Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Ryan Poles addresses looming decision on Jaquan Brisker

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote listened and reacted to the highlights of Bears general manager Ryan Poles’ press conference at the NFL Combine on Tuesday, with a focus on safety Jaquan Brisker’s future.

This is Rahimi Harrison Grotty on 104-3 The Score, and we are listening and reacting, not reading and reacting, but listening and reacting to Ryan Poles, who spoke today at the NFL Combine as it gets underway in Indianapolis. Our coverage of this is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. And here's just a recap briefly of what he's talked about so far. At 25, he's drafting the best player available, he says. He says he knows a lot of people don't like it. one of her names is Leila. But he is going to stick with his board, not at least according to Ryan Bulls today. He acknowledged Caleb Williams' rookie contract, and I think you said it the best. No extension talk

yet because they still have steps. And I wanted to get into that a little bit before we get to the rest of this, because you were right to point it out, Mark Grody. I think another piece of this that's really big is I love that it's a direct contradiction to what he had to say at this time last year, which was steps were skipped. Embrace the steps. Steps were skipped,

and although steps were not that we know of skipped this year, there are still steps that Caleb Williams must go through and get better at to be the complete quarterback we would all like him to be. Well, and that's it. And I like that Ryan Poles is saying, hey, nothing is guaranteed here yet. You know, if you want an extension, if you want to be the quarterback,

and Jason Leisure was the one who posed the question about the certainty that he thinks the bears have in their quarterback. I feel that way. But I also like that the boss says, I don't think you're there yet. I think that that's a perfect reaction when you consider this is year one of what he hopes is many things. Not that it's his rookie year because we know that was before, but that year one of a Ben Johnson offense and you're one of trying to set a standard here that's different. that's an important line to be able to draw. I think he's sending a message the same way that Caleb Williams has been sending messages, whether he's tweeting, trolling on social media, going on Max Crosby's podcast and talking for more than an hour.

Messages are being sent, lines are being drawn in the sand. I think this line that's being drawn in the sand, specifically by Ryan Poles, is emblematic of an organization that wants to see the franchise quarterback, be a franchise quarterback, not just in the second half of the games, not just in the last two minutes of games, but to show a level of consistency that befits what they paid, which was the number one overall pick.

And he's looking for a franchise contract, let's be honest. And when you talk about the amount of money that's going to be invested into him as a franchise quarterback, there's certain things he has not done yet that he still needs to do, but he's still going to be doing whatever he's doing

for the next 10 years in a bear's uniform, Mark. Yeah, Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson Let's put it very simply, saw the season pretty similarly to the way we saw the season for Caleb Williams. In terms of there was some moments in the first seven or eight games. We're like, is he the guy? Is he going to get there? And then second half of the season and the final fourth of the season, he looked elite at times. Well, you know what else?

I think we hear when we hear Ryan Poles say that, Ben Johnson's opinion. We're going to get out here in a couple of minutes. but when Ryan Pohl says that, it's asking the question, you know, did you do everything your head coach wanted you to do? Did you follow the steps that your head coach wanted you to follow? When Ben Johnson said, strip it down to the studs last year, what did that entail? And, yeah, I think you bring up a really good point, Mark. Like, there were several games against lesser opponents where we found ourselves asking the question,

did QB1 do enough? did those, I think, lessen over time, especially toward the end of the season and the playoffs? Yes. But you want that beginning of the season to start a lot stronger than it did first five or six games last year. And I think it will because the man adjusted to playing quarterback first year in a new system.

You can just tell, Mark, we talked about this, training camp, what was going on, what was transpiring before our very eyes? We were like, oh, just a rough start. Well, I remember doing a report with you guys being like, The deep ball doesn't look very good from Caleb. And of course I got crushed for it, but that's what I saw. That's what we saw in the first part of the season, too.

But also. Put your receivers in position to make plays. He was not doing that early in the season. Rudder's ball screen game. Yeah, I think the other thing is comprehensively, we can now look back at those moments and understand everything that he was trying to learn to master Ben Johnson's offense. I'm not saying he's mastered it, but the steps that he took to just looking like a quarterback who knew what he was doing, what was going on, what was expected, and being able to execute

at so much higher of a level at the end of the season compared to training camp. And again, I get it. It's a basic step one versus step 10 or whatever you want to call it at the end. But I feel much better. And I told you, somewhere along the Eagles, Pittsburgh, like somewhere in there in the schedule, you realize, oh, he knows what he's doing. Now it's just a matter of everybody doing their jobs, including him, and getting what Ben Johnson wants to get. There's a reason why they were a top, what, seven offense and not a top three offense. And now you heard what he said to Max Crosby, number one offense. I love the overall theme of your point, too, that we now know that Caleb Williams can't improve things.

So while it's not, it can't be assumed that Caleb Williams would be better in the first halfs of games or that his completion percentage will go up. And it'll just be more consistent. There is evidence to show us exactly that, yes, Caleb Williams can, take coaching, he can get better. And that's why we all love this pairing so far between coaching quarterback. I agree. I think a big part of it too is it's kind of like what you talked about, Mark,

when the Bears got away a little bit from scoring on the opening drive, you know, when you get in these tough situations, late in games, great that you came back, but I think that that would be something that if I'm Ryan Poles, I'm probably looking at

in upcoming games and seeing how often the offense hits on those opening drives. And you brought that up too. Yeah, well, George McCasky, I think it was in the interview with our guy, Jared Peyton, said he doesn't need the, I don't remember exactly how we put it. He doesn't need the drama at the ends of games. Like, while we all had a blast with it and there were some epic elite franchise changing throws that Caleb Williams made, yeah, maybe it doesn't have, maybe we go to the initial

Ben Johnson plan, which was to embarrass teams. Let's go to that program this year. Just win normal. that. Okay. 312 makes an excellent point here on the text line. Completion percentage. Yeah. And those are the only words in that text.

Now, were they able to overcome it to the point where they almost got to the NFC championship game? Yes, they were. But at the same time, that is something they have to work on. It doesn't have to be a roller coaster every game. Yeah, I don't think it has to be 70%. Yeah, no, 65% I would take. Yeah, like, let's face it, you'd take 60.

60 would be an improvement. Yeah. and understanding that dirt balls or dirt balls for a reason, and sometimes, you know, just the play is over, and you can't get anything on that play. And that's what I'm okay with the incompletion, excuse me. I think the other thing is, Caleb Williams, to me, strikes me as the type of guy

who is also hearing every single piece of criticism that has been lobbed his way on the way to what was an NFC North championship, or excuse me, division title, I guess. And now he's like, I'm going to take that fuel and fire, and I'm going to have my footwork where no one's going to be talking about me missing wide open receivers next year. That's goal number one. 815 asks, are they going to contest with the league for the picks from Cunningham leaving? It sounds like it.

Yeah, that seems to be the indication. Ryan Poles talked about it. Ian Cunningham earlier today said that he hopes that the bears get those picks as well. Conversations in regards to an appeal is the way polls phrased it. Also, 309 in the vein of your completion percentage. Tell rum to catch the ball. Yeah, yeah. Oh, Rome?

Yeah, people, yes, I don't, I don't disagree with that hot day. Rome knows it, man. Rome was depressed at the end of the season. That drop, man, and I remember asking about it, and he gave zero excuses, even though the reporter, me, allowed for one saying, was it a ball tip? Was it a little bit wild? Nope.

Nope. I need to make that catch. That sucked, basically was what Rome said to me. You know what's really funny, too, is like, for you saying that, and then Rome saying that. Well, we'll also hear what his coach has to say because Ben Johnson is speaking at the combine as well. Let's get back and listen to the rest of the Ryan Pohl's press conference.

It is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. Yeah, you know, when we first got Dennis in, it's really for all the coaches, position coaches, coordinators. They came in and talked about what they need. Like, what's the prototype. I knew from what Dennis was bringing scheme change over the last few years. it was going to take a little bit of time to get exactly what we needed. But as you go through that season, you ask more questions,

you're sitting in the weekly e-bails of our roster, all the way to last week here and then go through their UFA stacks and inserting where our players line up in there, both guys under contract and not. You get more and more clarity as you go through, so I feel pretty good about that. Last one. Yeah, I think it paints a clear picture in terms of makeup.

I like to follow the whole journey. I don't hold it against the 18-year-old that gets a million bucks to go to school and maybe didn't have his priority straight. I think most of us here, if that happened to us, we might be doing some crazy things too or maybe not focused where we should be focused. But I want to see the learning lessons that come from that. I want to understand their structure of the people they put around them. I want to understand how they battle through adversity.

I think the toughest thing is when there's an out to transfer when things get hard. We hurt the resilience of our young players. So I want to learn through that and understand how they grew throughout their whole deal. And that doesn't mean we would eliminate everybody, but we know what's coming in the building and what we need to lean into because I think we have to pick up some of that education on our side more than back in the day where colleges were kind of doing that education along the way. And I don't blame the college coach.

It's like, that's a really tough position. You got to compete. You got to get the best rosters together, knowing that guys are going to be in and out. So you're going to have band-aids and bridges to install an offense. It may not be as complex as ours because the guys are coming in for a year and then they're out. So there's a lot there in terms of the impact that it has in the NFL. Right. He's talking about how tough some of the decisions that are going to lead us on the season, bringing guys back.

Declan Brisker, how he played, definitely raised his price for money. Yep. Yeah. How do you want to pay your draft days? Yeah. What you've also got in real estate. How is that decision? It's really tough, and I know I've talked about those tough decisions in the past.

I think what changes is when you win, bonds and relationships get deeper. And knowing that right now we sit over the cab, we've got to make some decisions if that's cuts, if that's trades. there's real relationships of people that gave it up for the Chicago Bears to advance our organization, and they may not be able to stay, and that sucks, to be honest with you. But it's what makes this league beautiful. It's why we're all here. It constantly gets shuffled up and moved around, and it's the challenge of putting together the best puzzle you can with different pieces.

So really difficult, but that's what we signed up for. You've got to make those tough decisions, and they are business decisions. You kind of try to take your emotions out of it and do what's best for. the organization. My goodness. I'm thinking about Brisker. Yep. Like his, that, he was, was he not right on time with that game he had against the Rams, man?

I mean, like, that, that sticks, like that, for the world to see, his price tag went way up. And do you want to give a 33-year-old Kevin Byer $10 million a year? What we know is that recency bias is real. We also know that the most power. of punctuation is an exclamation point. That's certainly what Jaquan Brisker did to his tenure, maybe as a bear, but definitely his season. And he had a good year all year.

He stayed healthy. But the way he finished it. That sticks with guys. Yeah, like, okay, that is, that was maximum, the best version of Jaquan Brisker we saw in the playoffs. He timed that perfectly. But also, keep in mind, guys, Ryan Poles didn't back off from his position that he had,

the last time he was asked the question. And that was in the end of season press conference. You know, the question about Jaquan Brisker, the decisions he asked to make. You know, he talked about how like sometimes it sucks because you have to get rid of somebody. You might not want to or you might have to part ways with somebody. You might not want to, ideally. He didn't make any commitment to anybody when it came to that part of the discussion. I did not get any different opinion on Jaquan Brisker's future with the team in those statements that I did previously.

Ryan Paul has given us a little bit of a poker face, but something that he did say, which was telling, and which made me want to ask a follow-up question, is if I was in Indianapolis, I was not. I'm right here with you in studio here on 104-3, the score, Rahimi Harrison Grody, when he was asked about Dennis Allen and the input and understanding what he needs and saying it was going to take time to figure out what fit. The way he phrased it almost had me calling back to last off scene. He was like, well, did he not sign off on diodeing? Like some of the decisions that were made last offseason now as we headed to a new season, I wonder how much Dennis Allen is giving him the shopping list, like go get these guys.

That's it. It's not like he was apprehensive and didn't spend money. Right. He spent an absolute ton of money when it came to Dyer O'Dangbo and Grady Jarrett. And, you know, T.J. Edwards, I think that was prior, but he deserved his extension. There's no question after the performance he had the year before. T.J. Edwards at times was the only guy. who I think, not that anybody was loafing,

but that there were times where he was still just giving everything 110%. You saw that on the field. When you thought a drive was good as good as done, TJ was getting an interception. He was being disruptive. But I say all of that knowing they've spent a ton of money on the defense. We talked about it yesterday. When I checked on the defensive spending,

and this is before a couple guys got extensions, the bears were still 10th in defensive spending in the NFL, and that was at week two of the season last year. Were they getting 10th in production at the time? No. Turnovers, yes. But everything else, I think we can all confidently say we want an improvement. All of that said, guys, one of my conclusions from this again, and I've been thinking about this, too, as far as the starting safeties are concerned, I don't know if either of those guys is going to be back at this point.

And there is a decent crop of free agent safeties, and I'm just looking at a few of the names, Cam Curl, Reed Blankenship, Nick Crum. Ross, Brian Cook. As always, there's a bunch. So do you look at that position? That's not traditionally a premium position. I think there is a chance that neither of those guys will return. And if one is to return, at least from the way they've talked, they're more high on the idea of keeping Kevin Byard.

Which he kind of acknowledged too when he said publicly, Ryan Poles mentioned me by name. He did name check him. He named checked him. 240, I'm with him on the text line. Kevin Byer can be someone considered as progressing the organization that might have to leave. That's just the reality of the situation. It's true.

The cool part about this discussion and listening to this like this is that everybody gets to put the GM hat on. You get to put the GM hat on. You, the listener, gets to put the GM hat on. Everybody who's chatting on our Twitch stream, the Score Chicago, we changed addresses, guys. So we're at the Score, Chicago. You guys have your GM hats on. and the good news is we get to talk about this in such a good way. The fact that I get my first combine,

we get to talk about after a Bears playoff win. They didn't end the season like they wanted as most playoff teams don't. There's only one who does. But at the same time, this is a much more valuable discussion. Like you mentioned Cam Curl, Mark Rooney. Well, he also had a really well-time playoff game, didn't he? That's how it was like, like who are the actual cheaper, options. There are those. I don't know. With everything that the Bears have money-wise on defense,

how do you? I guess one of the two you could justify, but it's tough. 33, man. You just talked about all the restructure possibilities. Obviously, the Tremaine-Edman's cut. You are. That's true, too. It could add up to something that they could manage, but I do expect to see a lot of new faces, especially on that defense and then that secondary next year. I'd still rather they had somebody could get to the quarterback than keeping either of the safeties, to be honest with you? You like that? Yeah, I know. That's a crazy hot take. I've been on that for a very long time. Forever, ever, ever, ever. Is Yonikin Gakway still available? He's always the answer. Janik and Gakway, come on down and your eight to ten sacks per year. He's always unanswered, but he

shouldn't probably not be the answer. That's the problem. I actually think of a lot of the Bears' rando sightings are like the ones that, where you actually expect your GM to kind of like, not the scouting as much, but your GM to kind of come through. That was a good one. I thought unique in Gacquay when they acquired him. Oh yeah, I was fall for. I mean, you looked at like, they signed him for a price that was expected. He gave them an output that was expected. Everybody happy, right? Right, right. And you know what name came up in our conversation backstage just to let our audience in a little bit? A guy by the name of Larry Ogenjobie came up. He was one of the, he was a three technique signing by Ryan Poles and the Bears that didn't work out because he ultimately

fails as physical. And then we were blessed with. And I don't necessarily say that sarcastically because I like Justin Jones quite a bit. he's still probably the best three technique that the bears have had on Ryan Poles' watch. Am I wrong? I don't think so. I don't think I'm wrong. Also, just sidebar, like Justin Jones was a hell of an interview. Hell of an interview.

But if you take that away, still, I think production-wise, like, do I want Justin Jones in pass coverage? No, but when he's actually hired for the job he was doing, he was good. This will shock you. I love talking to him about the Green Bay Packers because he was easily antagonized to say bad things by the Green Bay Packers. And you guys know me. I am just the one to do that. Next, I think we're going to get into this a little bit more here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie.

Ben Johnson also spoke. So there's a lot of questions on our text land that I feel like are pretty valid too. Don't forget, Ben Johnson was a game changer and a lot of who the Bears decided to acquire from a talent standpoint, why their shift in personnel may be happening in real time. So this is Combine Tuesday here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104.3, the score will listen and react with you. As a lot of you have your GM hats on. Keep them on next.