Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - How are you feeling about the Bears' defense ahead of the season opener?

Episode Date: September 11, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote discussed the questions swirling around the Bears' defense with the new season upon us. How concerned should we be?

You know what's up on Rahimi and Grotie on 104.3, the score today. You are 100% absolutely listening to a four-season heating, air conditioning, plumbing, sewer, and electric football Friday presented by your local Ford dealers and Advent. We will act accordingly today. Lots of football and bears. We've got Kevin Fishpain at 1025 from the athletic. He'll be with us all year. 11 o'clock, the former NFL safety, Eugene Robinson, will be on with us. He is also part of the Carolina Panthers Radio Network. We'll do predictions. We'll talk about Caleb. We'll talk about offense.

We'll talk about defense. Layla, we'll do it all. How are you doing on a football Friday on the score and Rahimi and Grody? It's about time. I still can't quite wrap my head around it. It doesn't really hit for me until the first real game, which I don't think was yesterday. And I don't think it was the day before that. We'll get to it.

They tried. I told you guys I didn't want Niners and Rams to be ruined by travel. And lo and behold, it was ruined by travel. Be here for five on it at noon because Layla will have much more to say about that. Hey, one team showed up yesterday. The Brock Purdy team showed up yesterday. The Mike Evans, Debo Samuel, DeMarcus Robinson team showed up last night. They also showed up days in advance, which is why they looked like they had

select. Ah, the forever conundrum with the travel. I remember we went through all of this with the bears going to London. Should they go early? Which they did. Should they go late? What's better? What is better for the team?

Do you act normal? Who's going to be more prepared for week two? We'll get into more of that and five on it. But Layla, I think that the consensus of the Chicago Bears, if there is one thing that we all seemingly agree on, it is that the biggest question mark on this team and maybe even the part of this team, this Bears team that will make it or break it, will dictate how far you go or don't go in the postseason this year, is the defense? Do you think we're on the right track? Are we at a consensus that is the defense that we truly need to zero in on if we are to

talk about a potentially successful Chicago Bear season? Well, I think what the Bears are hoping for is that their offense is so much better that the defense isn't as much of a question. That's where the investment has been. That's where the personnel focus has been. Even in the draft, you could argue they added a lot to the offense when they could have added more to the defense. And then they trade away.

Guys like Jervon Dexter late in the preseason process. So they've told you that has been the focus. Ben Johnson is your head coach. The secrets out. You know that this is a more offensive-minded team. So I still think they're leaning on that for the majority of their

success. The question is, is this defense going to do enough enough? Ben don't break, whatever you want to call it, to be able to survive the injuries in the secondary, the lack of a pass rush last year, somehow turning into with the backups you signed, and Jordan Vanderberg, hopefully, being the guy you thought he was in the preseason,

is all of that going to help you get to a place where you feel better about the team's defensive unit? And I don't know that I'm there yet. question mark for me is, is the defense going to be good enough? I'm not even asking for good. I'm just asking for better than in the lower third of the league when it came to the important defensive metrics, which is what they were last season. Can you be the 18th best defense?

Can you be what the Carolina Panthers were last year? The 16th best defense. Can you have more than 35 sacks as you had last year? By the way, Carolina had 30, but they did more discernible things to up their defense this year with a couple of guys that they added, obviously, in Jalen Phillips and Devin Lloyd. I was listening to, and I know you were this morning as well, to the Bears defensive coordinator, Dennis Allen. And I thought that by not saying very much, he was saying a lot as the Bears defensive coordinator met with the media yesterday and shared his

observations on the Bears defense from last year to this year. I think it's still two to be determined, you know. I mean, we've had, you know, three preseason games, a couple of joint practices, we've had a training camp. You know, I think, I think, you know, the guys are buying into, you know, how we have to play defense. I think there's still some things that we're learning on in terms of, you know, exactly what to do and everything. But how we play and the speed that we that we have to play at. I think our guys are buying into that, and our guys are playing hard. So, listen, I like where we're at, and yet, you know, we'll find out more after Sunday.

Well, and it's important to point out to, and that's Bears defensive coordinator, Dennis Allen, right there, that the question that he was asked at the beginning of that is, how is your defense going to be better this year than it was last year? And he says right off the bat, it is to be determined. That is about as honest of an answer as you are going to hear from him or anybody else out at Hallislaw. Because he very well could have said, oh yeah, we're excited about our linebackers this year. We've got the rookie first rounder Dylan Thineman out there. We've got, you know, Montez Sweat coming off at double-digit sack year. He could have gone the cheerleader route, just saying the positives for the sake of saying the positives.

But he's right about that. Like I said it. Look, the Dravon Dexter thing, I don't know if you are a better defensive line without Dravon Dexter. But I am excited to see what these new faces on the Bears' defensive line can do. I am like everybody else. Excited about what I saw from Jordan Vandenberg, the rookie. I am excited about what we saw in training camp from Contavius Street. I am excited about Neville Gallimore coming off a pretty good year last year and what he might add. I am excited about Jaden Loving because he stood out in the practices that I went to.

So I am excited. I've turned the corner a little bit on the defensive line, but I don't know. These are all what ifs. What if Vandenberg is really good when the lights come on? I don't know if he's going to be. I don't know if Neville Gallimore is an ascending player at this point. I don't know if what we saw from Jaden Loving will translate actually to real NFL games. if he'll even be dress on opening day for the Chicago Bears,

is James Lynch some sort of revelation? While I'm excited to see the new guys from what I saw in camp, I don't know. It's to be determined, as Dennis Allen said. I'll say this, Lela, the last thing that I'll say about this, the position group that I am pretty convinced about with the Chicago Bears on defense is the linebackers. I like the Marco Jackson.

Two great games last week in particular. where he was NFC player of the week. I'm excited about Devin Bush. And I know Tremaine Edmonds had an excellent year last year, but I think Bush is a little bit better. And getting to see T.J. Edwards look like T.J. Edwards in the last preseason game was heartening for me. So I'm excited about that position group right there. But it feels like the rest of it is, per Dennis Allen, to be determined.

Well, and we don't even know what's actually being determined when it comes to the depth chart. We have the unofficial depth chart. which I just pulled out of my backpack. But the bear's defense on the unofficial depth chart has Montez-Weck, Grady Jarrett, Contavius Street. Do you think that Contavius Street is going to be the guy on Sunday starting? And I asked this to Herb. Herb Howard when he was at Hallis Hall and joined us with a report yesterday.

What's up, Herb? We were trying to figure it out. Okay, well, if that's a case, what's the snap count looking like? How much are you going to have to rotate these guys in and out to maybe just also get that tempo, get that pace, the experience they need. We don't know the rotation yet. It's a great point.

And so when we don't even know that, I appreciate Dennis Allen telling the truth because this is a bear's team that if you look again, Mark, and you've got the numbers as well as anybody else. Let's just start with the obvious one, 29th in the NFL in a loud yards per game in the regular season.

We know the run defense was bad. They know they didn't run, they didn't rush the pass or enough. How comfortable are you going to let Bryce Young get on Sunday. And that is really going to be a key in this. The Bears want to start fast and score fast, but their defense, you've got to be able to keep off the field too.

Those two go hand in hand, and I really hope the plan works on Sunday. I like some of the chant. We'll get into this as the show goes on, but specifically the Bears defense against the offensive line of Carolina. They're inside guys. Their guards are really good, but their tackles are suspect with Monroe Freeling and Rashid Walker having to step up for the injured players and Tyler Moten and Iku Maquanoo out as well for the Carolina Panthers.

So that's an interesting storyline to keep an eye on and if they can take advantage of that Montez Sweat. This segment is being brought to you by Almost Free Teeth.com Save on Dental Implants today. Dennis Allen continued to discuss his expectations for the defensive line for this season. At the end of the day, you know, I want our guys to go out there and play hard, play fast, play physical. and execute their assignments. And then, look, if it's a physical thing, then, you know, that happens in our league. You know, everybody here gets paid. Everybody's under contract.

So sometimes there's some physical things that take place and guys make plays. But I want our guys to be relentless. And, you know, at the end of the day, however many plays it takes, 60 plays, 70 plays, 80 plays, whatever. the case may be. You know, hopefully if we continue to play with the relentless intensity and we force the offense to have to execute, that's ultimately what we're looking for. Everybody wants relentless intensity, so he's just using those words. He doesn't know.

Well, he probably has a better idea than he's letting on right now. But you want to see sweat breakthrough early. You want to see Austin Booker breakthrough. And I'm intrigued, Leila, if not optimistic about Di O. Dangbo, because he's, He's just got to be good, right? He's just got to be better. There's a lot of that with the defense. Are you optimistic or are you just wishing for things?

No, well, I'm optimistic. And I guess maybe this is naive of me, basing it on one preseason game where he made a couple of plays and had that quarterback hit. I believe it was in the second preseason game where it was like, okay, there's an idea of what Ryan Poles told me the first time I asked about him, watch how he interrupts games, even if he's not getting the gaudy sack numbers, which he does. did not do in Indianapolis. He invited me to watch the tape, see what he does,

and he was interruptive in that particular game. So it was a sign of life, I guess, and I'm buying it to a certain degree. I don't think it's a secret that they signed him based on his quarterback pressures and what his potential was. I don't think that at all, but that wasn't

a secret. That was what they thought that if he had that kind of potential when it came to his pressures and just how he looked, making the offense look different, then that was going to be something that turned into more of a pass rush. But the bottom line is it hasn't. So prove me wrong on Sunday. Show me how motivated you are and how this helps. And we've gotten questions, well, what about Carolina's tackles being injured? If they can run it up the middle like

a lot of teams did against the Bears last year, I don't know how much that's going to hurt him. That's the issue. That's why I said. I mentioned that in the fact that the guards are really good. I was answering a question on the text line. But the point is, you know, Mark, like, It helps, but not if you have an alternate game plan that's successful against a team that didn't do either well last year. Truth. Opening week on the score is presented by Hands Free Skechers Slip-ins. Just step in and go. Let's keep the conversation cooking.

We'll get into the offense a little bit and other things with our next guest. Kevin Fishbane, senior writer at The Athletic covering the Chicago Bears and more. We'll join us next year on a football football football. Friday on Rahimi and Grotie on 1043 the score.