Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Examining the relationship between Ryan Poles & Ben Johnson

Episode Date: February 4, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris examined the relationship between Bears general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Ben Johnson.

This hour is sponsored by almost free teeth.com. Affordable implants, life-changing smiles. I want to thank Ben for his dedication to this job. It didn't feel, he talks about being a first time coach. It didn't feel that way at all. His ability to take, like he said, the words off the wall and push that to his players and see them respond was incredible. Even in some of the feedback we got,

these guys were just doubling down on his message. When they got to the locker room, there was no hesitation. There was no great area. They pushed forward because they believed in what he was saying and what he needed from them, which was incredible. That was Ryan Poles at his season-ending press conference. This is Rahimi Harrison Brody on 104-3, The Score. I almost did it.

I almost did it. Everybody suggested punishments that were hilarious, by the way. Dog collar on the lowest setting from 815. make a donation everywhere, somewhere every time you stay 670 instead of 104 3. Layla is from Texas. Isn't cattle prod the typical fashion? I think a cattle prod is stronger than a taser. I don't want to be the one to find out, which is which.

Well, one leaves a mark that's a little more permanent. That too. That's all I'm saying. But I did crack up at everybody who immediately had ideas. So that made me laugh. The cattle prod would have to say 104 to score, though. Yes. Not a brand, not the cattle brand.

That's what I was thinking. That's what I was thinking. That's what we're all thinking. There are various poking devices for cattle. I don't want to get poked with anything. The brand is one thing. No, I am not getting a 104-3-the-score tattoo. It would help you remind you.

This is like people, you know, this is like, it's getting in the area of aspirational tattoos. Like, just because you put a tattoo on your body that said, oh, I don't know. the White Sox were going to win the division. Doesn't mean that that's actually going to happen. The White Sox might win the division, though. You want to put that tattoo on? Nope. Nope. Like, oh, I did a tattoo of this.

Or like people who, oh, God, 773, send a text to one of your exes. Okay, that's a horrifying punishment. So, all right. Say it with me now. 1043, the score. 1043, the score. I have yet to say the other. Every time you say it wrong, you have to write Super Bowl one more.

on the whiteboard 100 times. Superb owl. Superb owl. It's two words. Okay. Speaking of that, unfortunately, Kaling Kaler, because she is covering that Super Bowl,

had to reschedule. So we wanted to move up one of our topics because if you recall, last year this time, we had a lot of discussion around the interviews that happened amongst Ryan Poles in the media on Radio Row. And then just some of the stuff it was said,

like for example, oh, I don't know, steps were skipped when it came to training camp. Do you remember that? And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Well, like, mistakes were made. Like, why are you just now saying this? You know, why at the Super Bowl, which your team is not playing in, and they weren't in the playoffs to get to?

Are you just now saying this? Glad he said it. But it was one of those moments where you're like, well, that's a bit of a red flag. So obviously, I was very keen on hearing what was said. this time around. Better late than never on the whole steps were skipped. Mistakes were made. Mistakes were made.

There were oversights. Yeah. And frankly, there shouldn't be, especially with the chief executive of the football operation of your football team. So Ryan Poles spoke to Sirius XM NFL radio. And I think, I feel like he kind of picked up where he left off with that type of discussion. Listen to what he had to say. He set the tone early, communicated clearly what the expectations were,

and Caleb was all in for, and that's what he was looking for. It's one thing to say it, but then when we got on the practice field, you could see that come alive. If it wasn't done the right way, we were going to do it again. We'll do it again, and we were actually in the exit meetings at the end of the season, Caleb was kind of laughing about it, doing a long drive drill and starting it over five times. Like, he was going to make sure it was done the right way, and you could see growth through that.

Do you remember at the beginning of training camp, when Ben Johnson was just lighting them up and making them not only repeat things time and time again, but sometimes just kicking the first team offense off the field. Oh, yeah. And I don't think it was for show. You know, like, for example, Jalen Johnson practicing with the threes because he missed in voluntary practice

because he was at his annual golf tournament for his friend from high school who died. That, that was for show. This is not that. Every time you bring up any relic, and I do call them relics, because it's ancient history to me, of the Matt Iberfluse era, it is hilarious to me.

I mean, okay, I'm going back to February, let's break out some receipts. Okay. I'm going back to February 28th, 2025 right now. And this is on, this is through our friends,

the Bears Wire. They do a great job. Now, the headline says, Ryan Poles admits bears skip steps developing Caleb Williams. Speaking to PFT Live,

pro football talk, the NFL scouting combine. Poles explained how he feels the organization failed in their first year with Williams. There were probably some steps skipped in the very beginning, just in terms of building the foundation.

Some of the things you have to operate at a high level in this league, even as a rookie. I think that he was accelerated and with that as the league studies and figures things out, it gets exposed as you go along. That quote is still very important

to me, just because either you'll learn from it or you didn't. And I feel like when you hear Ryan Poles say that, what did they do? They answered by getting a coach who made sure that the process in training camp was sound. The level of enthusiasm

from Caleb Williams, and rightfully so, and understandably so, for Ben Johnson's hire as opposed to what he was introduced to when he was drafted in Matt Iberfluse, and Shane Waldron is breathtaking in contrast. And I get it.

You just went through your version of hell as a rookie. And now you know Ben Johnson. You don't know like maybe how Ben Johnson does it, but you know he does that thing that you so badly want to do when you're on the football field. And so therefore you're willing to almost strip yourself internally of all of your pre-beliefs, if you will, of what you think you know about football

to make sure that internally you are stripped down to the stud so that you could be rebuilt and whatever this man wants to make you because he knows what he's doing. Well, for example, how much did we end up talking about the stupid net drill video

that dominated an entire week of the internet? I was there that day. And all those people are like, oh, you hate Caleb Williams, you hate him! And if I really hated Caleb Williams as much as you guys claimed, wouldn't I have cared about the net drill?

Like some? I did not care about that. I was like, I saw him do it live. It wasn't a big deal. He was just throwing at a net. And he actually explained it. You know what a net is not? A receiver.

It just didn't bother me that. You know what else? When you throw it at the net and you hit it where it's supposed to go, the net catches the ball. The net catches the ball. Yeah, I hear that works in soccer and stuff. Can't say that's the same for all of the bears. Would be past catch. last season. That part too.

You know, that part of it. But I just, yeah. The point of it, though, was that when he was doing these drills, and I think a lot of it was to frankly upset, and I think there was a little bit of break him down to build him back up. Not just Caleb Williams, but the entire Bears team.

I think it was to avoid. Ryan Poles fairly admitting something that I still think came under his purview when it came to, steps being skipped at training camp. We all make mistakes. Correct your mistake as quickly as possible. And I do give Ryan Poles credit for correcting some of his mistakes. And I also give, again, Caleb Williams credit for willing to be broken down to be built back up again.

And I give even more credit to Ben Johnson for figuring out how to do it. Because he figured it out. Everybody doesn't figure it out with every quarter. Who's playing for the Seahawks in the Super Bowl this Sunday? Well, Sam Darnold. He's been through several. people who have tried to help him figure it out. Yeah, I need to do, speaking of receipts, I need to do the deep dive on what exactly changed for Sam Darnold. Because I know he's

touched on it a little bit. There's been a lot written about that. Yeah, but, good citations, if you will. Yeah, I think I've got to do the deep dive either tonight or tomorrow night. And I know the Bulls play tomorrow on Amazon Prime, by the way. I know I've got to do like the deep dive on when he felt like the light came on for him in a way that. made it all make sense. Because I don't necessarily think it was just Kevin O'Connell. Like, I think he unlocked him, but I think

it had a lot to do with the willingness of the player. And that's kind of what this is as well. I think it shouldn't take that kind of quote. It shouldn't take the colossal mistakes the Bears made in Caleb Williams' first year, which to me was still very valuable. You know, it shouldn't have taken all of that to get to the

point. And I'm not to the point yet where I say, well, is fine and fixed because the expectation for the one-one who you believe can take your team to a Super Bowl, they did say the Super Bowl, the Bears, that that was their goal. You know, so now I feel like that becomes part of the discussion. But I am glad to see that in retrospect, Ryan Poles understands what the difference was between one and the other. We are combing through Ryan Poles, who was recently on Sirius XM NFL radio here on

Rahimi Harris and Grotie on 104-3, the score. And I love any time Ryan Poles, and I feel like on these specific types of interviews, he's a little more forthcoming and less guard up as when he's maybe at the lectern in front of the entire beat. Which is why I didn't take as seriously the interview where he's seated next to Kevin Warren after they fired Eber Flues. Like I think it's fine to wear a quarter of. I think it's fine to wear a suit.

No, it was fine that, but you couldn't ignore the look on his face. Just the body language was the body language. The body language was the body language. I think it got, everything got exacerbated a little bit when it came to the visuals, but he's still the general manager of this team. And as we saw, it was not just his job. Like the bears had to pony up the money to be able to do so, and ultimately we knew that polls still answer to Kevin Warren.

So they made, they as a collective made the right decision. And sometimes that's what happens is in organizations. It's that one guy wants to do something the correct way, but that his boss or his boss's boss won't let him. And I'm not making an excuse for anybody. It's just, you know, as well as I do, you cover sports long enough. You know that maybe this guy wants to do something, but his boss says no. Well, now we have Kevin Warren coming in and making everything.

seemingly good on the football operations standpoint by allowing Ryan Poles to stay, making sure Ben Johnson is the guy, and letting Ben Johnson and Dennis Allen have a large say in what happens next. And year one was a rousing success. And now we're all just kind of excited for year two and what even further this team can do as far as development of the players they have, and then adding whatever it takes to make the team better overall. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, the score.

If you're missing 104, 3, we recommend you go over to B96 because you might be pleasantly surprised at the playlists and how they overlap. And in the meantime, we're talking about Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson, thanks to a Ryan Poles interview he did on Sirius XM NFL radio. So as we asked the question in our previous segment about what's next for the Bulls, oh yeah, what's next when it comes to the development for Caleb Williams? Coach is going to challenge them to be even more efficient, not only just with the operation, but just completions. And I think when you have special playmaking traits and then you lean onto that mobility and escapability, I think sometimes you don't take just the easy throw. So taking what's given to you and moving on to the next down and just staying ahead of the chains and just being more efficient overall. And I think that's what he's going to challenge him on doing, as well as becoming a leader and a little bit more vocal. He was learning so much.

He was in the fire. I think as he grows as a young quarterback, I think the leadership piece will continue to grow too. Two words, Leila. Runners, ball. I want to see more of those. And then the leadership thing, I feel like that's been...

The thing about the seven comebacks is that that team is following Caleb Williams wherever he could take them at this point because they've seen it firsthand too many times, not to believe it. I think they've matched his energy the whole time. Seth Weckersham was on with Spiegel and Holmes on Monday, and I strongly recommend you go back and listen to his interview

because he talked about how Williams in his career is a bit of a slow starter and how the team took on that energy, you know, and not in a bad way because we saw what happens at the end of these games, but that that is an indication of how much they do mirror his energy. And he even talked about it throughout the season. I'm kind of surprised that Ryan Poles even brought it up, because I didn't even think that was an issue, was that Caleb talked about being consistent

and being, remaining confident and steadfast, even in late game scenarios, where he felt like they, where he felt like they still had a chance. And everybody believed it. So that doesn't even come into question for me. I also am one of those people, and I think you know this.

I don't necessarily think you have to be a certain personality type to, A, be a quarterback and be successful in the NFL, and then B, be a leader. Like, we laughed about Montez-Swatt saying Jervon Dexter was a leader on the team. But the fact of the matter is, Jirvan, you never questioned his effort, his hustle, his attempts to get up and disrupt a ball with a tip pass. Like, you could see why that was said. It's not always correlated like, oh, this typical leader is going to be the dude.

I am a big believer that there are different leadership styles, and each of them can be equally as effective, whether you are a super vocal leader, whether you lead by, you know, example and just setting that daily, this dude looks like he knows what he's doing. You know, the whole speak softly, carry a big stick.

That plays, and that plays in sports, out of sports, business, whether you're in a rec league playing sports. Like, that just plays. Anybody who's played organized sports knows that leaders don't have to necessarily be the most vocal on the team. Well, and even we were talking about this yesterday. You know, Jackson Smith and Jigba, his play is very loud and successful. He's not that way in personality.

You know, he's a subtle and more like understated guy. Gets his point across. But, you know, that's a good example. I like the people who don't necessarily fit the mold. I find them interesting. I love a little JSN. JSN had this wonderful conversation. I didn't bring it up to you guys.

where he was on with Marshawn Lynch. I saw the clip of it. If not today tomorrow... Well, we got halftime open. Do we want to do it at a halftime? We could do that. I have something for halftime, but we could do that too. We call it producing on the fly.

My halftime can work anytime. But the Jackson, if you could turn it around, the JSN with Marshawn Lynch is hilarious. Yeah, I'm into that for sure. Because he wasn't sure about his name. And hilarity ensues. You can already imagine, right? Marshaun.

Hated speaking people. to the media became the media. There's so much, to that point, Leila, there's so much Marshawn Lynch content out there, you know, at this current moment, especially with the Seahawks at the Super Bowl, like, oh my goodness, it's great. You know what else is deep

down, I'm like, did you know? You just didn't want to, people couldn't handle it? Is that the deal? You just knew like you were too funny enough for Vescent? Or were you just worried you were going to swear or something on the mic? The man is a full-fledged actor with starring roles in movies. He's horribly entertained.

And when I say horribly, I mean, in the best way possible. Like, he's funny as hell. You all got two short whistle from blow to whistle? I'm going to give Marciaun Lynch all the credit in the world, and I'm going to say that he probably said to himself, I know I'm entertaining, but they're going to have to pay me to get this. You know what? That's not a bet.

It was a... I think the league couldn't... I think we as a society were not ready for Marchon Lynch's entertainment factor. You're probably right. What is the old... it's the dark night Heath Ledger's Joker never do something for free

if you're good at it that's Marshawn Lynch that goes back to also Wall Street like anything worth doing is worth doing for money greed is good greed clarifies yeah if you're good at something never do it for free that was Heath Ledger's Joker in the dark night and he was right

yeah there's a lot of archetypes that come from that movie so yes am I fine with ending this with credit to Marshawn Lynch for being himself. I certainly am. We also want to say congratulations to our friends at White Eagle Auto Body with locations in Naperville and Oswego for being this year's winner of our

Score Big for Your Business contest. They've had their commercials produced by the score and they will be heard during Super Bowl 60 right here this Sunday on 104-3 and 670, the score. Score Big for your business is sponsored by People's Bank where better banking keeps moving forward, member FDIC. Coming up next year on Rahimi Harrison Grotie,

our friends at CHGO, talk to a guy whose fate I don't know yet. Kevin Byrd. You know his fate yet? I know what I want it to be, but no, I don't know his fate. I think we should examine and hear from Kevin Byrd,

who's been a tremendously good interview this whole season. So we'll do it next.