Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Mike Florio talks Maxx Crosby's future, latest NFL headlines (Hour 2)

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

In the second hour, Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris were joined by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk to discuss the latest NFL storylines, including what it would cost to trade for Raiders star pass rusher Maxx Crosby if he's made available. After that, Rahimi and Harris discussed how Bears linebacker Tremaine Edmunds could get let go this offseason as a salary cap casualty. Later, they held the Halftime segment.

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actually moves the needle. If you're ready to raise your standards and take charge about the life and career you're building, Aspire is where you start. Follow and listen to Aspire with me, Emma Gride, and Odyssey Podcasts, available wherever you get your podcasts. This hour is sponsored by Riverfront Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ran. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a man who's got a massive brain. Mike Florio.

He used to be a lawyer, then he decided to take his talents. to the internet. NBC sports. I'm sorry I'm late. I was talking to Robert Kraft. That is at the time for an airing of grievances. Pro football talk. I got a lot of problems with you, people. No? You're going to hear about it.

On Chicago Sports Radio, 1043, The Score. Mike Florio is always working. It doesn't matter if the NFL's in season or not. I think that the week after the Super Bowl is still somewhat the case. Doesn't matter, though. Mike's always working for you. He is the creator,

editor-in-chief of pro football talk. He's at Pro Football Talk on X, and he joins us on the Circa, Illinois Hotline. Download the Circa Sports app today. He also is on Twitch, twitch.tv.tv slash The Score Chicago. Mike, how are you? Doing great. How's everybody today? Well, we're good. We joke that Max Crosby at this point has become some sort of Pavlov's dog type of reaction for us here on the midday show.

He's our favorite non-bearer, I feel like, because everybody wants him on the bears. it's a big dream, I know. But he keeps talking like he doesn't want to play on the Raiders. So that's why we keep bringing it up. What's the latest that you gather from this dance that's been going on? I think the most significant comment came last week when Jay Glazer was making the rounds at Radio Row. He has spoken in the past to Crosby. Glazer had a summary of a conversation with Crosby late in the regular season

as it relates to his reaction to being shut down. for the final two games of the year because of an knee injury he played with most of the season. He takes pride in playing injured. Something happened in that moment where a guy who's been very patient with a team that constantly is rebuilding, he decided he was done. Glazer said last week, Crosby is done with the Raiders. I ran what Glazer said past somebody in a position to know, and I was told, draw your own conclusions. I don't need to be invited to do that usually, but I did. I don't think he wants to be there. Now, there's a way to go about it. He's choosing not to go flame thrower like Miles Garrett did last year with the Browns,

although the Browns ultimately threw enough money at him to get him to change his mind. I don't think Crosby is going to be swayed by that. I think he's going to be caught by this principle that he wasn't able to do the thing he loves to do for reasons that seem to be part of an effort by the Raiders to ensure they'd earn the number one overall pick in the draft. They shut both Crosby and Brock Bowers down for those last two games, and they successfully finished at the top. top of the draft order and obviously the bottom of the league. So I think something's going to happen

here. I just got the knee injury, head surgery on, and that's going to take time to heal, but I don't know that that's going to stop anyone from doing a deal if the Raiders make him available. Part of the game is to make it look like you don't want to trade him in order to get greater value, but if you can get two, three, four teams at the table, you don't need to act like you're going to keep him. You can do what the Texans did with Deshawn Watson when they had four teams. You name your price and you let them battle it out. So I think it's one of the stories to watch this offseason. And when you look at it from where the Raiders are right now, by the time they would get to a point where they would be competitive, because I don't think this is a quick turnaround. This isn't Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams.

This is Clint Kubiak and quarterback TBD with a lot of holes in the roster. By the time they'd become competitive, we're going to be close to the end, if not past the end, of Max Crosby's prime. Sell high. Get what you can for him now. And then try to use those draft picks to build a contending team. I'm with you on that, Mike. I'm so glad we get to talk to you now that the NFL season is finally in the books. Here's my question. What's the range of what you think it will cost for a team to get Max Crosby

if the three to four teams that you're talking about materialize and seriously want to go after them? What do you think the starting point is and what do you think ultimately it might cost? Well, Glazer suggested that Max Crosby could fetch more on the trade market than Michael Parsons did. And if you do it early in the offseason, if you do it before teams have spent their cap money, if you do it at a time where everyone can be a little more deliberate and the process can play out a little bit more and you can get more teams to the table, maybe you can get more because at the end of the day, the options for Jerry Jones and the

Cowboys when it came to Michael Parsons for the Packers and the Eagles. And there was no way in hell that Cowboys were going to trade Michael Parsons to the Eagles. So you do it early. you get at least a one, it's a one plus, a one plus what? That remains to be seen. And a lot of that's going to be driven by what kind of a competition emerges for Max Crosby services. But he plays the second most important position in football at the pro level. Quarterback and guy who disrupts the quarterback. Those are the two most important positions. So could they get two first round picks? There's a chance they could. Now, one wrinkle is, hey, he's got a contract through 2029 at favorable numbers. But usually when you see a high-profile player like that get traded,

he walks through the door with an expectation that there's going to be some sort of a sweetener. So it isn't enough to just say, wow, the contract's really favorable. We're not paying him $47 million a year like the Packers are paying Michael Parsons. You're probably going to have to give him some money up front. You're probably going to have to give him a raise relative to the market. But even then, the guy is incredible. He works harder than anyone. He's got a will to win. And he's told us stories at the Super Bowl how other players on the team will say, I want to be like you. How can I be like you? And he'll say, all right, show up at the gym tomorrow at 5 a.m.

And they come for a day or two and then they stop. So he makes that commitment to be great. And when you have a guy like that in the locker room, ideally with guys who are going to be influenced by that, it's going to make your team even better. Well, and to be fair, Mike, I will say this. I think Bears fans drooling over the availability of Max Crosby comes from how they guys. not Kahliel Mack into coaching change in Las Vegas. And lo and behold, Kaleel Mack comes to the Bears and it worked out very well. Mack wanted nothing to do with John Gruden.

That was well documented. And as that season unfolded and the Raiders thought maybe they could prevail upon Kaleel Mack to stick around. He was in his fifth year option at the time. He held out, held out, held out, and then that deal got done. So yeah, I think it's smarter if you're the Raiders to recognize if Crosby really is done, that he means it and your best play is to maximize the trade possibilities and do the deal. This assumes the Raiders are going to realize that

they need to do it. It's hard for the rational mind to predict the behaviors of the irrational and all due respect to the current power structure there. The owner is still the owner. Mark Davis is still making these calls. And there hasn't been a whole lot that he's done by way of decisions over the past 15 years that would objectively be called rational. I'm curious as we're joined by Mike Floreo. He is the creator and editor-in-chief of Pro Football Talk, an article that you just published as we were coming on the air about Steve Tish and the fact that we know there's a Jeffrey Epstein problem for a lot of people right now.

And Tish is one of the people who have been named. He said he had a brief association. But you've kind of uncovered that there's even more than that going on. And the NFL has a serious issue. what can you tell us about that well yeah when the most recent epstein files document dump happened 13 days ago tish's name came up there were some emails with you know kind of skeevy pervy content objectifying women suggesting that epstein was trying to connect tish with younger women and not, there's been no suggestion that anyone is not of legal age, but the whole thing just

looks bad. The problem for the NFL, and I don't know whether it's a problem, this may be the way that they avoid having to do anything, there's no criminal allegation, there's no lawsuit, there's no clear, objective wrongdoing. So I think, you know, like so many other things we see in today's society, everybody involved is going to keep their head low, their mouth shut, and wait for all of our goldfish brains to focus on whatever the next scandal is. Because there's always something else, and that thing that seemed like the most important topic ever subsides. Now, these Epstein files, they have had staying power,

despite the best efforts of many to try to turn the page to a different topic, they continue to linger. And from the league's perspective, and this is something I'm going to write hopefully this afternoon, if they wanted to, if they truly wanted to, if they're serious when they say they hold owners to a higher standard than players, they could, they could focus on the very last item in the list of prohibited activities in the personal conduct policy.

I'm looking at it now. It's under Article 1, Expectations and Standards of Conduct, the very last bullet point. Conduct that undermines or puts at risk the integrity of the NFL, NFL clubs, or NFL personnel. I don't think it takes a major leap of logic to say, an owner who is sending these skeevy, purvey emails that objectify women with the kind of language that was being used. Now, look, does it go as far as the John Gruden emails? Maybe not, but we saw what happened to Gruden.

And if owners are held to a higher standard than everyone else, I don't think it's a stretch to say that what Tish did undermines or puts at risk the integrity of the NFL, NFL teams, or NFL personnel. You just got to ask yourself, is this a way we want owners of these teams to be acting? So if the league really wants to do something, it can. But here's the problem. You got other owners that won't want a standard like that to be applied to one, because then the concern is it gets applied to others. And that's why it took them so long to finally wake up on Daniel Snyder. It wasn't until they thought Daniel Snyder was stealing from them

through the visiting team pool and the alleged accounting irregularities that the commanders were doing to try to hide that money and move that money around. That's when it became a problem for the other owners. But other owners are not going to want that same standard to potentially apply to them. So they're going to be very reluctant to apply that standard to Steve Tisch. Yeah, I think we're seeing that a lot, not just among NFL owners, unfortunately. Mike, I also want to ask you about something that has been a really big topic of discussion. As you know, you've gotten a lot of Bears fan feedback as well regarding Ian Cunningham

and the comments that Matt Ryan made about Ian being in charge now in Atlanta. I don't think it gets more clear than that when it comes to this being a promotion for him. What's the activity that you've taken on this? And what do you know so far? Well, this all goes back to when Matt Ryan got the job as president of football operations. Someone from, I believe, the Sun-Times reported that if Ian Cunningham, who interviewed for the job Ryan got, eventually became the GM, the Bears wouldn't get the compensatory draft picks because Matt Ryan is running the football operation. So Cunningham gets hired. There's no compensatory picks. Everybody moves on.

And then Ryan says that Cunningham is in charge of free agency in the draft. And that's what caused this to become an issue again. I asked the league about it earlier this week. And we've written one item on it. And the league's position was that because Matt Ryan is the primary football executive in Atlanta, Ian Cunningham's hire as GM doesn't qualify for the compensatory draft picks. So I followed up and I asked, well, why is it different from 2022 when Terry Fontno was hired from the Saints to be the GM? Rich McKay was the president, CEO of football. Why didn't the two compensatory draft picks not get given to the Saints? And the league's response is basically then Terry Fontno was becoming the primary football.

executive. Now, Matt Ryan's a primary football executive. That's the explanation. Does it mesh with this idea that Matt Ryan is saying, hey, Cunningham's in charge? As one GM explained to me, this is a great safe harbor for Matt Ryan where he can have his cake and eat it too. If things go sideways, I didn't do it. Ian Cunningham was in charge of free agency in the draft. And you know what? Wouldn't be the first time that a high-level executive with an NFL team was in position to take the credit when things go well and then when things don't go well. That wasn't me. That was that guy. Yeah, it's been a point of consternation here in Chicago, as you can imagine, and really just trying to set the record straight for future opportunities, whether it be the competitive

picks for a head coaching job or anything else. Mike, I'm curious, when you look at what's going on with the salary cap going up and now teams trying to sort things out, whether that's waving players, whether that is restructuring contracts. How difficult of a process is that for teams each and every year to go through what the Bears and everybody else is going through right now? I think it gets overblown. It's very easy to create caps based by restructuring contracts. Most contracts now, second contracts, third contracts, big money deals. They have a provision in there that gives the team the automatic right to restructure. And it's simply, and I'll keep the numbers as basic as I can just so I don't short-circuit my own brain. If somebody's due to make $30 million

this year in salary, you take that $30 million, you reduce the salary down to the minimum for that player's years of experience, and the rest of it gets treated as a signing bonus, and the money gets spread over five years. And so 80% of those cap dollars get pushed out to future years. That's the easy way to do it. And every year, oh, what was this team? What was that team? Oh, they're never going to figure it out, and they always figured out, the Saints are the best example every year. How are they ever going to get out of this cap mess? And they get out of it. And the thing that helps teams is the cap keeps going up and up and up. So if you can take current cap dollars and shove them into future years when the cap is higher, the relative impact of that cap dollar is lesser.

That dollar I would take this year means less in a future year because the cap keeps going up and up. So that's the key. If we ever get to the point where the cap starts going down, kicking the can becomes a problem. And we may get back to one of those times. I remember we used to hear the term salary cap purgatory. There would be teams that like, you know what, we're just screwed this year, and we're going to deal with it, and next year we'll be back. But look at the Broncos.

They got to the break of the Super Bowl in the year that they were taking the bulk, I believe. It's either the bulk or close to the bulk. It's either $30 or $50 million that they had in dead money for Russell Wilson. So you can find ways around it. That's what these folks get paid to do. and yeah, they like to say, oh, no, oh, no, how are we ever going to do it? And then they do it. And it's really not as complicated as they would have us think.

And maybe they have us think that, so we're all impressed when they finally figure it out. Mike, I have an ax to grind, and I have a feeling you might join me on this ax-to-grind journey. So a lot has been made about the Patriots' offensive performance, whether or not Drake may was heard. He talked about getting that injection in his shoulder before the game, and the passing game being largely enapped, especially in that first half. Why isn't Josh McDaniels getting more flack for this, the assistant of the year in the NFL?

Well, if Drake May really was hurt, there's your explanation. And this is one of the big problems with the NFL's current injury policy. It is so basic and bare bones. You can comply with it and create the impression of guys fine when he's not fine. Drake May said himself,

last Monday night, I'm not trying to lie to you guys when I say I feel great. And in reality, no, he wasn't trying. He was being successful because he didn't feel great. You don't get a pain-killing injection because you'll want to. You don't do it preemptively. You do it because you have something that is causing you pain. And when you have that injection of Toridol into your shoulder on your throwing arm, how is that not going to affect you? And Sim said that Chris Sims on PFT Live, he said when he was down on the field before the game, he was paying attention to Drake May warming up. He always watched the quarterbacks. I mean, he's a

former quarterback. He tries to get his sense for just how they looked that day. And he said he just, he sensed that Maine was never really going through the full drops. He wasn't really slinging in it. He was more deliberate. He was more careful. Yeah, and maybe because he couldn't really feel his arm. How do you throw a football accurately? How do you get the right touch, the right velocity, the right force on it if, if part of the apparatus is numb and you can't communicate from your shoulder to your brain and back again, what's really going on in there? So, you know, this should be a bigger deal. I saw that Nick Wright had some things to say about it.

It really is amazing in this age of legalized gambling. We don't demand more. And we just are content to have so much inside information that can be acted upon that deceives the public on what someone's true health really is. But I think at the end of the day, people who had known, if you knew that May was going to need a tortall shot to play on Sunday, Seahawks giving four and a half suddenly looks a lot better. Yeah, it does. That is absolutely true. Mike Florio, thanks as always for joining us.

Thanks, Mike. Have a great week. That is Mike Florio, the creator and editor-in-chief of Pro Football Talk, joining us here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3 The Score. We're going to stay with football because Kevin Fishbane did a deep dive, our friend, the writer for the athletic. On the Bears, dare I say, because you just said it, the cat purgatory that may result? It's temporary. It's purgatory. That means you get out one way or the other.

But here's the problem. You don't want to have to do it with the bear's most productive linebacker this season. So we'll discuss that next. Presented by Team Mobile, the official wireless partner of Odyssey Sports. With an awesome network and great savings, there's never been a better time to join Team Mobile. Visit your neighborhood store to make the switch today. Why have I asked my HVAC guy I found on Angie.com to change my grandpa's tracheot tube? Because I was so amazed by how quickly he replaced our aeroducts.

I knew I could trust him to change Pop Popp's tube while I was on vacation. Make a quick, young man. Aw, see, Pop Popp trusts you. I think we should call it doctor. Connecting homeowners with skilled pros for over 30 years. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects at Angie.com. Our lives aren't like they used to be.

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Right here in our community, advertise with Odyssey, visit ads.odicy.com. Lela Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Rahimi, Harrison Grody, on 1043, On first down over the middle. He had his third interception of the year last week. His fourth puts six on the board and gives the bears the lead. That is courtesy of Fox. This is Rahimi Harris and Grody on 104.3, the score.

And Tremaine Advins, despite being on injured reserve, still did work. He still had the most tackles of any bear this season and the regular season, despite being on injured reserve. 112 combined tackles hit 61 solo tackles 51 assists that's how you get to the number the four interceptions as we've mentioned Tremaine Edmonds

had the season that I think a lot of us thought the Bears would get out of him with the Matt Eberfluse defense it ended up happening with Dennis Allen I want to say Tremaine Edmund surprised me this year because I kind of cast him off as a guy who's just underperforming

based on the contract, and then obviously you connect him directly with Roquan Smith and understand this is an all-pro player in Baltimore that you're comparing him to. And at some point, you're like, well, why didn't they just give Roquan the money to stay? We're not going to move up to Draft and all the off-ball linebackers. Yeah, but to see him actually come through and look like the guy for the 13, I know he missed four, he missed four games, but for the 13 games to look like the guy that you thought that they were acquiring, that was good news. for the Bears and a stabilizing force. Remember, on a Bears team that had a secondary and serious

flux. And not just a secondary and serious flux. Like, there's a reason we're calling him the most, one of the most productive Bears and the most productive linebacker for sure. T.J. Edwards was plagued by injury this year. Unfortunately, the most scary looking one happened during the playoffs, as we saw, you know, with a broken leg. Noah Sewell ended up going out for the rest of the year with the Achilles. You know, there were so many bad injuries that the linebackers suffered as well. And for Tremaine Edmonds to step up and also have the season that, again, I think that's why the bears wanted him. You know, he flourished and he didn't say much when it came to why he wasn't producing before. But alluded, I think, in very subtle ways to being put in a better position to

succeed this time around. And Kevin Fishbane, our friend from the athletic, did a story. on the Bears tough spot that they're in under the salary cap. I know it's more flexible now, and I know it's going north of $300 million, which is a great thing for everyone. But the Bears still have so much money committed to players that there are very likely some cap casualties that are going to have to occur.

Edmonds is possibly one of them. According to over the cap, the Bears ranked 24th in available cap space and are $5 million currently in the red. so they're going to have to be some tough decisions that are made. Edmonds making $17.44 million in the cap hit just this last season, and it makes you wonder what's going to happen. It's the fact that you look at where he is compared to other linebackers at his specific position.

He's the fourth highest paid one. And so you have to weigh what you got out of Tremaine Edmonds this season against the value of what you're paying compared to what other teams are paying that same position. I know the salaries are going to go up, as you mentioned, because of the salary cap, but you still have to look at what are our priorities as an organization position-wise

because we know what's going on with the secondary, specifically the safety position, and where can we shave some money off? And I'm sorry, but he's the most obvious candidate just because of where we are in his contract, the timing, and the structure of the contract. Yeah, it's the difference between that cap savings and the dead money. That's the key here.

And as we see in Kevin's article, and he included a lot of nice graphics, too, on the athletic if you want to check it out. It's $15 million for Tremaine, as we mentioned, in cap savings, $2.47 million in dead money. That ratio is high. It's a low amount of dead money for the amount of savings that you can get. Two other names that deserve to be mentioned here on this list. Cole Commet is an $8.4 million cap hit. That's 3.2 million in dead money, so more than Edmonds. And then DeAndre Swift, I don't know why they would want to do this necessarily unless they see a clear upgrade at the position.

7.47 million in cap savings that would lead to only 1.33 million in dead money. And that's when this gets hard. You know, we knew at some point that would happen. Think about the fact that Kevin Byard is up for free agency, the league leader, and interceptions in 2025's regular season. Nashad Wright is a free agent. Jaquan Brisker is a free agent. All four of the safeties are.

So throw Jonathan Owens in there as well. There are some very tough decisions on the defensive side of the ball that have to be made. And as we've mentioned before, because of all the money you're giving to your line right now. So my first question is, what do you think the conversation is like right now, specifically between Ryan polls and obviously C.C. Ben Johnson, but Dennis Allen. And Dennis Allen getting what he needs. He's a guy who moved, switched those guys position-wise. We can talk about Tremaine Edmonds, switching his linebacker position from what we had seen with T.J. Edwards. And clearly, when they were both healthy, and it was limited, they were more effective in whatever Dennis

Allen drew up systematically. But I want to know after seeing a season of him and, really only a flash, a burst of some of the other guys, like Tyreek. What does he think about the way the Bears' defense looks, especially since Shemar Turner, like the draft guys he even got didn't really contribute. Yeah, Shamar Turner out for the year, as we know. Zay Frazier. Ruben Hippolyte. Didn't do much.

He was a healthy scratch many times. And when he did play, he got injured in the game he played in. Right. That didn't help. And he was far down the list. Yeah, it's not good, which is why it wouldn't necessarily give the draft. And hey, that's another segment we're doing later today. I think it comes down to knowing that you can extend some people, right?

Like, you can extend a restructure. The more years you have left on the deal, the more you can kick that money out. So that's the concept that we heard Mike Florio talk about. Does Kyler Gordon fit into that? You know, do you want to commit to more years for Kyler Gordon? Do you want to restructure some of that salary? as a signing bonus. That's a possibility. We saw them do that with Joe Tuny on the other side. He gets an extension and they're able to move somebody around for him. So you go with the players

that you can. T.J. Edwards, maybe you can do that with his as well. If you want to, Dio O'Dingbo. I don't think you'd do much with Dio right about now. He's one year in. Yeah, but no, that's what I'm saying. So the years left on the deal, you can do more when it comes to restructuring and freeing up money. But you're going to have to have some odd man out. You know, somebody's, there's a bunch of people on this team who were deals, you know, like Nashon Wright was a deal. Tremaine Edmonds ends up being more of a deal because of the performance he just had. And as we mentioned, that cap money hit is not much. So Dennis Allen, I guess, I guess you have to start with, I start with a line of scrimmage and then you move

backwards. But when your secondary was the most productive unit you had, it's a very tough thing to do. The Bears made the playoffs not just because of Caleb Williams and the offense as an ascent, but because of the turnovers they created. And when you talk about the secondary

being the most productive unit you have, what you're not saying is that front was the least productive unit they had, and that's on both sides of the ball. That's on special teams. I'm sorry. Amontes what got to double-digit sacks? Austin Booker.

But to the price of $25.085 million next season? Like that's the issue. Jalen Johnson, by the way, at $25 million. But at least Jailin Johnson was hurt and came back. And that was more understandable based on track record, the path that Jalen Johnson took this particular season. Dio O'Danebo, $20.5 million for next year. Grady Jarrett, 18.9.

Jonah Jackson, 19.5. I'm not mad about that. And when you look at the positional rank for some of these guys, like DiO Dingbo getting the 14th most salary, like 14 is not high. 14 is about league average if you think about it. But what I'll say is you got to get that type of production from those players when you pay them the money.

You got to be at least getting the money that you're paying them that value in comparison to what other guys are getting paid around the league. 6-30. This is Adrian in Oceanside. He's a textor who texts regularly. wouldn't a restructure for Edmonds make more sense cutting him would create a need for two linebackers because Edwards is hurt. Oh, I'm aware, but he doesn't have the years to work with here.

So that's what makes it so tough. You've got to think about it in terms of restructuring for the years remaining on the deal. So that's why this is tricky. Yeah, and trying to figure it out, I like that we have Mike Floreal on because he explained how they try to maybe over-dramatize the restructuring of contracts

because the clause is there, we can restructure your contract to suit salary cap purposes. It's less about the actual idea of restructuring and maybe even about waiving. It's more about can you evaluate the talent if you were to waive a Tremaine Edmonds to say that you're going to get that level of production from someone else. And to be clear, this next season is the last year of Tremaine Edmonds's contract. That's why this is hard. And usually you get to the last year of a contract. contract, it's like, well, are you going to extend him or are you going to let him walk or are you going to cut him?

Those are like, that's a specific heading into the last year of a contract thing in the NFL, because you'd rather cut a guy early than late, and you'd rather get something for him than not. Yeah, that's the other piece of this. The hard part, too, is also, as much as we've talked about the fungibility of, say, the running back position or the safety position, it's also linebacker in a way. The Bears thought that Roquan Smith was replaceable. Definitely expendable almost. They tried.

They tried. They did not do a good job of... They did not replicate. Yeah. The performances are two different things. Granted, Baltimore has a better front, but how many teams don't have a better front than the Bears? Let's be honest.

How many teams don't have a better front? Yeah, that's a good question. Or at least more effective, right? More consistently effective. On a team that you expect, like if you're going to have 11 wins, If we go through all the teams that have at least 11 wins, where do you think the bear's front ranks? Oh, man.

That's the equation. Yeah, that's what makes us hard. Because the ultimate lesson learned from this past Super Bowl, and really the last two is how important line play is, you've got to be able to protect on an offensive line, but also you have to absolute monsters on defense. That's how the last two Super Bowls were won with absolute monsters on defense. Well, and building from the trenches out, you know,

and they thought that they had. They thought they had at least paid a lot for their trenches, and that's why this is so tricky, too. You know, when you've got guys on rookie deals who are cornerstones and they're on the line, that makes your life a lot easier. At least you've got Darnell right on one side. But he's going to get really expensive quickly, too.

Yeah, he's going to get expensive. Caleb's going to, this window is so important right now. This is one of those years, this is one of two years in which you can do more than you're going to be able to do after the next two seasons. a whole lot more because of the flexibility of the rookie contract of the quarterback. The other part of this too is you know what I'd really like to have if I have all these tough questions facing my salary cap?

An assistant general manager, Phil Ian Cunningham's spot. They need one of those? Yeah. You think you need more eyes on scouting, especially when your draft board is going to have to be a lot different now that you pick lower in the draft, for example? I'll be surprised. Wow. But seriously.

I'll be seriously surprised if they don't have a new assistant GM by the end of next week before the combine. Don't make that bet with Mark Rody. He doesn't know if they're going to fill the job. At all? Yes, for the career. I can't see them not filling the job unless they're just going to redistribute titles in another way. You've got to have a certain number of people doing a certain number of jobs because that's the way front offices work. They do have a cap dude.

at the Bears. Like, don't look up Bears' cap dude. I don't think you're going to, I don't think you're going to get the result you want. But you're saying they have a dude. They do have a dude, yeah. So it will be interesting to see what they do to get their front office hole

and their coaching staff hole, for that matter. I understand it's Matt Feinstein. So he's the vice president of football administration and he spent his last five years as director of football administration. And now he's been promoted. I don't know that cap dude. is part of the title there, but everybody's got a cap guy.

Yeah, and sometimes the cap guy has wields more power than some situations than others, and then that guy has to leave when it's time to go home, see Minnesota Vikings. Yeah. Play the buzzer. And lives in my head rent-free most of the time. Coming up next, it is halftime, and boy, do we have something for you? The Seahawks parade. and their social media posting

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And we started talking about Alex Bregman and how he's trying to improve his team. Not just him, the team. Everybody eats. Everybody eats. When he eats, everyone eats. So he's trying to do that. We also discussed the situation surrounding Shoda Imanaga and what the latest was on Craig counsel. He said that

showed a needed rest. I hope that that helped. And then also Chris Gatz four separate times this offseason in multiple instances, not just one media availability, calling Luis on hell Acuna a switch hitter when he is not. We went to football in the 11 o'clock hour. Mike

Floria from Pro Football Talk was with us. And then we also talked about the Bears Bears' cap situation, which is not an easy problem to figure out. The Seahawks had their championship. parade yesterday. And I feel like they did a very good job celebrating with some very like old school vibe t-shirts.

And then there was that one shirt of Sam Darnel just flipping people off. They did not, they did not censor any of it. Do you feel like they were unhinged yesterday? Because that's the, the immediate vibe was we don't give a, fill in the blink. That's the whole thing.

The whole thing. Yeah, they did not. GAF, say. Yes. I don't get a buzzer for that. I feel like I should get the buzzer. There you go.

Anytime we make a dad joke or say something like it, buzzer. So Ernest Jones, who, uh, admitted that maybe he wasn't the right guy for this, stepped up to the podium and gave a speech. I'm, I'm gonna keep it a buck. I'm probably the last person they should have gave the mic to. But we're gonna turn up, man. First off, I want to say shout up. Shout out to Jody Allen. Shout out to John Snyder.

We're making this all possible, shout out to coach Mike McDonough for helping us get to this point. But also, shout out to these badass who play this game the right way. Hey! Not only do we have the best defense in the world, we got the best team in the world. And quite frankly, if you got anything to say by my quarterback, you got anything to say for my defense, You got anything to say by our own line

and you got anything to say by the city of Seattle I got two words for you And we ain't going nowhere And if that wasn't great enough The Seattle Seahawks posted it on their social media Without any censorship No beeps, no beeps, no nothing You don't get this raw celebration footage

you're going to enjoy it. You're going to let it wash over you. You are going to be baptized with the Seattle's Seahawks celebrating a championship. You know what I call that? That's some millennial in the club energy out of Ernest Jones right there. I mean, he was doing the little John. Yeah. He was indeed.

He was and he made me want to fight somebody on behalf of the Seahawks. I don't want to fight anybody about the Seahawks. How long do you think the discussion was about whether or not to bleep out the speech as opposed to just putting it out there raw. No, that's one of those. You've got to ask for permission or forgiveness. You ask for forgiveness. Oh, you think they just...

You just got to let it rip. Ah, I think you have to ask for permission if you want to keep your job. No, you take that Ernest Jones energy right to the internet. Okay. Okay. I'd be like, I'm going to send this. Send. They had a good time.

They had a tremendous time, and it really was that kind of energy at the parade. Might have had too good of a time, depending on who you are. Drinking your drinks. John Schneider, the Seahawks General Manager, stepped it to the podium and said some stuff that, I guess, in his line of work, it gets a little interesting. Ken Walker being the MVP, let's go! He tried negotiating with me five minutes ago.

It was really weird. Anyway, hey, MVP, MVP, MVP. Kenneth Walker the third. If you haven't had a chance to go see this video, he's in the frame when he's making this speech at the podium, John Schneider. You've got to see his face and the contortions that transpire while John Snyder is claiming that Ken Walker

tried to negotiate it with him five minutes ago. I get it. It's a GM joke. You know, the danger when nerds are becoming more prevalent in sports is this. Social graces. When you have to say anyway in the middle of a speech. That's when you know, I need to pivot now. I need to segue out of what I just said because it probably wasn't the thing that should

have been said at this time. I mean, if you're around fellow agents and such, you know, like our friends at priority sports, for example, shout out to the crew there because I know there's a lot of P1s. You know, they're laughing at that joke. Like, they're like, oh, that's funny. But maybe not on the podium of the parade. I was the blinking guy meme when I saw this. You know the flutter of blinking because you can't believe what just happened.

Yeah, that was me. But I enjoyed it. Look, Seattle, celebrate, man. I don't know when y'all going to get this again. Shout out to Jody Allen also, the caretaker of the Seahawks and the Blazers and all the things that the Allen family owns. As her late brother was like, hey, I'm going to need you to sit. When I pass away, I'm going to need you to sell all the stuff and throw it all towards philanthropy. I like that.

Well, and Jody Allen has participated in a lot of philanthropy. And I think that her record speaks for itself when it comes to the donations that the family has made. And then also keeping the team just one more year, look what happened, you know. What a celebration. What a celebration. I'm going to keep it a buck. I'm probably the last person they should have gave the mic to. That's something I say every day before I step into the studio.

When you open the speech like that, like I'm the last person, so I'm going to let it rip. And his face, his face was animated. I was like, this man is about to create some mischief here. And mischief he created. He could have been like, no takebacks. I'm here now. You go take what I give you straight up. It's absolute.

No chaser, no more loyal. Yeah. You like to see how fans celebrate the parades too. Like my favorite was too short at the Warriors parade on the NBC It was the NBC Sports Bay Area float Like they joined him on his

Or he joined them on theirs And I was like that's the dream It's to be on the parade float with too short Is that the same one Because you know they've had several parades out there for the Warriors Yes they have they haven't gone Is that the same one where Draymond Green is absolutely tow up from the flow up doing interviews

And he just lets you know I am drunk basically Perhaps I mean, perhaps. I just remember thinking like, they got to hang out with Too Short? Not fair. Not fair. Too Short got to hang out with them. You know what I'd be yelling the whole time? What's my favorite word? Something we can't say on the radio. Why you got to say it like short?

Oh, La Chien. I can't I? I think so. I feel like that's probably fair. Some people are mad about the language. In many languages, people swear. That's a thing. It happens. You think kids haven't heard worse in school?

I just want to throw that out there. The most swear happy people are usually kids. Like, kids want to swear the most when they learn the cuss words. Also, have you not ever seen a championship parade celebration? You're angry about it? Like, this is what people do. They're happy. They're a little tipsy, and they're saying crazy things.

I think they just, they've, like, listened to our show for too long today without saying something negative about us, just had to go with the Seahawks language. That's my guess. I just missed Jason Kelsey's speech. Full Mummers Parade outfit. No one likes us. We don't care. That was like... Hungry Dogs run faster.

All of it. That's top championship parade material right there. I don't know if anybody's ever outdone that, man. It was amazing. And that, no, I don't think so. He had the whole get-up. I don't remember even remember what that was supposed to be. The Mummers Parade. It's the Mubmers Parade. They do every...

Yeah, it's a thing. How would you just... The costume. It is a costume. It was green. It's kind of like a bedazzled Henry the 8th. There it is. That is the perfect description.

Honestly. It was as if he was celebrating Marty Grob in a more regal fashion. How about that? Yeah, with the pentolonas. Like, I don't, they're poofy shorts. If you've never seen it,

you got to Google that. Yes, bedazzled Henry the 8th. That's the best I can give you. Maybe Clay Harbor has a better explanation since he spent some time in Philly. He's welcome to join. for that and five on it and the whole hour. Clay's hanging out next.

I'm Rahimi Harrison Grotie. Presented by Team Mobile, the official wireless partner of Odyssey Sports. With an awesome network and great savings, there's never been a better time to join Team Mobile. Visit your neighborhood store to make the switch today. Life can feel overwhelming, but on my podcast, From the Heart with Rachel Brathen, we're in it together.

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