Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Full Show — February 3, 2026

Episode Date: March 3, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris discussed the Bears' chances to trade for Raiders star defensive end Maxx Crosby. Late in the show, they reacted to the breaking news that Bears center Drew Dalman is retiring.

Hey y'all, I'm Maddie. And I'm Poodle. And together, we host the podcast, Reality Gays. We are two ridiculous homosexuals who love nothing more than talking about reality television and tearing in a new one. So whether it's 90-day fiancé, love is blind, love after lockup, or any other trash TV show about lonely hearts looking for love. Your gay besties got you cover, Joe. New shows every week. Follow and listen to Reality Gays wherever you get your podcast.

This hour is brought to you by Vesectomy Cliffs. of Chicago. The views and opinions of Lela 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 Harrison Grody may change at any time. It's just sports.

Okay, thanks. Bye. Rahimi Harrison Grody. 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. In my snoopings, I notice that the Lions on the player survey, the offensive coordinator, got a C. Do you think Ben Johnson knows that, looked it up and has pinned it up, maybe just on the refrigerator with a magnet on there, just to see, grade C? Because you know he's still pissed off about that 50 burger.

There's no way. He's upset. He was also really upset about the last game of the regular season. Yeah. Can you say simpler game plan? Hold him back at all. Nope. Come on, Ben.

What do you think about that? Huh? Taking your shirt off at the Bulls game? You think this is funny? No. You think this is some kind of game? I'm sorry. Making jokes about your quarterback?

What do you think this is? He's saying, you want a piece of me? You could drop you like a bag of dirt. You want a piece of me? You got it! I imagine he's going to get Cubs season tickets this year, which will be a blast to see him with his shirt off in the left field bleachers. Why do you think he's a left field bleacher? Absolutely.

Right field sucks. Good better best It's over Denver South Park whooped your ass You better shut your mouth Before I shut it for you What do you want to do Huh?

Marshall Harris Mark Grody Midday's 10 a.m. 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 104 3 The Score I think Ben Johnson's having fun Flashes the camera at the Bulls game He's outside

He's telling people how much he loves Tyson, Bajent, just driving around from Indianapolis back to Chicago for the combine. It's just out here. He's doing things. When does he go back to being that dude, though, the scary dude? Training camp. OTAs. So OTAs?

Maybe many camp. Listen, it's kind of scary to see him turn it on and turn it off. Like he's got this public persona, as you mentioned at the Bulls game. I mean, you could argue he sparked a 270-0 run. like there are things happening right now with Ben Johnson that if you go back, what, three months, it's a different person that I remember being stern with everyone about everything.

I think coaches are right when they say players will test you. You know, players will see what they want to get away, what they can get away with, I should say. And you have to, especially after a training camp last year where they said steps were skipped, that you'd better bring it. So I trust that he knows when to turn it off and when he's allowed to have a good time. How much of a good time do you think you would have if the Bears got Max Crossby?

I was about to ask you the same question. I don't know that my brain right now is ready to bend to understand and comprehend what Ben Johnson would be like at a Max Crosby introductory press conference. And yes, we have probably been the show here on 1043, the score, who is character. the Max Crosby flag. The first show, we've had it the longest. We have run with that flag. I think at this point we're doing laps around Soldier Field.

We love us some Max Crosby talk. And our listeners do too. I think it's their favorite non-bear. You know, I think he's number one. But there's, I don't know if it's chicken egg, if it's correlation causation here. But Draft Kings now has the bears.

as the favorites at plus 200 to get him from the Raiders. Vietre. Is this the same as when the Bulls were the favorites to land Janice Ante Dacompo? Is that the same vibe? Probably because here's the other highest marker on the board, second highest.

Staying put with the Raiders is plus 350. So the Bears are more favored to get Max Crosby in the betting markets then Max Crosby staying with the Raiders. Is that you putting your money where your hope is? Is that what's happening here? Is this like when people started to bet on the Bulls in 2021 and 2022 when they had that nice run where DeMorrow was just hit in game winning threes?

And it was good money. It was a good bet to buy to have them win the Eastern Conference, which they certainly did not win. I put money on the Bulls this year, so don't ask me about that one. Marshall, how did that go for you? It did not go well, but we can get to that later. What I will say is Chicago. What was the bet, though?

I put a bet in at 40 wins, 45 wins. I had Billy Donovan coach of the year. Several bets. Several bets. You're a value guy, though. I am a value guy. I got all those at respectable prices. I will not be getting any of that money back.

I will tell you this, though. The Twitch mom is already roasting you. Yeah, they should. roast away. Hey, look, I admit what I deserve. How's that 46 looking? It was 45. I'm tired of Mully and Hall. I've been out here, specifically Mully, trying to stretch the wind total. I think Spiegs was at it too. 50 wins, Marshall. I was like, no one ever said anything about 50 wins. I heard 63. Okay. All right. All right. What I'm saying is the Chicago better has so much power when it comes to the way this thing moves.

What about the Chicago Best? Listen, from plus 650 to plus 200 in one day in 24 hours? Here's what I think we can agree on. The likelihood of Max Crosby staying with the Raiders, I actually think at plus 350, that's amusing to me. I know John Spitech has said all the right things, the Raiders general manager. I know he's acting like he's going to be there. I understand that that's a guy who's young enough to where you could build around him.

He's far and away your highest paid player over $35 million a year, which is why I think it's tricky if the bears want to try to do this. Like, you're going to need somebody from that movie, The Accountant, to help you guys out with your cap, if that's the case. The cap is, for everybody who says the cap is non-existent, Ryan Poles doesn't feel that way. just so you guys are aware. Like Ryan Poles has said,

and he was quoted as such last week at the Combine, that he can't be kicking the can down the road. So that's something he's been mindful of. The cat may be non-existent to you, but to Ryan Poles, he's on the record as saying that's something that, that situation he doesn't want to get into.

So if that's the case, you're going to have to have some absolutely creative accounting to get this done. Isn't that what Matt Feinstein's four, though, to get the creative accounting? done? He's the cab guy. I mean, and you need a cap guy on your team. There's no doubt about that. But they can only do so much when you're when your GM and he's still got two bosses and Kevin Warren and George McCasky when your GM says he doesn't want to get into a situation where he's he's mortgaging

the present for the future. So there's that or the future for the present rather in this case. No, no. Either way it kind of applies. I just think within. it's Max Crosby, you figure it out. That's your job as the general manager. If Max Crosby's available, if you've got your rookie quarterback, sorry, not rookie quarterback, but if you got your quarterback on a rookie contract, figure it out. Like, okay, we're talking about odds, right? You're talking about the second highest odds are him staying in Vegas. What do the odds move to if the bears get Max Crosby on this team? That's the odds I'm thinking about. Well, and in the meantime, what is the likelihood?

Like, what's the real likelihood? Here's some quotes from Ryan Poles that make me think this way. Poles said, this is a unique situation where we've gotten our roster in a position where we have a lot of talented players, a lot of guys getting paid well, and that puts some constraints on the cap.

Yes, it does. And we already saw one team who was over the cap and the Lions make a move that, you know, you could argue, kind of starts a different path for them with David Montgomery getting traded over to Houston. Now, David and Montgomery jokes about whether or not he said he wanted to get traded, but it's a done deal now.

So polls continued on Tuesday of last week, so this is a week ago at the combine saying this. So we got to make some tough decisions. When we win games, you create these relationships. There's leadership guys, or there's guys that were captains and mean a lot to our organization. But when you're kind of put in a corner, that's what the league's been and has been.

So I think he understands. He's not going to do something extreme. when he's already invested so much in the defensive line. But I think we are all in the same spot of, there's a difference between having what you have in the defensive line currently, which wasn't fully realized last year whether or not you want to get into it and how. Grady Jarrett wasn't healthy. Dio Dengbo is out for a considerate amount of time after tearing his Achilles.

We've talked about that. Montez Sweat got back to form somewhat, you know, with 10 sacks, and earning his contract a little bit better. Sacks of consequence, maybe we break that down at some point. Dauvin Dexter had six sacks. We find out that from Brad Biggs, Drvon Dexter isn't going to go anywhere in this last year of his deal. So that line that has gotten so much attention and so much money given to it hasn't produced based on the contracts. The quality of Max Crosby is, even if roughly $35.8 million, he is. So that's what makes it so tough.

Like everybody listening knows if you insert him on this Bears defensive line, rec shop will be happening. After seeing the Seahawks in the Super Bowl with waves of a pass rush. What's concerning about it is, as we talk about Max Crosby and the idea that he could be moved

as early as this week, if you listen to Albert Breer and what he's talking about, and the odds moving here on Rahimi Harris and Grotie on 1043, the score. Here's the difficult part for me, Leila. As I look at this and understand everything you just said, but also understand the Bears won the division last year, and they did it, and you could argue the defensive line was their weakest of all the positions. Like defensive line versus linebacker, secondary versus the wide receiver room, the offensive

line certainly, the quarterback position. I make the case that the defensive line was the weakest part of the team. Point blank and period, even with Montez sweat not being awful. And the most expensive. That's a tough thing to marry together, right? Like, you underperformed as a unit. Also, we invested as much, if not more money, into this part of the football team than we did anything else.

And I understand injuries happen. I get it. Grady Jared had to have surgery. Dio Dingbo, out for the year. I understand all that. But the reality is, if you're going to win. in the National Football League today, you have to have a well above average defensive line.

And here's the other part about what Poles had to say. There are some things you can do. You have seen that before I, you all have seen that before I got here. You can accelerate and then after it goes away pretty quick. So you've got to balance both. Unfortunately, that's not reality in terms of picking it and you do want to go all in and hurt yourself. Do you want to go all in and hurt yourself down the road?

So he said that. Our mindset is to do both win now and then be able to sustain that and have flexibility. It's not going to be easy. Hey, Layla. Does that, I mean, so the GM said it himself. He's not willing to put all the chips in. And, you know, he's not worried about the 2032 Cubs, but he kind of is. Who do you have as the gold standard as far as general managing in the NFL?

Howie Roseman. Is he seemed like he's worried about the future when he makes all his deals? You know what makes him able to do things in the way that he does? Because he drafts really, really well. That's it. He drafts well, and he's not siding players to contracts like that either. And so what I'm saying is... Like a Montes-Swat deal.

You've got two different paths here. Three, if you want to count trades. But free agency and the draft to build your team and make your team better. He's got elite three technique on his rookie deal. And we know the story behind that, don't we? Yeah. It should have been awarding now that I look back at it. Well, so my point is Ryan Poles is telling you this is the way I have to do it.

And no, I'm saying to Ryan Poles, no, this is the way you're choosing to do it because you don't know how to do it the other way. And that is the concern. Well, I think there's also different mechanics. The Eagles have had private equity take a stake of their team. right? So they have had that buy-in. The Bears board is still comprised of family. You know, they've kept that in house. So outside of Pat Ryan.

So based on that alone, you know, it's a different, it's a different setup entirely. Like there's no better way to view that than when you've seen what they do at the stadium. But your GM, who's in charge of all of this, basically said that he's, he didn't say he's not going to do it, but he leans toward not doing that in his statement that he made. Would it surprise you at this point if he did it? That's the question.

Well, and then here's the other part that he said. So let's listen to Ryan Poles in his entirety. When he said, I hope eventually to have a quarterback situation where we've got to pay a young quarterback. So that comes into play as well. I think we're getting closer and closer to clarity on that side of things, which helps us to start build those models to make sure that, again, we're doing the right thing for us moving forward

and we are not putting ourselves in a situation where we've got to make really tough or bad decisions down the road that hurt us. This isn't a, this is a good decision. It's just a matter of how you construct it down the line. But already some of the decisions that we thought were good. You knew that when you were traded for Montes-Sweigh, you were going to have to extend him.

And especially after he had that 10-and-a-half-sack season. So he changed the defense. year. But now you have a different defense. And that's what makes it so tricky. They clearly believe that Montes-Swatt would be more productive than he has been. And when I say more productive, I'm not saying that he didn't have a productive season, but when I say more productive, I'm saying someone who's in the pro-bowl discussion, someone who's in maybe even an all-pro discussion, and not getting the consistency. Go back to early in the season. He's got to win his one-on-month match-ups.

Like, yeah, we know. And he wasn't doing it consistently enough. And that's just one guy. And yeah, you can put faith in Austin Booker and some of these other guys. But at the end of the day... Got to extend Austin Booker in a couple of years. Well, that... Next year, right?

That is a little further down the road. And that's fine. But the idea here is to get a game record when a game record becomes available. The Packers went and got Michael Parsons. Now, he got hurt. I get that. But before he got hurt, we were all sitting here saying, that's a team that is scary and could win, you know, the NFC.

Well, and then for the people who just say, like 630, you can cut bait on all of the high-priced defensive line players next year and save significant cap. If you want to join in on the conversation, 312, 644, 67, 67. You have to juggle things this year. Then next year, the D-line would right size and you move on with significant cap space next year. Okay, cool. Montes, what's a $35.485 million dead cap hit? Since you think that that's an easy way out of this. Dio Dengbo is getting paid 20.5

and he'll be a 22 million dead cap hit next year. So I don't necessarily think that it's as simple as what you think it is. Grady Jarrett's going to be 18.92. Well, his dead cap hits 21. So they're already over. So I don't think that that's as simple as a thought process as you may indicate. So 630 on the text line, he is me and I am him. The cap is non-existent when you actually enter.

a competitive window, you pay off the loans down the line. I'm a firm believer in that. Same way if we're talking baseball, I'll trade the prospects to win now. I mean, based on the salary cap growth, that's a good argument you can make. That's the way... Given how much it's grown, even in the past five years. And that's the way Howard Roseman has been operating. He understands that the bill will come due one day, but as long as the salary cap continues to grow, as long as there's not a pandemic stopping the revenue that's incoming. He's in good shape to, yes, continually kick the can down the road

and give this group that he has right now. Just like Ryan Pohl should be doing with this group and this head coach Ben Johnson he has right now, as many chances, as many bites at the apple as you can get. There should not be, unless there's significant injuries, like Caleb Williams is out for the season or something. There should not be a point where you're trying to figure out, okay, can we not be as good.

Now, be as good as you can with everything that is, allowed from a cap standpoint, restructure, cut guys, trade guys, get draft picks, develop draft picks. These are the things that have to happen for them to take advantage of the next, let's say, five years. Which is why, yeah, the odds may be saying the bears of the most likely team, but it's also probably why the next best odds are at 350 plus 350 for Max Crosby to stay with his own, with the Raiders. But I, if you're spy tag, I just don't know how you don't let him be free somewhere else because you won't be good when he's at his best. And then use those picks and those players to help build your team.

That's what I would do if I was the Raiders without a franchise quarterback. Get rid of the guys who cost all the money and rebuild your team through the draft. So this is from Kevin Fishbane and this is just another thought. He and Dan Weider had an article in The Athletic about. it. And he said after hearing that quote that I read you guys from polls saying it's not going to be easy. Fishbane said, on the surface, my gut reaction to that was, this is not someone willing to sacrifice the future for one player. Then again, and here's the $35.8 million question. Is Crosby the exact type of player worth that kind of haul? Yes. So there's a there's a cop to be made here

that sadly is in front of our faces. So we, We should probably do that next. In the meantime, this is Rahimi, Harrison Grotia on 104-3-3-the-score. If you want to call and chime in on our conversation, we welcome you at 312-644-67. Our producers are Ray Diaz, Tyler Buterbaugh, and also Brandon Fryer helps us out as well. You can join us on Twitch and YouTube at our address changed The Score Chicago. Our Twitch mob is up and chatting there as well, so you can join the conversation there if you like. and then our video producers are Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, and Max Curtis, along with Cody Westerlin. So there's an easy comparison here that might be the easiest way to sell all of this.

I'll do that next. Lela Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Rahimi, Harrison Grody on 1043, the score. I've been playing tackle football since I could walk. Yeah, Max Crosby's going to let you know. yesterday, just yesterday, the Bears were at plus 650 odds per draft Kings to land Max Crosby. They have now moved to the favorites at plus 200. The Raiders, his actual team, are second to the Bears at plus 350. When Chicago gets organized, you guys can really move a market or two.

Yeah. This is a nice work. Yeah, unfortunately. I don't like the plus 200 there. That's not a smart bet, as well. what I would tell you on that. I want to read you this comment, though, Leila, from 920. Trading for Crosby would be a panic move by the Bears acting as if they're not used to being a winning team. It would jeopardize the future and in the best, oh, now I've lost the, I've lost

the plot. Oh, best future put them back to where they were a couple of years back. More than Crosby is needed on defense, teams will be able to focus on him and reduce his impact because there's no one else to worry about. It happened in Dallas during the playoffs with Parsons. stay calm, trust the process, including drafting players for future success. Don't panic because we were finally a quote unquote good team last year. Yeah, okay, except the process has netted you a pass rush that we just talked about, which is very expensive, injured, and not effective. And yet, one of the highest paid in the league.

So that's what makes this so tricky. And the drama is really part of this. Like you mentioned the plot, and you can join our conversation. 312-644-67, you can call in text. But the question is really at the center of this. Does he make you a Super Bowl contender? Does he do what Micah Parsons did for the Packers? Where, we know what the reality was when he got injured

and how the Bears ended that saga last season. But we know that once he was traded to the Packers, once the Cowboys made the stupid decision of trading him inside the conference, thereby also lowering their playoff chances, then the Packers became a discussion for possible NFC representative to the Super Bowl. We know that that was a game changer as far as what we thought their division win total was going to be. Had he been healthy, how would that have looked? Miles Garrett is here to tell you that the Browns beat the Packers with Micah Parsons.

But given that the bears have, I think, more weapons. They had more, they won the season series. They beat them in the playoffs. I know it took everything they had, but so do most NFL games. When you consider how the bears are on the upswing and you consider that we haven't seen the realized Caleb Williams yet, we saw Colson level it in his rookie year, Luther Burton in his rookie year, all the tools and the weapons the bears have, how much of a difference would Max Crosby make?

I think it would be the same type of conversation if he were on this team. Now, they've got four safeties that are all out of contract now. They are likely getting Tremaine Edmonds out of the building and releasing him for a cap casualty. T.J. Edwards isn't healthy. There's a lot of issues with the defense right now. But does that change how you feel about him on this team? Doesn't change how I feel about it. Look, I'm being very blunt.

If you have a chance to get a game wrecker to pair with a quarterback who's not getting paid as much, you do it. And by the time the quarterback is getting paid, some of this other, I won't call it dead weight, some of this other weight that's heavier and more dense than it should be at some of these other defensive line positions can be gone from your team. How about that? Is that a better way of putting it? Well, when people are talking about the 2027 cap hits, it doesn't apply. Crosby's available now. Yes.

If he's still available in 2027, then it's a different discussion. But this is what the scenario is in front of you right now. And the reality is, if you don't go get him and someone else goes and gets him, guess what? He's no longer available to you. You better pray it's not in the division and you better pray it's not in the conference. Brian Baldinger added to the drama yesterday when he was on our afternoon show with Spiegel and Holmes. Listen to this comp. I feel like Max is worth anything, like everything.

Like, that guy is just a difference maker. It's just a culture builder. Like, he sets the tone every day in practice from the day, you know, from the moment he walks into the building. I do the Sacks Summit every year in Las Vegas. I'm around him a lot. Like, it's just, you know, I mean, he watched, you know, Jordan show during the pandemic, and he changed his entire life.

He wants to be Michael Jordan. He wants to be the best that's ever done it. And he just has that level of commitment. I guess the last dance is what it was, right? Yes. Like, he watched that thing. His life changed. in those 10 episodes.

And he wants to be Michael Jordan. And to do it in Chicago, I mean, you know, I went to school in Michigan, you know, that would be, I think that would be a great fit. If you could make something like that happen, I see the general matter of John Spitech is shooting all these rumors down. But the rumors are out there. Like, you have to make the phone call to John SpyTech and just find out just what it takes. He's got a rich contract, but he's worth every penny of it. Nobody will play harder. Nobody will make your defense better.

He's just a difference maker. And those are the guys that basically set the tone every day when you walk into Hallis Hall. Man, listen. I heard this live when he was having this discussion with Matt Spiegel and Lawrence Holmes. And my first thought was, even as he got into the story about wanting to be my Michael Jordan, how the last dance changed his perspective about sports and playing football. And we already heard what he said on his podcast with Caleb Williams. How can you not want this guy to be on your team in Chicago?

He's flirting. There's no doubt about that. You bring up Jordan. You bring up the last dance. But he's flirting. Talk to Caleb Williams. But that's not a conversation that he had just had with him. That's him going back off recollections of years of those.

two guys knowing each other. And he's going back basically to the pandemic and talking about the production that you've seen since then, how it was influenced by the story of Michael Jordan and his documentary The Last Dance. It is. And you know what? That does, when you hear Max Crosby talk and the cup that Tyler Bueberbaugh played coming into our segment is a good indication of it.

That seemed like the right motivation for the right personality, married with the physical gifts that Max Crosby has. And you always wonder, well, why do some guys, why do they only get to play 50, 55% of the snaps and other guys are like, you can't get me off the field? I think we've gotten since the end of this season through the words of Max Crosby and others describing Max Crosby, an understanding of why he is the latter guy and not the former. Well, this is what this season is about. You know, Lawrence Holmes called it lying season where the GMs all lie. and then you're just trying to figure out which one is lying the least or which one you can just predict the best, not even lying the least.

Like, do they have a tell? Do they have a bluff? And he's creating a market for himself. He shouldn't have to, but he is? But I don't think Maxx is lying anything. No, I'm not, Max isn't a GM. Yeah, I'm just making sure we mark the delineation because I think, yes, GMs do lie. And you know what, players, Miles Garrett told me last year he wanted a trade. What happened after he said he wanted to trade?

Miles Garrett got a significant ton of money. He got like the Scrooge McDuck swim in the coin vault money. Hey, life is like a hurricane. I mean, sometimes it bees like that. And then he got the single season sack record. So I'm just saying sometimes you got to say what you got to say to get what you want. They paid him. He was happy.

And then they beat the Packers in a mysterious game. And then he reminded Michael Parsons of it. And then he got the single season sack record. Yeah, he's son Micah Parsons. He's just on his own podcast. And his girlfriend did very well at the Olympics. Chloe Kim. Yeah. Congratulations. Really good year for Team Miles Garrett outside of the record and all. Yeah, the record. But they still beat the Packers. They did to be the Packers. Thanks, Browns. I like, I like Miles Garrett. I do too. He's a funny guy. I do too. I really like that would be as much as we talk about Max Crosby and I get it, the plan B's and we're going to go over that a little bit. For everybody's saying Miles Garrett, if we're going to go to this place,

if we're going to go to the glamorous dare to dream crazy space, we're nothing stopping you, then you might as well. 312644-4-6-7. Share us with us your dream concerning Max Crosby. Do you want them? Are you hesitant to pay all that? Let us know. Well, 773 has a good point here too. L, I think that's me. And think about seven last minute wins last season.

if we can add 10 to 15 sacks helps not being put in those situations. Not a doubt in my mind. And unlike what Ben Johnson has to say, I disagree with him a bit on the, you know, you really want your pass rush to keep the lead. You see what Seattle did in the Super Bowl? Nah.

You want that pass rush to wreck the whole offenses plan. You want them to think that they got something going and then Seattle's defense is like, never mind. That was one of those games where, I think Clay feels the same way, Clay Harbor, where it like broke your brain. Because I'm like, oh, that's how you do it.

You know, it's like watching Oklahoma City in the finals and the way they built their team starting at the Paul George trade. They're in town today. What's up, Thunder? But same idea. You know, like once you see how it should be done, then nothing else matters in your head.

Yeah, and the Bears have seen, based on who played in the Super Bowl and who won the last two Super Bowls, by the way, a pretty good model of what you need on defense these days. Yeah, 8-15. Do you know who else beat the Packers twice? The Bears. I think we deserve to be reminded. I think that should be something that we remind ourselves about. It's kind of like the time-honored chant at the University of Texas. What time is it? 1037 and OU still sucks. Oh, wow. Like what time is it? 1037 and the Packers lost to the Bears twice last year. They did. After one guy said at his introductory press conference, he really enjoyed beating Matt LaFleur twice a year. He went out and, and beat Matt Lafour twice in the season. Tough season.

That end of the day is after Packers always. DJ Moore. And he did his best to make sure that that happened. That's for sure. That was after the first win over the Packers, right? That was a Saturday night game. Ah, we love to see it. Although DJ, the problem is DJ probably is the most enticing possibility.

It's just whether or not, like, do you have no idea if you're, if your quarterback is Mendoza and he comes in, you know, is that the partnership you want? You know, that's another question too. I think it's a foregone conclusion the Raiders get Mendoza. So then it's just a matter of who does he want to work with.

We're taking your calls as well. 312, 64-64-67, and go to Charlotte. That is where Sean is listening. Hi, Charlotte. Hi, Sean. Hey, guys. Hey, Laila and Marshall. Love the show. Look, I would love to have Max Crozzi on the show.

Or not on the show. We would love to have him on the show, too. I called you Charlotte earlier. Let's just, we'll start again. Hi, Sean. You're on the score. Yeah. So I would love to have Max Krazi on the Bears.

But when I started looking through Spotrak cap hits per season and how players are ranked of defensive players. And on the last 15 Super Bowl champions, none of them have had a defensive end in the top 24. of cap it for that season.

If you want to expand it to be edge rusher, DN, O off or outside linebacker, only had someone in the top 25. That's 20 to Baltimore Ravens, 2015, Denver Broncos, 2020, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So I guess my kind of concern is the general philosophy of investing in just one pass rusher

when really you can spread that cap allocation across the board. Of course, they can get creative with how they actually allocate or structure a deal, so maybe they fall below that top 25. But I think really that's my main concern because you're so invested in one specific rusher. So I don't know what your thoughts are on that, but I think overall it's just a questionable strategy. Sean, no, I get it. It is a questionable strategy if you don't pull. it off right. If Michael Parsons gets hurt like he did last year, that's a reflective of that

strategy backfiring on you. Yeah. But at some point, you got to get somebody to do something. And I got to tell you, what else is a failing strategy is paying guys like Dio Odingbo and drafting guys that don't develop into these big home run hitters that you need at edge rusher? Well, and the, I, but he's, he's right. Like the bears, you know, when it comes to how they rank versus what they're paid, that's, that's the whole discussion. You know, and that's, the frustrating part. That's the entirety of the discussion, especially when you consider there teams out here like Denver, who had far and away the most sacks in the league as a team, and then that practically gets them to the Super Bowl if Bo Knicks hadn't gotten hurt.

You know, that's the hard part about a lot of this is defense is also based on, if not, it's based on your offense functioning to a certain degree and everybody being healthy. that's what makes this hard. Like offensively, you can you can plug and play a little bit more understandably. So, like, you know the drop off with somebody leaving like this. And you understood, like, with Michael Parsons out, that changed exactly what the Packers were doing. And I think the bigger point to be made here is that they weren't one player away. The Packers were not one player away from being a contender.

Is he so good that when he's healthy that he's able to change the discussion? yes, but when he's injured, if the rest of the team can't get it done in a way that is suitable, then they weren't one player away. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see exactly how many players away the bears feel like they are. And that's what this is going to probably come down to. 312, 644-67. I want more calls. Sean's call was great.

I like a viewpoint that is dissimilar to my own because I like to parse through it. 708 on our text line. Please tell Sean to stop killing my Max Crosby Buzz with facts and reasoning. That's fair. If you'll remember this time last year, I'm pretty sure we decided the bears were going to have Nick Chubb on their team. So there's that. He had a really impressive day at the gym that one day when we saw the video. This is just that time of year.

It's lying season, including to ourselves. 312, 644, 67, is our number. Let's talk about some of the alternate players that I think also fit into this dare to dream vibe that we have going. So are the numbers true? Are the betting numbers going to follow the action? actual process of Max Crosby, possibly going to the Bears. We discuss it next. Rahimi Harris and Grody.

Bears tight end. 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 a.m. dial when you're inevitably cruising around downtown. And now that we have an FM signal, Cole, you can and now hear the score all day, all the time, all you want.

You can hear all the bear's hot takes you want. Well, that's perfect. I'll make sure I blast that in the locker room. Beautiful back! Rahimi Harrison Grody, Midday's Tyndal 2 on 1043 The Score. 312-644-67. 67 is our number here on 1043. The score. This is Rahimi Harrison Grody. The Bears are now the favorites to land-max Crosby, according to draft kings, that number moved overnight. The Raider aren't even the favorites to keep Max Crosby.

The Bears are number one. The Raiders are number two. So let's go to our phones. And Anthony in Plainfield, Anthony, you're on the score. Hey, guys, thanks for taking my call. Good morning to you. Yeah, so the Bears have finally accomplished

something that we haven't seen here in decades, right? And that's the combo between quarterback and head coach. I think we could all agree. That's the most important step. from here we now have a window of the two years, at least on the worky deal, and then an extension moving forward. You have to take advantage of the two years. And players like Max Crosby, not just the player, but the position and the top three at the position, don't grow on trees. They don't become available often, okay?

As far as a cap standpoint, you losing Edmonds, you're losing DJ Moore, you're basically breaking even with bringing in Max Crosby. me as far as the dollars are concerned. After this 26th season, and I think one of the textors kind of hit on it earlier, those three big contracts on your D-line, Dial, Montes, White, Grady Jarrett, they combined, okay, for maybe $12 million in dead cap space if they're to get released after the 26th season, and you save roughly $50 million if the three of them are released. The cap problem is not an issue after this 26th season. And again, like I explained, you get rid of Edmonds and you get rid of more, you're basically where you're at now.

And then you have the ability to restructure, well, there's a couple guys on the line or whatever to fill your holes. I don't know why you would not go for it right now. Like it's time to win. If there's a season to do it, why would it not be now? Well, and I think that's the question, right? Anthony is trying to figure out is how much they would take it on the chin this year. I understand the 2027 numbers.

It does get better. But the problem is he's here now. Like he's available now. So how much can they move around now to make that happen? And you don't want to get stuck extending people who you don't want to extend. And that's what makes this tricky too. No, I think that's a good point, Leila. 708 asks on the text line, how do you feel without a first rounder for two years?

If I have Max Crosby, I feel just fine, especially when my picks should be in the late 20s or early 30s. So we got into this yesterday, Marshall, the fact that Ryan Poles said to Todd McShay that he has fewer players on his draft board than he's had in previous years. And the problem with picking 25 is sometimes you've got to have like 10 or 15 players.

You're okay with picking at that spot because you don't know who's going to be taken off the board ahead of you. So if you have fewer players, that would indicate that you have fewer players who you think might be available at that spot. And if you're good, then you don't care as much about not having the two first round picks. I think from a fan-based standpoint, Kaleel Mack showed you you're okay with not having two first-round picks. The problem was you weren't one player away with Kaleel Mack.

So then you actually needed those. But that was the price to get him. So that's why this is a challenge. And I think Ryan Poles believes that he thought he got his guys when he decided to get Grady Jarrett and Dio Dengbo last year. So how much does he want to back off of those guys being his guys? I think you need to figure out if those are his guys or are those Dennis Allen guys? And how much of a collab was there on saying these are the guys we're going to go out and get in the first year of Dennis Allen being the defensive coordinator? They have a much better idea now of what is needed on defense than they did a year ago, in my opinion.

Well, and keep in mind, Ryan Poles has said his mindset is to do both, win now, and then be able to do. sustain that and have the flexibility, it's not going to be easy. So he gets it more than any of us. It's just a matter of us not knowing how to read his mind. And whether or not we believe in his ability to, as you said, 2027, you can cut guys, you can do all kinds of stuff. But can you draft and develop guys right now?

With a lower pick, a remarkably lower pick. The good news is it's a good year for rushers. It's a good year for edge rushers. It's a good year for defensive linemen. Better pick the right one. better pick the right one. See, you look at me like that, but you know. But I, because I have some issues with how they've evaluated talent.

Like, Jervon Dexter is a good example. I understand he was a five-star recruit in high school. I understand what he did of Florida. But you wanted him to do something different than what he did at Florida. And I don't know that it necessarily turned out the way you wanted it. Traits. That's it. So that's where I'm always saying, well, I don't know how much I trust their draft board.

because if you're still of that mindset, then the tape doesn't mean anything. We're just all just going to have to see and see if it works out like a movie. It's a telltale year. I'll say that for Ryan Poles and his crew. I mean, it's not necessarily for him. He got his extension.

I think in terms of setting this team up to win in the next two years specifically on that Caleb Williams rookie deal, it's a tell tell year. These guys, whoever he picks, they have to have a similar type of impact on defense as what we just saw this previous class have on offense. I know we're late to a break here, but I also want to point this out.

The Cincinnati Inquirer is reporting that the Bengals, the Cincinnati Bengals, aka Bears too. The Cincinnati Bengals are not expected to use the franchise tag on Trey Hendrickson. So that probably changes a lot of what teams may want to do as well. So that was from the Cincinnati Inquirer late yesterday, just in case you guys, didn't know that. The deadline is this afternoon for the tag to be applied. So something to keep in mind. Coming up next year on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, we're going to switch gears and talk about what's ahead for Major League Baseball. Evendrelic, the writer with the athletic, has been following

this. We were not able to talk to him last week because there was a bunch of breaking news regarding Tony Clark and the Players Union. So we will talk to him about the status of this next season and what's ahead next. Hey guys, this is Matt Norlander, co-host of the Ion College Basketball podcast with Gary Parrish. We are part of the CBS Sports Podcast Network, and College Hoops is turning toward what's going to be a phenomenal March. So be sure you are tuned into the show. We're going to be publishing at least four shows every week. Follow and listen to IOn College Basketball free on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast.

March is coming. This hour is brought to you by Cars for Kids. think the important distinction is that it would be a lockout. It wouldn't be the players' choice. It would be the ownership's choice. And hopefully it doesn't come to that because I think baseball has a ton of momentum. Baseball has been in a great place. The rules changes have worked. The games are faster. People are excited. You see attendance numbers growing. Some of the TV deals that have come in in the last couple of years are really great for the game. So hopefully we continue that momentum and don't put the sport back. That's Ian Hap, who was the Cubs player representative?

for years. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3 the score. And there's been some news regarding at least the likelihood of a lockout. Bruce Meyer, who's acting as the head of the Players Association right now had the quote, the league has pretty much

already said there's going to be a lockout. I think Rob Manfred more or less guaranteed it. That's what he said to the Detroit free press. So that said, we go to our hotline and we bring in the big guns. Evan Drellick, the reporter for the Athletic, who has been covering Major League Baseball and the Players Association ongoing discussions in CBA.

He is at Evendrelic on X. Evan, thanks for joining us. Good morning. Good afternoon. Thanks for having me. It is. It is still, yeah, for us it's still morning, so you're correct. I think that's where I want to start, Evan, is just with the concept of this is, I think he's saying the loud part out loud, Bruce Meyer, because we all are under the impression that somehow this is going to get locked out next year. What did you think of those comments and just what you know in the background that you add to it? I am not a betting man.

I don't encourage anybody to become a betting person. Were I a betting person, I would be very confident that a lockout is going to happen. Now, the real question is whether there are missed games. Remember, last time, we had a lockout in December right when the CBA expired. That's what's going to happen again. The chances of the players and the owners having a deal. deal in place by 1159 p.m. Eastern on December 1st are incredibly low. So you're going to have a lockout. And then the question is, can they get a deal done so that they can play a full 162 game

season? So it's not whether the people get shut down in the winter. I think that that really is very likely. It's can they work something out in time to avoid miss games in 2027? I'm looking at this and I'm with you. There's going to be a lockout. I think there will be missed games because this driving force of we need a salary cap has really, in my mind, been the deciding factor on what happens next and whether or not baseball, the owners, the players can come to any kind of agreement. Do you see a path forward without a salary cap? There probably should be, but a lot of that just depends on what owners decide they want. Rob Manford needs a three-quarters group to pass the CBA. So if he has eight owners standing there and saying,

we need a cap, we need to take this longer, we need to wait, well, then probably everybody's going to wait. And the question of what is rational is a difficult one to parse. If the owners got a salary cap, their franchise values across the sport instantly rise. There's big money attached to it. There's also big money attached to missing games. And I think last time, you know, the players had been angry for 10 years.

Service time, tanking. The Cubs are certainly a part of that. There was a lot of going on in baseball that had angered the players. And yet, even through all the drama and what I've come to call leverage theater, they found a way to play. And it seems to me, again, that the rational decision will be everybody's going to look around all the agents, all the players, whether they're high-income players, low-income players, small market, big market owners, are going to really feel the pain if they miss games.

And I think that's going to be the prevailing factor. But if the owners look around and go, you know what, we're tired of this, we see the NBA franchise values going up. We want fans in the smaller markets to feel a little differently than they do now, where, you know, there are the Kansas City Royals ever going to go out and go sign the truly biggest name on the free agent market, probably not. It's a different question than whether the Royals can ever compete. whether they can compete for the top names and free agency. The wild card here is what do the owners end up doing? At the end of the day, people like making money,

and the way to make money is to play games. No, I think that's the best point, Evan, is, yeah, your team is somewhat useless if it's not playing a game against another team. Then it's not doing the thing it's supposed to do. But the dig-in has been pretty evident. You know, I feel like that's a good way to put it. Leverage Theater. They've conditioned us to believe that there is going to be a lockout next season.

How much do you think that helps either one side of this, players or ownership, to even have the discussion that we're already having about cherishing this season? We've heard multiple owners talk about that as well. It's very hard to sift through the noise because when you're going into a labor negotiation, everybody's going to dig in and you're going to hear a lot in the next 12 months on management side about how we're ready for Armageddon and you're going to hear the same thing on the player's side

that everybody's going to talk really tough and some of them might mean it it's not even that I'm casting doubt on everybody's fortitude here the issues just don't become real until you are in crunch time until you're in February and March and you're staring down the barrel of miss games and miss paychecks.

And to some degree, that's the league's operating logic for a lockout, which is that you're kind of putting the pressure on the players and forcing the issue at hand. But if you look back last time, the lockout starts, nothing even happened in December. It wasn't until January that stuff started to pick back up. And then, you know, we had kind of, there were some days down in Florida, where there were meeting in Jupiter, the players in the old. owners and the thing finally got done in early March in New York. But it's until you're at the deadline when it comes to a negotiation like this,

we're literally billions are at stake. It's not that nothing matters. It's not that the proposals don't matter. But you're not going to see real movement. It's really hard to sift through, okay, are they really going to want to miss games? Because everybody's going to project strength. And everybody can sit there and go, oh, man, they're talking really tough. but I'm telling you, just wait until you get to the actual moment of truth.

Evan Drellick, the senior writer for the athletic covering baseball, joining us here on Rahimi Harrison, Grotie on 1043, the score. And Evan, I'm wondering who's better set up for this because it's not like this is one of those things where your car breaks down and you didn't have time to save up money. MLB, the owners knew it was coming, the players have known it was coming. We've heard about this $2 billion war chest that would give teams approximately $75 million, each of reserve funds. And obviously the players, arguably the most powerful union on the plan, that's what I

always hear since I was a little kid. They know that this comes around every once in a while. The process of storing up money happens every go around. Both sides build their war chest. They have to. It's not like I've seen the reports to about the owners amassing about $75 million per. That's what you would expect. And the same thing on the players side.

What the players do is they start to hold on to their licensing money, the union does, rather than sending out checks to everybody. The closer you get to the CBA, the more money gets held back. Now, the owners, the net worth of the owners is going to exceed anything that the players themselves are capable of, right? The owners, if they wanted to, could they survive just fine, you know, in two years in this baseball, which isn't going to happen? sure they could right they have more financial might the thing they consider also though

they have debt right some of these owners you know have plenty of debt that they have to pay off and there's a big owner versus owner fight to be had here where the interests of the cubs is different than the interest of the pirates and go on down the list and there's a lot that the commissioner wants to do with baseball TV rights you know what kind of agreement can he get amongst his owners to make major changes to baseball TV rights. The thing about a salary cap, besides the fact that the owners have always wanted it, this was a core issue in the 94-95 strike

that took down the World Series and 94. Besides that, it's a way that the owners could affect big change. If you give the big market to the salary cap, then maybe they're more willing to share their local TV money, then you can do bigger things revenue sharing. And so the question kind of becomes, if you don't get a cap near the owners, what can you change about your key B right structure? What are you willing to change in revenue sharing? What kind of agreement can you get amongst your owners internally? So there's really

two fights here. It's not even just owner versus players. It's owner versus owner. Evan, I think that's probably what makes me the most concerned about there actually being an ongoing lockout. We're talking to Evan Drellick, the senior writer from The Athletic. He is the author of winning, fixes everything and he is following the major league baseball players association news along with what could happen in 2027 but that that's been my concern is ever since rob manfred came out and i i know you remember this it was either last year or the year before where he was criticizing the podres for spending money on their players and i think i think that was a good indication of well whose side are you on this like i thought you represented the owners and now you're

questioning teams for wanting to actually pay players to have a competitive salary with the Dodgers, for example, or try to compete with the Dodgers at least. And then you've got guys like Artie Morano, the owner from the Angels coming out and saying, winning doesn't matter as much as having a good time at the park. It really does seem like, and I think maybe the Kyle Tucker contract deserves to be thrown in here too. It just seems like there's a lot that the owners can infight about that would lead to a pause no matter what. Rob Manfred doesn't have an easy job. Whatever you think of a guy, managing these 30 personalities, very wealthy people of the kind of, look, I would say varying competence and varying ages, right? Some of them are getting quite up there in age.

It's not an easy thing to do to pull that group together. So if you have a group of hardliners saying, Rob, you've got to go get us this cap, we've had enough of this. you know, in a way, part of his job is to demonstrate to them that he tried. You know, it wouldn't surprise me if at some point the owner's back off of a cap. I don't know when that would be. You know, is that March? Is that January? Is that after you started to miss some games in April?

And then everybody says, okay, all right, that's enough. Let's try to find a way to play. But before you get to that point, don't you have to demonstrate to them? Well, hey, look, guys, I tried. I tried to give you this thing that you told me I need. to go out and do. And the other interesting wildcard here is Rob himself. Manfred has said he intends to retire in January 2029. That's when his contract is up. We could take him on his word at that, that that is his plan. But there's also a world in which, you know, he's not going to get whatever he's

making now in another job. Let's say it's $25, $30 million a year in total compensation, something like that. So maybe he wants to come back. Well, if he wants to come back, what do you have to do? do to come back? Do you have to deliver the cap to the owners to make them say, hey, we love having you here, please stick around? And so the question of what does Rob Manfred himself want is a hard one to answer right now. And he says throughout his career, he's focused most on having games played. He's very proud of the fact that since he's gone in-house at Major League Baseball, there has not been a game missed due to a work stoppage. And if there was, his legacy would take a huge hit.

If you missed the 2027 season, I don't think people are going to be saying very nice things about Rob Manfred and talk radio, and I think he knows that. Does that matter to him? What matters to the lead figure at MLB is a hard question to answer right now? So secondary to the actual lockout that is coming, that we know is coming next year, is this idea that the media rights deals are not in a great place

when you look at the sport as a whole. how much do those two things tie into each other when you're talking about revenue and everything else? And is the plan to get something similar to maybe what MLS had through Apple where all the rights, or I guess most of the rights, are under one roof? Is that a reasonable plan for Rob Manfred to have? It doesn't seem likely to me that MLB is going to end up in a spot like MLS where everything is with one streaming company. For the reason being that if you look at what happened in the NBA, it seems that the end of the end. NBA was able to just make more money by breaking up the packages.

Now, breaking up the packages, meaning, you know, you're selling some games to Amazon, you're selling some games to Peacock. That's not necessarily great for the consumer, for the fan, because guess what? You've got to make sure you're paying for those various streaming services here. What Rob Manford wants to do with media rights is have all of them available to him. The teams right now, the individual teams, the Cubs, the White Sox, they control what they do with their local rights, MLB controls the national games. MLB, Manfred wants to be able to take more games national and also potentially sell a bunch of local rights in a bundle to a streaming company.

So in 2029, when these new national TV deals start, the idea could be, okay, maybe Netflix is the local home for 25 teams, something like that. And that might produce more money for the owners than this current setup where each one is trying to find an individual TV. home. But what exactly it looks like is basically going to be dependent on the marketplace. You know, the whole goal here, I don't think anybody's going to be shocked to learn, is to maximize the money. And so if MLB can make more money with three national packages and then selling all the local rights, it just depends what the marketplace is going to bear. But MLB is encouraged by what happened in the NBA. That said, there are reports that, you know, Peacock and NBC are underwater on their NBA deal. So,

what the TV landscape is going to look like in 28 when they're negotiating these deals is a big question. The problem is you've got to collectively bargain revenue sharing with the players. So if you want to change how you share money, your TV money, you've got to go through the players now. And it's a very big jigsaw puzzle. We're talking to Evan Drellick, the senior writer for the athletic on Major League Baseball and the Players Association. What could be next? Evan, how much did that Kyle Tucker contract become a flashpoint for a lot of this discussion? Look, I had a story where I'll just paraphrase, but ownership, some ownership sources at that point, we're saying, screw this, we need a cap.

You know, this is our tipping point. I think it's very fair to point out that they were going this direction anyway. It's not as though it was unlikely previously that a cap was going to be proposed. They'd been thinking about it for a while, arguably for 30 years or more, you know, if you want to go back all the way to 94-95 here. But it's galvanizing, right? You've owners kind of roll their eyes and go, well, here we go again with the Dodgers and look at that AAB and how could we possibly keep up. And, you know, one of the things to pay attention to here are the narratives around competitive balance. MLB is positioning a cap as good for competitive balance. And the union, meanwhile, looks at and goes, actually our competitive balance, our parity is better than any of the other major sports.

There's a lot of arguments to kind of sift through within the salary cap conversation of, okay, is baseball's competitive balance good? If you want to improve it, does a cap improve it? How much does a cap improve it? improve it. What becomes very crucial is the band between the floor and the ceiling. You know, let's say it's $100 million. Let's say it's $150 and $250. The pirates are going to still spend $150 every year and the Dodgers are going to still spend $250 every year. And so the sense of haves and haves not is not going to be eliminated. Will Pirate fans maybe feel they have a little bit better opportunity? Yeah, I think that's a realistic thing. Is that worth, you know, to the players giving up the economic value that they would in a cap system because that's the great

player argument is that caps are bad for their income. We'll see, right? That's going to be the heart of the whole thing. Now, Evan, this has been great and thanks for the clarification along with the information. Evan Drellick, I have a feeling we'll be talking to you more as we all kind of watch and wait and see what happens. What's your actual baseball assignment you have right now? Oh, there's no other assignment besides this. I'm working on a story about the, working a story about the A's and all the extensions they were doing. So I ever once in a while I do talk about things other than labor.

But happy CBA year, everybody. This is front and center for me. Oh, my goodness. Well, hopefully you get some A's baseball to cleanse your palate. I don't know that that's how that works, but thanks so much, Evan. Thanks, guys. Evan Drolick, kind enough to join us here. Harrison Grotie on 104-3 the score, giving us the latest.

And his book is called Winning Fixes Everything, How Baseball's Brightest Minds Created Sports Biggest Mess. When he said, I'm going from this to the A's, I was like, oh. Is he just on like the, like, what did Evan do to his editor? You get, you get labor and the A's? Those things could be interconnected in many, many ways, many, many ways. I mean, good luck with that. I'm not ready for another year of watching baseball at a minor league park, by the way.

Neither am I, Leila, which is why I don't live in Sacramento. Pretty sure Luis Severino isn't either. The ERA. Hey, the home road splits are disturbing. Can we save him yet? How are we doing on the Save Luis Severino concept? Somebody get him out of here. He's on an island.

an island that unfortunately the home runs at the ballpark are plentiful because they don't have enough stands to flow like a normal major league stadium. Save Luis Severino. Coming up next year on Rahimi Harrison Grady, we stay with baseball talk because, yeah, there's two Cubs starting pitchers that have given up some home runs this spring. But one I am far more concerned about than another. So we'll talk about that next.

Make money from your podcast with the Odyssey Cree. Creator Lab, you create the show. We bring the advertisers. Apply now at creators.odicy.com. Rahimi Harris and Grody, midday's 10 to 2 on 1043, The Score. Hey, everybody. Would you like some NFL news and notes first? Because today is the deadline for the franchise and transition tags. Tag them. Wait, no, not necessarily. Who do you want to tag?

Oh, I just thought you were going to tell me somebody's getting tagged. Yeah, that's happening. So according to Jordan Schultz, Brise Hall is getting tagged. He ain't never leaving. Bag him and tag him. That's so unfortunate for Brise Hall.

Sources, the Jets are placing the franchise tag on running back Breeze Hall. It's for $14.29 million. Both sides are motivated to get a long-term deal done, but this now takes Hall off of the free agent market. That's why I think the franchise tag is dumb. It's like, hey, here's a random year of your contract that we just up and created. I just, in trying to understand the decisions teams make to tag and not to tag, I don't

always understand it. Well, Brise Hall had value. I mean, we talked at one point about the possibility of him coming to the Bears. Now, it's been a while. That was over a year ago. But that was something that, you know, was out there. It was in the ether, so to speak. Do you think Bruce Hall wants to play for the New York Jets?

I didn't think so. I'm kind of surprised at a long-term deal is. part of the discussion here because I thought that that guy wanted out of there. You know it's worse than playing for the Jets? Not getting paid. Being on the franchise tag? Well, that too. So Jordan Schultz speculated that Breeshal would have done really well in the open market.

Would he have done better than 14.29 is the question. Here's another one from Jordan Schultz. The commanders are not planning to tender kicker Jake Moody as an RFA. He will become a free agent. So, you know, he had time here with the Bears. and then he also is with the commanders. And there's a couple of more that are notable before we get back into baseball talk as we have discussed.

This is from Adam Schaefter. This is the surprising one. The Seattle Seahawks are not expected to tag Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker the third, who is now poised to become an unrestricted free agent with the new league year opens. With Kenneth Walker not expected to be tagged, there is a chance that he could become

just the fourth player to win Super Bowl MVP and begin the following season with a different team. The other three are an interesting list. Give it to me. Larry Brown, Desmond Howard, and Dexter Jackson. That is an interesting list. Yeah. It's always the usual unlikely Super Bowl MVP. Right.

Because if you were a standard Super Bowl MVP caliber player, you would be kept, of course, by your team. Unless you were dealing with some cap. issues, which Seahawks have decisions to make. Right. And Dexter Jackson was in 2003. So it's been a long time since anything like that has occurred. But something to keep a note of. So we will continue to monitor these and let you know what's happening on this tag deadline day in the NFL. You're it.

In the meantime, you didn't get to talk about this. And I know it's been something that you have very much been watching and monitoring is the propensity for show to Imanaga to give up home runs. And I know you were doing girls high school basketball last night for the you. But the night before, you were paying attention. And every time I texted you about the showd-imanaga home run alert, you were on top of it. And then it didn't get exactly better the next day when we saw yesterday, James and Tyone, who had already allowed a couple of home runs in spring training play, continued that trend. So James and Tyone gives up. a bevy of home runs yesterday.

Two, he also struck out to, but he walked to. He gave up six earned runs total in just two and two-thirds innings against the Cincinnati Reds. And there's a discussion that's ongoing about how seriously you take pitching performances in spring training. But I think that you shouldn't worry about Jameson as much as you should with Shodda Imanaga. Some numbers mean more than others.

Tion has shown you that he will live. let a couple of home runs fly, and he will do so at a decent clip even last season. But he's usually working on multiple pitches, and he will rectify what the problem is. His home run rate went down toward the end of the year compared to the beginning of the year last season. You can't say the same for Imanaga. Unfortunately, this feels like more of the same, even though he's trying to mix in a new pitch and increase velocity.

If pitchers are able or if hitters are able to turn on something with confidence, like they were with Shoda, where even some of the balls were out. out of the zone. That gives me a little more concerned than a James and Tyone who's shown you. He will work on pitches, bring Arsenal back in that he didn't have the year before, for example, like a sweeper, and that he will ultimately lower his home run number. What was interesting is in the first half of last season, in 17 starts, he gave up 22 home runs to James and Tyone. In the second half of the season, now he only made six starts because you know he was hurt part of that time, but he only gave up two home runs when he came back

in those six stars. So two home runs in 131 plate appearances versus 22 home runs in 388 plate appearances. You see the stark difference there and the percentages. And I think with Tyone, we just know him as a guy

who's working with 10 pitches trying to figure out what do I want to make like my main five or six pitches this year. Correct. And despite his velocity being down a touch his last time out or really just over the course of the spring, it's only been three starts.

The 19.50 ERA doesn't scare me in the same manner that showed him in Nagas anything scares me. Because here's the honest truth. Because of the way last season ended with him not even be able to take the ball in his last availability when he could have taken the ball against the brewers, it tells you where the Cubs were with him and where he was with the Cubs. And we don't need to get into the qualifying offer and how he's getting paid a whole lot of money this year as much as we need to understand.

If the Cubs are going to be as good as we all think they are, they're probably going to need something more. than what we saw in the second half when Imanaga, his last 11 games was giving up bombs every time. Every time, guarantee giving up bombs. Well, and it's why Jed Warrior and Craig Counsel

focused on pitching in the offseason. They said they wanted to focus on pitching. I was like, yeah, you guys need to do that, but don't ignore the offensive hole that Kyle Tucker's going to leave because when that guy was healthy, he's the one who helped you get to that really nice lead in the Central

before the Brewers decided to tear it down. But at the same time, I think that you can know that James and Tyon home run numbers in the spring are usually what we said. It's him bringing back a pitch that maybe didn't work for him the

year before. He's going to try to bring it back in. He does that during the season as well. He is a work in progress when it comes to that. Or, for example, in this case, you know, Shode Imanaga is working on stuff. But it's about how the hitter is seeing the ball. And if the hitter's still confident,

even based on the pitch mix, which leads me to believe that tipping pitches is still an issue for him, then that's another issue altogether. Regardless, it's ended up in the same result, which is runs. So how are you going to stop that? And how are you going to manage his outings in a rotation moving forward? I've been going back and forth on how I'm watching the World Baseball Classic. You know, James and Tyones pitching for Team Canada, that's where he's scheduled to make his next spring start. like non-regular season start.

And so will I judge that a little bit differently than what I've seen in these exhibition games? I think so, just because there's more on the table. It means more than I'm tinkering with things. You're trying to survive in advance and have Team Canada out of pool play. So I will judge what I see from him a little more harshly. But at the same time, I have so much more confidence in him regaining his form, the best of what he was last year, then Imanaga regaining his form

and the best of what he was last year. Not saying it's not possible, I just don't think those two players are a great direct comparison because of the way they handle things and the styles of pitchers that they are. Well, and yes, spring training is for this time. Spring training is for making mistakes.

Spring training is for working on stuff. And theoretically, we should judge the two of them with that lens. It's just we have, proof of one using it for that purpose. And we unfortunately don't have proof of another. It doesn't mean show to Imanaga can't do it. But when you don't get the break to break like you wanted to on a breaking ball, when you're leaving stuff up over the center of the plate, or you're leaving it up too high, and the ball takes just too much time over the plate and

the right part of the strike zone for a hitter to see, it's just hard to know when does this turn. And Russ Dorsey said he's not worried because he knows that there are pitchers like Zach Granky who have used an entire spring training start to just throw fastballs just to see what's going on there. Absolutely. Like they'll use it as a way to test their stuff to that extent because they don't care. They don't have to wear these numbers. Is it bad that I don't feel like that's what's happening with Eminaga just because of his experimenting with the pitchcom and trying to make sure the communication is good? It seems like he's experimenting with different types of things than maybe some other pitchers do at this point in the spring.

I think he got a directive and it was, you need to throw harder. And so he's doing that. But it's a matter of at what cost to the accuracy and the command. Cubs have a lot riding on whether or not Eminaga can be a valuable part of their staff and can make, I don't know, 25 plus starts. That's it. He's still an important piece of this as long as Justin Steele is out. And when Justin Steele says May or June, I tend to believe June as a possible.

return. I think that's realistic, understanding he was just clear to go about his business and you still got to build it up and everything else. And there should be no rush. The premium starts for Justin Steele happen in the back half of the season and into the playoffs. So having a fresh arm like that injected, that could be really good for the Cubs. Yeah, I just don't want to be hopeful for June the entire time leading up to his return. Like I don't want to get into the framework of, well, when the bulls get Lonzo back. Oh, no, no, no, no. We're not doing that. No. And there are two different scenarios, but you just don't want to have to rely on one person to come back to fix a lot of problems, especially one that only pitches every five days. You know,

that's the hard part, too. So I factor all of that in. But I say all of this to reiterate, James and Tyrone has earned our trust when it comes to knowing what the range of how much he's going to give up a home run ball and how it matters. And he's good for a clunker or two in the regular season. There's no doubt. You just have to accept it sometimes.

Most pitchers are. John Lester was always good for an August clunker. Knowing your body, knowing your clock, and knowing where you are and when you need to be pitching your best. I think that's a real thing. So I feel like in this case still be watchful on what Shodimanaga does,

especially in important games of the World Baseball Classic. But I don't think you have to worry as much about James and Tyone, at least not yet. No, that's my overall message. James and Tyone, good to go. Shoda, I don't know. And I don't think they're in the same vote at all. Yeah. And in the meantime, like we said, we will keep track of all of the tag news going on in the NFL.

We'll tell you who's it, who didn't get tagged. and what might happen next. So we'll keep track of that as well. Coming up next here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, it is time for halftime. What you got? There has been a shot fired at our city that I don't think is fair.

And I'm kind of surprised who it's by. Yep. Them's fighting words. We'll get into it next. What time is it? It's half time. It's half time. And I wanted to talk about this.

But first, we have a little bit of news. This is from Adam Schaefter. Are they chef bombs on a day? day like this where the tag deadline is 3 o'clock today? 4 p.m. Eastern. Whatever you want to make them. All right. So the Vikings are now open to trading Pro Bowl edge rusher

Jonathan Grenard. Per sources. They would like to keep Grinard, but they also have salary cap issues they are working through that have led to these trade conversations. Now, Grenard had a shoulder injury in December that caused him to miss the rest of the season

after that. He's expected to be at full strength by the start of next season. So that's notable, but this is a guy who was a pro bowler in 2024. He had a four-year, $72 million contract with the Vikings. And when he had a 17-game season, he recorded 12 sacks, but that shoulder injury limited him to a total of 12 games. He managed only three sacks, but ranks fifth in the NFL and pressure rate at 13.5%. I like that pressure rate. Yeah. You know who else like to? pressure rate, there was

Dio Dengbo pressures in Rhinples, just saying. But Dio Dingo never had a dozen sacks. Now, here's the thing. Is this one of those where he may be available but at the same time he may be cut like a Tremaine Edmund situation?

It's interesting you asked that because according to a spot rack, the out is there right now because it's a $9.9 million dead cap hit for next season. So... It would appear, according to over the cap, that the Vikings are indeed

over the cap. But I don't think it's... I don't know how much of it is a significant number. So, total cap liabilities, $361,0.487,66. Top 51, 353. Team caps base in the red, 46,485,553.

So, okay, it's not like, it's not like we're dealing with, you know, lions type of money here. Because the lions are over the cap by a significant amount. And now, because of the, because of some money that they've moved around, according to over the cap, they are now over by 6,534,000.

That seems like money that they could operate around if they wanted to, whether that's through restructure, or the aforementioned cuts, but obviously if you trade somebody with the cap hit of $22 million that Grinard has for each of the next two seasons, because he's halfway through this deal, this four-year-76 million dollar deal. Yeah, so this is an actual trade is what it sounds like. And he's going into his age 29 season,

so still in his prime. And like you said, coming off injury, but we've seen what he was. able to do the two years prior when he was not hurt with at least 12 sacks each of those two seasons. We will continue to track and keep note of all of what is going on in the NFL and who may be available and who is reportedly available. So that is the latest from Adam Schaeffer as we continue to track all the news on this cap deadline day, tag deadline day, as we should say, here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. In the meantime, I believe fighting words have been issued.

Travel and leisure, the very popular travel magazine, said that the least authentic city in the world is Chicago. The least authentic city? They decided to aggregate a bunch of Google reviews. So insurance and go set out to find the most and least authentic cities in the world. The study examined over 1.3 million Google reviews from 144 popular cities, gathering feedback back on everything from restaurants and museums to malls and markets. Destinations with the highest scores out of 100 had reviews filled with authentic phrases like traditional and local, while those deemed inauthentic were described in terms like overpriced and tourist trap.

And number one was Chicago when they did this study. The Windy City scored just two points out of a possible 100. Ooh. At the bottom of the authenticity index? I don't believe that they had the right measurement. I get what you're trying to do. Two out of a hundred, though? This is not an inauthentic city.

And it says of its 50 million annual visitors, many head to Navy Pier, the downtown loop and the riverwalk. Areas that are known to be big draws were out of towners and therefore amass a concentration of souvenir shops, pricey dining, another in-your-face commercialism. An authentic experience in Chicago is certainly possible. Oh, now you say? it? It just requires a bit more effort than ticking off the top three attractions on Google

maps. In fact, Chicago is known for hosting some of its more traditional seasonal celebrations in the country from its German-inspired Christmas markets that you don't want to go to, Marshall Harris. I heard y'all talking about this yesterday, too. At October Fest to its annual free blues festival, the largest in the world. I take offense to this. I take offense to it as well. Do you know what the second least authentic city was? And this is how you know that something's wrong with this. Is this a city that you would deem to be inauthentic?

No, it's just where people go for tourism. New York? Venice, Italy. Oh. Like you don't know what you're getting when you go there? I think, yeah, I think that's the issue here is you should know what you're getting when you go to these places. Even more so than Chicago, Venice has long

contended with the pressures of over-tourism. Why is this a pressure? Don't we want people to come here and visit and hang out? And I don't know about you guys, but I've definitely, my friends want to go and see the Bean and Navy Pier. They do. They know what they're getting into. They're adults.

Yeah, straight off the plane. All right, where's the Bean? Can you take me to the Bean? How do I get to the Bean? I'm like, all right, that's really what I want to do. You're in a whole city here, and the Bean is the first thing you want to hit. Here's third place. Las Vegas.

I think Las Vegas is very authentic. You know exactly what you're getting. What is happening here with it? Maybe you shouldn't just pick words out of Google reviews and then aggregate it thinking you know what you're doing with authenticity. Well, what's funny about that? Isn't it kind of inauthentic to just like aggregate some words off of Google and think you know what's authentic and what's not? Sounds very AI to me. Isn't it going to be mostly tourists who are filling out these Google reviews?

Or, but you know how Google reviews are. It's usually people who are like at our text line. They're really mad about something we said. They're really like or they're really happy about something we said, which is rare. But you know, if you're compelled to file a review, it's usually for a good reason. Where was the place you were trying to go and you said I wouldn't go because of the Chris Kendall Market? But there was a new place that you were trying to go to yesterday. Do you guys remember where she was trying to go and take me and thought I wouldn't go because I didn't want to go to Chris Kendall Market?

I remember the conversation because it was five on it. I'm trying to remember what the place was. I don't remember what I said 10 minutes ago. I would definitely go there. I almost texted in. I almost texted in to the text line, but I decided not to. Okay. So here's another note here.

Other inauthentic cities, judge how you will. Nashville. Absolutely. Hobart, Australia. Don't know it. Boston, Massachusetts. Absolutely.

London? London is, London is, I don't know that I would call London authentic or not. Do you have like the most authentic cities, just like the other end of the spectrum? Because that helps, I think, clarify what this is and what it ain't. No, I just have the inauthentic. this travel and leisure BS list.

Travel and leisure only went negative on this one. Might remind you that the Condi NASS Traveler took a poll and that Condé NASS traveler said that Chicago was the best big city in America and has been voted so like many years running and they actually took the poll themselves rather than just aggregate a bunch of Google reviews.

Also, what is an inauthentic Navy peer experience exactly. It's a pier. It goes out over a body of water. That's what peers do. Maybe they have one too many shops for souvenirs. One too many. Did you the restaurant you went to you didn't like? Is that

what happened? But like, it's a pier. You're authentically over a body of water, are you not? Yes. I don't. What do you think you're not getting in Venice? Oh, is the Illinois State Fair?

Yes. Thank you, 773. It was enough water in Venice? Illinois State Fair, would you go? That was the question. Oh, yeah, I definitely go. Yes. I would definitely go.

They've got some big time acts, guys. That's not Chris Kendall. That's not coupled up like, uh, over the top, inauthentic. Yeah. What's inauthentic about what you just said? What are you referring to as inauthentic? Waiting in line to go into the Chris Kendall market and get some smelly cheese, like, although the sandwich is delicious.

To your point, Marshall, you know exactly what you're getting, smelly cheese. But I don't want to go. I want to go to the state fair, though. I want to go to the state fair. That's more food on a stick. That's more my style. How do you judge that as inauthentic? I'm not actually in Germany.

So I don't think this is authentic because I went to a German market in Chicago thinking I'd be in Germany and I couldn't go. Guys, you'll never believe what happened when I went to a German market that wasn't in Germany. It's so in authentic. Is that your valid? Girl, I'm just trying to get the... It's like my online reviewer voice of person who read TikTok.

Oh, influencer. I got you. It is, it's the online influencer voice, yes. I got you. Guys, I went to Venice, and I went to the water, and I didn't expect there to be so much water. It's so inauthentic. Like, welcome to learning what sea level rising is. Welcome?

No, I'm kidding. All right, five audit is next. I'm Sarah Turney, and I'm Courtney Nicole. We're the host of the Crimehouse Original podcast. the final hours. Crime has impacted both of our families, teaching us how the last conversations the misbred flags can change everything.

On the final hours, we examine the moments before it disappearance and the questions that never got answered. A podcast that puts the moments before it disappearance under a microscope. Listen to and follow the final hours, available now wherever you get your podcasts. It's time for five on it.

Rahini Harrison Rooney. Bring you five topics on their minds. today. Number one. According to ESPN's Adam Schaefter, the Seattle Seahawks are not expected to tag running back Kenneth Walker the third, who is now poised to become an unrestricted free agent when the new league year opens on Wednesday, March 11th at 3 p.m. Chicago time. Here's the question, should the Bears be interested in this year's Super Bowl MVP? Kenneth Walker the 3rd. I think that any team should always do some research on a Super Bowl MVP.

whose contract is up. But as far as Kenneth Walker the third, I still think that not to use the phrase, and this is just a colloquialism, but you know, you know what you would say to your parent.

I would like my McDonald's. We have McDonald's at home. I'm still team. I'm good with the Bears running back room right now. I know that you can save money with DeAndre Swift, but I don't think that you wouldn't be spending money signing a reigning Super Bowl MVP free agent running back.

Like we just found out Breece Hall is getting the franchise tag and it's 14 and change. 14. Like roughly $3 million? That's a big deal. So if he's going to get that, what do you think is going to be the case for Kenneth Walker the third? And furthermore, who actually needs him? I think that that's a big part of this too. You know, the Kansas City Chiefs have been reported as a team that might be interested in his services. So the price goes up.

You know, you're talking about a team that probably still thinks it's in its window or at the end of its window to try to contend for a Super Bowl. The Giants are a team that has been rumored to want Walker services or could be a team that could be connected to him. So I don't necessarily think that this is a case where the bears should, running back is a low-level priority for me on the Bears. They are doing the things I need them to do. I don't necessarily think that that's where I go to try to mix it up.

Listen, Kenneth Walker, the 3rd's 1,309 yards from scrimmage, impressive. The durability, the fact that he rushed for 46 first downs, the fact that he averaged 4.6 yards a carry. I just think that your McDonald's money, that's a real thing. Also, like, I wanted to double check just to make sure I had the number right when it came to the Vikings. So I did some more over-the-cap deductions or, searches. Truly, the Vikings are according to over the cap, $46.485 million over the cap.

That's a lot of money. Cowboys are 56.6. Jerry's just going to wave a magic wand and figure that one out. Chiefs are 6.6 over, so I don't necessarily know how that works out. They're going to have to cut another offense of lineman, I think, or get rid of one like they did with Joe Tooney. They're in a bad way. But that's, that's real bad. That's what happens. That's. happens when you have to pay your quarterback large sums of money. According to over the cap.com, the bears are in the middle of the pack. They're 7.46. They're actually toward the lower half.

That's very manageable. Yeah, that's not 46 million. I was like, the Vikings are 46 million. I was like, you know why? Because Caleb Bullings isn't making 50 plus million dollars yet, let alone 70 million dollars or whatever quarterbacks are going to make by the time he gets his extension. The Vikings have a rookie quarterback contract right now with JJ. Vikings also have pretty good defense as well.

But back to Kenneth Walker the third, there's just no reason to do this. He's going to cost more than you would think $15 million per year on a long-term deal. That's not what you do if you want to maximize your Caleb Williams rookie contract window. DeAndre Swift, Kalmanangai, could they ask more through the draft? Absolutely. And guess what? It won't cost as much as Kenneth Walker the third. Not about Kenneth Walker or third being good or not.

It's just a matter where you are and what your priorities are. Number two. Fan duel proposed the following trade scenario on X, asking the question, who says no? The Bears received pass rusher, Max Crosby, Max. Shout out to my Maxineistas out there. In return, the Raiders receive the Bears' 2026 first round pick, number 25 overall, the 2026 third round pick, number 89 overall.

and receiver DJ Moore, would you give this trade the green light or the red light? Okay, so here's where I want some clarification. There's been a lot of commentary about the Bears media, in quotes, wanting to trade DJ more or they can't get them out of the building fast enough. And while I understand why that is a comment, the only way I'm trading DJ more, the only way, is if it is for somebody like a Max Crosby, because he would be a talent that the Raiders would want.

When Fernando Mendoza want DJ Moore is his WR1, probably. Do I still think, though, that DJ is the WR1 of the Bears? Yeah, I do. I still think DJ Moore is your WR1. Until people prove me otherwise, I will love to see the proving process happen. DJ Moore is still that dude to me. However, I do think that he provides the most enticing possible trade package for the Raiders.

And we knew it was going to be multiple picks. Now, we had heard Ray that it was going to be two first round picks, not a first and a third. So by that logic, perhaps it would be a better deal. If you can trade for Max Crosby and you're the Bears and you can somehow make it work under the cap, you try to figure out a way to make it happen. Green light. Green light. Green lit.

Green lit-y. Shout out to John Legend. However you want to say this. Make it happen. It's a great song. It's not even first, first. And DJ Moore is just a first, a third in DJ Moore? Yeah.

And what's Ryan Poles going to do with a third round pick anyway? You know how I feel about it? I think the Bears should do what they did last year and avoid the third round altogether because you guys have not earned my trust in the third round. Again. trade the pick and the player. And again, I'm the same way. I'm not trying to get rid of DJ more, but I am trying to address bears needs.

How about that? Because you know what? Bears needs need to be met. And Max Crosby can meet their needs. They put themselves in this position. I understand. So now you got to get yourself out of the position. People put themselves in bad positions every day.

Yes, I do. Yeah, exactly. I do too. Ray, Tyler, have you ever made a mistake? Oh, of course. I left my coffee out that I made yesterday and I left it out too long. Then I put it in the fridge and then I opened it up today and I'm not having that coffee. That is a dollar an espresso pod and some creamer down the drain.

And that's okay. We'll learn from it. No, I've definitely done that multiple times. Okay, maybe we won't learn from it. But we're going to have the bears be better than you in this particular scenario and learn from their mistakes. And better yet, be quick to course correct. don't be a clumsy organization tripping over your own two feet

moving like a very slow bureaucracy quickly oh we messed up fail fast keep it moving the Raiders so Max Crosby's getting 35.8

million per year there's still 88.1 million dollars under the cap they're that far under the cap that's why they can take on DJ more We're also, by the. Titans are 93.8 under. Jets are 74.3. That may change now with the, the Breeze Hall tag. Commanders are 70.3. Under. Under. It's a good place to be if you spend that money wisely. And the Vikings are like, we're going to fire our GM. P.S. We're 46.5 million dollars over the cap. Okay, thanks. Bye.

Wait, give me the commanders one more time. Commanders are under. Name that team. And I'll tell you. How much are they under by? 70.3 they got cap space. And their quarterback is on a what contract again? Rookie. Oh, yeah. And they got two new coordinators. I have yet to see how these guys are going to pan out with old Dan Quinn up there.

Old Dan Quinn. Technically, I guess it's down there because they're a little farther south than we are. D.C. is southern-ish. No. I'm looking at the map right now when you say that. I know exactly where D.C. is on that map. Yeah. I'm aware they say that, but still.

Do we have a map in the studio now? They're doing the weather. Ray got really confused when I said I'm looking at a map and I was looking up at the wall. I looked and I was like, oh, he actually is looking at a map. WGN is on here on Rahimi Harrison Grady. Number three. This is five on and 104 through the score

with Laila Rahimi and Marshall Harris. The Falcons, typically they play in Atlanta, the players play, but next season, one of those home games will be in Madrid. The Falcons are one of the Bears' opponents next season. Are you rooting for or against the idea of the Bears traveling to Spain? Okay, I thought this was cool, but there's some stuff that happened this morning, and now Trump is saying that he doesn't want to, he says the U.S. is considering terminating all trade with Spain.

Does Roger Goodell step in and say, except for the? NFL and like wink at the camera? I think so. NFL supersedes everything, doesn't it? This didn't affect what I'm talking about today, but I think it kind of does. So let's say that that's not an issue and that's just somebody saying something, but I don't really do that. So I would like for the Bears to be a participant in that space.

That would be a really cool concept. Playing in Madrid just sounds like a lot of fun. So selfishly, I just want to see everybody have fun. Is that bad? Get some tinned fish, be hanging out, enjoying Spanish stuff, maybe some olives while you're at it. I just, you know, the gin and tonic is a very Spanish tradition, how they dress them up and what they do. But just enjoying Spain and another culture, I think that that would be a fun game. As to how many people would attend, I'm not sure.

I know the NFL wants to make this a big initiative. You know, like the atmosphere in Germany has been talking. about a lot that the stadium and the game has been really exciting. But if you get the chance to play in Wembley, for example. But in London, I don't necessarily know how the people of Spain would receive this. Yeah, these are different times right now, you know? And Spain's basically, you know, I don't say they kick the U.S. out, but they said you can't use our military bases.

Yeah, and Trump did say, like, terminating all trade was fade. Yeah, that was the... So it just kind of made we want to avoid that right now. I want to avoid that in the near future until things get hopefully sorted out one way or another. And yeah, so it's not really high on my list of things to see the Bears do this season.

We might not get to travel much. Number four. Cubs outfielder in front of the show Ian Hap is in the final year of his contract. This is what Hap told reporters is he reflected on his time in Chicago and his future. It's been a true honor to wear this uniform for as long as I have. And so to represent the city and this fan base, you know, just trying to really take that in and enjoy every second of it.

You know, the reality is that you can't control if the team wants you back or how they, you know, how they view you. So that's the business side of it. And then, you know, it's totally plausible that, you know, another chapter of my career will unfold after this. That's Cubs Outfielder Ian Hap heard among the Metallica playing in the background in the Cubs locker room in Arizona. If this is indeed Hap's final year in Chicago, how do you summarize his time with the Cubs? Do you do what Metallica said?

Do you say sad but true? I'm sorry, once they put it in my head, I can't get anything out. That's just kind of how it goes. Ian Hap's career as one of the longest tenured athletes in Chicago deserves the respect. that's for sure. We have a Connect Roasters Tumblr on our desk for a reason here at the score on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. But, you know, Ian Hap is in that lineup every day regularly for a reason. And we've talked about how he's had a bit of ebbs and flows when it comes to, say, the slugging, for example, which isn't really what he's known for. The OPS, which he is. He had an all-star season in 2022.

But then you look at his on-base percentage and where is it? lining up with his last year, for example, is all-star season. 342 OPS or on base percentage rather in 2022. 342 on base percentage in 2025. That's who he is. He finds his level. And to be able to have done that for so much of his career, I think speaks to why he's been a cup for so long.

So there are a lot of contracts that I think the team has given to players where maybe they've regretted them. but I don't think that Ian Hap's contract has been one of him over this now, 10 years of service time that it will be with this season and with the team. According to baseball reference, he's had the second highest war of his career last year at 4.0, only second to that 2022 All-Star season in which he had a 4.3. You're right about finding its level,

his service to the Cubs and what it has meant, the consistency. And part of that consistency has been the ebbs and forese. flows of a baseball season. I thought what struck me the most about what he said is him saying, it's been a true honor. He didn't say it is an honor. It was almost as if he was talking about his time with the Cubs as a past tense thing, as opposed to I've got one more season left and I have a no trade clause and I'm not

going anywhere until we find out what's going on into and through the 2026 season. So that was a bit jarring. but as far as Ian Hap's time and the money spent and the time invested, I think if I summarized his time with the Cubs, I would just say solid. It was solid. Gold Glover, All-Star, not every year, but enough that he made an impact,

and he was part of a team that ultimately did go to the playoffs and did at least get to the NLDS. and out of the wild car round. He was a gold glover last season once again, so that just proves your point. He's now working on four straight gold gloves after last season. Number five. It's five on it on 104.3.

The score is our final question. State championships are this week in girls' high school basketball. Marshall was at the girls' four-a-supional last night. Marshall, how did it go? It went well. We had a well-played game, a game that was, tied at halftime, 25 apiece between Wabonzi Valley

the Warriors taking on Nazareth Academy, the Roadrunners. But, you know, like the Highlander says, there can be only one to survive in advance season. Home of the original March Madness here in Illinois, IHSA,

gets started at 10 a.m. on Thursday. I'll be there. Hanging out with former Whitney Youngstar and WMBA, Chicago Skyplayer Lene Harper on the call for 1A and 3A girls got some

see some college talent last night Daniel Porcoso who is the star for Wabonzi Valley didn't quite have enough going up against Stella Sackalus who's headed to BYU as a commit to BYU

and you see a lot of talent across the board when you get down to Bloomington and Illinois State and I'm interested to see who I will be highlighted by This morning I was on conference calls heading into the show talking to 1A coaches about, you know, the impact that sports has on their schools.

And one of the things that struck me is how one school was talking about how more people are following the girls' basketball team everywhere they went this season than the boys basketball team. And high school is kind of where that levels off. You can get just as much support as a player who plays girl sports as you do as boys' sports because that's how community-driven, families and friends-driven it is at that level. And I really enjoy it.

I mean, obviously I talk about pro sports, college sports. I've covered them all, but I really do enjoy the grassroots level sports when it comes to high school sports. Supersectional is a great weekend, you know, with State on the line. That's always a really fun week and a really competitive week. And yeah, we look forward to the full report when you get back from down stay. I know you've got the boys next week, the girls this week. It's going to be a lot of fun to watch.

Yeah, last night, it was one game. Next Monday, we got a super sectional double header from UIC over on the U. So it'll be fun. That is five on it here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on this tag deadline day here on the show. And we mentioned we will keep a track, let you know what happens. That deadline is about a. an hour after we get off the show at two. That's at three o'clock. And there was a report that came across Twitter yesterday. We didn't get to really spend much time on it where Jesse Rogers said, well,

Craig Counsel's really letting his team hear it. He was letting him have it. And I'm like, wait, was there more to this? Not only was there more. Apparently we found out what was going on. So some hot goss that we tracked down next. What's up, Little Psychos? I'm Investigator Slater, host of the Psychopedia podcast. Psychopedia is a true crime podcast delivering raw, real, and absolutely gripping episodes every single week. I dig deep to uncover fascinating details of heinous true crime cases while exploring criminology and psychology theories. I take you into the absolute darkest corners of the human psyche, my favorite territory, and present cases like you've never heard them before. Follow and listen to Psychopedia everywhere you get your podcasts.

Me Harrison Grody. Could 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 on Tuesday. Middays 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. This is Rahimi Harrison Grody on 1043, the score.

And apparently there was a bit of gossip to chase down at Cubs camp yesterday. Is that what we're calling it, gossip? Yeah, because it was Jesse Rogers who was like, who boy, Craig Counsel just lit up his team. I don't think Jesse would ever say, who boy. I really did add that. And that's how it starts, okay? One person reads something that another person says something,

that the next thing you know, the whole message is messed up. I very much enjoyed the game telephone when I was in elementary school because it was wild what happened between kid one and kid 20. That's it. And that did not change by any means. In fact, dare I say, it got worse. time has gone on, despite you being able to refer to people's stuff like a tweet, for example, on the actual post. That's not exactly how it's gone. So I'm going to scroll back and find it

because it was, here it is. I'm not sure I've ever heard Craig Counsel raise his voice, but he just gave it to his team during base running drills. In parentheses, they deserved it. This is about as hot gossip as you can get from spring training as far as I see it. Normally it's like, oh, how did your PFP go? What pitch are you working on? Did you let loose too many home runs when you were working on your seventh pitch today? Something along those lines, as we discussed earlier.

But this, this needed further investigation. And I guess our own intrepid reporter, Bruce Levine, got to it, Ray, because the way you sold it was also pretty entertaining. That's right. Bruce Levine, of course, as he does every day, joined Mullen Haw this morning. And he set the scene for how Cubs manager,

correct counsel reacted when things went wrong during that drill you referred to in Mesa? So Ron Coomer and myself, Jesse Rogers, were watching base running drills yesterday. And most of the time, you know, it's just, it's eye wash. But this time, the Cubs were practicing tagging up, balls hit to the outfield, and then the baser deciding if they have to tag or go halfway.

and counsel totally lost it. Kevin Alcantara was confused as to whether to tag or be halfway. Counsel went out and just let everybody had it and said, if you don't know, and he wasn't pointing to Alcantra, but to everybody, if you don't know how to run the bases by the time camp ends, you're not going to be on this team. Okay, so it was a very pointed, very, hot moment for Craig Counsel who's usually watching with the other coaches and just taking it all in.

But he lost it, a lot of pacing. One thing about Craig Counsel, when he's upset, if you're a, if you're a Cub fan, you're watching on TV and you see him pacing in the dugout means he's really upset. And that's the only way he shows it. I love the body language tell there from Bruce. So now everybody, of course, is going to be seeing, hey, is Craig standing still in that dugout? Or is he moving? After anything big happens in the game all season long, that's what's about to happen. I lost it when he said a lot of pacing.

Like, that's the only way you can tell is when he takes steps. I'm going to go ahead and just this is my own assumption as well. When things were not going well in the playoffs, I saw Craig Counsel not have not have the hat on and was running his fingers through the hair, that's another tell. So if he's pacing and running his fingers through his hair. He got some height on that hair. Like, Craig Counsel's hair is impeccable, especially for, you know, somebody over the age of, I don't know, 35. And so when you consider that, and then how much height he can get on that hair and the fact that it's still brown, despite his look of bewilderment or worry at times, very impressive. But yeah, the hair,

Wasn't there one day where it was like full poof ball? Oh, it was nuts. It was a really like crazy looking hair day. After a game, like we got to give him the grace of like you just went through managing an MLB game. You used 45 pitchers in this game in the postseason. But that hair was crazy. And it was a picture that got snapped that was like that I saw going around on social media. You know, it's post-game media availability.

And his hair was together after that. I think somebody, if not Craig himself, somebody in Craig. circle was like, sir, we need to get you a haircut. No, you know how I feel about the defiant no haircut for men? Like I kind of like the rebellion. You know what I mean? Like I always think it's funny when guys are like, oh, I got to get a haircut. I'm like, why?

Who's telling you to get the hair cut? Who? The Yankees? Not everybody plays for the Yankees. But there's a bigger note to be had here, Marshall. It's the fact that Craig Counsel, now that now when we know some sometimes why, oh, I don't know so-and-so gets more at bats, and I don't know why this guy gets more at bats.

Well, we may have just found a reason. Okay, so was that specifically addressing the individual there or the whole team when you talk about not going to be on this team? That's what Bruce clarified in that comment. He didn't single Al-Contra out. It was to the whole team, but to be clear, it was Al-Contra that made the face-running mistake. Contra made the mistake, but you won't be on this team was for anybody who can't run the base. The message to the team.

Yeah, there was that triple play last week with old Matt Shaw. And that didn't look great where Bregman runs to third, but Matt Shaw's at third. Maybe that was in the back of his head. You know what? I'm not giving him. I'm not giving him old Matt Shaw, because old Matt Shaw wouldn't make that mistake. Old anybody wouldn't make that type of mistake. You miss the old matchaw?

That's young Matt Shaw. That's very green Matt Shaw. Well, I was being a little sorry. Oh, I know. But you're right. I just can't believe, like, you're playing Major League Baseball, and you don't understand when two people are on the same base, who's out and who's not.

That's something they teach you when you are a child. Damn it, we should have cut away to Craig Counsel then and seen if he was pacing. I mean. Cardio to relieve stress? Good for Craig Counsel, though. To get your thoughts out there. Make sure it's been openly communicated.

Also, Ray, I immediately thought of the Andrew Vaughn home run and the Zoom in to Craig Counsel on the phone. Yep, yep. That's a pacing moment if there ever was one. Okay, so did Michael Conforto add to this? Yes, he did. Michael Comforto is a recent addition to Cubs Camp. And so our guy, Bruce Levine, asked him about what it's been like to get to know Craig Counsel. He's been very vocal, especially in some of the latest, you know,

team staff he definitely wants to make his points and make them firmly and loud. Yeah, it's been great. You were out there yesterday for that teaching moment. That's as animated as Craig Counsel gets. But obviously when a certain point in spring training managers have to give the point across that regular season is close, right? Yeah, I mean, we're a few weeks away. One of the strengths of this team is base wrestling.

Kind of towing that fine line of aggressive and reckless. There's a sweet spot there that you don't give outs away, but you take everything that the other team gives you. You know, I think it's good to be aggressive. You know, it's good to be on the aggressive end. It's harder to stay safe and then push guys forward. But, you know, as the point he's getting across is, hey, you know, have to be smart too.

So let's understand the game situation and, you know, think of all the things that we need to be aware of. So I thought it was good. I think a lot of guys had open ears in those moments. Man, Michael Conforto just telling us what's up. Wisdom. Wisdom being shared. He can be old Michael Conforto.

How about that? The only ones I've determined are actual old. are everybody in general and players who have NIR arrest on their practice designations. Okay. But if it's a pitcher, we're going to go ahead and skip his turn through the rotation,

even though he's been pitching fine. Yeah, maybe. Maybe then. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3 the score. And apparently Bruce also got to the bottom of this with Craig Counsel. You had some important, what it seemed like, important instruction

moments for your You guys doing base running and doing drills for relays yesterday. Is that just a general part of spring? I mean, it was, you know, you got a little animated during that. Yeah, that happens, actually, more than you think. Sometimes you just have to try to emphasize your points. Make sure they make sure it's understood. Good enough?

Yeah, it was a very direct answer. Sometimes it's, sometimes there's a little fun in it too. You can often caught that part. Well, I said when you said you won't make this team if you get doubled off. I didn't say that. I said you won't be on the team. So that's obviously an exaggeration. Very similar.

Well, no, it's not. It's a very, because you won't make the teams very different than. We have some people that are going to be on the team. Okay. Some players that are going to be on the team. Even if they get doubled off. Even if they get doubled off. They're going to be on the team.

That's what's different about this. You know what I mean? They're going to be on the team still. No, I understand. The fun part I might have missed, but what would you say was the fun part of that? Well, there's, yeah, I think I'm not going to explain that to you. sometimes some things are best not explaining just in that in our world

well yeah we understand you're you can't just be if you want to be a good major league bass runner like we can teach you technique yeah we're going to get technique right there's some technical things you're going to get right and then you also have to understand

like the scoreboard which is a huge part of it which I think big differences. So the scoreboard is about winning and losing, and it's about game state and understanding your role as a base runner in particular game states. And that's something, when you're on second base,

and you don't have a coach whispering in your ear after every pitch, you're on your own to figure that out. And you have to figure that out, and you have to understand that. So we talk about the game state a lot, which is kind of a fancy way of just saying, You know, what's the situation, right?

And you've got to figure that out. And we try to put some, the point of it is a little bit, too, is to put some pressure on when we do the drill because we can't operate everything in like a game, a real game. But sometimes my voice can apply some pressure to the situation. That's all we're trying to, because that makes it a little more game-like.

Man, Craig counts out here. He's the one having all the fun. Oh, my God. I need more of that exchange, between Craig and Bruce. Did you like the the pregnant pauses? What was your favorite part of the interaction?

Man, Bruce held the line. That's what happened. Like, Bruce didn't, no, that's the best. Okay, I'm giving away more state secrets. Number one, glitter is girl code because it always tells you where it's been. Number two, let somebody finish a sentence and when you pause like that in an interview,

if they just keep talking, it was it was his answer until he was done and then jesse chimes in and backs up backs up bruce but where he goes i miss the fun part i'm not going to explain that leila i'm not i'm not going to explain that lela why not i don't think that needs to be explained that was probably one of the best parts i'm playing the role in correct counsel but like bruce is that is that is some a plus interviewing by bruce Bruce. Because when he says, I miss the fun part, play confused, see what the other guy says. And then he's still mad, isn't he? He's not happy. He's not happy. He's like, why am I dealing

with this with Major League Baseball players? Basically is the sentiment that I got from that. Also, no, it's not good enough because I want to know what the hell your third base coach is doing half the damn time. I was going to ask, where's Quentin Berry fit into this equation, if you will? Because on that triple play, guess what happened? He was turned away from the runner going. I'm not going to explain that. So if that's... But why can't you explain?

You just explained everything else. Also kind of funny, he is right. You can't make the team and be bad at base running. Unfortunately. Unfortunately. But then he's like, I apply pressure. See, I don't deal in that card game.

Subtalties, that's not my thing. Never been my thing. Fascinated by those who have that thing. So I'm like, are you telling us all this is going? Because like the pause is just so good. It just makes people nervous. It's so efficient, which I am not. It's something else. I'll tell you that. It's something else. What did you think? About which part. All of it. Oh, I loved it. I need more of that Craig counsel going forward, the one who lights up his players in real time and also the one who doesn't really want to explain,

but he'll play the game with you like he did with Bruce. I love it. More of that all season long, please. Yeah, and also... It's entertaining. 6.3 asks a good question. If pacing as mad Craig, are we worried the bullpen phone cord might not stretch long enough?

Let's get a cordless phone for Craig. You get that right? Yeah, it's... It's 2026. A lot of pacing. Pacing and pausing. Cubs get Craig a cordless phone in that bullpen, please. No, I hope to hell he doesn't need a cordless phone.

He won't that part. Yeah. Ray keeps signaling at us to break and I just don't want to because it's so funny. Marshall, the Bulls did something that they hadn't done in an entire calendar month and the Thunder are here and I think you have the right level of concern about this.

I'm going to hold it until after the break, but I'll explain to you why the Bulls can't be doing what they just did. A lot of pacing. Okay. Okay. I don't want to break time. I want to yell at Marcia. Can we handle more Anthony Heron?

Midday's 10 to 2 on 104 3, the score. Bottom line story, the buck stops here at the United Center. The Bulls are victorious. I mean, an 11-game losing streak. The eyes of March. Ah, you got to love it, Bill. The final, 1297, Bulls win, Bulls win, Bulls win. Oh, Tyler.

In the month of March of 2026, all the Bulls have done is won, no matter what. And they were down in that game, but it didn't matter. They came back and went on a ridiculous 27-0-0 run. And I, for the plot, will say that I wanted the Bulls to have the losing streak until they played the Lakers at Crypto. I'm calling it Staples. I can't do it. But they beat me to it, and they beat the Bucks.

Another team that I didn't think they were going to beat. Yonis wasn't playing. He wasn't the elimination chamber the night before, but he was not playing. But then, Janus ended up playing against the Celtics, and they still lost. Bucks lost 108 to 81. And this, Laila Rahimi, is why you can't be winning these games. Wait, so you don't want to win, win, win, win no matter what? You want to lose, lose, lose no matter what.

Marshall, in case you have forgotten, suffered through the worst of these of all time. Marshall was the pre- and post game host for the Sixers during the process. I know what it takes. I know the medal that it takes to make the decision as a front office that we are going to lose basketball games. Let me be very specific about why that win was so bad. You beat the Bucks. The Bucs have now lost three games in a row. You're only a game and a half ahead of the Bucks in the standings.

That part. The Bucks could pass you and lose their way out and knock you from 9th, to 10th in the old tank-a-thon standings, dropping your chance of a top-four-pick from 20.3% to 13.9%. Dropping your chance at the number one overall pick from 4.5% to 3%. You got that? It's simple math. Stop losing by winning. You got it?

Don't win more games because you are losing if you are winning games. Tonight's game doesn't make it any easier because in the Department of what I swear seems like load management. The champs are in town, the Oklahoma City Thunder, who Marshall and I think are probably the exemplary franchise in the NBA when it comes to how to build a team, yes? Yes. I think you and I are on the same page there.

Yes. When you make a trade, you trade a player before he loses value, see Paul George. And you get a player back that might turn into something, Shea Gilgis Alexander, and you just keep amassing first round pick after first round pick. That aforementioned SGA out within, abdominal strain.

Now, the thunder goes straight from here to play the Knicks. He'll be playing tomorrow. There's a back-to-back and play. Britt and Carlson out with the back. Hartnstein is out with a calf. That guy always has good games against the Bulls. You know that, right? Not tonight he won't.

Mitchell's out with an ankle. Jalen Williams is out with the hamstring. Oh, Jalen Williams. Is he good? At basketball? He is, yes. So you could argue that the thunder are down what, four of their top seven players.

Now, Jalen Williams has a legit injury. Yes, but I'm just saying. As for the rest. I'm just saying, it's the Chet Holmgren show, right? Here's the bottom line. The Bulls better not mess around and try to win this game tonight. And when I say they, I mean, Archerich, Karnasovas.

We already know Jailen Smith's not going to play. That's good. I think Patrick Williams is out too, right? Patrick Williams is out with the quad. Yeah. These are good things. But now you've got to manage those minutes of people who are actually playing in the game in such a way that you don't allow an actual dub to happen.

You don't allow a 27 to nothing run to even begin to take place. Hey, now listen, just for the record, they did try, I think, because you remember the bench rotation was like three dudes in that game. The Bulls bench was, I mean, other people played, but it wasn't the same. amount of minutes. Like, Lachlan Oldbrook is listed on the box score. He played one minute. Rob Dillingham had five minutes a game time. Yuki had one minute. He's the one who dribbled it out at the end. I need. So it was Leonard Miller, Nick Richards, and Colin Sexton, who really, that was your essential bench. I'm sorry, go back one more time. Hit me up with the Dillingham minutes played again.

Five. Remember that time we wanted to see more out of Rob Dillingham? In the search for the nine or ten good players. On this team. that's trying to improve its draft position and not quote-unquote be in the middle. Rob Dillingham needs to play 20, 25 minutes a game at the minimum. It sounds like we have a tank. Do we have a tank commander? I'll be the tank commander. No, but like campaign was the Bulls tank commander in the 2019-ish, 2018-ish time.

That guy that just always played in your hopes of a tank. Well, I mean, and that was the Doug McDermott-Tage Gibson deal, I would say Lachlan-Obrick is a better tank commander. Because he plays a position the Bulls are actually short-handed in right now, which is big. Fair enough. So, you know, Dillingham is one of like a thousand guards. So I get that part. But the bottom line here is while at one point earlier this season, if I told you, hey, the Bulls beat O KC, you would have been like, wow, what a win.

Now, if the Bulls beat OKC, it's what a loss. What a missed opportunity. Because here's why. Looking directly in front of the bulls in the tankathon standing, so below the bulls and the overall standings, the Memphis Grizzlies have messed around in one, two, in a row. If you had just done your job and lost the game, you would be tied with the Grizzlies and the eight spot

instead of by yourself in the nine spot in the tankathon standings. Do you see how this works? Oh, no. I was with you for the process. I just left and went to Chicago during the process. And then the NBA shut it down, by the way. The league intervened. Layla, just to really illustrate what we're dealing with here,

the Bulls have won one in a row. The Grizzlies have won two in a row. Every team that's below them in the standings has not won their last game. You've got to be in tune with all those teams. Losers of three in a row, six in a row, five in a row, eight in a row, six in a row as I go down the list. Why do I feel like the Thunder are basically daring the Bulls to win?

They're like daring the Bulls to beat them. So then what's more important, Bulls? Is it beating the Thunder or is it getting a better draft pick? Getting a better draft pick is the only answer in this scenario. What a troll job by Mark Dagono. He's like, yes, yeah, SGA, you're out, abdominal, intercostal muscle, something. You guys are out. It's management.

time. It was listed officially as management, so there's that. Injury management, though. Yeah. But when you put the word management in, man, that's, yeah, that'll be, this is a very compelling month for the Bulls, even though it doesn't look like it, because you know it's after this, the West Coast Road Trip. Sounds like a good time.

It's including a stop in Sacramento. To lose games. Yeah, that'll be the tank. That'll be the tank trophy. We've got to come up with a name for that game. It's the Bulls. Yeah, we'll come off with it. Because that's West Coast Bulls right there.

The Spider-Man meme. The Spider-Man meme bowl. That's it. No, we got to work on this. The Sacramento Kings have 14 wins. I have half a mind to just play the exchange between Bruce and Craig Council for the rest of the show. That's not bad. It's not a bad plan.

I'm told I can't do that. Also, a very important baseball guest is coming up next. Tom Verducci with Sports Illustrated and Fox Sports Major League Baseball. We'll join us next. I'm Sally Home with the podcast. History This Week. In each episode, we serve as your eyes and ears into history's biggest events, major elections, world wars, scientific breakthroughs. But we also bring you into the smaller behind-the-scenes stories, the unsung heroes, secret meetings, even personal grudges that changed

the course of history. Listen to and follow History This Week, an Odyssey podcast in partnership with the History Channel. Available now for free on the Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. Erty. Everybody in this industry wants expectations. You work hard to get expectations. And that's what I can refer to. You work really hard to build a roster that has expectations. You work really hard to get on a team that has expectations.

So that's what we want. Sometimes I think there's a misdomer with that. Truly excited that we have expectations. It's not easy to get them. And so you work hard to get them. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3, The Score. That was Craig Counsel. and we stick talking baseball and go to our hotline,

and that is where we find Tom Verducci, the senior writer for Sports Illustrated. He has covered Major League Baseball since 1981, analyst and reporter for Fox Sports and their Major League Baseball coverage, and he is nice enough to join us on Zoom and on Twitch, twitch.tv slash the score Chicago. Hi, Tom, thanks for joining us.

Hey, thanks for having me. Glad to be here. We just played a cut from Craig Counsel's Soundbite. where he was talking about the expectations for his Cubs team. I think that's where just I want to start with you, you know, seeing what you've seen out of what the Dodgers have done, what the Brewers did and some of the trades that they made in the offseason. Where do you put this Cubs squad as far as playoff hopes and divisional hopes as well? Well, I'm not putting anybody above the L.A. Dodgers.

I mean, they're as good as advertised, two-time defending champs and absolutely loaded with the additions they made with Diaz and Tucker. But I mean, I don't think it's asking too much, even though it has been recently, to have the Cubs be better than the Milwaukee Brewers. Right? I mean, they should be. They weren't last year. All due respect to Milwaukee the way they just don't miss a beat, even when they miss players. You know, 97 wins last year and then, you know, taking the Cubs out in the postseason.

There's no reason for me to think that the Cubs should not be better, at least on paper, than Milwaukee Brewers. Now, I haven't been able to prove it on the field, but, you know, kind of the, the, the, push poll between the Brewers losing Peralta, the Cubs picking up Bregman. On paper, I'm going with the Cubs as the better team. But again, they've got to show that to me, not just the 162, but as we saw last year in the five-game series. And Tom, it feels like we've seen this before and people have been okey-doked because they believe, okay, now the brewer's time is over. And it's almost like you have to double-check the math that you were doing because you end up being wrong at the end of the season. Like you just mentioned, does there anything that makes you want to double-check

your math saying the same thing? Probably that you've probably said the last couple of years? Yeah, man. Well, first of all, I love watching the breweries play baseball. And I think actually Craig Counsel's got his team playing with that similar DNA. You know, really good fundamentally. I thought last year the Cubs put a big emphasis on base running, and you could see that. That's not something that happens by chance. That's a culture that's established in spring training that you take every 90 feet as hard as you can. I think they did that. We know how they're good they are defensively. I mean, last year, the Toronto Blue Jays were the best defensive team in baseball by most measurements.

And to me, the Cubs were right there. You know, it just seems to be that the Brewers have figured out how to match up pitching. And I think you saw that in the postseason as well, that they just kept coming after the Cubs of waves of pitchers. You know, Peralta was the only guy who pitched, I think, beyond four innings in the five game series. But they seemed to have an answer at the right time. So give them credit for identifying pitchers. Obviously, they're not really signing major free agents to fill these roles. But they do a great job of having their stuff play up.

Murph does a great job matching up against them. On paper, again, you've got to say, listen, starting pitching for the Cubs is a big advantage over Milwaukee coming into the season. And I do think that should play out in the course of 162. You get to the postseason, it's a matter of, okay, what does your rotation look like at that time of year? That's where obviously the loss of Horton last year really hurt the Cubs. Well, and we expect to see a lot more out of Kate Horton, expected to pitch today, as we know in Mesa, but then also, Tom, just the ceiling for him. You know, we didn't get to see him in the playoffs. He had that rib fracture from an illness.

You know, what do you expect out of Kate Horton? What intrigues you about him? Yeah, love his stuff. He's got a special fastball, really good command of the change up. I just love his aggressiveness on the mound. He looks like, he looks like a position player who's pitching, right? really athletic delivery repeats that really well. Here's the key, though, guys. I mean, to me, it's like you have to get your master's degree as a pitcher by going through a full season and breaking through the 162 innings. And I get it.

You know, the game has really changed a lot. We don't have those guys throwing 250 innings even. But for a young pitcher and your team like the Cubs, man, you've got to prepare yourself to pitch that seventh month. Packing on the innings and getting through the big season, that's the breakthrough. It's like running a marathon. right? You're not going to get there by running a bunch of 5Ks.

You have to train to get there. And this is a season where I think he should be able to break through that 160 mark, take that into September, to October. But until young pitchers do that, you know, it's hard to learn how to do that. And physically and mentally in the grind, I think he's fully equipped to do that. Don't get me wrong. But this is where I like the Cubs depth of the pitching. Because we tend to look at who's their top five.

But, man, you better go into a season. with six or seven or eight, and I think the Cubs do have those options. Tom Verducci joining us here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3, the score. Tom, the senior writer for Sports Illustrated, who has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981. He's also an analyst and reporter for Fox Sports Major League Baseball coverage. And Tom, I'm really curious on the whole. What has your attention the most here as we're about halfway through spring training? Well, I think I look at a kid like Connor Griffin with the Pittsburgh Pirates,

who comes fans will see a lot of, not just this year, but over the years, really intrigued whether he's going to make the opening day roster for the Pirates. He should be there really quickly. I'll watch this kid hit, and, you know, it's special. I mean, you see a kid like Jackson Churio in the division who, you know, hit the ground running and signed that long-term extension. If I'm the Pirates, I'm trying to lock him up right now. I mean, to me, greatness as an everyday player.

And I know I'm asking a lot for a kid, but to me, he's one of these special elite players. You really don't make a mistake on young players like that, whether it's Fernando Tette's Jr., Bryce Harper, you know, Mike Trout. And again, I'm not saying this guy's Mike Trout. I'm saying is as an everyday player, you can bank on those guys having repeat performances at a young age. I believe when they really stand out like this. And I do think he's one of those players. So the division is going to be better, I think, because Pittsburgh really made some adjustments to their offense.

I mean, they need it. We all know that. We know how good their pitching is. I'm not sure they're a playoff team yet, guys, but I think that's another team you're going to have to contend with. We know the Reds with their pitching are going to be there, and the Brewers, no matter who's on that roster are going to be there. So, you know, I look at the Central now as a much deeper division than it's been the last few years. I think that's fair, especially when you consider moves like E. Oh, Hedioswara, going back to the Reds. after the excellent season he had. I know his time wasn't as good with Seattle, but those moves tend to add up.

And the Reds made some trade deadline deals, too, that I think may help them long term this year. Yeah, no doubt. I think if you give me a whole season of Hunter Green and Lodolo and that young pitching staff, and I say young, but most of them have packed on those three, four, or five big league seasons where they should be at prime years to break through,

sort of like Edward Cabrera. We talked about Horton, but Cabrera with the Cubs isn't that. same category. When you get to your late 20s and have major league experience, I call them young veterans, that's when you start seeing the best out of young pitchers to me. And I think Cabrera is in that mix as well. So, yeah, I would not discount the Reds at all. Playoff team last year, you know, they got boat race in the short series by the Dodgers, but, you know, that was just a matter of the Dodgers just out-talanting them. But I think they're a pain.

They'll be able to score runs. You mentioned with Suarez there. So it's set up to me as an interesting season in both leagues, actually, because the Dodgers have set the bar so high, but the great equalizer is the postseason and find a way to get to the postseason. Listen, Toronto almost took them out last year, the year before the Padres had them on the ropes. It's not like the Dodgers are a sure thing, but you got to get in there. And I think there's a lot of competition for playoff spots, especially in the NL. Tom Verducci with us here on 104, the score of Rahimi Harrison Grotian. And Tom, I look at this world baseball club.

classic. And it just seems like that event has changed so much since the last time we had it. Because of the way it ended last time with that kind of the climax, the climax of the Otani versus Mike Trout. What are you expecting this time around that maybe we have gained because of the way that last event went? Yeah, good call on your part because there's no doubt that that's had an effect on this WBC going. It's three years ago, but I feel like there's momentum because of, you know, the last chapter of that book that was written in the last WBC, which couldn't have worked out any better for baseball.

It was a great game, an absolute dream matchup, one-run game, ninth inning, Otani on the mound, literally coming out of the bullpen while warming up in between at bats for Team Japan, crazy and pitching against Mike Trout. It was great finish. And you notice this is the stacked USA roster, right?

They didn't have to go begging for players to sign up the way they had in past years because the players felt the momentum. You know, once you get Aaron, judge on board. There's nobody who's going to say, well, I really don't want to play. So I love the roster they have together. Team Japan is still loaded again. I know Shohay's not going to pitch, but this team is 30 and 8 in WBC competition. They know how to play. I call it tournament baseball. You know, they keep the game close. They have a deep pitching

staff. They just find ways. So I don't discount them. And then you look at the Dominican Republic team. They have a starting lineup with eight players. who got MVP votes last year is absolutely the most firepower I've ever seen a WBC lineup. I think the event is really fun. I know a lot of fans, like if you're a Cubs fan or a Sox fan, you want to know what's going on with their team this time of year, who's going to make the roster, how they're doing in spring training, but just kind of break away from that mindset a little bit

because these games are played at playoff intensity level. And I know sometimes, you know, you don't feel it going into it, but I know being at the ballpark there, feel the intensity. It does feel like playoff baseball. The rules are a little bit weird. I get it because there's pitching limits and stuff like that. I'm not saying it's postseason baseball, period. But there is a want to and a care factor. And hey, you got to love an event where people bring musical instruments to the ballpark. Like, I'm starting out in Miami, and that place is just crazy. People bring in percussion and brass instruments and who knows, maybe they'll show up

with a piano. I don't know, but the fans and the atmosphere is definitely part of it. Oh yeah, that's a big part of it. I think that's something that we take away. And, you know, we had Tom, the director of Homecoming, which was the documentary that came out about the Dodgers and Cubs trip to Japan. And that was something that they touched on as well. So I think it's very valid. I also want to ask you just about that World Baseball Classic the last time. You know, until that point, I don't know that any of us thought we'd get the matchup of Otani versus Trout. And to have that happen, I think that was a lasting moment with a lot. of people that that leads them to want more in a case like this. Yeah, no doubt about it. And I think what Shohei is today, you can almost trace back to that. Listen, we knew he was a great player. But we had not seen that kind of emotion out of a Shohei Otani. And he's playing on an Angels team where he literally never played a meaningful game

when you're talking about the second half of a season, not just getting into the whole season, but not playing a meaningful September. So this was the first time a lot of us here in the States got to see Shohei playing with something really on the line. And if you play for Team Japan, man, just look at their TV ratings. I mean, it means a lot to those guys. And you saw the reaction that strikeout, first of all, volunteering to come out of the bullpen like that was just crazy, right?

And then reaction that you saw. And we've seen since then, now that he's played for the Dodgers the last couple of years, when you put this guy in a big spot, he's actually even better. I mean, as crazy as it sounds, to me, he's the most talented player we've ever seen in baseball. And now we can say that he's passed the test

of being battle tested, that, you know, when the chips are on the line, this guy's going to do anything typically come through. The gaming had against Milwaukee last year was an all-time postseason game. Pitches game seven on two days of rest the year he was rehabbing from surgery.

I just can't say enough about him. So if we wind up with, you know, Japan and the USA again in the final, I think Fox will be happy about that, the Tani and Judge, in the final. To say the least. Tom, is there somebody you think could have one of those emergent world baseball classics? I know the names are so big, but still, is there somebody who think might rise to the occasion on this stage?

Out of any team? Wow, that's a really good question. You know, I would say Paul Skeens, I don't know how he's going to, how many times we'll start. He'll start in the first round, limited to 65 pitches. But, man, everybody gets jazz for this tournament. And Bryce Harper as well, especially putting on the stars and stripes. But, you know, as a former Air Force Academy cadet, man, you can tell how much it means to Paul

Skeens to be in this situation. If you ever watch Paul when the national anthem is being played, he stands at military attention. I mean, this guy does everything very purposefully. And I got to believe his heart is. all the way into this tournament. And again, hopefully he'll get to pitch, you know, either in the semis or the finals

and can stretch him out to 80-something pitches. I'm not going on a limb by saying Paul Skeen's is going to stand out. But again, for a guy who hasn't played a meaningful game in his young career, these are the most meaningful games that he will pitch in so far. And I've got to believe he's going to relish the spotlight. Tom, speaking of standing out, the other local baseball club here,

The Chicago White Sox stood out for all the wrong reasons just a couple of years ago. But now people are saying they are on the rise. I guess if you're at the bottom, there's only one way to go. What are you hearing about the White Sox here this spring? And they try to come back to, I don't want to call it relevance, but to being a team that can compete. Yeah, it's a great question. I spoke with Will Venable out in spring training.

I could tell even a difference in his demeanor. He's always upbeat, so you never have to worry about that. But I think he's established a culture, how he wants a team to play. and especially with some of the younger players. You know, it's Montgomery and Teal and these guys. We know really good offensive players. I think the question is how far have they come in terms of the young pitching? You know, I still think they're a little bit short there,

but you can definitely see this train heading down the tracks in the right direction here. I give well a lot of credit. I think he was a good hire. You know, kind of reminds me now of I just saw the Cardinals extended Ali Marmo. and he's a good teacher like Will Venable. And when you have a young team like this, I don't want to say you forget about the one lost record, but are they growing?

Is the team going in the right direction with the young players? And you want teachers with a young team, and that's how I look at Will Venable. So like the future of this team, it's going to take a while. I don't think it's an overnight process by any means, but it's going to come down to how their young pitchers develop. We're talking to Tom Verducci. Nice enough to join us here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the school.

score. Tom, thanks for taking the time in chatting baseball with us. Thanks, Tom. Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks for having me. That's Tom for Ducci. You can, of course, check his workout at Sports Illustrated. He has a nice breakdown of that World Baseball Classic, and he'll be working for Fox. So it's safe to say, pretty exciting month for Tom. Yeah, and after our previous conversation with Evangrelic, it's kind of, it feels like not a last hurrah, but it feels like this won't be the same this time next year.

So I am really, as a baseball fan, people ask, what's your favorite sport? I always tell them baseball was my first love. This feels like a love letter type of season to the sport because it may not be the same when it does come back as what I remember growing up. I can't turn the page to the last page of the book yet. I'm still in chapter one. Okay. You know what's not in chapter one? You know it's at the end of a chapter of some sort?

What's that? Kevin Byard's contract. Oh, that's definitely, we're trying to figure out is there going to be a sequel or not. Exactly. And on this franchise tag day, although I don't think that's his fate. There was a report from two friends of the show that deserved some time as far as shedding some light on his status with the team. So we'll discuss it next. The podcast Campus Files is back with more stories of scandal, crime, and intrigue on college campuses. Campus Files, available now wherever you get your podcasts.

That sounds so crazy. 104.3 to the score. Wow, I like that. Midday's 10 to 2 on 104 3, the score. God's to throw. Pressure up the middle. Zips one deep in the heavy. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043 to score.

That is courtesy of Fox. And Kevin Byard did do it better than anybody in the regular season, leading the league in interceptions. And he is one of four safeties on the big. whose contract is up. He is a free agent. And as we try to figure out on this franchise tag deadline day, what Kevin Byard's fate is,

I don't think it's going to be that just because of the safety salaries in the league and what the average would end up being. So that is not necessarily my concern. But it is trying to figure out if he comes back to this team because Ryan Poles mentioned him by name at the end of season press conference, which I think matters to not just him, but others. It's not even that he just mentioned him by name. It's that he wasn't mentioning other people's names.

He singled him out. And he's long held that not only is he important based on what he did, specifically in the second year of his two-year deal with the Bears, but he is an established leader of this team. And when you start to build a culture of winning, if you can retain the leaders that helped instill that, of course you want to keep them as long as it's at a reasonable cost because salary cap. Right.

And like we said, the bears are over the cap currently. Now, this is from our friends Dan Weider and Kevin Fishbane. It was basically a here's what we heard at the Combine story. And in it, the question was asked, will Kevin Byard be back? On the back end, safety Kevin Byard stood out as the player league source is expected to be the bear's top priority to resign. So that is in line with what we were thinking. Team captain and first team all pro, there wasn't much hesitation over where Byard stacks up with Jaquan Briskarne Ashon Wright and C.J. Gardner Johnson. Kevin's a special player

polls said in January. I have no problem saying that's a player we would like to have back. But again, when you add the other safeties into the mix and all the other decisions we have across the roster with cap restraints and things like that, it will be a challenge. Even coming off of a season in which he led the NFL with seven interceptions, Byard's market may not be as robust as he'd hoped. So this is new. One league source believes by the Bears could potentially bring him back on a deal similar to the two-year $15 million package he originally arrived with. Byard will turn 33 in training camp and still doesn't register league-wide in the Kyle Hamilton,

Buda Baker, Kirby Joseph, Derwin James class at the position. Quote, that's a very, very select group, the sort said. After that, it falls off. That market should play in the Bears' favor, end quote. I don't know if it's going to play in the Bears' favor enough to where they need to sign him at a deal that is favorable to the team more so than it is to Byard after the season he had. That's my concern. Well, it's interesting because if that really is a possibility that he could come back on a similar deal, then that's obviously a win for the Bears. Because of the leadership we talk, and you are taking a risk when you're talking about an aging player like Kevin Byard, not that he's old, but he's older in football years.

and that's one interesting thing. Now, Brad Biggs wrote about this similarly, and he talked about the fact that he would expect him to get a raise and could see something close to $10 million a year annually. And see, I think I'm more in line with the Biggs camp of, yes, you can hope that it's closer to that end than I don't know the 25 and a half million, you know, that the elite safeties of the league make a year, Hamilton.

But I don't think that's what we're talking about here. It's that when every dollar counts, we just talked about the bears being over the cap. How does that factor in in making sure it's a deal that suits both parties? That's the kind of line that really Ryan Poles has to walk. And because he mentioned this as a priority, this should be one of the first dominoes to fall for him. As he sorts out, okay, we've got a clear cap space. what restructuring and or cuts need to be made. Hey, Tremaine Edmunds, how you doing?

And then, all right, obviously Byrd is at the top of his list or near the top of his list. I don't have his list in front of me, but based on what he said, I'm curious to see if they get a deal done. And if they don't, that's where when I start having some questions. All right, like, how are you going to replace what happened at safety last year for the Bears when you knew that the line play was not quite up to snuff? Meanwhile, in Tennessee, there's this from Titans Wire. This is Titan-sized, which is a fan-sided site. Titans roster move just sparked reunion rumors for a franchise legend.

And that's where they show Kevin Byrd. Now the Titans have a lot of money under the cap. So they've got room to work with here. And they also talked about the possibility of Byard coming into play here. They said, the ageless Byrd, ageless is coming off of a fantastic season with the Bears. The former Middle Tennessee State standout, notched a league leading seven interceptions,

as we know. Bired was truly fantastic, adding 93 tackles and eight pass breakups to his defensive totals. So you could see why other teams want him back. And frankly, the Titans may want to make a mistake right because they let him go. So the Titans don't have three starting caliber safeties that says,

nor do they have enough depth behind their two injury-prone starters. Bayard would address that hole in a major way. I think Byard is looking to start somewhere. I don't think he'd be a backup. Are you taking as he would be a backup for the Titans, though? Well, when they say two injury-prone starters, it's like, well, do you still consider them starters if he comes into play? Oh, no, I think he becomes one of the starters.

He's coming off an old pro season. Yeah, I would too. But the way they said that, there was room for error there. So there are other teams who want him. If you're the Titans and you've got all this cap space, it makes sense as to why you would want to write that wrong. But in the meantime, is Byrd going to cost too much if the Bears are working on something else,

like getting under the cap, for one? I think there's ways around the cap consternation. But you do have to make priorities. So I guess the answer to your question, Lelah's, what would be prioritized more than Kevin Byer in looking across this roster right now? Well, number one is do you want to trade for somebody who is an edge rusher in Las Vegas? Or do you want to sign a free agent, Edrusher who's maybe in Cincinnati? In addition to the free agents you already signed last year?

These are the things that Ryan Poles has to sort out. Trey Hendrickson made $30 million last year. Are you restructuring Cole Commet's contract and giving him more money, which could help you right now but won't help you in the future as far as salary cap? Are you letting Tremaine Edmonds go? Because now you have a massive linebacker-shaped hole you've got to fill. T.J. Edwards, is he going to be healthy right at the beginning of the season? I'm sure I could go on Calci or one of these websites and find out just as simple.

Will Tremaine Edmonds be on the Bears next season? or no, and the odds would be so ridiculous that it wouldn't be worth me betting on it, but he's not going to be on the Bears next season. And that is the expectation. So I start from the middle, I start closest to the line of the scrimmage, and then I go out. So for me, what is your defensive line looking like? And if you know what that looks like, then you've got to figure out linebacker, then you figure out secondary.

It's harder, though, when you have so many free agents in your secondary. What if I tell you that defensive line looks like Austin Booker, Montes, Sweat, and Grady Jarrett, and Devon Dexter, and O. Dio Dingbo when he comes back, I can just start naming all the players who are undercountry. Yeah. That still doesn't solve your linebacker

problem. So if you think the team is on the field, then you go next to linebacker. Then you try to figure out what's happening a linebacker. Play a linebacker. You can get a linebacker in the draft. I think they thought they were doing that when they got Ruben Hippolyte in the fourth round. Or maybe

Ruben Hippelite is an answer one year extra development. DeMarco Jackson. He's a free agent. Bring him back. That's another one. So that's it. There's all these other possibilities where you're left, I think, looking at that before you look at your secondary.

That seems to be the way they've addressed this previously. Yeah, but I think with this specific player, Kevin Byard, in this specific position and coming off an all-pro, pro-bowl season and understanding what he's meant to your turnaround and if the D-line doesn't get the job done and you need takeaways, he's been a guy who's been a big part of that. Well, if he's as much of a priority as you indicated calling him out by name, then it's probably a discussion that not only had happened already,

but that is continuing to go on right now. What salary are you comfortable A, A, A, V, giving him? I think, I think, the 10 makes sense, yeah. Yeah, that's it. But see, here's where it starts to add up, like Nashon Wright, for example, probably in the seven range after getting paid one million. But you're not paying the sign right. Or are you?

Oh, you think he's coming back? I don't know. That's my point. So he said he wants to come back. If we just go with the Tyreek Stevenson, if we go with Jalen Johnson. You could restructure Jalen. Yeah. Jalen's a 25 million cap hit, I mean.

I feel like there's some flexibility there to work with. Clearly, Jailen Johnson wants to play a season where he's health. and on a winning team like he did this season, but he wasn't quite as healthy as he wants to be. And I say quite as healthy. He wasn't nearly as healthy. I mean, we didn't think he was coming back for a time. And he shocked us all, kind of.

Well, that was a roller coaster. We thought he'd be ready by the start of the regular season. He wasn't. Then he, when he got out there, re-injured himself. It was bad. So, but either way, hopefully that doesn't happen. And that was a training exercise. that was a training injury as well.

So that's something that I'm really hoping gets monitored, his training, and hopefully he doesn't injure himself again. In the meantime, yes, the bears have cornerbacks. Sure. Now, could they pull a CD Gardner Johnson where Citi was originally a corner and then moves to safety? I don't know.

But I don't know that that's necessary. I'm not saying CEDY's the guy either. I'm just using him as an example. So I think the bigger question becomes like how much do they think it's a priority versus how much we think it's a priority. I feel like everything on that defense is a priority. Whereas on offense. But you have to start with something first. Yeah.

Okay. So what's the biggest priority then? Well, and like I said, I go from the line out. So for me, that means are you good with your line? And if not, that's going to cost you the most money to fix. Let me be clear. I'm not good with the line. But unfortunately, I think Ryan Poles is good with the line because that's where the money already is.

And he believes those guys are going to come back that have not produced. Okay, so we have some update on the Maxinista movement here. Oh, what we got? Since this morning, and this is pro football talk reporting that, and they were the only ones, Fanduel had the Bears at a plus 200 odds to Land Max Crosby. And for the record, the Raiders were at plus three. They said since this morning the bears have moved from plus 200 to minus

135. That's Chicago, man. That's straight up Chicago out here putting their money, their wish betting. You know, their hope betting. They're saying, you know what? I believe the Ryan Polls is going to get it done. Ben Johnson's going to

tell Ryan Poles, go get Max Crosby. Dennis Allen's going to tell him, go get Max Crosby. I'm putting money on it right now. And now the odds have moved. What did you say right now? Minus 135. means in order to win $100, you've got to bet $135. That is not where my money would go. Laila, as you know how I like to operate.

Marshall likes a value bet. There's not enough value in this. We have a call for Mark. Mark, you want to chime in? Thanks, guys. Can you hear me? Yeah. Now we can. Okay, let me take.

All right. I was working at the same time. So I got to say, so why is nobody talking about? trading off Monta's Sweat to get Max Crosby. I mean, I mean, Casey, here's my question. First, would you take get rid of Montessweat to get Max Crosby if it helped you? Yes. Yeah, but no team is going to agree to that.

Montes Sweat is making, like, a little less than Max Crosby, but the whole idea is that the Raiders would get a haul and then in return, you know, would have more flexibility than they even already have under the salary cap. But if you took a high draft, so you're not going to get a good draft pick for him or anything like that. So if you took something that helped you clear up the space, then you traded for Max Crosby. Trey Henderson is a free agent also at the same time. So think of that dream world. You got Trey Henderson on one side and Max Crosby on the other side.

How much money are you spending here? They're already over the salary cap. But Trey Henderson, the reports that I've been reading about Trey Henderson is most likely he'll take a low 20s deal because he's coming off in an injury. So if the Bears, you know, one, he's been with the, you know, with the defensive coordinator before. So he's going to come into it. I mean, what would you want to do if you're in your 30s,

you don't have much time left? Are you going to go for a Super Bowl run and take a $21 million hit? I mean, they basically take $21 million and come to the Bears for Trey Henderson. I don't think Trey Henderson signs for $21 million. I think Trey Henderson, because he got 30, and the market is so high for his services. How much of it was injury and how much of it was business decision last year? Remember, the Raiders shut him down.

He didn't, he wanted to play. Oh, no, Hendrickson is who I was, yeah. No, Hendricks, I think a lot of times that's a business decision. Yeah, I, that that was, you can't trade Montes Sweat for Max Crosby. Where's the money, Lubboskey? The Raiders don't benefit from that. He's like, would you do it? I'm like, well, yeah, do it if it was possible.

Yes, if I can get another fantasy football owner and dupe him into making a trade, I will do it every time because that's what this is. That doesn't help you. This is real life. But also, like, how much of a haul are the bears going to give them, too? You know, that's the other part. Two first rounders, DJ Moore. Get it done, Ryan Poles.

Get it done, Ryan Poles. But are the first rounders good enough? You know, that's the other part. Dude, I died laughing when he said nobody's talking about. Yes, we are. but the concept of Trey Hendrickson getting a $9 million pay cut

that dude's driving back to Jacksonville as we speak. He's probably already there let's be honest, but still. Coming up next here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104 3, the score. The White Sox wanted to celebrate Women's History Month and

the flowers were given out. Some of them are a little unexpected. That's next. Harrison Grody, Midday's Tyndle 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 1043 the score. Shut up, mom. This is Women's History

Month, not just on Rahimi Harrison Grody on 1043 The Score, but in the world. But in the world, yes. And so because of that, the White Sox had on their Instagram a video where they had flowers and they asked their players who they would give the

flowers to, what woman in their life, in honor of Women's History Month. So here's what they had to say. I got to say it. I got to say it on camera. I would give you this power to the most beautiful woman in this world. My mom also I give it to my grandma to they're probably at home watching this video to say I love you. My wife for sure couldn't do this out my wife holding it down at home supporting me. Love you baby. Definitely my wife 100%. She brought an amazing daughter into this world for me so I got nothing but respect and props to him. Mike Bassel. My mom. She's my mother. I love her so much. She's the most important woman in my life.

Mama V. These are for you. Whether she would take them or not, probably be dulyper. I just, I got to say it. I got to say it on camera. Do a leap all day. My wife. I have to say my wife. To my wife. My wife. My daughter. My mom. Want to give flowers to my mom. I love my mom. You know, she does so much for me and I'm so grateful for her. Like to give individual flowers. flowers. To my mother and to my girlfriend, Jaden.

They do everything for me. So I appreciate you guys. I'm in post with cavernes of Sosa. Oh, no. So the guy who shot a shot with Duelipa, just to wrap that up was Chris Murphy of the White Sox. This is big time breaking news, and this is not good.

Adam Schaefter is reporting that Drew Dalman has informed the Bears that he is retiring at age 20. Dalman left Stanford in 2021 and after four seasons in Atlanta and one in Chicago, he has made the sudden and surprising decision to retire. That is within the minute. I cannot believe this. And there must be some further explanation because, you know, I know about retiring early. We've seen so many NFL players do this, but at the age of 27,

Wow. This is a scenario that I don't think any of us planned for thinking about that it would happen. Dolman signed a free agent contract last year with the Bears and his work was excellent. He ended up going to the Pro Bowl. Dolman is pivotal to this team and now I find myself in a similar situation except I think Frank Ragnow, that was more expected than this. Yes. This is shocking. Not even to the age of 30.

He just finished his age 27 season, finishing the first year of a three-year, $42 million contract. It's that part, too. We thought we were going to know Drew Dalman's services for another two years after this. Wow. Okay.

Not totally panicking here, but this is a huge concern. for the Bears. And we just talked about how the priority was so clear that, oh, yeah, you need to figure out left tackle, but maybe they'll do that in house with the pieces gone. But look at the other four members of that offensive line. And now... Well, I mean, left tackle's been very much a question, Mark.

Now, looking at the center position, and how many times have we said, you know what, isn't it good not to worry about center? It was me. I said it. I said I was really happy that I didn't have to worry about the center and quarterback exchange. Oh my goodness. Now we're going to have major change as Adam Schaefter reports that Drew Dalman says he is hanging up his cleats after just five NFL seasons, only one with the Bears. Well, and then there's also the matter of, okay, how does the retirement also affect

the cap hits and things of that nature? That is, this is unexpected and it just leaves us with more questions at this point than we could possibly have answers. I will say this. Better this decision occur now than later if you're the bears because now you are somewhat prepared going into the draft free agency, everything else. You didn't want a later decision on something like this. And the biggest question that I will have going forward until we get an answered is why? So from what I understand, retirement, and I'm searching here, because this is not something that we've had to deal with. Retirement while under an existing contract generally results in the contract being frozen or terminated, but it does not instantly wipe the remaining financial obligations from the

team's salary cap. All right. So in the NFL, any unamortized so citing bonus money, money already paid to the player, but not yet counted against the cap, immediately accelerates onto the current year's cap. If the retirement happens before June 1st, all remaining bonus money hits the cap immediately. Well, we are well before June 1st. If it happens after June 1st, the current year's pro-rated bonus hits this year, and the rest hits the following year. The player forfeits any remaining unearned salary, which removes that portion from future

cap obligations. The team has the right to pursue the return of a portion of the signing bonus for unplayed seasons. and successfully recovered that amount as credited back to the cap. So it is a big deal that this is not only a retirement that we did not see coming, that it was a retirement that happened before the league year and also before June 1st. Drew Dalman, according to Adam Schefter of the Bear Center, retiring at the age of 27. We'll talk about this with Lawrence Holmes and Matt Spiegel next.

I'm Jenna Fisher and I'm Angela Kinsey. And we have the podcast Office Ladies. Every Wednesday, we'll be sharing even more exclusive stories and lots of laughs. Follow and listen to Office Ladies on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts.