Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Patrick Finley talks Ryan Poles' blunt assessment of Bears' recent moves

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote were joined by Sun-Times writer Patrick Finley to discuss the Bears’ additions this offseason and to share his takeaways from general manager Ryan Poles’ press conference Thursday.

What did you learn from the Super Bowl? Yeah. That you think you can apply to your own career and apply to these teammates who have. Yeah, just controlling what you can control. And like I said, just taking it one week at a time. It's a long season. You know, and like I said, don't get complacent. And, you know, each week just continues to get better.

This is Rahimi Harrison Grady on 104-3 The Score. And that is Patrick Finley, the writer for the Sun Times, who was asking a lot of good questions yesterday. he was part of the Bears media who talked to the new bears like Kobe Bryant and then also got to hear from Brian Poles. And he joins us via our hotline, Patrick Finley, the Bears and NFL reporter for The Sun Times. And he's also on Twitch, twitch.tv slash the score Chicago. Hey, Patrick, good to hear from you. Hey, guys. How are you?

We're good. You, as usual, did a fantastic job asking questions during the press conference. But we have to ask you the most distracting one first. whose baby was it? One of the free agents, but they were in the back of the room. And I was sitting in the front row, and it would have been rude to turn around and look, so I didn't.

I'm sorry to report. I don't know who that was. Well, that baby was making some good points. I'll say that. They had some good things to say. In the meantime, what were your impressions of, let's just start with Ryan Poles? A lot said in the opening statement about the direction of the team

he wants to see from a player standpoint. And then also what he had to say about like DJ Moore, Drew Dalman, for example, what were your takeaways? I think Poles' default is to be pretty honest with us. And I really do appreciate that. You know, you ask him, why did you trade DJ? And the answer is because Luther Burden exists. You ask why didn't you bring back Kevin Byard?

And the answer is because we got Kobe Bryant. Like, that's pretty straightforward. And I do appreciate that in terms of what we do, you know, every day trying to get. at the truth as best we can. I thought he was straightforward about this. To me, it's very clear that the Bears decided that their defense wasn't good enough. And if you take away the takeaways, they're right. I think they gave up the fourth most yards and the tenth most points, something like that.

So they are not being sentimental about keeping Bayard or Bristker or C.J. Gardner Johnson or Nashon Wright. They want to get faster. They want to get more physical. And that's what they're doing. so they're trying to overhaul this thing kind of maybe a low-key overhaul on the defense. So was Ryan Poles then, Patrick, just being sentimental when he talked about Kevin Byard multiple times and how much he loved the player and the leader and all of that?

Do you think he ever had truly intended to even potentially bring back Kevin Byard? I don't know. Of the four guys I mentioned, I think Byard was by far the most likely to come back. And who knows, if Kobe Bryant had said no, or if Kobe Bryant had said, listen, I just won a Super Bowl at this place. I want to stay here and enjoy it. Maybe Kevin Byard is back. But, you know, I was telling somebody earlier today, all those safeties and corners got one-year deals. The rest of the league didn't think that they were great. If anything, Tremaine Edmonds, who got a three-year, what, $36 million deal, he is the one guy that the league told us was coveted.

everybody else is getting prove-it contracts. And maybe that should be a lesson in how attached we all get to some of these guys, including Grotie, you and I who really like Kevin Byard as a human being. He's maybe the best person that's come through Hall in the 13 years I've covered the team. I wouldn't push back on that at all. What about, to me, the guy that they truly were never intending on bringing back was Jaquan Bristker. The fact that he gets a $5.5 million deal, as you said, these one-year deals. In Pittsburgh, that says to me that it had played out with Brisker.

Did you see it the same way? Yeah, I did. First of all, I'm glad for Jaquan. Chiquon is going home. He grew up in Pittsburgh, went to college, two different colleges in Pennsylvania. I'm thrilled for him that he can do that. But I just think that when you hear them talk about how they need to be faster, that's not Chiquan Brisker.

I think when you hear them talk about the style they want to play, he is physical, and that's the physical. and that's the physicality that they like, but I think they hope they can find that physicality and maybe a speedier body. The other thing is this, Grotie, and Lela, like, he missed 12 games with a concussion.

You want to be the team paying him when he gets his next one? Right. I don't. Right. I don't. It scares me to death on a business level and on a personal and professional level.

And I just don't know if, I mean, is he won more of these away from not being able to help your team? and if the Bears believe that, I think that's definitely part of the equation as to why they let him go. We're talking to Patrick Finley here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. He is the Bears and NFL reporter for the Sun Times. And that was always the question regarding Brisker. When he was available, he was great.

And this past season, I think, proved that. Like, he had a key game against Pittsburgh, for example, that helped seal the win for the Bears. He had a great game against the Rams, which I think really was. perfectly timed. So that was always the issue, was whether or not if he got another concussion, given what had happened to him. I think that was always the concern. It's just a little bit surprising when you see the prices of the deals, knowing that that could have been doable for the Bears. This all could have been doable. I mean, C.J. Gardner Johnson, what is it? He's getting $6 million from the bills. That's doable. Kevin Byrd's doable. What was it, five and a half for

to Sean, right? I mean, not only could they bring one of those guys back, in theory, they could bring all of those guys back at those prices, but that's not the direction they want to go in. And that's why I think that this, you know, upcoming season is going to be all about Dennis Allen. They are rebuilding this defense in Dennis Allen's likeness, using, you know, finding the kind of player that he wants. I mean, on paper, Devin Bush isn't better than Tremaine Edmonds, but Devin Bush is faster, what, five inches shorter? and can close in a way that Dennis Allen needs. You know, on paper, Kobe Bryant is not better than Kevin Byard,

but he's got the versatility to defend outside and in the slot and from the safety position, and he can guard tight ends that Dennis Allen really wants. And it'll be interesting to see whether this defense can make a leap just stylistically because of the kind of player they're bringing in, because I think we'd all agree that as we sit here right now, I'm not sure that they've made any position markedly, better, at least on paper.

Well, and that can bring us to the Max Crosby thing, because you're right. It sure sounds like they are just going to depend on being better. Do you depend on Dio Dangbo being healthy, from R. Turner being healthy? But what did you make of Patrick Finley, the Max Crosby explanation from Ryan Poles? First of all, I think it was Adam Hogue, who asked the question at the end. We had asked a couple of questions kind of vaguely about it, because I didn't think that he talk about somebody who's on another team's roster. And he didn't speak for too long about it.

But I would tell you this, it sounded like was to me, not an is. It sounded like past tense that we checked on him and we didn't match up and that was that. Now, there are enough twists and turns in this thing that I'm not going to sit here and say the bears are out on anybody. but it sure seemed to me that the ability it didn't seem like Ryan thought that the ability to match up on a trade was there in the past and there's no reason to think it'll be there in the future. I don't think the Raiders are going to turn around and give them away for two threes now just because Ryan Poles would like them to do that. Pat, I also thought about this. And maybe this is just because I've been thinking about the Max Crosby trade for way too long. but I wonder if the NFL was a little more ready to let him stay with Las Vegas

because he's on a bad team. So if he was on a contending team or a team that was maybe even close, you know, with the addition of like a quarterback and you've got the first overall pick, that they would threaten or something along those lines. Maybe they would have been a little more quick to try to trade, knowing that they would be taking away a player from a competition, even like a Cowboys Packers situation. Say the Raiders were as good as the Packers.

I wonder if, or the Cowboys in the scenario, I wonder if like maybe that would have would have caused a team to want to trade for him. Yeah, well, and if the Raiders were as good as the Packers or the Cowboys, Max Crosby would probably want to continue playing for them. I know that some of his issues, at least reportedly, have been with some of the people inside of the Raiders facility, but this is a guy who just wants to win. And I would keep this in mind. You know, the next, I guess, the next target,

date that you could watch if you think he's going to get traded is going to be the draft. But remember, Khalil Mack was traded on Labor Day weekend. I can tell you exactly where I was on Labor Day weekend when it happened. You know, when the Cowboys traded Michael Parsons last year, that was, I believe, on Labor Day weekend. There's a world where Max Crosby stays exactly where he is and tweets about how much he loves the Raiders. And then, you know, two weeks before the season starts can be on the move.

I think that that's possible. And until he comes out and says explicitly that he is going to play for the Raiders in 2026, I continue to think of that as at least having a chance. And what he posted on social media the other day didn't do that for me. For all I know, that posts on social media was telling the world that his knee was okay. And maybe doing the Raiders a solid by helping the Raiders try to gain a little bit more leverage after they lost it this week. No doubt. That is the voice of Patrick Finley, Bears Beat writer for the Chicago Sun Times, joining us here on Rahimi Harris and Grody.

What do you think about the Drew Dalman explanation, which was, for the benefit of our listeners, was very little, called it it kind of popped up on us or pop up on us, but he wouldn't go into any kind of depth on Drew Dalman. Where do things stand with you on that? What we might or might not ever find out? What did you think about that? And knowing Drew Dalman, I don't think we're going to get a long explanation. He is not the type to do that. And if this is really a personal decision, you know, his bosses know it. I'm not sure that he owes it to the rest of the world unless he wants to give it.

Poles, I found it interesting. The polls said very early, I'm not going to get into this. But I'll tell you what, they did a good job pivoting. They really did. I think it's my favorite move of theirs. When you look around the league and see that, you know, the Raiders made Tyler and Lindervam the most. expensive center in the history of the world by like $10 million or whatever it was.

And then what Connor McGovern got to stay in Buffalo. Boy, you get the center for a team that played in the Super Bowl last year that started every game that was there and helped Drake May turn into Drake May. And you get them for like a $5.7 million cap hit and a 2027-5. Like that's what, 2027 fifth round pick is like a sixth round pick this year. like that's that's change you find in the couch man that's yeah i thought that they were really smart to do that i don't think it solves the problem long long term but boy it would have been really easy to panic and do something drastic and i give them credit for finding the deal that they

did i actually also was just i enjoyed the garret bradbury press conference and his availability to you guys i thought he was really insightful answered a lot of questions and you can tell that his time with joe tuny at north carolina state really meant a lot of to him, Patrick. Yeah, and he won the Good Guy Award, by the way, in New England last year, which is the award that the PFWA chapters give to the guys who are the most helpful to the local media corps. So we lose a good guy in Kevin Byard, which is heartbreaking, but we gain a good guy in Garrett Bradbury. Yeah, I thought that he, the best line he had maybe all day, and he had a lot of them was that he was talking about Tuning, and he said, I can't believe two different

teams let him walk out the door. Yeah, yeah, darn right. I mean, he's a, he's a Hall of Famer with Caleb Williams, I think on the Crosby podcast, called him the best, what do you call him the best left guard ever? Something like that. Wow. Yeah, that might be overstating it a little bit,

but boy, he is a professional. Where would the Bears be without Joe Toeing? Also, I enjoyed him being asked about what Avenger he would be. Phil Thompson did a nice job with that question, and Bradbury didn't want to ascribe himself a character, did he? No, he didn't. He was funny.

He said a couple of different times, no comparing. You know, I think he was cautious of, you know, he knew he was going to be asked about Drake May and Caleb Williams. He knew he was going to be asked about the Patriots turnaround and what the bears were able to do.

He knew he was going to be asked about Mike Vrable compared to Ben Johnson. And he really caught himself a couple of times and said, like, we don't, like, comparing is, I think he said comparing is lame, I think was the line. And then there at the very end, he said that Ben Johnson reminded him of Mike Frable. And I think that's a compliment.

I think so, hey, while we're doing the fun stuff, I got some quick hits for you. Have we figured out, like, the connection of David Garrard and Neville Gallimore, which I just thought was one of the funniest part, like playing in Jacksonville, David Garard, the quarterback for people who don't remember David Garard, playing in one of our southernmost NFL cities. By the way, I should point out, Gallimore is from Canada. The player he grew up loving was David Garard. Did you figure that one out?

Have you been able to piece that together, Finley? I don't even know how the Jaguars were on television in Canada. I mean, I'll take some of the blame for this, because I think I was the one who started that nonsense by essentially asking whether he played hockey growing up. Oh, yeah, you did. Yes. And he is, you know, some of these football players you see,

and they're not as big as you think they're going to be or, you know, talking to them, boy, he is not one of them. He is a large man. And I was sitting there talking to him thinking, oh my God, do you think this guy can skate a little bit? And you said he wasn't good enough. But he wanted to play quarterback,

and he wanted to be, of all people, David Garrard. Yeah. So, yeah, no, we got to get to the bottom. All right. You know, sometimes it is TV availability. Like, for example, Arturis Karas Chavez, for whatever reason, he was able to watch Wake Forest games. Yeah. And that had a lot to do with where, or Seton Hall, rather, and that's where he went to school.

Yeah, but he would have said that. It's like people who grew up, I grew up watching the Cubs on WGN. Like, there was no real explanation for it. Two other quickies. Where were you during the Kalil Mack trade? I do want to know since you brought that up. I was at the 7-Eleven on Green Bay. Road, very close to Nutrier High School.

North Shore. Getting a 32-ounce diet Coke. Hell yeah. And the good news is it was a very short trip home. The bad news is I drove like a crazy person. Oh, I bet you did. To get back to my laptop and to jump on that. But it was a Saturday, it was the Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend.

Where are you? Oh, I was in bed. I was sleeping. And I was awakened. was awakened. I don't remember if it was Mitch or Danny Parkins, one of the other, because Danny and I rushed into the studio right here at the score and did three hours on the Chicago Bears getting Khalil Mack. So I was on the air after I woke up. I was leisurely reading Herb Lawrence talk about how that seemed like a no-brainer, the two first round picks. And I was like, he's right.

Herb is, as he tends to be. I was like, Herb is right on this. And then I stayed in bed and then I was scrolling and scrolling and I like refresh something or talk to somebody on the phone and then I refresh it was like, oh, it's happening. It's happening. Her predicted this. And then we all went crazy. It was. I'd like to point out that I'm not a coffee guy. So the Diet Coke was me trying to get caffeinated in the morning. I gotcha. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. The other one was how much did you love that? Because I think you were asking about the Caliph Raymond Decatur Staley's hat. And what happened? Is it because Antoine Randallel L was drafted by the Cubs that he couldn't have him wearing a socks hat would have been just fine, I thought.

I was, had that silliness continued, I would have pointed out to him that, you know, the guy who owns the team and the guy who's signing the paycheck they just gave you, very much a Cubs fan. Yeah, good point. And somebody, I have worn a brown San Diego Padres hat to a training camp camp practice once to Halas Hall. And I did it only once because I was reminded very quickly by George McCasky that, And he didn't much like the 1984 Padres because they eliminated the Cubs.

Oh, yeah. So I decided that that was not going to be part of my hat rotation during training camp any longer. So for all I know, the owner caught him. He gave me crap, by the way, George McCasky, as long as we're talking about the owner of the bears telling us what hats we can and cannot wear playfully, by the way. You might remember this, Finley, because you have a little bit of history with the U of A. University of Arizona. Remember the training camp in Bourbonnet?

where I was wearing the Arizona hat, and George took exception to it because they have Bear Down as well as the Bears, and maybe Arizona has a trademark or something, is that right? There are two things here, and we're going off the rails. Number one, George went to Arizona State University. So George doesn't like the U of A. Oh, yes. Damn it, Grody.

Yeah, that's even bigger. No, no, no. But Arizona owns the trademark to Bear Now. That's what he was telling me. Yes. It is a fight. It's their fight song. And there's a reason you've never seen bear down Chicago Bears on a T-shirt that's the team is sold.

And it's because Arizona does it. Trademark. TM. The bears do not. That's what he was mad at. And not really mad, but he didn't like seeing me in a U of A hat, baseball cap. No. It's a very sun devil move.

Very sun devil. It is. And you know what's funny is Kobe Bryant, a lot, you know, 12th man in Seattle. except for the fact that that was an originally Texas A&M phrase first. So this does happen from time to time where you get the dissenting team phrases. I just want to ask you this before we let you go, Patrick. After seeing what the Bears did in free agency, understanding this first wave is initially over,

what do you think this means for the direction of how you feel like they'll take in the draft? I feel like they should get those novelty. You've just been drafted by the Bears' jerseys in size of. is extra large, extra, extra large, and extra, extra, extra, extra large. Because I think the first three picks that they make should be left tackle, defensive end, defensive tackle. You could put those in any order you want. It seems like at least at 25, they're going to have a chance at getting a starter

at defensive end, given the way that the draft looks like it's going to break. Or even at left tackle, I think in the second round, maybe you go for a detail. cackle there. I think we are going to draft the lines is going to be, uh, is going to be the theme that, that we will be hammering or at least I will be hammering, uh, for the next six weeks or so. Uh, that seems to be the obvious play here unless something jumps out of left field, but I don't see that happening. And I'm sorry. And I'm sorry about, uh, Nick Martinelli and the Northwestern Wildcats. I know that Kevin Fishbane and Mark Carmen get all the credit for being cats fans,

but I know you're a pretty big cat's fan too, Finley. Yeah, I just, I just, I just, I just live a block away from the arena. Yeah, it's easy. Yeah, you know, having to win three nights in a row is a tough ask. Yeah, for 15 seed, yeah. Fair enough. But we do see the Northwestern swag in the background of Patrick Finley's very nice Zoom. So thanks Patrick for joining us here on Rheemi Harrison Grotie.

We appreciate it. Thank you, guys. Any time. Bear down. That was Patrick Finley, the writer for the Sun, Times. Kind enough to join us also on our Twitch at twitch.tv. slash the score Chicago. And you know what else? I'm just going to throw this out there. Because we now have had a bunch of fun text on our text line. 312, 64, 64, 67, saying bear down trademark.

You know what? I don't think they can trademark emojis. So just do the graphic, the emoji, bear, and then the arrow. And there you go. Or what I have been doing now for decades. Just bears? Bears. God, if people would just... Caleb is close, but he still says, duh, bears. Right, and I'm not going to... There was a time on the air.

I brought it up to him, actually. I said, all you got to do is say bears, and he didn't buy in, and I am not going to try to change. I will never try to change Caleb Williams. What if you try to meld one of these younger minds are a new guy? Do you think you could do that? Maybe, like to get somebody to do bears. Who would that player be?

Maybe Caliph Raymond, maybe Garrett-Berry, since they came up with some of your favorite answers at the press conference. Those would be two top sounds like. Oh, Neville Gallimore? Bradbury. Did you mention Bradbury too? Yes. Okay. Bradbury.

Bradbury. Delicious. Some delicious Bradbury marmalade. It sounds like a marmalade. He can't listen to this station. He's going to quit. He's going to be like, nope. I see what happened here.

I'm out. Hey, I'll give you references. Tevin Jenkins. He'll tell you I'm a great guy. And Tevin just re-signed with the Browns. He sure did. And you know what? We have a Browns writer.

coming on to talk about Devin Bush. That is Daryl Reader who is going to join us. So I think that'll be great. He's at 125. Coming up next here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, you've alluded to this. You know what happens. We're coming back with another episode of the evidence locker room

because there was some dissension perhaps among the ranks, and we couldn't really put it together until people left. Next. Big potato.