Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - What are the Bears’ expectations for 2026? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris opened their show by reacting to Bears wide receivers room Antwaan Randle El's recent praise of receiver DJ Moore. After that, they discussed what the Bears' expectations will be for 2026. Later, they broke down the Bulls' 129-118 loss to the Lakers on Monday at the United Center.

This hour is brought to you by Cars for Kids. The views and opinions of Lela Rahimi, Marshall Harris, and Mark Grody should not be taken too seriously. Especially when they give advice. Do not take Marshall's analogies, literally. Especially when it comes to Russell Dorsey. The sports thoughts of Rahimi Harrison Grody may change at any time. It's just sports. Okay, thanks.

Bye. Rahimi Harrison Grody. 10 to 2 on 670. Philip Rivers took himself out of consideration for the Bill's head coach job. What's next for Mr. Rivers? We all seem to understand that the true value of Philip Rivers, getting a job and extending his service time in the NFL, was that he gets five more years of health insurance for him and his very large family.

You know anything about kids' health insurance? Why? I thought he said everything was fine. Diana Rusina, who had this news, and then Mike Garifalo, who said, Sounds like he enjoyed the process with Buffalo, but now isn't the right time for him or his family. My family. Sounds like Wifie might have had some input on, you want us to move where? We're putting the house on the market. Where are we moving?

Is the house haunted? I don't know, because his kids are having kids. Like, he's to the point where they're self-policing and whatnot. He is a grandpappy. Not ignoring that fact. I don't know that it's like Joe Flacco, where he just wanted to have an uninterrupted meal alone. I'm bad. Will Brinson, senior writer for CBS sports, NFL writer?

Maybe the tweet of the year, it's early. Philip Rivers pulled out. Certainly wasn't expecting that. I know he's Chance's Dad more than I know your mind. And I know I'm Chance's Dad because my pull-out game week. Lela Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 670, The Score. Oh, good morning, says Tyler Bueber. to the rest of the world.

That's why you play Jingo on the first date. Let them know. Let them know. Oh, my goodness. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 670 The Score. I needed that laugh. Thank you for that. As did I.

I always need a good laugh. Always. There was a time where I was at a McDonald's drive-thru and I was having a bummer of a day and I was getting coffee. And at the time, I was more physically active. I was, you know, shooting every day for a TV state.

25-pound camera on my shoulder. I'm glad you clarified that. When you said shooting, I was like picturing you at the range. Like, no, no. Shooting video. A little skeet. Yeah, no. I have shot clays, yes.

I keep it to just clays. You know me. I'm just a duck hunt guy. There you go ahead. But so I was, yeah, you carry 75 pounds of equipment every day. You work out to carry it. So needless to say, I could treat myself a little more at the time. So I was like, hey, can I get their frozen coffee?

You know, not the ice coffee, but the frozen, like the frat-bats. that they call it, I pull up to the, to the drive-thru, and I was like, no whip, if that's all right. You know, the treating the self was just the fripe. And then I get to the drive-thru, and the woman at the drive-thru goes, you said you wanted extra whip, right? And I was like, ah. She's like, just kidding. And she gave me the trick. I was like, yeah. It would have been better if she said, okay, we got you. Put a little extra nay-nay on it for you, though. Well, I loved the joke. So, point being, I love a good laugh, even when you can make something out of nothing. So that woman at the drive-thru still brightens my day.

Over 10 years later, I still laugh at that a lot. And, yeah, the Tyler Beterbaugh Open did it for me. So we get to have a smile on our face today. And we get to have some jokes and laugh about the drama going on in the NFL. And meanwhile, I wouldn't call it drama with the Bears. Because I think it was more of a whose responsibility was it. Game is never won or lost on one play. And the fact that we have to bring it up.

Not that we're bringing up old stuff, but when somebody new comes into the discussion who's of consequence, after the Bears and Rams loss and the final Bears play that occurred in overtime, which resulted in the Camcourle interception, it's good to have another voice. We hadn't heard from DJ Moore, as we've discussed.

He wasn't available in the locker room on locker cleanout day. But friend of the show, Jared Payton, and WGN Sports, credit to them because they will do a lot of Bears' off-season interviews. and they got to talk, Jared did, with Antoine Randall L. So it was a great conversation, especially with Antoine Randall L, being a local guy, talked about, you know, the joy of having a quarterback as a Bears observer, now on the Bears team as a coach, being in Chicago, talked about that,

just Chicago having a quarterback, talked about the expectations for the season. We're going to get into that in our next segment. But then he also did discuss DJ Moore. And I would say that Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson in the press conference last week were very HR about their answers, right? Like what was your takeaway when you heard those two talk about DJ Moore not being available? It was our show partner, Mark Rody, who asked that question and gave the context. What did you think when you heard them speak? I felt like they were kicking the proverbial can down the road.

Like this is going to be addressed. They understand it's Chicago. it's not going to go away. But at the same time, I don't think it's going to fester like some of the other things. Like, if you go back to early in last off season when we learn about the Seth Wickersham book and the excerpts from that book and what it said about Caleb Williams, like that's a situation where like cables to get to the podium as quickly as possible address it so it can be over. Because it was not going to go anywhere.

Nip it in the bud, as we said. Nip it in the proverbial bud, mayberry RFD style. And guess what happened? Once he addressed it, then we all moved on. We did move on. But so this, I think, is similar but different. And here's why it's different. Because no one's questioning DJ Moore's effort level, I think.

I think it's just a clear explanation that Ben Johnson did give about the miscommunication, which obviously Caleb Williams also said. And the accountability was eaten up, imagine this, by the head coach, which we kind of talked to Tim Jenkins, our quarterback expert about, our guru, our film guy, about the head coach going into the next season. That's just another area they have to work on where they have to make sure everybody sees each play, the field, and coverages like Ben Johnson does.

And say what you will, I did see a lot of people questioning DJ Morris effort. I did see people online asking if he was fully running out the play. And unfortunately, that's something that I feel like built from a video where he came off the field hurt. You know, a couple, that was two seasons ago. and it looked like he was lolly yagging on the play.

I didn't think that was the case. Furthermore, keep in mind this. And I don't know why it didn't come to mind when we were first discussing it. I think it was the sting of losing the playoffs, being so close, knowing that the Bears were not in the NFC championship game, the absorption of the season. But Tim Jenkins called it out pretty well when he went into his film study regarding Alamedes Akees, for example,

and how no block, no rock did not happen midway through the season. He didn't block it, a horrible game blocking, and I forget who it was against. And then his targets did get limited. Oh, in a hurry. They fell off a cliff. The other part of that was everybody else got targeted more,

DJ, Rome, Colston, the like. I'm not trying to pick on Alameda Zakias. But the point is, when the ought to seem to not be there, when the effort was not there, when you didn't do the thing coach told you to do, you saw the consequences. So if that had been the case with DJ Moore

to a significant enough pattern, you would have seen consequences. Instead, you saw plays of confidence. So I want to keep that in mind. Instead, you saw DJ Moore make huge plays for this team catching game-winning touchdowns. So let's listen to, to what Antoine Randall L said

to Jared Payton because this is new information and this came out yesterday if you missed it. WGN has a YouTube page. This is courtesy of WGN sports. When I turned the film on from last year before we got here as coaches and you turn this film

on from Carolina you say, man, there's something missing really. It's something missing like this dude not that he ain't still He isn't still special, but the special doesn't show up all the time. Well, for me, this year, the special was on display in terms of his route running,

in terms of his run out to catch, blocking for his teammate, in terms of him catching the ball. He had some unbelievable catches this year, all right? And the effort that he put in to become a better player in the offseason and as the season and continue went on was great. And what you expect as a coach, and what I wanted to see as a coach began to show up. We had a long conversation before the season started just about my expectations,

where I came from in terms of, hey, blocking for your teammate, the run out to catch, the block out to catch, all these things. We're going to be football players and not just past catchers. For DJ Moore, that showed up like never before this year. Like, this was for me to be able to see him go out and go, call it, above and beyond this year than the years people have seen him do it in the previous years. For me, for me, I don't know anybody else, but for me, that was great to see that progress.

And again, you go back and talk about, hey, we need a big play. We turn to DJ Moore. We need to play at the end of the game. We turn to DJ Moore. Third down and two to three, third down, four. or six, whatever it is, let's try to get him the ball. And he showed up. And again, the catches that he made over and over again throughout the season have been

were amazing. And then you, again, you talk about the guy in the room, which is a big deal. When you come into the room and your veteran is DJ Moore and you speak to your veteran about what you want to see your room to look like and he begins to leave that, that's when you, all right. He gets it. He understands team. That was Antoine Randall L. Local product, Bears, wide receivers coach.

Speaking in a way that I think we all needed to hear to give this more context when it came to how DJ Moore is thought of on the Bears. And frankly, from somebody who's played the position, which I think gives extra credit here since we hadn't heard from DJ. Well, I think the other thing that makes Antoine Randall L's words count a little bit more, have a little more zip, not just because he's the wide receivers coach, but because he's the assistant head coach. So you know the direct line he has in a different way with Ben Johnson and maybe with the front office even in these discussions that they're having to have about how do we want to prioritize whether it's managing the current cap with the restructuring of salaries versus who we're keeping. I found that to be a high-level endorsement, a public endorsement of really what DJ Moore has meant, not just in a simple catches situation, but also his impact on the receiver's room as a whole and the team,

therefore. DJ Moore played all 17 games. He had 50 receptions despite his targets being cut from about eight per game to an average of about five. He ended up with 85 targets, 682 yards. the average is 13.6 per catch. Colston Loveland was the Bears leading receiver in the regular season, 16 games, 58 catches, 82 targets, and 713 yards. For the rookie tied in, that's outstanding. And what you want is to have more targets on a team. There's no doubt about that. But that means that somebody else probably isn't getting theirs as much when you're trying to establish the league's third best rushing offense.

So that's where some of this comes in. but that did not, to me, sound like a coach who was very candid with Jared Payton. That did not sound like a coach who doesn't have confidence in DJ more. That sounds like a coach who wants to see him come back, understands that the position comes with responsibility, especially when you're the highest paid player on the team per A.A.V. And knowing all of that still saw a guy produce in many different ways for the team. it makes me consider the play differently when I hear that as well.

And it's okay if it was a miscommunication. Don't forget what Danny Parkin said, which was there was a discussion about involving a new route process in this particular play. If they wanted to incorporate this in a new route concept, which you should do, you should add to your game in the playoffs. And unfortunately, that was an issue. That made it make sense to me. But I understand what.

emotions, even now your head coach and GM, may still run high two days, three days after that game ended. That makes all the sense in the world. It sounds crazy to say, but on that drive the entire time, I was like, be as conservative as possible. The Rams defense is tired. You've got them worn down. You already got your stop. Now you just need to take care of the football and you're going to be able to slowly but surely matriculate down the field. And that's why the Kyle Minangai on that play being open as the checkdown. That's what I wish Caleb Williams has done. But at the same time, I understand why he went for the jugular.

Because that's what they've been doing all season, right? That's what Ben Johnson has instilled in them. But I think I don't put that on DJ Moore as much as I put it on Caleb Williams because you, and clearly he thought DJ Moore was doing something. DJ Moore was confused about what was happening. And therefore, that's what led to the interception. I don't put it on like, this is because a bad play was made. it was a miscommunication.

You just can't afford to have a miscommunication in that moment. Yeah, I don't necessarily know that I blame one or the other more. I don't know that I put it on Caleb Williams more than I put it on DJ. I don't know that that's, I hadn't thought about it that way. Well, I think the reason I'm saying that is because Caleb Williams ultimately has the decision-making in that situation. And he can always opt to check down, get three or four yards and see what Manangai, angry runner, as we have talked about, can do after he gets the ball in his. hands. That's all I'm saying. And look, ultimately, it was a great season. It is a learning

point. We knew things would be difficult for Caleb Williams going from step one to whatever you want to say that was, step 20, I guess. And I understand that they'll come back next year. They'll be more evolved, more resolved. And Antoine Randall L is a great guy to have as one of the links of this team from the staff to the players. There's no doubt. And I think that that's something where when you put it together like that, when you consider Antoine Randall L's passion for the Bears, which goes without saying his devotion to the team as a coach

and as somebody who grew up here and how he feels about his receiving core, I don't necessarily know that it's the answer I needed to hear, but I think it's an answer that we should hear given the discussion. It shouldn't ever come down to the one play we know it all. seems to in the league. We know that it seems to come down to one score more often than not. But the more voices you have seeing what happened, the better, because you're hoping that doesn't happen again. And we know that wasn't the only play of consequence in that game, that's for sure. There was a drop in the end zone that was pretty bad and pretty outright by a guy who you

wanted to depend on in Roma, Dunesay. But given all the factors into this, and we still don't know if DJ Moore had an actual, you, they'll never say if he had. got an actual concussion because he came back out onto the field. But was he 100%? I can't say that with any level of purity. Yeah, I think the extended time in the blue medical tent tells us you're airing on the side of he's probably hurt. And the thing is, you could be hurt, but not be injured. He was definitely hurt.

I think everybody in the NFL in December who's playing is hurt but not injured. Right. And so between that and, you know, Colson Lovell and taking himself out of the game because he obviously felt some type of way. It's understandable. Yeah. And we're probably going to keep talking about it as long as there's new information that comes to us because that's what we do.

I don't necessarily know if we're dragging on this. I think it's just the lasting memory of the Bears playoffs shouldn't be the final play of that drive and the interception by Cam Curl. It shouldn't be how I remember the Bears playoffs. It should be the game against the Packers. and the fact that the defense did hold the Rams to 17 points, which Seattle didn't do. So it all just makes it hard when you know that could have been the Bears in that position against Seattle.

It's tough, but that's life in the NFL. You go back to the way Buffalo got exited and released from the playoffs by the Broncos. There's so many different things that have happened to get to this point where there's only two teams left. that's what the NFL playoffs is all about. I'm just glad that we're talking about a team here in Chicago who at least got to be in the tournament. Well, and what you don't want, I think, is what we're going to talk about next,

and that is this being, it can't be a one and done. Like, that's not how you put this thing together. And Antoine Randall L. talked to our friend Jared Payton about that as well, so I think we should get into that also. And he also talked about Roman Dunezay, which I think is worth a listen to. We spend so much time on this play just because that's the nature of going over it and the nature of talking about it, that if we get to that, we'll bring that to you as well.

This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 670 The Score. We broadcast live from our score Hyundai Studios, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. You can call us and text us 312-644-67. A lot of people are. 815 says, hey Marshall, is that T-shirt double dribble or Jordan versus Bird? I can't remember which one it is. This would be the classic NES 8-bit game double dribble. There it is.

Love that. So double dribble is Marshall's shirt of the day today. Thanks for the text. Thanks for the calls. You can also find us on Twitch and we have a new address on Twitch. Maybe that's why you haven't found us yet. It is The Score Chicago on Twitch. Twitch.tv slash the score Chicago.

So our Twitch mob is up and running in there. We're all trying to figure out of some of the commands from the previous. Twitch address still works so nerd stuff is going on like me trying to figure out stream labs chat with them say hello we're also on YouTube we were at 670 the score I need to check and see

if that's still the case and our producers are Ray Diaz Tyler Beater Bob, Brandon Fryer helps us out our video team who helped with that transition to Twitch on the score Chicago is Connor O'Donnell Jacob Stutz and Max Curtis Cody Westerland helps us

out with our website as well So, yeah, let's get into the discussion that Antoine Randallel had with Jared Payton regarding the new standard. And if we got time, we'll touch on the DJ Rome conversation, too. It's great stuff. We'll do it all next. I'm Rahimi Harrison Grody on the score. We're talking to play-by-play man, Kevin Harlan.

You're the best when it comes to play-by-play of life. We're sending Marshall Harris to D.C. to run out of the field. Come on, Marshall. We're at home, baby. We're ready for you. The Rahimi Harris and Grody Show. Midday's 10 to 2 on 670 the score. I think the biggest thing was just obviously making the plays that come to me, making the most of my opportunities.

I feel like this season I had way too many opportunities I left out there on the field. And, you know, that's never been the player. I feel like I've ever been in my career. So just capitalizing on those opportunities. But, you know, I've got to go into the offseason and put into work to be able to do those things. That was Romedoonduzzi on Locker Clean Out Day. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 670, The Score. and we're listening to Antoine Randall L's conversation with Jared Payton of WGN Sports.

Thanks to WGN for letting us use the audio. He talked about DJ Moore. If you missed it, you can go back and listen to that segment really compelling when it came to what he meant to the team. And also that final play we saw the Bears run offensively against the Rams. He also talked about Rome Adunze. So before we wanted to get to the standard conversation, which I think is very important, Listen to what Jared had to say about Roma Dunezay's self-criticism. I think this answers a couple questions we had about how he thought about his injury earlier in the year.

I think when you look at Rome, I mean, here's a guy who understands hard work, not going to shy away from it, doesn't want to shy away from it, doesn't want to take a rep off, a playoff, wants to be in there. So we had to really, at one point, we had to kind of keep him from himself in terms of, hey, let's rest his foot, not get back out there, you know, give it some time and let it heal up. Like he was chomping at the bit to get back out there. And the criticism that he and how critical he is of himself, man, that is, that's what you want to see and hear when those things take place. when a guy takes, he takes the onus on, like, yes, I messed up.

Now, I got to try to find a way to fix it. You know, yes, this is, I didn't play my best ball, man. I'm chomping at the bit to get out to get back to work to play my best ball. When you get guys who see their fault, so to speak, and go work on it, man, that's, that's easier for a coach to coach. Because at the end of the day, like, you see it. you're going to tell him about it, but before sometimes I even tell him about different things.

And again, it goes to other guys in my room as well. And I would say just most all of them. Like he wants to, like, yeah, coach, I saw it. Now I'm still hitting him on it. Let him know it. But man, he's already want to go work at it and get better. And you talk about being on pace to have such a great year and so on and so forth.

So when these things happen, like, it's some disappointment that takes place, you know, the injuries or whatever. So it comes down to, man, picking yourself up, continue to push forward. Hey, let us take care of why you out. But man, get your body ready to get ready to come back. And again, next year, he'll be much better. We got some things going to work on in the off season. But he is, he's going to be ready to go because that's the mindset and the mentality that he takes, you know, into the game, into practice. How can I get better in this practice?

We got seven on seven. How can I get better in? seven on seven. We got the team periods. How can I get better in team period one, team period two and three and so on and so forth, being able to break it down like that, hey, I had six plays. Man, I was perfect on five. I got to get back to being perfect on six of them. That's ideal. So that's the thought process that he takes into the practices and we, and that's how we operate. And he's going to be back full board, ready to go, I believe, no question, just because he has that mentality for sure. Okay, so that confirms it, right?

Pretty much. Well, we all suspected it. I just feel like the injury, and the thing is like separating the injury from the performance because the performance was lacking before the injury. And I think that's the thing.

And a lot of what happened in the first half of the season, I just put on trying to assimilate to Ben Johnson's offense and figuring out you know, it's new for everyone, right? and I just think the timelessness of the injury and his effort to come back but not make it all the way back the first time around

remember pregame warmups. Oh, I remember. Kyler Gordon too. Knowing how good he was in college, but this isn't college, I get that. But the standard that he has for himself sounds like it's going to meet the standard that Ben Johnson and Antoine Randall have for him now,

but it's just a season where it was just disappointing. And it came down to, can you catch the ball a lot of times? And the answer was too many times, no. That's it. Ben Johnson said in the press conference, we need to do a better job of catching the ball. That was clear as crystal. And so because of that, like that's it. Hi, I'm Layla.

I'd like to know what's your objective. Catch the damn ball. You can't alligator-armed stuff, especially in the end zone. And I don't think that's even the issue here. It's that when you are healthy, number one, be honest. and truthful about your health. I'm not saying he was lying. I'm saying be honest with yourself.

Be honest with yourself. Everybody wants to get back out there. Everybody wants to play for a winning team. We saw that with Jalen Johnson too. He pushed himself. You want to play for a winner. Poor T.J. Edwards pushed himself. That doesn't prevent a broken leg.

Like that's a different injury. But guys were pushing themselves to get out there. And once you're out there, what can you bring to this team? Especially the secondary being a good example. If an unhealthy you takes down the overall performance of the unit, we can't have that. Once you are healthy, are you doing your job? Are you catching the football enough?

The Bears as a whole did not. Romadunes A was a part of that. I would say he's the leading guy that you remember between him and Alameda Zakias, different reasons because different level of number of targets. I mean, look, the guy led the targets and he missed a bunch of games. That's what's crazy about it. right? And he was supposed to be because he is in that same draft class. He is a top 10 pick with Caleb Williams. He was supposed to be the main guy at some point. DJ Moore,

receiver won, but Rome was supposed to, at some point, I would say, eclipse him. I think that was the Bears original plan. If you remember how Matt Nagy spoke to Rome on the phone at the draft, he said, just like we drew this up, right? Well, Ryan Poles. Yeah. No, I see Matt Nagy. He's on my mind. And he's in an article sitting in front of me We'll get into that later. That's at 1125. So yeah, it was Matt Eberfluse who called Rome and was on the phone saying just how he drew it up.

That's all well and good. Things change. Like I don't need some wide receiver one to be anointed or like that you need to maintain who you thought that that player was prior to this offense being installed. Like I care about this offense. I care about this head coach. I care about this group and how they want to move forward. but either way, catch the football. So now that that's established, what about overall for the season?

Antoine Randall L said this to Jared Payton regarding the expectations. We take a break because we lost, and that's the way we look at it, and we know that the team won't be the same. You know, you won't have all the same players. It just doesn't work out like that. But with that being said, there is. the seeds that we've planted in terms of this is the norm. And the norm is getting in the playoffs and have an opportunity to go win the Super Bowl.

That has to become the norm. And that's what we want that to be. And obviously, the norm is to win it all. But you've got to get in the dance to be able to do it. Just get in the dance. I've been in the dance, man, as the one seed, as the two seed, at the six seed when it was only six teams in the on each side in terms of the NFC and AFCs.

So you just got to get in. And once you get in, that's when, you know, obviously you want to be able to be playing your best ball. So we plan at the seed. We got it done this first year. Now, we're starting out in the spring. Guess what? We got to build it all over again.

Because it's not, hey, we're just going to leave off a little where we left. No, we got to build, build it again. and get and surpass what we left off the previous year. And we can. We can definitely do that. It's just a matter of us getting back to it. What I like to say is careful planning and hard work, reduce prosperity. You take shortcuts.

It leads to poverty. We're not going to take shortcuts. We're going to plan well, get to work, and expect us to be able to prosper for sure. I love that. That's courtesy of Debbie, GNTV sports, and it's a good way of saying penny wise and pound foolish. You may cut a corner and it may be satisfactory to begin with, but if greater investment isn't made, you lose the ultimate goal.

I just want to remind people when Antoine Rendell is speaking to his personal playoff experience, he understands it. You know why he understands it? He was on a Pittsburgh Steelers team that I covered. That was the sixth seat in the playoffs. and went on the road for every single game and won every single game to win a championship, a Super Bowl. And that's when that type of thing did not happen.

Right. Not common at all. Ben Rothensberger, I remember win it for the bus because it was Jerome Bettis' farewell year and the Super Bowl was in his hometown of Detroit. And so Antoine Randall L. can speak to how difficult it is to, not only just make the playoffs. He played for a winner, like a real winner,

in the Pittsburgh Steelers. They don't lose much over there. But also what it takes to win a title in different roles. Like Randall L was that dude. No, he was. And he just brings that innate energy. And you see it, you saw it when he was the wide receivers coach with Detroit.

You see it even in the interview with Jared Payton. You see it when you see him on the sideline. Like I'll never forget, he'll run with guys down the sideline. He's still got speed. He's that type of person. He's one of those magnetic personalities where you're drawn to what he says.

You respect what he says. And then you also want to play for the guy. That's a fantastic combination. And it makes perfect sense as to why Ben Johnson brought him over here. And if the goal or what you need to tell the team is just get in, we'll take care of this once we get in, then you can't argue with it not working.

It definitely worked this year. The hard part is maintaining the standard. The hard part is knowing that in the past we've seen one and duns. In the past, we hadn't seen a playoff win, 15 years between the two. So that becomes the next challenge. Do I feel more confident in this group? Absolutely. Do I worry about adjustments or if they can make them?

No. And that's something that I don't think I've been able to say for a long time. When you think about what goes wrong after you have the type of season the Bears have, part of it is injuries, right? And you just have to expect that at some point your season is going to be somewhat derailed by an injury or two or, if you're the lion, several. But can you overcome that because you have good depth? That becomes one of the things like when I focus on wool,

how would they not get back to at least being a playoff team next year? And that's the first thing that comes in my mind because that's the most common thing that happens in the NFL. But despite the possibility and the likelihood of some type of injuries, if you just look at Ben Johnson being a year wiser, like they're still ascending. The number of players on this roster who are still ascending. Caleb Williams, we just heard from Roma Dunesay or about Roma Dunesay, and we heard from them too on the way in.

And if it's Caleb Williams and it's Roma Dunesay and it's Colston Loveland and it's Darnel Wright even. He's like, oh, I want to be first. team all pro and whatever happens at left tackle and Luther Bird in the third, there's so many guys who you know are not to the peak of where their career is going to be. Like there's Joe Tuny-level guys out here, Kevin Byard, who you worry about, hey, can they just maintain where they are because they're so good? But I love the upside of so many different players on this roster.

Yeah, that's the beauty of having a younger team when everybody's moving up together. but I think this is something to keep in mind if the coaches are telling you what their standard is if the coaches are telling you a Super Bowl team is what they are trying to coach that means that the front office needs to be held accountable for a Super Bowl team that they need to add to in the draft that means that in games we watch

the team needs to be held accountable for the type of games that we have that it can't just be necessarily the upside consistency has to be part of this as well that's what makes this challenging. That's the devil in the details. That's the difference between going from good to great, or in this case, better to best.

So that's the part where if they're communicating it, it is okay to be a little bit harder on your team. It's going to be okay. You know what winning actually feels like now. You know what winning in the playoffs feels like. Yesterday was the 40-year anniversary of the Bears winning the Super Bowl. I would like for that to happen again. But not another 40 years.

You're saying more recently. Precisely. So that is where that comes in. When the coaches are telling you how they feel about the team, when they're in public telling you the standard that they are holding them to have, it is okay to level up as well. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 670, the score.

We have a shortened show today for a very, very big reason. tune in today from 12 to 7 p.m. For honoring an original, a Terry Boar's celebration of life, which will include former co-workers of Terry's, as well as current and former score personalities. The show is hosted by Matt Spiegel. It will be a true celebration of Terry's life. That's today, starting at noon on the score and the Odyssey app.

Last night, the Lake Show came to town to the United Center, and I thought, you know, the leading score in the league and Luca Donchich and LeBron would be the reason the Lakers were winning this game, but I did not prepare for what Marshall says is the true reason. So we're going to discuss that next. Rahimi Harris and Grotie, midday's 10 a.m. to two

on 670, the score. Kobe's fast, almost intercepted by LeBron, but Bezellis recovers, he threw it away. La Ravia! on the runway and LeBron chains with his third dump on the ball game got it counted foul. Hayes with a handoff to Luca lets it fly, left side three and a splash as he stares down the Bulls bench to his left and Luca with 42. That was Chuck Swirsky and Bill Weddington on the call on the Bulls Radio Network. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 670 to score.

Lake Show came to town and dropped 129 points on the Bulls. Lakers beat the Bulls 129 to 118. The league's leading scorer, Luca Donchich, had himself a night. 46 total points for Luca. It's absurd to say. In 38 minutes, 46 points.

He was 15 of 25 shooting, 8 to 14 from 3, 8 of 12 at the line, which was the real deal here, to go with 12 assists. LeBron. I don't think it's his last game with the UC, but he played like a man who was inspired, especially the first half.

24 points for LeBron, three dunks. He even made a three. Five rebounds. Three assists. Oh, yeah, Luca had seven rebounds because he's out of this world. And all of that, despite all of that, you tell me that's not the reason. The Lakers won this game. I think you're right when you say LeBron played inspired.

Luca also, but let's take a look at why, before I even tell you why. This team last year got beat twice by the Bulls. And we all remember what happened when Josh Giddy hit the half court shot. I was there. You were there. Also, Josh Giddy stole, like outright picked a ball out of LeBron's hands to help them stay in that game. You think LeBron remembers that? But you know what they also remember?

That game wasn't even a week removed from their first meeting with the Lakers in L.A. Do you remember what happened in that game? They did beat them. They didn't beat them. They beat them down. Didn't they score like 140 some odd points in that game? 146 to 115. Yikes.

I forgot about that. So that's what I'm saying. And that was with Luca, wasn't it? Wasn't that with Luca? Both those games were with Luca and LeBron. So my point is they may have had this date circled on their calendar. Oh, yeah, we got to get our, sorry Mark Gertie's not here. Get back.

And get back, they did. And so. Luke has scored 20 in the third quarter. quarter. So despite saying all of that, and they came out and LeBron was dunking early, Bulls, though, kind of tried to get their composure back. They were only down four after the first quarter. Now, in the second quarter, because they turned the ball over 10 times.

And it was a true team effort, Leila. Seven different players had at least one turnover in the second quarter. Seven different players. So it wasn't like one guy was doing it. I thought Kobe looked the most kind of uneasy in that he was trying to force things. he was trying to answer the bell, if you will. But you didn't need to do that. I thought at halftime, they were able to kind of settle down.

And they come back and they get all the way within one point in the third quarter, and then the turnover's rear their ugly head again. And that's when Luca had 20 points in the third quarter and kind of gets them some space. And they get to about seven, eight, nine points, and they couldn't really make a charge after that. But the damage was done in that second quarter. And remember, Luca and LeBron come out inspired because they got their asses beat last. year. That they did.

You know? Like you can chalk up to Josh Giddy as like a miracle half-court shot, but they choked away that game because it wasn't just that shot. It was like three possessions before that where they turned the ball over and they looked. Steel, yeah. Yeah, there were some bad turnovers and bad passes by the Lakers to get back in that game and then lose it. But in the game in L.A.

in which both LeBron and Luca were out there, although the minutes were limited because they were getting tow up from the flow up. The Bulls beat them down. was the Lakers' call for retribution in this game. And the reason they won the game, back to the point, it wasn't LeBron and Luca that solved this away. It's because for the first time in a while, the best player off either bench was not in a Bulls uniform. The depth is the key to the Bulls winning and beating teams who have real stars, all-stars, if you will, with future Hall of famers in Luca and LeBron, Rui Hachamira comes off the bench to nail nine of 11 shots,

including four threes. And the inability to guard him effectively is what was the difference in this game. Oh, yeah, Rudy shot, Rui shot lights out, man, 9 of 11 shooting. I mean, that's it. You know, four or five. Remember the behind the bag pass from Luca? All of it. Yeah, Luca was, meanwhile, Luca was thrown up heat checks, like the half court heaves.

I think there's a couple of truce in this game that kind of exist in the NBA. Number one is there are certain teams you just do not try to run with Golden State being an example number one. You know, peak Golden State, that's what would happen. You know, Peak Steph Curry, Clay Thompson and the crew would come in. Everybody thought they could run with them. They couldn't. And the Bulls have actually used that to their advantage now. This is a team who runs.

But I feel like in the spirit of shoot or shoot, maybe we should. saw a little bit of that happening with Kobe. He's trying to make some things occur that weren't exactly falling his way. He's still getting back to his form. He still ended up with 23 points in the game. But the bench contributions outside of

Io were paltry for the Bulls. You know, Giddy comes in off the bench. He gets 19. Patrick Williams got 7. Iyo had 20. But outside of that, you know, it's Dail and Terry. Lockland Oldberg had some a minute at the end. You know, Javon Carter

minute at the end, but Kevin Herder didn't end up with any points. And he was the game winner in the previous outing. So his 0 for 5 from 3, I thought, was the biggest difference maker in this game. If you look at the plus minus minus in this game, like, LeBron is a minus 14 in this game. LeBron. LeBron is a minus 14 in this game. And that gives you an indication of how it can be very inconsistent. Yes.

And so his minus 14 helps you to understand that even though LeBron and Luca were doing what they wanted to a certain degree. Now, LeBron only had four points after halftime. But Luca, obviously, as you said, he carried them in the second half, along with Rui Hotramuro. The Bulls had opportunities in this game to win this game. They even had an opportunity once they got back within one point because Kobe got hot in the third quarter, but understand this. They can't have the types of quarters that they had in the second quarter where you get down by 20, not because you're having an off shooting night, because you're just freely giving the other team more possessions via the turnover. And that's it. If you, if

you're talking about one of the most offensive, efficient teams in the Lakers and you're giving them extra possessions, what's going to happen there? And even if they don't make a shot, they're getting to the line because that's what happened with Luca. You know, that's not even something we talk about with the Bulls is how much they need to get to the line. So Luca does that on his own, and he's able to make that happen for his team. So that's what makes us hard. The turnover essentially beat you twice. And the Lakers, they had six turnovers total. LeBron had two. Jared Vanderbilt had one. And then Luke up because he has the ball so many times at three. So the final score, Bulls lose by 11, right? The difference in points off turnovers? 11. Yeah, 23 points off 15 turnovers. That's what

the Lakers were able to cash in off the 15 Bulls turnovers. And then the eight turnovers by the Lakers, only 12 points for the Bulls. And getting to the line is definitely a factor in this. Luca gets the line 12 teams. The Bulls is a team gets the line 18 teams knocking down 14 free turns. That's it. Offensive efficiency is as much about getting to the stripe as anything else. But I don't want people who maybe haven't checked in with the Bulls

or watched a bunch of the games to feel like, oh, this is another example of the Bulls not having a start. That's not why they lost this game. They lost this game because they let Rui Hachamira get loose off the bench. I think 46 out of Luke is pretty, pretty stout. Go back to last year, though. What I'm saying is they can beat these types of teams. But again, the Lakers, I feel like were properly more motivated than maybe most teams at the Bulls face all year long over the course of a regular season.

I do want to say I do not think that this was LeBron's last time at the United Center. Tell me why. It didn't feel that way. Like, I think there would be a little bit more pomp in circumstance. I was there for Kobe's last game at the United Center. But we knew at the beginning of the season it was going to be Kobe's last run. Well, I was going to say, that was a whole tour. And Kobe had a special relationship with the UC, and I think a lot of the best still do.

And LeBron, for example, had that. Like, he comes into the building. The Lakers fans at the United Center, too, will come in. It's an event game for them. You know, this isn't a cursory thing that happens. They only play twice a year, usually. So because of that, I think that there's usually you'll see a little bit more. Like maybe there's a lingering on the court.

Maybe there's a little bit more in warmups. And I think in this case, it was more of what you talked about. Usually, I feel like the United Center is an indicator. Like you, if this were his last season, I think you would see a little bit different rather than let's get to work. Let's win this game type of body language. Two things. One, I don't think he's made a decision on whether he's coming back or not.

I think I don't necessarily know that he'll have a farewell tour. Do you think he'll definitely have a farewell tour? He has a patch on for no reason. His own patch. Right. That he created. That he gets to wear. That's crazy.

So, no, I think especially given his life with the Bulls, you know, being with the Cavaliers, we just talked about Derek Rose's jersey retirement, there is an arc there and a relationship there with the Chicago Bulls. And even when they're not as good, other teams still play them with meaning. So that to me is what I thought about when I was watching this game. I'm just not so sure he's going to have this farewell year where, hey, this is my last season, guys. I could see it coming to a more abrupt stop than that. I don't know.

Not necessarily with him. I think that's a major changing of a guard that happens in the NBA. The league might not want to see that. They might want to see something done a little bit differently. Because imagine what that would do for the ratings as well, which are up, as I understand. They are up despite a whole bunch of streaming going on. Nobody watches or cares about the NBA. The Jeannie Buss might not agree with your assessment about that.

I mean, he may have to finish elsewhere is what I'm saying. No, there's that part of it. Yeah, the marriage of LeBron and the Lakers is something that's a whole other segment. Coming up next here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie, we have a shorter show today because of what we are doing at 12 o'clock. That is time for our Terry Boers celebration of his life. So five on it, which is normally at noon, is next.