Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Full Show — February 25, 2026

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris welcomed on Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk and Score reporter Chris Emma to discuss the latest news and notes coming out of the NFL Combine.

The score. This hour is brought to you by Chicago Golf Show. The views and opinions of Laila 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 Harris and Grody may change it anytime. It's just sports.

Okay, thanks. Bye. Bye. was at the HBCU Legacy Bowl this weekend. He is the owner of football game plan. Thanks for coming on, Emory. You know what's fascinating about that is the fact that, you know, when you look at this thing holistically, and I'm not a fan of any team,

I'm just a fan of being right. Okay, look, you didn't trust me. You can trust one thing. I love to be right. Is there going to be something at 25 that can help them immediately? And is that more likely to happen at Edge or Left Tackle, if so? Glad you asked that question because I've been compiling a list of things in life that were a mistake. Number one, speakerphone, number one, and number two might be airports, but...

Why airports? I know you, don't I? I'm usually very good with names, but I'll be damned if I haven't forgotten yours. You stole my cab. I've never sold anything in my life. I held a cab on Park Avenue this afternoon, and before I could get in it, you stole it. You're the guy who tried to get my cab. I knew I knew you, yeah.

I just flew back from the Legacy Bowl like you mentioned. It was 10 a.m. in the morning in New Orleans Airport. There were three young ladies sitting there eating a big plate of nachos. Like, how you even have the taste for that at 10 in the morning? Well, Chris, it's your royalty now. I made your favorite. Dinner for breakfast? Third and fighting hard for third might be mock draft.

Have you done a mock draft yet? And where would you, who do you have going to the Bears at 25? I only do two a year Okay. One is a small school only mock draft. Small schools are schools that are FCSD2D3 because what they now try to do nowadays,

that made me add to my list to the things a mistake. They're adding now oh this guy goes to a small school, oh yeah, what school? And you think it, Illinois State, you think it's Southern Illinois. Oh no, he went to Iowa State. And they make it off my face. Lila Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grotie,

midday's 10 a.m. on Chicago Sports Radio 1043, the score. Every Hunt, philosopher and football analyst, and spot on on a lot of both. This is Rahimi Harrison Brody on 1043, The Score.

Happy Combine. Is that a thing? I think so? Okay. You know, you say it out loud, it doesn't always sound how you wanted to, and what's that, Ray Diaz?

We have this fresh Ryan Poles audio ready to go. Just wanted to let you know in your ear there. No expiration date. You know what? This is what we like to do on Rahimi Harris and Grady. We are going to be getting news all day here on the Combine real time on 104. We also expect to hear from Ben Johnson in just a little bit. Thanks to our producer, Sean Sears and Tyler Buehberball for also helping us out with this.

In addition to Ray Diaz, so without further ado, we're going to pause when we want to react to something. But we will play Ryan pulls his comments to the media. here from the combine this morning. Questions? What's your interpretation of the NFL's one? Yeah, it's a great question. I think I kind of put that whole thing in the two buckets. One, I'm really proud that Ian has an opportunity to be a general manager.

Something we've talked about for a long time before we even employed by the Bears. It was our vision to climb through the ranks, get the seat, the GM seat, and then help the other one get to their position as well. So I'm really happy for him. how we do that and why we do that has nothing to do with compensation whatsoever. I want to make that very clear. On the other side, there's a set of rules that were put in place that I think can be applied to this situation. So we've communicated through the right channels, so we'll see what happens as we move forward.

I'm not sure. We'll just wait for a response. No one personally called me from the league, so. said that he thinks you should and you think you should. So the bears think you should, the Nalbos think you should. It seems like. Yeah. So it'll be up to the league and how they see it.

So you formally have appealed into the league? We've had conversations, yep. What's your overall opinion of the road itself? Are you the regular versions from your state? Yeah, I mean, I'll be honest. I think it's, it is a little strange. I mean, at the end of the day, you should want to develop your staff, regardless of the color of their skin.

I think that's important. I think we take a lot of pride with the bears on how we have our setup. And I take a lot of pride in that. So to be compensated for that's a little strange. I mean, I saw the Chiefs get a pick because of me, and then I watched that player go and play. It's just a little odd. But at the end of the day, if they think that's what's best to help incentivize,

then that's what they wanted to do. But at the end of the day, like I said, that's not the purpose of why we develop our staff, but if that's the rule that have been placed, and I think it's very clear in the situation on what should happen. Bravo to Ryan Poles for advocating for himself, for advocating for the Bears, and then also speaking to his personal experience.

So that is Ryan Poles from the Combine. Our press conference coverage is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3, the score. And right out of the gate, that's the first part of the discussion, because as we know, this is the first time that Ryan Poles is, spoken since the news of Ian Cunningham going to the Atlanta Falcons. He's listed as the general manager for people who may not know that, but Matt Ryan, who is a former college teammate of Ryan Poles, the former Falcons quarterback, is considered the president

of football operations. So because of that, there's a lot of understanding in the NFL that the Bears will not get compensatory picks for promoting, like Ryan Poles mentioned, his career arc coming from Kansas City, getting a promotion of running a front office. and the rule is being selectively applied. So what do you two think? And Mark, I'll start with you because you're not at the combine this time. I'm not.

You're with us. Sorry, Mark Grody. When you hear that from Ryan Poles, what do you think? I love that they're, I didn't necessarily think that this would be the route for Ryan Poles. It's been so quiet on this front. But the fact that they're having conversations in regards to an appeal regarding the compensatory picks is heartening. I don't think at the end of the day they're going to come out with anything

out of this, but I do think that this is the time now to clean that up, make it more clear, make it more concise, and then going forward. I don't expect them to get compensatory picks, though, still. This seemed like a layup for Ryan Poles. He knew he's going to be asked about it. He's known for weeks he was going to be asked about this specifically

since the hiring of Ian Cunningham and the news that they weren't going to get the picks. I thought it was interesting that he wasn't given necessarily himself an explanation, but he says not necessarily a formal appeal, but that they've had conversations, which made it sound like the conversation is still going, which is a good thing, I think. You're probably right, Mark, they're probably not going to get the picks, but exhaust every avenue to try to find out, hey, this process seems like it didn't work in the way it was intended by the way you guys set it out. Me, I can speak to this personally because I actually got a job with the

bears and saw the extra players that the chiefs got. So the fact that they were on the field tells me that you guys do give out the picks. It's not something that doesn't happen. Why is it not happening here? And we've heard the explanation, but you pair this with what Ian Cunningham said, and it seems like the NFL is getting a consistent message from both camps. Well, and that's it. Ian Cunningham also spoke at the combine today, and he said that he thinks that that should be in place. and if you guys don't advocate for yourselves when the league has already selectively applied this rule, you know, you're not doing yourself any favors if you don't. So credit to Ryan Poles, credit to Ian Cunningham for being in their positions.

The Combine is as much a front office business as it is looking at potential players for the league business. You know, this is where everybody talks. What did Bragg Biggs call it? Legal tampering is done, but let's face it, we know that everybody talks about players in NFL. Lots of room to do that. I'm not here to legislate it. I do want to let our listeners know we are going to listen to this, pause it.

You'll hear the whole thing with us, but we do want to react when we hear stuff just because it's the easiest way. You know, that's how we do it. So you will hear Ryan polls in the entirety throughout this hour here on 1043, the score with Rahimi, Harrison Grotie. We want to get back to it? One more thing I wanted to say from that first little part there. when Ian Cunningham first came into the building with the Chicago Bears,

it felt like from day one he was being ushered out because they wanted him to get an opportunity. So it was always hilarious to me that that was, okay, let's see. Every like two or three months, Ian Cunningham has, you know, has heard from this team or that, or we're trying to give him the opportunity. And so get to know Jeff King because he'll probably be gone soon as well, the new assistant GM if the Bears are to continue to succeed. Yeah, Jeff King is the director.

He was a director. He's now the assistant GM. He was the director of player personnel. And from what everybody says, and this seems to be the overall sentiment, a well-deserved promotion for him, for sure. We continue our Combine Press Conference with Ryan Poles brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers

here on 104-3, the score. We'll see what they think. Yeah, I think there's a vision. for it. I think in the next few weeks, we'll see if we can get some clarity on that, just in terms of retaining our own. I want to see how that plays out. As I said, at the end of the season, we have more constraints now than we ever have before. We're further back in the draft. From a cap standpoint, we've got to clear some room there. So we have to be strategic, and also, like I've always said, it takes two to make that happen. So we want to be really smart with the guard

rules that we put up and if it falls under that then then great if not then we have to pivot to the next deal yeah we'll have conversations over the next you know probably 10 days here and see if that can we can make that happen yeah time you get a little bit for him obviously with the absentees what's my life is or you're mad trying to figure out ways whether it's yeah i'm really fortunate to have matt feinstein um i think he's one of the back best cap guys in the league he gives us a lot of different scenarios for us to operate in, but also showing us the short-term and long-term effect of each one of those decisions. Because we want to stay in that sweet spot where we have maximum amount of flexibility

as we move on not only from this year, but three years down the road. I hope eventually to have a quarterback situation too where we've got to pay a young quarterback. So that comes in a play as well. I think we're getting closer and closer to clarity on that side of things, which helps us start to build those models to make sure that, again, we're doing the right thing for us moving forward and we're not put ourselves in a situation where we've got to make really, you know, tough or bad decisions down the road that hurt us. That's big.

So Ryan Poles acknowledging Caleb Williams' rookie contract. Feinstein, as he mentioned Matt Feinstein is, I think we just, what do we refer to him as the cap guy, for the Bears. He's going to help try to figure out how to make contracts more flexible so the bears have more room. The elite year starts on March 11th, so they need more room under that salary cap right now, according to overthecap.com. They're about $5 million over. So that's important to keep of note here as well. Matt Feinstein, by the way, his official title on the Bears website is vice president of football administration. Well, I thought polls put it perfectly too that we hope to be in that

position to be paying a young quarterback that they'd like to do it. And maybe he's already hinting at, let's do the restructuring of the contract before we give out the contract so we could pay other people and get more creative because it is one of the biggest issues in all. The chiefs are going through it right now with Patrick Mahomes that you can't, like when you're in that rookie contract, life is good. But when you pay what we hope to be an elite quarterback, that's a lot of dough. Yeah, the chiefs have gone through it for so long now. It's really been the better part of a decade that the chiefs have been trying to figure things out because their quarterback, you know, when he got paid that half a billion dollar deal, it was like, all right, well, now every year you're

going to have to figure it out. And we've seen things like the departure of Tyreek Hill. And obviously, it gets to a point, and correct me if I'm wrong guys, but what I've seen is once you have an elite quarterback getting paid, let's say top five, even top 10 money, you put your money in your defense and you tell your quarterback figure it out. Additionally, that's how the Bears got Joe Tooney. Joe Tune, they had to move from Kansas City because they didn't have enough cap room to pay everyone. And they had drafted offensive linemen that were on lower parts of the depth chart in high rounds, like the second round or the first round. So because of that, yes, you know, you reap the benefits of it when you've got Caleb Williams on a rookie deal. But Patrick Mahomes' deal with the Chiefs does affect it.

So for Ryan Poles to say that, I think there's a couple pieces here that he's establishing. is number one, they already have not the best amount of cap flexibility to work with, as we mentioned. And then number two, that contract extension, I wonder if it comes a little bit earlier than we're used to seeing because remember, Caleb Williams was a guy who wanted to do things at this combine differently. He wanted to structure his contract differently. Remember how long it took for he and the Bears to come to an actual contractual agreement? So I wonder if that comes into play here sooner than we may think. I'm not saying like this year, but I'm saying perhaps maybe before even the fifth year option gets discussed. Well, that would be next offseason, basically,

what you're talking about. And that wouldn't surprise me at all. I think everything that they do, whether it's Ryan Poles, Matt Feinstein, Jeff King, it's got to be geared to we need to make the most out of this rookie contract, but also be malleable when we know Caleb's got to get paid. And so everybody that they sign, everybody that they draft, understanding, this guy who's here right now definitely won't be here when Caleb gets paid because, well, that's just the way life is. Even if they're good and the better they play, the more money they're going to want to make. That's kind of an issue already with certain members of the secondary right now. Unless I'm missing a name somewhere along the line here, I do believe the last time the pairs gave out a second contract was to a gentleman by the name to a quarterback was Jay Cutler.

Unless I'm missing somebody. Yeah, and they didn't even draft him. Through the year. You've got to go way back. They didn't even draft. And some people, as it turned out, that was, I remember being for the payment of Jay Cutler in the second contract, but it didn't ultimately work out with him getting that, or was it a third come?

It had even been a third contract with Jay Cutler. But he's the last one that I can remember. So in other words, that would be a pretty big moment for the Bears whenever it does come. We're going to listen to Ryan Poles for the rest of this hour, kind of react with us. If you like, you can join our conversation. 312-644-67-67 is our number here at 104-3. The score, you can text us, and you can call us. And we're going to listen to this and also what Ben Johnson has to say, pause it, discuss,

and then reassess and evaluate, because Combine News is happening fast and furious here in Indianapolis. We heard from Brad Biggs earlier on the morning show with Mully and Haw, Ruthie Pallinsky, filling in for Mully. We also heard from other people talking about what they expect the bears to do. Chris Ema will join us live from the combine at 1 o'clock, so you don't want to miss that. And in the meantime, we broadcast live from the Scores Hyundai Studios, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. This is Rahimi Harrison Grody on 104.3 The Score. Our producers, Ray Diaz, Tyler Buehberbaugh, Sean Sears helping out today.

And you can join us on Twitch. We have moved on Twitch. I know a lot of you guys don't know. It is Twitch.tv slash the score Chicago. So you can find us there. Let everybody know because I know we changed our address on Twitch. So we are there as well. You can join our Twitch chat.

Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, and Cody Westerlin. Help us out there. So we have a lot more to come. Don't go anywhere. We will play and continue to discuss and listen to what Ryan Poles had to say here at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis happening. Now we will listen to Ben Johnson. And after that, you've got 104,3, the score.

Rahimi Harrison Grody, midday's Tyndall 2 on Chicago Sports Radio, 1043, the score. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotty on 1043 The Score. We're listening to Ryan Poles' press conference from the Combine. It is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. Let's resume. Yeah, philosophically, I feel the same. It's going to be the best player available. I know that may not be the most popular thing

because people see kind of like on my board have yellow tags where we need to fill in but at the same time I do believe especially in early rounds like one you really got to stick to best player available we saw that last year I know there's a lot of questions like you got Cole why would you take Colston I think we found out that it helped us

along the way so we'll continue to lean in that philosophy how tricky is it to navigate the lineback position with some of the injuries Yeah, it's really difficult. We spend a lot of time working through that process. There's some unknowns there. There's some projections just in terms of return time. And then you want to know is that athlete going to return

to be the same player he was before, or could they go downhill? So there's a lot of projections in that make it a little bit difficult. But I think that's when you lean into versatility, flexibility, and making sure that you get the right person in the room to make sure that that group can be filled out the best they can. Yeah, I think the big one, and it's not just in Kansas City, you can look across the league.

I think you, and it sounds really simple, but you want to take a good football player that meets the criteria that you're looking for in terms of culture fits, play style, intelligence, all of those things. You really want to lean into that. I think sometimes you can get caught in flashy. You're trying to, you know, that guy should have went in the top 15, and he slid because of this reason, but we'll fix that.

And we'll just, I think you want a good football player that matches the DNA that you're looking for. Right. What you just said about the quarterback time around? You're not a super quarterback now. There are teams who are. I didn't mean to say that on the air, but let's pause it. My mic was off. So, no, if you want to stop it, let's just say stop it and they'll stop it.

Right, guys? everybody's on board. We're good. Stop it makes it sound like it's condescending like the old Dicka segment on ESPN where he'd say stop it. Okay. Pause.

How about that? Is that working better? Yeah, which is something. It's like Stacey King with the Telestrator. Let's go ahead and pause that right there. Just go ahead. Pause that right there. There you go.

That is where I got that from because Stacy does it all the time. So can I get my signature on that poster now? Okay, good. Okay, so that's big to me that Brian Polsetty he wants to still go with Best Player available at 25, and he knows that's not what everybody loves.

I understand why he wanted to use Colston Loveland as the comp here. Although I actually think the Bears needed another tight-in who is more known to be a pass catcher in his arsenal than what Colquemette was known for. So I think that those are two different roles that we're seeing with Colston Loveland and Colquette. If a best player available is another receiver at 25, I'm not real sure how that would work. I completely agree with Ryan Poles, especially in early rounds about taking best player available. Better example than Colston Loveland would actually be, I was going to say Colson Montgomery, but that jokes passed. It would actually be Luther Bird and the Third, because I think the Luther Bird and the third was more of a head scratcher eyebrow-raising pick in the draft last year than Colston Loveland. Everyone could see them taking a tight-in because of Ben Johnson's offense and how things were.

is like, oh, is it going to be Colson Loveland, it's going to be Tyler Warren. But when that Luther Burton III came in, wait a minute, they already have. And you just go down the list of DJ Moore and Rome and all the other guys. I think the biggest thing here is to understand that there's so many good players at so many different positions that at 25, someone's probably going to fall to them. And it's probably going to be better than what they thought they were going to get at 25. That's usually how it works late first round. I also think that Ryan Poles is for the first time, in a long time,

it's showing up the combine. He can have a little pride in his draft. Not only the fact that the Bears won, there is that. He had a good draft year last year. Colston Loveland, hit. Luther Burden, hit. Ozzie Tripillo, hit. Kyle Menungai, hit.

Still in question. Shammar Turner, Ruben Hippolyte, Zay, Brasier and Luke Newman, but he had at least four guys who made big contributions to the roster last year. So when he steps up there and says, best player available, I don't think we roll our eyes as much as maybe we would have in the past. And by the way, most GMs are going to say best player available. It doesn't necessarily mean they take the best player. I mean, I think there was an example of best player available at 39 with Luther Burton. I don't necessarily know if the best player available, once again,

at 25 as a receiver. How much, like, that's the real test, right? If you see that the best player available in the draft is a position you absolutely know they are stocked at. I don't necessarily know if they sincerely subscribe to that concept. Right. They could definitely turn and say, well, we thought that player was the best player available, even if we all think it's a wide receiver.

So, yeah, I think that they would pivot unless something happens in the wide receiver room and we know that there is one person who we are monitoring, and his name is DJ Moore, in terms of, although there hasn't been much talk about that recently. You still have to keep your eye on DJ more. You do have to keep your eye on DJ. You also know that he is a possibility for a restructure of a contract because he's got so many years to work with.

So, you know, that's part of it too. The Bears don't have a ton of long-term deals where they could rework and help get some room under the salary cap. Check this out, Leila. If they did, if they restructed, if they restructured the contract of DJ Moore, that they could save 17.5 mil-do. So that's a big deal.

And that was from Fishbane's article. Moore, Swet and Grady Jarrett, if they were to restructure their contracts, that would create $33 million. Old Joe Tooney, Jonah Jackson, $14 million for potential contract restructure. We haven't talked about that much yet, so I'm glad you brought that up. Well, because Joe Tooney was a restructure, right?

It was like an extension, and then they worked with the existing years to be able to... Oh, when they brought him in initially, yes. He was traded for, then he had existing years on his deal. Then they decided to extend him to help kick that out, I think. Kick it. I think the restructure is important because of what's going to happen when Caleb gets paid. But also, you restructure, you make a key cut. Sorry, Tremaine Edmonds.

All of a sudden, you've got real estate that you didn't have. a runway to add to your roster and improve your roster that you didn't have. And I'm a big fan of kicking the can down the road in the NFL. Best example, Howie Roseman. That man just keeps kicking the can down the road. And it's looked pretty good for those Eagles. I'm glad you brought up Tremaine Edmonds as well, because I want to get to that. So Ryan Poles was asked a question about the linebacker situation. And that is a very injured group right now. And you consider Noah Sewell out with the Achilles, T.J. Edwards. had to be carted off the field.

He had the broken leg, my goodness sake. And I thought there was a really good comment that Ryan Polson made when he said, you know, we're trying to figure out timelines. And then also, when they return, are they going to be the same player? When you heard that, who did you think of? My initial thought was Sewell because of the Achilles, because Achilles can't hurt people. That's not who I thought of. Did you guys both think of TJ?

Oh, absolutely. 100%. Because TJ had not just one, but. two debilitating injuries throughout the season. And it wasn't even just the broken leg. You know, he was dealing with multiple injuries. And he's, he wasn't a player known for injuries until this past year. So that was also something that came to mind. So when you heard that comment about the linebacker, what did you think? Yeah. No, that was the first thing I thought. And, of course, you think about Tremaine Edmonds and the possibility of him getting away because that's

what we've been hearing from, from everybody. But yeah, no, I worry about T.J. Edwards. The good, The good thing about DJ Edwards, though, is he doesn't necessarily depend on, like, high athleticism and speed to do his job that a lot of what he does well. And he has all that, but he's more instincts and being in the right place. I always go to Lance Briggs as an example. Like Briggs, obviously, a better player than T.J. Edwards. But Briggs didn't have that, like, outstanding speed, but he was quick as hell and he knew where to be on the field at all times. Yeah. That's T.J. Edwards.

The instinct plays in this. Look, they understand that they have a lot of injury questions that they will not have answered until probably after the regular season starts. Well, in 847 on our text line says the fact that the easiest to most obvious cut this year, Edmund, hasn't happened yet as interesting. Polls in years past has made these moves prior to this week. There may be other plans for him, trade extension, just weird he hasn't been cut yet. So this is his last year of his deal. So I don't necessarily know that an extension is on the table there when you're new. in your last year like that.

Well, Darnall Wright's the guy that you've got to think about too. And maybe he will be asked about it. I'm curious if Darnall Wright will come up in this conversation because that he is a candidate for a potential extension. And just to keep people refresh on Tremaine Edmonds, if they were to release him, that's a $15 million cap saving. Cole Comet would be an $8.4 million cap saving. And while we're at it, D'Andre Swift, number three with a bullet,

a $7.4.7 million. I'll take that team you added on the end of the seven. He would be a $7.47 million cap saving. So those three guys that, let's see if there's more questions about that. Yeah, and the DeAndre Swift one, that's the one where I really bristle. You know, that's the one where I want to give serious pause if I'm putting a GM hat on. In terms of... In terms of...

You want him on his team. in terms of good. And I hope that some of you understand when I said that, what I meant. And if I hear about any goofy games at the combine this year where they're playing put-putt or whatever, I better hear the results of these put-putt games, okay? I need to know why that's happening still. Because DeAndre Swift is good. That's what you're saying.

He was a good player and he fits in the offense. He's relatively cheap. So let's ride out DeAndre Swift for one more year. Everyone while you are calling him good. That's inappropriate. The way the mantra starts is good, but then it goes to two other words, and so good might not be good enough in Ben Johnson's eyes. That's all I'm saying.

Well, in terms of good was a reference to Mattie Verfluse. Oh, no, I got you. Where we're at in terms of good. But I'm saying... I think we should bring it back. Good better best. Take it back. Never let it rest.

Bring back Fluse? No, bring back where we're at in terms of good. Oh, okay. They were never at good, but yeah. Our culture is awesome. Just to close the circle on past Bears' coaches, I saw. Mark Tressman tweeted for the first time in a while, and it was complimenting the Team USA hockey team.

There's your past Bears coach update. He's proud. That actually sounded like a real segment. There's your past Bears coach update. I'm Laila Rahimi with your past Bears coach update. Oh, just because we respect the Olympics. Next hour, Dick Duran! Wade Larvie.

Here is one notable. By the way, A47 was on with the spot on with the roster moon discussion. because this did happen earlier today. Ian Cunningham, how about this? Ian Cunningham rolls up to the scene in Atlanta. We know that per Matt Ryan, he's going to be running things. And then it's like, oh, by the way, we're going to release Kirk Cousins. Now that's a move.

That is a massive contract, as we know. I hadn't done the math on the dead money, but we do know that the Falcons plan to release Kirk Cousins on the first day of that new league year, which is March 11th. you to listen and react to Ryan Poles and his press conference is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers here on 104.3, the score, he is live from the combine. So before we get into anything else, let's just let you know what he had to say already. They gave us some pause. Number one, he thinks that the bears should get compensation for Ian Cunningham, leaving the bears as assistant

GM, going to the Falcons as general manager. Cunningham has been quoted on the record at the Combine already saying that as well. Matt Feinstein was brought in to discuss football flexibility. He's now the VP of Football Administration. The Bears are trying to get some of that per polls when it comes to flexibility under the cap. He acknowledged that Caleb Williams is on a rookie deal, and then they also want to get the best player available at 25. So that's where we're at in the conversation. There's more from Ryan Poles coming up here on 104.3 of the score. This is Rahimi, Harrison Grotie. We'll hear it next. Rahimi Harris and Grotie. Midday's 10 to 2 on 1043 The Score.

We're back here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043 The Score. The segment is brought to you by Almost Free Teeth.com because confidence should never cost a fortune. And our Bears press conference that we're listening to with General Manager Ryan Poles is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, well, it's been a couple hours or so since anybody's brought. up the name Tyson Vagent. Not to fear. And I do think it's worth discussing because frankly, Tyson Bajon's name is one of those that can come up in a lot of trade conversations. I think he's got a lot of value in this league. We're not the only ones. Without further ado, let's get back to it. Yeah, we anticipated that just because of the environment,

both, I think it would be peace and kind of do an overlay of the draft and for agency. We anticipated someone like Tyson is going to get some interest. We've gotten a few calls there. Obviously, the tough thing is with, you know, what Ben thinks about Tyson, what I think about Tyson, what our locker room thinks about Tyson. That's a really tough decision for us. But for Tyson as well,

I think he would have an opportunity to go and perform for a team and do some really good things. But again, you've got to weigh the short-term and long-term So now what's the cost of replacement, right, to get someone like Tyson. We spent a lot of time developing him. Ben spent a lot of time developing him. So you got to replace that as well. So interesting dynamic there that we're going to have to work through.

Okay. So it sounds like the Bears, I would assume the Bears have gotten some calls about Tyson, I think that's pretty safe to. You just said that, yeah. To say. They have gotten calls, it sounds like. I'm sorry. I had raise it our computers and he's working on our computers, so it was kind of hard to do both.

They're talking about the interest in Tyson-Bajun, but I completely understand where Ryan Poles has come from because he's saying, yes, if we trade him, cool, we'll get something for him. But at the same time, that's a lot of development that went to that guy. You've got to have a replacement for him, someone else, to fill that quarterback spot as the true backup quarterback. And they just said, I mean, they've put a lot, they have truly committed to this gentleman as a backup. I believe it was the Bears' current assistant GM, Jeff King, who has gotten the most credit for having scouted Tyson Bayesian and having brought him to their attention. And then he got that extension last year.

So in other words, I believe it would take a lot for the Bears to part ways with Tyson Beijing. We'll see how serious those other teams actually are about Mr. Bejan. Like, Bejan seems like a valuable guy. If other GMs do think that he is the goods, like if a quarterback is to get injured, right, throughout the season, standby on Bejant. Tyson Bejant is set to make $4.75 million next year,

which congratulations Tyson, Bejant. It's only 1.6% of the estimated Bears' salary cap allotment. So maybe it's enough to entice Ryan polls, but you know what he also could be doing there? Like he's like, hey, he's not going for free, guys. You know, like we put it, we invested in Tyson Bejant, and he may be trying to establish value even there in that discussion at the

Combine. Well, I'd even play it out further and be like, let's be honest, if a team has a quarterback who's hurt and therefore they're interested in Tyson Bejant because of that, isn't that the type of quarterback you want to keep on your roster in case Caleb Williams gets hurt? Of course. That's the point to me for me.

Well, and then it depends on, you know, as he said, as he said, he brought up the cost of it too. Okay, what resources would we have to use? What would we have to pay then to bring in another, what in theory would be, well, maybe they would draft a quarterback. They do have a couple of seventh round picks. Maybe they'd take a flyer on somebody at some point in time in the draft.

But again, what resources would they then have to use to get a veteran backup quarterback behind Caleb? Let's face it, it's a good problem. It's a compliment to the front office. As you mentioned, Jeff King deserves credit for that. So does the rest of the Bears front office for being able to put themselves in the position to have that asset. So very compelling at least, and I think probably a story will continue to discuss all offseason until maybe something happens. Let's resume listening to the Bears Press

conference with Ryan Poles brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. The first time the Bears said that I felt that way about you. Yeah. How does it change the equation you know that? Why do you feel that that piece is sound done? Yeah, I would say, and I want to be clear, you know, anyone that's watched the league long enough knows that it's, for the quarterback play, it's consistent

so you can use stack years on top of each other. So we still have steps to go here. I don't want to make it like he's already in. Like he knows he's got work to do. Ben's been very clear with the vision. And I know he's going to put the time and he gets to that boat. That needs to get to that point. But if all of that falls

in a place, again, I think we strategically have to understand how does that change our formula as we move forward and make decisions in the future. But for the organization, that's a great thing to be on that path. I feel like you have a long-term quarterback solution. It makes me excited. Obviously, he's excited, Ben's excited, so it's good for everybody. This is that decision, you have the roof of the window where you're going to top-level quarterback playing at a disco.

Yep. How much do you feel? pressure of clock ticking? Yeah, I wouldn't say there's a pressure of the clock taken. I think you want to take advantage of those opportunities to get as much talent on the roster as possible. But again, like, how you make all that fit is the part that we've got to be really strategic about.

What did you do with the offensive line last year? Possible if you did out of the defensive line site at that quantity and that kind of quality as well? Yeah, I think it's always possible. Things got to come together. That mindset was there from the day I walked in. But those opportunities, the clarity that we needed wasn't all there. So we were able to capitalize on some cool situations there through trade and for agency.

I'm not sure how that's all going to line up now. I know from a cap perspective, we probably don't have enough to make all of that work on the defensive line. I do think on our D-line, I think there are some situations, mostly injury, that didn't allow that to really come together the way it was supposed to. So I look forward to that happening. But we're also going to have to continue to bring talent in to create competition. that our defense can take the next step. How do you look at the one day after the draft?

Yeah, I would say from what we know now, and not until we leave here and gather the information from medical interviews, will we have complete clarity on the draft? But as it sits right now, I feel like the edge is deeper than the interior. Right, the one is up there. Under this CD, it's kind of bold an idea that he's a winner. win a championship of the only point of the game of sports contract

spend money elsewhere and whatever it's something. Why do you think that has a new one time? Why do you think it hasn't happened to winning a championship but the young team for you spent on the experience? Yeah, I think you've seen some teams have some success in terms of winning a championship in the Super Bowl.

I'd say that's a, that's a, that's a Yeah, it's a pretty deep question that starts all the way back in how we're developing talent from high school, college, NIL, transfers, coaching, where the focus is for some of these kids. I think it's a lot deeper than just what we see in the league. But I would say, development is probably the place I would lean into. these guys have a lot to learn coming into this league. Simply as, I mean, it was just until last year you're throwing up a card, right, to put the play in for everybody. And they got to go in and now hear it through a headset, regurgitate it,

give it to the huddle, get to the line of scrimmage on time, and then maybe just flip the play through the other side. It's really complicated. And I think the game has gotten more and more complicated to create a tactical advantage for offenses. And that's really hard for young quarterbacks because it's all brand new. It's a different language. So I would lean into development to answer your question.

That's Ryan Poles, as we continue to listen to his press conference at the Combine, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. So he was asked about Caleb Williams. I'm pretty sure by Jason Leisure, guys. And it doesn't sound like Poles is at the point yet where he wants to talk about an extension. That's my overwhelming impression of this. I know we're up against a break. We'll get to a little bit more of the discussion afterward as we continue to listen.

really quickly just your initial thoughts on that alone. I think that makes sense. I mean, there's no pressure here to get something done this off season. Like, it's a first round pick. There's a fifth year option. We're going into year three. I think it's a little premature to have that kind of conversation. Oh, Mr. Ten-year contract that's coming from.

Interesting. Yeah, yeah. I stand by what I said. He is the franchise quarterback for the next 10 years. Just like the Cubs, I ain't paying PCA yet. Same vibes. I loved what they have remained steadfast since this season ended in evaluating Caleb Williams. And I'm talking about Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson.

He said these one, two, three, four words. We still have steps. That's what it is. There are still steps to go. And they're still learning. And they're not going to be skipped. There are ways, believe it or not, for Caleb Williams to be a better quarterback going in the next year as grand as things were. for number 18 this year. I think that's a really good place to pause our conversation.

We are listening and reacting to all of what Ryan Poles had to say. We're not done yet. So we're going to take a break. They are speaking live at the combine right now. The Bears in Indianapolis. It is Ryan Poles. It is Ben Johnson. We are listening and reacting together. 312, 644, 67.67 is our number. And we're on Twitch. The Score Chicago. Twitch.com. Twitch.TV slash The Score, Chicago, if you want to hang out and listen with us there. Let's do more from the NFL Combine next on 104-3, The Score. The Score! This hour is brought to you by Menards.

Save Big Money at Menards. This is Rahimi Harrison-Grady on 104-3 The Score, and we are listening and reacting, not reading and reacting, but listening and reacting to Ryan Poles, who spoke today. at the NFL Combine as it gets underway in Indianapolis. Our coverage of this is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. And here's just a recap briefly of what he's talked about so far. At 25, he's drafting the best player available, he says. He says he knows a lot of people don't like it.

Maybe one of her names is Leila. But he is going to stick with his board, that at least according to Ryan Bulls today. He acknowledged Caleb Williams' rookie contract, and I think you said it the best. no extension talk yet because they still have steps. And I wanted to get into that a little bit before we get to the rest of this because you were right to point it out, Mark Grody.

I think another piece of this that's really big is I love that it's a direct contradiction to what he had to say at this time last year, which was steps were skipped. Embrace the steps. Steps were skipped. And although steps were not that we know of skipped this year, year, there are still steps that Caleb Williams must go through and get better at to be the complete quarterback we would all like him to be. Well, and that's it.

And I like that Ryan Poles is saying, hey, nothing is guaranteed here yet. You know, if you want an extension, if you want to be the quarterback. And Jason Leisure was the one who posed the question about the certainty that he thinks the bears have in their quarterback. I feel that way. But I also like that the boss says, I don't think you're there yet. I think that that's a perfect reaction

when you consider this is year one of what he hopes as many things. Not that it's his rookie year because we know that was before, but that you're one of a Ben Johnson offense and you're one of trying to set a standard here that's different. That's an important line to be able to draw.

I think he's sending a message the same way that Caleb Williams has been sending messages, whether he's tweeting, trolling, on social media, going on Max Crosby's podcast and talking for more than an hour. Messages are being sent. Lines are being drawn in the sand.

I think this line that's being drawn in the sand, specifically by Ryan Poles, is emblematic of an organization that wants to see the franchise quarterback, be a franchise quarterback not just in the second half of the games, not just in the last two minutes of games, but to show a level of consistency that befits what they paid, which was the number one overall pick. And he's looking for a franchise contract.

be honest. And when you talk about the amount of money that's going to be invested into him as a franchise quarterback, there's certain things he has not done yet that he still needs to do, but he's still going to be doing whatever he's doing for the next 10 years in a bear's uniform, Mark. Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson,

let's put it very simply, saw the season pretty similarly to the way we saw the season for Caleb Williams. In terms of there was some moments in the first seven or eight games, we're like, what is he Is he the guy?

Is he going to get there? And then second half of the season and the final fourth of the season, he looked elite at times. Well, you know what else? I think we hear when we hear Ryan Poles say that, Ben Johnson's opinion. We're going to get it here in a couple of minutes. But when Ryan Poles says that,

it's asking the question, you know, did you do everything your head coach wanted you to do? Did you follow the steps that your head coach wanted you to follow? When Ben Johnson said, strip it down to the studs last year, what did that entail? And yeah, I think you bring up a really good point, Mark. Like there were several games against lesser opponents where we found ourselves asking the question,

did QB1 do enough? Did those, I think, lessen over time, especially toward the end of the season and the playoffs? Yes. But you want that beginning of the season to start a lot stronger than it did first five or six games last year. And I think it will because the man adjusted to playing quarterback first year in a new system. You can just tell, Mark, we talked about this, training camp, what was going

on, what was transpiring before our very eyes. We were like, ah, just a rough start. I remember doing a report with you guys being like, ah, the deep ball doesn't look very good from Caleb. And of course I got crushed for it, but that's what I saw. And that's what we saw in the first part of the season, too. But also. Put your receivers in position to make plays. He was not doing that early in the season. Runner's ball screen game. Yeah, I think the other thing is comprehensively, we can now look back at those moments and understand everything that he was trying to learn to master Ben Johnson's offense. I'm not saying he's mastered it, but the steps that he took to just looking like a quarterback

who knew what he was doing, what was going on, what was expected, and being able to execute at so much higher of a level at the end of the season compared to training camp. And again, I get it. It's a basic step one versus step 10 or whatever you want to call it at the end. But I feel much better. And I told you, somewhere along the, you. Eagles, Pittsburgh, like somewhere in there in the schedule, you realize, oh, he knows what he's doing.

Now it's just a matter of everybody doing their jobs, including him, and getting what Ben Johnson wants to get done. There's a reason why they were a top, what, seven offense and not a top three offense. And now you heard what he said to Max Crosby, number one offense. I love the overall theme of your point, too, that we now know that Caleb Williams can't improve things. So while it's not, it can't be assumed that Caleb Williams would be. better in the first half of games or that his completion percentage will go up.

And it'll just be more consistent. There is evidence to show us exactly that, yes, Caleb Williams can take coaching. He can get better. And that's why we all love this pairing so far between coaching quarterback. I agree. I think a big part of it, too, is it's kind of like what you talked about, Mark, when the Bears got away a little bit from scoring on the opening drive, you know, when you get in these tough situations, late in games, great that you,

came back, but I think that that would be something that if I'm Ryan Poles, I'm probably looking at in upcoming games and seeing how often the offense hits on those opening drives. And you brought that up too. Yeah, well, George McCasky, I think it was in the interview with our guy, Jared

Peyton said he doesn't need the I don't remember exactly how we put it. He doesn't need the drama at the ends of games. Like, while we all had a blast with it and there were some epic elite franchise changing throws that Caleb Williams made?

Yeah, maybe it doesn't have. Maybe we go to the initial Ben Johnson plan, which was to embarrass teams. Let's go to that program this year. Just win normal. How about that? Okay. 312 makes an excellent point here on the text line. Completion percentage.

Yeah. And those are the only words in that text. Now, were they able to overcome it to the point where they almost got to the NFC championship game? Yes, they were. But at the same time, that is something they have to work on. It doesn't have to be a roller coaster every game. Yeah, I don't think it has to be 70%.

Yeah, no, 65% I would take. Yeah, like... Let's face it, you'd take 60. 60 would be an improvement. Yeah, and understanding that dirt balls or dirt balls for a reason, and sometimes, you know, just the play is over, and you can't get anything on that play. And that's what I'm okay with the incompletion, excuse me?

I think the other thing is, Caleb Williams, to me, strikes me as the type of guy who is also hearing every single piece of criticism that has been lobbed his way on the way to what was an NFC North championship, or excuse me, division title, I guess. And now he's like, I'm going to take that fuel and fire, and I'm going to have my footwork where no one's going to be talking about me missing wide open receivers next year.

That's goal number one. 815 asks, are they going to contest with the league for the picks from Cunningham leaving? It sounds like it. Yeah, that seems to be the indication. Ryan Poles talked about it. Ian Cunningham earlier today said that he hopes that the bears get those picks as well. Conversations in regards to an appeal is the way polls

phrased it. Also, 309 in the vein of your completion percentage. Tell rum to catch the ball. Yeah, yeah. Yes, 309. Yeah, people, yes. I don't, I don't disagree with that hot day. Rome knows it.

Man, Rome was depressed at the end of the season. That drop, man, and I remember asking about it and he gave zero excuses, even though the reporter, me, allowed for one, saying, Zip ball tipped. Was it a little bit wild?

Nope. Nope. I need to make that catch. That sucked, basically. It was what Rome said to me. You know what's really funny is, too, is like for you saying that and then Rome's saying that. Well, we'll also hear what his coach has to say because Ben Johnson is speaking at the

Combine as well. Let's get back and listen to the rest of the Ryan Pulse Press conference. It is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. Yeah. You know, when we first got Dennis in, it's really for all the coaches, position, coaches, coordinators. They came in and talked about. what they need, like what's prototype.

I knew from what Dennis was bringing scheme change over the last few years, it was going to take a little bit of time to get exactly what we needed. But as you go through that season, you ask more questions, you're sitting in the weekly e-bails of our roster, all the way to last week here and then go through their UFA stacks and inserting where our players line up in there, both guys under contract and not. You get more and more clarity as you go through,

so I feel pretty good about that. Last one. Yeah, I think it paints a clear picture in terms of makeup. I like to follow the whole journey. I don't hold it against the 18-year-old that gets a million bucks to go to school and maybe didn't have his priority straight. I think most of us here if that happened to us, you know, we might be doing some crazy. crazy things too or maybe not focused where we should be focused. But I want to see the learning lessons that come from that. I want to understand their structure of the people they put around them. I want to understand how they battle through adversity. I think the toughest thing is when

there's an out to transfer when things get hard. We hurt the resilience of our young players. So I want to learn through that and understand how they grew throughout their whole deal. And that doesn't mean we would eliminate everybody, but we know what's coming in the building and what we need to lean into because I think we have to pick up some of that education on our side more than back in the day where colleges were kind of doing that education along the way. And I don't blame the college coaches. That's a really tough position.

You got to compete. You got to get the best rosters together, knowing that guys are going to be in and out. So you're going to have band-aids and bridges to install an offense. It may not be as complex as ours because the guys are coming in. for a year and then they're out. So there's a lot there in terms of the impact that it has in the NFL. Right. He's talking about how tough some of the decisions in this whole season. Yeah. Bringing guys back. Jaduyn Brisker and how he played definitely raised his price point. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

How you want to pay your draft case. Yeah. But you also have a realist. How so how does that decision? It's really tough, and I know I've talked about those tough decisions in the past. I think what changes is when you win, bonds and relationships get deeper. And knowing that right now we sit over the cap, we've got to make some decisions if that's cuts, if that's trades. There's real relationships of people that gave it up for the Chicago Bears to advance our organization, and they may not be able to stay.

And that sucks, to be honest with you. But it's what makes this league beautiful. It's why we're all here. It constantly gets shuffled up and moved direction. round and it's a challenge of putting together the best puzzle you can with different pieces. So really difficult, but that's what we signed up for. You got to make those tough decisions. And they are business decisions.

You kind of try to take your emotions out of it and do what's best for the organization. My goodness. I'm thinking about Brisker. Yep. Like his, that he was, was he not right on time with that game he had against the Rams, man? I mean, like that that sticks. Like, that's, for the world to see, his price tag went way up. And do you want to give a 33-year-old Kevin Byer $10 million a year?

What we know is that recency bias is real. We also know that the most powerful of punctuation is an exclamation point. That's certainly what Joaquin Brisker did to his tenure, maybe as a bear, but definitely his season. And he had a good year all year. Yeah. He stayed healthy. But the way he finished it.

Oh, that sticks with guys. Yeah, like, okay, that was maximum, the best version of Jaquan Brisker we saw in the playoffs. He timed that perfectly. But also, keep in mind, guys, Ryan Poles didn't back off from his position that he had the last time he was asked the question. And that was in the end of season press conference. You know, the question about Jaquan Brisker, the decisions he has to make. You know, he talked about how, like, sometimes it sucks because you have to get rid of somebody. You might not want to.

or you might have to part ways with somebody you might not want to ideally. He didn't make any commitment to anybody when it came to that part of the discussion. I did not get any different opinion on Jaquan Briskers' future with the team in those statements that I did previously. Ryan Paul has given us a little bit of a poker face, but something that he did say, which was telling and which made me want to ask a follow-up question is if I was in Indianapolis, I was not. I'm right here with you in studio here on 104-3, the score, Rahimi Harrison Grotie.

when he was asked about Dennis Allen and the input and understanding what he needs and saying it was going to take time to figure out what fit. The way he phrased it almost had me calling back to last off-season. It was like, well, did he not sign off on dioding? But like some of the decisions that were made last off-season now as we headed to a new season, I wonder how much Dennis Allen is giving him the shopping list,

like go get these guys. Well, that's it. It's not like he was apprehensive and didn't spend money. Right. He spent an absolute ton of money when it came to Dio Dengbo and Grady Jarrett. And, you know, T.J. Edwards, I think that was prior, but he deserved his extension. There's no question after the performance he had the year before. T.J. Edwards at times was the only guy who I think, not that anybody was loafing,

but that there were times where he was still just giving everything 110%. You saw that on the field. When you thought a drive was good as good as done, T.J. was getting an interception. He was being disrupted. but I say all of that knowing they've spent a ton of money on the defense. We talked about it yesterday. When I checked on the defensive spending, and this is before a couple guys got extensions, the Bears were still 10th in defensive spinning in the NFL,

and that was at week two of the season last year. Were they getting 10th in production at the time? No. Turnovers, yes, but everything else, I think we can all confidently say we want an improvement. All of that said, guys, one of my conclusions from this again, and I've been thinking about this too, as far as the starting safeties are concerned. I don't know if either of those guys is going to be back at this point. And there is a decent crop of free agent safeties.

And I'm just looking at a few of the names, Cam Curl, Reed Blankenship, Nick Cross, Brian Cook. As always, there's a bunch. So do you look at that position? That's not traditionally a premium position. I think there is a chance that neither of those guys will return. And if one is to return, at least from the way they've talked, they're more high on the idea of keeping Kevin Byard. Which he kind of acknowledged too when he said publicly,

Ryan Poles mentioned me by name. He did name check him. He named checked him. 240. I'm with him on the text line. Kevin Byer can be someone considered as progressing the organization that might have to leave. That's just the reality of the situation. It's true.

part the cool part about this discussion and listening to this like this is that everybody gets to put the GM hat on you get to put the GM hat on you the listener gets to put the GM hat on everybody who's chatting on our Twitch stream the score Chicago we changed addresses guys so we're at the score Chicago you guys have your GM hats on and the good news is is we get to talk about this in such a good way you know the fact that I get my first combine we get to talk about after a bear's playoff win they didn't in the season like they wanted as most playoff teams don't. There's only one who does, but at the same time, this is a much more valuable discussion. Like you mentioned Cam Curl, Mark Rodney. Well, he also had a really well-time

playoff game, didn't he? He did. That's how it's like, like, who are the actual cheaper options? There are those. I don't know. With everything that the bears have money-wise on defense, how do you? I guess one of the two you could justify, but it's tough. 33, man. You just talked about all the restructure possibilities. Obviously, the Tremaine-Evments cut potential. It could add up to something that they could manage, but I do expect to see a lot of new faces,

especially on that defense and then that secondary next year. I'd still rather they had somebody could get to the quarterback than keeping either of the safeties, to be honest with you? You like that? Yeah, I know. That's a crazy hot take. I've been on that for a very long time. Forever, ever, ever, ever. The entire time I've been in Chicago. Is Janik and Gakwe still available? He's

always the answer. Yanik and Gakwe, come on down and you're 8 to 10 sacks per year. He's always unanswered, but he shouldn't probably not be the answer. That's the problem. I actually think of a lot of the Bears rando signings are like the ones where you actually expect your GM to kind of like, not the scouting as much,

but your GM to kind of come through. That was a good one. I thought Unique and Gokwey when they acquired him. Oh yeah, I was fall for. I mean, you looked at like, they signed him for a price that was expected. He gave them an output that was expected. Everybody happy. Right? Right, right. And you know what,

name came up in our conversation backstage? just to let our audience in a little bit. A guy by the name of Larry Ogenjobie came up. He was one of the, he was a three technique signing by Ryan Poles and the Bears that didn't work out because he ultimately fails as physical. And then we were blessed with.

And I don't necessarily say that sarcastically because I like Justin Jones quite a bit. He's still, he's still probably the best three technique that the Bears have had on Ryan Poles' watch. Am I wrong? I don't think so. I don't think I'm wrong.

Also, also, just sidebar. Like Justin Jones was a hell of an interference. interview. But if you take that away, still I think production-wise, like, do I want Justin Jones in pass coverage? No, but when he's actually hired for the job he was doing, he was good. This will shock you. I love talking to him about the Green Bay Packers because he was easily antagonized to say bad things by the Green Bay Packers. And you guys know me. I am just the one to do that. Next, I think we're going to get into this a little bit more here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. Ben Johnson also spoke. So there's a lot of questions.

questions on our text land that I feel like are pretty valid too. Don't forget, Ben Johnson was a game changer and a lot of who the Bears decided to acquire from a talent standpoint, why their shift in personnel may be may be happening in real time. So this is Combine Tuesday here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104. We'll listen and react with you as a lot of you have your GM hats on. Keep them on. Sports Radio. Let me tell you something. The city of Chicago is hungry, too. Oh, yeah.

Remember that time? Ben Johnson took his shirt off, and we all got free hot dogs from the Weiner Circle. And then on Sunday, the Weiner Circle served John Shire and the Duke team and said, welcome back White Mike on the Marquis. This is Rahimi Harrison Brody on 1043, the score. It is Combined Tuesday.

So we are listening to Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson talk. Ben Johnson took the mic in Indianapolis. So because the questions were a little bit hard to hear, we're going to break this up a little differently. It's been clipped into sound bites for you. It is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers, and we're going to start with the first question he was asked. Number one on here says,

does Ben Johnson feel like he has expendable receivers? Well, you can never have too much talent. I mean, that's, I know what you're getting at there, Courtney, but I feel really good about the players that we have. And like I said, we've got such a better feel as a staff now than what we did when we started a year ago. And so each guy brings something different to the table. And that's really what we're looking to generate from all of our skill positions. How can we best complement each other?

Who's got the speed? We need versatility guys that can line up all over the place. Certainly guys that have great hands. But, yeah, I think when you look at a 17th, game season or 17 game plus when you make the postseason, you need all hands on deck because the truth of the matter is not everybody is going to stay available throughout that duration. Did you hear that part about the hand, spark, after you talked to Romitune's saying you

mentioned that conversation earlier? The hands? Yeah, when he said, you know, they need good hands. Oh, yeah. By the way, was he, when we're talking about the question, the expendable talent, is that a DJ Moore reference? That's why he said to Courtney Cronin, like, yeah, I know where you're going with this because Ben Johnson's not dumb. He knows what's going on.

He knows what people are thinking. He understands the different routes that the Bears could take this off season. And one of them is, of course, moving DJ Moore. So that tells me, and maybe I'm just projecting and reading way too deeply into it, they have not ruled out doing something with DJ Moore. Am I, am I like just grasping at straws here from that? Can we hear like that again? Is that possible? Just to hear the way he put that in terms of the expendable talent and in terms of good, too.

In terms of good. In terms of good. I just think it's time. I think it's time to bring it back. Yeah. The face you're making. In terms of good. I don't know.

Where we're at in terms of good. It's, for a long time, it's been time to put Mander Eber Flus away, but we never put X Bears coaches away. No, we don't. We never. put them away for good. Here it is. Well, you can never have too much talent. I mean, that's, I know what you're getting at there, Courtney, but I feel, I feel really good about the players that we have. And like I said, we've got such a better feel as a staff now than what we did

when we started a year ago. And so each guy brings something different to the table. And that's really what we're looking to generate from all of our skill positions. How can we best complement each other? Who's got the speed? We need versatility guys that can line up all over the place. certainly guys that have great hands. But, yeah, I think when you look at a 17-game season or 17-game plus, when you make the postseason, you need all hands on deck because the truth of the matter is not everybody is going to stay available throughout that duration. Top texture trade Rome.

I mean, nothing should be ruled out. He does talk, as Layla said. The hands reference is there, and I don't think that was necessarily pointed. Maybe it was, but I think there's a little room to believe that they haven't ruled anything out. Ben Johnson's pretty intentional on everything, and he's pretty careful in everything that he does, and especially everything that he says, and especially everything that he says in an open media session when he hasn't talked to the media in how long? So I take everything he says at face value, but also looking for a deeper meaning, perhaps.

Ben Johnson said he wanted receivers to catch the ball better and work on it in the offseason. in the press conference back in January. You know what it is right now? He remained on time with his comments. He did not waver from that fact at all. It is the off season. We are here. And that goes for you too, Colston Loveland.

Ben Johnson was pretty clear. He wanted his receivers to work on catching the ball. And he reiterated that. What up, OZ? Let's listen to more from Ben Johnson on how they're going to evaluate. Oh, maybe they should look into the left tackle thing, you guys think? Like maybe that should be something that we learn more about. So here's Ben Johnson talking about what's going on at Left Tackle.

We've got some opportunities there, whether it's for agency or the draft, and certainly some of our own in the building as well that we're looking to continue to develop. And so we look at all the opportunities out there. And we've got a lot of conversations going on for what that's going to look like. And it's not just that one position. It's really a lot of them. We have a lot of guys currently that are free agents that we've got to make some tough decisions on. And if we can't bring them back, and like I told them at the last meeting, I wish we could bring everyone back.

But that's just not how it works. And so if we can't bring them back, then we certainly have to fill that void somehow. Free agency, he said as a possibility, that was the first thing he mentioned. Where are they going to find the money when they're already dealing with this? Yeah, well, he didn't rule out from within. I mean, it didn't sound like over-the-top confident about that, but I still wonder what are their thoughts on? What do they really think about Theo Benedette?

We kind of knew on and off during the season, but like, did they look at him as somebody who they can get away with until Tripilogans back? What do they think about Braxton Jones? That's a good question, too. Also, the thing I'm interested in is we, You talked about the Kirk Cousin news, him being cut. Like, there's going to be more roster shakeup and moves around the league as

offensive minds and defensive minds. Remember all the coaches that were hired just now? Remember all the coordinators that changed from last year to this upcoming year? I think it was at last count, 21, who had been hired? That's a lot. So I'm really curious to see if they're waiting to see if there's some runoff from another team that they can apply to their situation because it's not a fit for a specific guy or that guy's just too expensive. We'll see. Here's another note from around the NFL. It's actually from

literally the account around the NFL, the NFL Network show. What about that? Brad Veach, who is the Kansas City General Manager, hopes Travis Kelsey returns to the Chiefs in 226, but the GM is prepared for either scenario. So there's some big names where we may learn the fates of some people like Kirk Cousins, as you mentioned. More from Ben Johnson here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3, the score. It was brought up by Ryan Poles that they had received calls on Tyson-Bagent. So what does Ben have to say about it? No.

No. I love Tyson. He loves this guy. That's one that kind of pulls its heartstrings a little bit. Start that over. Yeah, I'm so sorry. It takes a second for our machine to do that. exactly the way we would have parodied him. I know, it sounded like a parody.

I thought that was like a sound effect. I didn't think that was a real person. Is that the strongest we've heard Ben Johnson react about any player and it was Tyson Bayesian? Well, two years in a row now, Layla, do you guys remember it? It is a problem. That's a problem. It's all a problem. It's a problem because of what it fuels out there from the people listening to this show right now. Oh, yeah, we're clipping that, right? We have to keep it. Do you guys remember? What the hell? Do you guys remember last year when Ben Johnson was asked about Tyson Bajon and how at that moment we're like,

he likes the backup quarterback more than he likes the starting quarterback. Well, he spoke more glowingly about a guy who I think in his eyes had exceeded his undrafted rookie status to a level, whereas you have a number one overall pick who maybe wasn't at number one overall pick playing levels just yet. But let's also remember that a young Ben Johnson also played quarterback and that, you know, he probably busted his tail to be able to get his opportunities. Are you saying he may have seen a little bit of himself in Tyson, Bejant? Yes.

He's like doing, he's like doing it. They are intense. They are similar. Hey, Ben, are you to trade Tyson Baygent? No. It sounds like a, like a devil sound from like the exorcist. No. Don't do it.

But I also love that he just like us speaks in sound effects. Do you love him? Yes. No. No. I think he's the greatest quarterback ever. Okay, let's play. I just, I, that caught me off guard, honestly. No. I think he's the greatest quarterback. Now I'm just imagining Mark Grody creating a whole character out of this voice. It's happening. I'm thinking I'm the best coach in America. So what do we call it passionate about Tyson, Bage, and Ben Johnson? I call it the conjuring. You can call whatever you want. It does sound like he's got an exorcist's vibe.

Right? He's going to go crawling down the steps on his back like a scorpion. Also, I am crab walking. Get out of the house. It's like Amnibald horror. Get out of the house. No. I expect somebody to show up in the reflection of this window right now and tell me no.

Like what? If this is a sneak peek at offseason fun, want to playoff game, Ben Johnson, I have 100% into it. So let's hear the thrilling conclusion of the type. Tyson Bayesian Comet. No. It's Tyler the Exorcist. I love Tyson. And that's one that kind of pulls at your heartstrings a little bit because

because he's someone that you care about so deeply and he's a hell of a football player that at some point you want to see him have a chance to do it himself. And so, you know, we'll always do what's best for. for our team and our organization, I do think there's a lot of merit to having a strong number two quarterback, which he certainly fits that bill on love the mind that he's probably one of the best 32 in the NFL. His preseason tape over the last few years has probably confirmed that in my opinion. But self, you know, if I took myself out of the equation, you know, I want what's best for him. If he

if he would like an opportunity to start, I certainly hope he can get that somewhere. No, you don't. No. Took myself out of the equation. Did he just call him one of the best 32 in the NFL? I think he said he wants to be. Thinks of himself as, wants to be. Or did he say that? Maybe I heard wrong.

I need to examine this again. Because I thought he said he's one of the 30. Maybe he did say one, and I just misheard it. Maybe, I don't know. Guys, what did you guys here? What was it? I think everybody still just, distracted by the no. Yeah, we're just getting over the laughter.

I'm sorry, I'm just like Ben Johnson suddenly has talked about heart strings, and if I took myself out of it. Like, note to self, be careful what you say about Tyson Bayesian around Ben Johnson. I love Tyson. If you let up go, you will die with the rest of the non-believers. Also, everybody on the text line saying Bain Johnson, so good. Yes, I could see it. So good.

Oh, my. Guys, we have so much to. get to. I'm going to seriously ask that we reconsider our scheduling. We'll have a show meeting during the commercial break. We can't get it. Why? This is only... Why, Tyson? I truly believe this about Ben Johnson. He knows that Caleb Williams is the guy. He knows that there's no chance that tight, but he really love a game or two with Tyson invasion. You know what I mean? Like, just a couple of regular season games, but Caleb, I'm not saying I do,

I'm saying that he does. No. I remember what it's like seeing Tyson Bajan throw into a tight window more than 10 yards down the field. Yeah, that's it. It's the arm strength. Oh, the arm strength is everything with him. Like some of the throws down the middle of the field? Scary.

It's like a horror film. It's like, who's got a catcher. No. One hands. Wrong team. I can't. We've handled so far as a team. Three sound bites from Ben Johnson at the Combine.

We are going to bring you a whole. lot more. We want to bring you everything he had to say. So we will chip away at that now that we know, now that we know what is cryptonight. Careful what you say. Lela Rahimi, Marshall

Harris, Mark Grody, Rahimi Harrison Grody on 1043 The Score. This is Rahimi Harris and Grotie on 104 3 The Score. As we've now decided we live in a post-Ben Johnson Bain Impression Life. Are Grody still trying to collect himself from what he heard?

Ben Johnson speaking, what would you guys call it? Is it glowingly, obsessively? Something about Tyson Bajent? I just called Bain Johnson speaking on what he knows. He knows Tyson Bajent. You know what it is? It's just burpee talk, man. It's just, you know what it is?

It's burpee. I'm going to make that a word. I'm going to get that out of a lot. Burp is already a word. My friend Margaret Burpby, her great grandfather invented the burpie. It was named after him. And it's an exercise movie that most people hate. No, but like, use it like, oh, yo, man, that is so burpee.

So, B-U-R-P-Y. Burpee. Oh, really? That's what you're saying. Yeah, right, right. Well, because Tyson-Bagent is known, famously known for his burpee prowess, the exercise, yes. Your friend's grandfather invented the burpee? She was, he was in the military.

That's who they named, he invented an exercise and it was, we'll just call it the burpee. What was his first name? Terry? I don't know his first name. Terry Burby. I'll come up with that. I know you like names. I know you like Doug and Carl and all the names.

I'll get back to you on that. Do you do burpees to honor your friend's grandfather? I love burpees. It's my favorite exercise because it doesn't hurt. It's one of the things. What do you mean it doesn't hurt? It doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt my shoulders.

It doesn't hurt anything. You just fall to the floor and pitch yourself back up. It is. I can't believe that. That's Ben Johnson's voice. Does he know that he basically memed himself when he did that? Like that's going to go. Does he care?

No. He does not care. He probably doesn't care. Like he took a shirt off in front of the crowd of how. many people at the, you know, locker room for the Wiener Circle hot dogs? Well, he knew he was doing it for the world. I mean, there's only the team in there and Kevin Warren in him. But then, but then.

All right, we're in a post-Bain Johnson world. Can you imagine, like, in the private meeting with Ryan Poles as they discuss? You know, we're thinking about maybe entertainment. No, no, you're not going to do it, Ryan. No. I don't think so. And they're all like, okay, guys, like, we got to be sensitive. like Ben Johnson is a very rational man, but when you start to talk about Bayesian, he loses it and just becomes a total meatball.

Like this really cerebral guy. The only Tyson you're allowed to talk about are the Tyson's chicken nuggets. He has one weakness and it's Tyson Bayesian. Yes, yes, that's how I feel. I feel we have found his cryptonite. I love you. You have to code to be like, hey, guys, you want to switch Nintendo cartridges? How about I give you this Mike Tyson's punchout?

No. Poor Sean Sears. He's the one who's helping us out with all of this audio from the combine. He just walks by the studio and is just smiling from ear to ear. Ah, Sears. When he heard that Ben Johnson sound bite, I wonder what he was thinking. Okay, so let's get back to non-Tyson invasion, Ben Johnson. Satan Larry V.

Someone says at the top. Satan Larry. Get your dagger. I'll give you a dagger. Tyson. Get out of the house. You know, there are some days in this job where the show just produces itself. It does.

This is one of those days. All right, let's listen to Ben Johnson talk about the draft processes here. Does he break character? Is there anything else that you can take from last year's draft process to go into this year? No, we got a vision. Ryan does a great job of stacking that board, him and his crew, and was able to sit in with some of the scouts earlier. And I think they do a great job bringing the information at the table.

and we'll proceed business as usual. How is his nose so much more measured that time? He answered the question the same way, with the same two-letter word. I am going to, especially during training camp this year. Yes or no questions? Somehow, some way I will try to fit in Tyson-Badron questions, at least one per press conference,

especially in training camp, where it's truly relevant. So there are some people giving Ben Johnson the benefit of the doubt. They're like, isn't Ben Johnson doing that thing where you pretend to cover up a word with a cough? He might be, but it was just so emphatic as all. I don't believe he is, but keep going. What about that Tyson-Bajun interception? What was he left?

He switched back and he's like, well, here's what we think about the draft process. I love Tyson. You know what that is? You let the demon out, man. The demon is the Bob inside Ben Johnson that wants to truly start Tyson-Benzhen. The inner bomb is coming out. If he says the word bloodline, so help me. Oh, man.

and otherwise rational, reasonable man. Except for when the Packers are here. It now makes more sense. He is like the Packers and Tyson Bajun set him off. We've got to start getting a list together here. Wasn't that a show that Mark Rodney had a pop-up show? Oh my God, I did. That was one of my, yeah, we did a, what did we call that podcast?

Let me make a list with my buddy Brian Mitchell. All right, there it is. So we've got to get a list together. Malik Willis is probably moving on. We can agree on that. So what if Tyson Bejie became the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers? How would he react then, Brody? Oh, no.

It would be slow motion, though. No. Oh, my God. I love Tyson. What? I love Tyson. Oh, my goodness. Now they're manipulating this man's voice to match his no.

Sounds like a gangster on 60 minutes. I killed lots of people. people. I can't show you how many people I could, but I kill a lot of people. You know, if Alice Hall gets a hold of this segment, we're not sorry, but. Oh, they're enjoying this. They know Ben Johnson, too. They're probably... I'm so sorry that we have derailed ourselves with this discovery. We love Tyson Bajun, sir. That's what happens with the rank and file out of hell. We love him. He's the best. He's great. He does burpees. That's right. I do think there is some fellow meatheadedness there, you know, the love to

workout, crossfit your face off, whatever else. Absolutely. Do you think with the legend of Ben Johnson's weightlifting and Tyson Baygent's background from a familial, and this is not a bloodline thing, it's, well, it's literally a bloodline thing. But not in a coded way.

Yeah, not in a coded way. Do you think they've arm wrestled? That's my next question. Wow. You've thought about Tyson and Ben? Or Mr. Bajent? No, no, no, Tyson, and Ben Johnson. Have they ever arm wrestled? These are the questions that come to me in a moment like this. This is a bold ass. I know it's probably not going to happen,

but in the spirit of Shooter Shoot, I think we need to try to talk more to Ben Johnson, like on a show like this. I think it's time. I bet he has some Cubs thoughts. You think he'd like us. If he doesn't, he would at least laugh at us doing this segment today.

This microphone here I'm pointing to in our circus studios here, that is for Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams. Let's keep the dream alive. Let's get those two guys. They would love hanging out with us. I bet Ben Johnson would be on time. We are the best show in this town to have the coach and or quarterback sit right here. Because we're here for a good time.

We are here for a good time. We're fun. We're funny. We're serious sometimes. Sometimes we cry. Sometimes we laugh. Like this is perfect. If you wanted a high chance of a drink spilled all over the studio, we are definitely your people.

We do that. I'm the guy who does that. That's my responsibility. No, Grody has. And also I opened this kombucha and it went everywhere. So, you know, if you like those sort of things, then, then maybe we're the show for you. Yep.

We have decided today we are going to postpone five on it because we, as a society, can't seem to handle Ben Johnson. Ben Johnson had more to say. And apparently Ryan Poles had a lot to say in his side session that he did. So we're going to bring it all to you. This is real live Combine Talk brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. Bears coverage. Mitch is now in the office.

We're off there. Oh, Mitch. That's it. Uh-oh. Why is Grotty keep yelling in the mic? It's a mess. Dump it. Dump it. Grotty just keeps yellow the whole time.

I don't know. Should we go to commercial now? Yes, sir. No. On the score. We have to. This hour is brought to you by the Chicago Golf Show. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104.

We normally do five on it at this time, but there is so much going on at the NFL Combine. So we are bringing it all to you. To recap, we are making our way through Ben Johnson's comments. where he was asked of considering trading Tyson Bayesian as an option. We got to that at about 1130 and it broke

our show because of the way he said no and how much he loved him. So thank you for bearing with us. Unintended. TTN. Thank you. Bears. TT.N. All right. So we're all in agreement on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. Let's get back to it.

He was asked about the loss of his running backs coach Eric B. enemy to become Kansas City's offensive coordinator. What you guys have missed? be going to be gone? Oh, we'll miss a ton. The guy's a phenomenal football coach.

And, you know, that coaching staff a year ago, and really similar to this year, is there are a lot of guys outside of my circle that I didn't know very well. So he was really through reputation. We had a lot of productive conversations before he decided to join on board. And then I was just blown away from the impact he had,

not only in that position room, which, you know, Swift had probably, the best year of his career and then seventh rounder. Menungai had a hell of a year himself. Not just that room, but the entire offense. He brings a demanding presence. The standard is the standard with Eric Bienemy. And, you know, those are big shoes to fill.

Fortunately, I do feel strongly about Eric Studsville from Miami, a guy that I worked with before. He's been around the block a few times. He's been a part of really good, offenses in his past, and I know he's going to bring a great flavor for us. That is a glowing recommendation from Ben Johnson when it came to not only Eric Bied to me leaving, but just letting us into the process of what happened, because his hiring here was notable. And it makes sense the way he talks about Eric Studeville because of their time together in Miami

and understanding that it's a continuation of, let's be honest, guys, one of the more surprising stories of 2025 was the running backs in their production. You could have said, hey, D'Andre Swift might have a decent season. You probably didn't expect him to have maybe the best year of his career. And then Calmanungi for him to bust onto the scene in the manner in which he did with multiple 100-yard rushing games. In fact, games where both of them rushed for 100 yards. That tells you they built what Ben Johnson felt like was fundamentally important to him

having a top-flight offense, which is a rushing game. I remember the bye week this year ahead of the Washington game. And there you had Ben Johnson telling the world that, yeah, we got the right guys in here. The production was not good early on, but I think they also knew they had the right guy to coach them. And that was Eric Bienemy. The hope is that, all right, you have soaked in, you have taken in everything you could possibly take in from Eric Bionemy. The running backs goes to get you on this path. Hopefully the baton goes to Studeville, who looks like he is extremely capable, veteran, been all over the place.

So I'm ultimately not worried, but that doesn't mean. mean I can't praise what Eric Biontby did. You know what I really like about the Bears position coaches that we had this past season? You know a lot about the details of what they did on the job. Like, for example, how many times did one of the secondary members say to us? You know, Al Harris says, I need more turnovers. I'm still hungry. They would tell you what he would say to them in practice.

I feel the same way about Eric Bien to me, for example. You knew that he was a guy who would say, I need you to run between the tackles. Like he put it out there, you know, when he talked in the offseason on the Bears, etc. Podcast, I believe it was, where last, this time last year, he talked about what he wanted DeAndre Swift to do, what he wanted the Bears running backs to do. He didn't back away. He was unapologetic. When you have that understanding as a layman of what the position coaches want out of their,

out of their players, it lets you know how good the coaching is. I want to say with Ben Johnson, the. consistency from day one. And now I'm looking at it into year two, right, about his message to us, but also his message through us to his own team and his coaching staff. And it feels like there's a level of consistency that maybe we had been lacking in coaches past. Is that a fair statement to make?

That would be very fair. An understatement to make. I haven't heard any of that. But here's the thing, guys. It was bad. And maybe we knew it was bad, but maybe we didn't realize how far that bad was compared to what it takes to actually win. And now we have a fair sample of the just range, the gap, a sizable canyon of a gap that Ben Johnson has been able to fill with his ideas, his messaging, most importantly, his execution and just getting the freaking job done. We didn't know what it sounded like previously.

Like what does hearing from a good head coach really sound like every single day? And while we've had that in spurts through the years where a coach will locate like, Managie sounded pretty good when he talked in 2018. Yeah, things sort of made sense. And then all of a sudden, 2019 and 2020, he starts saying things that don't make as much sense or maybe things that you let go like with Ben Johnson and I know he just had a winning season

so you could say the same thing that everything sounds good but we know that there is substance to the things that he says that to your point Marshall we hadn't heard previously and also guess what a good coach does he hires other good coaches and Matt Neggie

at this point already after his first season with the Bears there was a big turnover in assistant coaches do you remember that and how that changed it and there's a lot of people who said Matt Nagy brought in a lot of yes men, you know, and you need that contradiction on a coaching staff. You need that friction because those guys are looking out for your blind spots.

And if everybody agrees, that makes it hard because you know what the other team is doing, they're trying to find your weaknesses. They're going to be your no men. And you'd rather have them on your own staff in your own building. Do you say you're no men? That's the opposite. Really, that's what that was. I can't get over it.

Is that what it was? Leila, here's my question, though. Remember last year when we were talking about the fact that... He's such a VIP! To your point about the yes-men, Mark and Leila. Yes, yes, Marshall. No! No, the yes-men...

No! He hired people he wasn't necessarily familiar with and hadn't worked with firsthand. But now, much in the vein of what you're describing, he is hiring people that he is very, very familiar with. That sounded real good to say last year, didn't it? Maybe when he didn't have the power... Fair enough. When he had the power to hire everybody?

It gives me just a, not a big pause. That's a good point, man. But a tiny bit of pause to make sure we keep monitoring the situation. I mean, we will. But specifically on that coaching staff front of, does he have guys who will push back? Eric B. Enemy's going to push back. That's it. But Stoodsville, they've worked together before.

Ben Johnson's in charge. Yeah. I don't know his personality yet. So. Yeah. I'm kidding. We keep wanting to call him Studsville. Yeah.

Right. Shout out stunts. And then Press Taylor gets elevated. And you just kind of wonder in the grand scheme of things, is there going to be enough feedback and maybe calling in the question the plan, whether that's on an everyday basis, a front office basis? I'm curious as to if those discussions will differ in a big way from this time last year. I have a question for you. I love questions. How much do you think Dennis Allen's experience as a head coach and how much just he's.

he's scouting that offense every day. How much of a back and forth do you think is happening at that level where you're getting, is it enough for you or do you want it at more levels of the coaching staff? Well, let me just say this. I think the feedback he gets from Dennis Allen is invaluable because he has been a head coach. And he's had, I wouldn't say success success, but he's had teams that weren't bad, right? They were just mediocre. And so he probably knows the difference in kind of the pitfalls through his own experience

of, I can warn you about this, and let's make sure we do this. And I'm not saying Ben Johnson can't do that on his own, but it's always good to have other people who have been in that role around you, giving you maybe solid advice feedback. And let's be honest, he's a great defensive coordinator. So they talk to each other. We heard them talk about this during the regular season last year, where Ben Johnson goes in and tries to understand why Dennis Allen's scheming a certain way

and what offense he would do against that. Like, that's a meeting of the, a true meeting of the minds right there with Dennis Allen and Ben Johnson. And the bigger question to take your question and volley it back is, is Ben Johnson going to have the open ear? And if there's a big discussion about what we're doing position-wise in this draft or even through free agency, although that's a lot of money that they got in that defensive line, is Dennis Allen finally going to get his due? Felt like Dennis Allen got the short end of the stick last year when it came to acquisitions. They built the offensive line.

They got the offensive weapons. What about Dio Dangbo? They spent so much money, though, after D.A. got here. DiO Dio Dengbo? Is it Dennis Allen prototypical? Like when Ryan Poles is talking about learning who the traits are, you know, didn't he embody the traits? Yeah. Well, and he also is a guy they spent money on. So I don't know for a fact that Dennis Allen like gave a push or wanted that player. But they and they also did use one of their three second round picks last year to take a defensive lineman whose season was stunted. Talked about Shamar Turner. So it's

not like they didn't do anything for this guy. Three of the defensive side of the football. Three of the top four picks were on the offensive side. And that's three of top four picks that weren't like first, second, third, fourth round. It was, we've got a bunch of second rounders and a first rounder, and three of those picks went to offense. Dennis Allen's guy would be like, got to give me something.

You got to give me something. Well, I think he's going to get, I mean, I'd be very, like we talked about at the beginning of the show. And for people who didn't hear, we did play Ryan Poles earlier. And he gave us the old, in the draft. And I think he was talking about the first pick, which is number 25 overall, best player available right there. But come on. He's got defense has got to be because that's the only.

You can't have 12 receivers in a position room. You just can't. Well, and that's one of the only places where they would have, they don't have to worry about a rookie contract at the 25th pick. So there you have it. You would have somebody that you can get without going outside of the organization. without having to waive somebody, without having to restructure a contract. There's a freebie for you right there. So it would be crazy, I think, at this point,

unless there's something that I don't know that happens in free agency. And that's a great point. Now, Ben Johnson was also asked, let's keep the assistant coaches going. Ben Johnson was also asked about his confidence level with Press Taylor taking over as the offensive coordinator. Last year was pretty much an audition, as far as I'm concerned. I was blown away with what he was able to do in the building day in and day out, things that maybe not everyone else could see. He's very thoughtful, very detail-oriented for what we were looking for from that role.

He really fits the bill perfectly. Ben Johnson's got an offensive coordinator factory going on at this point. He's got his first guy in, first guy out, Declan Doyle. Now, Press Taylor, you're going to get your shot. And if it goes like it went last year, Press Taylor will be calling play somewhere next year, either as an offensive coordinator or maybe even a head coach, depending on how well it goes. and then it'll be insert the next guy. And you can see how this is going to go,

which is also more evidence. If you're going to be hiring an NFL head coach, sorry Anthony Herron. I want my guy to be offensive-minded. I do. I do. Well, and when he says audition, like he knew.

He knew what the plan was. Think about how confident he was in Declan Doyle, perhaps anybody else was in the league and even us, you know? And we liked Declan Doyle when we heard him talk. But for him to already know at that point that the potential was there for him to get a job after his first year under Ben Johnson? Like, Mark, I think that takes a pretty big step. Oh, yeah. And, I mean, and Press Taylor, too, like one of the, there, there is a lot of,

quote-unquote, grunt work that goes with that job and the extra work that you're going to have to do and to think like Ben Johnson, to some degree, think like Caleb Williams, you already have the step up because Press Taylor has been around it. So I'm just happy in this case, like, there's value. and what we were talking about earlier going outside of the organization and getting a different voice. In this case, this was poised perfectly to be a hire from within. Well, now we need to know who's auditioning next, right? Like, who's your guy waiting in the weeks?

Who's your guy? I didn't think it was time to bring it back. Who's your guy? Also, since we're in the same vein of thought, Ben Johnson was also asked about working with Dennis Allen to rebuild the defense. What is that to say, how much the challenge do you see it to retool this deepness to side of the ball? How many of the voice are you about specific players, you know, and trying to effort their choices? Yeah, well, I think we feel a lot better about having the health of our secondary be a lot better to this go around. You know, last year between Kyler and Jalen, we didn't feel like we were at full strength there on the back end for the majority of the season.

I do think that's going to help out. I think there's ways that we can generate more pass rush up front. That'll help out significantly as well. But certainly it's something we're looking at. How do we upgrade the personnel in certain spots? There's a number of guys that are up contract-wise, and so there will be a retooling there to a degree. But I know DA is looking forward to the opportunity to get his hands on these guys one more time

and see what that looks like. I know one way they can generate more ways to get their pass rush going. go out and get a dominant pass rusher. That's my number one way, by the way. I'm just saying, because I didn't like, here's why I didn't like that answer. That answer was about the reality that, hey, we expect those hurt guys to come back and be better next year,

and that's how we're going to be a better defense. That's not going to be enough to be a good enough defense to compete with the likes of what we saw, whether you're talking about the Seattle Seahawks, we know what the Eagles are capable of. There's a number of teams who have more dominant defenses, and it can't just be on the takeaways because that can ebb and flow year to year.

Well, also, do we know that the Dior Dingbo's coming back to start the season, for example? It's an Achilles, his second, by the way. And do we know that T.J. Edwards, like, what's the timeline on that return? Wouldn't you consider it's a broken leg at the very last game of the year? I will say, like, it does make sense, though, what he's saying. You can't depend on this is that your only plan for the offseason, but he's right. I mean, you essentially, you didn't have Kyler Gordon and, Jalen Johnson last year in the secondary.

And while there are many holes to fill, that is true. Those are maybe your two best defensive players. So how can you not take that seriously, Marshall? I mean, like... Because Nashan Wright ain't walking through that tunnel. No, I get... There's still holes, but to dismiss the idea that you have your two best defensive players coming back.

I think that was a good point made by Ben Johnson. Yeah, there has to be. be more. I don't know what, man, why do they feel about Tyreek Stevenson? I think we kind, like it, he's under contract, right? He is under contract, but did they want anything to do with him being a starter? I get the feeling they don't in a best case scenario at this point. But think about how he was used during the playoff game.

Remember when everybody was asking, where's Tyreek Stevenson? Where is he? Why is it taking so long to get him on the field? And then the impact that he had during that game once he was? Were they saying the same thing about Kyleor Gordon, though? As far as... That was more of a health, like, minutes restriction type of scenario. Tyreek Stevenson wasn't.

Tyreek Stevenson was... Did something else happen that we don't know? I thought it was more about... You only have so many slots. There was, but why was he the odd man out? Oh, you're saying because Kyler returned. Right. But even then, though...

No, it was a mystery because I talked to Tyreek Stevenson during that. You know, he was just doing what he was told. And, of course, it wasn't paraphrasing him. The good team answer. He was great all season in terms of the words that he used and didn't do anything dumb on the field and all. Remember it and had some really, really nice moments, but then some bad moments as well, ultimately making me wonder what they think of him. And I don't know that they think of him. And Terrell Smith, another guy too, that should be thrown into the batch of potential starters at cornerback for the bears.

And he will be healthy, which is huge. Yes. So that's just some of the conversation. I think we got through all of the Ben Johnson Press conference. I'm not sorry that it took us so long because that no will live in my head rent-free for the rest of my life. In the meantime, there's a lot of quotes coming out from the combine about the side sessions, the side interview sessions that went on. Chris Emma has a banger from Ryan Poles. He asked him about DJ Moore and the answer is something you'll want to hear.

So you either hear it or we will let you know the latest and we will discuss it next. Rahimi Harris and Grody. And Cole Kamet, Cole, welcome to the party, pal. Well, thanks for having me. I heard it was a big day. So naturally, I dropped everything I had going on today. You've complained a lot through the years about not being able to hear the score on the 670 AM dial when you're inevitably cruising around downtown.

And now that we have an FM signal, Cole, you can now hear the score all day, all the time, all you want. You can hear all the Bears hot takes you want. Well, that's perfect. I'll make sure I blast that in the locker room. beautiful black. Rahimi Harrison Grody, Midday's Tyndle 2 on 1043

The Score. This is Rahimi Harrison Grody on 1043 The Score. You know, there's a metaphor about being chosen in this song that may or may not apply, because when we talk about the Combine, there's a little bit of that process going on.

Then there's also the business of what happens to people who are on your team. And I feel like that is very much the discussion going on in Indian We heard from Ben Johnson. We heard from Ryan Poles. And then they also had side sessions with reporters talking to them additionally about some of the non-podium questions that everybody wanted to know. I love a little sidepiece.

Let's ride. Lunch is over. Time for a little sidepiece. The fun on the Rahimi Harris-Grody show today is on a high level. So this is big. Bears General Manager Ryan Poles in one of those side sessions at the Combine today was asked whether the Bears would enter. retain moving DJ Moore and his contract. Listen in. I got to have conversations and kind of see what, like I said,

the best combination of players we can bring in. We want him here. We think highly of him. He's a great teammate. He's been productive pretty consistently over the last couple of years that he's been here. So I have nothing but great things to say about him. But this is the time now where we have to look at all the different scenarios and see what can allow us to put the best team out there. And I've talked about this before. It's just, you know, there's relationships there.

There's a lot there that make it really, really good. But he's a guy we want here, but we have to look at all different scenarios. That may be the most pointed statement Ryan Poles has made to date on DJ Moore. We did not hear as detailed of a statement from Ben Johnson, but Poles. also, I feel like, just expanded on kind of where he left off in that season-ending press conference when he did say we have decisions to make there. Mark, I see you nodding. I know you're remembering it as well.

But this even sounds less committed than that. And Poles isn't hiding anything in this either. Yep. Yep. This was the early part of the end of the season press conference where he said was similarly vague. He talked, the only difference was last time he talked about. how this guy is tough as nails and everybody looks up to him and all that. But there are realities in the NFL. So you're right. Ben Johnson did not say it as loudly, I guess, would be

a way to put it right there. But I would also say, and we talked about Ben Johnson earlier, Ben Johnson, as I said, certainly did not rule anything out either as it pertains to DJ Moore. How would you describe a player that you want to? to maintain trade value and or possibly bring back into the fold of your own organization. That way? Exactly. That's my point here. Poles is threading that needle pretty well on that question.

I definitely understand what you're saying about. He sounded more like it was a possibility for him to be moved. But at the same time saying, yo, we know what DJ Moore is. There's a reason I gave him all the money. I mean, that wasn't that long ago. So I am interested to see how this plays out. I'm interested to see the abacus is out at Househall. I'm interested to see how they navigate by prioritizing what's the most important,

by figuring out what they can live with, by having those internal conversations. Ben Johnson, Dennis Allen. I want to know the formula right now, what they believe. And then to see how they fulfill the formula once they figure out what they want to do, how close they can get to getting it done that way. Because usually it doesn't work out the way. You can say, I want such and such and such and such and such and such. And then you settle for, well, we got this, that, and the third.

I think DJ Moore is still as it stands right now, the number one receiver on the Bears. DJ Moore made catches that not only won games for this team, but kept them in it. His targets went down. He can't help that necessarily. So it takes two to tango when it comes to that aspect of it. It's a different offense. So that also plays into it. I don't look at it as like he's responsible.

solely for how his production went this year. But when he was called upon, you could rely on him more than any other receiver on the team. And that's the point. But additionally, I think Ryan Poles is also understanding the salary cap issue that he's facing right now, largely in part because of players he signed and extended. This is his team. These are his guys. He gave out the money.

And I wonder how that plays into this. The other thing is, is he already talking to this? somebody based on these comments or is he preparing us for something that we don't know? I feel like the way he described it, he's just saying, I am open for business. I'm not returning. I'm not rejecting anyone's phone calls. And to your point, Lila, he was the best of a receiving core and the receivers were supposed to be a strength of the team.

I would argue that as a core, they did not produce up to the level that they should have. That's reflected in the drop balls that the team had. But DJ Moore's been wide receiver number one, and many people, myself included, thought by now after attending the NFL draft in Detroit that Roma Douns Day would be higher on the depth chart than DJ Moore. He is clearly not. Let's say, let's do a little game of, let's say, you guys ready for this? Would you like to play a game? Let's say, let's say DJ Moore is back and you have your receiver crew intact. You have DJ Moore, you have Roma Dunesay, you have Luther Burden.

Colson Loveland, he's a receiver as well. Who would you guys say right now, who would you predict right now would be the leading receiver next year? Would DJ Moore, because I agree with you, Leila, this year, DJ Moore was still your most important wide receiver or receiver even over Loveland this year. He was the most important. But if we had to predict it right now, who is their top receiver including tight-ins? Are we saying receiving yards, receptions? Are we just saying overall impact? How are we measuring?

The most important guy. It's Loveland. It's going to be Loveland. Right. So there is, despite him being so good, it feels like there is some expendability here. But what do you think, Leila? Do you think that, do you agree on Loveland?

Lovelland is the first name that came to my mind. However, when you look at how they're utilizing Luther Burden and he can, he has the same yak and rack capability. I love when you yak and rack. And not just me, but more so the Bears receivers. And that is something. that DJ Moore also does well, I wonder how he's going to play into that factor.

By yards alone, he's likely to get more when he touches the ball because of that scenario. I think the timing got better with him over the season to the point where you don't even think about it anymore. But the way that Loveland was used and when you consider that the comp of Sam Leporta was given by Ben Johnson early, that telegraphs how he wants to use him in an offense. The physical mismatch of Colston Loveland alone is very,

hard to deny. He's going to draw what's likely a physical mismatch. And especially if Cole Kovett's still on the team, commit blocked the way he did, things look a lot better. It's a nice one-two punch. The reason it's Lovelin for me is because when you talk about overall impact, only one player had more first-down catches than Colston Lovin last year. And that was Roma Dunezay, who obviously didn't play a full season. Now, Rome could come back next season and be a guy who can catch the football. Like, let's let's put it bluntly, right? But even though, Lela's what she just said, with the mismatches physically, Colston Loveland, having a year of NFL play under his belt, the speed of the game, the adjustments, I just really like what Colston Loveland is as a chess piece for Ben Johnson going forward. Luther Bird and the third also, DJ Moore, oh, reliable.

I wonder, though, if DJ Moore comes back, are they finally going to put the chemistry issues aside, him and Caleb not quite always being on the same page? I could see a Colston Loveland being just a bigger impact player. And you just let Joday Walker loose, man. Just let him loose. Just get him on the field and see what he can do for the Bears. He diversifies a wide receiver room. That's what Emory told me yesterday. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Emery, yeah, Emory Hunt loved Joddy Walker. More than airports, for sure, and speakerphone. And my drafts. Yeah. So there's that as well. Those were his top three things that shouldn't have been invented. Now there's a lot more from this side session.

Brian Pohl's speaking at the Combine. He discussed his evaluation of DJ Moore's 2025 season and his exit interview, which we did not get privy to in that end of season press conference. Early on, you have a lot of new things going on, and there's a lot of, there's one football and there's a lot more talented targets. And how that all works out,

where they are, I can't tell you, like where everybody is in different progressions. So I know at some points it was slow, some moments like you know towards the end of the season was amazing I think when you looked at the production across the board of all our guys it came out to be pretty even in terms of targets and yards so I thought he did a really good job and know Ben was very intentional with with getting him the football to create opportunities but when you have Colson start to pop up Luther Cole Rome was going through different things throughout the season

to start hot early so unique situation overall but I know we were happy with him throughout. What was your tone with him in the exit interview, just setting him up for what he can expect in the future? Yeah, very similar to the other guys, went through the season. The next meeting, we also want to know what they need from us to help them be successful, but a real positive conversation with DJ and really everybody other also. Hmm. Real positive conversation with DJ more and then he never talked to us, so. But he did talk to people at the Super Bowl. I mean. I know. I know. I know. Just in the moment, I still think that was a little bit weird.

I'm not saying that they said something to him and he walked out in a huff. And it may have just been because he didn't want to deal with answering questions about the last play of the bear season. Bears. What happened then? It's over. Season's over. Yeah.

Now we're sad. Yeah. Feel so sad. Sad bears. Don't be sad because it's over. Be happy that it happened. Oh, yeah, no question. Except that could have been the bears.

That could have been the bears. that in that NFC title game. And I think about it. But here we are talking about like what are the pieces that the bears can add to get to the next level as opposed to who can save the franchise? A new head coach, a new quarterback. Yeah, we get to talk about very good players and the potential that there might be more very good players. Yes, yes, that we're living in a world where I can ask a question about not having DJ more. or DJ Moore being on the team

and him being the second or third most valuable receiver, that means that your first round pick from last year work. That means one of your three second round picks from last year, Luther Burden worked out just fine. You're going to make the audience cry, Mark. Well, I'm trying to get them back up after I brought it down to sad bears. No, it's just

one that leaves us all contemplating. Contemplative bears. Sad bears, happy bears, contemplative bears. You know, are the bears sitting and looking off into the distance trying to figure things out. Philosophical bears. Yes. But when it comes to DJ more in that discussion,

you know, the frustrating part is you want to hear what DJ would have to say after hearing Ryan Pohl say that. But we don't have that luxury. Not anytime soon anyway. He'd just give that DJ smile and he's like, I don't know. You guys let to figure it out. Or he would just say, what? Well, what he told her power is like, yeah, I'll be back.

Everything's good. I'll be back. Yeah. That was him basically letting us know. He wants to come. back? And I don't think it was sarcastic and I took it as genuine when he said that because that's typically how he's been interacting. How can he not be genuine after having a losing record every NFL season of his entire career until last year? I think he's like, I want some more of that.

I do, I do think though, like if there's a team who wants him and it's a team who needs a receiver did really want it. Does that team have a pass rusher and $17 million a year to pay him to? This is so me projecting. team of a pass rush. This is absolutely me projecting and I've got to stop. But when Ryan Pohl says stuff like, you know, we have to look at all the different scenarios. I'm like, what scenarios, Ryan? What scenarios?

Which scenario would be the one where you pull the trigger on a deal? That's what you want to know. That's what we all want to know. Yeah, that's it. That's the magic question. More to come here from the NFL Combine on this Tuesday on Rahimi Harrison Grotty on 1043, the score of the press conferences we brought to you. We're brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers.

And in the meantime, there is more from the side session with Ryan Poles. So we will hear from it. He also talked about the team's approach and really was asked the question about winning now. So we'll hear what he has to say. More from the combine next. Rahimi Harrison Grody, midday's 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. We're going to take the north and never give it back. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, the score.

Was that the Ryan Poles take the north and never give it back? It feels like so long since that happened. Oh, we're recording... That'll take the North or that he said it. Yes. We're recording the Shovels in the Ground podcast today, Dan Weeder and I are. Is that the temporary title? Yeah, yeah.

Shovels in John. It doesn't sound as good. It doesn't. Whisper SSG like you do. Do you do. No, it doesn't work. Yeah, it doesn't work. But I do appreciate the target in the title in that we're going to have a new target

every time that last target got accomplished, we'll just change the name to a new target. Exactly. Welcome to Hollis Harbor. If you missed the no, that was Ben Johnson. We think jovially saying no regarding the possibility of Tyson-Bajun being traded. One of the textors said he saw the video, and the video, it looks like he was like a fake cough.

It was definitely a fake cough with a smile in the video, if you watch the case. Oh, okay. So he's letting you know. that his no is real. Okay. Tyson Chandler, here's your hotel room. No,

he gets the sweet. Tyson Bayesian, you mean? What did I say? Tyson Chandler. Oh, my God. Who I love. Who I absolutely love.

You love the Bulls, Grady. I was just bringing, I was just talking about Tyson Chandler with Lawrence Holmes last week. We were talking about how he had. We were talking about Eddie Curry and Tyson Chandler, and was like, Tyson Chandler had a really nice career.

Not the part with the Bulls necessarily, but he had a really nice career. He did have a really nice career. I wouldn't say Andy Carrier. In the career? No, he did. didn't, but he played for a long, longer than I thought he had played. He definitely played for a long time.

And Eddie Curry is back home being a Bulls ambassador. I like, I like that. That makes me feel good. Good for you, Eddie Curry. One of the percent chances that Tyson Bayesian is a Bears ambassador when his career is over. I say 100. You could be. Unless he wants to stay in West Virginia.

98. 98%. Oh, you're actually giving a percent of it. Yeah. It's pretty strong. I do believe 90. percent is the answer. Now, there is some actual business to get to from a lot of what we heard at the NFL

Combine, and it was the first question that was asked to Ryan Poles. Well, he wasn't the only one who also discussed it. Ian Cunningham met the media at the Combine, and he said the Bears should get compensatory draft picks for him getting hired in Atlanta. I haven't had much time to really dive into like the wording of it. It was always my interpretation that if general manager gets hired, that team would receive two third round picks. I'm a general manager I was hired. I would think that they would get two third round picks.

I don't know the wording of it. That's just my perspective. Again, I wouldn't be sitting here if it weren't for them giving me that job and helping me grow to get this job right now. So in case you missed it earlier this morning, that's what Ian Cunningham had to say when it came to the Bears needing to get the compensatory draft picks. Ryan Pohl's also echoed that. And I thought that that was something that needed to be said by the both of them. That was the first question Ryan Pulse was asked. And Ian Cunningham was also talked to about it as well.

It felt very concerted, Lela. It felt like there's big conversations. Those guys are buddies. And they probably are like, hey, are we not getting our picks? And then Ian Cunding is like, yeah, what's going on? I was like, all right, don't worry, I got you. In the first session with Ryan Poles today, he didn't quite commit to actually saying they have appealed it, but he did say that they have had conversations in regards to an appeal.

So like for people wondering, and a lot of people still are very interested in this story. Or so are the bears. Or just salty about it. And that's cool on the accounting. Yeah, you're damn right. You're worth some compensatory picks. Well, and Ryan Poles also adding, here's the frustrating part. Ryan Poles shouldn't have to add his personal experience to this discussion.

He shouldn't have to remind the NFL of a law that they decided to institute, and they decided to incentivize teams who hire general manager candidates who are minorities and then give them to compensatory draft picks when they get a promotion to a title like general manager. It shouldn't have to take Ryan Poles telling the NFL that. It shouldn't have to take Ian Cunningham. It shouldn't have to take them justifying why they both got promotions. This is a picks free

situation where nobody's giving up anything. A lot of people thought in the reactions and I've seen people think, oh, they're taking picks from the Falcons. No. This is part of the incentive that the NFL wanted to give

teams free, compensatory picks. And now they're selectively applying the rules. And frankly, perhaps illustrating why the rule was brought in to begin with? You're taking me back to my grill master when I was a kid, when I used to cook. And my mom said, if I made food for myself,

guess what? I had to feed my brother and sister younger than me as well. So I might make a couple of, you know, grilled cheese sandwiches, feeling good. And they'd be like, well, where's ours?

I want one. And it wasn't me saying, here's mine. No, I just made some more girl cheese sandwiches. The NFL could just make some more picks. that's the most frustrating part about all of this is to make them have to justify their existence and their promotions in this.

You're somewhat illustrating why this needed to happen anyway. Yeah. It's a bad look for the league. I'm still thinking about that grilling. What were you grilling? The grilled cheese sandwiches. No, you're not. You know, like the grill master where you can just put anything on the grill and just, like,

I used to make pancakes. I used to cook up whatever they wanted. Nice. But sometimes I just cook something from my stuff. myself. Big brother over there. Because you could smell that food throughout the house, obviously. The flat top, like, griddle.

Yes. That is a real luxurious thing. I was going to say. Yeah, fancy. Is that luxurious? Yeah. It just has more space so you can do more stuff on it at the same time. That's it.

It's like, oh, people put bread on the grid. They put eggs on it. Then they'll put, like, the bread in the egg grease or something if they want. Listen, I was out here making pancakes, flipping pan. Yeah. So many pancakes. I think the thing that just bothers me the boast about the Cunningham and Polls situation isn't just that they have to justify it. It's that it comes at the cost of nobody.

Right. Either give the people the picks in the spirit of the law or don't give them at all. Yeah. But I don't think what they understand is, again, in asking these men to justify their careers, you have illustrated why it is an issue. Can I read a funny text to you guys? Of always. From the combine? Do you know it's not?

No! I can't stop it. It actually pertains to that. It keeps going on to my neck. It actually pertains to that. Talk to me. Of course, I'm on a text thread with Dan Weeterer and Adam Stizinski because we do the Take the North podcast.

We're planning stuff out. Are you taking us inside backstage at TTN right now? That's right. That's right. Shovels in the ground. That's the new name of the... STG. Wait.

What? Yeah. Shovels in S. Should be four lines. See, that's why it doesn't work. So the shovel at the S in the end, that's where I got with that. S-I-T-S. So we're all trying to figure out, like, what do we want audio?

S-I-T-G. Yeah, that's it. Shuffles of the ground. No. I don't think it's as good. I just don't. We're all trying to figure out what do we want to do, and I got this side, just like we do on the show.

Like we're on text thread. We all have our opinions. We try to put a show together. Dan Weederer just now in the text thread. Ben's answer on Baygent is a must-play today. funniest moment of the day. So yes, confirmed they're having fun with that too at the Combine. We concur.

It has been a delight to have fun with Ben Johnson. I need more. Can we have fun with Chris Emma? Yeah, we need Chris Simba's firsthand account of the Ben Johnson answer. I literally want to know, too, what he thinks has been the biggest story of the day so far out there at the Combine and, of course, the hilarity of Ben Johnson. And he was present for the side sessions as well. We haven't gotten to all of that sound yet,

so Chris will tell us about a lot of it next. The score! This hour is brought to you by Menards. Once more time. Save big money at Menards. Roll! Would it be on the table for you guys to at left tackle with Tune as a longer-term solution, or is that only something you would do in a pinch?

I would say only in a pinch. we like him at left card that's where we like him to play next year okay so that is also big from Ryan Bulls that was his side session Joe Tooney is not going to left tackle

how does that conversation go hey Joe are you going to left tackle no no I can't it's not going to happen and now for one of our reporters who was there to witness Ben Johnson's emphatic answer about Tyson Beijin in person.

Some people like Chris Ema. I love Chris Emma. We go to Indianapolis and our score hotline and that is where we find Chris Emma. He is also on Twitch.tv slash the score Chicago is I'm absolutely crying laughing.

Chris, that has to be the moment of the offseason so far on tape. Ben Johnson talking about Tyson Bayesian in such an emphatic manner. Chris is live from our combine on our hotline. And yeah, I see your face, Chris. I know you're still trying to process that.

Well, there's a little bit more coming your way. You're going to hear Ben Johnson from a side session here shortly. I just filed that audio in right before this. He opened with some jokes of the expense of Caleb Williams and his three-point shooting display at the NBA All-Star weekend. So Ben at the end of the season was intense and locked in on every single moment of a playoff push. And here he is now a month later and he's in good spirits and the smiles out and he's having fun again. So it was a different Ben Johnson from when we last saw him.

In playoff mode, you're going to hear more from him later. Christopher, what do you so far today of everything that you have heard? What is the biggest story? I know there's lots of nuggets. There's lots of things that you guys ask, but what's the number one thing so far? I think my biggest takeaway, Mark, is the fact that they don't know which direction this offseason is going to go just yet because they are still needing to make some cap-clearing decisions, and there's some significant ones looming.

And in past years, Ryan Poles, and he's discussed this, the idea of cutting guys before the combine, so their agents can be out here in Indianapolis, talking with teams and getting deals in place. The only player they've cut so far is Amen Ogbogamemaga, and that's the guy they plan to cut all along. Tremaine Emmons is still on the roster. DJ Moore is still on the roster.

Colquette is still in the roster. DeAndre Swift, what Ryan Polls indicated today is he has to consider all scenarios. And what he also indicate is that he's getting calls about trades from other teams, teams that know the bears need to get under the cap and make some difficult decisions. And teams that are willing to salvage the bears instead of cutting a player, let's make a deal. And Ryan Poles was asked directly, and I think he might have played it by now, the idea of,

is DJ Moore somebody you're going to have back on this roster? Do you need to consider moving his contract? And he said, we love DJ Moore. This is a guy we think very highly of. But at the same point in time, you've got to consider all scenarios. So that's on the table. I think you could put a bunch of other guys on that table as well in terms of players. they could potentially trade away and salvage cutting a Tremaine Emmons or D'Andre Swift,

which he kind of indicated they want D'Andre Swift back, period, the contract works. I think you might have a trade in the working here in the next couple weeks before the league new year and a deal in place where you can get under the cap naturally that way. Chris Emma is the Bears reporter for 104.3, the score joining us here on Rahimi Harris and Grotie and Chris, one thing I was so interested in, we haven't heard from Ben Johnson since the hires are made and his staff, as guys get replaced. And we are today. And I was curious about the messaging of Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson.

A year ago, we were saying Ben Johnson's definitely in charge. Ryan Poles has been given kind of a second chance. Does that dynamic hold based on what you heard today from those two guys? You know, throughout the season, I really just feel they got naturally on the same page. And Ryan Poles to his credit, like this is not a guy with an ego. And part of that is the fact that you are brought back to get another higher. you got to put your ego aside if you have one. But that's not the kind of guy Ryan Poles is.

And I think he, along with Ian Cunningham before him now, Jeff King, truly committed to the idea of we've got an all-star level head coach. Let's do whatever he needs in terms of building this roster. Let's get Ben Johnson players on offense. Let's get Dennis Allen players on defense. I don't know if they're going out of getting a C.J. Gardner Johnson without the approval of Dennis Allen, but Nishon Wright without Al Harris, et cetera, et cetera. I think Ryan Poles and his brass have such faith in this coaching staff.

they're comfortable doing whatever they need in terms of the personnel side and trusting these guys to develop them up. And you saw that throughout the course of last season. So many individual success stories along with the breakthrough season. So I was fascinated by that dynamic a year ago. How is this going to work with an incumbent general manager working with a first year head coach and the power of personnel? I really believe they were on the same page all the way through the season and more so after having the kind of breakthrough they did. We're talking to Chris Emma. He is reporting for us here on one of the first.

War 3, The Score at the Combine. He also joins us on Twitch, Twitch.tv.tv slash the score Chicago. And Chris, I want to go back to what you mentioned, that quote from Ryan polls about DJ Moore. When you hear him talk about scenarios multiple times and the decisions the team has to make, what did you gather from just how serious he's taking this? And I think the possibility, because DJ Moore is such a wanted talent, too, that that is really weighing on him. It's a luxury to have three really dynamic receivers. DJ Moore, Roman Dounsay, who played through so much last year, injured that you expect better of him next season.

And then Luther Burden, who flashed brilliance at times throughout the course of last season. That doesn't even include the tight end room with Colston Loveland. You've got so many options in this passing game. At the same point in time, DJ Moore has a contract of 20 plus million a year going through the next four years. It's a hefty deal. And as you've got to make these decisions, and we'll get to the next step in a second here, but the Caleb Williams contract in the future. Like that's a contract in DJ Moore

that's going to loom large over Caleb Williams' discussions and your ability to strike that kind of deal properly. So it was a great contract when they signed DJ more to that, but he's coming off a tough drop in production. You've got options at wide receiver. And given the way that contract works, you can't release him. You're in a spot where if a team is willing to take on that contract

and see him as a number one who can step in for a team on the rise, you've got to consider that move. And I know there's been a lot to talk about like the Max Crosby possibility. That's thinking way too big. I think the bear's willingness, if they can get a suitor with a good return to take on that contract,

they'll be willing to do it. That cures a lot of ills and a lot of problems you have in terms of getting your books set for the future. So I think the bears would absolutely be willing to make that move. So yeah, so he could still end up here, Chris, but I think in conclusion with what you just said and with what Ryan Pohl said, they are shopping him right now, aren't they?

Yeah, I think he's being shot more so than the Bears are shopping. Ryan Pulse said they're getting interest. He's getting calls from other teams. And look, teams become vultures when they see a team like the Bears that's over the cap and has until March 11th to make those decisions. The Bears don't want to cut Tremade Emmons. They don't want to cut DeAndre Swift. They don't want to cut guys like that who are obvious candidates.

And trading DJ Moore solves most of those problems. And by the way, you're pretty well set at wide receiver without. him as much as they love the guy and they do. This is not about that last play in the playoff game. They're not mad at DJ Moore. They love this guy. But if you get a suiter and to take on that contract, you've got to be willing to do it. I love that approach because that's a realistic approach. It's pragmatic. When you look at the draft, obviously you're there for the combine. They're looking at these guys who are supposed to be the next wave. Do you feel like from their answers, they are going to lean more towards

defense. I heard the best player available, which yes, that's what you do early. But how much will this be symmetrical maybe to what they did on offense last year, defense maybe this year? If I had a dollar for every time you heard best player available here in Indianapolis this week, I'd be a rich, rich man. Yeah, that's what you're going to hear plenty. But look, when you're picking at 25, that's kind of got to be the approach you have to some degree. Yes, it's a deep draft in defensive linemen in edge rushers and what the bears desperately need. But I asked Ryan pulls about that spot today and he kind of pointed to the idea of they never they felt really confident they have their defensive line set a year ago and the injuries took it to

austin booker didn't come on till he was fully healthy from the knee injury and dio dainbo who they said is going to be ready for the start of training camp that's their belief and they really believe this deal line's going to come together once they get guys healthy and they want a second shot of that while continuing to add players this offseason one of my takeaways is that they are wide open and left tackle and i think their hope is that somebody falls to them at pick 25 where They can get a franchise left tackle there. And Ryan Pools rule out the idea of they're not moving Joe Tundi to left tackle. Darno Wright, they want him at right tackle next to Jonah Jackson.

They said that's off the table a year ago that was on the table to move Darno right to left tackle. They are sent at four out of five offensive line spots, and they are wide open to left tackle. It's not a great free agent class in that position. You know, Bracston Jones will be one of the top guys available, and they've already kind of formally and formally parted ways with him. I think they're hoping somebody in the draft is there for him. I think they're perfectly comfortable as well with Theo Benedict coming back. Maybe you take a veteran option after the draft if it doesn't completely fall your way. But this is a very strong tackle draft.

And I think their hope and desires to get somebody there at pick 25. Okay, Chris, I think we've spent enough time now, not talking about it so it's time. Ben Johnson's answer about Tyson-Bagent when we were laughing about it. We spent a whole segment talking about it because it was amazing. Brian Poles is a little more business like. said the team and received calls and you were there. What was Ben Johnson's tone and what was his emotion when he issued the famous no? You know, it was, Ben Johnson loves Tyson Bayesian.

They are wired the same way, and you can take that any way you want. They've got a little bit of that inner demon to them, where those guys are the most intense competitors you'll find out there. And Ben Johnson does not want to lose Tyson Bayesian. Now, take it back to when that contract extension was struck during training camp last year, They weren't so sure about Caleb Williams in that moment. And obviously he came on and ascended and looked like the guy you wanted him to be. But it was an insurance policy at the time.

And your best case scenario played out. Caleb Williams is your guy going forward. And you got Tyson Bayesian as a luxury option where consider this quarterback mark is not great. Malik Williams is your top free agent out there. Teams would love to trade for Tyson Bayesian. So what are you looking for? What are you willing to get for him that would make you make that deal? The Bears value Tyson-Bajun more than any other team in the league.

That much is clear with the grumbling dough that we got from Ben Johnson. Would they settle for a three for Tyson-Bajun? Would it have to be a two? I'm curious by that. You've got to strike the balance of your value, which is very high for Tyson-Basian, with what teams are desperate enough to do to get him because there's going to be a lot of teams really desperate to make that move. The NFL draft is a craft shoe for quarterbacks.

You don't know if you're a team that's in the mid of the first round. trying to figure out if you're going to get your franchise guy or just settle for whatever. So it's a fascinating option because he's proven himself as a starting caliber quarterback in this league. And certainly teams around the league see it that way. All right. Speaking of the starter of the Chicago Bears, he is Caleb Williams. What are you hearing? What are you inferring or discerning from the things you are hearing from GM and head coach about Caleb Williams? Ryan Pulse was asked today about their cap situation and generally spoke with credit to Matt Fines.

who runs their administrative side and the decisions they have to make here in the immediate future before March 11th. But then he pivoted without being asked about it to Caleb Williams and said, look, we've got to start considering them bottles and the formulas of that contract for him.

You're a year away from if he has that kind of strong third season, you're giving him that top dollar that a franchise quarterback gets. That is anointing him beyond just lip services. He's the franchise quarterback and he paid like it. The bears are preparing themselves. for that. And Ryan Pulse made it clear, like, they're setting up their books for scenarios

with and without Caleb Williams getting that kind of long-term deal. That is the ideal scenario. That is something Chicago has been starved for, is having that quarterback for, you're paying him crazy amounts of money and saying, this is our guy. We don't care. We're going to win Super Bowls with him. And that's what you've been desperate to have in this city or not this city, Indianapolis, but in Chicago. So the bears are preparing themselves for that. They understand that that scenario is on the table. Ryan Poles also said, look, I'm not saying anything that's there, though. He's got to improve.

He knows it. Ben Johnson knows it. The follow-up was, what does Caleb Williams need to do in your mind? Ben Johnson kind of took the answer about stacking those consistent performances, being more efficient, putting the ball in the right spot to his wide receivers where they don't have to be reaching it for you're not misfiring. And that's 70% completion maybe heard about before the season. It didn't come close to that.

That was a benchmark that granted a high one that Ben Johnson wanted to see Caleb Williams close to. You want to see a more efficient, more consistent product from him in year three. If that's the case, you're rewarding him with that top dollar and you're moving forward without any regrets. Looking at this actual combine, have you started looking at who they should be looking at? I mean, I love this week because there's just so much wild speculation, but you're there, Chris, and you're going to be there all week. So how are you approaching it from your angle? Well, yeah, it's fascinating to see. You'll also hear from executives and league scouts talking about how this is really just where you confirm what you saw on tape.

And the medicals are obviously the most important factor. But those meetings are critical, too. Your opportunity to get one-on-one with them. We've heard so much when the Bears select a player talking about from the head coach or the GM about how they were struck in that meeting here at the NFL Combine and how it was such a strong impression. And for Ryan Poles, the importance of building a team the right way, building guys with character and who love football. This is where you truly turn over those stones and figure out. is this somebody who can be part of a barding culture that was part of this breakthrough season.

So it really sets up well from a talent standpoint where even at pick 25 and you're so happy to be there as opposed to pick into the top five or top 10 again, you're going to get some talented players falling your way. And this is a draft that stacks up when you talk about tackle, you talk about defensive lineman. You've got a lot of talent. Somebody's going to be there for you at pick 25. You're not sitting there taking whatever scraps you can find. This is a deep draft. It's a talented draft.

and it sets up well for where the Bears want to go. And we know, Chris, that Ian Cunningham had spoken about the compensatory draft picks. We know Ryan Poles had as well. Anything else you want to add to that discussion or what you're seeing at the Combine when it came to the Bears possibly getting compensatory picks? At least we know that there's going to be another conversation surrounding that idea. I love the way Ryan Poles answered that question. He was very, he said what we knew about his relationship with Ian Cunningham.

And they were setting each other up. There was a scenario in which Ian Cunningham. which Ian Cunningham got a GM job before Ryan Poles a few years back. And Ryan Poles is his assistant general manager, and it's Ian propping him up. Those two are so close. I love the fact that they had that brotherhood and that connection where they were able to fight for each other. But Ryan Pulls pivoted said, like, look, what we're talking to the league about, this is not settled. He was asked directly, is this something where you think you're understanding you're not getting

that big? He said, no. So it's still on the table. Look toward March 11th, the start of the league new year. That is about when the NFL releases. its full draft order, including those compensatory picks. This is not a done deal by any means, according to the Bears and according to Ryan Poles. So Ryan Poles said, like, they believe it's fair that they get those picks.

This is not why he supported Ian Cunningham. He made that perfectly clear. This is one of his best friends in the league. This is somebody who's back he was going to have all the way. This is not about the picks, but they believe that they are deserving those based on the letter of the law. And Ian Cunningham was asked about that, too. And he said, look, my understanding is, me being higher leads to third round picks.

I believe the bear should get third round picks. So both Ian Cunningham and Ryan Poles making their case for the bears to get these draft picks. We'll see if anything changes here. They've got until April. A couple things here. A couple of the speed round for you. First of all, just a quick correction. It's a pillow, just so you know, Emma.

Just want to make sure that that is out there. And then number two, what's cooking tonight, man? What else do you have left out at the combine today? and where will you be hanging out tonight? Let the world know, Chris. I got to support our friend Courtney Cronin. She has the women of the NFL Combine cocktail party each year, which everybody's invited to.

I will be there as well. She does such a great job. She brings college students into meet with people, really a great networking event. It's a really cool production. Mark, you've been there the last couple of years, I believe, as well. So shout out to Courtney, who's doing good things for good people out there and trying to get, build people up in this industry.

and I think I have a St. Elmo's reservation, as a matter of fact, too. This will be the first of... Check that. Tonight is Prime 47 and then tomorrow is St. Elmo. By the way, at that... Oh, excuse me. Hey, what? That's a double steakhouse.

Come on now. Yeah, man. I mean, you know, that's pretty amazing right there. Really quick, though, on the serious side of that event, that the women in media at the Combine event that's going on, normally there are cameos typically at that event from none of the event from none of than George McCasky and Kevin Warren. Wonder if they'll stop in tonight, Chris?

You know, I feel like I can put our guy on blast for this because it's John Greenberg and he loves to put other people on blast. He was the one to ask Ryan Poles kind of jokingly if he's paying attention to the stadium thing. And Ryan Poles, who's fresh off a vacation in Mexico, said, I was at the pool down in Mexico and somebody came out to me and said, where's this stadium going to be built?

And he's like, look, man, I got enough issues with this roster. So shout up to John Greenberg who asked the question. That was the only stadium question so far. I'm sitting here at the convention center looking at the top of the Indiana State House right now. There's a lot of business. I've not seen Kevin Warren or George McCasky yet, but I'm positive. They are in town. I'm curious to see what kind of business this is going to be here.

So, yeah, it just happens to be this combine is two blocks away from the Indiana State House. What a coincidence. Relevant place this time of year. Wait a second. Ryan Poles was approached in Mexico at the pool about the Bears Stadium. We have reached peak issue with this. This may shock you. He had no interest in discussing it either.

So, yeah, it is a relevant topic here. The Bears are trying to set their foundation for the football future and obviously for their stadium future. It's all right here in Indianapolis. Poor Ryan Poles. Okay, Chris Emma, thank you so much for joining us. Take care. Thanks, Chris. That's Chris with the latest from the NFL Combine.

He will join the afternoon show of Spiegel and Holmes. Can you imagine you're just lounging by a pool? You think your work is relatively quiet for a couple days. Hey, you're on vacation. Hey, man, where are the Bears building this stadium? He's a Mexico and a luxury resort. He's got a bob coming up to. I think Ryan Paul's got a crash course in how famous he is.

That's the type of job you have now, dude. no anonymity for you. I just see I'm like holding up like a coconut or, you know, they put the little, like the straw on the coconut music's playing and then all of a sudden, are they going to Indiana? If they're going to Indiana, no. It would have been a better story if the dude had like a cheese grater hat on or something. Oh man, yeah. Now you can't leave.

What do you bet the next day at the pool like cheese grater hat comes out and like. Oh, man. He should add an awesome. article bears apparel every time he sees Ryan Poles at the seems like a great like PSA commercial whatever. If you know the person who is in Mexico at the resort with Ryan Poles, holler at us. No, I'm kidding.

I think we've got to get to a little bit more. Chris Emma alluded to it, but just the rest of what we heard from Ryan Poles that we can bring to you. And some of Ben Johnson's side session with reporters as well at the combine. Next. Rahimi Harrison Grody. The great Kevin Harlan. I just pulled through the Taco Bell drive-thru, and I've got a couple of big, nasty, supreme burritos right here waiting to beat.

You know, the first thing they ask you now, are you using the app? No, I just want my burrito. I don't want to use an app. Bring a lot of mild sauce because I'm going to squirt it all over the way. Put some hot sauce on my burrito, baby. Rahimi Harrison Grody, Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on The Score. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104 3 The Score. and we're getting back to some of the audio that we didn't hear earlier today at the NFL Combine.

Both Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson spoke in separate sessions off to the side. You just heard Chris Emma give us the latest and there was acknowledgement of it. So Poles was asked whether the team's approach would be to win now or build for the future. I should hope. I know the answer, but let's listen in. You got to win the first one, right? You got to get started. But what are you willing to sacrifice to do that?

Like, there's some things you can do to, and you all have seen that before I got here. You can accelerate it and then after it goes away pretty quick. So we got to balance both. Unfortunately, that's not reality in terms of, you know, picking it and do you want to go all in and hurt yourself on the road. Our mindset is to do both win now and be able to sustain that and have flexibility. It's not going to be easy, you know what I mean? I can guarantee you, you know, we've been really good with that money at some point that's going to go up to because that's just the nature of playing this out over a long period of time

and having tough decisions to make. I mean, that is the most reasonable answer you can give, but I, there's a part of me that wants to say like, we're in win now mode. Like, it's time to win. They're, they are. They're in one now mode. They just won. They got to keep winning.

Keep winning mode. That's what I was saying. Keep winning. That's the answer is like, yes, we have to worry about 20, 30. too. But also at the same time, 2026 is here now. Caleb Williams is on a rookie contract. That's more than anything, that's why the win now

part of it is because that Caleb Williams contract, things are going to get exponentially more difficult to navigate once he gets done with this contract. It is, but you know what's the really good news is, and it's ironic that I'm saying that around here, they have their offense set. Like the base of their

offense is set, and you just can start with the offensive line. Right there, boom. And I know like, Ben Johnson, I know he was talking about it. I know there was a question about, you know, everything starts from scratch and forget about last year. No, no. You have an offensive line.

You have a quarterback. You have DeAndre Swift, who we were talking about earlier. You have receivers. Your base is set. Now, we know there's tons of problems on defense, but I think that is, like, we know this.

That's more fixable than offense has been in past years for the Bears. So I think they can get that right, too. Oh, you are absolutely correct on that. At least they're not in when you get in mode. Where'd you get in? That is exactly why I did that. Thank you. I needed that.

When'd you get in? When'd you get in? I've actually witnessed Pat being asked the question in my days covering the Cubs. He's right. That is the question. That's part of spring train. No. Okay.

So I think we have time for this. I think it's worth being added in. So, yeah, the comments that Chris Emma made about Brian Poles being confronted about the stadium. That's kind of off the top of a little bit. Do you keep up with the stadium stuff? Do you have people texting you, asking you if the bears are moving in Indiana? How much do you keep up with it internally?

I have enough to worry about with the football team. Yes, text, random calls of people. I don't know how they have my number to being in and Grant came in and bump it up in the pool and start telling me about where they want the stadium. Yeah, I got a lot of faith in Kevin and George to get that done. and do what's best for the organization or fan base. There's a lot of pieces involved with that, but like I said, I got enough worry about with the roster.

Is that your stock answer when people come up to the pool and ask you? No, I just don't say much at home. Grand Cayman, so it wasn't Mexico, it was Grand Cayman. So a whole detached island from the continent, and poor Ryan Poles is getting that. That's better than, like, ask you, hey, what happened to ruin Hippolyte last year? How come he wasn't good?

It must be refreshing for Ryan Poles. I'm about to say, the questions that would have been asked if maybe the bears weren't good or not even questions, just statements towards him on vacation? Why didn't you play Dyson more? Or just, are y'all ever going to win?

He's coming off a winning season. So at least now... What about Zay Fraser? The comments are much friendlier right now. It's just a, it's a better tone. And you think Kyle Malangai can rush for 2,000 yards this year?

Ryan? How do you take calls on the shovels in the ground podcast? We can't. Yeah, we don't. It's a podcast, so we don't take calls. You could only do a live podcast. Or like voice mails. Oh, yeah, we could take.

I think they call live podcasts in the studios radio shows. It can look, normally did the left tackle. They're on the radio anyway. I know, but they did the TTN. TTIN? TTIN. Yeah, TTIN. No, it was.

Yeah, I feel you. It is a TTIN podcast live when it's those two. Yeah. I'm just being silly. I like shovels in the girls. round two. I do think that would be good. So speaking of the defense being easier to fit. As Mark and Marshall.

I'm going to make fetch happen, okay. Nothing's to each other. SITG. Maybe we just have to say it, and that's the difference. SITG. SITG. On three. SITG.

Yeah. One, two, three. SITG. SITG. It's not working. It's not. Sorry. We tried.

Take the north. It is. We'll record today, by the way, Dan Weederer in Indianapolis. that'll come out later this afternoon. Are you going to ask him about the defensive line? Because somebody asked Ryan Poles. What accidents are you looking for from some of these defensive line prospects? Yeah, motor relentlessness, violence, explosive.

And then I just want to continue to improve our defensive speed. I think we saw that a little bit, Green Bay and some of the games on the stretch. I want to improve our defensive speed overall. So those are some of the factors. I want Jared Verse type violence. Don't we all? No, but I'm just like what he just said, oh my God. Okay, so when he said the word, when he was listing the traits, the motor and everything

else, when he got to violence, the first picture that came in my head was Jared first just out here acting like Max Crosby, but just not getting home as much. There's similar styles, aren't they? Basically. I mean, or Max Crosby, I'll take a, there's a list of players you can bring me who I think violence. And the bears, to my understanding, as we look around, did not have

enough violence last year on defense. They had takeaways, but they did not have violence. My forever question for the last year plus now, I'll ask it again, is Austin Booker good? Because he's got that motor too.

Undersized. I don't know. There's been, hey, there's been many successful undersized defensive ends. Dwight Franey comes to mind right off. the bat that, you know, it's not everything when it comes to that position. But I don't know. I can't call it yet with him. I want to call it positive because the way he started utilizing moves at the line of scrimmage, you know, his hand coordination and just some of the moves he was using to get past the offensive line, I feel like with another year of that, he's going to make a lot,

a lot of progress. And you started to see him really break through at times where you almost had it on command. Do you remember you'd say, oh, this might be a good time for Austin Booker. And then he was showing up late in the season. Yeah. So I really like the progress he made, especially in the offseason and how that translated to his play on the field. Ben Johnson also asked about the defensive line. How did you assess the defensive line and what attributes are you looking to bring to

the building, whether it's through draft or free agency? Yeah, well, we're still going through that process right now, just free agency. There's some guys out there that we feel like could help us out. we certainly feel good about some of the guys that we currently have in the building that they'll continue to ascend and take the coaching that, you know, DA and the defensive staff are providing for them. But, you know, for us to take the next step as a defense, we do need to pressure the quarterback and a more consistent clip. And so that is a point of emphasis for us. I do think this draft does have some guys that could possibly help us out in that regard. But that will be something that we got to look at in a way.

will be a point of emphasis when we come back in the springtime. Just how do we increase our get off to where we can put more pressure on the queue? I think he's right. They do have to pressure the quarterback more consistently. And I want to see it. The ideal is how the Seahawks did it in the playoffs, where it was early in the game when they needed a stop, whatever they possibly needed at any given time,

not just with a lead. That's what the Seahawks pass rush was able to do. Marshall's just like half smiling at me. Are you picturing the Seahawks defense now? And listen, the thing is, it can't be, because the thing we've been talking about is like, edge rush, edge rush, edge rush, edge rush, edge rush for years. I'm going to need that push and that threat of a sack to come from the interior as well. How we doing, Javon Dexter?

How we doing Andrew Billings? How we doing, Shamar Turner? Well, Andrew Billings even be on the team. Yeah, right, right. He is free agent. And that's why I had that look when you looked at me, because Ben Johnson's just echoing all of our sentiments. I don't think big bills. He's actually in a building and can do something about it.

Big Bill's not going to be back either. It didn't feel like Dennis Allen guy. Like, he was not as featured. He felt more like depth all season. Even from jump. Even from jump when he was a second string out the gate. Right. Right.

And it doesn't mean he was a bad player. It just doesn't appear that he's a Dennis Allen guy. He's not the difference maker that is going to be prioritized in what they're trying to do going forward. That is correct. The wild card is from Mark Turner, a guy that I far from having given up on. This is a second round pick. I talk about a motor and an engine engine and a real inspired type of player.

Let's see what Dennis Allen can do with him this year. So, I mean, he is healthy. And he had to make an adjustment on the line, too. So there was a position adjustment for Shemar Turner. I really loved watching his tape coming out of Texas A&M. And that's the hope. I know it's college. It's different.

It's a second round pick for a reason, Leila. But the way he showed, like just the tackles he was making as well and the stops, like the way he just absolutely stopped forward momentum of any ball carrier was really encouraging. You had me at Texas tape. College. Roshan Johnson. I'm done. Well, the argument there was, oh, he's backing up Bijon Robinson, the best quarterback.

But what we are running back. But what we forget is you don't care as much about the back of running back when you have Bijon Robinson. That's a fair statement. He looks like one of the best, if not the best running backs in the NFL. right now. Also, Turner was A&M and Roshan was Texas. That's right. That's right. And Roshan clearly not a

Ben Johnson guy as he basically became special teams. That's a really good point. Yeah. I mean, like we want to look at like, start to discern and you kind of tell you like this guy, didn't like that guy. That A.R. run though. That A. Remember when he popped up for that A. A.R. Run out of nowhere. That's right. We were like,

he's back. He's back. No. And A. DiCaprio pointing at the screen. Like, ah. Yeah. That's I just, Grotie's going to do the Ben Johnson no from now on from here. No, just today, just today. Liar! Why just today? You don't, why do you even?

I'd be like, hey, Grody, have you watched the other guys yet? No. I never repeat stuff. I would never do that. I would never carry this over to another day. I would never do that. Brody, did I switch the samples? Ann McNeil.

No, just watch the samples. Oh, man, that's another level of Richard Kimball. Overmodulated Richard Kimball. went to... You find this man! You're in a silence of the lambs face. Like, you keep trying to mix in a little bit of silence of the lambs and all of you. That would be no.

No. No. I'm creeping myself out right now. You're creeping out the listener. That's the thing. She's encouraging me. Yes, she is. She's doing it.

No, I'm just thinking about... I'm thinking about just like the unnecessary sense of obsession with Tyson Tyson Bayesian combined with silence of the... I mean, It really all comes together. Ben matched some of our listeners' obsession with Tyson Bayesian, and that is disconcerting. Walter White, too. Clancy!

They're all the same, really. Poor Tyson Bayesian. I am the man! He's just minding his own business, probably hanging out, doing some CrossFit. West Virginia gets all these texts talking about everybody blowing up about Tyson Bayon possibly being traded. It sounds like a thrasher band, too, a little bit. Amazing. We're going to switch gears a little bit because coming up next, this is pretty great.

You're going to hear some very wholesome answers about what the Bulls did when they signed their first contracts. That's next. Lee Harrison Grody. Can you imagine Lovey Smith doing the whole good, better, best thing? And saying bleep the Packers. Come on, guys, good better best. Never let it rest. I'll see you on Tuesday.

Middays 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. This is Rahimi Harris and Grotie on 104-3 The Score, and the Bulls media social team did something really cool. They asked the Chicago Bulls players how they spent their first NBA paycheck. Take a listen. What I do in my first paycheck? I paid for my sister's college tuition. Did you really?

Yeah. That's sweet. A lot of it went to savings, but some of it went to a flight up to Minnesota so I could catch. my daughter's birth. Shout out to that. I bought my mom, my Rolex, and my dad ran.

My first paycheck, I bought a car. It was a BMW. That was the first big thing I did with it. First paycheck, I bought a car, and then I found an apartment, so rent, the rest I could save. Patrick Williams,

with the rent and the car and saving money. He's just like us. There's so many jokes I could throw there. I just let it ride, though, because you know what, Patrick, various wise investments, taking that NBA money and making sure that it lasts, even if maybe the time in the NBA does not. Hey, after that, he got 5 and 90. Come on now. I know, he's good. Modis paid for his sister's education.

That was very nice. That was moving. What did you guys do with your first paycheck? That doesn't mean you get to talk to him at the Oakville and say, hey, that was really nice. Do you remember what you did with your first paycheck? I paid my overdue electric bill or something. Like the first... No, like your first job ever.

Oh. What was your first job ever? My goodness. Oh, I was a busboy at the Itasca Country Club. So you just probably bought some food. Gas, right? Oh, that's, yeah, like when you have money in your pocket for the first time. Yeah, you have money in your pocket.

So I'm moving very slowly on this question. Yeah. Sorry. Somebody else to talk because... I bought gas and I know that I got closed somewhere. I know I did that. I did not have a car, but I tell you. I went right at the YFZA where I was keeping score.

And I went right down the street to the gas station and bought way too much candy. Way too much candy. That's what you did? Yeah. I was like, I had some extra money. The stuff my parents had never buy me. I was 12. Get like a super big gulp.

Oh, I thought you meant like an actual job. It was the first time I got money for like, yeah, those types of jobs like doing babysitting or something. I think I just saved it like a door. That is dork. Like a lie. I did work at the Jules, too. That was my second job. That was a parceler.

I'm paying somebody's college education of the Jules the way I shopped there. Good for you. My breakfast was from the Jules today. Paper or plastic, ma'am. I do love a good double bagged paper every once in a while from the Jules. Did you bag groceries?

Paper over plastic. I did. Yeah, that's what they call it. I was a parceler. I was told you are, you know, you're not a bagger. You are a parceler. I saw baggers can't be juicers. That's what I was told.

Oh, beggars can't be juicers? Yeah, like beggars can't be choosers. Oh, my goodness. Very good. You got to set a good base. Dad jokes were coming at me hard at the grocery store. Well, another like, you better learn how to bag groceries and then one self-checkout happened. You better learn how to code and now AI self-code.

So it's like, what's next? What do we do now? We talk about sports. Well, that's you. That's it. Better learn how to talk about sports. That's really the answer to everything. You know what?

Just talk sports. And if you thought we trolled some people, listen to how Ben Johnson trolled Caleb Williams. Let's start with this. I know what everyone's thinking. Does Caleb have NBA aspirations? And the answer is no. I think football is his calling. Did you see the three-point contest?

Yeah. You feel better? Were you worried? Well, I sent him a meme of a guy just missing left and right, like before. And then when it actually happened, I felt bad. I spoke that one to do it So anyways

Let's open it up Below 70% I think I'm Yeah Yeah Yeah it was Thanks for the reminder I love how he's like

Hey y'all see that bleep show See that guy Couldn't hit anything I bet he did feel bad though After sending the man I wonder if it was the Spice Adams You ever seen that What's his character

The basketball? Cream Biggams Where he's just throwing the ball To the left, to the right. You know Caleb when he hears that, he's going to smile and joke about it, but deep down inside, it's got to sting a little bit. Because you know he wanted to perform well there. Did you see his post on Instagram where he had his cites? It's like hanging him up.

Out the window, right? He was driving. He had him hanging out the window. I thought that was hilarious. Yeah. Caleb, yeah. Also, Ben Johnson trolling Caleb. I've been just being like, this got to be you.

Ben Johnson. What the hell? Ben Johnson told Caleb Williams to get away from football, and he got away from football. Well, look, I don't think Caleb Williams needed to be told to get away from football. I always love that. The idea that the Bears are the One, he traveled the world last year after his rookie year. And God bless him. He should.

I don't think anybody needs to tell Caleb how to have a good time and live his life. He seems to enjoy that part of the celebrity world. Yeah, one of our textures, I assume because it was, We were talking about trying to get Ben Johnson on it. They were like, well, how hard is it to get Caleb Williams on? I'm like, it's incredibly hard. It's like the money ball answer. It's incredibly difficult.

It shouldn't be that hard, but, you know, I get it. A lot of people want to talk to these guys. So it's what it is. It is indeed. And next, we bring in Lawrence Holmes and Matt Spiegel.