Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - How much trust do you have in Bears general manager Ryan Poles? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: February 27, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris opened their show by discussing how much trust they have in Bears general manager Ryan Poles. After that, they listened to Poles’ recent comments that gave us a window into his process leading up to the NFL Draft. Later, they opened up the phone lines for Score listeners to share their belief or lack thereof in Poles.

This hour is brought to you by the Chicago Golf Show. The views and opinions of Lela Rahimi, Marshall Harris, and Mark Grody should not be taken too seriously. Especially when they give advice. Do not take Marshall's analogies, literally. Especially when it comes to Russell Dorsey. The sports thoughts of Rahimi Harrison Grody may change at any time. It's just sports. Gay, thanks.

Bye. Bahamie Harrison Grody. 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. Now, because we're lunatics and we have one thing on the mind at all times, and that is not money, that is not time. It's not some resources essential to us all. It's Max Crosby. We're like, oh, is Ben Johnson talking about Max Crosby when he said this to Cassie Carlson?

Some of the former offensive linemen that are now coaches having those conversations. Hey, who gave you the most probably? It wasn't necessarily the biggest names. It was sometimes the guys that just went for longer and for harder than their opponent. And I think there's something to be said for that, you know, guys that. that you know you're going to get 100% from them every single snap. He just said what he wanted in a defensive lineman candidate. And then he describes someone who just never stopped going.

Basically an energizer bunny whose battery never runs down or runs out. I would say someone with a high motor. People that know me know I'm about the work and football. Someone who plays 97% of the snaps or so. I give my whole life to this sport every single day. Somebody who may not love football but is obsessed. with football? I don't love football. I am obsessed. I've given it since I've been playing tackle football since I could walk. Somebody who wants to win. It maybe hasn't had as much winning as he

is accustomed to. I don't give a f*** besides playing football and winning football games. Max Crosby is on the forefront of my mind. Do we have to? I don't want to. How does this work? I can't I? I can smell your dreams, Tom. I think it's affecting us. Nah. What are you talking about? Everything is related back to Max Crosby. See, nah, it has two H. at the end. I am now officially a Max and Easter. I don't know that I wasn't. One of us.

One of us. One of us. Bill of Gava, one of us. The reply is just the word Max. Max. Lela Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody,

midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 104.3. The score. Hello, and good morning on this Friday. This is Rahimi. Harris and Grotie on 1043 the score. And yeah, there are

times where we just randomly in the middle of silence will say, Max. Max Crosby. I don't know, Ray. I don't know that we're speaking it into existence enough. We're going to try. We're going to ramp it up. Max. I haven't heard Marshall do it lately.

Max. Not HBO Max. Max. Listen to that pace. Have you done? your run yet. You know how you were thinking about taking an outside run? Have you done it? I will be doing that later on today. I don't know if you know, but we're getting up to 60 today. We're going outside. But when you're running, you're a distance guy. So like somewhere during your

multi-mile run, how many miles are you running today? I would say five miles max. See, somewhere during that five-mile run, do you find yourself likely to say just the word by yourself in silence? Max. Yeah, that'll probably happen. Yeah. I'm thinking about running today without music. Oh, no. You're just taking in.

You're just going to raw dog the workout? Yeah, raw dog the workout. We have gotten some really unstable phrases between the last time we left you with Anthony Heron and Lawrence Holmes saying the phrase, curtain jerker. Technically, I get it. It's a real term that the wrestlers and the wrestling fan bases use. And then also now raw talking the work.

out. But yeah, I feel, okay, 6-30. I don't know that Max is the new bears, but I think it's getting up there. I think it's getting up there. Like, if you just find yourself silent and the first word that comes to you is Max, okay, Max Crosby. I don't think you have a problem. I think you have a solution. Hopefully one day they'll be synonymous. I don't know, guys. I don't know. I think we need a capologist, a cap wizard, a cap guru, and some sort of other magical. being in order to fix this. We can find one of those. Perhaps. I'll work on that.

Well, and in the meantime, we found the Bears front office, which I think we can all say this time this year compared to this time last year, is in a much more trustworthy place. I wouldn't call it night and day, but I would call it night and sunrise. How about that? Yeah, they

did their part to earn back some capital with Bears fans winning a playoff game, of course, the first and 15 years. making the right decision in hiring Ben Johnson, although I do think that was a team thing. I very much credit George McCasky and Kevin Warren in that. And then also being able to put together a resume and a body of work last year that puts them in a better spot. It puts them in a better spot, but unfortunately that means you get a lower draft pick.

Unfortunately, that means you don't have as much money to spend under the cap. And at this time last year, I want you guys to remember, we were hemming and hawing on the midday show, myself included, about the interview that Ryan Poles did with Sirius XM Radio, where he talked about steps being skipped in training camp. And I think that they addressed it in a good way when they decided to say stuff like, strip it down to the foundation, strip it down to the studs, build this backup, do all the basic stuff so we can build on this in the right way. Try to forget everything you learn in the first year for Caleb Williams

so that way he can build this up in Ben Johnson's eyes, build up his best practices while he's still young and put together what he did this past season. It was also a warning, though, that when you hear the GM say this, the head of the front office, the head of the football operations of the team, I was asking, well, why didn't you stop it? Like the buck stops with you. You're the guy who's supposed to be able to put a stop to that or change the course if you see it's veering off. You shouldn't have to wait an entire season to adjust, right? I'll give credit that for the first time in organization history, they were able to fire a

coach mid-season. They didn't wait till the end. Right. And that, to me, was part of the evolution of Ryan Poles. And I am very much hopeful that he continues to evolve. Yes. And a winning season helps. But I don't want him to get this false sense of security that, okay, we've won.

It's just now starting now for Ryan Poles. And we welcome you to join our conversation, 312, 64, 67, 67, 1045 is when we will take your calls, but your texts are always welcome as well. And the question just becomes, how much more do you trust Ryan Poles now than you did last year? How much do you trust him to give the bears a draft that is comparable to the last year's draft rather than the prior ones that he had had? and even take into consideration our discussion about Jervon Dexter in transition with Zach Zainman and David Haw. So all of that said, I didn't expect to hear another serious XM type of interview with Ryan Poles this time around at the combine. But I credit Ryan Poles for being transparent enough to actually have the conversation with us when I think a lot of general managers wouldn't do so. And by with us, I don't mean necessarily Marshall and Lela.

I mean, with the media and with people who he appears with. And that happened. Ryan Poles was on with Todd McShay on his podcast and talked about the role that I don't think it's us. I think it's more the screen he sees. Social media and how it affected his job. I think it's learning through that chaos. I separated myself. I really did get off of kind of looking at everything.

I was listening to a podcast. I think your name is Brunet Brown, and she said, the algorithm in social media is to validate what you already believe or to show you what you fear the most. And as it hit me, and no one's like described that way, I was like, I got to get, if I'm going to leave this organization, I have to get off of that because if I'm acting out of fear or acting out of closed-mindedness,

then we're not going to be in a good spot. And that's giving me a lot of freedom. to kind of weather the storm, but to see things the way they are. There's a couple situations, even with Caleb, where for some reason, when things just feel like they're ebbing away from you, it's like it almost validates, especially the noise part of it, like you're close. Like, you talked about like a young, talented kid. Like, they get a lot of crap from the outside world to me.

So something they see the talent, they see what this could be. So let's just keep pushing forward and get through this and get to the, the other side. And that's what this year felt like a little bit of a breakthrough. And I know you can't take success from last year and bringing it into this year. We start over and there's a lot of work to be done. But it felt like a breakthrough in terms of like, all right, we can settle that part. Now we can start mastering aircraft a little bit. Okay. Number one, Brunay Brown always, especially for everybody listening to this show, because I think you'd, you'd appreciate what she has to say. He's right. And she's right about that.

That's not my concern, though. My concern is how much did this dictate how you did your job the past several years here. The biggest question is, when did you listen to this podcast and when did you stop paying attention to social media? Like, was it yesterday? No, I mean, you're getting a sense that it definitely was, it sounds like from what he's describing, it was after he drafted Caleb Williams. But maybe it was before he hired Ben Johnson. I'm trying to see how aligned his change in thought.

process and the way he stopped consuming social media affected the way maybe he did his job or just his insight into how to do his job. To be clear, I am not a believer in Ryan Poles football man, as much as I am a believer in Ryan Poles. I can evaluate something admit I was wrong and learn from it. So the evolution of Ryan Poles, I believe in. Do I believe Ryan Poles is going to deliver a second straight draft along the lines of what he did last year? Not necessarily. I believe he'll do whatever Ben Johnson and Dennis Allen guide him to do. And listening to these comments, Layla, and to get kind of an insight into how he looks at things was eye-opening to me because I'm like, why were you ever on social media like

that in the first place as a general manager of a professional football team? Well, and then you and I started talking in our pre-show meeting, Marshall, about the tree that Ryan Poles came from. So when Ryan Poles is talking and we hear him saying, this and the first thing I think is, you know, that doesn't convey confidence to me. That does not convey confidence because if you're steadfast as a leader of a football team where there are only 32 jobs, then, and you're, and you've talked to us about your process, and you talk to us about how smart you think your team process is and how you guys evaluate talent and how you believe

in in certain rubrics like the relative athletic score and how confident you are when you You say best player available at 25, best player available last year. After the draft last year, you say you stick to your board, even though it can be tough at times and you want to deviate, but you stick to your board. And we've all said at times, we don't trust your board. But even then, you talked about it in a way that says, I'm confident in my process. And this retrospectively does not convey that you were confident. It does not convey that you knew your process or that you had picked up your best practices

and were confident in those from your team. And when I say your team, I mean Kansas City, where you were adjacent to the people who drafted Patrick Mahomes. But who was the head coach of Kansas City, Marshall? That would be Andy Reed. Long time experienced head coach. Some would argue he's a Hall of Famer.

I would say he's definitely a Hall of Famer. I would agree. He's a guy who has the thickest of thick skin. he really doesn't care. He's going to do what he does because it has worked time and time again for him. I know he's coming off a disappointing season because they didn't make the playoffs after making the Super Bowl for the, I don't know how many times and how many years. But his process works and there are receipts that prove that. Here's why Ryan Poles does not get that same vote of confidence for me. I've seen it now for one year. And I've seen it in accordance to Ben Johnson, who I do,

by the way, fully trust. And I am a full believer in. And as long as Ben, Ben Johnson, and as, Johnson has a hand in what Ryan Poles is doing, that's good enough for me right now. I just wonder now that we're going from offense to defense in terms of where the need lies with your team if you can replicate the same type of turnaround that you did a year ago. I have doubts about that defensively, but I think the offense is good enough to carry this team for a moment. And the benefit of being a general manager walking into a new situation, or what you guys want to call is cap hell, but it was, you know, you're in a cap situation now that.

that is completely a Ryan Poles production. He's the one who extended Montes-Swatt. He's the one who signed Dio O'Donbo. He's the one who gave D.J. Moore another contract. I don't criticize all of those decisions to that extent, but the big money deals, which is what I'm trying to illustrate, including extending Jalen Johnson, who wasn't his player, these are Ryan Poles front office decisions.

You know, when you consider all of that together and knowing how important this draft is you don't have the same kind of capital and the room for error that you did previously to make these big swings and make big mistakes. You don't have the room for error to trade a second round pick that was higher than the pick where he was drafted in Chase Claypool and be able to make that big of a mistake. You don't have the capital to spend a lot of money on a guy who you hope can change into something you want who already had one tour in Achilles and Dio Dengbo and expect him to turn out. And whatever rubric you are measuring or whatever process do you think you have or you

think that you have uncovered all these diamonds that are sometimes just themselves, it makes me wonder about all of it when I hear something like this. Because who's telling you who to draft? And I think, Ray, you brought it up. We don't give it, we don't give the Tyler Dunn piece a lot of discussion when it comes to various factors in the piece. But one of the parts of the story that was pretty critical was the discussion about Ryan Poles and reportedly, according to the Tyler Dunn piece, take with it what you will. The part where the sources said, the media will kill me if I don't draft Caleb Williams. Can't live life like that.

Because they say what? When you start listening and going by what people in the stands say, you end up with the people in the stands, aka out of a job. So you can't do that. And when that story came out, I was like, if this Ryan Pohl's stuff is accurate, then the bears might be cooked. But then Ben Johnson became the head coach. And things changed because of that. But Ryan Pohl's is still operating the levers. He's still the guy in charge at the end of the day of the scouting process and deciding what direction they're going with their offseason in terms of, you talked about salary cap hell.

What are we doing with free agency? What are we doing with our own players? what are we doing and accounting for when the draft actually happens? That's a very difficult puzzle to piece together. Do I think he has a better group around him now? Yes. But at the same time, Ben Johnson was in Detroit's building for a lot of who they were probably scouting for the NFL draft

just based on the timing. You don't have the Brad Holmes knowledge for this next draft class. So how is that going to affect things? And it's funny that you bring up Marshall, the decisions regarding free agency, for example. Let's listen to Ryan Poles talking to Cassie Carlson from Fox 32 at the Combine about discussing Darnell Wright. We talked about the offensive line.

Darnall Wright was a huge piece of that as well, knowing that he's up for an extension. Is that a priority for you this offseason? Yeah, it's definitely a priority. There's a lot going on right now. We'll eventually start having those conversations. It's been cool because anytime you have a new coaching staff come in, you're hoping that they saw the same vision as you did.

And in terms of Ben, Dan Rochard, Kyle, the van, they share that vision. Not only, you know, we're excited about where he's at, but we're really excited of what Darnel can be. If he continues to put in the work that he has been, we think he can be, you know, a really talented tackle in this league and help us win championships. Now, one of the things that I do like is Darnel Wright was the guy you drafted on tape, was the guy you put in the position to play the, position he had on tape.

Everybody saw what they got there. Makes it easier, doesn't it? You didn't mix it up. You didn't try to change anybody. You didn't fall in love with relative athletic score. Or maybe you did, but all of it reflected the same individual. So I got no beef with that pick. But how many picks do you really have beef with when they're that high in the draft? That's why this year's- I mean, we're debating Rome with Dunesay at nine and Darnell Wright was 10. No, that's fair. That's fair. And I think Rome has the ability. to come back and look like a number nine overall pick.

If he works on, you know, the thing Ben Johnson said work on catching the football. That's his primary job is to catch the football. It's catch the football and get open. And usually when you get open, you get more opportunities to catch the football. But I just want to see this draft play out the same way as last year's draft before I start giving Ryan Poles an overabundance of credit. Well, and that's why this is split. Like as confidently as a lot of people feel about Ryan Poles, there are people who don't feel as confident.

So just know that, you know, if we disagree with you, we're not the only ones that you disagree with, and you're not the only one who it disagrees with us. So that's why I was asking the question, 312, 64, 64, 67, 67, how much do you trust Ryan Poles going into what is a very important draft if your desire is to advance even farther in the NFL playoffs? and it should be. How much learning on the job do you get to do? And for all of our ballet hoeing about Andy Reid, Marshall, you and I both know that in Philly he did some learning on the job as well. Had to, because you have to adjust to your environment.

Ryan Poles has adjusted, but I'm curious to see what that collaboration looks like this draft, this offseason as he tries to fix the defense in the same way that the offense was rehabbed and repaired and ended up being pretty good. There we go. So we have more on this Ryan, this Ryan Poles and Todd McShade discussion because of one of the tools that I think is going to be really important for everybody to know about when it comes to this next NFL draft. So this, I think, will help us understand how the bears run their process as well. That's coming up next. Ray Diaz and Tyler Bueber are our producers. Brandon Fryer helps us out too as we broadcast live from the scores.

Hyundai Studios brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104. The Score. You can't call us in Texas. 312644-67. We were also on YouTube and Twitch at We had an address change. The Score, Chicago. So you can find us at Twitch.tv slash

The Score Chicago, our Twitch mob, is up and chatting with you on this Friday morning. And like we said, we'll take your calls as well. How much do you trust, and polls. After a good season, how much more do you trust him in the draft coming up? 3126, 44, 67, 67 is our number. More talk next. Rahimi Harrison Grody, Midday's Tyndall 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 1043, the score. We got a vision. Ryan does a great job of stacking that board, him and his crew,

and was able to sit in with some of the scouts earlier. And I think they do a great job bringing the information of the table and we'll proceed business as usual. That's Ben Johnson at the Combine, which is still ongoing in Indianapolis. This is 104.3, The score. We are Rahimi, Harrison Grotie, and happy to be joining you on this beautiful Friday. It is beautiful. It's beautiful. Things are beautiful. It's beautiful. I'm going for a run later. No music. Raw dog. Also, we have a contribution from that from fellow runner at the score. One, Adam Studsonski. And he said, no music runs are when you really get to know yourself.

Love me a good no headphones run. To which I said, for you two who love running, I need the music or else or else I'm not going anywhere fast. A little inner reflection never heard anybody. I think I can do both. Depends on the music you want. I do want people to join us for this next segment when we take calls. 312, 4, 4, 6, 7, 6, 7, 6.7.

How much do you trust Ryan Poles? And you know what? I think we've got a lot of conversation. and even the conversation that's like frustrated is also like fair though because for example 815 asked why are we back to doing this and I'm like well he had this stuff he said on Todd McShay's podcast and then they said I get that but the man deserves some flowers for Caleb Burden Colson Monongai Darnell etc I only question is defensive evals at that point and I said and that's fair but your questioning is defensive

evaluations what do the bears need the most help on this year defense So, like, yes, it's okay that there's been progress made. That's good. We can all agree that that's good. But the fact that you're still questioning the defensive eval is still a valid question. So how much is that? And I think that's what we're trying to get to.

And when you hear GM say, and I think it was a human moment for him, talking about Brunee Brown's quote about social media, either reaffirming what you already believe or showing you your greatest fear, that there's a lot of truth to that. I appreciate the fact that he absorbed it because I think it's a great, she's a great resource, period for anybody. But you just don't want the social media to creep into the leader of the football team like that from the football standpoint.

Like that's where there's a concern of mine. 309 on the text line. We need to remember that GMs need to grow and develop just like players. He was a rookie GM when they hired him. So yes, we may want to criticize him about past trades and picks, but every great GM has plenty of mistakes early in their career. That's from Rich from Peoria. I'm not arguing that.

Most, though, don't get a second chance. He's been given a second chance. And you know what? He's made the most so far of this second chance. I think there's just a lot of questions about Ben Johnson, offensive specialists, play caller deluxe, and his influence on the picks that turned around the offense, and now can the same thing be replicated on the other side of the ball?

I understand that there's a big discussion when it comes to how much should a guy be allowed to learn on the job. But I think there are times where here the guy has been allowed to learn on the job more than what is the normal amount of grace. Do I think that is the case with Ryan Poles? Not necessarily. Do I think there was way too long of a leash given to Ryan Pace? Yes. Are the two things separate? Yes.

And every GM has swings and misses. You know, that's the point too. Every GM falls in love with somebody and there's some risk. And because they've done better in other areas, they're allowed to take that risk and absorb it differently. I think the best example for me is the 49ers and Trey Lance. That is a huge swing and miss by John Lynch. But at the same time, they were allowed to absorb it with more grace

because they had a better team around him. And they win games. And they picked Mr. irrelevant who's now getting more than $50 million a year and led them to a Super Bowl. Most people don't hit on seventh round picks like that. But that's also the point is, you know, how much does the draft matter to you? Are you the guy who says that after the second round, it's a crapshoot? Because that's a good example of why good process, sound practices can withstand.

But that first round swing and miss in 2021, a trail ends is pretty bad. So, you know, I will cite other teams. it's just no matter of how much risk did you buy yourself and being sound in all these other positions and the defense has some massive holes. So Ryan Poles says that he wants to stick to the best player available. Let's go back a couple of days and listen to him at 25, at 25 pick in the draft.

Talk about that again. 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 on 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 the best player available.

We saw that last year. I know there's a lot of questions. Like, 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. So that's Ryan Paul is saying, yet again, he wants to take the best player available.

And he's talked about that many times, like sticking to his board to maintaining the discipline of sticking to that draft board. But then he's also got the other side where social media is somehow dictating part of his job, which he admitted to. So there's a tool in the middle here that may get them from point A to B. This was to Todd McShay. He talked about one of the tools that they have on the bears, data-wise, to help predict the draft. Something new is, you know, we created a draft simulator that has some analytics built in based on team needs.

You're a part of that? you don't even know. Thanks, man. We dump in thousands of mock drafts into this. It is scary on how accurate it gets as you get into April. I can rep the draft 150 times in April before we get to it. And it's just like preparing for a game. It's slow motion.

Nothing surprises you because you've worked some of those crazy, you know, someone picked someone right before you or a trade happened and your ability to adapt and adjust along the long. way gets really, really high. I thought this was fascinating because he's looking Todd Mishay right in the face and be like, by the way, you're Mock draft, that helps me do my job because we take basically a compilation of all these Mock drafts, which, as you know, they start out very vague or as vague as they can be, knowing teams have certain needs and how, you know,

because there's so much tape out there now, how evaluators are looking at the talent. And then as you get closer and closer to the draft, because of the way Free agency works and everything else, you now have even more specific needs. And I'm so curious to see how that actually affects them. What I like about this is he's saying not, hey, we use like necessarily AI or these mock drafts to see what we're going to do, but it helps us navigate what we think other teams are going to do. And that better prepares us to be able to move on the fly and have certain expectations in certain rounds with, let's say, the 25th pick. You're, you know, it's like for people at home who play fantasy football, right?

If you have the 12th pick in the draft, there's a lot more research done on making your first and second round picks as opposed to if you have the fifth pick. Because there's only four guys that are going before you. You just pick out who are your favorite five guys. Well, and the thing is, Ryan Poles can say best player available and they stick to their board. There's no better example than last year when they clearly wanted Ashton Genti and they end up not drafting until the seventh round in Kyle Menongai.

Like that's fairly obvious that they stuck to their board. But their board also had Rubin Hippolyte who was largely considered an undrafted free agent in the fourth round. I disagree. You know, the defensive evils for everybody just isolating on that. I think there's a lot to be said about that there. But then at the same time, Kyler and Jaquan Bristker were good draft picks. You know, take that draft. But then Valus Jones is your other dude.

Oh. And, you know, frankly, Ozzie Trepillar. pillow, I'm thrilled at how he turned out. I think Dan Rochard is a hell of a coach. I know that this Patelor Tendon may change the course of his career. But it was also a big gamble, a big gamble to decide you're taking a 6'8-8 right tackle and think that you want to move him to left. And that goes back to what we were talking about with the what the traits are, what the tape is, what the performance is on tape, and then what you think you can make him into. And that's the part. It's that last part where I'm asking, and myself. Well, how much does that factor into how you put this board together? Because we all think

we can change people. I feel like you came from a very specific place when you said, we all believe that we can change people talking about Ryan Poles and whether or not we trust him or not. I do not. But that's okay because he's got Ben Johnson and Dennis Allen here on Rahimi Harris from Grotie on 104. Declared his statement on 104. Listen, 312, 644-6-7-67, Texas, call us. Let us. I just want to know if other people trust Ryan Poles to a degree, which I do not. How much?

How much trust do you have in this man? Because here's how much I trust him. I trust that he will defer to Ben Johnson and Dennis Allen when they talk about what they need. But that's the point. Like, that's the point of a team. You know, just like if you really actually have people who will check you. And from what it sounds like in the past, according to one report, that may not have been the case, where if you checked him, you probably saw a pink slip

and you were out the door. But at the same time, you know, if you have respect for Ben Johnson's resume, for example, respect for Dennis Allen's resume. And to be fair, I think that Ryan Poles was also reflective of what Matt Eberfluse wanted when he was the head coach. You know, there's a confidence statement when Roquan Smith was traded out of the building. And Eberflux says, well, we wouldn't have drafted an offball linebacker nine, the all pro, the multi-time

old pro. Could be a future hall of fame, by the way. He was a good calling by the whoever this coordinator was and that would be me. He did have some good calls as a coordinator, okay? I'm not going to, I'm not going to take away all of it. That's funny and I liked it. But point being, Ryan Poles was reflective of what Maddie Eberflus wanted to. That's what a good executive does. Like you have to have a conversation with your coach. Can you coach this guy? But it's when we say, It's when we say, oh, despite playing at a different position, despite showing different tape, despite showing X, Y, and Z, I still like these traits about this player, even though his tape may not show it. We'll coach him up because we've got the best guys.

You did not have the best guys. Some of these people are who they are. So how many of those swings and misses can you take? And just like us talking about the 49ers and John Lynch, when you have a good group around you, you can take a little more risk and you withstand it and it's not going to cost you as much. That's the point here. I want to point something out here because 309 with a text that's been shared by others in its sentiment. Poles is in a lose-lose situation with this station. If it's a great draft, it's Ben's.

Fair draft, it's on polls. You're picking a side without picking aside. Let me explain why that's not true. I would say they're not listening. And if you want to half-listened and you can do that. But I also want to clarify, because this isn't the first time I've heard this argument. with Ryan Poles, he's done enough things that you can call into question or just straight out bad decisions that he is operating at a deficit going into last season. The Bears had a better season.

He had a better draft. We know Ben Johnson had his fingerprints, if not control, of that draft and what the priorities were. If he can replicate that on defense, yes, my stance will change on Ryan Poles. I'll give him more credit. And I did give him credit for some of the pictures. that he made in this past draft. I gave him credit for the offseason moves that brought about a completely reconstructed offensive line.

Some people are just triggered when they hear something negative. Well, I don't even know that we're being negative because we're saying, we're not saying, do you trust him? I trust him a little bit. I trust him to do what Ben Johnson and I guess Dennis Allen are guiding him to do. I want to know without Ian Cunningham now as the assistant GM, what happens this draft with a completely different set of needs. He's had, what did you say lately? He needs to have as many good seasons as he's had

bad seasons and we know he's still, even after winning the division title, operating at a deficit? Yeah, I was going to say, I need to see as many of last year's performances as the ones he had before to feel differently about him. So I feel like that was an excellent step last year. But as we've mentioned, you took some big swings in free agency on the defensive side of the ball too, that we're still all questioning. So I need to see as much of progress made in the next year as you had last year for me to change wholeheartedly and give more trust. Now, do I think he earned his extension last year? Yes. I would not have it. I said this before. I said this initially when he got it. I didn't think that he deserved the extension at the time.

But already you've evolved that opinion because of the success that this team had and what the players that he brought in did, honestly. Winning matters. Yeah. And then 2-2-4 says, so you are picking and choosing. It's a case-by-case basis. Then you add up your case and you see how you feel. If you want to do things differently, that's on you. And then the next text

says, people forget about Chase Claypool. Whereas somebody else said, why did you bring up Chase Claypool? And when we say that the split is the split, that's what we mean. So you heard our trust. 312, 644, 67, 67 is our number. How much do you trust him? And I feel like

this is a conversation that we're going to have until the actual draft in April. So you have some time to listen and think about it and reevaluate it. Just like a menu at a restaurant. You may not like one thing on the menu, but you like the other. So how much? That's Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the score. And if we have time for a dangerous nugget, I found one. I'll leave it at that.

Rahimi Harris and Grotie. Midday's 10 to 2 on 1043, The Score. This is Rahimi Harris and Grotty on 1043 to score. And we asked the question, how much do you trust Ryan Poles after last season going into this draft? 312, 644, 67 is our number. What do you giggle in about Marshall Harris? I think this might be closely aligned to how I feel. This is from 630.

My trust in polls has stabilized based on the rookie production in 2025. I was ready for him to be fired after 2024 when he let that coaching. staff nearly kill Caleb. If he keeps drafting best player available, I trust he will prove to be an above average DM with a high quality head coach resulting in plenty of wins. Isn't that

like as a baseline? Isn't that kind of how you would feel this has gone? Nailed it. Yeah. Nailed it. Yeah. I was very mad after 2024. I feel better after 2025. You feel better, but you don't feel like... You put yourself in some creative situations,

defensively spending in 2026. And so now it's just, can you take the next step? We know the NFL is all about parity, so a team can be a flash in the pan. I'm not saying this team is. I believe in Caleb and Ben, but defense has the defense. You can't spend the 10th most money in the NFL on defense

and get the fourth worst production. A lot of takeaways, though. Can't. John and Glenn Ellen, 312, 64, 64, 67, 67 is our number. You're on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly with the mixed analysis, except for I fall on the side of I don't really trust them because they've got a rookie quarterback and they've got all kinds of people

on rookie contracts. This is when they should be in really cap heaven and they're in a tough cap spot. That's on Ryan Poles. And they shouldn't be there right now. And if you look at a comparative, it would be like the New England Patriots. They're fat with cash and they're kind of on to come up with the Bears rookie quarterback, the Bears can be a better shape there. I think, John, you make a great point because, like, for example, spending a fourth round pick on a punter instead of perhaps an office of lineman who could have been part of the guard center guard combination. You know, could one have been there or the third round pick on Karana Magaji, who hasn't seen enough time for maybe to fetch a third round pick.

You know, that's where you save a lot of money. And instead, the Bears have had to spend a lot on the lines both defensively and offensively. Where's Karana Magaji on the whole depth chart? Like how are you looking at him right now? And like you said, a third round pick. That's a fair thing. Well, and if you look at the lions, for example, just to also add to that point,

the lions drafted on the lines. You know, they drafted Hutchinson. They drafted Pinae Sewell. And then because of that, they were able to have to spend differently and maybe not get themselves into as much of a cap situation. Now they had to extend Aiden Hutchinson. But I don't know who would think that wasn't the right thing to do.

What's hilarious is we have a text where people talk about 516. To me, the bottom line is the coaching staff never gets enough credit blame for drafts. Fair. It's fair. Here's why it's fair because we know it is a collaboration. We just don't know the percentage of the blame pie, if you will, or the credit pie, if you want to flip it the other way. Yeah.

And if they were to have a bad draft this offseason, or bad free agent signing, would we blame Ben Johnson the same way we credit Ben Johnson for what happened last year? But the beauty of Ben Johnson is he just had a bigger resume than anybody else who's come into the job, front office, or head coach in a long time. John Fox was a former head coach. But Ben Johnson has a resume and a body of work that people trusted and that people had seen him produced.

So he gets more credit because he earned it. There's people on this text line who still want Ryan Poles fired. That just tells you the range that we're talking about. And that's the point. Here's somebody who I don't think you should trust. And it kind of makes it all make sense. I can't believe I'm reading this headline out loud. Read it slow, though, so people can absorb it.

This is by our friend Scott Docterman, who does tremendous work at the athletic. So it's real. I know because Scott's byline is on it. Diego Pavia says mentor Johnny Mansell. mentor Johnny Mansell is giving me some good advice ahead of NFL draft. How do you feel about that, Lila?

Might I remind you where Diego Pavia ended up after the Heisman Trophy ceremony at a table at the club with signs that said what? What did those signs say, Lila? Blank who? Was it Fernando Mendoza? Who, who Fernando,

Mendoza, for example, has open to work on his LinkedIn profile. He is open to work until, you know, the draft happens. I just, yeah, yeah, based on, based on where you went the night after, it was Blank Indiana, to be fair. And, yeah, yeah, going to the club and having to sign this is Blake Indiana. If I had to, if I had to say that does that fall in line with the brand of Johnny Mansell? Yeah, it sure does. Can I read a quote from this story?

Please. One thing about me is I don't care what people think about me. God has a plan for me regardless, but the way the media is, they're supposed to put out clickbait and things like that. That's how people get views, and that's how people make money. I understand that. And so people will twist a story and try to put out bad media to get clicks, good media to get clicks.

That's just today's world that we live in, so I'm just adjusting. to the new world. Can I point out this has nothing to do with quote unquote the media unless you're talking about the social media? If there's one place I know where I'm going to not get attention after being nominated for the Heisman Trophy, it's to

a club where the sign lights up and is a little marquee with sparklers and girls carrying them and a sign that says blank Indiana. Like that's crazy. If there's one place I'm going to be low key, it's definitely the club in New York after the Heisman trophy with a light up sign.

it sounds like he's blaming the media for his actions. You mean to tell me that the man who considers Johnny Mansell mentor is blaming other people for the results of his actions? Between that quote. This is worse than the actual, like, the fact that the story is out there is going to do more, like, it's going to affect his draft stock more than anything else may have. I would like to be a fly on the wall of a team meeting.

with him and interviewing him. Bro, what are you doing? Did you watch the quote documentary, end quote? And that is putting it real, real loosely, where the overall arc of that story was, we had some good times. And frankly, poor Johnny Mansell at one point contemplated suicide, and that's not a good thing by any means.

But that the path itself was dangerous. He's just a friend of me. This is a quote. He's just a friend of, me so he's given me some mentorship. He's been around me. He's been around my family. He's just a great person for those that really don't know. And I'm not knocking Johnny Manzil in his adult form in his post-football form. In his post-Johnny football form. I used to work with his ex-girlfriend sister and her other sister used to do my hair in Houston. And I'll leave it at that. That was not a documentary.

That was a one-sided account. We should be talking about Diego Pavia as the guy who miraculously lifted Vanderbilt University. My sister's alma mater, by the way. Vanderbilt University. Your sister and Jay Cutler. Vanderbilt University to football greatness. Instead, we're talking about Johnny Mansell is his go-to guy when he has a question about how to handle things.

Mentor! It's crazy. This is a gray line from Dr.man. Like Mansell, immaturity seemed to follow Pavia. He had multiple social media. to writing Heisman voters in Indiana following his second place Heisman finish behind Hoosers' quarterback for Nana Mendoza. Pavia apologized later for the posts, but he has yet to shake the impression that he's another Mansell.

How did you write this with such restraint, Scott? When asked if any NFL teams asked about his social media post, Pavia said, nope, they haven't. I just think not that they don't care or whatever, but they kind of know the situation already. We all know the situation, sir. and Poles just told you about how social media affected his job.

Bro. This deserves the biggest bro of all time. It is what it is. Yeah, he's just... Shador went to the fifth round. I'm going to remind everybody of that. Oh, that's a great question.

Will he be drafted lower than Shador Sanders? Diego Pavia. That's a great question. The answer is no, but it's still a great question. What's the equivalent of like having naming somebody as your mentor and like a real job? And like that's the riskiest mentor you could name. I'd have to think of a job and I'd have to think about that one. I'll, I'll think about that. We'll ask, we'll ask Tina. We should ask Tina win. Tina Wynn from Fox 32 is joining us in studio. She was at spring training, got to talk one-on-one

with a lot of people both at Sox and at Cubs camp. So we will talk to her. next.