Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - How much do you trust the Bears’ draft process when it comes to defense?

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

Marshall Harris and Mark Grote discussed the state of the Bears' defense and shared their confidence level in general manager Ryan Poles' ability to build a strong unit on that side of the ball through the NFL Draft.

Philosophically, I feel the same. It's going to be the best player available. I know that may not be the most popular thing. Because people see kind of, like out my board, have yellow tags where we need to fill in. But at the same time, I do believe, especially in early rounds, like one, you really got to stick to best player available. We saw that last year.

I know there's a lot of questions. You got Cole, why would you take Colston? I think we found out that it helped us along the way. So we'll continue to lean in that philosophy. Welcome back into Rahimi Harris and Grotie Ryan Poles, the general manager of the Chicago Bears at the Combine. He'd got it right last year. He did. Best player available. I don't blame him for pointing to his 2025 resume and say, see, we did it. We took the best player available, and he's right. It was a little bit of a surprise that they went with Colston Lovelland. Really, the big surprise was that they didn't go with Tyler Warren in that spot. But I think that we can all agree that we're pretty happy with that.

Luther Bird in a second rounder, which probably took some people off guard as well, and then Ozzie Tripillo as well, one of those second rounders. So, yes, it was... It's a pillow. That's right, Chris. I do appreciate it. This segment on Rahimi Harrison Grody is being brought to you by Almost Free Teeth.com, save on dental implants today.

Marshall, I think that we probably both agree that this is in the Ryan Pohl's era, one of the more important drafts when it comes to the defensive side of the ball. Because for whatever reason, they haven't done a whole lot when it comes to beefing up specifically the defensive line. And all parts of it, whether the interior, the defensive end, there has not been a splash made. Unless you are one of those that thinks that Dio Dengbo, that we ain't seen nothing yet, watch the film.

Let's see what he can do coming off of torn ACL. Let's see what he can do. if Shamar Turner, a second rounder, if he is the truth with the energy that that guy has, but you would agree that this is probably like he's got to hit on something on that defensive line this year in this draft where the Bears do have a couple of second rounders. Nobody hits all the time, but I will just want to really stress this. They hit last year offensively on the draft. And if they get something like that for defense this year, all is good in the world of Ryan Poles. The problem is I don't see the evidence that that's what's going to happen based on what we've seen through his picks.

You talked about the interior, the defensive line, whether that's detackle, whether that's edge rush. It just has not happened through the draft. Now, Austin Booker is someone to keep an eye on. I will say that, in fairness. He's someone to keep an eye on. He may take another leap in year three. And that's what they're expecting because they have to draft and develop. but if you just lay out the needs of the bears right now

after that first wave of free agency and understanding what they need both in the secondary at safety and up front specifically and maybe even at linebacker depending on what they decide to do who falls to what where and understanding they have three picks in the first two rounds

I would imagine two at least of those picks would be defensive players and so they need to hit and I'm just really concerned that offensively, Ben Johnson has been the North Star. Defensively, who is the North Star for the Bears within that organization with these specific needs that they have? Well, I guess Dennis Allen, if we're going to do the coaching analogy, that Ben Johnson is the offense, as Dennis Allen is to the defense, if he has that much say in what they're doing. Let me just go through here.

You mentioned the drafting for Ryan Poles through the years on defense. last year I already mentioned Shamar Turner. Jury's still out. I'm not going to sit here and predict that he's going to have 10 sacks and be a revelation, but he has a second round talent. I think that's fair, and clearly that's someone that Dennis Allen okayed because of his versatility, because we've already seen him play on the inside and the outside on the defensive line. Right.

So actually I'm looking very forward to seeing what Shemar Turner is. If he stays healthy and he's full boat and he's in the full rotation, that's a guy that I can't wait to see with the ceiling. actually is. I'm just going through the defensive players that he's drafted. Ruben Hippolyte as a fourth rounder. The jury still way, he's fast. He's really fast. That's about it. He's been unimpressive. I mean, when I say unimpressive, he was a fourth rounder that at the time of the draft, everybody was saying, oh, they overdrafted him. There's been nothing to let us know that that's

not the case so far. Now, it was one year. It was limited duty, but when he got it, remember all the people that were hurt, linebacker-wise, he, he, He never was able to step up and make an impact in that position. Right, you're right. And that's a great point because you had A. Man, Ogbong, Bumiga, who stepped up. DeMarco Jackson got himself a new deal with the Bears, you know, probably earned a, maybe earned a starting spot this year. Jack Sanborn's back, right? Jack Sanborn is back.

So when you add all that up, and I get it, he was only a rookie, and he was a fourth rounder, not a second or third rounder. But I would have expected more of an impact, and I'm very curious to see where the developed part of draft and development. develop comes up. The other defensive player that they drafted last year was Zay Fraser, the cornerback, the very tall, physical quarterback who obviously had dealt with some personal issues last year. He was there. He was in the locker room. I saw him all the

time, but let's see if he can make an impact. So that's none of that, nothing hits last year as far as the defense is concerned. 2024, you already mentioned it. Austin Booker was a fifth round pick for the Bears in that draft. He's your only hope

from 2024. 24. You had, all right, man, like jury is out on Jervon Dexter. Two guys, Jervon Dexter and Tyreeks Stevenson, were both second round picks of the Bears in the year 2020. What I'll tell you is the jury has been sequestered, and now they are being forced to make a decision, and they're not going to get to go home to their families until the decisions made. That's what 2026 is for Jervon Dexter.

You would agree with that assessment? I would agree with that assessment. man. It's like this is not a bad player. Trayvon Dexter by any means. He did, was he second in the Bears in Sacks last year? He's not a bad player. That's not a big number, by the way. I know. He has not made the impact he was expected to do, considering he was a second

round pick and the size that this man has, which maybe has hurt him too with the leverage. But there's Jervon Dexter. Tyreek Stevenson. Same deal. Wow, as he had an up and down career. Tyree. He was my pick to be like their comeback player of the year after what went. wrong in 2024. It didn't happen in 2025, but he still has time to show something, anything. Now, the guy that was

drafted directly behind him, we know how that turned out, right? Behind, you're talking about Zach Pickens? Yeah, yeah, Zach Pickens, yes, Layla's favorite. Yeah, Zach Pickens didn't quite work out. I remember watching, because I was obviously glued to Jervon Dexter and Zach Pickens.

It's pretty exciting when like multiple defensive linemen are taken, right? So I was glued to those guys. Zach Pickens for a while looked like the better product out of the two of those guys. And then Zach Pickens just went downhill. I don't know what the where are they now. Is he even in football anymore? He's got to be.

Probably still is. So that was the year 2023. Dexter, Tyreeks Stevenson, Zach Pickens. So they went heavy, heavy on the defensive line that year. In terms of the cost and the breadth of those picks, So, again, this is, all GMs are allowed to improve. And then his first year, Poles' first year, he certainly hit on the defense, at least in the secondary. Kyler Gordon and Jaquan Briscoe were very good draft picks, second rounders.

The only defensive lineman they took that year was Dominique Robinson, who was a fifth rounder, who was no longer with the Bears, who got every opportunity. Terrific athlete, good locker room guy, but that did not work out. See if things go better for him on a Houston Texan defense that's known to be stout. So maybe he fits in better with a bunch of guys who really are good at what they do already. Yeah, no doubt. And so you can conclude from this that Ryan Poles has struggled with, in terms of the draft, the defensive line. And one could argue as well that he has struggled in the guys that he has signed.

I don't have that list in front of me, but we could play that game at some point in time as well. Let's better educate ourselves on the overall philosophy of the Bears when it comes to the draft, not just the offense, but the defense as well. And the man to do it. The reason I need to point that out is because it is an offensive voice that we are going to hear from right here. Dan Rochhar is the Bears' offensive line coach, and he's going to provide insight on the overall process for the Bears. Roshar with Foster Swift Sports Talk discussed on their NFL draft process last year. In our short meeting, it's all about football.

And the one thing that we want to get out of it is what's the knowledge of the player coming in? Does you really have a good foundation to learn? And every university is a little bit different, or a college setting is a little bit different, in the sense that some guys are coached at a really high level, some guys maybe not at his high level, maybe we've had multiple transfers from college to college to college and things are maybe just a little bit off. What's in there?

So in that 15 minutes, you're trying to really hone in on in a short interview, hey, what's this guy's football IQ like? That's really what you're driving. at. And speaking on last year, because, you know, we were in the market, we thought we were in the market to go early, we had the 10th pick, and although that went to Colston, which was a heck of a pick, we're all doing that as positions, coaches. That's really what we're driving at for our head football coach, our GM and those in the room to be able to go, man, this guy's got good football makeup, or there's some real concerns. And the more concerns there are,

the less clean they are, the more work you then have to do after the process. That's bringing them to campus for what we call 30 visits. You get 30 prospects to come to campus and you can spend an entire day, meal setting, whatever those things are, to do more leg work. And then a process like this, where you're on Zoom, hey, how much more? can we gather? And I always like to, you know, in the process, I always like to go back to if I know, if I know somebody that I really know at a college

that's worked with the player, and they can give me an insider information about what this like, like, how's this guy handle injury? Is he gonna be able to fight through it, or are we gonna be dealing with a guy that's, you know, in the clubhouse? Because availability is so important. important in this game.

That is the Bears offensive line coach Dan Rochard with Foster Swift Sports Talk. I assume that that's a podcast that he was on. But anyway, it sounds to me, Marshall, that he's talking. I mean, that's all very smart stuff that go beyond the surface. I don't know that that's necessarily unique because the thing that we've learned in the draft is that they want to know everything about these guys, how smart they are, who they hang out with who their girlfriend is. Or maybe I'm just talking about that movie.

Wait, what movie are you referring to? Is that the Kevin Costner special? Draft Day? Yeah. Yeah. I know all that stuff. But I get where he's coming from. That you want to go deeper than just what the player does. What stood out to you there from Mr. Rochard? Whereas I'm listening to it and it makes sense because I'm never turning down data. I'm never turning down more information on a player. And if you're a player on a prospective coaching

staff, a team and organization, I mean, go back to Caleb Williams' dad, right? He's, he's trying to figure out all the nitty-gritty about the bears and how they ended up, you know, being a graveyard for a lot of quarterbacks over the course of a long period of time. And the same certainly applies when you're talking about the millions of dollars and the hopes of your own livelihood depend on how good this player is at the next level. And so, all of the stuff he talks about there, it's all well and good, but the bottom line is, do I trust your ability to evaluate defensively what's been going on? And that's a question talking about Ben Johnson, Ryan Poles, and ultimately Dennis Allen, because they're the players that he wants. And I point back to like the Dio O'Dingbo as an acquisition because he fit what Dennis Allen likes as far as traits despite not having necessarily the actual.

performance on paper documented of where it says, hey, he's really good at getting pressures, not so much sex, but we think we can turn the pressures into sex. That's a lot of hoping and wishing based on the actual contract that you gave him. He also likes versatility, obviously. I mean, we've seen that with safety. It's already talked about it with Kobe Bryant, that he can play all sorts of different levels of safety. Heck, the guy used to play, used to be a cornerback.

if you look at somebody like Shamar Turner, they can't decide where they want to use them. The beauty of, if I may use that for Dio Dangbo, especially when he was with the Colts, he would bounce around the line. And you want that versatility with your players. It's just a matter of turning in into something real. Textor brings up something interesting. And you're always welcome to text us here on Rahimi Harris and Grotie, 312, 64, 67. We even pick up phone calls every once in a while.

312, 64, 64, 67. From the 312, Tyreek is a safety, Tyreek Stevenson, that is. You'll see an Edmund's type of production increase when he has changed positions. That's interesting to me because the other guy, who I actually should have mentioned as part of the Tyreek Stevenson draft two years ago, I guess that would have been in the year 2023. Terrell Smith was another guy. Don't forget about Smitty. Smitty's still there.

Smitty the cornerback who Dave Wonstead once said. I'll never forget this because I was intrigued by his thought process. Dave Wonstead said that you could turn Terrell Smith, Smitty, into a safety as well. Do you think they got some funny stuff up their sleeves maybe this year? Or would that be wise or do you think it's just stupid and they should draft the safety? Well, yes. They should draft the safety or just stupid and they should...

Well, I think they should always be drafting for the future, even if that safety's not going to play this year. They don't draft for need, Marshall. They draft best player available. Best player available. Even though everybody's mocking safeties to the Bears. If Dave Wonstadt is saying it, and as long as it's a bruiser of a safety, I'm good with them taking a safety early, right?

Like if it happens to be a first round safety, that dude better be a playmaker, though. That's my point with that first pick. If you're going to keep it and you're going to draft someone, it can't be someone you're debating about, is he going to have an impact this season right away? He's got to be a dude. No doubt about it. Yeah.

Like we don't, and you said probably the, no, no, this is the most important draft that Ryan Poles has had. Point blank and period. Because when he was drafting all the other times, he was trying to build towards a winning. He has a winner right now on paper. They won the division last year. Now you got to supplant that. A lot of teams get to the mountaintop for a moment and then fall back down. His job now is to sustain it.

and the players he takes defensively in this draft will determine whether or not they can keep this going. We're going to have more Bears talk today at 1 o'clock. Mark it right now on your phone because we're going to be talking about Caleb Williams and which quarterback tier he belongs in this year. He was towards the bottom last year in the preseason, at least according to Mike Sando, who is the quarterback tiers. He is on record with that that he's been doing for decades, or maybe not decades, but at least a decade.

So we'll do that at 1 o'clock. Coming up next, we are going to talk with Richard Deich, who writes about the media. He does a podcast here on Odyssey called Sports Media with Richard Deich. The main reason that we wanted to have him on is because he just wrote this cool feature story on our friend, Kevin Harlan. We'll ask him what he learned about our guy

who was a regular on this show. And there's just so much bouncing around in the broadcast area. whether baseball or the NCAA tournament or Charles Barkley or Bruce Pearl, there are myriad things to discuss with him. Do you know where to find your games? Like every night when you're trying to find your games? It's a game I liked it. This guy knows where all the games are.

Richard Deich is next on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the score.