Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - What will the Bears do with the No. 25 overall pick in the NFL Draft?

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

Marshall Harris and Mark Grote discussed how the Bears will use the No. 25 overall pick in the NFL Draft. Could they trade back and out of the first round? Harris believes there would be wisdom in doing so.

Philosophically, I feel the same. It's going to be the best player available. I know that may not be the most popular thing. Because people see, like out my board, have yellow tags where we need to fill in. But at the same time, I do believe, especially in early rounds like one, you really got to stick to best player available.

We saw that last year. I know there's a lot of questions. You got Cole, why would you take Colston? I think we found out that it helped us along the way. So we'll continue to lean in that philosophy. That is the Bears boss, Bears general manager Ryan Poles, as we welcome you back into Rahimi Harris and Grody here on 104.3, the score. Coming soon, the NFL draft. It is next week, next week, not this Thursday, but the following Thursday, the 23rd from Pittsburgh.

The Bears right now have the 25th overall pick in the draft. That is their first round pick. They've got a couple of second rounders. They have a three, they have a four, and they have a couple of seventh round picks as well. And there are all sorts of different potential directions that the Chicago Bears could go in. We've heard safety. You could justify the bears going after a tackle with what's going on at left tackle currently because Ozzie Tripillo will be nowhere to be seen for the majority or maybe all of the upcoming season.

And then, of course, Marshall, the seemingly obvious area for most people would be defensive line, right? We've been waiting so long for a defensive lineman that Ryan Poles has drafted to develop into a stud, or I don't know, just a really good starter. Has not happened yet. Hasn't happen yet. Now you're going to make me go through the resume a little bit here. Yes. And this is Ryan Poles, like just looking at the, the defensive lineman and or edges that he has chosen through the years.

And we know last year, 2025, he did take Shamar Turner. Jury's still out. We'll see. He's still got a lot of room with me, Shamar Turner, to get better and maybe be something we shall see. The second rounder from last year. 2024, he did take Austin Booker? That's my guy. That's your guy.

That's the best pick he's made up front on defense, period. is Austin Booker. Do you think he'll be a double-digit-sac guy this year? How much of a guy is he of yours? When you say your guy, what does that mean? I think a lot of that depends on how healthy and how good the players around him are, not just potentially Montes-swet opposite of him, but what are those guys in the middle doing, the defensive tackles, a three technique?

What are those guys in the middle doing? If they're good, he can be great. Right. Is Grady Jarrett going to be something this year? Anything this year? Well, I think Grady Jared has a better chance of being something, anything, than I don't know, Dio Dingbo coming off an Achilles tear. Right. Jervon Dexter, desperation, final year of his rookie contract.

Got to get paid. Right. That's not a bad player, but he's not as good as you want him to be. That's for sure. And that brings me to 2023, where he did draft, Jervon Dexter, Zach Pickens as well. Where's Zach Pickens again? I don't know, actually.

Like, is Zach Pickens still playing football? Oh, where are you, Zach Pickens? He's on the Kansas City Chiefs at last check. Is he really? That's where he spent 20, 25 playing three games. Good for him. And coming up with all of five tackles. Man, he was a preseason hero.

I thought he was going to be good. I liked the way he played in training camp. I like what I was seeing from him, man. Good God, was I wrong. I don't know. But you can admit you were wrong. It's not like I was loudly. Like, this guy's going to beat something.

I just thought because we were all sort of glued to Zach Pickens and Drivon Dexter, right? And I was like, oh, man, I think. I think Pickens got the edge over Dexter, and that was obviously wrong. I think you fell into the whole, well, year three's got to be the year, right? Yeah. And then it was not the year. It was not the year.

No, it wasn't. And then in 2022, he took Dominique Robinson. So, and that obviously did not work either. Did not take. Did not take. It was something of a project. But here's the deal. Here's the headline from me.

I'll just give it to you right away. The position that I am most comfortable with the Chicago Bears taking in the draft is the safety position. And I get where people are coming from when they're saying, man, like, do you really want to draft a what is considered to be in the NFL, a non-premium position, the safety position? Do you want to use that at number 25 overall in a draft? And, you know, obviously you are adding that to the guy that you just paid in Kobe Bryant. So that's a lot of resources in the position. But there is a need for that position. And we know that Dennis Allen works well with his safety. So I am comfortable, very comfortable, and that's not sexy to say, comfortable with either

Dylan Thineman, the, or Tieneman, the safety out of Oregon, or Emmanuel McNeil Warren, the safety out of Toledo. So I feel like it's a little bit conservative on my part, but here is the, here's the why on why I am less comfortable with defensive line or edges. Maybe some of it is, polls past and his history and all of that. But in the first round, in particular, I am not comfortable with Edge or Defensive Lineman just because of the last seven or eight years or going back to, I went back to 2017 from 2025 all the way back to 2017. And looking at guys, edges, I'll start with, that were taken between 20 and into the 30s. So the Bears are picking 25th. just to see what the hit rate was in general.

Let me give you a few names through the years of these particular players. In last year, there was a hit, but it's also a miss. It was James Pierce, who's got problems. Now, James Pierce, we're just talking about, he was a number 26 pick. He did have 10 and a half sacks for the Atlanta Falcons. So you could break that down however you want, considering his off-the-field problems. In 2024, remember when we were all excited about,

Chop Robinson? I was excited about Chop Robinson. He was the 21st pick in 2024. He had 10 sacks in two years for Miami. Probably not good enough. Probably not what they were looking for. Arizona took in 2024, Darius Robinson at number 27. He has two career sacks in two years with Arizona. In the year 2023, Cincinnati took a guy by the name of Miles Murphy.

at number 28. Another guy that his name was flashy, man. I see what you're doing here. You see what I'm doing here? You're laying out the receipts and like, is this really what you want

as far as production from players who have been taken in this range of players? That's exactly right. And I went back. I went through every one of these drafts. So that's 2023. Eight sacks and three years from Miles Murphy. Felix NU. Dike

with the Chiefs. Pick number 31 overall. Three sacks in two years. 2022, the Jets took Jermaine Johnson at number 26, 13 sacks over four years. The Chiefs, George Carl Loftus, the number 30 pick in 2022,

one double-digit sack season in four years, but I guess a steady player. In 2021, the Saints took Peyton Turner at number 28, five sacks in four years. The bills, your bills, took Gregory Russo at number 30. He has had 32 sacks in five years, so we'll give him that. The Ravens took, and here's a guy who still has life for sure.

Odafe Owe at number 31, he just signed another contract. Here's the name people will know. And number 32 in 2021, Joe Tryon Shoyinka. You know what? Let me stop you right there on the Triangica. I only got a few more. No, no, just a quick interjection here. Because I want to tell you, when I say, when I say,

saw the eagle sign him, I was like, oh, did the bears? Oh, what do they see in that the bears didn't see? With top level front offices, and I think Howard Roseman is a top level executive across any major sport, when he takes a guy that you used to have, you wonder what's going to happen next to that guy. Yeah, yeah, no, that's a good point. I guess I didn't even realize that old Joe trying, nice guy Joe, now with the Phillies. And what a nice guy he is.

just a few more here for you, Marshall. In 2020, the Jaguars took K. Levan Chasin at number 20, 17 and a half sacks in six years. Here's one everybody will know, ladies and gentlemen. I guess you could call this a hit. In 2019, the commanders with the number 26 pick in the draft took a guy by the name of Montez Sweat. In 2018, there were no edges taken in the 20s.

and then in 2017, Miami's Charles Harris, five teams he's been on. Atlanta's Ticaris McKinley, number 26 overall, did not play last year. And then a former bear, Dallas's Taco Charlton, number 28, five teams, including the bears in 2022. And then I don't want to take up a whole bunch of time, but it's the same thing with the tackles with like Mazzie Smith out of Michigan and Brian Brisey to the Saints at number 29, like on and on and on. There's just not a lot.

There are hits in the 20s with defensive tackles and edge rushers, but historically going back to 2017, in my work, there is not a lot of hit and impact players defensively on that line, whether edge or interior. It's a crapshoot, man. It is a crapshoot,

and I think that's fair to say about all of the draft after you get outside, let's say the top 10, maybe top 15, any given year, right? And so I understand what you're saying. But also what you're saying is leading me to my conclusion that I already drawn before you gave me all that information. It just adds to it. The bears should trade back. The bears, unless someone is there at 25 where the bears say,

I can't believe this guy fell to us, take that player, regardless of position again. otherwise trade back try to have an extra second rounder so you could have whether it's four second rounders an even later first rounder and a second rounder however that adds up i like the bears going into this draft with four second round picks or one first rounder and three second round picks than i do with the late first rounder and then the two seconds that they have yeah i liked i mean you talked about that in the pre-show meeting backstage. And I was like, yeah, because, I mean, the Bears did pretty well with their second round picks last year.

You know, the jury's still out on Shamar Turner, but you could call Ozzie Tripillo success, even though the injury, Luther Burden, everybody loves Luther Burden, seemed to be a success. And just with that sort of just like very underwhelming, as a texture put it, the edge position in the 20s. Yeah, that's the way it looks. So do you want to put that sort of value on one of these guys, whether it's Akeem Messador out of Miami, T.J. Parker, out of Clemson, Malachi Lawrence out of UCF, Zion Young, getting all sorts of love out of Missouri.

And then, of course, the defensive tackle. There are a couple guys that have been mocked to the Bears. Well, Peter Woods, I've seen that happen out of Clemson and Caden McDonald, the big defensive tackle out of Ohio. state, but the thing that you hear, even if you, like, go through, like, what the draft experts are saying about these guys, some of them are like, oh, yeah, I can easily see him being drafted in the first round, but could also see him going in the second round, or dropping even further than that.

Way too much of that with these guys in the 20s. And that's why I have adopted my stance on, if you can trade back, trade back, unless one of these other guys, not the guys you're talking about, first round, second round grade, just a straight up, this guy should be a first round rate. Right. There's not a lot of that. And it's deep. And I know everybody says deep, it's deep, but what does that mean exactly? Does that mean that you're going to have a starter in two years?

Does that mean? Like, what does deep mean in a draft when it comes to the defensive lineman? I don't know. Do you remember the old dollar value menu? Like when you could get stuff for a dollar and it was a whole bunch of choices. That doesn't exist still? I feel like I hear that sometimes. There's no dollar.

No, no more dollar menu. Do you understand how inflation works? No. But the thing about the dollar value menu is, let's say, you've got a $5 bill, right? And you're hungry and you're like, I could get this, this, this. Like, you get anything from an apple pie to double cheeseburger fries. They're McChicken.

Like, there's all kinds of different things that you could get with that, right? Yeah, yeah. But the thing is you've got to figure out that day, just like these GMs, these front offices have to figure out, what do I need now in this moment? And can I pick the right thing? and if you're going to the store and you got a $10 bill and it's you and you got to take some food to your boys and you don't, this is before cell phones obviously

you've got to make choices. And with the depth of this class, there could be a bunch of defensive tackles, defensive edges that go in that first to second round range. You better pick the right one because the last thing you want us and the city of Chicago, fan base at large, saying is, ah, the bears picked the wrong guy.

Right. And you picked the wrong guy, you'll still have that same get to the quarterback problem that you've had for the last. How far back are we saying that problem goes? You talk about with the list of guys that I just gave you? I went all the way back to 2017. Random year, but I decided to do it like that. And the Bears have not done a great job of getting to the quarterback. I mean, they haven't done a great job of stopping the run either.

But getting to the quarterback is when we talk about edges and defensive tackles, got to create pressure not just from the edge, but from the inside as well. And so that's why you get more lottery tickets if you move back and get four picks in the second round. Yeah, I am believing in that and thinking about that more and more because it just gets fuzzy and ambiguous with these guys. I'll tell you one guy. I'll tell you one guy. And Bears fans don't want to hear this. But in 2022, the Green Bay Packers at number 28 did get Devante Wyatt, who is a really good defensive lineman for the Packers.

I don't think the bears had to deal with him last year because he was hurt, if I remember correctly. But he stands as an example of a guy who did hit. But it's just rare. It's very rare. The way you're talking about this makes me think that you're not nearly as confident, perhaps, in this Bears front office slash coaching staff making the right selections on defense where they're drafting compared to a year ago when on offense, you had kind of a blind faith. because of Ben Johnson's pedigree and his resume

and his ability to know what he needed as far as the groceries to make the meal. I think that's fair, for sure, but I think it's almost a separate issue. I just think in general that's a gray area, the 20s, and even into the 30s. Okay, that's fair. For all GMs. But you're not wrong in saying that, of course, going through the examples of Ryan Poles' picks at edge and defensive line going back to 2022 have not hit. the trade that he made, obviously, for Montess.

What, you could say that that's been a success, I think? A moderate success. Yeah, right. You have to carefully say that. But I would put that down as a success, but it has been difficult for him to get difference makers in those spots, but I think the grayer is real for everybody. He better not be wrong.

That's all I'm telling you about Ryan Bowles. He better not be wrong. Oh, man. Draft coming up next Thursday. We'll have much more draft talk coming up. But coming up next. Let's get back to the Cubs game and a tough loss in Philly last night. Our guy, Ian Hap, will join Rahimi Harris and Grotie next here on 1043 the score.