Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - What can we expect from Bears as NFL's legal tampering period opens? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 9, 2026

Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote opened their show by discussing the Bears' needs and what to expect as the NFL legal tampering period is set to open late Monday morning. After that, former Patriots linebacker and Super Bowl champion Matt Chatham joined the show shared a scouting report on new Bears center Garrett Bradbury, whom Chicago acquired in a trade with New England.

The score. 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 1043, The Score. This is Mark Grody, Dan Reader, and DJ Moore, the greatest hit. It's an album. Playing the greatest rock and roll hits of all time. So let's start with greatest hit number one. Track one, DJ Moore with Mark Brody after the Browns game.

Number one. Did you need a game like that? Did I need a game? Yeah. For what? Just in terms of all of us talking about the lack of targets that you've had relative the past years? I mean, if you say so, will it shut y'all up?

Perhaps. It ain't going to shut you all right. That was my jam right there. He knew what was going to happy You know, this song right here has been on the charts for a year now. Top five, I think it was the number one single for a record amount of weeks. And that is this song. Here's how gratifying is it on WSDR the score.

Number two. A gratifying is it when you win that battle and get the football thrown to you. What? How gratifying is it? How does it please you? Man, when you win your 101, it's a big play to be made. because, you know, you just got that one person to beat. Once you do it, you've got grass to run.

Oh, your favorite song. What's our next song? It's a very popular song, but how could anyone forget the famous, Does It Pleas Me? Featuring Dan Weeder. Number three. Does it please you? I mean, is that so.

It doesn't please me, but it's good to see. Good to hear them out there doing that. And that means it's doing gross. Does that please you? It does. This one was, didn't make the charts, I don't think, It's low key, maybe, like, it's a favorite. Here is DJ Moore My Feet on 104-3, the score.

Number four. That's out of your control, right? Like, no, that's not out of my control. They, my feet. What do you mean? Like, what do you mean? Like, so when I slipped, I already knew I was like, man. Now, that's what I call DJ Moore, volume 10.

Lela Rahini, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio, The 104-3, the score. The NFL negotiating period opens in 56 minutes. Does it please you? We've already got some breaking news. And unfortunately, for everybody,

including especially our show, Max Crosby did get traded. To the Baltimore Ravens. Max. Yeah, what happens now? Do we just, as a zombie horde, do we now just start saying, tray like over and over again instead of max.

Trey. Trey. Trey. 30 million. We want to give $30 million a year to Trey Hendrickson. Which is what his salary was last year with the Cincinnati Bengals. Also, the Bears did get a new sinner, but it is not Tyler Linderbaum. It is Garrett Bradbury. They traded for him from New England Patriots. And since he started every game for the Patriots last year

and played 100% of the snaps in the regular season, it's safe to say that that is the dude. So if you were hoping to also mindlessly run toward Tyler Linderbaum, I don't think he's walking through that door either. So I went from Linderbom to, well, if not Linderbombeam, then maybe Tyler Biottoe, no, Tyler Biotish to the charges. Well, what about Connor McGovern? The bills don't see.

No, four years, $52 million with the bills. Garrett Bradbury. Oh, he was on the Patriots. He played in the Super Bowl. He's okay. And then there's a description of, well, the Vikings may have overdrafted him. Just what you want to hear. Now, has he been consistent?

Yes. This reminds me of how we got to Bradbury, it reminds me of any time I'm about to go on vacation. And I start looking at hotels, right? I'm like, okay, well, here's the most expensive hotel. It looks like it's the most luxurious. The ballout option? Yes, the ball out option. And I'm like, but, you know, I don't need to ball out.

It's just me on this vacation. I'm not with anyone else. Now, if I'm with other people, I will choose a higher caliber of hotel. But for me personally, I can go bare bones. But if it's a vacation, like a true vacation, not a work trip, a true vacation. Let's go ahead and up the ante just a little bit so then it becomes a battle of how luxurious do you want to be and what is your price point? And can you get that negotiated down to something that you can be satisfied?

by the time you click, you know, payment. Lowered expectation. I mean, kind of. I will say that with both, with Tyler Linderbaum, assuming he is destined for another team, unless there's some crazy surprise party that we are not aware of, there is the part of, yes, I would have been thrilled that the Bears had gotten Tyler Linderbaum. But there's also the part where it's like, okay, $25 million a year would have been a lot of money. It's the same thing with Max Crosby.

would I have been celebrating that the Bears acquired Max Crosby? Yeah, I probably would have been, and we all would have been excited about Max Crosby, getting to know him, all of that stuff. We'd have been unconscious. Yes, but then there's a part where, okay, don't have to give up your first round picks for the next couple of years and whatever else the bears would have given up to get Max Crosby.

So there is, while I would have hit the yes button, and I know Ray Diaz would have done the same thing, there is a little bit of relief when it comes to it too. as it, okay, there's more to spend in other places because there's a quantity issue here, too, in terms of what the bears need. It's like the marketing trick or the merchandising trick when you have three TVs in front of you. People tend to pick the middle price TV, even though perhaps the lower price TV may be a better quality. That's just what people usually do.

I'm laughing at this because this encapsulates, I feel like, the feeling of the fandom. This is a guy named Joey Hansen on Twitter. And he's in Vancouver. So Brad Biggs reposts an hour ago on Twitter, busy several days ahead in the NFL. Bears have brought linebacker to Marco Jackson and defensive end Daniel Hardy back. It is going to be very interesting to see how Ryan Poles attacks this. After a trade for Senator Garrett Bradbury, is that an avenue to fill another hole? Joey Hansen posts this with this quote,

I'm going to delude myself into thinking this is Biggs hinting at a Miles Garrett trade until something else happens. Two minutes later, Brad Biggs replies, I'm not. Walla, welcome to today in the NFL for the Bears. I do love that social media exists for instances like that. And for today is like this. Like, today is going to be such a fun day, I think, in terms of the emotional roller coaster that not just us, but all NFL fans are going to feel one way or another. and there will be, quote, unquote, winners and losers. Let's be honest, by the end of this week,

about how you feel your team did in free agency. I think the thing that separates Bears fans right now in this moment is that you're riding the high of a division title. And ultimately, even if you're not sure about the general manager himself, Ryan Poles, you trust Ben Johnson. So going back to the Bradbury acquisition, right, you have to say, Ben Johnson would not have signed off on this if he didn't believe he could be a functional part of this offense going forward,

even if he's not as good as Drew Dalman. He's not going to insult anybody's football sensibilities. That's the way I look at somebody like Garrett Bradbury. What is true, though, is he's not as good as Drew Dalman. So it is a step down from the guy you had. It is obviously a much cheaper option. If we want to talk about that and the $5.7 million against the cap that it was, would have been a higher number, obviously, for Drew Dalman.

So it is one of those. scenarios where it's it's not what do you want. We can't sit here and tell everybody how important Drew Dalman was to the team and then say, well, Garrett Bradbury's just as good. He'll be fine for the next 17 games because he played for the Patriots. We should also

remind you that this show is called Rahimi Harrison Grotie here on 104. If we're not just three disembodied voices. That's Mark Grody, Marshall Harrison, Layloraheimie with you on this Monday. I also want to get back into the conversation surrounding Connor McGovern because Mark, we talked about

this last week, there was the discussion that was, oh, well, the bills hadn't even talked to Connor McGovern, and that was giving people this sliver of hope. Do you remember how skeptical I was about that? Yeah, I do. That may just be because they think they're resigning him. Narrator, they resigned him. You know, I joke about the not having a left tackle store, but the center store is also not exactly robust. It would not have, you're right about that. It would not have made sense from a buffalo. Bill's perspective at that point. If you're doing what you're doing,

if you got, you have Josh Allen, you just got DJ more, you're going to take the center away from the guy now, unless they thought they could do better than that. But yeah, that made total sense for them. And that was the, that was what happened. That was the chain reaction, like knowing the Bears not wanting to do the Linderbaum thing, the Otis, back to the Chargers. As Layla said, Conner McGovern, back to the bills.

Who's left, who's next on the chart? And that turned out to be on the Bears' depth chart of centers, it turned out to be Garrett Bradbury. And I want people to understand. Like when I made the hotel reference earlier, the reason that came to my mind first is because, yes, I did stay at a Holiday and Express all of last week when I was calling those Girls' State Championship games.

And here's the thing. People sometimes don't sign up for the points, right? But I sign up for the points. It's the IHG group. And even though I probably won't be on my own accord staying at a Holiday Inn or a Holiday Inn or a Holiday Inn express, when I'm going on the vacation I talked about, I understand that I like that.

I like a good Kempton, which is also an IHG hotel. The Bears had a Kempton they were staying in with Drew Dalman. And then the Kempton was occupancy was full. You can no longer stay there. But maybe this could be, I don't know, a Crown Plaza? Like there's other levels above the Holiday Inn and the Holiday Inn Express that you can stay in. And if Ben Johnson says, I stayed at this one, it was great. I'm riding with Ben Johnson to the wheels fall off at this point.

Well, also, is it as much of an issue now? that Caleb Williams is in his will be third year in the NFL, his second season under the Ben Johnson offense. I think consistency clearly was a priority for the Bears. And that's why the consistency that Garrett Bradbury has had, which is still an important piece of it to me when you consider that the year before,

the Bears had over 20 different combinations at offensive line. When they had that many combinations during games to start, obviously that's more than the regular season. So is it enough that he needs to do the homework for you? Or is it that this is a guy who clearly worked with Drake May very well. And now Caleb Williams will be in a second year of the Ben Johnson offense. And is it as important that you get somebody when there's a foundation established now?

Will he know enough to be able to fill in the gaps for each other? The blocking is the main question here. But there's still a level of consistency that seems to matter a lot to the bears. if you know based on how he was available for New England last year, that guard center guard are still the same every Sunday, that's a key issue in this. And to the tune of only $4.7 million with the cap, I think that there are priorities the bears clearly have that we aren't talking about.

And for people who say, oh, well, pass rush is what they need. They spent money on the pass rush last year. This is life when you don't have a ton of money under the cap anymore. You don't get to always take the big swings you want. And that's what's happening. The thing that is interesting is the people who are saying pass rush over center. And I was not here for this discussion last week, right? And I know I've been one of the people banging the drum as a Maxinaista go get the best pass rusher you can get to add to this team so that the defense can be as good as the offense potentially.

But once you took the center away, my entire way of thinking changed. I was like, they better figure out center. And remarkably, they did it very quickly. It did not take long. And so to understand that they addressed it, that tells you how much they value the importance of the center position on this team and making sure that the offense continues to trend up and not either, A, get stagnant or take a step back. Well, the good news, too, about Garrett Bradbury sliding in is that you do have the two guys directly next to him, Joe Tuni and Jonah Jackson, who were both very good and both understand everything that is going on.

Both understand, even though Drew Dolman might have understood Caleb Williams a little bit more intimately because he was in all of those meetings, those guys can talk privately and on the record and in the locker. I'm on exactly what Caleb Williams needs. So there is that advantage to have had that. Is it ideal to not have Drew Dalman there? Of course not. We know how big it was, but to have those other two guards. there still, that's going to help a lot.

Well, and again, I think the expectation was set when the Bears had a lot of money to spend last year. They spent and got the best free agent on the market at center. They were not able to do that this year. And that's where the retirement effect does hit the Bears in a sobering manner. But that's not to say that Garrett Bradbury can't get it done. It's just the reputation of who was available. The best free agents that are on the market this year is Tyler Linderbaum. So when that was the expectation last year, I think that's why this comes with a bit of a feeling like this where I don't necessarily know if disappointment is the word, but it is concern. It is concern because the last thing you want to do is drop off from anything you had happened last season. Right.

I mean, like I said, we can't, we raved about what Dolman has done this year and the consistency. And when he left, we all talk, well, this is a problem. Yeah, it's a big problem because of how smart he was, what the stuff he took off the plate of Caleb Williams. we can't now go and just say, well, he's a bear bear, he's a veteran, he's going to be fine. Like, he might be, but we don't know that yet. It's also a big deal because not only what you talked about with the consistency of Dolman, but how traumatized Bears fans are from their experience with sinners over the last. You fill in the blank, how many years?

The fans? What about me? I have a cover of this. You're also, yes, you fall into that fan category when we're talking about this specifically. How long would you say Bears' fans? have been traumatized by inconsistent play at the center position. I mean, until last year, I guess it was probably five to seven years, something like that. And so to have that, and you didn't even think about Center for a whole season with a second year quarterback who was playing his first year in a new offense, that is remarkable.

The guy previous to Dolman, I guess, and he wasn't even a great at center, was Cody White here, who was a really good bear, but a better guard, and he did have his issues at center, and then we can go through the litany of centers prior to that. But I don't feel like doing that right now. I mean, look at what happened with Coleman Shelton. Coleman Shelton ends up playing with the Rams and having a great year. So there's that part of it too. You know, Coleman Shelton at the time was considered, he was a guy,

but I don't know that any of us considered him here the guy. No. But it was part of a greater issue with the dysfunctioning offense at the time. Well, look at him now. Yeah, it worked out. Good for him. Almost to a Super Bowl. And the hardest division of football and the Seahawks were the only thing stopping.

It was kind of a punchline. Like Coleman Shelton and Ryan Bates battling it out for center. I'll admit it. Like we're all like, who is this guy? Who is his lefty center? But he gets the last laugh. He's having a nice career now. Speaking of that, guess who is set to expect to get a payday today?

Larry Borum. Because he started so many games with Miami. So keep that in mind what we're talking about today. You're going to have a lot of old friend alerts in the league. And I love the comments on the top. text on everybody chiming in. First of all, thank you for all your hotel references. I love that. The ISG points. People got a million points out here. I do not have a million points. 847. I do like the fact that Bradbury worked with a rookie quarterback in Drake. That's a plus.

And it's important to note also that Joe Tooney and Bradbury have a relationship after being in college together and teammates. So I think these are all positive things that Ben Johnson's certainly aware of. Brian Poles is aware of. And I think that's why, even though Mark Mark's like, I don't know what's going to happen. I have a good idea of what I expect that. It should be fine. It should be. But we can't just say, yep, you got your Saturday.

No big deal. Drew Dalman's gone and Greer Bradbury's here. But given the resume and given that he was available every snap, man, that means a lot to me. It's like the video, you know, the me that means something to me. Also, 219, we can call the new center gear bear. I like that. I like that. At least we got something down today.

Three, two, one. Yeah. I like it. I can't spell Bradbury without bear. Carebear stare. Carebear stare should have been more powerful in our lives. Hotel. Hotel holiday end.

Say what? That's from the mob. Thanks, Bob. We both were singing lyrics at the same. We saw that lyric, you and I both at the top, refreshed at the screen. Hotel, Hotel, Hotel, Holiday Inn. Why do corporations like Pitbull? Because he mentions everybody.

Hotel, Motel, and Holiday. In that covers it. That's all the bases that are covered. Corporate friendly. I can't think of a holiday in anymore because now I'm going to think of that cinnamon roll. The guy's face turns into a cinnamon roll when he's talking about staying at a holiday in Express. Oh, no.

Yeah. Not a cinnamon roll, Marshall. If your face turns into a cinnamon roll, contact your doctor. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie here on 1043 The Score. We appreciate you joining us on this very busy NFL negotiating day. Just a reminder, the league year begins in two days on March 11th. We broadcast live from the Scores Hyundai Studios, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. You heard Marshall Harris.

You heard Mark Rodi. I'm Laylor Rahimi. Our producers are Ray Dehaz, Tyler Beaterbaugh, Bryden Fryer helps us out. And our video team is deep. It is Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, Cody Westerlind as well. You can text and call us because you are. 312-644-67. And you can join us on Twitch.

Twitch.tv slash the score Chicago. we're at the score Chicago. Our address changed. And you can still find us there. Our Twitch mob is up and chatting. And we are on YouTube at the score Chicago as well. This is a good day to at least keep one of those browser tabs open on us, if you know what I mean, because there will be news.

So we will get the latest news and go over who we're about to meet, the gear bear. What does Matt Chatham think about that nickname? He covers the Patriots. He is a former Pat's linebacker as well. We always talk to him about Patriots Matter. so let's get to know the new guy next. Rahimi Harris and Grody. I'm not a fan of any team.

I'm just a fan of being right. Middays 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. What did the season mean to you? Yeah, just a lot. It's been a fun group to go work with, for sure. What surprising was this sort of offensive performance compared to maybe what you were expecting after the last of the weeks? Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know, surprising is the right word. Certainly didn't do a good enough job. It hurts, so try and learn from it and move on. That was Garrett Bradbury, who is the new Center for the Bears after the Super Bowl lost to Seattle. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3, The Score. And for more on Garrett Bradbury, we go to our hotline, and also we go to Twitch.

Twitch.tv.tv.com slash the score, Chicago. that is where we find friend of the show. He is a former Patriots linebacker, three-time Super Bowl champion. The owner of Rub Smoke Love premium meat rubs and seasonings, visit rubsmokelov.com. It is Matt Chatham. Matt, thanks for joining us.

Great to be with you. I think for us, the first place to start is, number one, you know, as you observing this Patriot season, which was successful outside of that Super Bowl L, this is a guy in Garrick Bradbury who consistently was there. You know, every single snap of the regular season.

He was there in every game. How much do you look to that consistency is something that we can look forward to here, observing him with the Bears? I would say more of my experience from playing than the media years, there's always a type like Garrett on good teams. And that's usually the guy that, you know, maybe it was more heralded earlier in his career, first round pick originally, played for an extended period of time for that team, has made money in the league.

and then another team gets him when it is apparent that he's still got, you know, tread on the tires. But he's not going to come in and necessarily make Pro Bowls or anything like that, but he's just going to be steady, dependable, and like you mentioned, he's going to play 17 games. So he's kind of the guy that, oddly enough, you see when a free agent comes to a place that has, you know, had a coaching change and they're sort of looking for their leaders, a guy from the outside that immediately was a podium guy right off the bat. You know, someone that the organization trusts enough to basically give their message week in, week out, and be the guy they put in front of the microphone in the cameras. So that's very telling with him as well.

The other thing I would say about Garrett's performance during the year, other than the Super Bowl, which they got a lot of flack earned for pocket pressure up the middle, he was a kind of guy we just didn't talk about much, which is usually a good sign. It's not like, oh, this one's, you know, they hit home run on this free agent or this one really stocked. Garrett was really consistent, but unspectacular.

And I think that's at the price point we're talking in the stage of career, that's really what you're hoping you're getting Chicago. Matt, as we look at Garrett, I think we're all trying to figure out just how good he is because, again, last year the Bears went out and got the best free agent center that was available and Drew Dalman, only got a year out of him. And now you're wondering, okay, looking at his time in the NFL, what can we expect? Is it more of what we saw in Minnesota? Is it more of New England?

But I think because of the guards who he's playing in between, he should be adequate. I don't know if adequate is the right word or not. Tell me what you see. I always kind of cringe a little bit with sort of evaluation of players as if anything non-pro bowler is sort of a problem. And it really doesn't work that way, in my view, as long as you win your matchup, play after play, you're going to be a net positive. And I think he's that kind of player. I think the other thing you also look for is when he hit the 29th and 30th year, those are the years in which you're logging games, right? It's different when a guy, you know, puts his first six or seven together, makes all the starts.

and then all of a sudden later, you're going to miss a few games each year, and then now you're doing a new contract and go, oh, gosh, can he pull it back to how he once was? I think with Gareth, again, look at type beyond just his sort of demo. He's also a 6-3-300 guy, and we know in the NFL, the centers aren't always the biggest guys on the offensive line. So he's not going to be, I mean, if you're hoping Chicago to sort of dominate down the middle of the pocket, as far as really pressing it forward and giving Caleb all the room in the world to work, he may not be that guy.

You're certainly not going to run the ball between the guards, and just blow people off the line. He's a 6-3-300, not a huge, no overwhelmingly powerful guy. But he always grades really well in Paspro. He fronts his guy up. And he's a great communicator. He runs things.

He's gonna be now playing next to Joe Tuny, who he's obviously very familiar with Joe from the NC State days. So he's just not gonna screw up and he's gonna, by and large, do what you expect of him. But again, when you're not spending 10, you know, like open market free agency, kind of dollars in the center,

10, 10 mil or more, something like that. And you're not using a first round or second round pick on it. That's what you really hope to get. You know, you're going to get something stable, and I think that's what they've got. Yeah, I mean, he's affordable, and he would have been affordable for New England, too. Is the only reason the Patriots are not keeping him? Is that Jared Wilson, whom they drafted in the third round, is either center? 100%. All he played in college was center, and then he came over, and because of the Garrett edition, it was sort of, the safety pick, right? And again, this is something you usually see throughout

the course of, you know, an NFL season or roster to roster. They have a high, value guy they like as possibly the center, but center been a real problem two seasons ago for the Patriots. So Garrett's sort of like the insurance and not a super high dollar insurance at that state of his career. And then, you know, Jared Davis can come in and, you know, oh gosh, you looks like he maybe has the flexibility to play another position while Garrett sort of stabilizes things. But then you see, yeah, you know, Jared himself had a little bit of rough play, you know, down the stretch. And you might just look at your offseason thing and go, hey, you know what, He may be more comfortable with his old position, and it's great to have a guy in a rookie contract

as opposed to even a not-so-exensive guy that came here as a free agent. So they also have another guy on the roster named Ben Brown, who was an undrafted free agent. And I know rosters love this when you eventually find a guy that in his second and third season starts to sort of the competency, especially in times of other injuries where he steps in and plays at the same level, kind of give you the confidence that, hey, maybe we don't need to go spend a first or a second or high-dollar free agency to find our left guard. Maybe we have him and Jared can slide over to center. And that makes a guy like Garrett a little more expendable.

So I think it generally isn't just fit on particular roster. Maybe more valuable to another team than it is to your particular situation here. We're talking to Matt Chatham. He is the former Patriots linebacker, a three-time Super Bowl champion and friend of the show here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, the score. And Matt, is somebody who would have to face an offensive line like this as a linebacker. when you hear about that consistency, like we mentioned, for example, or when you know that Caleb Williams and I brought this up too, we'll be going into his second season under Ben Johnson's offense, his third overall.

You saw what Bradbury was able to do with Drake May. How hard would that be as a linebacker to just know you've got an experienced center up front, somebody who's got a lot of at least a year more of experience now as a quarterback, and that exchange potentially helping and just making it hard from a defensive standpoint? point. I think the thing that you would want, you know, from the defensive side of the ball, looking back across, is a center that gets overwhelmed by push. You know, if any nose over him or any tackles, can pocket push and really put him into the pocket so you know you're always going to be flushed. But if you're solid up front and you don't get into confusion element, and I think

that's something that when you want, I think Caleb Williams is probably more of the guy you don't want leaving the pocket. You'd love to close the phone booth around him. So, you know, you just don't want a guy who blows calls, you know, from the center position, any kind of confusion about who's coming and who's not. That can often be on his, on his plate. But again, I just don't think Garrett's that guy. I don't think Garrett's a guy who's going to make mistakes, and that's why he's so valued. And he's the kind of guy that, you know, provided this continued health is with him, could play till 35. He just has always sort of been that steady, always there, always doing the right thing, never dominating, but the kind of guy you'd love to have on your roster. Making the calls, Matt,

is something that we talked about immediately when Drew Dalman is gone, he retires. You're like, well, is Caleb going to have more responsibility? What do you see as the progression of that, the quarterback taking more responsibility for the offense? Is that something? Because you've seen it with the same quarterback class, Drake May. When do quarterbacks generally take that step

and how important is that? Or maybe it's not as important as we think it is. That stuff for me, from my offensive line of friends. Of course, that's not my universe. but it tends to be more, it tends to be more from a coordinator standpoint. Coordinators often will have systems that dictate that the line of the ones are going to make that call. They'd rather have the center make that call and put more on the quarterback's plate. There's others that expect the quarterback to be a doctorate.

And, you know, he's going to call every part of the segmented portion in a call. And he needs to know the front and pointing out the mic and, you know, turning protections and sending backs all on his own. And some don't make them do that. So I don't necessarily say, hey, once you've progressed a certain point, then the quarterback should. Some systems just simply don't ask that of the quarterback ever. You may go through 15 years in the league and never have had to do that. I think Cam Newton has spoken about this extensively where Cam had gotten here lately in his career and had never done that before.

It wasn't because he hasn't progressed. I mean, he'd been an MVP. So it's just, I think it's more system dependent upon, you know, how much they want to ask of the quarterback to do that. Everybody okay in New England? Has everything sort of settled? I mean, I don't even know, like, the reaction, like, having you lose the Super Bowl. You got to the Super Bowl, which is awesome. weren't expected to win it, but how's everything in New England?

I think our bigger concern now is snowfall, you know, two feet. We don't get this here, right? So I worked for a couple seasons at the Big Ten Network. So I was here at Nesson and I would fly midweek to Chicago all the time. And I'm telling you the difference between, hey, it's kind of cold here. It's, you know, 20, maybe it gets down to 10 occasionally and you get a little snowfall between getting off that plane in Chicago and having to be maybe 10 or 15 degrees cooler and then much more snowfall that stays for four and five months.

That's not something we experience here. So, yeah, I mean, we played in the Gravy Bowl. I mean, it was all extra. Yeah, that's what I wondered. Yeah, we're just in, you know, we're entertained to be here. It was great. It sucks. They didn't finish it off, but it's one of the youngest rosters in a league.

Brand new head coach, sky's the limit. Hey, what's next? Well, for us, next was snow. And that's probably the part we're more disappointed. Next, snow. And a bunch of money under the cap for the Patriots, which makes a day like today really exciting. DJ Moore, though, did get traded to the,

division. There's that piece of it as well in Buffalo. Yeah, interestingly enough, I mean, that Stefan Diggs, I would say Stefan and DG are comparable players. They're really intermediate route runners that are pretty efficient, catch the ball well. But then when that last team made the move, the role had diminished a little bit. So maybe there's a resurgence opportunity there for D.J. I don't know, but I think, you know, the way this would be digested locally is, okay, the bills didn't go out and sort of spend top of market and get a, air quote, you know, number one kind of thing. They got a guy who's had many, many thousand-yard seasons.

He can be that kind of player, hasn't been recently. So it's more a question mark of where he'll be. I think generally in this division, if, you know, you don't see sort of that go get the top dollar free agent once free agency, you know, window opens, then that's probably seen as, okay, well, they're not swinging for the fences. I think that would have also been digested that way here if they'd have retained Stefan Diggs and not tried for something, you know, a little bit younger, maybe a higher, higher, higher, higher ceiling part of his career now. So I think we're all kind of shopping in the same neighborhood right now until we see

otherwise. Well, Matt Chapman, always great to talk to you, Matt Chatham, the former Patriots linebacker, three-time Super Bowl champion. Matt Chatham is also the owner of Rub Smok Love, premium rubs and seasonings available on rubsmokeloaf.com. There is gold bark, beefcake, and gold bark bold. Ooh, bold. Yeah, so we enjoy checking that out as well.

And Matt is on Twitter at Chatham 58, in case you want to check. them out there. Thanks as always for joining us, Matt. Thanks, guys. That is Matt Chatham, the former Patriots linebacker. Coming up next year on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, the score. As much as we've talked about Center, as much as we've talked about how nobody under safety right now is under contract for next year. Brad Biggs brought up something else that I wasn't even thinking about. So let's think about it together next. We are the best show in this town to have the coach and or

quarterback sit right here. Because we're here for a good time. We are here for a good time. We're fun. We're funny. We're serious sometimes. Sometimes we cry. Sometimes we laugh. Like this is perfect. If you wanted a high chance of a drink spilled all over the studio, we are definitely repeated. Middays 10 to 2. Maybe we're the show for you. On 1043, the score. See, there it is. Pitbull tells you, which hotels he stays at, all of them. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, The Score. And this is, NFL negotiation period day. It starts in just under 15 minutes, about 14 and change, to be exact 13 and change.

So before 11 o'clock, we're also trying to address which positions need attention for the bears. And that's why it surprised me to hear Brad Biggs this morning on with Mully and Haw, ask about cornerback. Because with Jalen Johnson playing under an extension, Kyla Gordon playing under an extension. And theoretically, those two being in a physical. better place than they were last season. And then also just having backups, as opposed to say safety where nobody's under contract right now.

I did not think of corner as something the Bears needed to address. It's not high on my list. It may not be high on a list. And I understand it because, hey, we're the station that's been on that Max Nisa train. We've been the last four seasons now. It's been what's your biggest concern about the Bears? It's Eddrusher. It's getting to the quarterback.

it's affecting the opposing quarterback, so I get it as much as anyone. At the same time, I understand the realistic situation of you can never have enough edge rushers and you can never have enough corners, enough people who can affect the passing game. And the depth is important in understanding with free agency, yes, you've got guys coming back theoretically, they have their two starting corners in-house, whether it's Tyreek Stevenson, opposite of Jalen Johnson, or go down the list. but I think it is a concern because you've got to have the depth. Last year, if nothing else, was very much an example of why depth at that position is so crucial.

Yeah, well, and Kyler Gordon needs to be mentioned in that as well. You have two fifth round picks from different years. I don't know what the story is going to be with Zay Frazier. If he is going to be good to go, but maybe he could be your surprise, Nishon Wright, if they don't bring him back. Similar build, big, big, tall, slim guy like Nishon Wright. You have Terrell Smith. That's the other fifth rounder from the same draft as Tyreek Stevenson.

And hopefully, I mean, I'm assuming that we're going to get Jalen Johnson back that was previous to last year. But when he came back, and I get it, he was playing injured and he wasn't himself. He was not very effective as a cornerback for the Bears when he played last year. Well, and that's the thing. Brad Biggs doesn't say this for no reason. He's saying this because if he's thinking about it, therefore we should be too. and that's why on paper it looks like the bears would be okay at corner. The Zay-Frazier thing is a concern.

That was a fifth round pick that the bears devoted to him. And we know that that's a round that has seen some fruit for the bears and other players. Darnel Mooney, somebody we talked about last week. That's a good example. You can get value and quality in that round. So when he's brought up, number one, what can we expect out of a guy who missed all of last season, even though Al Harris was very strong and positive about him. Number two, are we overestimating how much ground

and what we think that Jalen Johnson and Kyler Gordon can cover? And then the Bears theoretically should be okay with having some of these guys turn into free agents or at least be up at a certain time. I'm looking in the direction of Tyreeks Stevenson because they're okay with four safeties being up at the same time. So I think what that means is where is Nashan Wright going to go?

And is some of the bear's salary-capped money that they're freeing up not just to get a safety or two or three or four, but also to perhaps pay what we think might be in the neighborhood of $5 to $7 million that's been estimated for what Nishon Wright could get after the season he had? It's crazy to me because when you talk about Nishan Wright specifically and the fact that they had him on what a million dollar deal this past season, the idea that he would get this 700% increase in salary and you'd be the ones willing to pay it. understanding that that's almost saying, hey, we're going to put way more money into secondary compared to defensive line where you told us you were okay. Now, if the injuries are the same, guys being out for the season, we're talking about a torn Achilles, we're talking about other injuries to big-time players, Dioddingbo, then at the same time, shouldn't you expect the Terrell Smith and Zay Fragers to also step in in that same way that you're expecting Diodingaba to somehow contribute to the defensive

line? Well, yeah, that's just it. Like, I'm thinking about those guys, all the guys that we've just mentioned, Tyreek Stevenson, Zay Frazier, Terrell Smith, and I'll even get into the Sean Wright. The Tyreek Stevenson thing, he has run hot and cold with the bears since he walked in to

Hallis Hall. He walked, and I covered his first training camp, and it was assumed he was a second round pick, that he would be a starting cornerback in that year, and it would be no problem. But then all of a sudden, we're watching, out there. And there's Terrell Smith, who was drafted in the same class as the fifth rounder,

who we mentioned. It's like, wow, it appears that there's a real competition between the two. And maybe that was just because Tyreek Stevenson needed somebody to keep them honest out there. Don't get too cocky. And then we know what happened the year previous to this with the debacle in Washington. And even this year, he had a really nice run of games this year. And then towards the end, it felt like they didn't trust him anymore. So it's been a wild tenure for Tyreek Stevenson. So for me to think that they Trust him, I would say they don't. We don't know about Zay Frazier. It looks like he could be a good product,

but he obviously was dealing with some issues. And then that brings me back to Terrell Smith, who has been injury-prone, and they, from the beginning, haven't necessarily seen, even though he's gotten a decent amount of snaps in his career, they have not seen him as a slam dunk starter. And then lastly, Nashan Wright.

Does this mean that maybe they do feel that they need to pay him or that they're about to lose Nashan Wright to free agents because they don't want to overpay a guy who had his first real year in the NFL, and there's no precedent before that. I mean, Sean Wright was in a starting role when he was on the Cowboys. You know, he was expected to be a part of that defense, and Al Harris was there at the time. And then when that changed, he ends up going to Minnesota,

where he said he just hoped to make the team. His practice squad guy. And not the practice squad. But Terrell Smith may be the key part of this. He was out for the season last year, suffered that injury very early on, that was preseason. We don't, what was the latest time? We even had a timetable,

an update on Terrell Smith when it came to his health and getting back. Because at the time, don't you remember, we thought that that mark was a big loss. Yeah, a huge. Like he felt like, and Terrell Smith, an up-and-coming player on the verge of maybe being a starter. Like he was getting more and more snaps in the place of Tyreek Stevenson. And now I'm kind of like,

I'm not really sure where the team is. with Terrell Smith. Well, and also Tyrick Stevenson, guys. Like, when you consider, we were trying to figure out, was there a disciplinary issue that maybe happened that nobody knew about? And that's why he wasn't seeing snaps toward the end of the year, especially in the playoff games. And remember, he did make a difference in the game once he got in?

Yeah, that was peculiar how they started the, I'm trying to remember exactly which playoff game that was, where he didn't. Green Bay. Yeah, it was Green Bay, where he doesn't start the game, where also at the nickel, Kyler Gordon was not used as much early, early, early on. But they both came on as the game went on and had more.

You remember Dennis Allen, and this is why I was like, is it a disciplinary issue? He came out flatly and said, listen, Tyree Stevenson can be a factor, but Shailon Johnson and Sean Wright are just playing better. And at the same time, he made sure to include that Stevenson was still, quote, unquote, in the right mindset. So he was available and would be a part of plans going forward, just a more limited role. Yeah, well, we need to figure out,

if it's even, with positions open, we need to figure out how much the bears may think that that factors in with cap space, but I don't know if it's enough to cover every need they want at the level they need. Join me, Leila Rahimi, next Thursday, March 19th, from 7 to 9 p.m. in Old Crow Smokehouse in Wrigleyville

for the finals of Budlite's official mini-hoops mania. Hang out with Bud Light and the score as one winner heads to Vegas. That's right, Vegas for mini-hoops, for a chance to win $10,000. That's Thursday, March 19th, starting at 7, at Old Crow in Wrigleyville.

Coming up next, the window will be open. So let's open the negotiating window together. We will examine what's going on and also tell you what are top priorities for the Bears are. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3, the score.