it, the Seahawks

didn't invest in the D-line. Say, hey, Brian Poles did that. He took his swings and he missed. Guess what? Grady Jared obviously got hurt. Maybe he can get better. And when you're in your 30s, tough for me to see that. Before he even tore his Achilles, Diodangbo wasn't much of a player. Now you expect me to think he's going to come back after torn Achilles and be better. Shamar Turner, even before he got hurt and tore his ACL. Didn't see much from him. A second round pick and those two players, they did the investing in the defensive line. But like I said, if you're willing to go

all in, if you're willing to maybe move some of this salary to bonus, you have the seventh most, I think Trey Hendrickson would be great. Or yeah. I'm saying cut Tremaine Edmins. You can get rid of Tremaine Edmins. I think you'd find a replacement. But I think there was a possibility

for them to still have a decent amount of money in free agency if you do convert some of these salaries to bonuses. I have a question about the direction of why you're saying this, so I want to get to that on the other side of this break. More with Clay Harbor Football Talk here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, The Score.