Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Dan Wiederer shares what the NFL thinks of Caleb Williams

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote were joined by Dan Wiederer of The Athletic to share what he learned about the Bears at the NFL Combine.

Dan Weiderer, Bears reporter and senior writer for the athletic. You're going to be relying on a lot of young players, guys that have to materialize into who they thought they were. The Bears are who we thought they were. On-air contributor for 670 the score. We'll mention this mainly because Dan Weiderer said we would mention this Nugget. Host of the Take the North podcast. We're going to take the North and never give it back. Dan Weider.

Thanks, Coach. We'll go first to Dan Whedier. On Chicago Sports Radio, 1043, the score. Weezy! This is Rahimi Harrison Brody. 104-3 the score and we now bring in on our hotline. It is Mark's Take the North podcaster, partner. Dan Weeterer, he is the senior writer for the athletic covering the bears.

He is the co-host of that Take the North podcast with Mark. That makes me laugh. And he also wrote an article that speaks to what we are talking about. You know, we discussed earlier what Ben Johnson wants to see in Caleb Williams. And we also talked about the concept of what Ryan Poles wants to see in year two. And Dan, you wrote an article in The Athletic that just came out over the weekend that also adds to this discussion. Yeah, I mean, look, like I think the word that we're going to hear a lot going forward here is efficiency. And then trying to define it through the eyes of Ben and the coaching staff in regards to just being a little bit more on script, more regularly of being able to find those easy completions that are schemed up for you, the checkdowns that get you out of job.

jams and being able to get that completion percentage above 60 and then towards 62 and then ultimately towards 65 this season on the way to 70 because Ben's not backing off that 70 goal but he did I think temporarily lower the bar here for 2026 to get him to make a jump from 58 to 65 and they believe there's some efficiency things that they can they can use to get there. Dan, what are people around the league saying about Caleb Williams? Well, I thought was really interesting. Obviously, we all knew how many heads. he turned with the things he was able to do late in games with the highlight real plays he was able to make. But when you start drilling down a little bit deeper on that and understanding kind of

the psychological pressure that that then puts on an opponent, it's really real, right? Like, you understand that that teams now understand that like you can't count this guy out of a game. And so that creates a little bit of a demand if you're an opponent. If you're an opposing offense, well, we've got to score a little more because we don't want to keep the bears alive. The defense on the other side has got to feel this extra pressure. even with a two-score lead to keep it there. Otherwise, that belief comes in over there. And I had one personnel man tell me last week,

you don't fear Caleb, but you have full respect for what he's capable of when he gets hot. And I thought that was a really good way to put it because it's just like, man, like, that's documented now. You know, all these comebacks, all these big-time plays, it's documented now that he's really, really dangerous. And so every team, the Bears play next season will start their preparation understanding that. Well, go ahead.

I was going to say this is a follow-up. to that. And it's about Caleb and it's about Ben Johnson. And you guys cited a source in your article. I think Fishbane and you wrote the article. I want to make sure I give proper credit here. Yeah, this morning's article on the things we heard from the combine. That was a double dip.

One thing that really stuck out to me about Ben and about Caleb Williams is a personnel man, as you guys put it in the article, citing us as your source, saying that Ben, Ben Johnson, has done a fantastic job of not taking Caleb's playmaking gifts away. And Layla just brought it up to before we came into this segment about how important Ben Johnson has been to Caleb Williams. Can you even like put a letter grade on that? Or how do you answer that question? A plus. There it is. Done. Next question. It really is because look, that's the other thing you hear from people around the league is there's there's respect for Caleb. There's respect for Ben. But then you put them together and it's like, oh, God. You know, those two guys are working together now.

you know, and so there is that little bit of respect, I guess, that's there around the league for what those two guys are capable of. Look, like we know, Mark, we saw it with our own eyes, heard it with our own ears, that Ben was on Caleb's ass on a lot of different things throughout the early stages of their relationship. And yet, as you mentioned that quote that you referenced, he didn't try to turn Caleb into a robot.

He didn't try to make him a player he wasn't. He's trying to get him to understand how to play the position while still allowing him to be that artist that he can be as a playmaker and so far so good, right? Now all of a sudden you've got the makings of something that's got great promise. Obviously, we know hearing from Ben again last week that the message all off season is going to be, yeah, that was great. Last year was awesome, wasn't good enough.

How do we get ourselves one step up? And there's going to be a lot of steps and a lot of time investment that goes into that. Well, and the thing is, Dan, is when you're talking about combining, I would say even just, and we've discussed this over like a 60% completion rate, say it's at 62, say it's at 64, you know, and what Caleb Williams does from a playmaking standpoint in the league, where you don't necessarily have those opportunities to even get that far in the league every play. You're talking about a quarterback that even then would be a perennial multi-year pro-bowl discussion, playoff quarterback.

Like, that's a formidable career in the NFL, and I don't think that's the ceiling. Well, and that's the goal is to get to the ceiling, right? And so that's why this coaching is going to be as demanding as it is because this isn't about like, okay, we've got a middle tier guy that we want to just kind of use to keep us afloat. It's like we've got a guy with extraworldly talent in a lot of different areas. And now we are trying to get him to be the engine of something that can win a Super Bowl's, right? And so those demands are immense. And look, it may sound like a huge leap to get from 58% to 65% next season. But Ben laid it out for Caleb.

He broke the numbers down. He said last season, if you go back through, you just needed 40 more completions across 17 games. You know, that's like 2.4 a game. And certainly you can find a drop here. You can find a misthrow here, a ball that wasn't thrown there. And all of a sudden, you start to go through the film and you go, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I can get there. You know, and you create that belief that it's not as far off as it may seem. And so that's the starting point for them as they, you know, obviously they won't get back for a little more in the month into the building at House Hall.

But that's the starting point. As they get going this spring is to get him to understand kind of. kind of the baby step approach to reaching some of these bigger goals. Well, and when you look at the film, some of them are as simple as footwork. You know, I think some of the footwork can cut down on, I would say, two completions and completions a game. You know, there were times where he would lock out his front knee. And then if he wasn't set, you kind of knew before he even threw the ball, whether or not

it would be caught. So that's fixable. Like, that's a thing that he can absolutely fix. You know, there's no reason to believe he wouldn't. Yeah, there's mechanics. their system comfort, you know, I think like that's going to be a big thing is obviously they don't have to start from ground zero in terms of putting in the offense and getting able to understand it. He's becoming more familiar with Ben's concepts, which should be able to make him play faster, which then gets the ball where it needs to go sooner. And so there's going to be a lot that plays into this.

And, you know, look, I think both those guys, you've heard them, you know, whether it be on a podcast with Max Crosby or in a setting at the combine, you've heard them express eagerness as opposed to like dread for going. into this next phase of really trying to push the gas and see where they can go. And so I think the whole city of Chicago was kind of sitting there very eager as well to see just what the results of this will be as they get into 2026. Yep. No doubt. And people are anxious to see and find out if Caleb Williams will be throwing the ball to DJ Moore. And in the article, you guys wrote, there was a lot of glowing things said about DJ Moore and, you know, being a leader and being a hell of a receiver and getting compared to Debo Samuel. Also though, in the article you wrote, an opposing coach, as you guys put it, said it seemed

on tape that Moore and Williams didn't have a strong connection. Another league source from you and Kevin Fishpaint. It's clear to me that Caleb doesn't have a lot of trust in DJ. It does seem like that. So my question is, even if DJ Moore is on this roster next year, how is that stuff fixed between Caleb Williams and DJ more if you believe Dan Weeder that there is a chemistry issue between those two. Well, there's a couple different ways you can take this.

First and foremost, you can give DJ a little bit of the benefit of the doubt that he, too, was playing in a new offense last year, right? And so there was a lot of stuff as a receiver. They put a lot on his plate. And so there's going to be some bumps in the road there. He's also now in a totally different situation than he was in when he got here in Chicago, where he was the undisputed top playmaker in the offense. and now he's surrounded by Caleb and Rome and Burden and Loveland and Swift.

And there's a whole group of guys that can impact the game. And so, you know, in some ways, you don't need the production to reach where it once reached. But you do need him to be a factor in every single game. And so working through chemistry, both with the quarterback and with the offense, right, just kind of getting your understanding for how routes need to be run in this system. What's the timing of things? Where do I need to be when? Can I do that in a way that allows me to be impactful?

If he is still on this roster when they get into OTAs, you've got to come to OTAs with purpose and go about working on all of those things every single day. I did find it interesting that league-wide, there is a fairly glowing profile on DJ in terms of just how consistent he's been. Everyone in the league appreciates this guy's toughness and how much he plays through and you can feel it.

We know how hard it can be in this league to survive. And DJ has caught everyone's attention with that aspect of things. Now it's just, okay, how do I go about being? a really impactful playmaker. And what's been just the head scratcher for everyone is DJ's been really productive with bad quarterbacks. And then he got the most talented guy he's ever played with, and it fell off. And so it's a little bit of a riddle that no one's solved yet.

Well, I think part of it is when he's been open, it hasn't been within Caleb Williams' vision. Like during the play, maybe part of the reason the targets haven't happened as much is because DJ wasn't really open at the perimeters of the play. You know, a lot of times he'd be open in traffic or something like that. that's really where he does his best work. And I don't necessarily think that's when Caleb was able to throw the ball. So I think some of it has been timing just based on who was available to throw the ball and catch it when Caleb Williams was available to actually throw it in the play.

Yeah. And we couldn't get a consensus at all from folks that we talked to on whether there's an anticipation of a DJ trade, whether it's going to be something that doesn't happen. And so this is that week, right? Like we've already seen some moves started to be made around the league. This is that week ahead of free agency where some of this stuff starts to lock in. And so we'll kind of see where it goes as the week goes on. Well, I think also a big part of this, and we've talked about this today,

Albert Breer highlighted him. And I know it's been percolating. And there's been red flags here and there that kind of surfaced last year between A.J. Brown's relationship and the Eagles. But that's going to affect a market more than anything. if he's available and he's making more than DJ. Yeah, right. And so like those calls will go out.

Teams will express interest and then, you know, all this stuff gets really fluid. It's, you know, it's similar with Crosby in some extent where you're just kind of, everybody's kind of surveying their own landscape and then piecing it together with all the other teams that are out there. And so this is a, it's a really interesting week.

Yeah, look like the bears have a ton of work to do between today and the time the month ends. Like they've got 50, players, I think, that are under contract as of next Wednesday. That leaves you 37 roster spots to fill before OTAs. And so you've got, obviously, you've got the draft class, you've got undrafted free agency, you've got some guys that you will resign. But that's a lot of work, and you don't have a ton of space.

And so they're going to have to figure out that entire puzzle. Yeah, it's funny because there's this huge rush of draft talk that goes on, because it's the combine and all those to be drafted players are there, but we're so far away from being able to fill in that. blank of the draft because of free agency, which opens on March 11th. But I'm still going to ask you, Dan, did you feel a certain way about number 25 for the Bears in the draft or anything as it pertains to this year's draft and the spots that they have even relative to last year when they had the three second round picks?

So you've gotten to know me well enough now to know that like April 1st is when I start looking at the draft seriously. Now that said, I have to do a mock draft with Kevin Fishbane for this week at the athletic. We've got to go through all seven rounds of the Bears draft and put together another class there. And so we're in the process of doing some of that today. I think that the Bears are going to be able to find a starter at 25. They're going to be able to address a position of need. And look, like we've talked about the depth of this edge rushing class.

There's probably going to be a good one or two available for them at 25. if it's not the flavor they like, they can wait, and they can wait until day two and try to adjust that as well. And so I think they can go a lot of different directions. But again, free agency is all about setting yourself up for that flexibility. And so what they do here in the next three weeks is going to be pivotal to filling a lot of holes, even if it's not like the ideal fill, you just want the whole filled so that then if the board breaks a certain way, you can react and pounce and again live by that best player available

philosophy that so many teams want. Dan, I know you were in on the mystery of last week. Have you been able to figure out which Achilles Daya O'Donbo tour in 2021? I have not been. And yeah, I've not. We can get, we can put that on the pecking order of things to get into this week. It's been something that has been crowdsourced.

Don't go to AI. AI will overlap terms and make it a mistake. I looked, I could find Ann, his, the it, but nothing about whether or not it was the left or the right. Nothing. I've had editors at the Tribune over time who have been hyper vigilant in making sure you know which side of the body injuries occurred on. And so we're pretty, we try to do that at every point you can.

And that's why your eyes in the locker room are important. You know, you see a guy hobbling around. You can understand which side of the body his knee injury is on, right? It says knee and when you say, okay, that's the left knee. but yeah we'll look into that figure out what that means obviously it relates to the pass rush discussion that we're talking about and the bears need to get more out of the guys that they currently have under contract and dial's got to be a big part of that because they made an investment of him a year ago were you surprised to hear that he's going to be back sounds like he's

going to be back for training camp I don't know that I necessarily expected that no I mean you know we'll see what the ramp up period is his injury was early enough I guess probably in the season where, you know, I lived through the Adrian Peterson ACL rehab where it was like, oh, man, the guy tore his ACL on Christmas Eve. There's no way he's back. He's back for the season opener and wins MVP that season, right? So Adrian's a different case, but it was a reminder to me of how far technology is come and how the medical rehab process is, it can be accelerated quickly for these high-level guys

and the bears are going to have to monitor that with a handful of guys. Yeah, but what if it's the same Achilles? You know, that's the thing. You've got to be careful, right? But that's where the recovery time comes. Yeah, that's where it comes into play. And especially when you gave guaranteed money to that guy knowing he had had a previous one.

And you know, Dan, the reason why nobody knew is because it was during his training for the draft. Yeah, so we'll call the Take the North investigative team, and we'll get on that here, and we'll hopefully have an answer before before we get too deep in the spring. I mean, people started doing Google image searches just to see. Do you know what I ended up finding? Him and Chris Emma.

It was actually a Montess-swet-swet-square-pict. It's a pillow. That's the best I can. So that's where my research took me. It just took me back to here. How many Achilles has Chris Emma torn? Why are you putting that voodoo on people? That's a good question.

I'm just curious. I don't know. Well, maybe, I mean, like, maybe I should have asked Emma about that. Yeah. Why his picture would show up in that image church? I mean. See, Grotty, what did I tell you about people messing with Emma at Hallis? See?

That's what happens. You're right, you're right. There's a lot of stuff going on. By the way, we are talking about Cassie Carlson. She's with us tomorrow? Is that right on Take. What do we got coming up on Take the North this week, Dan? Hey, everybody.

Listen, like, Cassie crushes the offseason, and she has a show called the offseason on Fox. And you go down to the combine and you watch her work and you watch the number of different people that they're able to kind of reel in and talk to on the show as you had one-on-one with Ben Johnson, one-on-on with Brian Poles, one-on-one with Jeff King, and then all sorts of people around the league as well. So there's a lot to unpack about her Indianapolis experience. I know you'll look forward to that as much as I am tomorrow of getting some of that insight. Absolutely, and I look forward to talking to you and seeing you. I miss you and Indy Grotie.

I really did. I know. It's kind of a heartbreaking thing to be down there without you. I had non-joking around fear of missing out and just seeing you there and missing you there and missing you and everybody and not walking 40,000 steps a day. I missed it all. I missed it all. Yeah, we had to connect over stream yard,

and then you had to watch me watch people walk into the J.W. Marriott Gym and try to figure out if they were working out or breaking in. It's pretty funny. If you want to go back and watch some of the Take the North episodes from the Combine, Dan is talking about, like, yes, like, you, it was Sean Payton we saw, like, in the background. Some people we couldn't. Dunesville was making a call, like, four feet from me while we were recording. It was, yeah, crazy.

You get an idea of what. the combine is all about if you watch Take the North because it is just that. It's people moving. And it's like, oh, there's, hey, there's that. And you don't really have enough time to like see everybody. That's why I call it Choose Your Own Adventure and I missed my adventure this year. Do you know what else it is? It's still there. It's a tough scene for guys who walk while talking on the phone because you don't have the space. You don't have the space to be strutting around with your thoughts on the phone because there's other people doing the same thing. So who's going to win that walk? Who?

Well, I got a lot of steps in last week, so I won a lot of walks, but maybe probably got a little bit more to do this week, too. Also, every time I think about you two talking to each other, now all I picture is the John Greenberg picture of you two looking at each other with admiration and happiness. Well, why wouldn't we be the Bears just beat the Packers in a playoff win, right? The first playoff victory ever covered in the NFL. Whoa, wow. That's crazy, man. How long have you been covering the NFL since what year? 15 years and then there were, you know, two years sort of as like half-time covering it in 2003-04

when I was working out in Naperville. So, yeah. Okay. See, and all like, the goal is to get you somebody who looks at you the way Grady looked at Weirer. That's all you want. I was just so happy and the adrenaline and everything. It was like, something had been lifted from the world that day. Chronicling history.

It's important. That's what it was. We were chronicling history in the bowels of Soldier Field, which, which was beautiful. It's precious. Which is still the home of the Chicago Bears. It is the home of the Chicago Bears. We didn't have asked you a stadium question.

Probably Arlington Heights. Yeah. Thanks, Dan. Okay, see you. All right, if you're good with it, that's Dan Weeterer back from the Combine. We look forward to the Take the North podcast with Mark and Dan and Cassie Carlson. There's a very important question we have next.

Oh. Is Ben Johnson having fun? What? It's next. Bears.