Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Full Show — March 10, 2026

Episode Date: March 10, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris reacted to the Bears' additions as NFL free agency opened Monday.

Rahimi Harrison Grody 10 to 2 on 104 3 The Score According to Tom Pelliserro, it is happening He reported about two minutes ago That the bears are citing Kobe Bryant That per sources But are you a different animal

And the same beast? You're welcome So the bears have a Kobe White Who's he? Who's who? Well, I just want to let you know They don't have a Kobe White They have a Kobe Bryant

But I've already done it once today And we're gonna do it We miss you, Kobe White I don't care what anybody says. You've clinched the nine seed at home court advantage in that playoff game. What does that mean for you guys tomorrow? Dear, Dee Booty. De Booty. This grandma used to call him D Booty. 7.7.3 at our text line. Wanted to correct you. In all caps, they put Colby White. You didn't get it right either. That's like, you didn't get it right. That's like Emma correcting us. It's a pillow.

For the first year that Kobe White was here with the Bulls had to keep from calling him Kobe Bryant, which I know is like a huge insult to Kobe Bryant because Kobe White is no. And now I'm going to have to be careful here with Kobe Bryant to not call him Kobe White. Give me like 10 more of those, like two weeks worth of it and then I'll stop. Caleb Danes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Who is Caleb Dane? Who is Caleb Dames? Yeah. I don't know what the f***es first name is. What's the name? What's the quarterback for the Bears? My question is this. With him specifically Kobe White,

what impact do you think he'll have Brian oh Brian my bad did I really just do that you did I've done it 10 times already Yes I'm sorry we used to have a basketball player His name was Kobe White he just got traded It's fresh on my mind Whatever you say Stove

It's Steve Stove what a kind of name is that That's not a name my name is Steve Lila Rahimi Marshall Harris Mark Grody Midday's 10 a.m. 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 1043, the score.

I think it's just going to be a couple of days or months before we get used to calling Kobe Bryant. A, Kobe Bryant comfortably, and then B, not Kobe White. After, yes, we may have had to adjust from thinking of Kobe Bryant. It's like a step through double euro step trying to get around it because it's like, wait a minute, I can't say Kobe Bryant because that's the famous. Nobody's name really is Kobe Bryant. But maybe it's Kobe White. But no, no, it is Kobe.

Are you sure it's Kobe Bryant? Because that sounds like sacrilege. Well, and then Grody joked about typing in the word football as opposed to basketball. And then people got mad. Like, well, you can just type in Kobe with the C. You're right. Heaven forbid we double check or be specific in this day and age with a search engine. We should just make sure we do the least and trust it blindly.

To that texter, that is not true. because when I try to look for Kobe Bryant highlights of the Bears, it just automatically put me to Kobe Bryant from the Lakers. Yeah, yeah. Mansplating about how Google works is a new one. This is not why you called, and I don't want to talk about it. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3, the score. And what was important yesterday and what did matter was that we got some defined direction

from the Bears yesterday as to what they thought their priorities were. I was pleased. Does it please you? Yes. I was pleased, Marshall, to see that the priorities I had, which were linebacker and safety, did get addressed yesterday. Was it the massive splash that people thought it was? No.

Was it the, oh, the cap doesn't exist type of take? Absolutely not from Ryan Poles and company. But it was a get somebody who can create turnovers, which we saw them address, both at the safety and the line. backer position. And then it was also, in getting Kobe Bryant and Devin Bush, a bit of a pattern when it came to speed. Kobe Bryant comes from an excellent defense, as we know in Seattle. It sounds like he's very versatile. This is somebody who, now the question becomes, is it Kobe Bryant and Kevin Byard? Or is it Kobe Bryant and somebody else? I know she didn't say, is it Kobe Bryant and

Jaquan Bristker? I guess he falls under somebody else. I'll say this. I am holding out hope that it can still be Kobe Bryant and Kevin Byard. I think I'm shocked that Kevin Byrd has made it almost 24 hours. We're what, 23 hours and 5 minutes into this thing as far as the negotiating period for the NFL ahead of free agency in the start of the New Year League on Wednesday. I thought Kevin Byrd would have a team, whether that was the Bears or someone else, by now. And the fact that he doesn't gives me a bit of hope. And it's a growing amount of hope that the bears can find a way to bring him back in the fold.

Because let me tell you something, that is a pairing I would like to see Kobe Bryant and Kevin Beyer. With the versatility that Kobe Bryant brings to the defense, we know that Dennis Allen loves himself a hybrid. He loves himself a guy who could do more than one thing. And his ability to not only cover as a guy who started in the league as a cornerback, but has moved and played both safety positions, you like the idea of that versus the stoic sensibility of a guy coming off of a first team all pro season in Byer. And while we're addressing the safety position, I think addressing the linebackers is also key to that. And what we saw was, I think, an echo of if these guys know how to turn the ball over at a remotely close rate,

which it is four interceptions for Kobe Bryant last regular season compared to seven for Kevin Byer, that extra three doesn't matter. But when you see that part of it, with Kobe Bryant being 26 years old. Then you also add to that, the Devin Bush aspect of this, where he is a guy who's known for his speed. He had two pick sixes last year. That goes with his three interceptions,

which was a career high. That's not quite Tramade Edmonds' four. But that lets you know that these are guys who can fly around the ball. Perhaps turnover creation is still something that they're looking for actively, trying to make sure it's not a game of chance, because you and I, Marshall, have talked about how many turnovers last season by the Bears

can you attribute to right place, right time, and knowing that you can't always recreate that from season to season, especially if we don't know what's happening with Kevin Byard, and we don't yet know what's going on with Deshaun Wright. They were the two biggest factors in terms of actually creating the takeaways, because you said right place, right time. Yeah, you can be at the right place at the right time, but you still have to make the play. The biggest thing is, were you in the right place at the right time? Making the play, I mean, we've heard the expression, hands like feet.

There's a reason that most defensive backs are defensive backs and not receivers. Hands like feet. Yes. It's so good. Why did that hit me today? Well, I think the biggest thing going into today and why I said, I know safety isn't considered a quote unquote premium position necessarily, but when you have a guy who can cover as a safety,

and is not afraid to get his hands dirty and get down in the box and hit somebody, that creates the type of players that Dennis Allen likes to have and allows him to play more of a chess game as opposed to largely he was playing, I don't know, Connect 4, the early part of last season anyway, because he was so short-handed. I mean, they had to go out and get CJ Gardner Johnson off the street. And CD came in and did CD things, and I don't know where he's going to end up. I guess the message I would have to anybody who's maybe a little anxious,

at this time, wondering who the biggest of playmakers is going to be, the bear sign on the defensive side of the ball. And the reason they're anxious is because Dio Dingbo exists, and you feel like so much money has already been invested into the defense, is understanding it's still early. We haven't even hit Wednesday yet. There's still a lot of players out there right now that could still end up being a bear.

And I'm curious to see how Ryan Poles is going to scheme this and architect this portion of the defense. Tough day for the Just Get Tyler Linderbom Trade for Max Crosby and draft Rubin Bain guys Congratulations. You just named the top three names

both, you know, one of the top names in the draft and then two in free agency. You know what you taught me, Leela? Do you feel better? Do you feel better about naming people that everybody else names? It wasn't going to be that way for Ryan Poles and the Bears.

It just wasn't. One of the greatest lessons that you have taught me, Leila, as we have worked together, is that when you dream, You got to dream your biggest dream first. And so I think for everybody, they had to get that out there. Like, I want this guy, this guy and this guy. Well, just get that guy and then simplify it.

Like, okay, just get a million dollars for yourself while you're at it. Yeah, you got to dream big. And you realize maybe I'm not going to get a million dollars. Well, just get Bain. What, Bain's going to be off the board of the top four. Well, just get Linderbom. Now, granted, I did wonder if the Bears were trying to free up some money for Tyler Linderbomb.

What I did not realize was that he was going to get $81 million dollars for three seasons. That's an average annual value, $27 million. Is that a lot of money? Here's the funniest part. According to over the cap, the Raiders still have $82 million of cap space to work with. Did they outbid themselves?

Is my question, though. There's a very high likelihood they did, but that's how much they wanted him to work, Tyler Linderbaum, to work with what's likely as Fernando Mendoza. That's fair. That's fair. But back to the Bears and like just kind of when you see what they did yesterday,

I don't have any complaints about anything that did. I'm not like looking at a guy like, why did you give that guy all that money? Now, that case could be made for a lot of other teams and a lot of other players. But I will say the prudent approach at this point for Ryan Poles I'm okay with because it's not like you've gotten to the end of the road and well, you missed out on this guy, that guy, and the third. Well, and Brad Biggs made the point this morning on Mullian Haw, and he's right to do so. The Bears were not going to win this off season. And that's a good thing.

because the teams that we mentioned, the team that had over $100 million available in cap space, the Raiders. Okay, well, why do they have that? Why do they have the first overall pick? And this is a situation that bears were in a couple years ago, as we know. It's because you had to do that much rebuilding. It's because they have to find a new head coach or had to

for the second year in a row. And so when you consider these things, yes, winning the offseason is good because that means you're in the right direction. But if you're doing that for the bears, that means that you likely haven't signed enough marquee name free agents and that you didn't make the playoffs. So this is different now. This is the symmetry of the league.

Now the bears are still $13.6 million under the cap. That's according to overthecap.com. The Raiders, as I mentioned, $82.287 million of cap space. Commanders have 79.8. Here's where it gets interesting. You've got a playoff team like the Chargers who have 66.8. I'm glad they play in the A.S. see. How about that? That's it. There are some teams Savily

who have cap space. Like the Patriots go to the Super Bowl, they lose. They trade Garrett Bradbury, as we know here. But the Patriots have $37.1 million dollars of cap space. That's what you want to do. That's the ideal. You're on a rookie quarterback contract in Drake May. You get to the Super Bowl. Not ideal because you lose. But you've still got enough money to hopefully address what you need. Like, for example, they trade their center to the bears because they're able to plug and play a center who they drafted who they think has had enough experience. That is my goal. I don't think the

bears are there yet. There's still too many gaps that they have to fill in as you and I, Marshall, have discussed. I think looking at what you just said, that model of, especially when a quarterback's working contract, I know that time is winding down, right? You've got a couple more years of that with the option year. I want to see the bears on defense badly, whether we're talking about safety, whether we're talking about defensive line, tackle. And maybe they're doing it with Shamar Turner.

Like, there's guys that they have now, but I want to make sure this draft coming up, they get defensive guys, even if they're not ready to be, you know, studs on day one. Two years from now, you should be able to say, we're very comfortable letting you go get your money elsewhere because we've got a guy still in his work. contract who can contribute for us.

This is probably a separate conversation for another day closer to the draft. But there are people who say, well, third round picks don't matter. And I'll show you that they absolutely do if you know how to build a team. There are people who say, well, third and the rest. Okay, that's why we worry about, for example, spending important fourth round draft capital when you only have single digit amount of draft picks on a punter. That's where it does matter. or for example, look at how Seattle drafted.

Don't forget that Jackson Smith and Gigbo is available at 20th overall. Look at the past first rounds of the Seahawks and how well they've been able to draft, even in the 20s and how that has worked out for them. These are important and valuable picks. Mark Rodi is right. He's done a lot of research when it has come to the last several years and how teams who pick in the 20s and pick defensive linemen, you think you might be getting somebody and sometimes you don't.

But you still have to give your team and yourselves the best chance with who that player is. Ryan Poles maintains best player available. My challenge to that is always, okay, if it's a receiver then, are you drafting yet another receiver? They might, depending on what they get done in free agency. That's the bluff call and I don't want the answer. But that's where I say that whether or not you like it, especially when you know that the game is coming to you on the defensive line class in the draft,

that might be a different discussion. Just to reiterate, who was picked by the Bears yesterday, who signed with the team? Number one, Case Keenham is back. So Case Keenum is back two years, $4.4 million deal with incentives up to $8 million. I'm very curious what the incentives are for him as a third string quarterback. I would guess it would be... Is it like, you played in a game? Yeah.

I think it's games played and or games. started and then a yardage touchdown total, win total, it could be any of those things. Yeah, very interested to know. Braxton Jones, and we'll get into this in our next segment here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, for everybody who thought that he was going to sign a one-year deal, a prove-a-deal for a left tackle, which is rare in and of itself conceptually. That's what happened. So Braxton Jones reportedly resigning on a one-year deal.

Garrett Bradbury, as we mentioned, traded over. Neville Gallimore got the day started. for the Bears signing a two-year $12 million contract. Most people think that's defensive line depth that the Bears needed. Like, for example, Joe Tryon Sharingo, who they traded for. Devin Bush, as we mentioned, three years, $30 million. DeMarco Jackson, re-signing with the Bears. I am happy to see that happen.

The NFL free agency tracker, for some reason, doesn't have Daniel Hardy on here. Why, you got to do that to Daniel Hardy NFL.com. He also signed with the Bears. And then that big deal with Kobe Bryant, three years, 40 million. And I do like the fact that he comes from a championship defense in Seattle. No, I think that's invaluable when you talk about not only his production on the field, but he knows exactly what it's like to win, and it's a recent feeling. Recency bias matters.

He obviously came to the Bears because he believed, one, he was going to get paid, but also that he could contribute to helping the Bears do what the Seattle Seahawks were able to do last year. And when you look at where the Bears are right now, it always seems like, like a crossroads of sorts, but a very specific crossroads for this Bears team is, hey, our offense is on the move, it's on the rise, they hopefully have addressed the Drew Dalman retirement in an appropriate and an adequate way. Now, can you get the defense to take the next step forward? And I see a lot of slander right now on the text line when it comes to Kevin Byard and how good people think he is. But Layla, to just come out and say that he's

past his prime, which he is an aging player. It doesn't mean he doesn't have good stuff. He's coming off a first team all pro season. I cannot see the text line right now because the computer God's logged me out. Let me read this one to you. Mercifully, I don't have to see it. All right. So 312 says Kevin Byrett was bad three years prior to last year. He had two total interceptions in those three years. He lost his step. He did have a ton of tackles his first year here, but he's a free safety. That's not a big market for a 33-year-old free safety who struggles in coverage. Last year, he baited bad QBs. Kobe is a huge upgrade. Here's what I would argue. Why

not both? Yes. Here's what I would argue. Why are you fighting with yourself? I hope that other teams believe with this texter road because maybe that means the bears can get him back on an affordable deal. This is Rahimi

Harris and Grotie on 1043. The score that is the voice of Marshall Harris. I'm Lailahahahaheimy. Ray Diaz, Tyler Bueberbaugh and Brandon Vryer are our producers. Brandon helps us out, even though he's also on our morning show. We're also on Twitch, twitch.tv slash the score Chicago. Our address changed in case you were wondering.

We're not at 670, the score anymore. It's The Score Chicago. That is also where we are at on our YouTube page. Our Twitch mob is up and chatting. I can't see our text line right now, which is probably a good thing. But you can text us and call us at 312-644-6767. So when we come back, let's hear from Ben Solac on where Kobe Bryant fits. and also let's talk about the new offensive line.

Do you think they did enough? I'm very curious to know what you think as well. 312, 644, 67, 67. You've got the score. Rahimi Harrison Grody, midday's 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. Rivers down the middle of the field and it is hitterset. That's courtesy of CBS. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, the score.

And yes, you heard that right. That was Philip Rivers. Remember that happened? He had a nice little run coming back at 44 years old with the Colts. I don't know based on the Colts moves and their health if that's going to have to happen again. I'm going to guess not, but I won't say hard no. Will you say hard yes?

No. This is Rahimi Harrison Grady on 1043, the score. And just to button up the discussion regarding Kobe Bryant, now with the Bears, Benjamin Solac was on with the afternoon. show yesterday with Lawrence Holmes and Matt Spiegel and was very complimentary of who the bears have picked up. So you would see Kobe spread the majority of his time in the box and Byard spent his majority of time up high. They would not have the full like, you know, the Sealks had with Kobe Bryant and with Julian Love where it's, hey, you never know who's coming down. Who's not. Everybody can do

everything. It'd be a little bit more like the Eagles with Vig Fangio where they had Reed Blankenship and then they had, you know, at times it was Johnson Garner Johnson, that it was Andrew McCuba. But it was, hey, like, you know, Reed is the player. We'd prefer to have deep. The other guy, we'd prefer to have closer to line of scrimmage. We can switch it up on you just to get the drop on you, but it's not going to be what we live with. So if they return Byard, which is my expectation, then you're going to see Byard spend the majority of his time as the deepest safety and Kobe spent the majority of his time near

the box. Now, Kobe has cornerback experience. When he played at the University of Cincinnati, he was a corner, for his first couple years in Seattle before he broke through in Mike's defense, he was on the corner of the Jeff chart. That was where he was. And so when you think about the coverage ability that you got from a guy like Chauncey, who plays safety, but really you're trying to play them in the nickel a lot and have him cover receivers.

Kobe has that skill set. And that wasn't relied upon a ton in Seattle because they had Devon Wittlespoon and Nick him on War. They had so many guys. But you can ask Kobe to be a player who comes down and plays that slot position and then be creative with the safetys that you play behind him as well. So that that sheds some light. He was very bullish on Kobe Bryant whenever he got drafted. Well, here's why I love this pickup for the Bears. one game

sorry one team one receiver in particular comes to mine I don't know do you guys remember when that team from just north of us

came and played against the bears and they lined somebody up in the slide and he was just destroying people off the line of scrimmage Christian Watson that's him that's good good recall on your part

something about a bay and it being a color and they put things together and boxes You already know. And so now with a player with this particular skill set. Team Baltimore. Because he can cover.

Kobe Bryant can be down as a guy who could bliss. But if you also, you know, oh, I see it's not C.D. Gardner Johnson down there. It's a guy who cover covers in Kobe Bryant. That's not Advantage Green Bay in the way it was last year. And that's, it's a very specific memory. But you noticed I unlocked it quickly. Was not just Green Bay the last month of the season. You know what?

I feel like the Packers game, though, was like the perfect example of it happening multiple times. Yeah, because guys got beat. And now the Bears weren't healthy. Kyler Gordon won in the first game. But at the same time, what did Matt Bowen tell you for the last two or three weeks of the season? Just call crossing patterns. Just make everything slot oriented. And frankly, when we were talking about Wondell Robinson, what is he good at receiving yards in the slot?

Who had a decent game even for the Giants that day against the Bears before Brian Dable got fired? Same idea. Yeah, before Jackson Dart took a hit to the head. This is a weakness. This was a weakness for the Bears. And it got more and more exposed as time went on. The beautiful thing about this is the bears are not done. We know they need more safeties.

How do I know this? Because they have one. Three to go. three to go and so that's that's where we sit defensively now let's shift gears to the offensive side of the ball and we do want to take your calls on this and your texts three one two six 44 64 67 67 twitch mob you guys have your own show so we don't we don't keep you from speaking you know that you're out here talking to each other but when it comes to just the feedback that you may have or your thoughts so far especially after that dj more trade moving over to the offensive side of the ball we thought that

that perhaps the DJ Moore trade would be freeing up important money, given that he was your largest cap hit at the time at $28.5 million. For a big name like Tyler Linderbaum. I did that. I thought that that was the case. I dared to dream. And then he went to the Raiders for $81 million in three seasons. The Bears trade for Garrett Bradbury. But in what I thought was a surprising move, even though it was discussed. Braxton Jones, I think, did the Bears a favor.

I feel like a left tackle who's serviceable in this league, especially who has the height and is at that age where you are just outside of your rookie contract. You could have gone elsewhere and probably signed for more years and made more money. But Braxton Jones, true to prediction, re-signed with the Bears on a one-year contract. We know Ozzie Tripolo is hurt.

We know that Patel attendants, especially in offensive lineman, a defensive lineman, can be very, very impactful on a career in what happens afterward. But in the meantime, it sounds like they got perhaps a bridge left tackle to figure this out. What do you think about Braxton Jones, Garrett Bradbury, now at center, and then Joe Tuny, Jonah Jackson, and then Darnell right on the right side? So you said you think Braxton Jones did the Bears a favor. I'm going to say Braxton Jones did himself.

favor by returning to a place that he is familiar with, comfortable with, and honestly, he didn't have a great shot last year because he was hurt at this time last year. And now it's a one-year deal. It's not for nothing, a $10 million deal if he lives up to his incentives, but a clear shot with no Trapillo being available at the start of the season and probably for the entire year. It's a clear shot at him being a left tackle in Ben Johnson's offense with Caleb Williams at quarterback with a running game that certainly was one of the best in the NFL last year. He could showcase himself and earn this longer-term contract that you're talking about while at the same time establishing himself.

Who knows? If Tripolo can't come back and I'm assuming the Bears are going to address tackle depth by probably drafting another one or getting it. That means four drafted left tackles total for the Ryan Pulse regime. I'm not against it. You should keep trying. Yeah. And it may be like a guy who can play guard and tackle,

just a depth on the offensive line. And so what I'm saying is he may see this as an opportunity for himself to say to the Bears, hey, you guys didn't get the best version of me last year. Now I'm healthy. I'll show you what I can really do. In fact, I'm trying to win a left tackle job here in Chicago going forward. It's a great room to be in.

We know about the guys that he'll be with, whether it's Joe Tunney. And now you've got on the other side, Darnel Wright as I mentioned. Darnel Wright. And so for him, I think this is just a great opportunity for him to get another year to reset and show the best of his ability. Yeah, I mean, I just, I think he did the Bears of favor. And I'm not saying that on any reporting. I just feel like that was the case.

So that may be our offensive line. Ben Solac, who was on with our afternoon show, did some scouting on Garrett Bradbury as well. and this is valid when you consider how this gets put together. I think it's safe to say we knew it wasn't going to be the same line. But listen to what he had to say. Bradbury is just a guy who the strengths are known and the weaknesses are known. And especially the weaknesses are known in the NFC North, right? That's where he was when he was with Minnesota.

And so if you can get power on Garrett Brabara, you can walk him back into the pocket, right? And you can really destroy, we talk about pocket integrity and the ability to kind of like step up and make those pocket throws. You need to have the depth of the pocket set by a center who's holding his water. and Bradbury just struggles to drop that anchor. Always has since he was drafted at NC State in the first round. The tradeoff, the value has typically been, where he's such a good mover and he's got such great, you know,

wide zone ability and he's great, you know, horizontally and laterally. Like, you know, he'll make it worth your time. The juice will be worth the squeeze. But as he's gone older, you know, that edge starts to diminish a little bit. And so in Bradbury, I think you have a player who is capable of holding down the center job and you know what he's good at when he's not good at. You're going to be able to get to your outside runs. And when you have a quarterback like Caleb Williams,

depth of the pocket starts to become a little bit less employing because Caleb's out the back door anyway. Like, you know, Caleb's not really a step-up guy. Caleb's like, hey, I'm going to run 15 yards back this way and still make a throw. So you a little bit can, you know, account for it and cheese it. You can boot Caleb out and be successful that way. But the level of investment in Bradbury to me indicates,

A, that Ryan Poles had a good sense of how heavy the center market was going to be, right? Conner-Rovern, 13 million. Tyler Linderbom at 27 million is insane. He didn't want to be a part of that, and rightfully so. So I think, A, he knew which way it was going and he wanted to get a cheap option. I could just definitely start for the Bears. And to me, it's also an indication that the Bears might still be looking at the center spot somewhere in the draft. It's a really good year for centers, round three, round four, right?

Typically, like, you know, it's very rare for like, oh, there's three first round centers. That's not a real thing that never happens. Typically, when we talk about good years for center in the draft, we're talking about middle round prospects. And there's several guys this year. And so my guess is going to be that the Bears are still willing to invest in the position with a rookie. And then they're going to kind of let Bradbury and the rookie figure it out when it comes to training game. So if the criticism on Bradbury is, he can't drop anchor. He can't anchor as well. So you may not get that forward push like we talked about. And then there's the outside zone blocking issue that comes with that.

Then there's the criticism of Braxton Jones, which is also anchor has not been his thing. And we know that. We know that from years of watching him. Now, Dan Rochard may have helped with that, especially after having a year. and yes, he did break his ankle and he was still getting back from that. But they thought that they had seen enough. So if you've got two O-Lyman who can't anchor well, one of them being in front of your cornerback, that is not, I think, a recipe for sustained success. Like, you better be handing that ball off quick.

You might have to get flushed out of the pocket quickly. Here's a thought to liberally move the pocket. but then also how much does that limit your offense? Like we know because of left tackle being exposed last year, Caleb Williams would oftentimes roll out to his right. Did that result in fewer targets for DJ Moore? You know, all of these things to me go hand in hand. So knowing what you know about Zendor and knowing what you know about left tackle,

are you as confident in the line this year as you were last year? I don't know if I'm as confident, but I am confident. and the reason why I'm confident, as we talk about the Bears and their free agent signings to this point through one day of the negotiating period here on Rahimi Harrison Grotty on 104-3, the score is this. My confidence in Ben Johnson is unwavering. And if Ben Johnson obviously signed off on these moves, he'll figure it out because that's his job as not only the head coach, but the offensive schemer, the playmaker, the guy who draws up the plays. I think Ben Johnson will scheme this through. I also think the Bears will draft, as we just said, a backup offensive linemen, but they'll draft a guy who's going to be the center of the future coming up. I think that was always going to be the plan.

They thought they'd have more time to develop behind Drew Dalman. You might not have as much time, but I think they're going to be able to figure this out. Really? Because they've never drafted a dedicated center under Ryan Poles. Ryan Poles won't be the one making that call this year. Ben Johnson will be telling him this is what we need. Ryan Poles is still the general manager. You think Ben Johnson did all of the scouting? Ryan Poles is the general manager under Ben Johnson's direction in my mind, and no one can convince me otherwise.

Is it confirmed? No, I'm saying, based on you have to get what the coach, both on defense and offense needs, whether it's Dennis Allen as the defensive coordinator, whether it's Ben Johnson as the offensive play caller. You think Ryan Poles isn't going to Ben Johnson and being like, hey, does this work? Which of these? said like they drafted he drafted a backup center but there's never been a this guy's going to be our starting center we're drafting this person for this reason they they went out and addressed it last year and through free agency by signing drew dalman the best available center so obviously that was a priority if you think ryan polls isn't in conversation with ben johnson

trying to find out exactly what ben johnson needs to make his offense work i don't know what to tell you because that's the way this is clearly gone down based on what happened last year. I understand what you're saying about the drafting of a true starting center. I'm saying Ben Johnson can have his desires and his preferences, just like I think the head coach did before him. But I think that Ryan Poles still does a lot of that and his scouts do a lot of that on their own. Oh, no, no. I agree with that. But I think at the end of the day, they come to Ben Johnson, like, which of these fits what you need as a offensive playmaker?

and in year one, it was very easy for them to go out and be like, we're just going to get the best center available as a free agent on the free agent market. Clearly they couldn't do that with somebody getting paid $27 million a year. They couldn't do that with Linderbaum. That was not an option with the cap restraints and them trying to, I don't know, reconstruct an entire defense really that could actually affect someone else's passing game while also stopping the run. It was like a two thing.

Like, hey, we get a lot of takeaways, but we're not really stopping the run or stopping anyone from throwing the ball against us. We just happen to get a lot of take. aways more than anybody in the NFL. I think now Ben Johnson and Ryan Polzer's like, okay, so what is our future player? How do we, now that we don't have Drew Dalman for at least two years and cannot draft a center to develop, like what the Patriots did, basically, as they put one of their guards now at center that they've been preparing for this moment, and that's why they're able to

trade away Bradbury. Now for them specifically, it's we have to go and draft a center. And they knew they were always going to have to go and draft a center. The timeline just went up a little bit with having this bridge guy in here in Bradbury. But that's what I'm saying. Like they hadn't drafted purposefully center. They had drafted a guy who was a backup who had a couple snaps and ended up playing center because they had 20 offensive line combinations, I think 25.

But that hasn't been what they've done. Since Ryan Poles took office, they've always gotten what they think is their starting center through free agency. Right. And Ryan Poles, though, back then was in charge. of Matt Iberfus, who clearly didn't know what he was doing and who was more defense-focused. But you don't think that the former offensive lineman GM still very much had a hand in the offensive line drafting and how he wanted to construct it?

Yes, I just think Ben Johnson's at the top of the pyramid now. He's the one calling the shots when push comes to shove. And Ryan Poles wants to preserve his position also, so he's going to get the guys what they need. 312-644-67 is our number. How do you feel about the bear's free agency so far. We continue to be on the lookout for news because guys like Nishon Wright are still available. Guys like Kevin Byrd are still available. We're monitoring on the second day of the NFL negotiating window and continue to do so right here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3 the score. Can you imagine Lovie Smith doing the whole good, better, best thing? And and saying

bleep the Packers. Come on, guys, good better best. Never let it. Never let it. I'll see you on Tuesday. Midday's 10 to 2 on 104 3, the score. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, The Score. It was a wild day yesterday in Bears Free Agency. And for all of the ballyhooing and the hemming and the hawing and whatever word you want to use, that kivetching, desiring, whatever word you want to use to talk about what we wanted to see the Bears do. Or if you were like that guy that said, just get, just draft Bain and then get Linderbom and Max Crosby, the cap isn't real.

So buffoonery, does that work? Congratulations. You just named three of the top names of the off season. Would you like a trophy? That doesn't mean they go to your team, unfortunately. Unless you're the Raiders who have $20 billion million of cap space available. And even then, they just got one dude and gave the other one away. You know what?

I hope the Raiders just get whatever offensive line that doesn't waste Ashton Genties' career. because unless he's playing against the bears, he's not doing that much. Do you know what's funny, Marshall, is that the whole dream of having Max Crosby and Tyler Linderbaum on one team could have happened if the Raiders hadn't traded Max Crosby? When you say it like that. When you say it like that. No, I like what the Bears did on day one. Obviously, they need more.

They need a lot more. But I like the two biggest moves. The sneaky move I like is the Braxton Jones resigning. Yeah. I love that one year move. Let's see what's going on. You know who it is. Yes.

You know the weaknesses and the strengths. You understand that last year wasn't a great example of his work because he's coming off injury. And so now it's looking forward. And, you know, on the text line, they're killing me with this because they're like me. They're like, well, at the end of the day, the same problem we had going in is the same problem we had going in the last year, the year before that and the year before that.

pass rush. They need somebody to knock the quarterback on his tail, his rear end. This is hilarious. 312-644-67. 67 is our number 6-30. Fix the pass rush. 309. I don't want to overpay for an old pass-rusher.

When I tell you that two texts on the text line will absolutely say the opposite of one another, I mean it. Well, the fear of the old pass-rrrrrrisher, I get because you don't want to do it. And then, like, we didn't even get the pass-rush we were looking for. We just paid somebody a bunch of people. money. DiO Dingbo. I'm sorry.

My bad. But that's it is that just because it didn't work to how you wanted it to last year, doesn't mean that Ryan Poles is willing to admit that those aren't the guys that he wanted for the pass rush. You know what the bear's pursuit of a pass rusher is like, it's like me looking for love. I'm out here looking for it. And I'll give it a chance. In all the wrong places?

Not all the wrong places. I've been looking for love very limited, as you know, lately because I'll be out here working. It's been a very work-heavy, work-heavy time for the single crew, you and I know. Yeah, and so what I'm saying is, we're in our work season. You can't let one failed attempt at love stop you from trying to love again. So when you look at these pass rushers, you can't let- The contracts, though. You can't have multiple wives at the same time.

Well, yeah. But I'm saying, what I'm saying is you go on a couple of dates. You can't let that date, that situation ship with who, unique and Gagway. I mean, you name a name. Yanik and Gagway, if it was a situation ship, it was successful for both parties. It was successful short term. He was exactly what you thought you would pay him. And then you got exactly what you thought you were getting.

It was a fall fling. Meanwhile, you may have booked that trip. Book that trip a little early, that lover's trip with Dio a little early. But the thing I was going to say is, Ryan Poles told you how much he valued Montez-Sweit and Dio O'Dangboe and Grady Jared when he signed them to those contracts. That let you know how the bears feel about them. And just because

you, the listener, haven't seen that on the field, doesn't mean the bears backed off on how they feel about these three. Now, listen, did we all watch it together? Was I horribly concerned when I heard the phrase we need to get him to win more of his one-on-one battles when talking about

Montes-swet? That is not what you want to say about a guy. You paid that much money to. So that's where the disconnect is here. But the The question is, is the amount of rope and time you're willing to give them as much as it is on the face of Ryan Poles? I don't think so. I think Poles wants to give them more time and more chances to provide that pass rush than he wanted. The wild card in this is, number one, did Diordangbo tear the same Achilles twice?

We still have an answer, do we? He still has two to his name. And then the other problem, and don't go to AI on this because they will combine all of the terms, and you won't get an accurate answer. It just doesn't work, trust me. And then the other part of this, too, is we don't know when he's going to return. You know, that's why linebacker was a priority to me, Marshall, to begin with, was because you don't know when T.J. Edwards is going to be able to play,

and I don't necessarily think he's going to be completely healthy when he gets back, not to where you want to be. One can only hope that Dio's favorite basketball player is Jason Tatum. One can only hope. I think Jason Tatum was sleeping in a hyperbarrier. chamber. But don't you remember, they were really aggressive with his timeline coming back. Because before the season, there were reports that he was going to be playing as soon as February. That did not happen.

Wasn't that far behind, though. So I feel like that that's part of this is you've got to understand how much the bears valued the guys they signed to rush the quarterback. And because of that, everything else is not as fluid as we've thought. And I've been saying that, but I think it's one thing to say it and to hope that things will change in the offseason. It's another to say it and know that they are not, at least currently. Could that change? Yes, when it does, we will be here and we'll talk about it.

But in the meantime, this is where we're seeing a similar pattern tell you the three guys they spent big money on are the three guys they're spending big money on. Sweat, Grady Jarrett, Dio Dengbo. Can't wait for the draft. Well, also, everybody asking the question about Case Keenum with the similar money to Tyson Bayesian, you're right to do so. Because by money, it doesn't necessarily look like you have a two or three quarterback. It looks like you just have two-toes.

So if that's the case, where's that going? Now, the problem is Case Canem is, what, 38 next season? So there's that difference as well. It begs the question. If you have two backup quarterbacks, do you even have one? Oh, wait, that's only going to start. quarterbacks. We say that we say that, right? Closers. Definitely

closers. And speaking of closers, this cracks me up from 847. Are you ever going to talk about baseball? All caps at some point is we are now actually in the baseball season? Guess what? We're not actually in the baseball season. The season opener is the 26th of March.

Wow, you know the date and everything? Or we are now actually in the baseball season? No, no, we are actually not in the baseball season. We're still in spring training and world baseball classic. Try again. James Palmer joins us to talk about all the NFL news next. This hour is brought to you by Jewel Osco. Here he is my guy James Palmer.

Get in here. We don't know a lot of time. You know what, James? I love it when you check in to Snitchville. Go ahead. All right. Well, I'm a permanent resident, so here we go. I think there was a bit of cohesion issue within the offense.

I think you started to see, and I know DJ knew this, Caleb really wasn't looking his way towards the back end of the season as much. And it didn't seem like there was a whole lot of trust from, I don't know which direction from one side to the other. I think DJ is a very professional receiver that plays the position in that manner, if you understand that term. And I think Caleb is a little bit more of a difficult quarterback to play in that manner with. With Rahimi Harrison Grody on 1043 The Score. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043 The Score. And joining us on our hotline, also on

Twitch.tv.tv slash the score Chicago is our friend James Palmer. James is with the athletic. He is the co-host of the Scoop City podcast with Diana Rossini. He's an NFL insider for Bleacher Report and he is the co-host of 89 with Steve Smith

and he's our friend. James, how are you? Family, how are we doing? Oh, we good. It's day two. We were waiting for some more hot scoops. Right? Yeah. Anything. Yeah, we got a salty Schefter right now. It's already like we're off and He's all fired up and upset.

It's been great to watch. Wait, what is he upset about? We've been working on our show. Okay, well, see, so Shafti was a little upset in that, I think that studio, that Thunderdome studio, he was the first time in there working his phones and whatnot. But I think he's just kind of saying, you know, the league year, everybody says, the new league year, four o'clock Wednesday. He's like, no, free agency is, you know, noon on Monday.

I mean, nobody talked to anybody, right, guys? These deals just happened in an instant as soon as the legal tampering window opened, right? So I'm doing the math. There's no way nobody spoke to each other prior to that window opening, right? Do we need a legal tampering window for the legal tampering window? Is that what you're saying? Yeah, let's do this. Like, let's go by the book and say, like, we have to have a legal opportunity for two days that these teams can first speak to one another.

But before we do that, let's put all of them in one city in Indianapolis in a number of watering holes, and they will not speak to each other. And not exactly a city, James, known for having a plethe. of watering holes per capita. Only a few options. You know, and they close early-ish. This isn't the East Coast or Chicago, for example, where you can sneak off to some dive bar

nobody knows about. Chances are you're going to see a lot of these people out and about. Listen, if you guys want to split a shrimp cocktail of St. Elmo's, just tell me right now, okay? That's what you want to do, James. We can do it. I'd love to do it. I didn't even go this year, which I'm, I was there for five days and I didn't even make it into St. Elmo. It was a rare year.

Oh, I was going to say, I was, I was thinking you met the combine, actually, But to avoid St. Elmo's is a feat. Sometimes they bring it to you guys with the early shrimp cocktail in the morning. All of that said, though, what do you think about a lot of the moves that were done? Now, I'm going to say, I think you know this because you've been on our station a lot. We were very in love with the Max Crosby idea. We were very in love with Tyler Linderbom, especially since we knew him from playing at Iowa.

But Max Crosby left the Raiders. Tyler Linderbom went to the Raiders, and the Bears don't have either. guy. Yeah, Layla, but do you love either them at the cost that it would have taken? I guess that's the point of this offseason, right? Value is everything, right? And what the Raiders essentially did to my understanding is they knew this was essentially over and I feel like John Spitech was lying to my face at the combine. Now, he was, they knew at the end of the season kind of the way that this was going to go. And they played it, I think, very, very well. And they just listened to offers. And was Chicago one of those teams that was, you know, in Indianapolis and other spots trying to kick the tires on Mac's

certainly there were a number of teams but I kept hearing the same ones and I kept hearing the Ravens I kept hearing the bills I kept hearing a couple of other teams Chicago being one of them and Dallas was certainly right there I would consider them the runner up on on Max Crosby but what John Spytech did is he essentially just listened he didn't set a price and teams were in and they were trying to put their prices out there Leland essentially what ended up happening was when it came closer to the deal getting done and everybody realized it was going to take two ones that's when team started like dropping off like kids in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. They were just toast. They were off. So essentially it ended up being like Dallas really wanted to but couldn't

essentially get there and two ones are there for Max Crosby for the Ravens and they do a rare move for a team that's right there ready to try to get over the hump and oftentimes that happens with pass rushers. I don't know if Ryan Poles ever wanted to give up that amount of capital. I don't think so. And then with Tyra Linderbom, I mean, I thought it was bonkers to say he's going to get 25. And then yesterday morning, I kept hearing around the league like, no, no, this is going to get closer to 25. Like the market is 18 with Creed Humphrey in Kansas City. And then he gets 27. And it's like, oh my gosh.

So I don't think that was either, you know, in the realm either for Chicago. So I do think you have to be measured in a sense in terms of value. And I think Ryan Poles with both those deals was able to do that. My question is this with the Linderbaum signing specifically, because to reset the market at 150% of what the next highest AAV is from 18 million to 27 million. Did the Raiders outbid themselves? Help me understand this, James. I think they did a little bit. And Marshall, you have to remember, there is a minimum you have to spend in the NFL. Like, the Raiders needed to spend money. You know that office episode where Michael finds out there's a surplus and he has to spend

something? That's essentially what was going on with the Raiders. Like, they're so far below that over the next couple of years, they have to make sure that they spend. What I do think they did, and, you know, everybody overspends in free agency, so let's just say that that's there. But you overspent for a rare player that has no red flags, and very few of them reach free agency, right, in today's NFL. They're all locked up, but because of the way the franchise tag is with offensive linemen and him playing center and the way it went, him and Alec Pierce are the rare players that probably get there with no red flags at all. So you overpay in free agency period. You overpay for a guy that really has no question marks next to his game. And then also, I think he makes your team better, in essence, of your top two players.

I know Brock Bowers is probably right in that mix, but Ashen Denty, you take him in the top 10 last year. He's hit at or behind the line of scrimmage and probably 60% of his runs roughly. And you have a dominant run blocking center that fits exactly the way Clint Kubiak runs that scheme. So it's a force multiplier to where you overpaid, but he makes your star running back that you invested a lot of draft capital in to get better. And then you have a number one overall pick that we all assume. is going to be Fernando Mendoza. And who better than to have a very smart, savvy. Obviously, he's better in run blocking than pass blocking, but that type of center to be in front of your new quarterback, you may be overpaid, but at the same time, he makes your top two investments over the last two years

exponentially better. And maybe that softens the blow a little bit about where they were at in terms of price. James, you want to join us for some breaking news? Yeah, hit me. So this, according to Ian Rappaport, the Bears are signing former Lions wide receiver and returner, Khalif Raymond. Raymond, yeah. Adding an intriguing weapon in Chicago, I think that's a good description for him. I was wondering if any Ben Johnson familiar guys would make their way over here. Took a little bit, but it finally happened.

Yeah, I knew Khalif. I think he was in Denver, right, where I live. Cleef's been around a little bit. Yeah, he is kind of that gadgety type of guy that can do a couple of different things for your receiver group. After losing, I mean, he's not a replacement for DJ Moore. right, but after you lose a body in a room, sometimes you like to fill it. That's essentially what the bears have done this free agency, right?

Linebacker out, linebacker in. Safety, possibly out, safety. And so, they kind of have stayed right in that same zone, but this is kind of one of those little guys that can be out there and make some plays for it. Yeah, it can be a third, fourth option in an offense that I think some of those top guys in terms of weapons are going to draw a lot of attention. James, I feel

like I'm beating a dead horse, but the horse isn't dead. The horse is very much alive, and that horse is opposing... Violent sound like. Well, it's an expression. Don't take it literally. I think we have a disclaimer in our shows. Don't take Marshall's analogies literally. But listen, I've been talking about the Bears need for a better pass rush since I have been talking about the Bears.

And I'm trying to find the best path to that. It feels like the draft is an avenue that finally can maybe help with this. But from what you're seeing, whether it's draft, because you were at the Combine, or now free agency in this kind of second wave. And also the fact that Trey Hendrickson's still out there available as a free agent, what do you think is the most prudent and smartest way for the Bears or really any team trying to attack that common problem? Yeah, there's a couple of different approaches, Marshall, that teams take.

And the Bears might be in that group like you've seen in Buffalo a number of years, where it was, we're right there after we saw the run that Chicago went on. and I've seen the bills and covered them in the postseason where they've gone on these runs. And then they go, you know, we need a closer. Like, that's oftentimes the way edge rushers are thought of for teams that are right there. It's kind of like a baseball analogy essentially. Like, our dominant edge rusher is great for your roster when you're not close to winning a Super Bowl. I mean, we just watched Max Crosby's career in Vegas, right?

It's different when you're a contender. And Buffalo did that with Vaughn Miller. They did it with Joey Bosa. and you try to get these veteran guys that still have something in the tank that were some of the best in football and they're a little bit cheaper towards the end of their career. Those guys are all still available and there's still possibilities, I think, if you want to plug them in, I think you can wait a little bit and I think there's a lure like Chicago partially has. Like, Vaughn Miller really takes into account, do I have a chance to win another Super Bowl?

Like, money's not really an object to me. I think Joey Boe's a little bit in the same vein. And can you kind of lure these guys in with the idea that, you know, they have an opportunity to win a ring in Chicago? and you can kind of wait them out in free agency. There's that path. Obviously there's a path of drafting them and, you know, keeping them and making sure they never, you know, hit the likes of free agency and you keep giving them deals.

The Trey Hendrickson one is obviously still out there, and it's out there, and to my understanding, is because nobody's met his price. And we've seen Trey out there in golf attire during off-season activities where everybody's practicing and he's holding press conferences. He's a guy that holds pretty firm in where he believes his value is. And I think right now,

Now, when we all assumed on Monday he was going to fly off the board pretty quickly in his first time in free agency at 31, it doesn't happen. It's probably because he believes his value coming off that injury is still extremely high. But I do think in free agency is the hardest way to do it. The biggest contract that was given out on Monday was Jalen Phillips, when the Panthers kind of swooped in behind the Eagles back and landed up to a four-year $120 million deal. That's a 26-year-old pass rusher in the prime at a prime position. He also was an injury history. this could blow up in their face. It could be great for Dave Canales and Dan Morgan and company,

but it could blow up in their face. There's a reason why these guys at the past rushing position are available in free agency. So I'm always weary, Marshall, of going after that position in free agency. I would prefer it in the draft. And if you don't go that way, then can you get those guys at the tail end of their career that can either rotate and kind of help you get after the quarterback in the fourth quarter and in certain instances. Well, James, I think part of it too is we talk to James Palmer,

who works with the athletic. also with Bleacher Report. I think part of the issue is on its face, if you say 30-year-old pass pressure wants 30 million coming off of a surgery. That's a rough, that's a rough headline. Now, when you factor in, it's Trey Hendricks and the individual. That changes a lot of this. But I wonder how much of it still overrides the fact that he is indeed Trey Hendricksson.

I totally agree with you, Lila. And there's certain players that are considered outliers. I think Trey might be it. I mean, if you take away the injury. and how terrible things went honestly between the two sides this past year. Each of the two previous seasons, what do you have? 17 and a half sacks? When he gets to the quarterback, he oftentimes strips the football.

I mean, he doesn't wear gloves, which is still makes him one of my favorites, and I think Chicago would love him for that too. But there is always a risk with every free agent. And I think that's why these guys are available. That's why they're there. But at the same time, you look at these deals like Adafé-OA getting four years for $100 million from the commanders, like, listen, they haven't really connected on a lot of their big veteran type of moves lately. So you kind of look at all of these going, I get it's Trey Hendrickson.

And I've seen enough of him play to where I still think he has a ton left in the tank. And a lot of people around the league I talk to do believe that. But Trey is very firm with his numbers. And it's going to take the league in general to more or less tell him the number is going to go down. Because what often happens in free agency, as we were just talking about what Tyro Linderbaum is, It takes just one team to go, hell, I'll pay it. You know what I mean? Like, that's all it takes, and that's what he's waiting for.

The league might collectively need to tell Trey Hendrickson that he's not going to be worth that. And in free agency, when teams panic, sometimes that doesn't work. When you look James at Kevin Byard and the success he had in kind of a resurgent year last year, past the age of 30, a third time now he's been first team all pro as a safety. I like the idea of the Bears pairing him with Kobe Bryant. in the defensive backfield. But at the same time, I'm wondering, because much like Trey Henderson,

I was surprised he was still on the board here as we go into day two of this. I feel like the longer he's out there, the more likely it is he comes back to the Bears. But I would be surprised if he didn't get paid more than the $7.5 million a year the Bears were paying him. Yeah, he's been a very fascinating player for the course of his career in all honesty.

I think he's been undervalued in terms of dollars his entire career. He's never been put in that Derwin James and Kyle Hamilton and top safeties in the league group really at any point in his career. And I don't know why because I think we saw plenty of playmaking ability even at the age he was at this past season. And I know Chicago loves him and I know Ryan Poles loves him and he admitted at the combine it might be a challenge to bring him back. But

oftentimes with players of this age, Marshall, you're kind of right where you're always keeping a tab. Like Bill Belichick used to do this all the time to where there were certain players that he had a strong affinity for, but he knew that they could possibly get paid elsewhere. But he also was like, if you get anything, just come back to me and tell me what it was. Because obviously we'd love to have you, but I'm in some cap constraints here. And this is kind of a similar conversation I think Ryan Poles could probably have with Kevin Byer. Like, just make sure you keep checking in with us and have the ability to possibly for us to match that.

And it just because of the reputation has been what it is. And again, I don't know why because he's an outstanding player, might be beneficial to to where things stand with Chicago right now. TBD, in a sense, but I do think the position as a whole has an increased value over the last two seasons, I would say, and then this past year, with the entire world just talking about Nickyman Worry,

has really made the position a little bit more attractive in terms of teams' aggressiveness towards it, specifically in the draft too. But I do think it's one of those situations because of the relationship and the age that you can continue to probably keep tabs and see if there's a possibility to bring him back because you're right. Having both those guys back there,

I think Kobe Bryant was a really, really good pick. It's not a scheme fit entirely for him, but he's just enough of a player and brings that Super Bowl mentality. And those guys are oftentimes coveted to teams that feel like they're on the cusp. I think also, James, there's the penalty of perhaps drafting too well.

Ian Rappaport pointed this out yesterday. The Ravens 2022 draft class has collected $298.5 million in contract extensions, with Daniel Fah Lele is still available. Kyle Hamilton, as you mentioned, $104,000, $1.4 million. Tyler Linderbaum, $81 million. Travis Jones, $40.5 million. Charlie Kohler, $24.3 million.

Jordan Stout, 12.3. Isaiah likely at 40. I never thought that you could draft too well, but perhaps that is the case here. it happens certainly and that's why we have the comp pick system put in place later is that a touchy subject in chicago are not going to bring up compensatory picks is it is it touchy or is it just the fact that the NFL doesn't want to enforce the spirit of the law that they decided to enact yeah it is interesting that within the bylaws within the the right and the written aspect of it lately yeah it says you know a decision making uh role i e general manager essentially when you use the term general manager in in your description of it, it makes it, I think, completely insane.

But that's why when you draft that way, again, the salary cap infringes on your ability to keep everybody. Seattle's going through this because John Snyder drafts really, really well, and everybody wants your players after you win a Super Bowl. I remember that happened in 2015 in Denver, with an unbelievable defense that got torn apart because of salary cap constraints, and you draft all these guys really, really well.

The prior that I look at, and a direct example of what this is, is like, Rashid Walker's still available out there, as a left tackle, who's a serviceable left tackle. Is he great left tackle? No. But they drafted him in the seventh round. He's probably going to get paid in the next 48 hours here, and then they're going to get probably a third round pick in return.

You've got to keep flipping it in that sense when you hit on certain guys and they walk in free agency. But it's also why I think you have to do deals early. I had a great conversation with George Payton at the Combine, and one of the things Denver has done, and you just saw them bring in zero players, only re-sign their own players on the first day of free games. agency was that he does deals really, really early. And when you draft well, you have to do deals early.

Now, Nick Benito is a absolute steal as a pass rusher. And so is Jonathan Cooper. And Pat Sertan's deal is, like, he's like the fifth highest paid corner in football now. And that's a steal. And so doing deals early when you draft well, I think is really the key. But oftentimes people try to kick the can down the line and they get themselves in trouble. James, I just before we let you go, I did want to say, please give my best to your dad, who I worked with for a long time in Philadelphia, Scott. That's why I dropped the family.

Yes, yes. And then I also tell your sister I said, what, I said, what? Today's her birthday. Oh! Today is my sister's birthday. And I will text her up.

Yeah, text her up. Yeah, my dad's hanging out in Clearwater with the Phil's, hopefully a big signing today. They had a press conference. Locked a, lock the picture in. He runs those press conferences. And we'll just say,

say hi to Megan Nicks for me as well, too. So everybody's covered. Yeah, for sure. Everybody is covered. Yeah, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for also hanging out with her afternoon show. And thanks for taking the time out of a very busy NFL day. So we appreciate it.

Anything for you guys. That's a Knicks painting right there, Leila. No, are you serious? 100% it is, yes. You have a star on your hands. That's outstanding. It's for sale, everybody, if anybody wants. There you go.

James, thanks again. And congratulations to Nix on wonderful talent. We appreciate it. Thanks, James. I'll tell you said what's up. See you guys. Thank you. That is James Palmer, who hosts Scoop City with the Athletic,

and he is also an NFL insider for Bleacher Report and the co-host of 89 with Steve Smith. So let's pick up where we left off with James, because we've touched on it a little bit in our discussion surrounding the Bears inactivity or at least basic activity when it comes to addressing the defensive line. Minimal activity is what we'll call it. Essential activity? Sure. I think that that probably falls under the category of Neville Gallimore being essential activity.

It's probably not enough. So how much is it going to be? We'll figure that out next. Rahimi Harrison Grody. I don't want to break time. I don't want to yell at him. Can we handle more Anthony Herron? Middays 10 to 2 on 1043, the score.

Time consumed for only one yard. Take the snap at 52. And now they've got them. It's Hendrickson. One play after nearly getting to him. This time he completes the deal. Trey Hendrickson, stacking Patrick Mahomes. This is Rahimi Harrison Grody.

That was courtesy of CBS. And every time I hear Jim Nance now, all I want to say is, I don't know, Jim. I really don't know. I don't know either. Tony Romo would be right on that if he were saying it now. This is Rahimi Harrison Brody. And that's it.

We went over it a little bit at the top of our show. We talked about it with James Palmer a bit. But the pass rusher of your dreams doesn't appear to be walking through the door for the bears. But the pass rusher of perhaps Ryan Poles' dreams is still on the bears. I do think they deserve time. I think Grady Jerich got better as the season went on. We didn't know he was going to have to have a surgery, though. and that got reported by Brad Biggs after the fact

when he was out for an extended amount of time at the beginning of the season. Diro Dangbo, like we said, we'd love to know which Achilles he tore in 2021. In addition to knowing it was the right one in November of this year, and then trying to figure out that timeline. And then in addition,

understanding that Max Crosby was available, goes to the Ravens for the two first rounders. And then we see that Trey Hendrickson is out here as a free agent, but hasn't found a home yet. I think James is right. I think James knows that Trey has a price in mind, which wouldn't make it make sense,

given all of the consternation he's had over his contract the past two seasons. And then there's also the fact of the matter of there's not a ton of NFL teams who can afford him. The Bears right now would have to do some very creative accounting in order to get it done. So the good news for the Bears is that the number one free agent edge rusher is Trey Hemp.

Andrickson, and he is still available. That's the good news. The bad news is, and I'm using CBS Sports on this one. I think I'm looking at the same free agent tracker that you are. You start looking at guys who are listed, I don't know, number two, O'Dafie O'A, number three, Higo. Jalen Phillips, Higo. Boye-Moffey. He go.

John Franklin Myers. Higom! And then you get what, and I get it with the textures, I get it. They're like, I don't want an old guy to rush the passer. But you start seeing, I don't know, Janavian Clowny. Wait, is Clowny still out there? That's what's a question. I think he signed a one-year deal with the Cowboys.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I think he signed a deal. But I know who's, I know who is still out there. A Bosa. You can get yourself a Bosa, fresh off the bills. Fresh off being PFF's number 29, Edge. I mean, even Kingsley and Ingbar. signed a deal.

What I'm saying to you, Layla, is that on day one, edge rushers got snapped up quick. And that's why I tend to believe that the help is coming from the draft, point blank, period. The help is coming from the draft. I just, I don't think it's a bad strategy this time. I do not think that with the 25th overall pick, given who you have on your team,

given what your needs are, given that you still have to sign three more safeties, I don't think it's a bad problem. Here's where it gets to be a problem, though. Is if you still cannot rush and get home like you want to, you still can't disrupt

the passer. What makes it even worse is we know that the pass rush and run defense are married. A lot of times the bears think they're getting a good pass rusher. What they get is a good run defender. That's the upside. It's because your defensive linemen still

tackle well at the line of scrimmage. We have not seen enough of a pass rush. We've seen opposing quarterbacks get way too comfortable. See Jordan Love in that first game, for example. And then what we've also seen, and the Packers are another good example of this. They control time of possession like nobody else does in the league. You can run. You can run on the bears.

You can run effectively. Throw the slot patterns, run effectively, and that is a simple trite and true way. to win. Are you familiar with the adage, get you one who can do both? Like, that's the goal here, is to get somebody who can play on the edge and can both stop the run effectively, but also get after the quarterback. And unfortunately for the Bears, they're paying a guy a lot to do that, and he's done what I would call an adequate job, Montez Sweat. Has he been as consistent as you would like? Of course not, because Max Crosby exists. you know, Michael Parsons exists.

Miles Garrett exists. And sometimes I go back and forth in my own head, trying to be like, is that standard reasonable? Because we're talking about future Hall of Famers when we talk about them. Can you not just have waves of guys as the last two Super Bowl champions have had?

See, and even on our text line, it's split. 6-30, I don't want an old guy or a pre-injured guy. 309. Cam Jordan in a rotation would be awesome. There's a million different paths you can take here. Or there's the text. People say they don't want an old pass rusher, but then they want Cleal Mack.

I think he just gets a pass because he's a former bear. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug. I think that's what they remember 12 and 4. They remember having a chance. They remember things going poorly after that, but they remember we had that one season. and the whole goal here is to make sure that 2025 isn't quote unquote that one season. Also, we are talking about the line and we are talking about end and edge rusher. But as we've seen, there have been very successful pass rushers out of the linebacker position

specifically in the NFL last season. So I factor that in as well and also acknowledge this question. Would you say the position that has seemed to have lost importance on the defense must be the linebackers based on the moves the bears have made that signed from Chris in Milwaukee. I don't necessarily think so, but I think they prioritize the linebacker in a different way. Like, for example, we talked about when Tremaine Edmonds left, one of his upsides, wasn't just that he looked more comfortable and he seemed to be more productive for the bears this past season, but also he had four interceptions to his name to go along with the 112

tackles in the regular season. So the Bears get Devin Bush, who they think is an upgrade speed-wise. And he also had a career high, two pick-sixes, three total interceptions, three-year-30-million-dollar deal. Do they think that he could be another ball hawk for them? But is he a kind of player we've seen who's a major pass rusher out of that spot? No. I don't think the Bears use their linebackers in the same way, say, last year's Giants did, or say the Pittsburgh Steelers, something along those lines.

No, I see the speed being the greatest asset here and the upgrade and speed from Edmonds to him and that speed is upgraded, whether it's Edmonds you're talking about or T.J. Edwards, frankly. This is a guy who's a former top 10 pick before being deemed somewhat of a bust in Pittsburgh and then find a new life last year. When you see what he was able to do with the Brown's defense, that was great. Unfortunately, the offense, not as great. So that's the way I look at him specifically coming into this. I will say this, Leila.

if you're looking at how are the bears going to get to the quarterback, based on what we've heard from Ryan Poles and his dependency on guys playing closer to what his expectations are, whether they're coming off injury or not. A lot of this is just Dennis Allen being able to scheme up what he has. Well, and what is one of the big phrases that Dennis Allen likes to say, Marshall? He can run. Emphatically, beautifully, happily when he talks about,

say the draft picks that he had gotten. Ruben Hippolyte. He can run. That's something that he greatly desires. Also, when you look at the sack leaders in the league, you know, Brian Burns is who I'm thinking of when I think he's not your traditional pass rusher. He's listed as a linebacker, but you know how the Giants used him to the tune of 16 and a half sacks, second to only Miles Garrett in the regular season.

You know, that's a good example. Montes-Witt, of course, listed with his 10. That put him at 15. You know who is still in the top 20, by the way? Still. Who? Von Miller. Von Miller had nine sacks.

He's an old guy, but he gets it done. Genevian Clowny had eight and a half. He's not young, and he still gets it done. But when it comes to list it out of the linebacker position, we know how guys move around. Nick Benito fits into that, but we know that he usually line up on the line, especially in the Blitz look that Denver would give.

The game against the Patriots, the AOC Championship game is a good example of that. But there is some flexibility in how you view linebackers, but the bear seemed to be fairly consistent in how they replaced Tremaine Evans. I want to know what moves are going to be made between now and the draft to get them in position to be able to not only just, take the best player available each time their draft pick comes up, but to have them feeling like they have enough of a core to go into training camp and understand that the defense has been upgraded. And so looking up and down and understanding that guys are hurt and guys are coming

back from injury, not just obviously up front, but also in the secondary. It's how are you piecing that together? And I think these next couple of days are going to be big in that because you don't know what, as I would call it, the runoff is going to be guys who think they're going to get paid a certain amount. Trey Hendrickson falls into this category. But other guys, too. There's a long list of guys that we see every year who last through the first wave of free agency, and then you just hope you can get some value fines in free agency, maybe even a

week into it or two weeks or a month into it. But I think the issue still remains. The pass rush was not enough. And unlike what Ben Johnson has to say when it comes to having sacks with a lead, the Seattle Seahawks showed you why sometimes the best stop is the one at the line and it is not when you have the lead

or it is not when you have a two touchdown lead or a one touchdown lead. It's when you have a one field goal lead and you've got to make some serious hay. It's the field position. It's knowing that they can get a stop rushing four down linemen. It's knowing that they have waves of pass rushers and that any time your offensive production

was going to be stunted mid-drive, because they were so good at getting a stop when they needed one. Even when you didn't need one, they would get stops. The text line's hilarious, Lila. 6-30, all this bears angst. I need to eat a can of frosting. I support it. And yes, 847, Kim Jordan would be perfect being paired with Dennis Allen,

which is why that happened for many, many years in the NFL. 312. Maybe polls won't be aggressive for a defensive end and free agency, but maybe will be in the draft. trade up. Look, I... Trade up. I don't know that they need to trade up.

I think there's enough edge rushers. Yeah. I don't think, though, that Zion Young is going to be available. I think he gets taken higher. Also, 9-20. This might be the one, Leila. You can put lipstick on Dio Dengbo, but it's still going to be Dio Dengbo and his one sack.

He's going to be so mad at us that by the time he's able to play, he's going to be like Forrest Whitaker on Fast Times or Ridgemont 9. He's going to tackle everything. That was amazing. They messed up that man's car, and then he messed up the opposition on the football field. Yes, I am nodding. Notting in fear and respect.

Okay. There's a very, very important story affecting the fabric of our time. I think you're right. This goes beyond just the playing lines. This is somewhat out of bounds, or at least it was deemed to be out of bounce by one professional sports organization. It's like Tipper Gore stepped in for no reason.

We'll do that next. What time, it is halftime. It is indeed halftime, and as of 1145 today, Trey Hendrickson is still available. I don't think he's going to the Bears. I'm sorry. Could. I'm sorry.

Could. Prove me wrong. Then we'll have a great time. In the meantime, we talked about the Bears' moves that they had made so far. Benjamin Solac was on with Spiegel and Holmes yesterday. Strongly recommend going back and listening on the Odyssey app. You can click on that specific segment, listen to it because he was great.

So we brought back some of what he had to say about how Kobe Bryant the new safety fits into the Bears secondary and also how Garrett Bradbury fits on the offensive line and how I personally, me, Leila, thought that Braxton Jones did the Bears a favor because I think Braxton Jones could have gotten paid.

And then we talked to James Palmer at 11 o'clock. Got some breaking news too about the report of the Bears agreeing to a deal with Khalif Raymond, the former Lions Whiteout and Returners. So this is good. They're calling that an Antoine Rendell L signing.

Well, that's right. Okay, so he did, on the coaching side, he got one of his guys. But I was waiting on the player side to see if he was going to get one of his guys. He got one of his guys. So, we've got that going for us, which is nice. Does it change

how I feel about Jad A. Walker? No, I think he's still going to somehow get involved in all of this. Is that wrong? I like development. He seems like a player that you've developed. Correct. So, That is where we stand now, as we also talk about the lack of pass rush. It's time. This is an injustice.

This is a Travis sham mockery. It also just, why did people who aren't involved have to get involved? Oh, that's right, because we live in America. You say you want to protect the children, yet there are obvious ways to protect the children. But I don't think canceling Magic City Night in Atlanta was one of them. This sucks Layla Buzzkill

My favorite thing that's come out of this Is the reaction on social media And there has been an abundance Of reaction on social media Can I read a few of these tweets Yeah are any of the men speaking for women Those are always my personal favorites I think I have men speaking

But they're speaking up in support of Atlanta Here's Trevor Scales Sports Center anchor who's from Atlanta, by the way. I wonder how that Clippers investigation is coming along since we got so much time to get in folks' business. Exactly. What are we doing here? Someone tweeted a picture of the Hawks back when they were the number one seed.

And if you'll remember, Al Horford was that team. And he was in the middle of the photo. But they took Al Horford out the photo since he was one of the people who complained about Magic City Monday. Yeah, because what are you doing, Al Horford? You're not one of them anymore. You can't be. So, yes, Magic City, much to Luke Cornett's happiness.

Because what did it have to do with Luke Cornett exactly? I'm still not quite sure. The NBA swooped in and canceled kind of like the process, kind of like the NBA stopping the process. They canceled the March 16th promotion due to concerns raised throughout the league about giving a strip club the spotlight. They were selling hoodies. It's not like they were selling something else.

and wings, which everybody knew they were famous for. Adam Silver made the announcement saying, when we became aware of the Hawks scheduled promotion, we reached out to Hawks leadership to better understand their plans and rationale. What plan and rationale did you need? They wanted to celebrate something that people enjoy. They knew their audience. The question is, why didn't anybody else?

Because we live into America. That's why. If you want the real answer. I will speak up for women. Well, did anybody ask a woman how she felt about this? Since there's all these men speaking out for them all the time? Probably not. There were a lot of statements being made, though.

That Luke Cornyett came out with the whole thing. Al Horford, as I mentioned, came out with a whole thing. The bad news is they had these sweet hoodies, right? And if you didn't pre-order one of these hoodies, they won't be selling these hoodies. you had to have pre-ordered. Those sales will be honored, no more sales. So those things are going for $1,000 on the market. But what's going to happen to those?

Because you had them all made. Are you going to incinerate them, which is an environmental hazard? Do I need to talk to you about clothing waste in the world? And as far as sending a bad message to the women of the NBA community, here's the thing. Reverse it to men, right? Reverse it to men. Does a woman speak out for men and say this is bad for all men? no men would say oh there's a bunch of us we have different opinions on things

so why is it that women have to have the same opinion on mass despite being 51% of the world's population wouldn't that indicate that women's opinions vary based on topic and idea and that they could I don't know speak for themselves are you saying that not all people think alike in groups of people that we tend to lump together I think it's it's always funny when people say on behalf of women X, like some one outcome. Because you would never do that if the situation were reversed for a man. And you can use that exercise for a lot of things. Oh, well, we had a woman in that spot. We're never going to do that again. Well, you would never say, oh, a man had that job. We'd never hire a man again. That just doesn't happen. So I feel like

this falls under that kind of concept. There's been a lot of talk. You know who's been getting a lot of And sell the hoodies. Sell the hoodies. Who cares? Donate the money to a charity and then everybody wins. I should have purchased one of these hoodies. They're sweet hoodies. If you want to do something for women from this,

why don't you donate the money from the hoodie sales to a battered woman's charity? That would make something good happen. And I'm just using that as an example. I'm not implying any certain outcome here. But if you want to do something that's positive for women, sell the hoodies then, and then donate them to a cause that is for women who are in rougher times or are, you know, being diminished.

Or in this case, you know, having a situation where that money could really go far. You're trying to be constructive and do positive things here. That's not the nature of how social media or complainers in general work these days. I just want to point that out. I admire your thought process in this, Lela, but I think you're being a bit, unrealistic. Let's check in with... Offering suggestions and solutions as opposed to just complaints.

I know it's not my usual mode of operation either, but I feel like it's the right one. Let's check in with Luke Cornet, who just spoke with Spurs, the Spurs beat on the cancellation of Magic City. And I quote, that feels appropriate. I see the news and obviously the league has to do what they have to do talking to people and figuring stuff out and not just acting quickly. I think they made the right move. but we moved on pretty quickly.

We moved on pretty quickly. Because it never had anything to do with you. Yeah, that's kind of the thing. Another good tweet, because I like to... They're playing the Orlando Magic. They're not playing the Spurs. They're not. I wonder how Robert Orie would feel about this.

I'm trying to find the actual tweet with the photo of the Carl Malone statue. Can't find that at this moment. But there have been a lot of Carl Malone digs here. One featured this, talking about the Kansas. cancellation. And unlike Carl Malone, Magic City checks ID. Yeah, yeah. Oh, but save the children and save women. Car Malone. In case you didn't know, Carl Malone had to settle and pay child support after impregnating a 12-year-old while he was in college in Louisiana. That was the, those were the allegations. And I say he was never

convicted of anything in criminal court, but he did settle and pay child support. So that exists. And there's a statue of him out front in Salt Lake City. You know what I think happens to those hoodies? I'm very curious to your theory on this. I think they end up on the dancers. Oh. That is a novel idea.

Oh, and by the way, no wings either. Because why have wings to celebrate? Like if you had said a restaurant or as to have... it's described in some places where I used to live, lunch with a view. And here's the funniest part is, as you hear me advocating for this, I haven't gone to any, but that's the point. I don't go. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to tell other people what to do.

And again, there were not going to be, there were not going to be any dancers at the game or anything. It was more about TI performing, putting on for his city. There was a podcast beforehand. They were going to offer the wings that everyone raves about from Magic City at the game. three different locations in the arena. Or just sell the hoodies and then donate the money to charity and a good cause. Oh, I found the tweet I was looking for.

David Dennis Jr. Tweeted out a statue, picture of Carl Malone talking in front of his statue the day it was unveiled in Utah. I'd much rather explain to my kid what Magic City is than go to a jazz game and explain to them who this is a statue of. 7.08. So wait, they want to speak on behalf of women, but don't want to come up with ideas or solutions for the,

fake outrage when speaking for women. Nailed it. Also, it was women in leadership who came up with this idea to begin with. But did they don't count? Some other guy who has a job in San Antonio, he does, though. Don't forget about the guy with the job in San Francisco. Just do yourself a favor and find a spot where it sounds absolutely ridiculous because it always does to say, speaking on behalf of all men as a woman, never going to happen.

I speak on behalf of me, and that's it. There's a thought. There's a thought. Let people do what they do. And if you're that offended by what somebody else is doing, here's a thought. Don't pay attention to it. Concepts. Five on it is next.

It's time for five on it. Rahini Harrison Rooney. Bring you five topics on their minds today. Number one. What letter grade would you give the bears for what we've seen from the team so far in free agency. B-plus. I, yeah, they didn't have a lot of room to work with. They had spots they needed to fill.

They're filling the spots. Yep. I like the Kobe Bryant pickup. He had four interceptions last regular season. He was on an excellent defense. I feel like he's going to help with slot coverage, which is something they needed. I feel like Neville Gallimore is a guy who can help with a run defense,

which is against something they needed. And they replaced linebacker, which is, again, something they needed. So, Devin Bush, great. They signed Debarco Jackson. Daniel Hardy's back. Braxton Jones is back. With what they were able to work with, cap-wise, I feel like this is good. Seems like a step in the right direction, right?

I'm assuming by letter grade, the letter I is not available to me in this exercise. No, Marshall, we're going with grades, grades, real grades from the report card. Because I've gotten an eye on my report card. Let me tell you. I mean, to be fair, you're supposed to grade based on what they've done so far, which yesterday was a complete day. I guess I'm giving them a B minus. It's either that or a C plus.

I'm not overwhelmed. I'm not underwhelmed. I guess I'm just whelmed. That is actually a word. And so that's where I'm at with this Bears team. they did address some needs in a way that make me say, okay, that's not bad, but they didn't make anything to say,

oh, that's amazing that they did that. Maybe we set the bar too high, and that's why I'm like, well, okay, B, you know. Well, that's why I said, like, it's either C plus or B minus for me. It's, there's nothing detrimental that they've done. That's why it's above average. But is it that far above average? There's still more to come, obviously.

So I know the question's based on. so far what they've done. I can't knock anything that they've done. Number two. Yesterday the NFL announced the 2026 compensatory picks handing out 33 picks to 15 clubs

and the bears were not one of them. The bears believed they should receive draft compensation after the Falcons hired Ian Cunningham as general manager last month and disputed the matter with the NFL but to no avail. So here's the question. On a scale of one to ten on the newly created

injustice meter. Where would you rate this development in the Bears compensatory pick saga? Now we're going to get into this more at one o'clock because it deserves some time. 11 on the newly created injustice meter.

Because what the hell are you doing? And I feel like some people got their hopes up thinking that they could somehow get one out of the two or that there would be some sort of consideration. But All indications said this is what was going to happen. Because Matt Ryan, who wasn't as qualified for his job as Ian Cunningham is,

is the highest level football officer in how the falcons structure their organization. Except Matt Ryan said over and over again that Ian Cunningham is the general manager. So because of that, I think that this is an injustice. Ian Cunningham didn't leave because he felt like moving to Atlanta for the Lemon Pepper Wings. Ian Cunningham moved because it was a promotion. Although that'd be a cool reason to move to Atlanta. OG stats for sure. But point being, we've said this before and we'll say it again.

Nobody pays for these picks. These are compensatory picks. They are given by the NFL. Nobody has to take picks from their own and give them to the Bears for this. It is a reward for doing the right. thing in creating opportunities and trying to create avenues for minority candidates who have not had the same fairness applied to them in this league to be able to do this. And instead, they just decided, we're not going to enforce our own law. And in doing so, and I'll get into this at one o'clock,

I think also just horribly illustrates racism in a way and discrimination in a way that they did not in 10. So yeah, 11 for me. Oh, 11 on a scale of 10. I like that. I don't think I've ever gotten an 11 out of you on a zero to 10 scale.

But I am here for it. And I don't disagree with your sentiment specifically because no matter how you chalk this up, and I understand that in the NFL's eyes, at least this is what they've said, they view Matt Ryan as the number one football man in Atlanta. But when you hear Matt Ryan actually talk about it,

that doesn't make any sense from an NFL standpoint because Matt Ryan told you who's in charge. Ian's in charge of that space. I'm looking forward to learning about, you know, this. Like I said it the other day, and Ian's presser, like, I've never sat in a draft meeting. And so Monday is going to be the first time I'm sitting in a draft meeting, and I've got a lot to learn.

So sitting, observing, being a fly on the wall, if there's something that Ian has a question, about or something I can help with. I'm all ears and I'm happy to share my opinion, but Ian is driving this boat and he is the one that's leading us moving forward. I don't know that you can say it any plainer

than he said it in that moment. He basically said, I don't know what's going on. I'm ready for Ian to teach me how to run a football team. That's what I heard. Did you hear anything different, Laila? So you mean to tell me that the executive officer in the position he's in

doesn't have a qualifications, of the person who's in the role that's underneath him. We have all had managers who didn't really understand the nitty-gritty of what we did, but understood, like, the job's got to get done. And they're like, I'm tasking you with this. Get this done. I go back to my time when I was in Sacramento. We were creating all these sports shows.

And it was from scratch. So the guy was like, yeah, you do this stuff. So I'm going to let you do this. And just let me know if I can help you. Very much the same vibe that Matt Ryan's giving off. there in his executive role. And to illustrate my point, I was explaining, hey, we need to be at this game because the beard's going to be there.

He's like, the beard, who's that? It's like, you know, James Hardin? He's like, who's James Harden? And that's what told me, okay, my manager really doesn't know anything about sports, but I'm going to still do my job to the best of my ability and teach him about who these people are that he probably should know at at least a cursory level. So yeah, my number is going to be a 12 just because I want to outdo Layla because it's ridiculous. Injustice.

And we need to add a trademark to that, by the way, the injustice meter. It has been trademarked. The injustice meter. If only it were acknowledged in life. Number three. This is five on and a 104.3, the score with Lela Rahimi and Marshall Harris. Here's question number three. What will happen first?

The Bears acquire a left tackle. The Bears find a pass rusher or the Bears confirmed the site of their new stadium. Now, Ray, you know that wasn't the official original wording of this question. Winners submitted a couple days ago. We had to laugh about it because the original, from our friend Jeff, friend of the show, was even funnier because some of the things have already happened. Will the bears get a pass rusher or a stadium first?

Then we decided, is it acquire a center, left tackle, sign a safety, find a pass rusher, signed stadium deal. So they have found their left tackle, who is already on the team, acquired a center via trade, signed a safety, and I don't know how you qualify when you know a lot of the teams on the field already when it comes to defensive line. Not exactly a pass rusher, but they got the job done, at least adding depth in Neville Gallimore.

So I would say all of those things happened before they found a stadium. even though they bought land for a stadium told us it was for a stadium yeah I don't think it's about what's first I think it's about what's last I think we all know what's going to be last that stadium thing's going to be last the shovels are not in the ground yet and I promise you

the bears will add even another pass rusher before there are shovels in the ground they may add two more pass rushes by the time shovels in the ground through the draft they have a tackle they'll probably add another offense of linemen before the shovels are in the ground on that stadium. So I could tell you what's last. And it's going to be a minute before we have broken ground on a new stadium.

Whether that's Arlington Heights, whether it's Indiana, whether that's your backyard, Laila. Wherever they decide to put a stadium, that's going to be last on the list. I don't have a backyard. Oh. So that would be tough. Okay. Then not your backyard. Not in my backyard.

I don't have one. Ha ha! Number four. Do Dolphins quarterback Malik Willis and Bears backup quarterback Tyson Bajent both fall under the umbrella of the best 32 quarterbacks in the NFL? And for full context, it was Ben Johnson that said Tyson Bajent was one of the best 32 in the league. He said one of the 32, right? Did he say best? Was best part of it?

I guess we could play it in a minute here for full. And I'm not trying to play it. parse your words. I'm just wondering out loud while I think about this. But that is the question, right? Because we all knew Malik Willis had a good year with Green Bay as the backup. He was more than serviceable. He's also somebody who I think got a lot of attention when he initially was in the draft at his position. And because of that, and even coming over to Green Bay, he was somebody who I think a lot of people considered starting quarterback in the league caliber. But that begs the question. Now that Malik

is in Miami, now that it looks like he is one of the 32, and we see guys like Tuatung of Iloa, not there anymore. We see guys like Kyler Murray, not in the same respective position right now anyway. Does that mean Tyson Bayesian is one of

the 32? And so I think a couple things can be true here. What we know about Malik Willis, more of a resume, more outright talent than Tyson Bejant, more arm strength, better at the position. But Tyson Bayesian has a lot of upside.

So, and people love his game knowledge and his dedication, and Ben Johnson absolutely loves him. So how do you quantify it? I think he could be, but the issue is in the NFL, there's never just 32. That's why we're talking about this the way we are. Better be more than 32. Is he one of the 34, 35? Oh, okay. Well, we can listen, by the way, if we want to get very specific about what Ben Johnson said, just to be specific about this. Go ahead, Tyler.

I do think there's a lot of merit to having a strong number two quarterback, which he certainly fits that bill. I'm of the mind that he's probably one of the best 32 in the NFL. His preseason tape over the last few years has probably confirmed that, in my opinion. I love Tyson. There it is. Best 32. Ray, you were correct and I had forgotten. He's not one of the best 32. He could be.

He's one of the best like 35, maybe. I say one of the best 45. So like to you, he's playing in NFL Europe? Is he better than Mitchell Trubisky? Is he better than Davis? There's a long list of guys. I'm going to say he's more accurate than Mitchell Trubisky. I don't think that's going out on a limb.

You don't know that time like I do. Whoa, but... You didn't have to watch it the same. Throwing passes to Alan Robinson that looked like they were going to four other people first. So the beautiful... Runners ball? Ring a bell to anybody?

Do you want to talk about runners' ball? Wait, Leila, didn't Alan Robinson said Chibisky, they gave up on him too soon? Alan Robinson believes in people. So does Ben Johnson. hints he said he's one of the best 32 Tyson pageant, quarterbacks in the NFL. He hasn't done enough. This is one of those questions

it's like Michael Jordan said arguing about the goat. Like there's, you don't have enough evidence. He hasn't done enough. What did Michael Jordan say about argue about the goat because that's him? So why is this? Well he says he doesn't argue about these players

who played in different errors who never played against each other in their prime. I haven't seen this guy in his prime. Tyson Bayesian. He hasn't, he's given me that that nice little, what was it, a four game sample where he went two and two over a stretch when Justin Fields was hurt. That's all I got, right? That's all I really have. Pre-season, I'm not, I'm sorry, I can't put as much into the preseason film as Ben Johnson does. And Ben Johnson is highly biased. Can we agree on that at least? Yeah, Ben Johnson loves Tyson Bejian. I mean, that's, that's painfully

obvious. It gets into programming. You see his influence all over the place. you ever heard a parent talk about their kid, like their kid's the greatest thing ever, and you're looking to the kid, like, I mean, your kid's cool, but let's not get carried away. Let's not get carried away. And he was undrafted. Cool. But, okay, but for example, people are like, oh, we'll name the 32 quarterbacks. Okay, well, Joe Flacco was the backup in Cincinnati.

Joe Flacco ends up playing because Joe Burrow is injured. Well, you know that Joe Burroughs a better quarterback. So some of these you can eliminate just because of the injury concern. Now, the better question is, is he, better than Michael Penix. You know, that's where it starts to come into play. And the accuracy really is, I think, at the deepest level here. Is he better than Spencer Rattler, who was one of the 32 at the time?

He's not better than Tyler, right? Tyler. Shaw? Like, like that, when the Saints came on late. They really liked Tyler Shuck in New Orleans, but I don't know that they are ready to make a determination. So then he fits into that group. I know that they wanted him to, they want him to be that guy. They drafted him to be. But then you also know that some guys, like, for example, Daniel Jones was not originally

supposed to be the guy in Indianapolis. Better than Anthony Richardson. But Anthony Richardson was a high draft pick. A15. Ben Johnson said he's one of the best 32 number two quarterbacks. See, I'm with that. He's one of the best 32 number two quarterbacks. I know that's not what Ben Johnson said. He said that one of the best. 32. 708 says, did at Layla Rahimi, we can't get ads on the text line. We just read them. It's not that technologically sound. And it breaks up a lot of your text. So we can't tell what they say. And we can't get most of the emojis. Did Layla Rahimi forget about Bayesian's murder balls that he throws over the middle? No, but like, there are so many quarterbacks who do that. Like,

How many do you want me to list that do that? That's not indicative of just him. We'll just leave it there. He's not. You say he is. I say he's one of like 35. I cannot pin it down to 32. Okay.

We're in agreement then. And here's 312. Malik Willis is just fortunate to be from the Packers' back of quarterback tree. I don't think so. What? Malik Willis was highly touted coming out of college. Yeah, I don't. The hello Matt Flynn.

I don't. Did you really trust the Titans to develop a quarterback? Fair Number five Shane Smith has been named the White Sox opening day starter He is a Rule 5 selection Does that make this

Does this make Shane Smith This year's Gage Tater Workman? I am offended by this question On so many different levels Why? Because I wrote it Yes Because it feels very targeted

Because you know about my love For Gage Tater But they're both rule five guys. One of them is an all-star, okay? Can we stop? I put that in the question. I know, but like, so I feel like you're just mocking me with the question because you know. You're not Gage? Is that your Tyson-Bajit to Ben Johnson? It might be. Might be. And I'm not out here saying he's one of the best. I don't know, you can just pick a number. You just pick a number and fill in the blank. First of all, your opening day starter should be your all-star.

if it's a pitcher in this respect. So the fact that Shane Smith was the All-Star and he's the opening day starter. That makes sense. I know Sean Burke earned it last year. I know. But he is a Rule 5 guy. And people fall in love with Rule 5 guys

during spring training. I always fall in love with the Rule 5 guy. So based on that criteria... He's an All-Star, Lela? This is like a square and a rectangle, but a rectangle... Square is a rectangle, but a rectangle isn't a square. Yes.

All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. Correct. Listen, he's an all-star, and he's an opening day starter. But by rule of the Rule 5 selection that you love in the spring training, who's improved and shown himself, we don't really have a Gage Tater Workman this year. This is the closest I could come up with. I'm with it, because not only did he survive a whole year as a Rule 5 guy, but he's on year two.

See, now people are getting into the questions here in our text line. Now you're doing the thing. You have to evaluate Tyson-Bajent versus who you know was starting. Who doesn't have exactly the strongest ground starting? Well, I like this. 224. All caps. All caps, Layless.

That means they're saying it with their chest. Bejian is going to Pittsburgh. Being West Virginia guy, wouldn't that be close to home? That would be appropriate. That's his home like market. Yes. That would be neat. But see, see, there's enough of them to where you could ask.

And I think it's a fair question. So now we should all be rooting for Aaron Rogers to retire so that the Pittsburgh Steelers want to get Tyson. The idea that you know what quarterback you were getting in Malik Willis after two years with the Titans, stop it. Bad situation. Stop it. You knew more about Malik Willis in college to know that that wasn't entirely going to be the case. Stop it. 317.

We don't know how good Beijing can be because he only plays in the precinct. But I do know he doesn't have an NFL arm. drops microphone if it wasn't attached to this. I mean, the arm strength was always going to be the issue. But the accuracy is where you can make up for it a bit. But how many NFL quarterbacks do you know who their arm strength is also not, it's not their strength? See?

See? See what you should do there. Yep. Coming up next year on Rahimi Harris and Grady, I don't know that this is the debate for Adam Amin, but I know he's ready to talk about just about anything. announcer for the Bulls, announcer for the world baseball classic, announcer for both Major League Baseball and NFL at Fox.

He's been everywhere, so we'll talk to Adam Amin next. As we get set here in Pool B for the second game, Adam Amin, a couple of World Series champions, and A.J. Prasinski and Adam Wainwright, Ken Rosenthal is with us as well. Judge Swings launches it deep left field. United States. It feels like most nights. He's got a quiet 20.

Sexton. He does not have a quiet day. That's a 25-point night working. on 6 of 8 from downtown. Hey me with it, Stace. We haven't heard it in a long time. I've almost forgot. I haven't said it in a month.

Drive home safely. She's got a little beep, beep. Where to remind me. It's been a while since I've been able to say it. Oh, I feel so good. I'm back, Elizabeth. Oh, Lord. We lost you for a bit there, pal.

You lost you for a bit there. I totally forgot about that, man. My bad. For Stacey, Casey, our great crew, I'm Adam. With Rahimi Harrison Grody on 1043, The Score. It is always a great day when we get to talk to Adam Amin on our hotline. He joins us from where? Let's start with that.

Adam Amin, the Bulls announcer, Major League Baseball on Fox, World Baseball Classic on Fox, NFL as well. Adam, thanks for joining us. Are you on the West Coast? Where are you? We're West Coast in it. We've got Bulls and Warriors tonight. I wasn't sure if you were on the call or not, because let's go through the interactive map that you put.

posed on your Instagram. Ten days, eight games, seven cities, four time zones, and two sports. Even for you, that's pretty extreme. You know, though, I've always said it's like, there's no, I ask for no pity. We're not, we're not like making a deal out of this

because it's like, oh, woe is us. We have to travel around the world. It's just fun. It's a fun thing to be able to do. It's a fun thing to go from city to city and cover these cool events. and cover things I've never covered before. I've never done a WBC until this past weekend,

and we'll finish off the rest of this Bulls, West Coast road trip this week. They're playing in San Francisco tonight. They'll play in Los Angeles on Thursday and Friday. I'm taking a red-eye flight on Friday night from L.A. to Miami, so going cross-country. And we're going to see Team Japan play in the quarterfinals against either the Dominican Republic or Venezuela in Miami for a spot in the semifinals. Like that's going to be an electric atmosphere.

In Miami, the two Latin American countries have incredible fan bases. The Dominicans and the Venezuelans, their fan bases are electric. The Japanese fans, they travel well. I know they were in the Tokyo Dome for the WBC, but there's going to be a lot of Japanese fans there in Miami, too, next week. Or at the end of the week, so I just think it's such a cool event, and to get to bounce around and hop in and call a few of these games, It's really cool.

The atmosphere watching in Houston last night. I was sitting in my hotel room in San Francisco watching it, and it was probably more favored towards Mexico, understandable in Houston, but it was such a great atmosphere to watch on TV. And this event is, I knew there was a lot of buzz going into this particular WBC. I was excited to call it. I didn't realize how much of a jolt that you feel while calling some of these games. Adam, Pop Quiz, 1.

What day of the week is it two? What is your hotel room number? Do you know the answers to these two questions? It's Tuesday and 12. I had to think about it because there have been a bunch of those. There have been a bunch of those this week. I legitimately had to make sure I didn't screw it up. Oh, I've definitely done that.

We have all been there. I thought I was staying in the room number for the previous stop. Yeah. Yeah, it's happened. The day of the week thing just starts to lose sight, but you do have a very specific program that you're on. The other question I wanted to ask is, What is your favorite of the cities that you are visiting in this time away from Chicago?

I mean, I always love going to Los Angeles, but that's usually just because there's friends out there. There's a lot of people out there that they usually get to run into. I mean, they're all great. I'm in San Francisco. I know a lot of people probably made their way out here for the Super Bowl, and I didn't realize a lot of people were making the way out here for the very first time. I had never a lot of folks I talked to that were going out here for the Super Bowl. I've never been here before and raved about it afterwards. I always love coming out here, but it's always nice to get a trip to Los Angeles and feel like you get to be kind of walking around California a little bit proper.

I think that'll be fun this weekend. We are talking to Adam Amin, broadcaster for the Bulls for World Baseball Classic on Fox, NFL. Also, of course, NBA with the Bulls tonight on CHSN is where you can catch that game. And Adam, I did want to ask about the World Baseball Classic. You mentioned, of course, your work with baseball and Fox, and you do a great job there, but I feel like there's no atmosphere quite like it. And when you get to experience it for yourself in person, how do you describe the crowd and what they bring and just the pride that the players have playing in it as well?

I mean, being around Mark DeRosa, the manager this past weekend, talking with Terrick Scoobal, which has been one of the interesting, if you want to call it a controversy, I guess you can. One of the interesting discussions around school bowl has taken place over the course of the week and, you know, how much she was impacted by going to the world baseball classic and standing in line of up the first base line in front of the dugout and hearing the national anthem and, you know, lined up with a bunch of other guys with the same jersey and, you know, kind of the superstar power of team USA and kind of preparing for these games. It hits you differently.

And I'm not, you know, I'm not one. to be jingoistic about this and like, you know, overly patriotic. It's, I find it fascinating. I find it, I appreciate it more than anything else because all these players that take time away from their spring training run up to join this team. I look around at other countries and other players from other countries and seeing, you know, guys who have, you know, British backgrounds and, you know, their parents were born in the UK, like Harry Ford is the catcher for the nationals,

to see players in Brazil who are construction workers in their off time and have, like, regular jobs and still play for the Brazilian national team, a baseball team that doesn't have a tremendous history. It's only been to the WBC a couple of times, but they have this appreciation for wanting to represent their country. There's a great story about an electrician for Chequio who struck out Shohei Otani, and the Japanese fans gave him, a standing ovation. They brought him out to the field at the Tokyo Dome and the Japanese fans gave him a standing ovation.

This guy's going to go back to Chekkey and go back to his job as an electrician. These are, you know, I know some of these stories can sound like their tongue in cheek, but these are real opportunities for a lot of people around the world, not just the superstars in Major League Baseball that we've come to know representing their countries. Like, it does mean a lot to them. And I don't like necessarily making this more. about more than it is, but I do think there is a certain pride that a lot of people take in the identity that comes with playing for your country. I think that's more what it's about. I don't necessarily like connecting it to other peripheral things, but I do think the pride and country and the kind of unification of team to represent a country with an identity, I think is really, really cool. You get that a lot from the non-American players and their fan bases

especially, but it was interesting. I'm sure you've seen or heard Bryce Harper's comments about not having the Olympics be a baseball thing in 2028, even though the games are in Los Angeles. Did you take that as more of a dig at

the world stage as far as the World Baseball Classic was, or is this just a guy wishing he could win Olympic gold? No, I took it as a guy who wants to the big deal for Bryce Harper, and I think he knows that the Olympics are still the Olympics. you know, the impact that, you know, we felt during those two weeks in Milan for the Winter Olympics, and you know how much I've always felt, I don't know if you guys do too,

but I always felt that the summer games had a little bit more accessibility for a lot of fans around the world, just because they're probably a little bit more familiar with the sports, and they're more comfortable with them. And I think the U.S., you know, you look at the Olympics, and it's not, the competition is greater here in the WBC. You know, it's like the World Cup in soccer, to playing for the Olympic gold in soccer. I still feel like the World Cup has greater buzz.

It has greater participation. There's different meaning to it. There's a lot of reasons for it, and I'm sure you can make arguments for and against one or the other because of whether it's government involvement or whether it's country pride, whatever. There's a million different things that you could dissect to try to talk about why one means more than the other.

And the WBC kind of means a little bit more in baseball. there's more countries participating. There's 20 countries participating in this, whereas the Olympics, it's a smaller field. USA to allow Major League players to participate, like they do in the Olympic hockey. I think that also had a lot of impact on these guys because they saw what happened with both the men and the women

winning gold in hockey. You know, half a centred, I think, have a lot to do with why some of these guys, and Harper included, Scoobbles said the same thing. They want included. So I understood what he was saying. It wasn't a knock on the WB. it was a, hey, we should also be part of the Olympics, too. We're talking to Adam Amin, broadcasting the world baseball classic, NFL and Major League Baseball and Fox, and also the Bulls.

And you are in town for the Warriors games. And I think you and Stacey have done a fantastic job on Bulls basketball all year. And that said, just knowing this iteration of the team, what do you want to see you get accomplished in this last stretch of games before they close out the season? I mean, it's such a weird dynamic right now, right? Because I do see the big picture. The big picture is you probably want to lose games. You probably want to increase your lottery odds as much as possible. I also think the Bulls have a little bit more cushion to win a few here and there

because I don't know how much better your odds are going to be. You're not going to catch up to, you know, the worst five or six teams. You're probably not going to catch up to the worst six teams. in the NBA in terms of worst winning percentage to get the best lottery odds. I just don't think it's going to happen. The Bulls kind of committed to this

methodology. And if you want to call it soft-anking, I think that's the first phrase that come to mind. I don't necessarily call it that on the air. I don't know if that's necessarily the right thing to do. It's not respectful to what the players are actually trying to do because the players are not trying to

lose games, and that has been made very apparent by watching these games. when Colin Sexton's going off for 58 points in two games, and these guys are playing hard down the stretch against, you know, Phoenix to try to win a game. It's a weird dynamic, and I at the end of it all, you know, would love to be able to say, oh, the Bulls ended up with the best possible lottery odds that they can get. Maybe they have the, you know, seventh worst, eighth worst winning percentage in the NBA. It improved their opportunity to get one of these superstar, potential superstar players

coming out of the NBA draft, and that's all well and good, but it's not fun to sit there for 48 minutes of basketball, two and a half hours a night with all of you, and call it every time that they turn the ball over, do you really want us to cheer, so to speak, like when they turn the ball over for the 14th time that night? Like, that's not a fun way to go about this job. Like, when these guys are on the floor,

and they've made it fairly clear that Billy Donovan's trying to win games and the players on the floor are not trying to lose because they're, as we've talked, about ad nauseum. A lot of them are fighting for jobs. A lot of them are fighting for contracts. A lot of them are fighting to get experience. They're not going to try to lose games purposefully. So it's an interesting dynamic to sit there. And by the way, it's easier, I would say as a fan, because if you do want this team to lose games, all you have to do is not watch. You don't have to watch them try to lose or try to win. I've always made the joke,

like the difference between the only difference between fans and us, you know, Stacey and I, is that you guys can shut it off if you want to. You guys don't have to watch. You guys can say, all right, well, let's hope they lose this one and turn off the game and come back in the fourth quarter and look at the score or check on Twitter or check on your box score the next day. You guys can kind of turn it away and look back and hope that the results that you want are there.

For us, it's a little bit different. I don't want to sit there and watch. At least I don't want to sit there and call a game as if I'm happy that the Bulls are going to lose a game. I don't want to call it that way. It's just not fun. not in my nature. It's not in my blood to do that. But I think the best thing that we can do is try to contextualize what a loss does mean or what a win does mean. I always talk to our

production crew. We're in constant communication with our crew, and we always say, hey, let's have these graphics ready. The winning percentage is this. That means the lottery odds are this. So if they do lose the game, which is not a fun thing to necessarily call from the tip to the final buzzer, at least we can contextualize what that means. all right, well, bulls fall short in this one, but here's where they are in the lottery odds. Here's still what the opportunity is. Here's a silver lining that comes with guys struggling on the floor. Maybe they lose a game.

Here's a silver lining that comes with that. And again, my last thing would be games. You can't lose them all. You know, I think these guys work too hard. The players work too hard. And whether you disagree or agree with that philosophy, I do not have any argument against you for it. If you agree with it, fine. If you hate it, I can appreciate that.

But I think our job is to at least frame it the way that they want to frame it. If Billy Donovan had come out and said, we are trying to lose every game and they come out and win a game, then we can probably discuss that in a different fashion and say, well, it's not what the goal was here. But the fact is they've talked about wanting to win games. So my framework in calling it is to be excited when good things happen, quote, unquote, for the Bulls. And then we'll put it into context as best as we possibly can't. No, Adam, it's a great answer. and I know we're up against a commercial break,

but I do want to say this. I think there are times when we have to look at a team and there are times where we have to look at individuals. And similar to the guys who got opportunities when the NBA went through a bad COVID pandemic and seeing that people actually got caught onto teams and they actually created opportunities for themselves, I think about them at times like this as well.

How many people get to make money in opportunities like this or get to provide more for their families or get career satisfaction. And that often comes to my mind, too. Rahimi Harrison Grody. That sounds so crazy. 104.3, the score. Wow, I like that.

Middays 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. Strokes on the other way, back towards the wall. There it goes. Aaron Judge strikes first for TUSA. That is courtesy of Fox Sports. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, score. And it was a fun game last night

watching the World Baseball Classic. There were seven games in total. And that primetime game, USA versus Mexico and Houston at what is now Dakin Park. And it was a fantastic game to watch. Enjoyed it. Watched the entire thing. And

the atmosphere was absolutely electric. Team USA won, five to three. They are now undefeated. Three and O. Mexico falls to two and one. And Aaron Judge making a lot of things look easy. It wasn't just that home run that looked like it went straight up and then straight down. He also was able to throw runners out.

Makes it all look so easy because of so tall he is. And that outfield is small. And there's something about that ballpark that just always plays well for him. And we saw that last night. It was a very fun atmosphere. And a lot of guys doing things that I think you're used to seeing. With the judge's thing, he makes the, well, he made the field last night. anyway, looked like it was almost like a low league field.

I'm not saying like it was that out of proportion, but when he threw the runner out at third, I was like, wait, that looks like a, you know, a first baseman throwing the third base. He made it look so easy. He really does. And you can say that at any time. But Aaron Judge with the home run as well just made that look so easy. To have all of them together on Team USA, especially the play of Bobby Witt Jr., what he was doing at short,

knowing that he is going to be in the AL Central for a very long time. He has a decent fielding ability. I'll say that about him. Yes, I'm being sarcastic. He's amazing. You have to acknowledge there are players better in the division

than some of the whites. It's not hard for me to do that. I do that on an annual basis. Here's where I get hung up. I can't cheer for Bryce to rang. Nope. Can't do it. I know he's on Team USA.

I know. But he was a thorn in my side the entire season last year. You can't put differences aside? And I know, I'm like, yeah, I see why he's on the team. And frankly, the better second baseman is in Mesa right now and not at the world baseball classic, Nico Horner. But Team USA did have a fielding error. Bryce Terang did not play a flawless second base.

But that's not even it. I'm not even mad about that. What are you mad about? He's on the Brewers, and he was a thorn in my side the entire year last year. So he's at the plate, and I'm like, I know you're on Team USA. I know. And I cheer for Team USA. You also cheer for the players you like.

I grew up watching Benji Gill. But then here I am watching this. I'm like, ah. Here's my question. Bryce terrain, Brewers. This is an honest question, Lila. What are you doing there? If football had the...

Brice Turing batting dyes, just like he did. If football had the equivalent of a world football classic, right? And Team USA had Michael Parsons on it. You wouldn't be mad if Michael Parsons was wrecking up sacks, right? Well, no, but that's different for me. Bryce Tarrang was a notable thorn in the side. He himself of the Cubs. And like even Andrew Vaughn, at least he was a White Sox.

There's no, there's no getting around the Bryce Terang factor. So Bryce Terang will forever be on Layla's no-go list. No, I'm saying right now, watching the World Baseball Classic, I find it frustrating to cheer for Bryce Terang. My thing is he's going to be right back on the Brewers. Like I have no problem cheering for Kyle Schwarver. Cal Raleigh, how did you not love his chase for the home run record last year? What did you think about the non-handshake with his teammate?

Junior Cominero, and they faced off and he tried to shake his hand at home plate. I mean, is that business? Isn't that little too businessy? Perhaps. I enjoyed watching Alejandro Kirk run the bases like I would with about the same speed. I loved that he and Rowdy Tellez were the four or five combo.

I can't do the terrain thing, man. I can't get into it. I know, I know. He's on Team USA. What happened to? the patriotism and all of that. I'm not cheering for a hit by pitch. I don't think that that is nice.

But can he just like sit there or something? He did just sit, well. A little too much at second base yesterday. Yeah, that's what I say. I think you're grieving in some way, but... No, I just can't, I just can't cheer for Bryce Turing right now. Team USA minus Bryce Tarrang. And it's not because it was playing in the field yesterday.

It's because it was play for the brewers. How many times was he a thorn in the side, Ray? How many? Too many times. Doesn't he get the P-I-T-A award? Oh, absolutely. The Pain and the Butt Award, if you will? Yes, 100%.

I just can't switch gears that quickly and be like, oh, okay, you've had a whole off-season. I feel the same way. Do you think I cared about Bryce Terrain during that off-season? I don't know. I'm questioning it now. No. Why would I have paid attention?

Once the Milwaukee Brewers got swept out of the playoffs. That's my point. Like, they got swept out of the playoffs. The Dodgers don't count in this. They're in a completely different league. They're on the Neptune baseball league. You just said you stopped caring when they got swept out of the playoffs by said Dodgers. Right, because I stopped having to think about them.

And then Bryce Turing is back. And I'm like, I can't cheer for this dude. You just don't know you're grieving yet. Yeah. No, grieving. Grieving is like not watching baseball for months after the 2011 World Series. This isn't that. No, I'm not saying you're even seeing...

This is just me being annoyed because he's on a team I would typically cheer for. You're going to be annoyed when he's playing for the Brewers being a P-I-T-A again. That's the point, which is why I'm not cheering for him now.

Okay. I just can't do it. Can't do it. Coming up next here on Rahimi Harris and Grotie, we brought up the injustice meter. But it's really the once again, the NFL has no consistency meter because they can't make it make sense.

So we're going to talk about the lack of compensatory picks for Ian cutting his promotion next. This is Rahimi Harrison Grosy on 104-3, The Score on this Tuesday, and yesterday the NFL announced that it gave out 33 compensatory picks to 15 teams. The Bears were not one of them. The Baltimore Ravens got four.

the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers also got four. 49ers got three cowboys, Broncos, lions, colts, raiders, rams, all got two apiece along with the Jets. And then the Packers, Chiefs, Vikings, and Saints all got one. And these don't get taken from anybody. They're extra picks that are added to the draft. And it goes back to us finally finding out once and for all that despite Ian Cunningham,

leaving as the assistant general manager here and being promoted to a position higher than that in Atlanta, where he is now working with Matt Ryan and the Falcons. The NFL in its eyes did not see Ian Cunningham getting a promotion, even though as a black man who was in a front office in the NFL, they didn't think he did enough and the Falcons didn't do enough. even though by definition he's doing more there to warrant the title of promotion

because Matt Ryan, who needs help learning how to run a football team, is titled above him. Matt Ryan described him this sounds like he's his intern or something. That's the crazy part about all this. He basically says, I don't know how to run an NFL team. And credit to Matt Ryan for saying that

because a lot of people in his position wouldn't. So listen to what Matt Ryan says, when it comes to how he defines this. The difference is I'm not doing the scouting. I'm not, you know, doing, running those meetings. Our general manager would do that. The general manager role is going to be exactly the same as what it's been here before.

And that's something we've made clear to everybody on the coaching side that we've met with up until this point. And we'll make clear, you know, through that process to the general managers that we're going to look at in that process as well. Terrence, there are anybody in either of those positions, I mean, they're not going to want to compromise the best people, which is the only people we're talking to. They will have no interest in compromising their job and be less of who they could be and should be in their role. And Matt has no desire to maximize his role with them to overstep his role. that was Arthur Blink, the Falcons owner, also describing what is inherent here.

And we've talked about this a lot with Mike Floreo. There's the concept of the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. And when nobody else is paying, what is it to the NFL to a team and two teams in the Bears and the Falcons both acknowledging the spirit of the law and respecting it in understanding that Ian Cunningham didn't just move to Atlanta for the Magic City hoodie. Again, that would be a wonderful reason to move there. It would be, but that's not what happened here. He didn't just move there for kicks. He didn't just leave a good position with the Bears,

which he has had many chances to be able to try to do so. He did this because he got a promotion. The action alone would indicate he got a promotion. He talked about how, he got a promotion at the combine. I haven't had much time to really dive into like the wording of it. It was always my interpretation that if general manager gets hired, that team would receive two third round picks.

I'm a general manager. I was hired. I would think that they would get two third round picks. I don't know the wording of it. That's just my perspective. again, I wouldn't be sitting here if it weren't for them giving me that job and helping me grow to get this job right now. So he doesn't know why the Bears wouldn't be receiving compensatory picks. And then add to that a feeling that I'm pretty sure you know all too well, Marshall,

and many of us listening know all too well, which is Ryan Poles having to explain himself regarding a law that all. ready was on the books. I think it is a little strange. I mean, at the end of the day, you should want to develop your staff, regardless of the color of their skin. I think that's important. I think we take a lot of pride with the bears

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

then that's what they wanted to do. But at the end of the day, like I said, that's not the purpose of why we develop our staff. But if that's the rule they have been placed, then I think it's very clear in the situation on what should happen. But we'll see what they think. Congratulations to Ryan Poles for standing up for himself in a public platform at the combine

where all of the NFL and its fans are watching. And between him, between Matt Ryan, between Ian Cunningham, and between Arthur Blank, I don't know how more plainly it could have been spelled out that the Bears deserve the picks based on the fact that, as you said, Leila, the spirit of the law, Ian Cunningham got a promotion. He got a raise. He left the Bears for a bigger title and bigger duties in Atlanta. Everyone agrees on it. It would be one thing if Arthur Blank or Matt Ryan had said, oh, well, you know, Ian's going to be the one driving this portion of it.

No, no, no, no. Ian's in charge. He reports to Matt Ryan because everybody's got a boss. But Ian is in charge. And so that's why it just feels like the NFL, and they've always had a hardline stance on anything. You know, there's a reason we call it the not-for-fun league. You know, the no-fund league, NFL.

That's what it stands for. No fun league. They're just for no reason fumbling the ball on this. So use one of their terms. I can't imagine what it's like going through the world as a black men or a black woman every day

having to justify your work. Oh, you're just used to that. That comes with the territory. But why do I feel like that's what's happening here? Which, if that is the case, makes it discriminatory and kind of proves the point as to why this is in place to begin with. I don't even know if I look at it through that specific lens. This is just more of the NFL being jerks because the NFL can be jerks in this instance, this case.

But why? Because why not? You know what? Because they can't. It's like when you were a kid and you wanted to do something and you were like, this should be cool. and you're like, hey, mom, I want to do this or hey, dad. And you'd be like, no. And you know what the answer is for way too many times, way too many times.

The answer is because I said so. The NFL is because I said so in a major way. That's all I can really lean on here. I understand they have a technical reason why. And sometimes technicalities, they stop us from making progress. And in my eyes, that's what this is. I think this is a choice they are making. And the Tony Morrison quote about one more thing lives rent-free in my head.

And why do I feel like this is one more thing? If you don't know it, I'm going to read it. The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining over and over again your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend 20 years proving that you do. somebody says your head isn't shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is somebody says you have no art so you dredge that up somebody says you have no kingdom so you dredge

that up none of this is necessary there will always be one more thing and this this feels like one more thing this definitely would fall under the one more thing because if it wasn't this it might be something else and that's just kind of the way you operate. And the whole point, as you mentioned, Lila, is distraction. Because what happens with distraction and what happens with mental capacity and the energy that you have to expend on things that shouldn't even matter, that takes away from the energy you should be expending on things that, you know, do matter. And that's what this seems like.

Since the jump, since we learned, oh, yeah, they're not going to get the compensatory picks because, well, Matt Ryan is the ultimate football. in that building. And I'm like, is he though? Because the sound he played, we played it earlier and five on it. It doesn't sound like, I mean, he'll tell you I'm not the man. I'm the man in charge, but I'm not the man in charge. I'm doing what I'm being told by the person technically underneath me because I don't know what I'm doing. It is the NFL's decision and there's a loan to legislate a law that they put in place that in its spirit is being exercised. exercised. And Ryan Poles said it. He shouldn't have had to say it. He shouldn't have had to say that he was happy to promote Ian Cunningham and give him the same opportunities that he was afforded, not because of some reward like that on paper, but because of the reward of the organization benefit and the benefit to his colleague Ian Cunningham, who we know for many years interviewed with many jobs, he earned that spot.

So why did the NFL decide to move the goalpost? One more thing. Because they can. And the thing I want to point out is because people are like, oh, well, maybe the Bears will get a compensatory pick. Maybe they'll change their mind. At no point, once the original story came out that they weren't getting the picks, did I think that it could be appealed that the NFL would change their mind?

Have you met the NFL? Have you seen, like, I don't know, the movie concussion? Like, you have to go through the track. record of what the NFL is about. What they're about is not apologizing for anything. They're about just this is the way we want to do it. No apologies. No room for compromise.

That is the NFL way. You want to celebrate after a touchdown? Well, here's the list of things we don't want you to do to celebrate a touchdown. We'll tell you when to have your cause and when to have your cleats. Oh, all of that. We'll tell you when it's targeting. We'll tell you when it's taunting. Who's on the competition?

committee. We'll tell you when it's roughing the passer. We'll have part-time referees determine these things because they're paid for their hours, not their expertise. All of this falls under line. We'll tell you which minority candidates earned their jobs.

It's the NFL way. So I'm frankly shocked that any of you are surprised by how this went down. If you have an understanding of how the NFL works, you should not be shocked. You should not be surprised. You should understand that the NFL is an unforgiving corporation.

And it's a business. And they really don't even have time to care about what you think is right or wrong or morally sound or ethical versus unethical. That's not how the NFL operates. Never has. And I can't see a future in which it will. And to everybody saying, okay, maybe this is why. Maybe this is why people are trying to figure it out on the text line.

That's the point. Just keep in mind, 33 compensatory picks were awarded to half the league. This is as subjective as it sounds. And it's being shown to you in a very obvious way. So I ask you, why were the bears different from the half of the league when it came to getting compensatory picks?

Or is this again just one more thing? Definitely falls into the category of that, at least from my purview. the knowledge that we have on this subject. And I appreciate the people trying to brainstorm and find out what else could it be. And I'm here to tell you it is what it is. And for the people who keep asking, too, thank you for doing that. You know why?

You're being diligent. You're being diligent toward a cause that matters to you. And in doing so, you're being an advocate. And that always matters. So don't go back on that either. And then you take that same energy and you use it for other causes where you can also be an advocate because it feels good. I just, again, I refuse to give in to the distraction.

I accept it as this is the way it is and keep it moving. There are certain things you can change. This ain't one of them. This is a lost cause by every way I can look at it and try to delve it out and see, okay, well maybe if we look at it from this angle. I've already done all the exercise that people are continuing to do. And I did that before this idea that they, oh, maybe they'll appeal it or maybe they'll get one pick instead of two picks. Nah, nah, nah, nah.

Radical acceptance. No, no, no, no. Marshall doesn't want to admit it, but he's very good at radical acceptance. No. And I'm not sure why, because it's like a very good quality to have. Okay, listen, listen, listen, listen. some things are out of your control, correct? So once you understand that some things are out of your control,

you work hard at the things that you actually can control, such as attitude and effort. Those two things you'll always have control of. And maybe that's part of what you're saying, is that my attitude towards it doesn't mean I have to like it, but I will say when I accept something, it just is me mentally saying there's nothing I, in my current position, state, whatever you want to call it, can do about this decision that was made that I have no influence on it.

Things I can control, by the way, I could control whether I get my ass up and go and vote when the polls are open. I can control whether or not I give direct feedback when I see something happening in front of me that is wrong, I can control a lot of things. But this is one of those things that the bears ultimately know, by the way. Ryan Poles knows this. Ian Cunningham also knows this. Arthur Blank, you know he knows this.

Some things they can't control. And Arthur Blank has more power than anyone in this type of his situation because, you know, the commissioner works for him. But it would take Arthur Blank getting a bunch of. bunch of his fellow owners together to do something about this. And Arthur Blank, why would he be moved to do that? It's not that serious for him. But that's what it takes. Yeah, that's what it would take to change something like this. You're correct. And I think it's always because I admire how you teach and find the function and dysfunctioning things. Like your your ability to move through it is

always something I've admired about you. Keep moving. It doesn't mean that I can't be frustrated when it comes up. And I think there's a lot of people who today understand a part of that frustration. A whole city, a whole fan base is frustrated because by the numbers

it doesn't make as much sense as it should. And that's a bottom line thing. Feels like one more thing. That's Marshall Harris. I'm Laila Rahimi. Coming up next here on Rahimi, Harris, and Grody, we shift gears a little bit

and get back to another discussion that needs to happen. There's somebody who wants to play here and you know him. So let's hear what he has to say about his hopes for playing here. Next. Rahimi Harrison Grody. I'm not a fan of any team.

I'm just a fan of being right. Midday's 10 to 2 on 104 3, the score. Stoutfield, looking for Austin, picked up by Kobe Bryant. Number eight picks off, number eight. And down across the 45-yard line. Second pick thrown by Rogers today and Kobe Bryant, who had three of them last season. That is courtesy of. Fox. That's Kobe Bryant

picking off Aaron Rogers, and we have some breaking guest news. Friend of the show, Dave Wyman is joining us. He is co-host of Seattle Sports Wyman and Bob, and he is always great when it comes to Seattle Seahawks information, and I would

love to recreate the defense myself from scratch, but I can't. So Dave is joining us on our hotline. Dave, thanks so much for calling in. Thanks. I've never been breaking news. So, yeah. Thanks. I appreciate you describing me that way. That's cool. Yeah, our producer Ray said that you were available for a few minutes because you're also at Mariners Camp.

And Dave is also the color commentator for the broadcast for the Seahawks Radio Network. So thanks for joining us. Yep. Yeah, no problem. I'm just trying to avoid getting hit by a foul ball and not getting sunburned down here, you know, rough life. Yeah. But, yeah, you know, I kind of pissed that you guys signed our guy, Kobe Bryant, man. loved that guy. Really a good player and a good guy. But yeah, I mean, it'll be a great acquisition

for you guys. What is it that you love the most about Kobe Bryant's game? Because we've kind of scouted him now as a guy who can obviously cover because he started as a corner and then worked his way to being a safety. And it kind of has that hybrid look that a lot of defensive coordinators kind of lick their lips

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

But I'm thinking what they thought is we got Julian Love, who, to me, Devin Witherspoon, is like a high standard. of any defensive player in the NFL. And I think that Julian Love is like just a notch below that. And then they got this kid, Nicky, Monoury, who they traded up to get in the second round, who was an incredibly versatile safety. So that's why I'm thinking, you know, maybe Kobe Bryant wasn't a priority to sign back.

But man, what a great player. And, yeah, like I said, he can play inside, outside, in the box. He's physical, just a really smart kid. a great kid and just, yeah, a really good football player. Well, we knew you'd be one of the people to talk to when it just came to figuring out what the bears are getting. What can you say about his versatility? Because the bears, that's just 25 percent, Kobe, of the available safety spots

they had. We're still looking for them to fill three others. So what can you say about his versatility when it comes to how you see him playing for a bear's defense in Dennis Allen? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, he's one. One of those guys that I think it's kind of a waste, and I've said this about him, it's kind of a waste to put him out at corner, just because I love seeing him inside, because he's so physical.

And he's not the biggest guy in the world, but, you know, he just, he throws everything he has in there. So, yeah, also, I love him, by the way, for the one pick six he had, or I don't know if it's a fumbler pick, but he scored a touchdown, and he did the Marshawn Lynch as he jumped backwards over the, you know, over the goal line, grabbing a certain body part. So anyway, yeah, that part, that was awesome. Love that. But, yeah, he is just, I mean, just can play all over the field.

And like I said, you know, everything from corner to safety to middle safety, he's got it all. So, and like I said, I just, I think the only reason, you know, what does it say about him, the Seahawks not keeping him, just because of the two guys that they have in there already. and then, you know, maybe they have plans for either a free agent or Ty Okada, who filled in really nicely at safety when we had injuries. Yeah, I think, Dave, you bring up an excellent point.

We've talked a lot about that, just the danger of drafting and acquiring too well. And I feel like the Seahawks, especially when you consider how they've drafted in the first round the past few years, you know, you consider the coaching that has happened and the talent acquisition and evaluation. They've done an excellent job when it came to all of that. The Super Bowl is the obvious result here, but it ends up happening like this where quality people get squeezed out just because of everybody good on the field. Yeah, that's a great way to put it. That's kind of the cost of doing business when you have a, you know, GM of the year, John Schneider.

He has just been killing it with the draft choice. It's kind of funny, you know, there was a lull when John got hired here in 2010. Really, the guy that hired him was Pete. Well, now John is in charge and John hired Mike McDonald. So I think in the beginning, it just seemed like Pete was taking a lot of John's advice in the very beginning. Starting in 2010, they got Earl Thomas. They got Richard Sherman in the fifth round. They got K.J. Wright in the fourth round.

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

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

quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, but now it's like, yeah, you do need a quarterback, but defense seems to be ruined the day the last couple of Super Bowls and playoff runs. What do you think about this shift? And we believe we have the quarterback and the coach here, but now trying to work on this defense in Chicago. Yeah, no, I think it's always been that way, but that's coming from an old middle lineback. you know so um but yeah i mean i think having a better defensive team than a better offensive team and that's kind of where you know the battle goes on in our division with you know you got a defensive minded coach and mike macdonald going up against kyle shanahan and sean macbay

which by the way i i think the top three teams in the nfl are in the nancy west i mean the the niners made the playoffs with a backup quarterback and you know, Mack Jones for a lot of the year. And then a bunch of their guys banged up, including Fred Warner and Bosa. So, yeah, it's tough. But I think just defense has the advantage how to shut people down. And their D-line is just phenomenal. So, yeah, I think that that's always been the case.

But, yeah, I mean, I think it's a copycat league, right? Everybody is always trying to draft and trying to get the next, you know, Byron Murphy or, you know, Big Cat Williams. I mean, those are the kinds of Ernest Jones, the inside backer. Everybody's going to be trying to find those kinds of guys. So it's going to make a little bit tougher for the Seahawks, obviously, but, you know, they're going to have to retain their players, which we didn't with Kobe Bryant.

But, yeah, I think it's going to get a little bit tougher for the rest of the for the Seahawks, you know, with the rest of the league kind of figuring out what they did defensively. Well, I thought that that was a great comp when you bring up Big Cat Williams because he was on our air earlier this week, Dave. So that's a nice Bears reference there just to bring him into this. But I want to get back to just the idea of it being a Copycat League. Yes, yes, it is.

You can try to emulate what the Seahawks were able to do defensively. And I'm very glad that Kobe Bryant is now on the Bears. But it really started with that line and guys just simply also out-athleting people. You know, when you think about the actual raw talent that also was paired with defensive scheme. It may be something you'd like to copy, but the execution was incredible, especially in the last, I'd say, two games of the playoffs. Yeah, yeah, it was, they were just smothering. And, you know, here's one thing that I think Mike McDonald probably doesn't get, isn't known for this as much as that, you know, and it's the kind of like emotional side of like,

these guys, and I asked Leonard Williams this, I go, do you think there are other teams that are like this because they have like this sort of high school almost camaraderie where they're actually trying to play for their teammates. And I'm like, you got these guys that are the best athletes in the world and they're, you know, fighting for and scrapping for millions and millions of dollars and you're getting them to play for each other. That's the one thing. And I'm wondering if some of that will come through with Kobe Bryant having been here. But that was the one thing that was kind of remarkable. And I know it sounds incredibly corny. But, like to a man, these guys were saying,

no, man, you know, we all care about each other. And we all, you know, want to, we like playing together. We like being with each other. We like, you know, playing for the other guy. On the morning of the Super Bowl, I was watching the D-line, and they have the same group. They play a card game called Boo-ray. And so, and that's, you know, I used to clean up on Boo-ray when I was a player in the NFL.

Now I can't even remember what the rules are. But anyway, they play these, they play this game. And on Super Bowl Sunday morning, I was sitting at a table for breakfast, like before the game, pregame meal with a bunch of, like, media people and people like me that cover the game. And we were all like super uptight and nervous. And we look over there, and there's the D-Line. And they're over there playing B-ray, like they do every single week. Every day before a game, on Sunday, they're playing Bure. And that's what they were doing.

And they were joking around and laughing with each other and everything. And yeah, that bond, that kind of camaraderie is just amazing. And that's one of the things that Mike McDonald is an expert at. And he got these guys in, you know, in that mode playing for one another. Well, this is always a fun conversation, Dave. We appreciate you taking the time. I know you've got to get back to watching a very good Mariners team now. It's a tough life.

You're leading these days. I know. It's tough being a Seattle fan, right? I mean, we were eight hours away from the World Series. And then we go and win a Super Bowl championship. We're trying to stay humble here, guys. Next thing you know, the Sonics will be back. Yeah.

That's what, you know what? People are still, and I don't get it. I don't get the NBA. Like, it's a proven commodity. The fans here in NFL, I'm sorry, and the NBA will go back and fill that stadium up. I think that that's a good a declaration as any, and I hope it happens. As usual, we love talking to you, Dave. Thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks, Dave. All right. Thanks for having me on, guys. Thank you. That is Dave Wyman. Color commentator for the game broadcast on the Seahawks Radio Network. He's also over at Mariner's Camp. And Dave was a second round Seahawks draft pick in 1987.

Certainly made the most of his career, both during his playing days lasting nine years in the NFL, but also as quite the gig for himself. I mean, he's hosting a radio show. He's hanging out with the Mariners. He's living a good thing. good life. Seattle Sports Wyman and Bob is where you can hear Dave. And in the meantime, next Thursday, you can

join me. I will be at Old Crow Smokehouse in Wrigleyville on March 19th next Thursday for the finals of Bud Light's official mini-hoops mania. Hang out with Bud Light and the score as one winner heads to Vegas for a chance at $10,000.

That is right. $10,000. I don't know how to put this next. Jerry Jones is trying to make explanations for things that I don't think he should be trying to explain for. And it goes about as well as you'd imagine. Next. We are the best show in this town to have the coach and or quarterback sit right here. Because we're here for a good time.

We are here for a good time. We're fun. We're funny. We're serious sometimes. Sometimes we cry. Sometimes we laugh. Like this is perfect. If you wanted a high chance of a drink spilled all over the studio, we are definitely repeating. Middays 10 to 2.

Maybe we're the show for you. On 104 3, the score. You have got to be smoking something over there this morning. Okay, that is the voice of Jerry Jones. And before we get to that, the department of he made how much money? Goodbye, Romeo Dobbs. Farewell. Farewell out of the NFC North.

Farewell out of the conference. He is reportedly going to the Packers. We should do this with, or going to the Packers. He's going to the Patriots. We should do this with anybody in the division who we want to see leave. And Romeo Dobbs, for me, has been one of them since 2022 or so. But here's where it gets spicy. He's getting paid for your contract.

$70 million. Can I get some context to that? His career high in receiving yards is 724. But can I get some context to that? Dobs finished with the 19th most receiving EPA plus 27.6. Oh, Ben Johnson's favorite stat. And tied for the second most touchdowns from isolated assignment, or excuse me, isolated alignment for among wide receivers.

Isolated assignment was beating the bears. Well, yeah, he beat the bears several times. Several times. But yeah, so he's making the most out of a, a career year for him. First and yards. He got paid, yeah, 724 yards last season, as we mentioned, six touchdowns. A year before that, 601 to go with four TDs, 674 in 20203.

That's when he really started to bother me as a person, eight touchdowns. But Romeo Dobbs, who usually would have some sort of decent performance against the Bears, he gone. And that's a good thing. That's a positive. That is a good thing. just don't replace it. Just go ahead.

Play the rest of the football without him. It'll be fine. I don't think they're going to listen to me. Probably not. I don't want to burst a bubble. But since you said probably not, then yeah, they're not going to listen to you, Leila. How about some Jerry Jones logic?

The Cowboys are bringing back defensive end Sam Williams. That is a reported one-year $3 million deal per the NFL network. Sam Williams got arrested twice for speeding. Jerry Jones brought this logical thought to the table. Last year he drives 100 miles an hour and has a wreck, you know, and this, I mean, how do you conjugate all that? How do you balance those things? Well, first of all, I'm saying that he is, which is more often the case than not, this sounds a little hollow, but he does and is maturing. and he is.

What was he going, 66? Was he going 66 miles an hour? Last year? No, this year. So he's 34 miles an hour less than this year than he was last year. 9866. So that's improvement. It is marked improvement.

You know what? I'm with Jerry Jones on this. Y'all are out here making fun of girl math. Maturing. I was just maturing. I was just waiting for him to say, stage him. Where are the bears going to put their new stage him? But isn't that a positive?

He cut 32 miles per hour off. This is a general manager of a football team. Can you imagine if the GM of the Bears said anything like that? Also, I feel like if I got busted for, was it 96 and a 45? Is that what the? 98. 98 and 45. And then the second time it was 66.

If I cut 32 miles per hour off between speeding and fractions, I think I should be celebrated. I should be punished, but I should also be, okay, well, you're not that extreme. Because you can go down a downhill straight away and lose track of how fast you're going when you're younger. Like now I just put it on cruise control and I'm doing the speed limit because I'm an old fuddy dutty. Yeah, I just said fuddy dutty on the air. No, I'm with you on that. Like, what's the rush? 815 wants me to do an impression of Jerry.

there's not one. I can't do that. I leave that up to the pros. But stay gym is definitely part of it. My ex-girlfriend used to get mad. I'll get my left arm to win the Super Bowl again. Jerry, how about you just get to the NFC championship again for the first time in 30 years? No, that's logic that you should not put on, Jerry.

Oh, 6-3-0 is right. The Bears are going to play the Patriots. But only one time. Only one time. True that. And then don't have to see them again for another, what, four years? And that is, unless. 815 has a question.

How about Miles Garrett? Oh, yeah. Let's go over the, that funny you should ask, because Ray printed out the Miles Garrett speeding infractions and sent them to us. So last week, he was clock going 94 miles in a 70 mile in Arizona on the interstate in northeast Ohio. That was his ninth speeding ticket since entering the league in 2017. Your son was absent nine times. I like that this is once a year.

It's kind of an annual tradition for Miles Garrett. So that's improvement. We're definitely going to be running all of that drop. I only spent $15 on something I didn't need today. So that's improvement. I'm maturing. I heard it's not going to snow today. 45. He's maturing.

Maturing. Okay. Just because I can do John Fox doesn't mean I can do the Jerry Jones impersonation. It all sounded like. That's all a problem. It's definitely more throaty with the John Fox. That's why it's easy. You don't need to have a particular vocal pitch. It does it have to be able to strain your vocal cords. Program. Oh, I forgot about program.

Yeah. It's all a problem. I did. I did totally forget about the Patriots playing the Bears. this year. Because the last time the Patriots played the Bears, it was one of the most frustrating things I had ever seen. What happened then? That was your least favorite game, your least favorite Bears game. Were they lost even though there was no reason that they should have?

I was even here. And guess what? Neither were the Bears. I was in Las Vegas when that happened. Why were you in Vegas? Why was I in Vegas? I was hanging out with a friend? Buzzkill.

I didn't need to kill your buzz. Jerry, is this how you evaluate players? Maturing. Well, it was 40 times last year was this, and then his four times this year is this. So he's gotten faster, he's a better player, he's maturing. So that's improvement. Yeah, I mean, listen.

The bears have more cap space now than they did a couple of days ago. So that's improvement. Yeah. The Jerry Logger. Yes, we can figure this out. Just keep Jerry away from the Bear Stadium conversations, please. Are you kidding? Jerry would have done the deal already.

That's true. Jerry decided to get municipalities to pitch to him before he bought the land that he didn't even have to buy. But the Sun situation would be all messed up. That's fair. I'm going to think I can outpower the Sun. We'll have our stadium face north-south anyway. Why?

Why? Why did you? Dak Prescott's like, well, I can't see when throwing the ball. Well, I'm more powerful than the earth. Like, Jerry, I get it just because you've made billions of dollars in oil, natural gas, slash what they call energy now. That doesn't mean that the sun doesn't exist to you. Caddaboy.

Somebody hit me with a great googly-mugly to a non on the text line. Just keep in mind, the bears are closer to an NFC championship game than the Cowboys have been in 30 years. Keep that in mind. So that's improvement. Thank you.