Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Transition: Bears are off to a good start as free agency negotiations are underway

Episode Date: March 9, 2026

Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote welcomed on Matt Spiegel and Laurence Holmes for the daily transition segment.

The score. 773 at our text line. Wanted to correct you. In all caps, they put Colby White. You didn't get it right either. That's like Zillow. You didn't get it right. That's like Emma correcting us.

It's a pillow. That's my favorite. The people who want to correct this. And then they get the name wrong to them. Yeah. Like super cop. It's a pillow. I can't believe you guys got Colby White's name wrong or Deshaun right.

Those were two today. Good times. Thanks to everybody who listened and joined us on this really pretty day. Thanks to all of our guests, Matt Chatham, Jen Mueller, Dan Weiderer. T.D.N. Right. Thanks. That's not even a real whisper. We've, we've disrespected the Take the North podcast. Thanks to Marshall Harris. Thanks to Mark Grotty.

Thanks to Ray Diaz, Tyler Beuterbob, Braden Fryer, Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, Connor, O'Donnell, and Cody Westerland. And hello, Lawrence Ann Holm's and Matt and Spiegel. How are all of you doing? We're doing great. All four of us are here. We're good. They're good. We're good.

Divide and conquer on this NFL negotiating day. A day that I have called, I have referred to as pretty good. I'm going to say pretty good with to get people up to date. DeMarco Jackson is back with the Bears, the linebacker. Daniel Hardy is here for two years and $6 million. Devin Bush, the linebacker from Cleveland, 27 years old, just signed with the Bears. cornerback, or excuse me, safety. Kobe Bryant, who has played strong safety and free safety in his life, is a bear.

Neville Gallimore, the nose tackle is a bear as well. All of that to say, pretty good so far. I wouldn't say a standalone good, but a pretty good. And Neville Chamberlain. Yes, congratulations. We've got a statesman on the defensive line. That's great. Oh, but you look at that.

Tyler Linderbaum signs with the Raiders. Three years, $81 million deal. Seven per. And Mike Evans is going to the 49ers. I never thought he'd leave Tampa, but he is. For a damn good place. It is all happening. And Malik Willis just got $67 million, $45 million guarantee.

He's one of the 32 now. He is one of the 32. So the dolphins are signing Malik Willis. Bridge contract. We must protect agents. And the dolphins are eating $99 million in dead salary caps. money for Tuatong of Iloa. It is the most that anyone

has ever done. It breaks the Russell Wilson record when Denver moved on before Bo Nix. And look what happened to them. That worked out quite nicely. Is that because Deshawn Watson is still on the Brown? Nasty man. I don't know. Because that would be the most, I think, if he were... If they did, oh, if the

Browns did that, I think they're going to restructure, right? I think they did. Yeah, they had to for yet another time. But when you think about Tua and look at the years and his numbers, the fact that they gave him all of that after like one kind of breakout year under McDaniel. It's just the way you've got to do business in the NFL, the way things are structured. But man, is that crazy?

Devin Bush was news to me, having walked in here. Yeah, so Speaks, three picks for 104 yards worth last year. He had 125 tackles. He's 27 years old. And they also have a hyper-talented rookie now second-year linebacker and Swessinger. So that probably made him expendable. but that's a good linebacker to go along with as it looks right now with DeMarco Jackson and T.J. Edwards, assuming he is back to being 100% healthy and a little dash of Rubin Hippolyte, hopefully, and eventually Nick Sewell again.

Noah Sewell, eventually, but who knows when? Exactly. And frankly, who knows what kind of T.J. Edwards you're getting back. Exactly. I think Ryan Poles referred to that at the Combines. So, so DeMarco Jackson and a vet in Devin Bush. That's your new linebacker crew, and it's more in line with what you're willing to pay certain veterans as opposed to the big money that Tremaine was about to get. Yeah, it makes sense that you would end up going fairly inexpensive on that position because that position has been devalued over the last like five to seven years in the NFL.

And so if you've got guys you feel like that are solid players, you can make a move like that. I think that DeMarco Jackson signing made all the sense in the world. Me too. And then you hope that T.J. Edwards comes back. And you hope that some of the brilliance that Devin Bush has shown in his career. There have been moments of brilliance. There have also been a lot of inconsistencies with him. So you hope that the moments of brilliance are what the bears are able to get out of them.

And then I don't want to say a steal, but it looks a lot better if you get that version of him for the amount of money you pay. And, you know, Dennis Allen did good work in the linebackers room last year with the injuries that he had to deal with. Even when Tramanda Edmins only played 13 games last year, we know the T.J. Edwards issues last year. He was able to make a name for DeMarco Jackson last year. I mean, he had that one huge game against Pittsburgh. Amat Ogbog and Bamiga, who I know was cut quickly, had a really nice couple of games as well. So he's good in that linebackers room, Lila. More news from Adam Schefter, now former Bears defensive end, Dominique Robinson.

is headed to Houston on a one-year deal worth up to $4 million. It's a great place to go. If you're him, to rotate into a defense that gets after it, he can end up picking up a lot of sacks on that defense. He could end up learning, too, from Daniel Hunter and Will Anderson. And play for Domeca Ryans. That's not bad. Good for Dominique Robinson. Seemingly a good dude, hard worker, converted. Quarterback, right?

Converted quarterback and really played all over in college, and then got here, and there were a couple, there were multiple times in his first couple years, I was like, this dude isn't going to last, and he just kept lasting and lasting and has made some plays, and now he gets a one-year, $4 million deal. In a good place where they chase quarterbacks for breakfast. But think about it, like, we're so used to talking about Linderbaum,

or $81 million. Okay, there's Mike Evans, three years, $60 million. Imagine being Dominique Robinson or part of his family or his folks, and you're like, my son just signed a $4 million contract. I mean, it's amazing. It's like David Bodie all over again. Yeah, hey, man, you got paid.

We wasn't sure if this was going to happen for you, but it did. Changing families. Like if he's wise about some investments and has kept some of what he has already and like, I mean, you can buy houses for your family if you want, all that kind of stuff. That's amazing. Well, he was always a cheap option for the Bears. That's why he lasted so long. And then here's the thing about Dominique Robinson.

the athleticism that he has is tantalizing. This is a superior athlete in that room. So he's always going to be a guy that GMs and the Bears, Lail, looked at and said, yeah, we'll keep seeing what this guy can do because look at the athleticism of Dominique Robinson. Before Montes-Wet came on, there was a time when I thought Dominique Robinson was their most effective pass rusher. Yeah. We'll see all these dollars float around and just every once in a while I get smacked in the face with the reality. of like this, sometimes it is actual money as opposed to just like a line item on a spreadsheet.

Yeah. A fifth round pick making it to a second contract. It's amazing. It's great. And I remember I had that feeling when I-O. Dissumu signed his second deal. He was like, wow, he turned that into this. And like that man and that family. And now he's... And now he's going to go to the playoffs. You have a good time. How about Daniel? Daniel Hardy. It's another one. Tremendous. Right? Two years, six million dollars. Good for you, Daniel Hardy.

It's a big deal. You mean, you had to accept the ego hit that you're not necessarily going to be an everyday defense event. Maybe you'll help out. But you're a help. We've seen so many guys make careers out of, in this town, being terrific special teams players. Every team's got to have them. And Daniel Hardy has nailed that down and that will come in handy. That never goes out of style.

It's my ringer, everybody. Got to turn that off. It's better be good. That's 50 for who'd you kill on Friday? Tom Gamboa. and now five for the phone ringing. But that's just because the Lagoo family didn't take care of it.

Not the Lagoo Brothers, as I said. No, no, no. Father and son. It was father and son night at U.S. cellular field then, I guess it was. Was it really? Yeah, it had to have been U.S. cellular field. There's definitely the cell. If I kill somebody accidentally,

if I say that they're dead and then I'm proven wrong, $50. Oh, wow. I don't think that's fair. I think in talk radio, it happens to all of us. Yes. People don't understand how hard it is to talk. to talk live for four and a half hours.

I'm using the Lebitard method. That's what they charge Dan Lebitard whenever he kills someone. Oh, so you're putting me in the Lebitard category. Thank you. Nice. I think you should get a little fine.

That's the way I internalized that, by the way, that Lawrence just complimented me. I think it's a good method. It's quick and thorough. Like a tear drop tattoo, like a couple of those. To commemorate the false killing of Tom Gamboa? How many people have you killed that?

Like, since this is a thing now on the show, Have you killed multiple people? Usually I kill base runners in the middle of ball games. Oh, that's true. And he's dead. He's going to be dead. You should have ran with that. You know, like everybody needs their trademark call.

You should go with dead. That's true. Dead at the place. He's dead. Y'all, that's Matt Spiegel with his dead call. Until, of course, you know. Until somebody actually dies. Until someone gets hit with a comebacker.

Hey, we're trying to figure this out. Are you doing any more games this spring? I know Pat's done. And I know Zach's doing, I think, the next one. Are you done too? I'm done. I'm done. The season is over.

Speaks is only doing Saturday's game if DePaul makes it to the championship game with a big east. Hey, speaking of that. I got to succeed. I'm glad for the nine curtain jerker. I hate saying it game. It's curtain your career. Yeah, they tried really hard, though, to get themselves into the curtain jerker game. I thought he was a broadcaster for the viewers.

See me. See me? Not fun. But do you feel good knowing that at least you're not the 4 o'clock game? Yes, but I'm disappointed in the way they played in the last two. To be on the cusp of getting yourself a buy to then get blown out by Villanova and more so getting blown out on Saturday by Butler was rough. Well, last night on Fox 32, I set the bar for DePaul at not atrocious.

Like I said, they were over 500 this year. Six seat is the highest they've ever had in the Big East tournament. and you said, Lawrence, go ahead and call him atrocious. And it was because of that game that you endured. Yes. For most of the game, apparently. Better but not good is how I would describe DePaul basketball. So you guys were on Fox last night.

I was on Saturday night with Dane Placo. I don't know if anybody had a chance to watch out of the WBC. Dane Placco brought in a piece of memorabilia just to show me because he knew I would get a kick out of it. You know what it is? It is the scorecard from the 23 to 22 Cubs and Phillies game. Oh, give it to me. Dane Placo

He was sitting five rows behind the Cubs dugout as a young man and he kept score Lawrence for the entire game of 2322

He needs to get that to Mitch then Mitch can have it printed out and then when any like the Pat Hughes When any people Good for Dean Placco He did

He showed the work It's amazing And I took a picture of the other side Because the other side has the concessions Lunch well and economically

at Wrigley Feet an Oscar Meyer hot dog for 65 cents. One of my favorite things as a Cubs fan growing up was seeing that game at some point in time being played in every off season after it had occurred. Like seeing the 23 to 22 game against the Phillies. Yeah, Dane was there and he kept score the entire game. It's unbelievable. The ballpoint pen set at $1.25, you can't afford not to get that ballpoint pen set. I'm telling you.

Mike Schmidt, four home runs that day, was it? No, Dave Kingman 3. It's a different... Schmitton? I had to have homered. Schmitt homered twice. Okay, okay. Yeah, Kingman 3.

Yeah, Kingman 3, Schmidt, Schmit, Homer game is a different game. Okay. But, yeah, yeah, yeah, there was those. There was 14,000 people there, 14, 592. Oh, my God. And Dane Placco. Dane Placco. And in his voice, I'm sure that was a lovely story, he told.

I happened to be at the game. Professional, as professional as it comes. Yeah. So you got to do the post game after the Schwabre three-run homer game with the 9-1 win over Britain of greatness. After all that. Britain of greatness. WBC was fun, man. Oh, I got into it.

I didn't think I would. You did? I got into it. We were talking about that during the meeting. Did you get into it? I had a bad attitude about it because my attitude was I got 162 games that I got to deal with during the regular season for the Cubs and socks. And then I watched USA Great Britain. And then I watched Dominican Republic Netherlands.

And I learned that there's a slaughter rule in the delfts. Oh, man. So are those walk-offs or not? When you hit the three-run homer to make it an 11-run lead, and that means the game is over, do you call that a walk-off? Well, they did, I think. To be. Lawrence, one of these games is on 2B. I thought it was on FS1. Try FS2. There's FS2. There's 2. There's 2B. I watched a Super Bowl on 2B. You're right. You did? Yeah. I don't know what channel. I thought that there was supposed to be two at the same time on FS2.

At the same damn time. What do you got here? What's going on? I got Danny on the screen right now. Where? See? Oh, I just saw somebody else was in the box, the TV box. I think he's out today.

Yeah, Nick's in Tokyo. Nick's at the games in Japan. Mike Evans. What are we going to talk about Mike Evans? Can we get back to Kobe Bryant? Let's talk about devil Gallomore. So what were you? Somebody told me that you were giving Danny the business the other day,

Mark Grotty. Was it Danny who told you? No. When we have him on on our weekly appearances, usually there's... Was it after? Was it a Thursday? On a non-danny day where you're giving him the business? That's my favorite kind.

Oh, like, look, I was talking trash about him off. You were? I don't remember. Okay. I don't recall what it was because so much of the trash I talked to him is to his face. Yeah, no, that's the best way to do it. Yeah, I can't keep all the... He likes the trash talk to the face.

Well, I know what happened behind the face that he was upset about. No, no, it wasn't him. I was talking trash about him, but I don't remember. Do you remember what I was saying? Was it? God know. Oh, you know what? Oh.

I don't remember what happened like an hour ago. I remember. I remember. It was, I was making fun of the thought exercise. And I mentioned you in it, too. I was like, I'm thinking of thought exercise for you. I was like, he was the king. That's what I said.

He was the king of the thought exercise. Because Layla had said thought exercise and reminded me that Danny Parkins did not invent the thought exercise. No. I call him hypotheticals every now and then. Yeah, what do you got one? Sports hypothetical. No, at the time we had one, but I forget what it was.

was because I don't I can't remember what if I told you the tire Linderbom would rather go to the Raiders and play with Fernando Mendoza then go back to Baltimore and play with Lamar Jackson but he's making like 22 million a year 27 he'd rather make 27 million a year so I got to say to bring in your number one overall quarterback and give him the best center in the NFL in front of him is pretty cool really smart whether we want the Raiders to You appear smart or not? It's a really smart room. How many times have we had a rookie quarterback or a young quarterback in here, and I've said, we've all thought, we need to find him as Jason Kelsey. Yeah. Like, whoever that is. And now the Raiders are going to hand Fernando Mendoza,

Tyler Linderbaum. Well, we obsess over. I shouldn't say we obsess over. There have been many stories in the last two years about the way NFL franchises botched the development of their quarterback because they don't have the patience and they don't have the infrastructure. Yeah. So that's a, that's an A plus move by the Raiders. I think it's a really smart move by them and now I just wonder what else will you do to build around him? It seems like you've got your running back so that's good

and now can you find him some weapons at the receiver spot? You got a good tight end so you've got... Two of them, right? Yeah, so you've got the building blocks for something cool. That's quite... You're right man, you've got Genty a great center two real legit tight ends

including Bowers the freak and now if you get him a wide out too and Clint Kubiak, maybe they can be and running right away. There's the whole matter of the opposing defense, though. Yeah. Like, I still were, like, it's still a young quarterback, but you're, I think you're, the landing spot for him seems better than it was three days ago.

Well, what about the Raiders defense? You know, that, that was a, Max Crosby was the game changer for them, so. Got to figure that out. Hey, you do. That's all right. Alex Guerrero will make sure they can get on the right path. Hey, man, TB12 works for some people. Yeah, need that wellness coordinator.

Who are we talking to the other day? Then he was talking about Brady said, it's always weird when somebody's 40 gets better in their 30s. They're always amazed. Yet more news. Uh-oh. Layla's got something. Okay.

The Giants are signing standout linebacker Tremaine Edmonds. 23-year, $36 million contract with $23.7 million, fully guaranteed. Sources tell Ian Rappaport and Mike Gropolo. Good for him. That's really good for him. Good for John Harbaugh. That's a pretty good guy to have in the law. locker room, pretty good product on the field

still. Still, well, he and Devin Bush are the same age, but Tremaine's got more miles because he got here earlier. Yeah, he's been playing since he was 20, right? So they're probably had similar miles, but yeah, I know what you're saying. He's played a lot of football.

And the Titans are reportedly signing John Franklin Myers. Who's on a lot of the wishlists of Bears fans. It's still going to be really interesting day. We've got a whole show planned and mapped out, but there's going to be news that breaks and filters in all along the way. And it's fun. Like Friday, we had to process the Garrett-Bradbury acquisition in real time. So it was good processing, by the way. Hey, thank you. Yeah. But because, yeah, because we're to like scramble and figure out, okay, so this is going to be their starter. What do we know about them? And everybody's reaching out

to people and we're processing together. And today we get to go a little further with it with our buddy Pete Bersich. Yeah, Pete Bersich is going to be on the show at 4 o'clock. Ben Solac is going to be on the show. So we got two guys that we can talk to you about Brady and Brady. Brady. Garrett. Gary. Garrett. Bradbury. Not Grady Jarrett or Grady Bradbury. I don't know what I'm talking about.

About Ray Bradbury. I love Ray Bradbury. Me too. And Garrett Wilson. Sci-fi dad. Yeah, that's one of the sci-fi dads of all time. Who was the Patriots coach? From here, right? Skokie, maybe? Oh, no way. Skokie. I do a guy from Skokie, Illinois. Fahrenheit 4.51 is Ray Bradbury, right?

The Bears play. Dandelion wine. Wachigan. Dandelion wine? I go too deep on Ray Bradbury books. Raymond. I don't think I can go three. Anybody got a third Ray Bradbury book? Dandelion wine. That's what I had. The Martian Chronicles. All Martian Chronicles would do it. Yeah, Fahrenheit 4.51. Something wicked this way comes. Oh, yeah. Guys, why can't I think of the Patriots head coached against the Bears? Raymond. Raymond Barry. Raymond Barry.

Raymond Barry. Former wide receiver. Former wide receiver, Raymond Barry. Yes. Raymond Barry. Yes, Ray Bradbury from Waukegan. Look at that. See? We got a lot down here, Judge. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly.

You look like it lost weight, Lawrence. I know, right? We did you get in. What's going on today? We got something for you on that front today in an audio farm. I think we also were on today. I heard it in real time. What time will you be playing it?

It was delightful. We just going to play it. Where are you staying? Three, Pete Bursich will be there at four. We will also talk about the WBC. And when we come back, let's talk about the offseason from a 30,000 foot view and talk about what makes for a good off season and how people feel about it knowing that two of the big ticket items got away from the bears.

Does it matter? We'll discuss after Tanny's open, which is always a must listen. It is next. Good job, Tyler. A great show.