Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - What will the Bears do about their Dayo Odeyingbo problem?

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris discussed an injury concern for the Bears.

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Rahimi Harrison Grody. I don't want to break time. I want to yell at Mars. Can we handle more Anthony Herron? Middays 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. Third down and four. McCarthy. Time runs out and down he goes.

Just tripped up. And it'll go down as a sack. Pressure by Dio O'Dangbo, who was brought in by the front office to beef up the pass rush for Chicago. That courtesy of ESPN, and this is Rahimi Harris and Grotie on 104-3, the score. Dyer Dengbo did not have enough highlights last year because his season got shut down by an Achilles tear. Dio tore his right Achilles, and he was one of the big free agent sightings that Ryan Poles had whenever last season happened and last off season happened.

Dyer O'Dangbo was supposed to really help this bear's defensive line. He was supposed to be one of the edge rushers. He was signed away from the Colts. And in doing so, the bears had hoped, I think that based on his pressure numbers, the season before, that he was going to be a compliment to Montez Sweat and able to rush the passer. As of the 2026 latest on Spot Rack, Daya O'Dangbo is still, the fifth highest paid player on the team when it comes to the cap hit. DJ Moore's number one, 28 and a half, Montez Sweets, second, Jalen Johnson, third, Joe Tuny fourth,

and then it is Dio at $20.5 million. Last season is a watch. You can't get it back. We're trying to figure out what kind of version we're going to get of Dio O'Dangbo. And the reason this has become, I think, a little bit more newsworthy. We're going to have Bill Zimmerman on of Windy City Gridiron to talk about it at 1225. with us is that this is not Dyerra Dengbo's first Achilles tear. This is his second. But what none of us can seem to find out, because it happened prior to when he was drafted

in 2021, is which Achilles he actually tore the first time. And when you consider that there's now two, and he was paid this much money, and unfortunately another tear of Anne Achilles happened again, that's what makes us even more concerning. There's a lot of ways to look at this and to understand that Dio Dingbo is in what's supposed to be the prime of his career. He's 26 years old. And after playing at Vanderbilt, he did suffer that Achilles while getting ready for the draft

and training for the draft. It caused him to slip all the way down in said draft to the second round and 54th overall pick at the Colts. And the Colts were like, I think he'll be good once he gets in there. And so he did play 10 games in that rookie year. And when he joined the Bears last offseason as their big line addition, you mentioned the payroll hit that he took, and the money invested tells you what they expect out of him.

He played eight games, started all eight, before being taken out by the Achilles. He had one sack. He had two tackles for loss. He had four quarterback hits. he is a big part of why Ryan Poles and I'm guessing

because Dennis Allen hasn't been as vocal as we hear from Ryan Poles he's the guy in charge of the front office he was supposed to play a bigger role than he did even before he was hurt and you can say okay it takes some time to get adjusted

but at the same time you can look at what he did last year and understand And because of the cap hit, because of the injury risk now going forward, it's a big deal that he tore his Achilles. Because my biggest thing, Lail, is when you tear your Achilles, no one is expecting you to be what you were in that first year back from a torn Achilles. And some people never recover from a torn Achilles.

His position first step to Achilles, not knowing if it's the same Achilles, and let me tell you something, if it's the same Achilles, I don't expect him to be the same player. Right, and that's part of the concern. We're going to talk about it a little bit more of Bill Zimmerman because he brought up the concept of perhaps an injury settlement. But the reason we're even talking about this to this extent, and the reason this is so crucial, is not just because of the money we mentioned.

It's because that money doesn't allow you enough flexibility to perhaps do what so many people want, which is for the bears to improve the defensive line. Think about all the money they spent. I just mentioned Montez-Swe. We'll do this again. It's worth repeating. Grady Jared is set to make $18.925 million next year.

Those are three guys. Then you have Javon Dexter as we try to figure out his future with the team. So you add it all up and there's perhaps not a lot of financial room to work with. And I think that when Ryan Poles was asked about Dio Dando's injury status alongside Shemar Turner, who had a torn ACL, polls talked about it at the Combine yesterday. listen to the tone he uses and how it sounds like we need to understand that their timelines are very crucial to how he's planning this out.

Dio and Shamar, do you just give us kind of a sense of your outlook for both those guys just in terms of both their injury and then what you kind of saw from them during the season. Yeah, so Dio was a little bit unfortunate. He was the guy we brought in that we wanted to work inside and outside. And due to some of the injuries, I thought Book was coming along in terms. in the camp. He had a, I think, a knee injury at some point in the beginning. So we really didn't

get to flex as much as we wanted to to try to improve a rush from the interior and exterior. But he was coming along. There's a lot of positive things there, both in the run, which I know we don't talk much about, but getting that they're done is a huge deal. So I thought he was coming along. We're looking for him coming back. I know he's training in his return to play protocol. Shamar was another one has flex that we were trying to find out where he was going to be the most productive and it was coming along at end which was great because he would have versatility inside and outside which is what we want and so it was a bummer kind of a freak deal with him and his knee both guys are on track training hard again

you know I'm hoping in the spring but if anything training camp would be the spot where they come back. And there's a process through that of playing the game and getting comfortable and healthy that we'll go through. But I expect both those guys to help us next year. He expects both of them to help him next year. And before we get into the Schmar Turner discussion of it, let's get into more regarding the edge rusher. And I know we've talked about him a lot, but I think it goes back to something that you saw Marshall back in training camp. You were concerned when you and Clay went to training camp about what you were seeing

out of the edge rush or dieo dangbo when it came to just whether or not he was going to make the difference that he was going to be paid to make on this team. Well, it wasn't so much what I saw, it's what I did not see in that I didn't see a guy who popped

and I was like well, it's training camp and you try to weigh that, right? Okay, he's getting acclimated. But I guess I expected more. and when you look at the date of his torn Achilles, November 2nd just hearing Ryan Pulse talk about it,

like how long does it take to recover from Achilles? I feel like it takes longer than, you know, six, seven months. I feel like a year is a good estimate when you can be back to full strength. So when he says help, like is he saying help in the back half of next season? Like I'm trying to make it make sense. But I think, and I feel like, and this is unfortunate, that Ryan Poles is trying to just give you an optimistic view and understanding he ain't got the money to spend on more defensive linemen. Have you or a family member been diagnosed with early stage non-small cell lung cancer that can be removed by surgery?

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They accept Discover. Except Discover? In a little place like this? I don't think so, Jennifer. Oh, yeah, huh? Discover's accepted where I like to shop. Come on, baby. Get with the times. Right. So we shouldn't get the parachute pants?

These are making a comeback. I think. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Based on the February 2025 Nilsen report. But you also spent money on a guy who had torn his Achilles previously. And what we can't figure out that's so crucial to this is, is that timeline, can you tell by the timeline if perhaps it was a different one than the one before? And what also concerns me, this is a real big if, but this is just part of what we ask in injury discussion surrounding things like this, is did was there, because the other Achilles got torn, say it's the other one, right? Say he, say the right Achilles that he tore in 2025. Wasn't the left any tour if that's the one he tore in 2021.

Okay, so was that one overcompensating for a weakness on the other side? And, you know, add to the fact that he's six foot five. He doesn't weigh 200 pounds either. He's 282 listed. So that to me also would make it a little more difficult in the process a little more lengthy. But when Ryan Poles gives us that timeline, does that indicate that it was the opposite one? But either way, is there a reasonable doubt here that there's some sort of drop off in athletic production? Yes. I think that's my point, Leila.

It happened on November 2nd. He's shortly thereafter has the surgery, right, to repair the Achilles. what kind of help are you expecting him from? Certainly you're not getting your value as far as what it would be worth, what you paid him. Because maybe if he said, okay, this wouldn't surprise me. If training camp starts, he's still ramping up, he's still ramping up. Regular season starts, he's not going to be, he's going to be on IR or whatever. Listen, if they said he'll be ready for a playoff push, I could see that because that's, you know,

what, 13 months away. But the idea that he would be ready at all, the first half of next season, it's a year just to like get back to normal, not elite athlete. Normal, especially if you're that. I think when you're that tall, too, that's a lot of tendons. And it's the Achilles. Like that is the power muscle from your lower half as start. First step, Achilles.

Yeah, and it would make sense either way, it would make sense if either one was compensating for another, when the right tour for the left, if that's what happened, or if the right tour again, what are we looking at here? 312 in our text line, you're correct. I thought it was a 12-month recovery for an Achilles tear as well. I thought that a year is kind of the baseline, similar to Tommy John. You just kind of go with a year.

ACL, what, 9, 10 months to a year? That's how I feel about that one as well. With the ACL, though, they are shortening the timeline on a recover. We've seen that now over the course of the last decade or something. where if you tear an ACL, you can be back before you're doing whatever sport you were doing. It's been done. But Achilles is just different. And as we said, it's the size thing for me.

It's also what you said, though, about the next year understanding that you're not going to get the best version of that person. It's like we talk about it with quarterbacks. You know, Kirk Cousins gets cut yesterday by the Atlanta Falcons. We understand that. But there was an anticipation that after he tore his Achilles, it was going to take another year. after that, you know, a two-year process before you kind of see who he really is. Aaron Rogers, I think we can

agree that after that happened with him, he was more himself in the second year after that occurred rather than the first. There seems to be an NFL understanding there. But when you got a three-year deal, so, okay, year three is when this is supposed to pay out? And by then, that's when there's not a cap hit like there is in year two,

so you could understandably get rid of him if he's not performing. And then, I mean, next year basically becomes not a contract year, but the closest thing to it because of the way the contract structured. I think overall, Lela, my point is I'm very uncomfortable with Ryan Poles talking about these guys being guys he's depending on for next year to do anything. That should be gravy on top. No, I completely agree.

And that's part of the problem. So, you know, knowing what we know, trying to figure out how he got injured in 2021 is a massive part of this. We have more to come here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3, the score. We haven't even gotten to the other side of it, which is the injury to Shemar Turner. We mentioned ACLs, so when Ryan Poles talks about those two and how they factor it on the defense, Shamar Turner's presence is going to be crucial. We'll get into that next.

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I don't think so, Jennifer. Oh, yeah, huh. Discover is accepted where I like to shop. Come on, baby. Get with the times. Right. So we shouldn't get the parachute pants? These are making a comeback. I think.

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