Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Interviews of the Week on 104.3 The Score: March 16-20

Episode Date: March 22, 2026

In Interviews of the Week on 104.3 The Score, FS1 host Danny Parkins joined the Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show to discuss the Bears' outlook for the 2026 season and to detail why they're a candidate to regress; Bootleg Football Podcast co-host and All 32 creator Brett Kollman joined the Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show to discuss the Bears' dire need to improve their pass rush; and Score football analyst Anthony Herron joined the Mully & Haugh Show to discuss the Bears' moves this offseason.

I could do Stephen A's job, guys. It's not that far. Danny Parkins. QB1 party. All are invited. Host of Fox Sports Wans, first thing first. Coming into number six, though, the team that should be the favorites in the NFC North, though, the odds makers say they're the third best team.

My Chicago Bears. Why can't the Chicago Bears be the best offense in football? The Bears, plenty of reason to doubt them. Caleb Williams, no. Former host of 670 the score before he abandoned us. That's the Caleb Williams. Custom, baby. Jersey number one is going to the Raptors.

You guys made it seem like a Chicago Bears fans. We had our guy, Danny Parkins, all these guys. Danny Parkins on 1043 The Score. This is Rahebi Harrison Brody on 1043 The Score. And Danny Parkins joins us as he does every Wednesday at this time. It is Mark Rohde. Marshall Harrison, Leila Rahimi with you. Danny is also on Twitch.

Twitch.tv slash The Score, Chicago. He hosts the newly expanded First Things First OT from 4 to 5 p.m. on Fox Sports 1. But he was on early because Nick Wright was in Japan. So Danny had the whole show every day last week. And Danny, you were on with us. Then you went less than an hour later to host the show. But you didn't tell me about this. Can I play some audio for you from your show?

I love nothing more. Go right ahead. You held something bad for us. More me, please. Okay, but this is something we have to discuss as a family here. So let's listen to Daddy moments later after we talked to him last week. These are regression candidates. My Bears, your Patriots, the Broncos, and the Jaguars.

Jaguars seem to be doing it on purpose. Jaguars with some of the actual losses, the Broncos with the one score wins, the bears with the comebacks and the health on the offensive line, and the Patriots because of the schedule difficulty. It's fair. Like, we are going to talk about all of these teams as contenders, but there will be totally fair cases to make for all of them that these teams are going to regress. Wait a second. What's all this regression candidacy talk?

Turn in your robe. Wow. Not the robe. What's all this one and a million talk? Yeah. I mean, listen, I think, does anyone dispute it? Like three areas where I would say the bears are not likely to regress, but will regress. They will not lead the league in fourth quarter comebacks.

They will not have 80% of their offensive line play 90% or more of the snaps, right? Left guard, center, right guard and right tackle last year, all played 90% or more of the snaps. and what was the third one? Maybe it was the takeaways. Yeah. Yeah, offensive. Yeah, right. And leading the league and takeaways.

Thank you. Yeah. Leading the league and takeaways, offensive line health, and fourth quarter comebacks. It's very likely, if not inevitable, that all three of those areas backslide, and we've already seen one of them with the Dalman surprise retirement,

that we already are going to have more uncertainty on the offensive line this year than last year. But that's just the case for regression, because the case for overcoming that regression is a very easy one. Caleb Williams will be better. So I am not – that segment, what you're polling from there is, like, when I was doing tears and, like, grouping teams together. And so we will talk about those teams as regression candidates, but the case for the Bears to back up what they did last year or take a step forward is how much of – Caleb Williams's inevitable improvement and consistency of production on offense overcome all of that stuff. Like if they go from number one and takeaways to number nine and they go from one of the healthiest offensive lines to middle of the pack, but they are a top 10 or top five or top one

offense and you don't need to rely on fourth quarter comebacks, you know, that's how you overcome it. So what you're playing there was me making the case for regression, but the obvious case to overcome the regression is the offense is going to be better and the offense is going to be more consistent. Do you consider that to be an easier path to overcoming the regression than the other candidates that you've named that obviously had good seasons last year? Okay, let's run through them. I think that what Denver did last year is almost impossible to replicate. They got unlucky at the end because of the Bow-Nicks injury, no doubt about it. That was very poorly timed.

It's rare you have wrapped up a divisional round game and get to play on championship Sunday, and that's when you have to start playing a backup quarterback. That is horribly unlucky. But they played down to every opponent last year. They played a close game against the Raiders. They played a close game against the Giants. They played a close game against the Jets.

You go back and look at the Broncos' schedule last year, and they were playing down to bad opponents. That's very, very tough to. replicate, though I like the Jalen Wattel trade. The Jaguars, they are another team. I think we talked about it a few weeks ago, Marshall, like the grouping of teams that believe they can be the best offense in football. They absolutely believe they can be the best offense in football because for the last

nine weeks they were. But do I think that's a 13-win team again? Probably not. And then what was the four? Oh, and then New England. Listen, New England had a remarkable season, and Drake May, I said he would have gotten my MVP vote if I had one, and I should. But it was the easiest schedule of any team since the greatest show on turf Rams. So clearly they are going to be more challenged next year.

But they also will bet on Drake May and the rest of the team. They're a very young team getting even better. So, you know, I think the Patriots and the Bears are very similar teams and how they would, overcome regression. And I think the Broncos and the Jaguars kind of are staring inevitability in the face of they're going to win fewer games next year than they did this past year. Danny Parkins, I'm always glad that when you're on, that I'm actually here. So great to talk to you. A nice change of pace. Yeah, we don't know when he's going to be out and when he's not, Danny. I wish I could tell you, but this is a weekly discussion. Which is really the best way to do radio.

You know, it's a medium of consistency. It's like, who's going to be here on a given day? We basically pull a card out of an envelope on a Friday and that determines what happens in the next week. A dove visits us and a carrier pigeon has a message and then sometimes we find out. No, that's the best way to do it. I'm literally on every other day. It's really the greatest schedule I've ever had in my life. But Danny, I was on with one of your guys, Andrew Phillip Pony, Bears, the Pony. I was on with him on Friday on his show in Pittsburgh because he wanted to talk about Jaquan Brisker.

And they are saying in Pittsburgh that that's the steel of free. agent to have gotten Jaquan Brisker on a one-year $5.5 million deal. What do you think about what the Bears have done at safety, bringing in Kobe Bryant and turning their backs on both Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker? So I think they upgraded and they basically got something that was hopefully more of a long-term solution. I get what Ponies saying. If Jaquan Brisker played not even every game, if he played 10 games a year, year like he played in the Packers' playoff game, the road game, he would have gotten $50 million. You know, like he, he was unbelievable, he's arguably the best player on the field in that game.

And so, like, we know the talent, but is he, does he play a brand of football that is sustainable to over a 17-game sample? Byard, I got to say, and Grotie, you were in the locker room, and so I've never met or spoken with Kevin Byard. And he won't make the Hall of Fame. But what an OG. Like 10 years in an NFL career, never missing a single game due to injury,

he led the league in interceptions last year with seven. He had a different year where he had eight interceptions. He had two different years where he had five interceptions. He has more career interceptions than Rodney Harrison. He has more career interceptions. than Devin McCordy. He has more career interceptions than Akim Taleb. Like, he is an awesome player, but he's 32.

And so I think injuries with Brisker and betting on that being a peak of Byrd and eventually Father Time being undefeated and trading that in for a 26-year-old versatile Kobe Bryant and then pairing him with a draft pick is like a much more three to five year plan solution at safety, as opposed to you're always going to be year to year with a guy of Byrd, given his age, and with Brisker, you're going to be year to year because of the injury history and the concussion.

So is it possible you're going to have remorse on one or both of those guys for this upcoming year? Yes, but like over the next three years, I think the odds are heavily in the bear's favor that Kobe Bryant is the best safety over like the next three years compared to the next one. Wait, if you wanted an MVP vote, who would you have voted for? Yeah, this year, I would have given it to Drake May.

I would have given it, I would have given it to Drake May with the emphasis on value, like doing more with less. Stafford was incredible, obviously. He had a very old school traditional MVP candidacy, led the league in yards, led the league in touchdowns. But Drake May, with the win total jump, the performance under pressure, completion percentage over expectation, and just like Kishon Booty and Stefan Diggs and Hunter Henry. Like it was just, it was it was not exactly first team all pro, Pooka Nakuwa and Hall of Fame to be Devante Adams who led the league in touchdowns. Like Stafford just was dealing with so much more help that given how. close it was, I would have, Ty would have went to value and exceeding expectations, and I would

have given it to Drake May. And, you know, it ended up being, you know, one of the closest NFL MVP votes in history, closest MVP vote we'd had in almost 20 years. So, you know, it was a great, great case for both guys, but I would have gone to Drake May. Danny Parkins joins us here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. You can check out, Danny, on the newly expanded First Things First OT from 4 to 5 p.m. daily on FS1. Danny, here's my issue. I was looking at a graphic and I was talking to Grotty about this. I look at the departures. I look at the additions. I understand what you're saying about aging guys and guys that you don't know how healthy Jaquan Brisker is going to be for the remainder of his career. But it just feels

like the bears are coming up short and it leaves me this one fundamental question. Do you trust Ryan Poles to draft defensive linemen who are good? Because I haven't seen Ryan Poles draft defensive linemen who are good. Yeah, I haven't either. And this is like one of the fundamental questions of like How much are we willing to say the draft is luck? Because I'm willing to say a lot of the draft is luck. And like is Ryan Poles, like is he just,

he's really good at one position and really bad at another and then he's okay at another and then he's mediocre? Or is the different? defining thing of his era, the trade of the number one pick in the Bryce Young draft, is that fundamentally also a lucky thing? Because if Carolina was a little better and you get the fifth pick instead of the first pick, then Caleb Williams isn't a bear, and maybe the bears end up drafting J.J. McCarthy and Ryan Poles is fired.

Like, it's just so much of how this goes is luck that I'm not sure I'm willing to say, even as we have a growing sample size of his moves and his. evaluation and his draft picks, like, that he is bad at defensive linemen, but he's good at cornerbacks and late round offensive linemen. Like, I know that there is some data to support that, but like, I just, I just think that you can't have a perfect football team. There's going to be holes. And like, in a vacuum, I'm fine with Ryan Poles being the general manager of the Bears, because I think the state of the Bears is actually in a pretty good spot. And we should probably be dividing up Ryan Poles' drafts into a pre-Benz Johnson era and a post-Bent Johnson era.

I like that I absolutely don't think that if let's, I mean, pick a different coach. But like, let's say Ben Johnson wasn't here last year, right? It's a different coach. Matt Iber Fluse is still here. They hired somebody else. Does anybody think Colston Loveland is on the Bears? I'm with you on that, but I think that the guiding principle of Ben Johnson is what makes me wonder, okay, I know Ben Johnson's here now and that's why the offense went the way it did in last year's draft.

Now that you need a defensive focused draft, can he do the same thing on defense based on what we've seen? I guess maybe do you trust Dennis Allen the same way you trust Ben Johnson? Well, definitely not. But how could you? You know what I mean? How could you based on the results? but also Dennis Allen is a journeyman and Ben Johnson is like swimming in the Sean McVeigh, Kyle Shanahan, best young coach in the game waters.

Like, you know, so like we, I do not believe that like that Ben Johnson is so married to offense that he is blinds to the idea that this team needs a defensive upgrade this year and that he needs, you know, front seven help this year because he knows that Aiden Hutchison helped the Lions offense in Detroit and that it's a team game. and he's the head coach. So I think that we should be operating under the premise that, like, Ben Johnson might be a football genius. And if Ben Johnson's a football genius and he gets in the lab and Ryan Poles is like, okay, these five guys, you know, at positions of need, detackle, D-end, and linebacker, like front seven players, these five guys are the guys that I think we can get with our first round pick.

And Ben Johnson goes in and he watches the cut up of all five guys. like I am totally comfortable giving him the benefit of the doubt that he's going to pick the right guy in that spot. Like I don't think that it's going to be like Dennis Allen runs this draft personally. So yeah, I think we give them the benefit of the doubt on Ben Johnson. And yeah, Grotie, I like that question. Go ahead. Sorry, we're supposed to wrap. You saw me holding it up.

I was told to get a break. I saw you. Every time Brown saved me a note, he points it right at this camera action. Sorry. I'm locked in. Yeah, no. What's up with the Radiothon? All right.

So I still have not been given clearance for a date, but that's okay. It is going to be sooner than it's ever been before, which is also okay. And I would just say what I would remind people, if you are a individual, if you're going to be able to donate $25, $5, $100, whatever, we got all that stuff for you again, and that's going to be great, and you need to tune in on the date, and there'll be plenty of promotion of it leading up to it. But if you are an individual of means, a high net worth individual, or a company looking for your philanthropic donation for the 2026 fiscal year to go further than it can anywhere else, everything that is raised during the Radiothon goes to the cause of cancer research. We raised $750,540. The money goes to Cubs Charities and then it gets disseminated to brain up the charity that I'm on the board of directors of.

Cubs charities wired brain up, $750,000, $540. There is no overhead. Everything is donated. We all donate our time. We donate our experiences. We're all paid salaries so that, you know, I do things for other organizations. And it's like, well, there's an open bar. And you can have the steak or the salmon.

And there's a DJ. And then at the end of the night, we're like, well, we raised 800 grand or a million bucks or whatever. It's like, yeah, but it also costs $250,000 to put on the event. You know, so like, this is a, it is a, it is a, a. true dollar raised goes to dollar cause and if you or your company want to get involved at a real level to sponsor an hour to sponsor multiple hours to be a presenting sponsor uh my dms are open on twitter and instagram you can call the score to put you in touch with me 670 radiathon at gmail dot com i'm an easy guy to get in touch with on this sort of thing and uh we got to do bigger than better

then i mean think about it we have people who have passed away since the last radio athon rino just passed right before obviously terry boers troy murk We got so many people that we need to honor and raise money for because cancer affects all of us. Well said, Danny Parkins. He is at Danny Parkins on X. You can find him. He is also on Instagram. And he joins us to talk about what happened on the show last week.

Danny, thanks so much. Thanks, yeah. Did that cause a stir? Did the regression thing cause a stir? No, we just wanted to mess with you about it because that's what we do. It was a little bit. A little stir. A ripple?

There was no stir over here. I was not stirred. A little ripple. We just wanted to make sure what was going on. Just like we didn't want to have to take away your bear's robe. That's all. I think he did. I think he tried to.

Oh, I did. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, I can send you a robe, buddy. You want a robe? He needs a smoking jacket and a fake pipe that blows bubbles. I do. For the pen. Yeah.

What pen? I don't know what you're talking about. Hey, hey, you two's. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Every week you bring up the pen. Oh, it was you this time. Sneakersons.

Yeah. Troublemakers. Danny, thanks so much. Bye, Danny. Are you back to your typical schedule this week? Yeah, yeah. Just one, you know, someone's got to do one hour

of TV a day and call the job. Get out of here. Goodbye. Have fun, Danny. Robbie Triano is also posting on Twitch, so say I had a Robbie for us. This guy's got to get back to work. Man, Danny, it takes no prisoners.

Coming up next year on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, it is time to discuss something that, I don't think I saw coming. It is a move that was made regarding a stadium and land. Or was it a stadium? But either way, there's already plans for the thing. Justin Ishbiyah is working in town. So let's talk about it next.

I think I've mentioned this over the years, constantly just looking at short-term, long-term, what's going to help this football team now, but also being conscious of what's going to happen down the road. we want to sustain success. We've talked about that a lot. In order to do that, we have to be very calculated with the moves that we make. So when we were looking through different situations,

we took that into account and we felt like sticking with our plan and going into for agency. That was the best thing for us to do. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3, The Score. And that is Ryan Poles talking about spending more on edge rusher. gee wonder why that would pop up you know maybe more on the draft capital gee wonder why that would pop up oh we know why so to talk about that

we've brought in one of the experts of the game talking football Brett Coleman he is at Brett Coleman on X he is also the creator of all 32 he has an outstanding YouTube channel and he is the co-host of the bootleg football podcast Brett how are you thanks for coming on

I'm doing wonderful thank you for having me Brett also joins us on Twitch you can find them there at twitch.tv slash the score Chicago. That has been the biggest discussion here, Brett, is the desire for more pass rush out of the bears, knowing how much capital they spent in free agency on it the previous year and two years, really. What is your impression of just the bear's lack of pass rush or maybe what the lack of it is

for what they spent? How do you assess it when you look back at the season? I mean, the Dio acquisition hasn't worked out how they hope. the Grady Jared acquisition hasn't worked out quite like they hoped. You know, Dexter had a strong start to his career. Hasn't quite developed the way that they hoped, let alone the other DTs they brought in. Like Montez, Montez, I guess, worked as an acquisition and a payment.

If you're looking at where the edge market is now, but when they first paid him, he was what, like the sixth highest paid edge when that contract first happened. And I don't think he's ever really approached being any of the top 10 edges in the league since he got that. deal. So it's it's just kind of one move after another that like at the time you understand it, but none of them have really hit and given them like an anchor, edge rusher or even just pass rusher, whether it's interior or edge to build around. And so now I look at the drafts where,

okay, they made a move to shore up linebacker bringing in Devin Bush. You know, they short up safety. Corner, we still have some questions about what Tyreek is going to be long term, but like you can get by with the corners they have. They just need to go all in again on defensive line and just keep taking swings until somebody hits. Luckily for them, this is a good edge rusher class to do it. And I would probably take two of them with their first three picks. Wow.

So two of three there, we're trying to figure out if they're going to use those picks, the first rounder and the two second rounders to do that and or fix, I don't know, offensive line. There's just so many different directions they go. Let me ask you this. as we get into this second wave of free agency, is there an area where you feel like the Bears can improve through that avenue before we get to the draft?

There's not really a whole lot else out there at the moment. This was a very thin, free agent class. General managers have gotten wise over the last four to five years that if you sign guys early, you get a discount because the cap is jumping 8 to 9% per year, which is translating to a $20 to $25 million jump in the cap every single year at this point. So if you get guys done early, you know, it'll kind of, the off ramp, I guess, I would say, is smoother, right? Especially when you're throwing in void years and everything like that.

So you see teams like Buffalo paying guys, a slew of guys after their third year. You know, the Eagles are just throwing like four void years under their contracts to fit everybody in. So it's just teams are getting better about retaining their own core, unless you're the Ravens. They'll let everybody go. But, you know, because of that, the free agent classes are relatively thick. in compared to what I would say they worked 10 years ago. It's just not a lot of guys hitting the market that are of quality. So you really

have to be a draft and developed team. And unfortunately, when it comes to pass rush, the bears have not been a good draft and developed team since oh god, 2005, if I had to guess. Oh, goodness. Mark's covered the bears for a very long time.

You feel like that's the year? You feel like that checks out? Like in terms of having a legitimate pass rush? Like, well, you No, no, in terms of like drafting. Because like 2018, like Kalil was brought in through trade. And Robert Quinn. Yeah. Like who were the home grown?

Like, when's the last Tommy Harris? So you're thinking, yeah, Tommy Harris and you had, and I was going to go Keith trailer, Ted Watt, but those guys were free agent signings as well. So yeah. I think, I think, Tommy. It's been like 20 years since they drafted a guy. Yeah. And then Tommy Harris's story was sad because his career ended too early and he was not as

effective. But he was legit when he was here. So yeah, Brett. that kind of blows my mind, but I think you're right. One of the biggest act, where I would say probably so far, the biggest signing, Brett, that the Bears have had in this wave is Kobe Bryant as we go to the secondary. What does his film look like relative to Kevin Byard? I guess what I'm really asking you is, is Kobe Bryant better than Kevin Byard?

At this stage in his career, I think he has more range than Byard. I think Byard, you know, obviously his instincts were incredible, you know, was in the right place and the right time a lot throughout his career. But I think they wanted somebody who could be more of a post player when they do play single high safety structures, which Dennis Allen does like to do. He likes to be in single high, whether it's cover one or cover three,

and have somebody with the range to go from numbers to numbers in the back end. And Kobe Bryant can do that at this point in his career better than Kevin Byard can. As for the style of defense they played towards the end of the season, season, you saw Dennis Allen start to come out of his shell a little bit. He blitzed a lot more later in the year. He did play a lot more quarters later in the year. He did stuff that we don't normally see. But I think that was really more out of necessity than him actually wanting to do it,

even though it worked really well. So I think that the signings they made, particularly in the back end, signal that like, nope, this is going to be a cover three team. And if they have the people to do it, that's what they're going to be. We're talking to Brett Coleman. he's the creator of the All-32, has an amazing background on Twitch, if you ever get to see it. Twitch.tv.com slash The Score Chicago. He also is the co-host of the bootleg football podcast. And I did want to get your thoughts because Ryan Poles Brett last week, acknowledged at the very end of his press conference,

acknowledged that there was talks with the Bears and with the Raiders regarding Max Crosby. He said we were in on it. He alluded to that. What do you think about the whole trade situation falling through like it did. What's next? And if you thought that he would have been a good fit for the Bears. I mean, obviously, I think it would have been a great fit for the Bears. Who would have been the best edge rusher on the team? But at the same time, every single ball club is looking at the 2027 draft.

Like, everything is orbiting around 2027. And I don't think anybody really wants to give up picks in that year, especially high picks in that year. next year's draft class is utterly absurd at almost every single position. You know, like this year, like really good linebacker class, you know, some sneaky tight ends, everything like that. Jeremiah, I love at the top. Like, I don't think there's a running back next year that's as good as Jeremiah I love,

but they're pretty darned close. But you also have the quarterbacks. You have receivers. You have edges. Like, it's, I think next year's class is going to be like a 2014 and go back and look at the 2014 draft and you'll see what I'm talking about. So they didn't want to give up access. to that class. And I totally understand it for an edge rusher that's about to be 29 is coming off a

major injury and already has a major contract sign. So you're not just trading for the player, you're trading for the contract. And I think they believed in this draft, because there are so many edge rushers, I think they believed in their ability to patch that hole through that while retaining access to the 2027 draft next year, which is absurd. Brett, I believe truly that this draft is bigger than last year's draft for Ryan Poles just because they have on offense everything they need in the quarterback and the head coach, the two most important things, but they have not yet, at least under Ryan Poles, and you just talked about it going back to 2005 with the draft and developed. They have not been able to draft defensive linemen who have been

stellar above average. However you want to put it, there has not been a game changer that has been brought in by Ryan Poles. Do you agree with that kind of assessment that this is bigger than last year because of the importance of that position. I mean, just look at the last two Super Bowls. Well, I think the fact they were even in on Max to begin with was them kind of acknowledging, like, yeah, this has been a weak point for us. The reason why the Ravens were in on it is because, boy, you think the Bears are bad at drafting and developing edges.

Look at the Ravens Graveyard. Since, you know, basically Zedaria Smith and Matthew Judon walk out the door, they have consistently had to bring in older edges in Baltimore to fix their problem. And Trey Hendrickson was their this year's solution. to that. But like they were in on it for the same reason. Like both of these teams, they're just like, God, we can't, we can't get a guy. And some franchises are very good at that. You know, Chiefs got Chris Jones in the second round. Pittsburgh got T.J. Watt late in the first round. You know, Houston has consistently found edge rush. I mean, even Will Anderson is a top five pick. But like, they've consistently found other pass rushers through other means that don't cost a high first round pick. The bears just haven't been able to do it. basically since the Killeleel-Mac era. And we're almost approaching a decade since that 2018 defense. I know time has flown, but it's been a while.

So I think Ryan, I think he understands the pressure to just finally nail getting a pass rush. I think he's going to throw as many resources at it as he needs to in order to finally get it done. Brett, the fixer for everything, any hole that the bears might have going forward in theory. is the quarterback is Caleb Williams, that we all know that good, great elite quarterbacks clean everything up. The question is, Brett, I'm just wondering from your film review throughout the season, what do you think about Caleb Williams right now and the trajectory that he is on? So you saw the progression from the start of the year to the end of the year as far as like Ben Johnson's chosen style of offense, right? It was very under center heavy. It was very

play action heavy, but it wasn't the same type of play action or under center play action that he was doing in Detroit. In Detroit, Jared Goff, it was very much like, I am picking on linebackers. I am picking on hook zone droppers, like between the numbers, intermediate depth, like we are going to work the middle of the field off play action because play action is going to move those players and I can pick apart those windows. Whereas with Caleb, like when they were going under center play action, it was big game hunting all day long, right? Like they were, they were attacking down the field. So everybody looks at the completely. Belisha percentage, but it's like you got to look at the average depth of target too.

Like they were attacking. And it didn't work all the time. But when it would hit, they would get a chunk play and then they would build off of those explosives and chain them together. Like they very much wanted to be an offense similar to the Rams. And the Rams, if you're looking at, you know, getting an explosive pass play, one play after an explosive pass play and chaining those two together, the Rams were by far number one in the league at that last year. And that's really what Ben Johnson wanted to be. He wanted to build an offense out of explosives. Sometimes they would stall and they would stall for a while when they just weren't hitting them and then you would get to the fourth quarter and all of a sudden all they're getting is explosive plays.

So really what I think this offseason is about is just being able to hit those explosives earlier in the game. So the fourth quarter isn't so stressful because we see what they can be when they're actually hitting those. It's just we're only getting it for one quarter every single week. We're talking to Brett Coleman, the creator of the All-32. He's also the host of the bootleg football podcast and Rahimi Harrison Grotie. And you've mentioned this a couple times. You've alluded to the Ravens, and that's your latest video on your YouTube channel. It is entitled, When You Build a Team for Second Place.

What is a, why were the Ravens the focus for you today? And what are your thoughts on how you put this together? It's a cautionary tale about, you know, trying, or rather sticking too much to the process, I would say. And if you're looking at a lot of the best teams in the league, they get a core of players, right, at a certain age range, and then they're retaining that core and they're stacking another generation on top of it, right? And you look at like the Eagles, they have an older core, they have a younger core, they mesh those two together, they won a Super Bowl.

You know, the Chiefs had an older core with Mahomes and Jones and Kelsey, and then they They stacked a younger core on top of it after they traded away Tyreek Hill and got a bunch of picks. They drafted a younger core of guys, including Trent McDuffie, won a few Super Bowls. And so you have to have multiple cores together. But to do that, you have to retain your talent. And I feel like the Ravens have consistently either let guys walk that they probably shouldn't have walked or be. They would draft a good player in the first round, but not necessarily one that they felt confident enough in retaining. so they would let them walk anyway.

And I feel like the Ravens don't draft as well as maybe their reputation is. And because they draft guys that aren't outright busts, but they're also drafting guys that are only there for one contract because they're just not good enough to retain. And so that's how you end up with a situation where you're spending five or three out of your five first round picks over five-year period on receiver and the best one you get is Zay Flowers, right? Or you spend two first round picks within seven years on a linebacker

only, neither one of them stays for more than one contract, and you're also spending a second on Roquan Smith, and you pay him a top of market deal to fix your linebacker issue. So when you have to spend that many picks on linebacker and receiver, and you're not really getting any long-term contributors that you can stack one core on top of another, like that's how you end up just building a team that's good, even very, very good, but never going to actually win a championship. And so my criticism of the Ravens is like they're they're kind of a victim of their own process sometimes. Like I understand they let Tyler Linderbaum or they weren't going to match $27 million for Tyler Linderbaum. I get it. But they had an opportunity to extend Tyler Linderbaum a while

ago when he wasn't going to be $27 million. Maybe you should have done that. And you know, they're like, oh, we're not going to do a fifth year option for a center. Like that number is egregious. I don't know. It's not $27 million. So you probably could have done that and saved yourself the whole. You probably could have retained Isaiah likely instead of retaining a much older Mark Andrews. You didn't have to keep Marlon Humphrey. You're keeping him because you want to. You could have used that money on Tariq Wallen.

So it's just the loyalty to the guys that they probably shouldn't retain while letting the guys go that they probably should retain. And they just keep creating holes for themselves that they have to fill in the first round over and over and over again rather than actually getting better and stacking talent on top of each other. Brett Coleman, we appreciate the time here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. If you want to check out his work, you can go to that usually. channel. It is at Brett Coleman. That's where you can check it out. He's the creator of the All-32,

and he is part of the bootleg football podcast. Thanks again, Brett, for joining us. Thanks, Brett. Thank you. Coming up next, we have to ask the question because it's been floating around and we can't quite get a handle on it. How much money do the bears really have? Depends on who you ask. So we'll point, counterpoint next. And now it's time for Anthony Heron on 104-3, The Score. Gabe Ramirez, CHSN's Ruthie Polinsky, filling in for Mully and Hot today. On 104-3, The Score. And right now, joining us on the Plumbers 911 hotline plumbing emergency,

called 833 Plum 9-1, Local 130 Plumbers, get the job done right the first time. We are joined by the sultry, the smooth. The Ever So Talented Anthony Heron. What's up, Big Ant? How you doing, man? Gapryl! What's going on, man?

What's up? Just talking to you guys. Hey. I almost had you on yesterday with Cassie Carlson. We were going to have a Bears on Leashed reunion. But then I thought that had been too much. I said, let's push it.

Let's push it one day. A lot going on in the world of the Bears. I haven't had an opportunity to really, you know, get your opinions on all things happening. I, as you know, being the Bears fan, I'm always the cynic, right? I'm always cautiously optimistic. And when I see a lot of these moves, the one line that I've been saying over the last week or so is that, you know, the bears have gotten faster, but they haven't gotten scarier.

And I'm curious, when you look at all these additions, how do you assess it? Is it, you know, this is just phase one? Is it they did a good job plugging the holes? Or are you equally as concerned as I am about what has been done? up until the present. I feel you on that. I do because the way that the roster is being reshaped right now, you see the potential in a lot of moves,

but they're not filled with a bunch of proven commodities like the Bears had before. Now, when you pay big money to some of the guys who the Bears previously had at key positions, then the expectations go up because the feeling is you expect these guys to play to the value of their contract. in some situations that didn't seem to be the case. But they were still really good football players.

Just like, all right, is Tramane Edmund's worth all the money he was being paid? Right now, Montez Sweat is still here. That question still kind of looms with Montez Sweat. But he's still a really good defensive end. But if they had moved on from Montez Sweat, you'd have a big hole to fill there. You've got a big hole to fill with DJ Moore not being a part of the receiver core anymore. So there's certainly key spots where that question very much looms, even with a veteran coming in like Garrett Bradbury.

He's played a lot of good football, a lot of winning football. It's a definitive downgrade at center by comparison to what you'd gotten last season from Drew Dalman. So as a roster overall, this to me really does put pressure on the coaching staff. In addition to the players who've come in, you want to see the best version of all these guys. They do have a coaching staff who we saw the best version of so many of these bears last season. So that to me is where some of the confidence needs to come into this. Of course, another really good draft cycle has to happen, but also once you get in between the white lines, once these guys are on the field,

that's where this coaching staff, because you both know, and especially Gabe, I've been on the air with you talking about this a lot over the years, the development of the players within the Bears locker room. That was something that lacked from multiple previous coaching staffs. And we finally saw an example last season of what quality coaching, quality development can look like. and it got the best version of a lot of guys on the field.

And Bears, as we know, led the league with 33 takeaways last year. Fifteen of them are gone, right, with Nashon Wright and Kevin Byard on their way out. The takeaways, I think, that was the identity, right, of the Bears' defense and the style of play. And that's how they were able to keep, I think, the team in a lot of those games and especially a lot of those close games last year. What would you like to see the identity of the defense be this year as Dennis Allen gets to bring more guys? that fit his style of play. The dependence on the blitz to get after

the quarterback, that played out well enough for the Bears last season, but even without pass rush pressure, to your point, Ruthie, they were able to create so many takeaways and get those interceptions. My hope is that you see a healthy Jalen Johnson, a

healthy Kyle of Gordon, because both guys are at an age where they're kind of just entering, what should be their physical prime. So I feel good about the idea that at 26 years old, both those guys are going to get back to full health. Can they sustain it? Can they maintain health? Because it's been a question with each of them to a certain extent.

You know, that last season was the most extended time that either of them have missed in their career. And it happened to just come in unison. And you could have used both of them that much more. So the D-line, a guy like Austin Booker, it'd be great to. to get another step to see him go to another level. But a lot of the guys who we would be hopeful about whether or not they can really provide more pass rush pressure are already fairly veteran at this point.

So, you know, Austin Booker is a guy. He said, all right, that's a really young football player. We possibly haven't seen anywhere near the best of Austin Booker. But I feel like we've got a sense for sweat and Jared, a dangbo when he's healthy. Dexter, again, good football players. But are these guys who suddenly are going to become one of the most ferocious pass rushing units in the league, I'd be pleasantly surprised if that ended up being the

case. So the secondary to me is again where I think the bears are likely going to have to lean just to see how much can they get from those guys as far as adding to the blitz package, adding pressure on the quarterback, but also their coverage abilities on the back end because Jalen Johnson, Kyler Gordon, those are Pro Bowl level players when healthy. We're talking to Anthony Herron here on 104.3, the score, Gabe Ramirez, Ruthie Polinsky. filling in for Mully and Haw. And I looked at teams like Seattle and the Patriots and the Super Bowl and, you know, you hear all the storylines, right?

Oh, nobody on their defensive line had more than 10 sacks. And, you know, maybe they didn't have necessarily the superstars littered throughout the entire defenses. In your mind, when you see the construction of the Bears defense as it is in its current state, I'm trying to figure out what the best roster construction is. Is it in your mind as somebody who played defensive line? Is it a defense that is top heavy littered with superstars, high-ticket guys, and then you're filling in the other positions with maybe, you know,

rookies or guys that can get the job done? Or is it about spreading it out evenly so that that way you can get the best overall defense, you know, the best 11 guys that are out there? I like the idea of spreading it out. That's always sort of suited my sensibilities in a lot of ways in life. And for the bears, you know, when you have, let's say, Khalil Mack, who's a recent example that the franchise has had. We say, there's a big ticket item, and you need somebody to go out there and deliver in a way that just sort of tilts the field,

where the entire defense can revolve around that individual talent, because you know the entire opposing offense is going to revolve around trying to stop that one guy. The bears don't have one of those dudes. So what do you need to do? You need to make sure that the guys who are on the field are assignment, sound, and that they are playing with this sort of ferocious tenet. that allows you to wear them out for a series or a couple of series and then rotate other bodies in up front on the defensive line.

That's where, hopefully, if this is a really deep group up front on the D line, perhaps even in the full front seven, then you can be in a position where Montez Sweat is just playing so hard and that size and athleticism is flying around. And then when you do rotate in with other bodies, they can do the same thing because individual talent can certainly be something that takes a game over. But when you can attack the opponent in waves,

especially on the D-line, because it's the least mentally taxing position on the field. You don't necessarily have to know in detail what the other position groups, what the linebackers, what the D-Bs are doing at all times. But it's the most physically taxing position. So that's where depth up front matters so much, especially in modern football. You see more teams willing to go tempo than we've ever seen before.

The volume of passing, you can get, you know, out of condition just because you're past rushing so frequently. But now we've seen the run game kind of return to the four. And so many teams want to run the rock with physicality. So you get that sort of physical aspect to the game where you've got to hit blocks against the run, but then the cardiovascular aspect of rushing the quarterback consistently. So for the bears to be deep on the D line, it'd be nice. If they happen to draft someone, if there's a player at Pick 25 who came in as a rookie

and just knocked our socks off as this excellent pass rusher who everybody had to have eyes on. It'd be great for the Bears. That's a lot to count on, though. So I think that the depth, especially up front on the D-line, to just have guys playing with energy,

that can really end up paying dividends when you do it right. So I want to ask you about a familiar face returning, Jack Samborn. We know the linebacker position is an interesting one, right? Because as you mentioned,

Tremaine Edmins was a really good football player. And he's going to be a starter on 32 NFL teams. right out there. So this is somebody that the bears are going to have to figure out how to replace. Obviously, they go out and get Devin Bush, who I think everyone's really excited about. You re-signed to Marco Jackson. And now you have had Jack Sanborn in the mix.

Ruben Hippolyte is a draft pick from last year, and he couldn't even get on the field for special teams. Like he was a healthy scratch at the end of the year. So where does Jack Sanborn fit into this? Obviously, also a great special teamer. Jack Sanborn is definitely a guy who's going to see snaps on defense. I think to your point, Ruthie, we should expect him to be, of course, special teamer. You factor in that Noah Sewell is likely

to miss significant time. You're popping Achilles and you don't expect the guy like that to be back too soon. But Jack Sanborn, he's capable of being that core special teamer. But I think especially from a run defense perspective, that's where a couple of these moves in the front seven stand out to

me. Neville Gallimore, James Lynch, those are viewed as guys who are quality run defenders on the D line. Jack Sanborn, we've seen here in Chicago, do you want them to be it every down lineback or do you want them covering folks in space? That's not as strong suit. But a guy who can step into some run situations and give you quality football,

Jack Sanborn is capable of that. So I think this is another body that can shore up the Bears run defense and hopefully just enhance how they operate in that phase of the game and then get opponents into some predictable downs and distances where whether it's the blitz package or whether it's just your D-line having more certainty that they don't have to worry about the run because there's some long yardage scenarios. Jack Sanborn can be the type of guy who you can put out there to help stuff to run.

And then if he's going to be out there, he can be a part of your blitz package because he is a quality blitzer with some snap anticipation. But you don't want him out there covering folks in the past too often. You don't want him necessarily, you know, operating against the toss sweep

because he's got to run sideline to sideline. But I like the resigning of Jack Sanborn. Happy for him, you know, to return to his hometown to be here, you know, be a part of the Bears. but also just the team itself. There's certainly a role where I expect to see Jack Sanborn playing a lot of football here, not only on teams but on rundowns for this defense

because that was a big weakness, as you both know for the Bears last season. I just remember Jack Sanborn finally getting into the game and you and I were talking about, I remember exactly when he came and we were like, oh, oh, wow. This is a guy right here. That's what happens a lot of the times that you don't necessarily get to call somebody's name,

but you certainly did that with Jack Samboor. talking to Anthony Heron here on 104-3, the score, Gabe Ramirez, Ruthie Polinsky filling in for Mully and Hall today. I got to ask you before we get up out of here. And we were talking a second ago about Jack Hughes, the guy from USA hockey, scored the winning goal. And now the Hockey Hall of Fame wants to, or he's getting the puck. But Jack Hughes wanted it to give to his dad. So I'm curious. You played in a lot of important games in your time at Iowa.

Obviously, a bunch of different leagues that you played in. have you ever taken something like that where, you know, at the end of the game, you're like, damn, I got to have this. Maybe like in high school, you know, or college, anything of the sorts? Oh, yeah, yeah, constantly. I was, I had sticky fingers for different teams. I was with that. Not Anthony Herron, no way.

You know, where it was, you know, you get a football occasionally from the organization. No, no, no, no, no, I need specifics. I want to know exactly what you took. I got a really nice NFL chair that was in. that was at the actual stadium with one of the teams I was with. It was like, it's padded. I still got it out sitting in the sunroom in the back actually right now. It's padded.

It's got the big NFL logo on it. It's got nice blue padding. It's like an iron chair, too. And I've broken a few chairs in my day at my side. So it feels like a really secure chair that I can sit in with confidence. I can smack down it if I want to. I don't have to ease into it. But it's got good padding on the cushion.

and then just the NFL logos are the back of it. So when I leave it back, I got to ask. I got to ask. I mean, because listen, here I've been,

I've just telling Ruthie, I've been in this Odyssey building since 2008. And yes, many a time I've taken things out of this building that I probably shouldn't have. We won't get into details. But I'm always concerned,

like, on how I'm going to get these items out of the building, right? Because you got security downstairs. So if you got a big package, it's crazy. How did you get this chain? Like, you just walking.

Walking with it under your arm as you're getting out of there? Sometimes you just got to walk like you own the place, man. Down in Atlanta, you walk in and out of that stadium sometimes, and you just look like you know what you're doing? Folks just kind of let you do it, man. Nobody's going to question six foot three. Yeah, I'm not out of here. He got it, bro.

It's all good. It's all good. Hey, I appreciate you hanging out with us, man, and talking to little bears on the radio. Look forward to talking to you again soon, all right? Thanks, Ann. All right. Appreciate you both.

Go to him. Of course. D'Ale. Anthony Heron hanging out with us. Great stuff right there.