Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Herb Howard talks Ben Johnson's demeanor regarding Kyler Gordon's injury

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote were joined by Herb Howard of The Bigs to share a Bears Report, with a focus on head coach Ben Johnson’s feelings about cornerback Kyler Gordon’s injury situation.

Bears beat reporter for the Biggs. Herb Howard is joining us. Herb Howard is here from the Biggs. Herb joins us in studio right now. And, and Marshall, he smells great. And that, to me, that is bonus points. Herb immediately showed he was going to be somebody asking meaningful questions. He's going to ask a question that everyone else in the room is going to want to know the answer to.

Breckney, have ever had a fight? Had a fight? You ever have one? Yes. Yes, I have. Well, thank you so much, Herb, for joining us. This has been a lot of fun. It's always fun with you guys.

you are absolutely amazing. I listen to you guys when you don't invite me. So it's really good. We'll see you in here tomorrow, buddy. Yeah, and you're live in studio. Can't wait. I'm looking forward to it. Brody can talk about how good you smell. That's what he's obsessed with. I'll make sure I'm ready for you, Grody. With Rahimi Harrison Grody. Get a talk of this guy. He smells great. I'm telling you. On 1043, the score.

I mean, what's better than that? Bears knowledge and you smell good? Is there anything better? I mean, I hate to say this, and I didn't say because I didn't want to hurt Herb's feelings, but I don't if you guys notice it, but Russ smelled really good in the studio yesterday, too. Russ did smell good. Yeah, yeah. And so did Justin Turner's wife, Courtney. Oh, she smelled expensive. Yeah. Yeah. We've had a lot

good smelling people at our station. She smelled a luxury. She smelled luxurious. I will give her that. Yeah, everybody, shout out to your perfumes and colognes, nicely done. And just deodorant. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I just wear bare glove. That's my body chemistry.

I went with degree today. I'm sorry. So all of that said, let's go live to Hallis Hall and check in with Herb Howard, Bears Reporter for the Biggs Media. Follow the Biggs Media on YouTube for the latest from Herb. He joins us via our hotline. Herb, how's it going out there? I am good.

I am good. How are you guys doing with it? I mean, we're good. I think I made this joke earlier. We played the Ben Johnson back and forth with the media yesterday about Kyler Gordon. And even on the fourth, listen, it didn't sound any less. tense. What did you think? Herb, you there?

Oh, no. The next time one of us asks coach about Caligorninagia. I think we're having trouble with Herb, aren't we? We've stumped Herb. We were playing a little game. Stump Herb. It seems like we're having a little bit of trouble with the connection from Hallis Hall. So we'll try to get him back on the line and figure that out. But, yeah, again, when I listened to what Ben Johnson had to say, guys, yesterday,

poor Herb just, I think he was also in that. Media Corps that had to deal with a very curt Ben Johnson on Kyla Gordon. I think her's welcome. Her's back. Herb Howard, you back, my man? Yeah, I'm back. I'm sorry. The Bears are moving out right now.

Like, they're currently on their way to get ready for practice, but everybody else is moving their stuff to the buses to get ready to fly to Cincinnati. I think they're taking the Wi-Fi with them. But I am, no, I was certainly there, Lela, and I think the next time one of us asked Coach Johnson about Kyler Gordon, we're going to get cursed out. He's clearly sick of the conversation. We talked to D.A. about it today. He was not quite as dismissible about it as coach, but he's clearly sick of it, too.

He says, I just don't have time to worry about the Kyle of Gordon situation. I've got to get guys like Malik Haimono, whomever, ready to play that nickel spot. And so I think they all understand how talented he is. They're certainly frustrated with the process, and they're tired of answering questions about it. Herb, what's your understanding of where they are with that nickel spot now with guys being down? And we have a preseason take that we can look at now to see. what Dennis Allen thinks of the situation. Yeah, I think they're just trying to find solutions for it right now.

They obviously invested a fourth-round pick and Malik Mohamed, and I think they've been impressed with him and why I believe that because they continue to put more responsibility on his plate. So he's out, he's playing outside corner. He's playing inside a nickel. We saw that in the preseason game, week one, where he was playing outside and then moving into nickel in the sub package, and he's doing that here at camp.

Right now, he's running with the ones at the nickel position. He's performed better there than, we've seen from veteran like Josh Blackwell, and then you also have Cam Lewis, who's in that conversation, but he's been forced to play so much safety with the turnover that they had there. So right now, if I had to guess, I would say that Malik Muhammad is the guy that you see that will probably be out there with them if they had to play a regular season game right now today. So I don't know if that's a byproduct of how well he has performed or just necessity

because they have to have some guys out there. I asked the end just a few minutes ago in his press conference. Yesterday they had a dime package in the game. where there was Dylan Thineman and Jalen Johnson, and then respectfully to those guys, they have four other guys who were not intended to be front-line players for them. And I was like, I understand this next man up

and you're not going to make excuses about it. But at some point, it has to become difficult to field a unit out there. And he acknowledged that. But he says, listen, we got to create opportunities for guys. He referenced the fact that they had a similar situation. There he goes. Yeah, they took the, I know, we know the chaos.

Like, the bears, they use the media room as TSA as they get ready to head out to Cincinnati. And that's where I was going to go with Herb next is, man, these joint practices, every single year in the NFL in general, seem to become way more important. And we've seen it with the Bears. We saw it with the Bears last year when Miami was here. What a physical practice that was.

And some of the players taking exception to it. Yeah, that was the first red flag. the things were going to go south in Miami that season actually. Great point. They have a new GM and head coach after that. And this joint practice in Cincinnati is going to tell some truths because Press Taylor was up there

telling everybody that as it pertains to the left tackle battle, they're going to test these guys. They're going to let them play on an island. They're going to let them go one-on-one and see if they can handle the edge rushers without any help. That's not the way it's going to happen during games, obviously, but they are going to see that.

the operation with Caleb Williams. It hasn't been ruled out that he won't play in the preseason game. It all depends again on joint practices and whether or not they can perform and thrive in these. Okay, so I think we got Herb back. Do you want to rephrase your – for Herb, you were mid-thought there. Do you want to rephrase what you were saying? Yeah, no, I was just saying I also, you know, in terms of what's going on the nickel spot, and obviously having Malik Mohamed taking the majority of those snaps,

yesterday they had a dime package in yesterday and Dylan Phenheim and Zelen Johnson were the two guys out there and with all due respect to those other guys the other four guys in the dime package were not intended to be front-line guys and I was asking the DA like I know he's not going to make excuses for it and it's next man up

but at some point it becomes tough to just field a unit he ignores that difficulty but he also said it creates opportunity similar to the situation that they had last year when injuries created an opportunity for Nishon Wright he referenced and he went out there and performed well so maybe they're hoping for that, but I think it would be much, much better if they were able to somehow get at least

the majority of their front line guys back and got obviously Kyler and Kobe out right now, but Tyreeks has been out for several days now at this point as well. Yeah, yeah, that scared me a little bit too, that Josh Blackwell was playing on the outside with Tyreeks Stevenson. I hope that obviously Ben didn't talk today, so I assume that there's no update on that. But, Herb, quickly, your thoughts on these joint practices because it feels like the bears are putting more stock into these joint practices than anything that they've done going back to the offseason program or even here.

you're in training camp. Yeah, I think Coach Johnson values the ability to be able to control certain situations. I think he also values the opportunity to go against another team without necessarily putting Caleb at risk. Talk about him wanting to evaluate those left targets like you were just saying, giving an opportunity to see those guys one-on-one against other past rushers, not necessarily giving them help because even if they get beat like they stole something, Caleb isn't going to get hit.

So I think they want an opportunity to be able to evaluate those guys. And then you flip back over to that secondary, like we were just talking about. They're very banged up right now. they're not going to get a much better test and the opportunity to go against Jamar Chase and T. Higgins with Joe Burrow in that offense. So you want to see what Jaylen Johnson is able to do. I asked the A. about that

today. He hasn't really seen Jaylen Johnson at full strength playing at his best football before coming into this training camp. And so I'm sure he's able to see what that looks like putting him in man coverage against Jamar Chase, T. Higgan and seeing how he can hold up because he wants to know, hey, can I play Zailin Johnson and man? And then what does that allow

me to do with the rest of my defense if I'm secure that Jaylen Johnson lock down their top receiver or this side of the field. Herb, thank you so much. Sorry, the Wi-Fi is spotty from Hallis Hall. We will talk to you soon for sure. Sorry about that, guys. My pleasure.

Thank you, Herb. Not your fault. It's not your fault, Herb. Football fans join Dan Weider and me, Mark Grody, for a special Take the North Live. This Monday, August 24th, it's about to go down. It's going to be from 6 to 8 p.m. at Gurney Hyundai,

featuring appearances by Tyson Bayesian. Andre Swift, how about all of that? As well as a complete breakdown of the biggest training camp storylines ahead of the season. It's a fluid situation. Who knows where we'll be by then? It's all sponsored by the Roorman Automotive Group. Get a full synthetic

oil change for only $50. Visit roorman.com. Thank you so much, Mark. Coming up next here on Rahimi Harrison Grotias, we are live from the Cubby Bear. Good day to talk about being a third baseman. Thanks to Alex Bregman last night. So Ron Cuman

joins us. Coombe Live from the Cubby Bear next as we get you ready for game three of Crosstown on the score.