Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Danny Parkins: Caleb Williams is the most talented quarterback in Bears history

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

Marshall Harris and Mark Grote were joined by FS1 host Danny Parkins to discuss how Bears quarterback Caleb Williams is already the best at his position in franchise history, the Bulls' outlook as the trade deadline looms and more.

I could do Stephen A's job, guys. It's not that hard. Denny Parkins. QB1 party. All are invited. Host of Fox Sports Wands, first thing first. It's a heartbreaking ending to the most enjoyable Bears season of my life. I'm born in 86, I'm not there for 85.

They went to the Super Bowl in 06, NFC championship game in 2010. But in terms of you have the coach, you have the quarterback, and they're going to be there for a decade. This was so unbelievably exciting. Bears, plenty of reason to doubt them. Caleb Williams, no. Former host of 670 The Score before he abandoned us. It's a Caleb Williams custom, baby. Jersey number one is going to the Raptors.

You guys made it seem like a Chicago Bears fans. We had our guy, Danny Parkins, all these guys. Danny Parkins on 670 the School. Wait, that's it. That's him. He's Parko. He's such a parko. It's Rahimi Harrison Grotie on Chicago Sports Radio 670 to score. And yeah, Danny P. joining us right now on the Circa Resort and Casino hotline, circa Las Vegas.com. Danny, you sounded great on the score yesterday.

That must have been pretty cool to be a part of that tribute to Terry Boers and his life yesterday and what you were able to share, my friend. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I was honored when Speeks called me and asked to be a part of it. you know, obviously many people worked with Terry Moore, but Speigs won it. He knew kind of the student of the game that I am and that I grew up as a, as a listener of B&B, and wanted me to speak to his impact on me from a listener and then my relationship with him. And, you know, it was just, I went, like I said, I went down the rabbit hole of old clips and

Bores and Bernstein fans are so lucky that there's such a great archive of them available on YouTube and, you know, old emails. Terry and I would correspond. ahead of radiosthons. And so we would talk a little bit about health. And nothing crazy. He didn't love talking about it. We traded stories over having back surgeries with each other one time. But, you know, he said one time he was like, you know, just something to the effect at the end of one of his emails, you know, like, you're a tremendous talent.

The station is in great hands. Love Terry. And I was like, man, it was just like getting that blessing from someone who he didn't owe that one to me at all. And I know he was gracious with compliments. I'm not like stretching to pat myself on the back. But like, you know, when you were hired at such a young age, as such a lifelong radio guy to work at such a big station, and then you see, you know, Mac go out how it ended and how Bernsey went out.

And like, you know, Terry got to go out like in terms of retire. But like he said many times, like he didn't really get to, he would have kept going if not for the health stuff. Like it just makes me like more appreciative. I wasn't there for forever, seven, eight years, but, like, being able to go out of my own terms and, like, get the blessing from guys like Mac and Bernstein and Terry who, you know, thought I did a good job with it. It means a lot. Yeah, no doubt, man. And it is. It's a, heavy when you get a compliment from somebody like Terry Boar, so I totally get to what you're

saying. I also don't want to hear about your back surgery. So, yeah, I'm, like, totally in line with that. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Yeah, I get it. I just, you know, I was, you know, I'm just It's part of your story. Trying to be relatable. Yeah, yeah. Trying to be vulnerable, but, I mean, feel free to stop on it. I'm glad you're back's okay, Danny. You're an old guy with a cat, so you can't handle the emotional.

Wow. Shots. Look, I am sorry about your zigzag back, okay? Yeah. Does that make it better? I understand. Listen, it's just like a traumatic thing that happened to me in my formative years. It's not a big deal.

We don't have to talk about it. If it makes you uncomfortable, bro. Well, if this makes you feel better, better, I was really. referred to today as a boomer. Because if you're over the 37 years of age, you're a boomer. 37 seems very arbitrary, by the way. I don't know, 40. Okay, 41.

If you're over the age of 41 and you have a take that's a little old school, and it wasn't really even a take, which I guess could lead us into, I was going to go a different direction. But now here we are. Here we are. What I brought up, Danny, was because, and I'll let Marshall talk here. We did a full hour today, Danny, on the following question. It wasn't a question. It wasn't a question. It was a statement.

Okay. You give your statement. The statement is very simple, Danny. Caleb Williams is the best quarterback the Bears have ever had. Point blank period. Sid Lugman, of course, is the most accomplished quarterback that the Bears have ever had. But much like the T offense, the Model T gone out of style, those things are old and decrepit. And we're talking about the current NFL. And certainly, in my opinion, Caleb Williams has shown himself to be the best.

player to play the position. And I brought up, Danny, just to bring it full circle and the Boomer reference, I said, of course, I'm not necessarily saying Marshall is wrong, but you have to bring up guys like Jim McMahon. You have to bring up guys like Jake Cutler just to do a little cross-checking and a little bit of debating. But where do you stand on Marshall's definitive statement? I mean, he's obviously objectively correct. By the way, I predicted that. That's the only prediction I've gotten right this year that Danny would agree with Marshall. Well, hold on. Like, listen, when people have these conversations and they're great, sports radio,

barbershop, whatever, like, I do think it is relatively instructive to talk about what we're talking about here. Like, Tom Brady is considered the greatest quarterback of all time. People don't really dispute that. I don't find that conversation to be quite as interesting because it is just a measurement of accomplishments. Like, it's just like, I'm looking at your trope. Kofi case. Now, if you were saying, who is the most talented quarterback of all time,

I find that a little bit more interesting because it brings in like skill set and some nuance. So like Jim McMahon, yeah, he, he has a Super Bowl and Caleb Williams doesn't. So is that, but is that the only art? Because he obviously is not more talented than Caleb Williams. And like, we can't put Sid Luckman into perspective because none of us were alive to know anyone who was alive to watch the guy play baseball. Exactly. Like, you know, obviously that's hyperbolic. But you don't understand.

I'm saying like modern era football as we understand it, Caleb Williams is clearly the most talented player the Bears have ever had to play the position. And how about this? Just like touchdown to interception ratio to start a career. First 34 games of a career. First basically two seasons of playing since 1970. Lamar Jackson, 47 touchdowns against.

nine picks. Patrick Mahomes. Now, he sat out most of his first year, but first 34 games. So basically year two and three of Mahomes, pretty good. 85 touchdowns against 18 interceptions. And Caleb Williams, 47 touchdowns against 13 interceptions. He's behind Lamar and Mahomes for best touchdown interception ratio first 34 games of his career. Like, he is, without a doubt, objectively, the most talented quarterback in the history of the Bears organization. And if you guys need to be like, well, he needs to win, he has to pass Eric Kramer with wins, like, fine, but I'm just not terribly interested in that. No, no, I completely agree.

And that's kind of the point that I was laying out, because when Grotie went hard to do his cross-checking, if you will, he found two guys, and neither of those guys were very inspiring to me in terms of, I watched the tape. If you watch, if you have eyes, it's like, believe what your lying eyes tell you, or no, you listen to what somebody says about a guy who, as you said, has a trophy in his case. It's pretty simple and cut and dry to me. I think this is more about working through not only Mark Grody, but the city of Chicago's PTSD and the low bar of what quarterback play has been for the Chicago Bears in recent memory.

Yeah, but I mean, listen, I'm not doing radio on the score every day. I like to think that I have a pretty decent poll still of Bears fans. Are you getting pushback for this opinion, Marshall? Minimal pushback. We had one caller. It was hilarious. He called in. And what was, how did he start the call, Grody?

Patrick. Oh, yeah, he came around. He was like, ah, do you know, I have it. He's had interceptions in big games. And I was like, but look at the context of the interception. Like, if you throw a pick on fourth down and it's just a punt, who cares? Also, he at the end of the call said, but tell me, who is the best quarterback in Bears' history? He said, it's Caleb Williams.

So, like, even the pushback has been minimal because I just want everyone to be comfortable saying it out loud, you know? I feel like people know it. I can't imagine why you wouldn't be. And it would be a really weird, fatalistic, almost like, white socks fan mentality to be like to bitch and moan for our entire lives that we've never had a good quarterback in Chicago, then get a good quarterback in Chicago, say that he's the best quarterback we've ever had in Chicago,

and then want to defend the guys that we used to bitch him out. Hey, you know, he might not actually be better than color. Well, then the disclaimer. That'd be a weird pivot. No, no, you're right. But the disclaimer part of this is. is incredibly important. Marshall's been very careful to pointed out, to his credit, that the field ain't great. That's my point. And so the problem is that it's still a big statement, though.

It still is something that one has to digest it and think about it. Like, hmm, maybe he is. For two minutes. But it's also two years. Okay. I used the analogy earlier. Like Marshall meets a girl. He wants to move in with her in the second week. He's engaged to her in six months. I mean, are we moving too fast just having this topic? Let me tell you something. If I meet the right girl, guess what? Yeah. The two things you just said will happen in that in short order.

Same. We're too old to be messing around, man. What are you talking about? If I meet a girl, Danny, who is smart, accomplished, beautiful, and who doesn't live in a bubble and realizes the world is bigger than what she sees, I'm in. I'm good. I mean, yeah, I mean, listen, I agree with that. you know, if you know, don't be afraid to dive into the deep end with your quarterbacks or with your living situation. You can always get divorced. That's always there for you. It's a good thing these days.

Louis C.K. says the best part about marriage is the divorce. He has an incredible bit. He's like, because my divorce just keeps getting better. Every day is better. Every day is better than my wife. That is a great Louis bit. But yeah, listen, I, I just, again, I can't imagine there's much pushback against that notion because we've been waiting a long time for this. And now, how good Caleb is to the rest of the NFL, like, the goal guys is to no longer ever have to mention the name Jay Cutler or Eric Kramer or Jim McMahon again. And that's so true. And be comparing Caleb Williams to Drake May. Compare Caleb Williams to Aaron Rogers.

Compare Caleb Williams to Patrick Mahomes. Like that's the goal. Compare him to the greats of the game, the greats of his era, the greats of his draft class, things like that. Like hopefully this is a – maybe it's not extinct yet, but this is like an endangered species, sports talk radio topic. It is. That is the voice of Danny Parkins. He's on Zoom right now. You can follow him on X, Twitter, if you'd like, at Danny Parkins, nice and easy.

And check out Danny on the newly expanded first things first OT from Ford to 5 p.m. on FS1. That's Fox Sports 1. Danny, I think that a lot I was thinking about you, and I think a lot of our score listeners had to have been thinking about you when Mike McCarthy was introduced as the new head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and just to whiteboard that a little bit for the folks who don't know, Danny was highly critical of Mike McCarthy in his time here at the score, and I would imagine even in your other radio lifetime. So how did that hit you? as objectively hilarious, as the Spider-Man meme coming to life in the form of going from Mike Tomlin to Mike McCarthy.

Like, Mike McCarthy managed to win one Super Bowl with Prime Aaron Rogers, the most talented quarterback, arguably in the history of the sport. He coached and managed the worst football game I've ever seen to this day, the 2000. 2014 NFC Championship game against Seattle, where he repeatedly kicked field goals from the one-yard line with Aaron Rogers as his quarterback and squandered a 16-point lead with five minutes to go in the game. Just an astonishing level of game management and competence in that spot. Took the Cowboys job, said that he watched every Cowboys game in the off season when in his year off was asked about it as introductory press. conference said he was lying about that just to get the job. And everyone chuckled.

I'm like, I don't know. That feels like plagiarism to me. Like, I feel like that should have avoided the contract. Then he gets to go from Aaron Rogers to the Dallas Cowboys. Hmm, what's the other most historic organization in the NFL? Charmed. And this guy gets the coach, the Pittsburgh Steelers. It's absurd.

Here's some numbers for you. Mike McCarthy playoff win-loss record since winning his Super Bowl in 2010. He's six and nine. Second worst of any coach with 10-plus games behind Tomlin. You'd say, congrats. Well, it's something to get to 10-plus playoff games, and it is. But who's the worst coach since their Super Bowl win with 10 or more playoff appearances?

It's Mike Tomlin at 5 and 11. Mike Tomlin would be just good enough to get you to the playoffs and then lose. Mike McCarthy is just good enough to get you to the playoffs and then lose. And call me old-fashioned, but I think that there's value in being bad for a year. strategically so you could step forward. The last time the Steelers had a losing record, they were six and ten. The next year, they drafted Ben Rufflesberger. The year after that, they won 15 games. The year after that, they won a Super Bowl. There was a pretty famous losing season for the Steelers way back in 1969. They won a coin flip for the number one overall pick.

Took a guy by the name of Terry Bradshaw, five years later, they won four of the next six Super Bulls. Like, there's value in losing. And in Pittsburgh, they just celebrate, we wait. nine and eight. We went 10 and 7 and lost in the wild card round. Mike McCarthy's good enough to go 10 and 7 and losing the wild card round. But if you actually want to win big and modern football, it's a ridiculous hire. Everybody knows that. I tell you, Marshall. Well, all I heard was him talking about the Bulls. Oh, wait, no, you're talking about football. My bad. Yeah. Yeah. It is a boomer take, but it's right. You know what the difference, though, in the NFL, if you have an awful pick, you're guaranteed, an awful record, you're guaranteed a top pick.

NBA, you have an awful record, you still have to play ping pong balls with lottery and have a 14% chance, and there may or may not be a guy in that. Like, there is no value in the middle in the NFL. There's none. It is completely, like, it's why I argued correctly against the Chicago football brain trust Illuminati that Grody works with all the time at House Hall about there was absolutely no value in that Bears team learning how to win. And they should lose out so they could get the highest draft pick possible.

They got that draft pick. They traded it to Carolina. They got a draft pick back who turned into Kayla Williams, who Marshall will tell you is the best quarterback in the history of the back. Well done. Well done. Danny is excellent. I feel uncomfortable, Danny, because we've been agreeing a lot lately, like a lot.

Yeah. It's been a little bit. It's been a little bit. It's been a little bit. Like I say what I'm saying. But you were around, Marshall. You were not around. this was a, this was a, I mean, I was so unpopular among Bears media, probably still I am,

but like they would write about like, no, no, no, no. I think, I think it'd be a good idea for the Justin Fields Bears to go, you know, five and twelve instead of three and fourteen, and there's real value in winning these games now. Oh, really? Oh, really? Just all that would have done was cost you the rights to Caleb Williams. Congratulations. You'd have a different left tackle. right now, but you'd have no quarterback. Like, it's just, it was just nonsense. It was a whole motif here, man.

Danny is on point here. I would, if I was on these airwaves back then, I would have agreed with you wholeheartedly. Oh, there's value in learning how to win for a coaching staff and roster of players who won't be here anymore when they're good. I don't know if Fluce learned anything while he was here. Yeah. Danny, before we get you out of here, because Janice is out here and apparently available right now in the Bulls, because like what you said, they don't do what they need to do and

have, I don't know, that unprotected pick from the New Orleans Pelicans, which would really come in handy right about now. What should the Bulls do between now and Thursday's trade deadline? Because they should just sell, sell, sell, sell, and get picks, picks, picks. But I'm afraid they're going to sell, sell, sell, sell, and get young players in return. I mean, listen, Josh Giddy has looked good, you know what I mean? So it's not always a bad idea if you get a young player who has upside. But to be honest with you, I, I, They are still where they've been, which is in a really tough spot. Obviously, I'm all for any unprotected or minimally protected first-round draft picks for the future you can get.

Those are incredibly valuable lottery tickets. But there's no chance the Bulls can win a bidding war for Janus. The only way they can win the bidding war for Janus is if Janus demands to play for the Bulls. And there's no reasonable reason to believe that that is going to happen. I told Grady, I said, listen, the Bulls have players that if they traded them away for Janus, would leave Janice with no one to play with. Yeah, that's true. Danny, we've got to go.

Right, and Janus has power. Like, Janus has, he's going to want to go where he wants to go, and then he's going to want to go somewhere. The whole point is to have enough left for him to be able to win when he gets there. So, you know, he would have to demand to play for the Bulls, and the Bucks are not going to, that's not going to happen. There's no way. Bill Belichick's not a first ballot hall of famer.

You think that it's an injustice, or do you think it's the right way? way to go. Yeah, you know, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the coach with the most Super Bowls and the most playoff wins and the second most wins of all time, if he's eligible for a Hall of Fame that cares about those things and doesn't have a morality clause, he should be a Hall of Famer. Like, if this was the baseball Hall of Fame and there was a morality clause, then it would be a reasonable debate. But since there is no morality clause, and it's just supposed to be on your merits, I find it very hard to make a merit-based argument for Bill Belichick not to make it into the Hall of Fame. He didn't see the fine print of the Petty Clause. That's what he missed.

Yeah, yeah. Which by the way, by the way, I respect. I don't agree. I don't agree with it, but like these guys should come out and say, yeah, I don't like them. And so I'm making them wait. Like, if you want to stand on your pettiness, I have no problem with that. It's the, like, I don't remember who I voted for. Well, then, well, then you don't get a vote. Like, if you can't remember who you voted for, you should no longer be allowed to vote. Absolutely. Right.

That seems like a fairly straightforward, like, cognitive line that we should be able to hold these guys to. Like, if Bill Polly and honestly on the record said, I don't remember with 100% certainty if I voted for Bill Belich. or not. Well, and I'm sorry, you no longer get to vote on these things. He's a seniler clown. That's what it comes down to him. And Danny, I think you were here, if I'm not mistaken, when the whole Terrell Owens thing happened, where he didn't get first ballot Hall of Fame. Oh, I yelled at everybody. Yeah. Yeah. I yelled it at, well, yeah, well, yeah, same thing. But, and worse, by the way, because T.O. was only the third best receiver in the history of the NFL.

Bill Belichick is first. Like, you know, it's just a... And I understand the like, hey, it's a slap on the wrist for cheating. Yeah, yeah, you know. I get that argument, but then you have to be able to come out and stand on that argument. And you have to explain where in the bylaws of the Hall of Fame they are asking you to weigh that. Like, that's not... Shouldn't that be implied, though?

No, no. I'm with him on this. You shouldn't cheat. Like, cheating. Because baseball does have the morality clause. I get exactly what Danny's seen. If baseball did not have the morality clause, you think bonds would be in, right?

Yeah. Right. Yeah. And so he's out because of the morality clause. Okay. All right. I guess I think of morality clause. I don't know.

Like, there's like, is that, is that a, is cheating a moral issue? Yes. Absolutely. But isn't it borderline illegal, too? And I get it. We're parsing words here. Isn't cheating. Cheating is illegal, right?

But they punished him. They punished him. They didn't say in their punishment, and this should be considered. And again, if a voter, if 11 voters want to come out and say, I didn't vote for Bill Belichick because of Spygate, fine. Okay. Like, you know what I mean? Like, fine. But just, but like, come out and come out and say it.

Don't hide behind it or not answer for it or claim that you forgot. Like, just like, make your case. Make your case to the public. Danny, you are a great Parkinson's like you always are. Thank you for coming on the show. Thank you for being on the right side of history, by the way. And I'm thinking about your back. I will be.

I will be thinking about your back. And if you think about my cat, you know, if we can have that understanding between us, I think you and I'll get along swimmingly. Thanks, Danny. I'm not going to ever think about your cat. Bye, Danny. That is the great Danny. Parkins, former afternoon show host here at the score and midday show host here at the score.

He does his work right now. And the newly expanded first thing's first OT from four to five on FS1, Danny Parkins. Let's talk more about another Hall of Fame, shall we? Let's talk about the pro basketball Hall of Fame. It's not even a pro basketball hall of fame. It's just the Basketball Hall of Fame. Yep. Oh, yeah, you're right, of course.

That's why I'm going to explain. Billy Donovan is in because of a football. work in college, of course. But let's talk about that as it pertains to Derek Rose and Reggie Miller was talking about it, weighing in on Chicago athletes. Let's talk about all of it next here. Rahimi Harrison Grody on the score.