Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Was Joe Thuney the Bears' most important acquisition of 2025?

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

Marshall Harris and Mark Grote debated if left guard Joe Thuney was the Bears’ most important acquisition in 2025.

Rahimi Harrison Grotie, midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 670 the score. I don't think the process changes. You're going to identify the guys that fit what we want in our football team, which coach hit, and you just keep trying to acquire those players. We know what they look like. We know how they act. They know how to talk. And we'll continue to do that.

I think that's part of the thing is, one, can you self-evaluate and be critical of yourself and your team to make sure that you know what you have in the building. And then can you just keep pounded away and stick into your process? You make tweaks, of course, but stick to the process of bringing in the right types of people. That is the Bears general manager, Ryan Poles, right there, talking about the hope for Ryan Poles and his front office. And obviously, it would trickle down to the fans, is building a Super Bowl roster. That's what the Bears are, we can say, for, real in the business of doing, if we are all on the same page that what the Bears did this past

year is legitimate and that they can keep it going. As we welcome you back into the Rahimi Harris and Grotie show here on Chicago Sports Radio 670, the score. And if it at all sounds just a little bit different today, it's because we are in our performance studio today at the score of the Odyssey Performance Studio where we usually have bands and sometimes we do score shows here when we do big events, but that is because they are redoing the studio from which we usually work to get the FM signal in there, which will occur on Monday. We'll talk more about that later as well. But you brought up something interesting, Marshall Harris, in backstage.

Backstage. Backstage. And that is about Ryan Poles and the most important move that he made in the offseason heading into what we just saw this past season, 11 and 6, and a playoff win over the Packers, lost to the Rams, and now hopefully on to the next. But who is the most important either acquisition, signing, or draft pick? Ryan Poles putting the roster together.

Who is that person for you, Marshall Harris? I want to be very clear about this. The way you build a football team is so important, and we know you start from the inside going out. if you're doing it the correct way. Ryan Poles first attempted that didn't seem to be of that mold. But I want to say, as much grief as I give Ryan Poles for the mistakes that he's made along the way, I will give credit where credit is due.

What I'm about to tell you is not just the move that Ryan Poles had last offseason being the best of last off season. I will say it is the second biggest acquisition he has made in his tenure. as GM of the Bears. And that acquisition was trading a fourth round pick in this year's upcoming draft for Joe Tuny, who is now all pro yet again. He's been in the league for nine years. And in every season he's been in the league, he's won a division title. He is a winner through and through.

He is likely a future Hall of Famer. And for him to have just the understanding that this is something. that had to be done is where I would give Ryan Poles all the credit. Joe Tooney is that important to the bear's current success and future success. I think you make the argument that it's, I know it's difficult with offensive linemen because it's proportionate and it's relative, that he was the best player on their team this year. Oh no, he was team. Remember we did team MVP? I said he's the team MVP. I mean, that's not a bad pick. I mean, like you're getting into the trenches when we talk about offensive line. But yeah, I don't have a huge argument against that.

I mean, I could definitely, we could point to another guy on that offensive line, though, too, who wasn't as good at his position as Joe Tooney was at his, but order, ladies and gentlemen, order was restored at the center position. Finally, we don't have to think about Lucas Patrick anymore. We don't have to think about, is Ryan Bates going to be the center for this team? Is it going to be Coleman Shelton? And shout out to Coleman Shelton. He's having a fine career, I think, relative to what maybe.

the expectations were for him. Is it Sam Mustifer? It's not Sam's fault that he got forced into being the Bears center for a while, and what a great soldier that guy was in the Bears' locker room. But my goodness, I've been waiting my whole Bears' covering career to see the Bears restore order at the center position. So I might even like that a little bit more just because of going through the shuffles and the failures at that position.

So he's certainly restored some order there. And we shouldn't, I mean, while we're there, throw Jonah Jackson into the mix at right guard. Pretty good at that position. And they were so indicative of this Bears team, too, because just like almost everybody and the team in general, they got better as the season went along. There was some agonizing moments I thought early on with that interior. Well, they were still trying to get it together with like trying to get, you know, one yard on back-to-back plays early in the season.

And literally, that was where, okay, I'm in the locker room, now I got to do it. Now you've done it, Bears. Now I've got to go talk to the offensive line about why they couldn't get one yard. And I remember talking to Drew Dalman. And he literally said to me, we have it somewhere. He said, yeah, I mean, he admitted that they're a work in progress.

And there's some things that they're still trying to get right in terms of chemistry. He put it much better than I'm putting it right now. But you know what I mean. this team required patience early. And if you had it, you were rewarded towards the end. And the offensive line is indicative of that, as is Joe Tooney, your guy. Yeah, Tuni is the answer to this question, even though you bring up some nice suggestions, some nice honorable mentions. Yeah, they're texture of players now.

Tuny is the answer to this question because this man went 1,149 snaps, played all 17 games, did not give up a sack, okay? In a year in which we saw Caleb's sack total go from 68 in his rookie season to 24. in his second season. Understand he is at the root of that. Also, the last time I checked, the last two times Joe Tuny, who's already a four-time Super Bowl champion, the last two times he played in a playoff game, like to end seasons, he was playing out of position at left tackle.

Did that for the Kansas City Chiefs, did that for the Bears. He does whatever is needed of him in any given moment. He is that dude, and he's also one of the six finalists for NFL Protector the Year, and I believe he should win that award. NFL Protective the year. We are lucky to have that guy here and sort of understand. It's great when there's a good offensive lineman, or in his case, a great offense longman because you get to see what it's like.

You get to see the difference in a great offensive lineman as opposed to one who needs a little help sometimes. And you can look at that as your left tackle. And that's another guy, too, even though it's very complicated right now, that is starting, started to look like a good. good signing, and that was the second round pick Ozzie Tripillo, who a lot of us left for dead in the OTAs in the left tackle competition.

They told us he couldn't play left tackle. They told us that. They did tell us that. He said he is not a left tackle. What does he end up doing? He ended up playing left tackle. Even if they didn't tell us that, they told us by putting Theo Benedet in there. If there's not a bigger slap in the face, with all due respect, at the time, that's a slap in the face.

For an undrafted guy to a guy in Tripilla, who's a second rounder who a lot of people thought that, oh, yeah, you just slide this guy right in. I mean, this guy, I mean, they did it with Braxton Jones as a fifth round. How come you can't do it with Ozzie Tripillo? And they couldn't. It confused me.

It disappointed me. But much like this season, they recovered. They got better. Tripillo got better. I'm not going to say, like he's not in the class of those other guys because he did need help at that position. But comported himself, I'll just fine, right? And sometimes that's acceptable to get through a season, which the Bears did. unfortunately, Tripillo will be nowhere near playing a game until late in next season, if he's lucky, because of the injury.

It's Zapiloh. Thank you. I was wondering. I needed the clarification, and I got it. Thanks, Emma. Listen, whether it's Tripillo or Zapiloh, I honestly, I will be surprised if he plays left tackle in 2026. I will be surprised because of the nature of the injury and what we understand it to be and how you have to work yourself back. And how the standard has been raised by Ben Johnson, I think, for every position on that field,

specifically on his offense. I'll be surprised if he plays there. I just want to make sure I got clarification from you, though, Mark Grody. Caleb Williams is the biggest acquisition of the Ryan Polls era. Sure, sure. Joe Tooney is the second biggest acquisition of the Ryan Polls era. Are you with me? I think so.

Yeah, I think so. Like, I can't really come up with, as I'm trying to. Like, I thought, like, Nishon Wright went through my brain. Sure. Because that is, and to some degree, there's a little bit of luck involved in that. I mean, but they did, to their credit, they identified this. player on the Minnesota Vikings practice squad, looked at the size, looked at the traits, and said, yeah, we are building an identity here.

And Nishon Wright starts to fit that. I know Nishon Wright at times certainly got exposed as a cornerback, but boy, did he save the day in a lot of ways, at a lot of times, in a secondary that was hurt, Jalen Johnson, and that was inconsistent. Tyreek Stevenson, Nishon Wright should be given. I guess it's all honorable mention at this point. But Nishon Wright, that's a big pickup for Poles. 773 on the text line.

Hit me, which got also... Polls has consistently mis-evaluated and overpaid middling talent, his fourth for Tooney, salary dump for the KC market, not his wichistry. Come on. And all I have to say that is, you still got to be the team that goes out and gets Joe Tuny. Other teams could have gone out and gotten Joe Tooney. He's the one who did it. Yeah, he did.

Respect. Right. He brought him here. They identified that it's the best thing the Bears did, was in general fixing the offer finally saying all right it's the priority it was like they gave in they're like maybe they listened to olen cruz finally and said you have to use resources you have to use draft picks and the bears did both finally on the offensive line they finally use their values and their riches to work on the offensive line i'm trying to think of other guys that

you look at and say well obviously there's the obvious ones like luther burden and Loveland probably should be closer to the top if we're doing the most important acquisitions by Ryan Poles because that wasn't an easy one. It would have been very tempting to take Tyler Warren in that spot. And we still don't know what will have been the better selection, but I'm pretty comfortable with the guy that- It's a fun conversation though now as opposed to what it was five games into the season. It wasn't a fair fight then.

It was like, Tyler Warren. And some of us are like thinking, I knew it. But no, it might be Colston Loveland. So I put, like, if we're doing, like, everybody underneath Tunney, might he be second? That argument has gone the way of the Jaden Daniels, Caleb Williams discussion, where we thought, oh, he's running laps around Caleb Williams. And then I was like, can the man have, I don't know, a year in a functional offense? And he's had a year in a functional offense. And all of a sudden, it's a very different conversation when you talk about the number one and number two pick of the 2025 draft.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's been a lot of value there. 2024 draft. When we return, it is, is it halftime? It is half time already. What do ye have? Oh, you know, I got something for you? Do you want to surprise me with it?

So listen, who doesn't love something free? We all love something free. I work in media. But what if you get something free and then they tell you, oh, well, we don't like what you're doing, so it's really not as free as you thought, because you are going to do something for us in order to receive this free thing.

doesn't it become not free at that point? Yeah, I guess it would by definition. That's what's going on right now in Baden Roos. I'll explain on the other side. Oh, yeah, we'll also tell you what we've talked about so far and what to look forward to on the rest of the show here today. It's Rahimi Harris and Grody on the score.