Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Could we see the Bears trade down from the No. 25 overall pick?

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote discussed whether it would make sense for the Bears to trade down from No. 25 overall in the first round of the NFL Draft.

This hour is brought to you by Jule Osco. The views and opinions of Lela Rahimi, Marshall Harris, and Mark Grody should not be taken too seriously. Especially when they give advice. Do not take Marshall's analogies, literally. Especially when it comes to Russell Dorsey. The sports thoughts of Rahimi Harrison Grody may change at any time. It's just sports. Okay, thanks.

Bye. Rahimi Harrison Grody. 10 to 2 on 104 3, The Score. Local man, Carnell Tate. He went to Marist, Ohio State receiver. join a PFT Live and for everybody on the Twitch mob who's always asking about Mike Floreo's Lego

projects, well guess who might help? What do we do when we get away from football? What do you do in your spare time? I play video games. I got a Lego set going. What Lego set are you doing? So right now, currently in Titanic still. So I've been in it since like the beginning of the season. Okay. Are we working out?

Yes, we are really important. I want to keep talking Legos. Isn't it a great way to just kind of get away from everything? Oh, yeah, definitely. You forget, like the whole world just disappears and you're just focusing on getting these damn blocks connected. Yes, sir, definitely. I've never heard Mike Florio perk so much.

I want to keep talking Legos. We got to make that part of his intro, right? That's got to be a thing. It has to be because do you know how many times everybody in the Twitch mob has asked Mike Gloria about the Lego Ghostboaster's Firehouse? What's the last time you and I built something together? Scientifically, a little over a year ago.

Legos last week in my room. There was a Nobel Prize for Millennium Falcons that fall apart. When you pick them up, we'd be set. That makes me want to draft Carnal Tate, because someone who can focus on Legos as opposed to being distracted by the screens that we live in in society. I like the idea of breaking away and just doing something that's just not. And sometimes, Langston, we be chilling, shooting firecrackers, making trap beats on buckets, playing Legos, but we don't got Legos, we got rocks that happen to fit as puzzle pieces. That sounds fun.

It's a game for red. Lila Rahini, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Midday's 10 a.m. to two on Chicago Sports Radio 1043, the score. Hello and good Monday morning to you. This is Rahimi Harris and Grody on 104.3, the score. Layla Rahimi, Mark Grody in today talking football with you, dare I say bears? Bears. Bears.

You said it. You dared yourself. You said it and it sounded great. It sounded great, Leila. It did. And this is a very different bears this time this year versus this time last year. As you know, I'm big on the year-to-year comparison, the comp, if you will. And I think in this case, rewind to where we were this time last year.

This was in the pre-Joe Tooney era, if you will. That didn't happen until March 5th. It was also in the pre-playoff win in the last 15 years era. It was in the, we're still trying to figure out what's going on with Ben Johnson, how Caleb Williams will look, what's going on with the draft that was crucial, Ryan pulls all of that. And we also were drinking a lot of Kool-Aid when it came to the chase for Ashton Genty. I feel like now we're chasing another Raider.

Now it's Max Crosby. But at the time, there was a ton of discussion about whether or not the bears were going to get Ashton Genti. Will they trade up? You know, I think a big voice guy when he was like, will they trade up? And while that was going on, I don't know if it's, if we drank the Kool-Aid as much as the Bears really did want a running back. It just ended up working out better than we thought it would because they stuck to their board and they got Kyle Menungai in the seventh round.

And between he and DeAndre Swift having a career year, it was able to work out. So here we are again. And this time I feel like it's in a much different spot. Brad Biggs in his 10 things at the NFL Combine brought this up. And he wasn't the only one who was making observations about the bears. we very well with the 25 pick with the Bears in the NFL draft, number 25, could be looking at a Bears team that might want to trade down. This is a different world.

What do you think of just that prospect that we've talked about? I'm interested in hearing more about that possibility, and it's something that I would probably support, and you talk about relativity from one year to the next. I mean, last year, and it's been a while since the Bears have had a first round pick that that was that far down, which is a good thing, 25. That means that the Bears won. But you think about last year. Last year's draft, the Bears had the 10th overall pick, and they took Holston Lovellum.

The Bears had the luxury that the Bears had last year. And the place where the Bears landed possibly two starters, maybe three, we'll see, was the three second round picks. I love the first round pick. of course, but second round picks, man, you should expect those to be started. You've got Luther Burden in the second round. You got Ozzie Tripillo in the second round. You got Shamar Turner in the second round. And I realize that Shamar Turner is a big old fat, incomplete right now in terms of what he might be able to do. I don't know if you could sense where I'm going with this, Leila, but I wouldn't mind the bears getting another second round pick or two if they're

able to do something like that and trade down. I'd be very interested to see what the board looks like when they get to 25 and what sort of players would be there, considering the depth on defensive line and end. But on the surface, yeah, I'm listening. I'm listening to a trade down. Well, and I didn't realize how rare it is, you know, for the bears to pick in the 20s. Like, that's something that doesn't take place very often, as we know. I should have just done the math, but we're so busy focused on like the year to year to

year. So we don't necessarily think about it when it comes to the big picture of it. But in addition to Brad Biggs coming out with his 10 things from the combine last week, there was something new that came across our ears. Tyler Buehiterabbaugh, our producer, pointed this out this morning in our pre-show meeting. Ryan polls on the Todd McShay show, where we talked a lot about what he had to say, was also asked about the sheer number of prospects he has on this year's draft board. How big is your final draft board playing? player-wise, they kind of on average or ballpark when you go into the draft. How many players are on that board?

I would say it's ranged. This year is going to be the lowest since I've been doing this. But I would say 120 to 140. So you guys are probably in the lower end. Yeah. Not the low-is, but. I don't play the window dressing game. If they don't fit what we do, if we're concerned about an injury,

then I just move them off or put them in a different zone. You don't do like to flip upside down and all the terms of. No, I just want to be locked in and guys that we've seen. So a low number means that you, I mean, tell me if I'm wrong, that you're not very high on the depth or talent in a class, is that correct? For this year? Yeah. Or any year.

Does the number reflect how you feel about the depth of it? Yeah, like it will rain. I guess the last few years probably have been a little bit higher once we've kind of kicked out of COVID. But then we've entered into this NIL space where I think the junior number is going down. There's a lot of guys going, you know, back to school. school, look at their grade, kind of use that as our own for agency. Yeah. And it just seems like guys are a little bit more selective when they come out.

So that was Ryan Poles on Todd McShay. Already, and you know how he feels about his draft board, Mark. He loves his draft board. I've seen his draft board. You have? Well, I mean, there was like a little tour that we once received of some basics of how he sets things up. It wasn't like before the draft or anything like that.

But yeah, get a little idea of how. Ryan Poles thinks. Yes. And I know that he's talked about how he sticks to it, and that is his process, whether or not we like it. You know, and I've discussed, I don't know that I trust your board as much as you do necessarily based on some of the swings in the draft that they've taken. But when you consider that the Bears have used a first round pick in the 20s, just twice since Greg Olson was selected 31st in 2007. 2007. You have to go back that far. You know, they took Justin Fields. They originally had the 20th pick.

We know they traded up. So Brad Biggs also pointed this out in his 10 things from the combine column. And he said the Bears had the 20th pick in 2021. They chose to trade up to get Justin Fields. There have been five drafts since 2007 that they didn't have a first round pick while paying off trades for Jay Cutler, Khalil, Mac and Fields. There's two aspects of this. number one, it shows you how much they had to mortgage the future

to get the player they thought they wanted because they couldn't develop people at home. You know, especially when we bring up J. Cullochuk, that's more understandable. I think we all may feel a little bit more similarly. Jay Culler turned out well, but the point is when you do this, there's only so many times you can go to that well. Don't forget Mitch Trubisky, too. You know, they lost picks trading up for Mitch Trubisky.

So I think that the concept of the fact that they might say, hey, we don't like somebody at 25, we're going to go down. There's a couple different ways that concerns me. Number one, we know that this is a rich edge rusher class, which is something that I feel like we all think the bears could use. And then number two, how much do you trust their board to be able to say, well, if you guys think you could trade down and that you should, is it enough to make you say,

I trust your process enough to get what you need in the second round or to try to get more assets in the draft of lower rounds where you think you can get better value? Yeah, I mean, I think when it comes to that pick, you're right. I mean, with the depth that exists, if there is an edge rusher on the board that is worthy at that spot, like somebody who trickled down to 25, even an interior defensive lineman that is better than what you have right now,

then of course you have to jump at it. But you look at the Bears defensive line right now. What are the sure things that exist on it? I would say Montez Sweat is a sure thing that exists on it. Even though Dravonne Dexter's name has been thrown around a bit, and we'll talk about him later, I think that he is a sure thing on this defensive line. I think that Shemar Turner is a sure thing on this defensive line, assuming he is healthy, assuming they can get him up to speed, assuming he develops at the right pace.

I think Austin Booker is a sure thing on this defensive line right now. So you start to look at those. Billings is not. He'll become a free agent, and I don't see the bears bringing him back. But if you can add somebody better than whoever is the best player, I would say Montes-Swett still, like right now, looking at that defensive line. Would you say sweat? It is the best player?

Whether you want him to be. And I know that he's not as good as everybody wants him to be. He did have double-digit sacks last year. He is your best player right there. If you think he'd get somebody better than sweat at 25, and I'd have to do more research into the players in the draft right now to figure out if the bears could get somebody at 25. But if you can't, if you really don't think you can get somebody who is on par

or better than the guys that you have on that defensive line. And I say all this understanding that Ryan Poles has already said that he's going to take the best player available at that spot. So he's not thinking like I am right now as far as need is concerned. But if there is going to be somebody better than those guys on the D-line at 25,

then stay at 25 and don't trade down right there. Well, that's it. This is one of those pivotal drafts where you think, like, oh, they've got 25. Oh, they might trade down. They don't have as many players on their draft board. Could that mean

they would trade for somebody else? in reading Brad Biggs's paragraph that we just said, you know, how many times do you look back at it now and they didn't have a first round pick and realize how much that really hamstrung this team? Because then you're forced to sign even more people. Then you're forced to have even more cap casualties. And they're not in that position right now.

They're in the position of control. They didn't give any away. But if you trade for a guy like, guess what? Max Crosby. Then you're going to have to give some of those up. Like, did you question the Kaleel Mack first rounders when they were given up the two first round picks. Not really.

I mean, you looked at it. It's like, oh, that's a lot. But okay, it's 26-year-old Kalil Mack, and it felt okay. And it also felt impossible that the bears were actually going to pull that off. It was very similar, honestly, Layla, to the way we were talking about Max Crosby. The Kalil Mack talking point was fun to talk about it.

We all talked about it. It was great. Oh, yeah, Kalil back to the Bears. It's not going to happen. And Ryan Pace is not going to pull that off. And then one morning I wake up on a weekend and I see the news and I hear the news. And there's Danny Park is doing it. Hey, Grotie, get up. Get up.

We got to do a show. So we go into the studio and we actually did a whole Kalil Mack show because it happened. They pulled it off, which was magnificent. So yes, to answer your question, it was all well worth it. And it was not something that we had expected to actually happen as fun as it was to discuss. I feel like the process was faster because wasn't the concept of him being up for a trade like a Saturday thing than it happened on Sunday or something or it was like it was something where it was like the news is out one day later. Calliall Mack is a bear. I remember giving myself alarm clock free sleep that day.

So I was about an hour to have late because I was like, that's it. I'm sleeping in today. I'm not turning. And then I wake up and there it happened. Magically, Khalil Mack is a Chicago bear. and then I'm running into the studio to do a show about Khalil Mack. We have some news that involves a former bear. Oh!

Breaking news on Rahimi Harrison Grody is brought to you by The Take the North podcast. Love it. Mark Grody hosts The Take the North podcast. I love you, Leela. I love you, Mark, with Dan Weider who's on at one. How do you feel about him? He's the weed man. How could you not like the weed?

He's a man who can get you things. Dan Weir did a big article discussing Kayla Williams, by the way. We'll get to that one second. This is the breaking news read that everybody wanted, right? This is how we construct it. The Lions, according to multiple reports, are trading David Montgomery to the Texans in exchange for a fifth round pick. What? They're doing it. Poor David Montgomery.

He's just going all over the world. No, not poor David Montgomery. He was the one that wanted to be traded. Wasn't he? Well, out of here. Like, well, no, but I think he was tired of being second fiddle to as much as we all. being knuckles to Sonic humor. Yeah, he was as cute of a story as that was in how

life was grand for David Montgomery and he's playing a complimentary role. He just got himself, I mean, I have to read more, but my, the way I was reading into it, David Montgomery was the one who wanted to be traded. Adam Schafter has the compensation. Texans get David Montgomery,

Lions get fourth round pick, offensive linemen juice, Scroogs. And a second round pick. Hell of a name. That's a great name. Scruggsy. but depth on the offensive line for the Lions wow jimir Gibbs rb1 as we knew that already with a bullet I assume they try to get another RB2 in the draft

it is it just blows my mind how fast things changed and how fast narratives change and it's all changed like that was such a perfect running backs room for a year and change and now it's over two years but here's the thing two years for all we've talked about as far as the bears being over the cap, according to overthecap.com, the bears are like $5 million to $9 million over.

Lines are 12, according to over the cap. So they had to do a lot more wheeling and dealing than the bears may have to do. Anybody else want to be traded? Dan Campbell holding his out. David, you're good. Okay, we got you trade. Aidan? No, no.

No. Notice how they traded him out of the conference? That was a good idea, as opposed to say trading Micah Parsons to the Packers. Yeah. In the conference. That's a smart move. Yeah.

Well, the Texans needed more, they needed more offense. You know, that was the problem for them. It sure as hell it wasn't their defense. That's a good product. So, yeah, Juice Scruggs at Supa underscore Juice on Instagram for those wondering. Scruggs. So he is headed to Detroit. So they get an addition to their offensive line.

and they also get some real value, I think, for David Montgomery. You know, for everybody who thinks that that's sort of a fungible position, I would say fourth round pick, juice grugs, and a seventh round pick. That shows you how much the Texans wanted him. Yeah. And look, good, no matter how much the running back position has been dumbed down or however you want to put it, good ones are invaluable. The good ones that, and David Montgomery is one, they make a difference.

So that's still a really good player, but it's really, it shouldn't be shocking to me. But it, but it is. Just what a good time story, David. And maybe it was personal a little bit, like just being on the bear's side of it. You guys talked a lot. Yeah, we did. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like David Montgomery, he was a guy who did not open up early on in his bear's tenure.

Just very quiet, very respectful. And then all of a sudden, I remember talking to him one day and he completely opened up. And it was like he was, he ran very hot and cold with the Chicago media, but whatever. Good player, good guy, all that stuff. It's just shocking to me, really from a Detroit perspective, more than anything right now. I mean, that's it. You know that there are going to be some tough decisions made by NFL teams this week when it comes to trying to get under the cap, trying to get assets, trying to sustain other parts of their team.

And you know how the lions are. They built from the inside out. They built the line first. So I feel like they're one of those teams. where getting an offensive lineman in return does not strike me as surprising. Especially since their offensive line is, I'm not going to say in shambles, but another thing that has changed rapidly about the lions is they're not as effective offensive line, which started, of course, with the retirement of Dirty Frank Ragnow.

Yeah, it can't. Dirty Franks. All Franks are dirty to me, by the way. I mean, just a zinger, just a zinger for no reason. And then he tried to come back, if you recall. Yes, he did try to come back. And then he didn't pass the physical. Sorry, I tried.

Yeah, well, and also there's this coincidence. Field Yates points us out. The Texans have the cornered the market on the Iowa State skill guys. David Montgomery, Jaden Higgins, Jalen Noel, and Xavier Hutchinson. They just want the whole team. Okay. Just get Matt Campbell. I know he just went to Penn State, figure it out.

Get him on there, too. Well, the Eagles are the, like, Georgia Bulldogs, right? The professional version, so. Given George's domination of. football for a time. I would say that that probably would bode well for them. Find your good college team and just draft everybody and trade for everybody. Well, Dave Wonstadt, you know, he was part of the whole Miami machine in Dallas, so that makes it make sense. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But in this case, the Texans and Iowa State are

very much in sync. We have more to come here, and that's something we'll keep our eyes on. It is one of those days where we expect some movement in the NFL. Mark Grote is in studio. Layla Rahimi here with you as we broadcast live from the scores Hyundai Studios brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. Ray Diaz, our producer, you just heard his voice, Tyler Bueberbaugh, helping us out, of course, as well. Brandon Friar does the same for us. And then you can catch us on Twitch and YouTube at the score, the score, and YouTube. Our address changed just in case you missed it. We're no longer 670, the score on Twitch and YouTube. We are The Score Chicago, and we're still free there, at least for now, as far as I understand.

I don't think that's changing anytime soon. So you can find us there. The Twitch mob is up there chatting. YouTube is an option for you as well. And you can call and text us. 312-644-67-67. So now it's just Sonic in Detroit, at least for now. It's not the same.

Do you think he's lonely? Do you think he's sad that David is leaving the building? Knuckles? He was Knuckles, right? No, well, yeah, David was Knuckles. I've never Like Sonic and Knuckles Like I'll say it and I'll play along

But it does not come to me naturally That was not like something Like I didn't know about Sonic and Knuckles The actual characters Before Jemir Gibbs and David Montgomery So I'm a big fraud What you need to know, Grody is Sonic and Knuckles Originally as the lore goes

Is they were enemies at first Oh So they've done this in reverse order Later as the in the video game storyline They became friends later on Oh isn't that neat So now it's like just reverse reverse order. So now they're enemies if they ever play against each other. Oh, that's perfect.

I like it. They must be having fun in Detroit with the story, though. Well, maybe, maybe not. You know, they didn't make the playoffs. So I think that still irks them a bit. Oh, yeah. No, I'm sure that they're irked. Erked. They're well irked. Coming up next year on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, let's get into part of the concept of Ryan Poles saying that his draft board doesn't have as many players as it usually does because does that mean somebody else might get traded for too we alluded to it we'll dive in next