Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - What's the biggest hole on the Bears' roster?

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris were joined by Chicago Sports Network analyst Clay Harbor to discuss the biggest holes on the Bears' roster right now.

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See for yourself at ringcentral.com. Ring Central, voice of your business. Why have I asked my HVAC guy I found on Angie.com to change my grandpa's trachea tube? Because I was so amazed by how quickly he replaced our aerodex. I knew I could trust him to change Pop Pops tube while I was on vacation. Make a quick, young man. Aw, see. Pop-pop trusts you.

I think we should call it doctor. Connecting homeowners with skilled pros for over 30 years. Angie, the one you trust, to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects at Angie.com. Clay Harbor, former NFL player. Clay Harbor, slot to the left. Here's a big pass, and it's caught. Clay Harbor makes that catch.

And they've got Harbor for the touchdown. Football analyst for Chicago Sports Network. If you saw how far you took the Rams in the NFC divisional round. If you have a chance to add a couple more players there, this guy didn't play and your quarterback doesn't miss games. If you have a quarterback that's missing games and you say, hey, we probably need this guy, Caleb's still young, Caleb takes care of his body and he never misses a game. You can get players that are playing that are going to help you win, and you never know if Tyson might not even see the field once. Play Harbor with Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043,

the score. See, I for sure thought that with Play Harbor and Studio, the former Philadelphia Eagle, as he mentioned, played for Dan Campbell in New Orleans, which I think is hilarious. And the nine-year NFL veteran, big pro football show host, I for sure thought Dreams and nightmares would be part of your pump-up song. I just want to say thanks to the production team, I mean, to find my highlights, they had to do some digging. Okay, we're not just talking about, you know, six foot. I mean, they were digging deep, Grotie, to find those highlights.

The four touchdowns that actually had. So good job, T. That's why we call him the Butte. Tyler Butterbaugh. He is a but. Coming through, huge. Clay Harbor in studio. Yeah, I for sure thought that dreams and nightmares would have been part of the mix.

Well, I was after, I was before Dreams and Nightmares. That became a thing during the Eagles Super Bowl run, which I do get, I do get confused with Trey Burton from time to time when I go in Philly. Yeah. They're like a mixed tight end. Oh, yeah. He was the, he was the, he was the, you. You tight end that the bears wanted badly.

If that's the case, you're probably getting free drinks at least, so that's good. They're like, Philly, Philly. I'm like, yeah, Philly Special over here. But Dr. Meek Mill being from Philly, yes, that was created as a 2018 vibe, but the song came out before then. Oh, man, you got me thinking about Trey Burton. Had such high expectations for Trey Burton. Just didn't quite work out with the Bears.

Nagy guy couldn't stay healthy, but a really good dude. Yeah, I liked him a lot, too. I had a lot of great conversations with him, but people don't care about that. I just want to know if the guy produces, right? So Grody, are you ready? I'm ready. I have a question for you. Yes.

And this is something that, to me, I've just been thinking about. What is the biggest hole on the roster right now even after free agency? And do you think the bears will be able to fill it? Because a lot of the top free agents are gone. They picked 25th in the draft. I know they obviously got the 60th pick for DJ, 57, 60, and then 89. So can they fill it?

What's the biggest hole? All right. They filled the hole at center. They filled the hole at left tackle. They filled one hole at safety. So safety, a little bit of a hole there still. The linebackers are, I think, that they're set. So my inclination is that I'm thinking safety.

But I'm also thinking about something we talked about earlier. on the show, and that is the fact that the Bears' rush defense was 27th last year in the league. They were 22nd in sacks last year with 35 overall. Is the defensive line set? Is the defensive line? And maybe, like, there's not a hole there, literally, because they have everybody in place and Dio Dangbo is coming back, and Shemar Turner is going to be back, and he did get 10 sacks out of Montes sweat.

I guess I'll go with the safety spot as the biggest hole on the Bears. right now. That's what I would have said. Safety, just because they don't have a complete room. Yeah, they need a enough safety. Elijah Hicks was a good safety. Yeah, yeah. They needed to sign him. Yeah, good special team or he can play. Yeah, plug and play occasionally. And I'm confident

with safety that if they take one in one of the top four picks, they will be some good safety still on the draft board there. Mine would be an edge rusher. You're 29th and past rush win rate. You know, I thought pressure obviously stopping the run as well. Defensive line as a whole. You haven't touched it yet. And to me,

when we watched last year, that was the biggest position of need, in my opinion. And I know there were some high contracts flying up the board, maybe overvalued. So now you put a lot of pressure on the draft. And there's a couple guys out there. I was talking about Joey Bosa,

AJ Epinessa. You can go with a Cam Jordan one year deal. Ready for this name? Yeah, both. Devin' Clowny. We talked about him yesterday. He's a guy that actually had looked to turn around some film. He actually had a solid year last year, and he's a guy that could come in for a year. He's a mercenary. Whatever. There are some names you could bring in

for an edge rusher, but to me, the biggest position in need, you haven't touched. That puts a lot of pressure on your draft, and that tells you, hey, you want to say we're going to draft best available, best available, best available. I think it is a deep edge class, but I think that kinds of pigeonholes you into drafting on defensive line, whether that's a defensive tackle or Eddrusher up for grabs, but it kind of makes you think that's the direction they need to go in the draft. Well, they signed Contavius Street, and then they also signed Neville Gallimore, which I understand is probably depth.

But the thing is, I don't think it was cheap debt, you know? Neville Gallimore, what, is $6 million per? That's two years 12, so that's not cheap. Seven career sex. Right, and then Street, I don't have terms yet on that one because even like NFL.com doesn't have Contavius Street on the Bears list. Because they thought he was going to be on the streets. Neville Gallimore, I turned on some film of him.

And, I mean, this guy was a plug-in guy. He wasn't really a starter. He started a few games. His run game is not good. I mean, Pro Football Focus has him ranked 97th out of 100-graded defensive tackles against the run. He's decent against some pass-rest situations. You get him in there. But to me, Andrew Billings was better at stopping the run than Gallimore.

I don't disagree with that. So that's something that was interesting to me that you would pay him so much. And this is, you know, high upside guy. He's an Indianapolis colt reminds me a lot of somebody that we already have on the roster. I mean, did they just scout a lot of these former cults? Like, I assume there are still guys that Ryan Poles really liked as a scout. And I wonder about like a Gallimore or say, like, does he know a scout he trusts? We're Dio Dangbo and Gallimore are two former cults and he believes in them as well.

I think that this shows me that Poles is putting a lot of faith in Dio, a Dangbo coming back and being a weapon. He thinks the Achilles, he can come back, he can work his way into shape, and hey, he's seeing the guy trained. That's a guy that they obviously thought was going to be a difference maker with how they paid him. Grady Jarrett's going to be more healthy. I think they're putting a lot of stock into him, upping the way that he played to be more active to get some interior pressure there.

And then, like you said, Lela, Shamar Turner. He's a guy's coming off an ACL. He didn't really pan out on the inside. At edge, he showed he can stop the run a little bit. And then Austin Booker, I think he's a guy that I'm most convinced will take a step. To me, I would not be shocked if he led the Bears in Sacks next year. He's a guy in training camp when he was healthy. I know he missed those games.

I'm going, man, I'm a tight-in. I don't want to block that guy. This guy's got a ton of pass rush moves. He's got a long arm. He's got a motor. He's got a spin move. He's doing a lot of different things. He's good at games, loop.

So I think that Austin Booker is a guy that can have. have a big year, but I still think they haven't really done much to improve from the outside, at least, that position group. Presented by T-Mobile, the official wireless partner of Odyssey Sports. With an awesome network and great savings, there's never been a better time to join T-Mobile. Visit your neighborhood store to make the switch today. Ring Central's AI receptionist uses voice AI to answer on the first ring, so you'll never miss a call again.

In just a few minutes, you can personalize your own AI receptionist to answer questions, route calls, schedule appointments, and even send texts in multiple languages. Plus, it's easy to scale. Create unlimited AI receptionists across any phone system. It's all powered by one reliable platform for effortless AI communications. See for yourself at ringcentral.com. Ring Central, voice of your business. Why have I asked my HVAC guy I found on Angie.com to change my grandpa's tracheot tube?

I was so amazed at how we replaced our air ducts. I knew I could trust him to change Poppops tube. I think we should call a doctor. Angie, the one you trust, to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects at Angie.com. Do you think there are too many projects on the defensive line? Like too many, we're moving Shemar Turner to end. Jervon Dexter was a bit of a, we're going to change his role when they drafted him.

We're hoping Dio is this guy. Are there not enough tried and true products on the defensive line? I think like Dio is like a projection guy, like I guess which is similar to project. Can't spell projection without project. So, like, and like, hopefully there is something there. But Shemar Turner, I mean, like, that was a good product right there. I think he was worthy of a second round pick. So I don't know if he's necessarily a project.

But they're moving him to end, though. So how do you categorize that? And he's coming. He was a guy that didn't look great. And obviously, he's a rookie. People make the biggest jump. Players make the biggest jump from year one to year two. And that's not just coach speak.

That is real. I've been in there. And the first year you're in there. You're kind of swimming. You don't know what to expect. You're kind of just focused on your job. Year two, it slows down for you a little bit. Even from year two to year three, I think you make a jump here.

So for Samar Turner, I would be excited to see what he could bring in year two. But the fact that he's going to spend most of this year rehabbing his ACL trying to get back to where he was instead of getting stronger. It's like Braxton Jones last year. He wasn't getting stronger. I do need to do some squabbing. Watts. I mean... May I offer a couple of names here?

You're right about that on Braxton, by the way. The triangle is not wide enough. His legs don't. He doesn't... Great in the run game. He needs a better base. The Vikings released Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave. What do you think about those two guys?

Especially Jonathan Allen. Like we're talking about needing an adult in the room on the defensive line, which is what it sounds like. If maybe Grady Jarrett is that guy this year, what about Jonathan Allen? I like both those guys. if you could get them for a short-term deal. You already got, obviously, you already got some interior guys there. We talked about Grady.

You got Jervon Dexter. But if you could get one of those guys, and he didn't have a great year in Minnesota, but you go back to the past, these were productive players. And Minnesota, it's not the best place for interior defensive linemen to play. They run so many blitzes, so many schemes.

They're trying to mess with you so much with the double mug looks. They're dropping these guys into coverage. Any defensive tackle will talk to you. guys I know from the league, guys I've talked to in the past, they really don't like playing in Minnesota because Brian Flores is doing so many things. They don't have many opportunities to really just run straight pass rush.

Wow, I never thought about that. They're trying to trick you. They're trying to fake. It's a good defense, but you're not getting great numbers. It doesn't seem like you're getting production out of these guys. So I think maybe those are some players you can get a discount on because when you look at their numbers, they're not jumping off the page at you.

But that's because they're in a scheme to where they're not allowed to get up field. not allowed to do a lot of different things. There's a lot of double A gap. There's a lot of tricky things. They're dropping into coverage. These zone blitzes at Brian Flores is, I don't know, he's dreaming them up. Some of them are, I'm like, I'm like, watching the tape. I'm like, what is this guy doing?

I don't even know what coverage that is. But I think you're right, Grody. Those are two guys you could sign and probably get a little bit of value from. Obviously, end of their career, that the last part of the runway, so to speak, but not great numbers last year, but I think in a good system, they can still play. That is Clay Harbor. Mark Grody, Leila Rahimi with you today. And I also want to let you know you can join me next Thursday, March 19th from 7 to 9 p.m. at Old Crow Smokehouse in Wrigleyville for the finals of Bud Light's official mini hoops mania. Hang out with Bud Light and the score as when Chicago winner heads to Vegas for a chance of $10,000.

That is Thursday. March 19th, starting at 7 at Old Crow in Wrigleyville. There's a name that keeps popping up, not just among our text line listeners, but among people who, who ask us the question. So I'll pose it to you as a possibility for somebody that could be available at a discount defensively. That's next with Clay Harbor on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. Presented by Team Mobile, the official wireless partner of Odyssey Sports. With an awesome network and great savings, there's never been a better time to join Team Mobile. Visit your neighborhood store to make the switch today. Ring Central's AI receptionist uses voice AI to answer on the first ring, so you'll never miss a call again. In just a few minutes, you can personalize

own AI receptionist to answer questions, route calls, schedule appointments, and even send texts in multiple languages. Plus, it's easy to scale. Create unlimited AI receptionists across any phone system. It's all powered by one reliable platform for effortless AI communications. See for yourself at ringcentral.com. Ring Central, voice of your business.