Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Dave Wyman shares his scouting report on new Bears safety Coby Bryant

Episode Date: March 10, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris were joined by Seahawks Radio Network analyst Dave Wyman to share a scouting report on new Bears safety Coby Bryant, who spent the past four seasons in Seattle.

Rahimi Harrison Grody. I'm not a fan of any team. I'm just a fan of being right. Midday's 10 to 2 on 104 3, the score. Downfield, looking for Austin, picked up by Kobe. Number eight picks off, number eight. And down across the 45-yard line. Second pick thrown by Rogers today,

and Kobe Bryant, who had three of them last season. That is courtesy of Fox. That's Kobe Bryant picking off Aaron Rogers, and we have some breaking guest news. friend of the show, Dave Wyman is joining us. He is co-host of Seattle Sports Wyman and Bob, and he is always great when it comes to Seattle Seahawks information. And I would love to recreate the defense myself from scratch, but I can't.

So Dave is joining us on our hotline. Dave, thanks so much for calling in. Thanks. I've never been breaking news. So, yeah, I appreciate you describing me that way. That's cool. Yeah, our producer Ray said that you were available for a few minutes, because you're also at Mariners camp.

And Dave is also the color commentator for the broadcast for the Seahawks Radio Network. So thanks for joining us. Yep. Yeah, no problem. I'm just trying to avoid getting hit by a foul ball and not getting sunburned down here. You know, rough life. Yeah. But, yeah, we're, you know, kind of pissed that you guys signed our guy.

Kobe Bryant, man. Love that guy. Really a really a good player and a good guy. But, yeah, I mean, it'll be. It'll be a great acquisition for you guys. What is it that you love the most about Kobe Bryant's game? Because we've kind of scouted him now as a guy who can obviously cover because he started as a corner and then worked his way to being a safety.

And it kind of has that hybrid look that a lot of defensive coordinators kind of lick their lips because they're getting excited about having a weapon to use. Yeah. What I liked about him is his versatility. And he won the Jim Thorpe Award when he was at Cincinnati's senior year as a corner. And he's a pure outside corner, but he can play inside. He's got that kind of versatility where he can, you know, play safety. And in this defense, safety is really important.

That's kind of where they, you know, where they invest. But I'm thinking what they thought is we got Julian Love, who, to me, Devin Witherspoon is like a high standard of any defensive player in the NFL. And I think that Julian Love is like just a notch below that. And then they got this kid, Nicky, who they traded up to get in the second round, who was an incredibly versatile safety. So that's why I'm thinking, you know,

maybe Kobe Bryant wasn't a priority to sign back. But man, what a great player. And, yeah, like I said, he can play inside, outside, in the box. He's physical, just a really smart kid, a great kid. and just, yeah, a really good football player. Well, we knew you'd be one of the people to talk to when it just came to figuring out what the bears are getting. What can you say about his versatility? Because the bears, that's just 25% Kobe of the available safety spots they had.

We're still looking for them to fill three others. So what can you say about his versatility when it comes to how you see him playing for a bear's defense in Dennis Allen? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, he's one of those guys that I think it's kind of a waste, and I've said this about him, it's kind of a waste to put him out at corner, just because I love seeing him inside, because he's so physical. And he's not the biggest guy in the world, but, you know, he just, he throws everything he has in there. So, yeah, also, I love him, by the way, for the one pick six he had, or I don't know if it's a fumbler pick, that he scored a touchdown, and he did the Marchand Lynch as he jumped backwards over the, you know,

over the goal line, grabbing a certain body part. So anyway, yeah, that part, that was awesome. Love that. But, yeah, he is just, I mean, just can play all over the field. And like I said, you know, everything from corner to safety to middle safety, he's got it all. So, and like I said, I just, I think the only reason, you know, what does it say about him, the Seahawks not keeping him just because of the two guys that

they have in there already. And then, you know, maybe they have plans for either a free agent. or Ty Okada, who filled in really nicely at safety when we had injuries. Yeah, I think, Dave, you bring up an excellent point. We've talked a lot about that, just the danger of drafting and acquiring too well. And I feel like the Seahawks, especially when you consider how they've drafted in the first round the past few years. You know, you consider the coaching that has happened and the talent acquisition and evaluation. They've done an excellent job when it came to all of that.

The Super Bowl is the obvious result here, but it ends. up happening like this where quality people get squeezed out just because of everybody good on the field. Yeah, that's a great way to put it. That's the, you know, kind of the cost of doing business when you have a, you know, GM of the year, John Schneider. He has just been killing it with the draft choice. It's kind of funny, you know, there was a lull when John got hired here in 2010. Really, the guy that hired him was Pete. Well, now John is in charge and John hired Michael McDonald. So I think in the beginning, it just seemed like Pete was taking a lot of John's advice in the very beginning, starting in 2010. They got Earl Thomas. They got Richard Sherman in the fifth

round. They got K.J. Wright in the fourth round. Bobby Wagner in the second round. And Schneider was just killing it. But then there was kind of a lull in there where, you know, in like 13, 15, 16, mean, you know, not so good as far as the drafts go. But now that John's back in charge, and we heard a lot of stories, and this is nothing against Pete, but that he would kind of say, hey, we need this guy and we need that guy. And John wasn't the guy that, you know, was making the final decisions. And now he is. And now he's just hitting him out of the park.

It's back to where he kind of was in the beginning when he first came here. And I think it's because of more control. So you're right. I mean, that's the thing when you have, that's the cost of doing business when you have a GM like Schneider that's just hitting them out of the park. And, you know, you're going to lose a lot of guys because of, you know, them just being an excellent players. Dave Wyman is with us here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, joining us live from Mariners Spring Training. He's the co-host of Seattle Sports Wyman and Bobby also played six of his nine NFL seasons for the Seattle Seahawks. Dave, I'm curious, when you look at the way the NFL has kind of shifted, we used to think

quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, quarterback. But now it's like, yeah, you do need a quarterback, but defense seems to be ruined the day the last couple of Super Bowls and playoff runs. What do you think about this shift? And we believe we have the quarterback and the coach here, but now trying to work on this defense in Chicago. Yeah, no, I think it's always been that way, but that's coming from an old middle linebacker. you know so um but yeah i mean i i think having a better defensive team than a better offensive team

and that's kind of where you know the battle goes on in our division with you know you got a defensive minded coach and mike macdonald going up against Kyle shanahan and sean macbay which by the way i i think the top three teams in the NFL are in the nancy west i mean the the niners made the playoffs with a backup quarterback and you know Mac Jones for a lot of the year and then a bunch of their guys banged up, including Fred Warner and Bosa. So, yeah, it's tough. But I think just defense has the advantage, how to shut people down and their D-line is just phenomenal. So, yeah, I think that that's always been the case.

But, yeah, I mean, I think it's a copycat league, right? Everybody is always trying to draft and trying to get the next, you know, Byron Murphy or, you know, Big Cat Williams. I mean, those are the kinds of Ernest Jones, the inside backer, everybody's going to be trying to find those kinds of guys. So it's going to make a little bit tougher for the Seahawks, obviously, but they're going to have to retain their players, which we didn't with Toby Bryant. But yeah, I think it's going to get a little bit tougher for the rest of the Seahawks, you know, with the rest of the league kind of figuring out what they did defensively. Well, I thought that that was a great comp when you bring up Big Cat Williams,

because he was on our air earlier this week, Dave. So that's a nice Bears reference there just to bring him into this. But I want to get back to just the idea of it being a copycat league. Yes, yes, it is. You can try to emulate what the Seahawks were able to do defensively. And I'm very glad that Kobe Bryant is now on the Bears. But it really started with that line and guys just simply also out-athleting people. You know, when you think about the actual raw talent that also was paired with the defense

scheme. It may be something you'd like to copy, but the execution was incredible, especially in the last, I'd say, two games of the playoffs. Yeah, yeah, it was, they were just smothering. And, you know, here's one thing that I think

Mike McDonald probably isn't known for this as much as that, you know, and it's the kind of like emotional side of like these guys, and I asked Leonard Williams this. I go, do you think there are other teams that are like this because they have like this sort of high school almost camaraderie where they're actually

trying to play for their teammates and i'm like you got these guys that are the best athletes in the world and they're you know fighting for and scrapping for millions and millions of dollars and you're getting them to play for each other that that's the one thing and i'm wondering if some of that will come through with covey Bryant haven't been here but that was the one thing that was kind of remarkable and i know it sounds incredibly corny but like to a man, these guys were saying, no, man, you know, we all care about each other and we all, you know, want to, we like playing together. We like being with each other. We like, you know, playing for the other guy.

On the morning of the Super Bowl, I was watching the D-line and they have the same group. They play a card game called Boo-ray. And so, and that's, you know, I used to clean up on Boo-ray when I was a player in the NFL. Now I can't even remember what the rules are. But anyway, they play these, they play this game. And on Super Bowl Sunday morning, I was sitting at a table for breakfast, like before the game, pregame meal with a bunch of, like, media people and people like me that cover the game. And we were all, like, super uptight and nervous. And we look over there, and there's the D-Line.

And they're over there playing B-ray, like they do every single week. Every day before a game, on Sunday, they're playing Buree. And that's what they were doing. And they were joking around and laughing with each other and everything. And, yeah, that bond, that kind of camaraderie is just amazing. And that's one of the things that Mike McDonald is an expert at. And he got these guys in, you know, in that mode playing for one another. Well, this is always a fun conversation, Dave.

We appreciate you taking the time. I know you've got to get back to watching a very good Mariners team now. It's a tough life here leading these days. I know. It's tough being a Seattle fan, right? I mean, we were eight hours away from the World Series. And then we go and win a Super Bowl championship. We're trying to stay humble here, guys.

Next thing you know, the Sonics will be back. Yeah, that's what, you know what? People are still, and I don't get it. I don't get the NBA. Like, it's a proven commodity. The fans here in NFL, I'm sorry, in the NBA, we'll go back and fill that stadium up. I think that that's a good declaration as any, and I hope it happens.

As usual, we love talking to you, Dave. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks, Dave. All right. Thanks for having me on, guys. Thank you. That is Dave Wyman. Color commentator for the game broadcast on the Seahawks Radio Network.

He's also over at Mariner's Camp. And Dave was a second round Seahawks draft pick in 1987. Certainly made the most of his career, both during his playing days lasting nine years in the NFL, but also as quite the gig for himself. I mean, he's hosting a radio show. He's hanging out with the Mariners. He's living a good life. Seattle Sports Wyman and Bob.

is where you can hear Dave. And in the meantime, next Thursday, you can join me. I will be at Old Crow Smokehouse in Wrigleyville on March 19th next Thursday for the finals of Bud Light's official mini-hoops mania. Hang out with Bud Light and the score as one winner heads to Vegas for a chance at $10,000. That is right, $10,000. I don't know how to put this next. Jerry Jones is trying to make explanations for things that I don't think he should be trying to explain for.

And it goes about as well as you'd imagine. Next.