The Bears' 53-Man Roster Is Finalized! Who's In? Who's Out? | Bear With Us Podcast

for once Nick and I are right on top of things as the 53 man roster is finalized waiver claims are finalized trades are finalized Ryan I swear if you trade another player right now at just after this between posting I'm going to flip my lid Nick and I can't wait to talk through the roster who made the cuts who didn't make the cuts what's going on with Hard Knocks what do we have to look forward to who's on the practice squad and much much more we'll talk through it all on this episode of bear with us what's going on everybody and welcome back to bear with us a Chicago Bears podcast hosted by Yours Truly Robert schmidtz editor-in-chief of the Bears blog right here with my co-host Nick whan of football guys as we try to bring you the best Bears podcast we possibly can combining hard hitting analysis and statistics to back up what we're talking about and all the other football guys stuff that you could possibly expect but Nick at the end of the day how you doing because how we're doing drives a lot of this I feel good man I mean uh you know we finally kind of know we don't have to speculate and it it really did stink because last episode we recorded and we had our predictions and then all of a sudden we found out about the Ian wheeler ACL and we found out about surgery for Simba Webster and then we heard about the uh derell Taylor trade but now of a sudden the Chris Williams trade happened we're like come on Ryan like our our podcast stinks now so I'm glad I'm glad it's pretty concrete right now you know it's funny though because an overwhelming amount of the stuff that we talked about look we we made jokes about the Colin coward when Colin was right kind of thing we got a ton of this and the only one that I would say you and I quote unquote missed on both of us having Ryan Bates on the Bears 53 we got claimed so obviously our eyes were not deceiving us because the New York Jets agreed with you and me man I I that is one I I put a tweet out and I was like kick and rocks I'm like Brendan Bates come on like that's the guy to develop but there's a few other ones too that I'm surprising so I mean let's just we we'll start off pretty easy y'all I mean Caleb made the team congratulations Caleb Williams rookie you know first NFL team that he's made uh Tyson bent made the team not a surprise there running backs you know veis made it if you want to call him a running back or a a receiver but I am surprised Robert Travis Homer made the team and I you know some of these guys are going to you know depending on when people come back from IR or other people are healthy and they got to bring guys up because we can talk about some of that but Travis Homer is one that I'm I really didn't think was gonna make this team I'm gonna hit you with just a devastatingly honest take Nick guys like you and me we are always going to be biased towards what did you contribute on defense defense what did you contribute on offense your stated position how well do you play it and there is no chance Travis Homer made this team as a running back he made this team as a special teamer I like I said devastatingly honest I like to play The Middle on most of my opinions Bears fans I want you guys to hear from somebody who at least is trying to be grounded and I would tell you with a straight face that if I needed one yard I would rather hand the ball to veis than I would Travis Homer not because veis some power Runner but because I think veis offers more with the ball in his hand right now than Travis Homer does and I don't think that Travis did anything during all the preseason games that he played in of which he played in all of them to prove that statement wrong which is a little alarming because you don't want like a gadget receiver to be a more attractive ball inhand option than one of your actual running backs especially dude when he costs like $2 million but right Ryan poles likes him he comes from where Shane Waldren is for all we know he's the um gosh you know what I'm talking about when I say every time you see a team a hire an offensive coordinator they always tend to bring in like one receiver that played in that offense to teach the rest of the receivers how to play in that offense for gy it was eamus St Brown like that kind of player right and Homer feels like maybe there's an element of he's got Waldron isms but it's it's got to mostly be special teams right right well yeah and and uh didn't Chad Morton come from Seattle so like he's super familiar with Travis Homer too so that has to be part of it but you watched Hard Knocks Robert I watched Hard Knocks most of our listeners did dude heart broke you knew it was happening with Ian wheeler because I watching the game I didn't see the injury but watching it through hard Kno seeing him and his mom Embrace I'm heartbroken but then the convers PS had with him tells me that we were right in that they were at least considering him for the 53 and practice squad um and that might have been the the deciding factor whether Travis Homer's making this team or not was Ian wheeler getting injured first off I agree with you especially in principle I also wouldn't be surprised truly I mean Homer did not make the team because they needed four running backs at least I don't think so right they're playing veis pretty heavily at running back right now five I know that's that's what I'm saying like yes you're right yes they they didn't need four running backs or plus veas blah blah blah blah blah I'm probably still getting the numbers wrong all this to say Nick that I don't know if wheeler fully displaces Homer it wouldn't but I definitely think that wheeler was in that top 57 guys like whether he was in the last four in or the uh or the last or the first four out whatever you call it yep he's in that category I'm really curious as to what he gets paid on the injured reserve for the entire season does he get a year salary does he get practice squad money he has to get some level of stien right I mean he's still with the team he's still going to Mee yeah yeah there's something well I mean and they're goingon to pay for his surgery and his rehab as they should so yeah he's he's getting paid the the guys on ir and practice squad and 53 all count against jerk cap I'm not sure what the percentage is but they do count against it and if they do I would assume you're getting paid that money right and if that's the case again look I have never made $600,000 in a year so the idea of making even potentially 900,000 boggles my mind what would I do for $900,000 well I don't know if I would tear my own ACL but if Ian wheeler is getting paid a full year salary Nick because again speculating I don't know at at least you got that going for you right did did did you no I agree with you did you hear Chad Morton say you run a 43 because remember you were talking about his speed and I heard that I was like oh I didn't know he's really fast when I was telling you that he was mowing through people two two three weeks ago that's because he was the fast guy like C or reports out of camp where this is the quick one so the fact that he ran with power two I was like do we have a two type Runner here that's pretty nasty so we'll see if he can end up being God you remember Zack Stacy from back in the day he was a I love Zack Stacy out of well okay I've been doing this a long time Robert we always talk about that right okay I liked Zack Stacy out of Vanderbilt okay um I again y'all we're not I don't like what Zack Stacy did as an individual um there's an incident I don't like that part of it but as a as a running back out of Vanderbilt I liked him you know who else I liked out of college who I actually liked Trav Homer at Miami and it never came to about but but he was a he's more of like an athlete than he is a running back which I think helps the Special Teams part um but if we move on because the three tight ends you know we know who those are we do baits they like go stupidly got claimed the only cut that got claimed I think speaks to the value that that we saw I mean obviously polls and them probably saw it too but wide receiver Robert can we talk about the and thing very quickly yeah go ahead whatever you want I want to just make sure it is stated on this podcast and sure Nick I'll be the one to State it that one of the things I am really excited about is that we can button up the 53 and move on because this season I think sometimes we could talk so much about the 53 man roster Nick that we bury the lead that if Brandon Bates got into a game that would have already been a problem like we're looking at a season where you really want more way more obviously out of the top 35 players then you're going to be thinking about the next 18 after that and I know it's football you want to make sure that you have proper depth up and down the roster because injuries happen I'm not trying to take away from any of that Nick it's more to say that on one hand I agree with you we already we already mentioned this that Brandon Bates is somebody that I would have kept on the roster but at the same time I'm not going to lose sleep over losing him either because now you've got a couple other options like Tommy Sweeny like the other tight end whose Name Escapes me I think it's stepen Carlson Ste Carlson yeah who they who's on the practice squad they got him and if you absolutely needed a fourth tight end you just have a guy now on your practice squad that you'll be able to elevate and he can handle his business at the position even if he's not an Allstar about it that's it's the same thing as a room that we're about to talk about here uh whether you want to talk about wide receiver or offensive line where yes on one hand I am surprised that the Bears kept so many offensive linemen but also if we see Doug Kramer or Bill Murray in a real NFL game I'm G to be worried regardless of whether that was Colbert playing regardless of whether they'd picked up Ricky stomberg like it you know what I'm saying where it's like you get that far down the roster and you go I don't really want to see you on the field regardless MH yeah I mean the the the baits thing too also so I mean shout out Kristen tan on Twitter awesome brings so many facts which I I the people I like to follow on Twitter I learned something from and she she is awesome uh she brought up I didn't know this Bates was leading the team in special teams tackles which I think adds the value so I mean with that kickoff rule you know those linebacker small DNS which we'll get to that part and tight ends I thought more of those guys would make the roster to fill out that kickoff kick return type type mold but um yeah if we if we just shift to offensive line as you're talking about um there's some reasons here and P's press conference today he talked about he's like I've never had a line this deep he's act actually one of the guys we had to let go he's like yeah we're just really good upfront and just overall Bears fans K we we've I know we've gone through it together you know the the Nate Davis stuff is kind of you know a little bit of thing of the couple weeks ago past now or past that and worried about the interior and you know all this kind of stuff the Bears line and depth we should feel good about and some of the guys that we don't we actually heard some stuff on so like Ryan Bates is going through a shoulder right now didn't practice today uh but he was kind of out there I think moving around which is a good sign I think the reason you kept Bill Murray and um Doug Kramer is because you need someone who can snap the football right because Ryan Bates isn't going to be ready for week one is what it looks like so I think those two guys are there for sure for that reason the one thing I'm very curious your opinion on Robert is one guy we talked about I thought for sure was gone and that's Larry borham and Larry borham didn't make the 53 but he was put on short-term ir and he had the salary of it was like 3.19 and it was designated to return which makes it odd to me because for tackle you've got the two guys you've got Karan amaji um they actually put uh Jake Kuran on practice squad so still available to you like you got all these options why do you put Larry borm on short-term IR so when we watch the tape obviously Larry boram is not playing especially great football right very similar to J Tyrie Carter who was waved and then he chose to sign with not the Bears which is actually something I think you and I talked about on the podcast that it's not talked about often that you can cut a guy in cutting him piss him off and end up losing him not because you didn't want him back on your practice squad but because he doesn't want to be there anymore did you see where he went did he go to Carolina he went to Carolina like everybody else right now if you can believe it I have like 10 to 15 likes that are pouring in on a couple of jyree Carter uh posts I have on Twitter from like last preseason where I keep getting likes I'm like who are these PE it's another Panthers fan huh I I I hope that kid that makes all the music videos uses one of your tweets in his video oh my gosh be hilarious but so I I say all this because it's it's interesting watching the way this is constructed one thing I do think is interesting about Bill Murray do you know anything about the guy Bill yeah from uh New England pretty versatile I see the thing that bugs me is I thought he he has a little Center experience so to me I was like well do we actually need Kramer for sure or not I wrong on that I couldn't tell you I mean I really couldn't it's funny because like when I look up Bill Murray I see that he is pro football reference has him listed as a d tackle was he a d tackle at some point he he may have in college actually you know what's funny I mean I I work in a school y'all okay one of my uh co-workers you know like you come back from the summer they say something interesting uh they said that they met Bill Murray's son was like their interesting fact the summer so that part's going through my mind right now I was like well my world's kind of coming together right here all I think all I'm getting at because at the end of the day I'm realizing so for instance uh I had seen an ESPN blip that confused me if I could be honest with you guys uh where it said Bill Murray experienced this is his first season you mention he's three seasons with the Patriots so like we're mentioning he's 27 but for as often as the general rule of if you haven't heard of him there's probably a good reason why a lies it also wouldn't surprise me Nick if 27 which is typically the peak or the peak year of an offensive lineman's athleticism meets his technique we could see a player that's ascending at the right time it's actually not that Unthinkable when it comes to an offensive lineman but what's up all right so so here here's here's the background Bill Murray okay at William and Mary uh was a three-year defensive line starter and then signed with the Patriots udfa and switched from um offense from defensive tackle to guard in 20 the summer of 2022 okay so he's brand new to this so so he then played guard in Fall of 22 he played guard again through 2023 and this would be effectively I mean not to you know be overly optimistic here Nick but this would be his first season where he should be any good at all at offensive line so in a weird way you get the Patriots Rashad coward project right as you should be able to see the results and the Bears seem to like those results you add bringing this back to Larry boram Kramer's inclusion on the 53 reminds me a lot of last year's inclusion on the 53 where I can't help feeling like Kramer is on this roster to hold the spot for somebody else whether that's boram whether that's a cut or a wave I I really couldn't tell you just that I don't think the Bears need three centers and also Bill Murray on the roster all at the same time and 10 linemen is truly an awful lot I've seen teams carry as few as eight often nine uh etc etc boram could easily just be Nick that the Bears are very in their own head about what if all our tackles get hurt we have Caleb Williams at quarterback we need veterans that can protect him that we that know this offense because we want like Caleb just said on the radio earlier today and polls echoed it too the bears want Caleb to play point guard the Bears don't want Caleb to be or to have to be Superman to put on the cape as he used to talk about it at USC so maybe part of this is all part of the plan to keep Caleb within himself but we would have to ask and probably frankly add a little truth serum to to our question if we wanted to get a real answer I mean to me like if I thought about this just from uh you know backing backing away a little bit not get into the the details if you you asked Bears fans anyone doesn't have to be a fan I guess I mean experts whatever okay what are two concerns you have about the Bears 2024 season theyd be like offensive line defensive line and what did the Bears do they kept more guys at those two positions those groups than any other position group now I know people are like well yeah because you have five alignment I get it but you kept 10 we don't normally keep 10 and we we're going to talk about dn's here in a bit we kept six and four D tackles which is more than we normally do so maybe they're like hey those are the two that we're not completely sure on so we're going to keep more there so we can Band-Aid any issues that happen because we feel good about our other spots yeah may be I mean I would love to say with certainty one thing or another but it doesn't help anything that the Bears have near 14 days to figure out what the tenor of their roster is really going to look like before they line up in week one they don't even get to dress everybody so it could just be that they thought they had a whole bunch of guys it's not long ago they drafted Zack it was Zack Martin right no so so Zack Taylor we already did Zack Taylor thank you Zachary Taylor I thought I know one no no Zack Thomas Thomas thank you I'm sitting there like I think both of these are Hall of Famer names like as I sit and mull it over right but so they drafted Zack Thomas they had him on the practice squad he got poached off the practice squad they lost him for nothing they may feel like they have a bunch of linemen that are at about that caliber where they're like as soon as we cut these guys we're going to lose them but so why would we do that but we would have to ask polls and you don't even necessarily know if he's right I mean as the funny part about this is that Bears fans we love this team we are tied up with this roster we know this roster's stories with Hard Knocks we know them better than usual across the roster we never would have found out that veis Jones has a feret or had a feret for instance but now we know and thank you Hard Knocks for that but it's funny nick because all the other teams across the across the NFL could easily be looking at the Bears saying why are they keeping 10 bad linemen the same way that I look at Carolina's receiver room and say why do they keep drafting Jonathan Mingo over and over and over like they drafted Terrence Marshall then they drafted Jonathan Mingo cutting Terence Marshall after they drafted Xavier Legette it's like guys what are we doing and then on the other hand you've got Detroit and they're bringing in every single injured and desiccating receiver that should not be in the NFL anymore and they're stashing them all on their practice squad for those who did not notice Tim Patrick of the Broncos who cannot stay healthy and Alan Robinson of the of the Bears to the Steelers to the Rams to the giant he he's now a Detroit Lions practice squad like it is so funny I think Nick the clarity that you can sometimes have looking at other fan base that with us we go yeah but all these guys are good and I'm sure there's some bias there it's it it feels different because I mean I feel really good about the the team in the depth versus what we've had the past few years when we're not being like well Alex lewood was a first round pick and he could like we were doing those debates and we're not doing that now the other thing before we move on uh because this is a shorter episode y'all um the Bears did on the practice squad I mentioned J curan is on there but also Theo Benedict so the Canadian Eagle is going to be on the practice squad as well as Larry borm on the short-term IR so the the Bears are bulked up at o line transitioning to receiver we knew the top four and my prediction now again initially it was Simba Webster okay y'all but after I found that one I put out my my next prediction on the 53 I hit my fifth one and they kept DeAndre Carter I want to act like either of us deserve credit because on dbb on Monday I also assumed it would be Carter but the Bears didn't have any other choices Carter was the only receiver left in the building that has caught a punt and also muffed one we're not g to talk about it uh like that's not a muff that's not a muff it's that is a that's totally a muff a muff is through your hands I guess I feel like anytime the returner is the reason that the oppos the opponent got the ball again I'm calling it a muff let me let let me make you worry about him returning punts but also give you some satisfaction Robert okay so he's returned let me look here he's you're already talking about a player that I'm mad is on the roster I know I know yeah yeah you are you the only one no way that's why that's why we have the podcast people want to hear this stuff okay jandri Carter he's old y' 31 he's at 132 career punt returns that's not just fair catching so there's a lot more beyond that um he has 17 career fumbles okay that's a massive percentage he's recovered four of them that's bad last last year he had two fumbles but recovered both of them so he didn't lose any of them last year Robert that's you really are making me feel worse yeah that's my good news to you uh I don't know that all these are punt returns I don't know all that stuff um they could be he's had carries he's had you know know receptions and stuff like that too I mean that's the other part too y'all I mean he had 538 receiving yards two years ago in La so there there's some there's some other facets to his game that I think don't get enough credit here it is always much easier to talk about adding another player than it is to actually do it for those who have never thought about this which I would hope is none of you but for all I know it this could easily be a couple type in the comments if this was one of you adding a player means teaching them your entire offense means getting them on schedule with your remember rookie quarterback means helping your quarterback understand how they get in and out of breaks now your quarterback has to own a little bit of getting them lined up in the Huddle things like hey Caleb where do I line up again and you go two yards off the ball right outside the numbers we've talked about this these are things that happen on the football field and especially if you watch any rep that involved vus Jones uh over his rookie and second season you will see a lot of this as Justin and the rest of the receivers were constantly telling bis where to line up and you can see it on tape I digress the point is is that what bums me out about Michael Carter is with Pettis on ir and DeAndre Carter DeAndre Carter thank you um Michael's the running back I should know better anyways uh so what bums me out about that is with pedison ir and with SE or with Webster ending up also on on IR like yeah he he had a surgery I don't know what it was for I amm about Pettis cuz that's two years in a row Pettis had to go to IR which sucks for him which has been part of the problem with why he struggled to stay on a roster but you ended up with no other choice I mean you I really hope that Rome doesn't actually return bunts because that's where we're headed where Rome is the best punt returner on the roster by virtue of nobody else being any better I mean we are trying everybody they're about to hold an open try out to see if the fan can return punts I kind of like Josh Blackwell did he remind me did he drop one just the other day like I could have sworn we saw Blackwell but then like a bad thing happened and and it wasn't smooth or good but I can't remember I wasn't that focused so maybe Blackwell can do it but Michael Carter is again DeAndre Carter is the kind of player that I'm just going to hold my nose and look Beyond it because he won't be in the game unless the Bears have a specific role for him like catching a punt and that's enough for me yeah um other you know ideas y'all um so Samari Tori is from Green Bay coming to Chicago um talented young kid I mean the rece or they there's something in the water in Green Bay with these receivers because they really are picking all the good ones it feels like yeah so I mean that's that's not a bad practice squad guy to to bring on um also to learn their playbook I'm not you know above that hey that's part of the game they're scouting referees they're definitely asking about playbooks of divisional opponents right right but uh another guy that I'm surprised I mean could eventually end up on the practice squad maybe uh would be Dwayne esgd so Dwayne esgd went to Western Michigan second round picked to Seattle has history with Shane Walder and this offense so he's a little bit of a smaller guy not a punt returner can do kick returns but um had some athleticism didn't really pan out on that second round draft grade but if you're looking for someone to replace Carter if you find a punt returner or just a sixth receiver just keep your eye out that could be a guy to add later on okay did we ever figure out what happened to Ricky stomberg yeah I thought he was injured that's why he got cut so he got cut but I'm what I'm trying to ask about is then what did he I assume he didn't get claimed but he's going to have practice squad uh eligibility so I'm just interested to see what happens there I mean maybe this is just look most analysis comes from your draft priors can we just be real about that yeah I like strongberg cominging out of Arkansas I feel like the Bears were probably in on Stromberg before he ultimately got drafted a little ahead of when they were going to draft so I don't know if anything's in the cards but especially if the Bears could offer him a decent sum to be on their practice squad that would absolutely absolutely be the kind of guy that I don't think you can hand him a roster spot tomorrow just because he hasn't proven enough and you've got 10 guys that have but somebody who you could add to the practice squad give him an opportunity to work his way onto the roster ASAP I mean it's somebody that I'm interested in yeah but yeah I mean if people don't remember Ricky Stromberg so third round Center I think he got overdrafted a little bit Robert I think we were thinking of him maybe round four round five uh two years ago the 2023 draft but under prise a little bit but also very athletic so he's really good with the Zone scheme if you're looking outside Zone he's going to be kind of the center for you and like you're talking about when you like a guy you got to pay more for him than you want to and I mean sometimes we've all I think we all do this right where sometimes you've got the peace of mind or the presence of mind to catch yourself in getting over infatuated with the player I realize that people are going to be way too high on Luke Musgrave and dton King Cade right before it happened dton King K ends up being a first rounder Luke Musgrave ends up being a high second rounder and K K's really good don't get me wrong the bills are going to pump every ounce of value that they can out of him because they are treating him like a receiver which is about what you'd have to do if you're G to draft a guy like that but Musgrave Roi on him's looking rough uh at the moment and that's because like you're talking about sometimes you overdraft a guy like juice Scruggs in the second round where it's like I like him is that where we had to take him but right that's a conversation better had near to draft season we've got 24 or 25 more guys to cover on the defense don't we yeah well I I have to if you want to talk about one thing to Pat your back on okay I'm gonna Pat my back on predicting the Bears keeping 60 ends okay I may not have had six correct but the idea of keeping more DNS frees up Walker to play a lot more three Tech D tackle and because we're concerned about Pickins which I've heard is a groin didn't practice again today um so but they kept actually seven DNS y'all so we know sweat okay we know Walker because he'll play inside but also is a d end uh Taylor you know the the trade Booker they kept Dominic Robinson which some people are very upset by but I keep reminding people that he's the only D end outside of the starters that weighs above 255 pounds because I thought uh Taylor was 263 but you had told me that he was down what they're hoping 255 250 so you have to have some kind of beef and D Rob was up the 273 um and then you have uh Hardy made the roster which I think some people were very excited about but then I was surprised and happy and I think money is a part of this because over half his salary is already guaranteed is Jake Martin made short-term IR I I did think it was really funny by the way when we saw that he was on ir and I was like they're not done with him yet Nick still got his Jake Martin agenda ready to roll y so I'm interested because to your point if they bring him off of ir so as I understand the IR rule this is where you need to correct me they do not have to add him to the roster they basically can wait until Jake Martin is ready to roll give him a two- we period of practice and then they have to make the designation whether he's on the roster or not that's the case right I I thought it was okay is it two weeks because the the pup the pup is they get a month is that correct I couldn't tell well one of them I thought was they have they have they have more than two weeks to determine whether you know practice whether they're healthy enough or they can just put them on long-term IR but I I agree with you there is a time frame there and so so I just talked about this with tight ends y'all the let's look at Hardy okay very athletic 62240 basically a linebacker who rushes the passer really well perfect for special teams too so like I don't know if that's part of why but also let Walker go inside but I just love that the idea of keeping more DNS knowing that it's a trouble spot I just think it's a great move by the organization I like the element of waves on waves of pass rushers I think it is a little more theoretical here than it is executed just because Dev or Austin Booker and D or oh my gosh it's derell Taylor yeah it's derell there's enough of these new guys that are on the roster all of a sudden where it's like okay gotta make sure I got the names right thank you but so I think derell Taylor has juice Austin Booker has juice domr can at least set an edge against a second string offensive tackle Daniel Hardy is a motor Workhorse with a couple of moves that are probably closer to B plus maybe B minus maybe a b at his absolute best but I say all this not to hate on the dudes it's more to say nobody's 60ns deep if you were you trade one of them hence how you get Montes sweat and Chase young traded in the same or in the same inseason deadline deal point being that I think it's a special teams thing I think it is getting we see less receivers on this roster which is usually where you'd see a whole lot of Gunners and we see more of these midsize movers defensive ends that could play what uh what are they call small forward yeah small forward on a uh like on a basketball court or um let me see point guard shooting guard what's the one in the middle the three yeah that's small for small Ford and power forward too that I get those confused a lot sorry all this to say that I think a Hardy type makes a lot of sense for special teams I think it's fun that they kept them all the picking stuff if we can move the defensive tackle has me really cocking my head wondering what the Bears are going to do at defensive tackle because if Zack Pickins has a groin injury which is at least the reports that we've got right now that's not that easy an injury to just sit out practice for and then wake up one day and you're good to go like well well you know who else had a Gro injury that people weren't happy about this this training camp was Nate Nate Davis right and it took him weeks it took him weeks so and then there's a setback and then yeah he's back yep while while I appreciate that the Bears made a trade for Chris Williams who has scraped and scrapped to be on practice squads at all over or to be on rosters and practice squads since Matty bro had a hand in bringing him to the league in 2020 the Bears are dangerously close to Rolling into week one with three defensive tackles if things don't progress for Zack Pickin so I have to think that they have their eye on a more minor guy to bring in no I'm not talking about DeForest Buckner or anything fun unfortunately I think that the Bears made their trades for now and anything exciting would have to wait until the deadline but I'm really interested to see what they do at DT well they they've already made some moves so first off we didn't talk about Chris Williams I think that's worth a discussion so people are familiar they they gave up a pick He he'll be on the team for this year y um so I have a really good friend Jake Burns uh he's he does a lot of film work with uh the Cleveland Browns he's actually uh just on the me show which I get I was like oh dude my boy so as soon as the trade happened I just text him I'm like hey what can you tell me about this guy and he's like man I wish we kept him he looked a lot better this preseason um he called him a like a poor version of Demarcus Walker which I put on Twitter and people are like man Walker's already bad I'm like if Walker's bad you guys need to get a grip of what a really really bad dend is but um he kind of said that in terms of uh Walker but he also said that they tried him at DN some so if you're looking at this like tweener Big D end you know me and Robert references as like an elephant end or this kind of smaller three Tech D tackle Williams and Walker are kind of the same thing so you know if if some of these guys come off of ir Robert and they're not great on special teams and let's say it's Dom Rob and you let him go and you find it another D tackle you're okay with I could see Williams and Walker kind of playing both spots if you need them to um which is kind of interesting but he said he liked him um he's more of a he can't play you know two or two ey or a one Tech he's really going to be a three Tech right but because he's lighter he's like 285 that's the piece of this Bears defense that I'm most concerned about at this point right I would love to tell you it's pass rusher but to to exact to the point you just made dude miles Garrett does not grow on trees and that's the standard the craziest thing I think about defensive end okay Daniel Hardy is probably my favorite example if you transposed Daniel Hardy into a wide receiver you've got a hardworking wide receiver three or four that can play a role and contribute for you a little bit I bet you could think of all kinds of them right the Noah Browns the Isaiah hajes types and they're useful but in defense defensive end the difference between what it looks like to be really dominant at this position and what it looks like to not be that guy is so visibly obvious it can be a little jarring would you agree with that like well yeah because I mean I mean I think Hardy's athletic and I'm rooting for him and he's done some good stuff so I I hope people don't don't think that but he's not going up against Trent Williams who Trent Williams will make him look so bad at The Edge which by the way is a hold out which is very interesting um the other guy to talk about which you didn't bring up is Sam Roberts so Sam Roberts is a guy that's going to go on the practice squad that they're apparently going to bring up from the Patriots uh to the week one roster because I think Pickins isn't gonna dress probably because Pickins isn't gonna dress yeah yeah but also I'm I'm a little perplexed Robert because from what I've read Roberts is more of a three te D tackle who struggles against double teams they said he's better this year he actually just had his best preseason game which I assuming is against threes and fours but uh and still got cut and they were mad he didn't return back but I wanted a beef guy I wanted a I mean I know he's 65 they say 300 he's actually a little bit more of like a 290 but I wanted a nose tackle because that's what we need we need a another nose tackle cuz if billions goes down Robert we are in deep deep trouble so the Untold Story I have seen it this is totally just my opinion nick uh but based on what we've seen from the preseason the most underd discussed part of this Bears defense is that the Bears very clearly think that gon Dexter dvon Dexter can play both One tech and three Tech and they intend to use it so it seems as if the Bears want to play Billings at one te gon or Javon at three Tech maybe bump them based on what opposing Personnel is doing but then pull Billings off the field have Dexter slide over to one te and bring on a three te to bring more juice to the play while dvon rushes much like he did at Florida against the center and against the guard which interestingly enough is where you and I thought he'd be best at Rushing whatever we we all move on we all move on right right but point being that I think the thought is is that if Billings goes down Dexter becomes the one Tech and so they've just they're just playing both of their one Techs on the field at the same time right now I'm with you I want a beef guy I'm more saying that the Bears clearly either don't see it like we do or and this might be more likely Nick I would tell you that there is one cardinal sin amongst most football teams and it is what makes teams it's what gets teams in trouble in terms of wins and losses more than anything do you want to guess what that is as it pertains to Zack pickets um well I was going to go there too on the defensive box that's what I was going to say wait yes but it's not everybody right plenty of teams fail for plenty of reasons but Zack Pickins is probably the only example on the Bears current roster of the biggest role on the team filled with somebody who has it because of draft status or has it because of a reason that might not be Merit right and that's not me hating on Zack I liked Zack coming out of the Senior Bowl I thought he was more of a three technique but playing him at one technique reads to me as we picked you at 64 last year I can't just not give you a role this is the only role on the team you're going to have to do this and generally those kinds of misc castings or especially let's say um the people who are playing because their money says they should and not because their skill says they should tend to be in my experience the difference in the fourth quarter well it's dunken cost fallacy is kind of what we're going into it's you know you're well we did this we have like I it's more of like you buy the golf clubs for a lot of money and you don't really love golf you're like man I feel like I have to use them you know like you're wasting your time and and you're trying to justify things but um it's how Jamal Adams gives up another big touchdown in the third quarter and flips a game it's how a big-time receiver that got paid a whole lot of money and then kind of disappears ends up taking up way more stamps than he should it's it's it propagates across the NFL right Des Watson in Cleveland is going to have a hard time getting benched and dude he is trying to get benched right now like it is a massive mess and he's still going to start games because his money says he should but so yeah the the other part of it though Robert is like Robert's more of a three Tech you know picking should be a three Tech you know we're going through this when we say that y'all they're they're more slim quicker type guys instead of those you know my old school Bears guys will you know Keith trailer Ted Washington you know I mean the newer age would be Anthony Adams you know like so that type of player but if you look at the new age NFL defensive lineman linebackers are Getting Thinner and thinner and more athletic and more athletic and part of that is pass rush part of that is they're not too gapping as much as they are shooting gaps and part of that is um The Zone scheme is so big in the NFL so if you are big big they're just going to run around you but if you're quicker now of a sudden that's why Shawn McVey is going more this Gap scheme and you look at Green Bay Josh Jacobs is better at Gap scheme kind of going downhill with Duo so it's a cat and mouse game I think part of it could be that too Robert where it's like hey we're going to try and get more downhill more pass rush so if we can't get amazing DNS maybe we'll get more of these penetrating type D tackles and generate some Rush hopefully there is an element I I don't want to be this guy Nick we don't need to be alarmist where part of the reason the bearss defense worked like it did last year is because they are nails against the run at least they were last year and so with Jonathan Jones out first of all right now in the preseason Javon Dexter looks like he should be able to wear Jonathan Jones Roll Justin Justin thank you I'm really not good with first names I don't know what going out with you today man dude anyways it's a long day at work I guess but so uh Justin Jones role was like a 550 snap roll where Justin turned in maybe 150 really bad snaps but that's still like 400 good snaps that your three Tech was giving you and it sure seems as if Javon Dexter should be able to wear that role that's good that's really good from what we've seen in the preseason but Nick it does kind of feel like the Bears are uh right now the 2024 bears are pulling a 2019 Bears where they overemphasize the kicker position here they're overemphasizing how do we get after the passer and I do hope that they don't unintentionally give up five and a half yards a carry in the process because that'll compromise the entire Integrity of the defense thankfully we have TJ Edwards what a segue am I right and Jack sandborne and it seems like a sort of renewed effort from Germaine Edmonds in terms of how he's my favorite part about how they're using Edmond uh is that they're basically just not asking him to play The Run it's as if they said just don't do it we know you hate it just play as if every down is play action and Chase the play we're going to have TJ just go boss the wall and get downhill bust through the Gap and do damage so we have five linebackers on the team I don't feel like there's much to say here because this is the five that you and I went if there's only five it's these five and it is yeah yeah I mean su's the only one because of of draft capital and I think some guaranteed money he didn't make it despite being injured most of it some people wanted Micah basille he made practice ice Squad y'all some people had mentioned Carl Jones I believe bigie did actually um because of special teams but he's also on the practice squad so you really have kept all the guys that you really care about anyway you can you can promote them if you need to yep then we move on to corner and it's another Cash Money group I mean you what did you think about the ready Stewart thing I mean you it's tough to have kept a keep a third nickel like a just doesn't make a whole lot of sense I love having a developmental guy but also Blackwell and Jones and Terell Smith they're all developmental guys that have been there a little bit longer um but he we have ready Stewart on the practice squad so he's developing some interesting other guys on there though Robert um Taris Moore I didn't know that we were gonna be able to bring him back so I'm glad um Ro Torrance but also an old name quindell Johnson's back so I don't know maybe he missed us right because that was the seventh round draft pick right right yeah so I was like okay cool we brought him back so also we forgot um besides Sam Roberts on D tackle um Deshawn mallerie is on the practice squad um jamy kma right and then um actually the one that people had on the 53 a lot of people Brian coward is back on the practice squad so to me that's good the guys that know the system already a lot of times that's who ends up on your practice squad because they want to learn something a whole new but if hey injury bug hits we have guys that you know know the coaches know the facility know everything so I I feel pretty good about it we didn't mention Austin Reed is on the practice squad so we didn't and I think that that's incredibly exciting for Austin truly I mean Kentucky Western Kentucky I have no problem with a young set of quarterbacks truly I think that developing quarterbacks is a lost art and if anything Nick I am only going to say this one time I'm never going to address this again okay maybe the Bears are considering that Tyson might be out growing his role and that while he's outstandingly cheap maybe the Bears got a couple calls that got him thinking about what Tyson's future may look like in another uniform for a price again we're never going to address this again but if they were going to do that they would need a different young backup that's ideally a udfa and so maybe they think Reed can be that guy I'm actually a little surprised that they didn't try to house a Brett rippen or a Nathan Peterman type that would just be the veteran quarterback in the room but the Bears have enough quarterback coaches that they probably think that one of their quarterback coaches of which I believe there's three quarterback specific coach es can fill that role just fine so we'll see uh one thing that I do want to mention here is for as much as I know plenty of people loved ready Stewart who like you're saying nickel Corner hard to roster three of them he did push somebody off the roster because Greg strowman did not return and Greg strowman got real NFL snaps last year and made plays so for as much as we could say I don't know it's a small victory right to be added back to the practice squad and nobody will ever know that you were 58th 59th or 62nd in line because at the end of the day if you're cut you're cut but Nick Greg is not somebody that the Bears seem to have in their future plans ready at least for now is I think that there's a hat tip implied in that maybe we find out more about it next week in Hard Knocks I don't know but it feels to me like the Bears agree ready was really good but also the league does not have the resources to add an 178b nickel corner to their roster teach him their entire defense and cross their fingers as a rookie it's just a hard ask well well also to your point earlier Robert if this was last year the year before maybe he makes it because more of those guys are needed on kickoff and kick return but now with this different thing you need more muscle more beef to to be on those units um so I I actually have just something small that's going to be our first round opponent which I'm sure we'll get more into um so Tennessee I was just looking at their their roster now you know after the cuts and stuff and the the Ernest Jones trade which is bizarre we can talk about that another time they only have four corners on their roster right now they made a trade for Ernest Jones linebacker they traded a away of safety they traded away a corner they cut former first round piit Corner in 2021 as well um and they only have four on the roster I've never heard of a team having Four Corners Robert I thought that was bizarre neither have I that is really really weird but it's a different League ever so slightly that I think the kickoff thing is fun have we talked about this explicitly what have you thought were now four Bears preseason games and an entire preseason into the new kickoff rule what do you think about it I'm glad that it makes the kickoff relevant again so that part of it I do enjoy uh because as a coach I I like all of the different angles I think there's there's ways that you can win I mean you have only have to go down to to Frank Beamer in Virginia Tech and that's how he won football games as he won on special teams because other teams didn't care about him so from that aspect I do like it I know some people don't because they care about you know fantasy football or whatever else I care about winning football games and you can win based on special teams heck we have a Hall of Fame returner in Chicago like we know that's that's valid I I like that it's safeer players it is more safe I I mean I I that's a part I hate the most is injuries I'm very curious the strategy um it's harder to go east and west I think with this new return um I don't think we've seen all the teams pull out all of the stops so we'll see a lot more I think in week one which I think is exciting a whole new strategy to a game a whole new Dynamic I'm I'm all for it I think it's gonna be fun I'm gonna throw something at you it's an angle that I doubt you're gonna see coming so just strap in it's not a tin foil hat but it's close yeah I we didn't have a tin foil hat yet so I'm glad we have one now so uh the way that I see it I hear a lot of people use phrases like their adults playing a children's game when it comes to a lot of different sports right you hear this about pretty much every any sport that exists because people want to call any sport a children's game well the more that we see safety concerns throughout the sport of football I'm okay saying that football is a very adult game that is played by children whereas every other adult sport is a Reinventing of a child's game which is okay right so basketball players that are 68 and move like LeBron can do things that children simply can't they obviously there's changes but the main thing I'm looking at is I do think that there are some people that liked the old kickoff rule because it placed the focus on the offense and the defense you're basically saying without saying I'm okay if special teams don't affect the game because I'm okay with Patrick Mahomes being the reason that this that and the other happened and I like my football weird right I like my football with the double doinks I like it with a game flipping kickoff return I like it with muffed punts I love the fact that the Packers after a season where their offense their defense were quite good lose a playoff game in a defensive grind Fest because their 32nd ranked special teams unit makes another critical mistake at the end of that game against the 49ers to me this is the essence of football it's 53 people almost all of which actually have to do something and if they mess it up then it makes a massive impact and if they make a play it makes a massive impact you and I you and I are the podcast that talked up a punter of course I like the new getoff rule right like well I mean and I that's what makes football such a different game like you can win a baseball playoff series if you have two stud pitchers right because they're just going to keep rotating you're going to get through it or basketball you could have you know two stars and you can get through football everybody eight finals in a row LeBron James made the NBA title game whether he won it or not separate question but to your point this is like there are a lot of other games where a single individual holds the key to the entire game and while hockey certainly has a major argument for being a phenomenal team sport I love the fact that in football coaches can scheme a lot more than other sports are because there's so many stoppages and I think that there's something to be honest with you Nick sickeningly funny and that's what makes football great about the idea that you could we might see you know it's always possible right in the AFC or Josh Allen finally won up Patrick Mahomes definitively it could easily happen right where Pat and that offense are they score four less points than the bills do except the bills bring a kickoff back to the house and then or not the bills the Chiefs bring a kickoff back to the house and beat them anyways because that's football right that was the Super Bowl y'all like if you go back and watch it the Chiefs didn't win because of Patrick Mahomes they won because their defense crushed and not because Patrick Mahomes is bad but like their offense didn't carry them two years ago a player who has been a pretty bad receiver in Sky Moore had a huge kickoff return at the right moment and it was part of the reason Kansas City was able to win that Super Bowl to Tony got cut yeah same thing so makes football fun I think I mean most of these other sports like I yeah sure following basketball a lot recently the bottom of the Mavericks roster matters a lot less than whatever LCA donic needs to be happy because that guy is literally going to win you a quarter of his regular your regular season games by himself in terms of the impact that he brings but Tory Taylor's six yard per punt difference between him and Trenton Gil and that's underrating it because it could be closer to nine yards per punt difference might keep three touchdowns off the board over the course of the 20 uh 24 season and that could very well be two full wins did did did you see Tory Taylor led the NFC and net punny yeah for preseason did you see who led the AFC no oh it was Gil wasn't it was trying to kill hey some people just got to get cut to get motivated am I right there it is that that we resurrected his career how about that but that's that's what we did and then safety room was exactly as we expected it to just to carry this thing term it's they've got some guys like you mentioned on the practice squad quindell is here tarvarius Moore is here guys that you can call up if you need to but you do not need to roll into an NFL football game with more than the four safeties that you have on the roster and if anything you really don't want to see Hicks if you don't have to yeah and the only thing we need to address I mean in terms of specialist is uh so petric scales is having back surgery and from what I have heard Robert he's not going on IR to return Maybe I'm Wrong on that it didn't sound like it um but Scott uh I think it's d da um from Downers Grove he's in the practice squad uh he'll get promoted before week one and he's gonna be from Downer Grove yep is that a is that a university uh that's a it's a a suburb of Chicago thank you I was like sorry our Chicago people will understand you you T you you're down there in Texas Robert you don't know that I get it I'd get it as soon as you mention it I was like oh I bet he's from Chicago uh but I was just laughing I was like if this is another Bowling Green and I've never heard of it then I need to have heard of it kenas state right but at least You' got a state or a tech in most of those here's another one for the people out the Sam Roberts Northwest Missouri State they they were a Powerhouse man late North Missouri State not South Missouri State not not Simo Northwest Missouri State then of course we've got our two specialists in Santos and Taylor I'm really interested by the way I I say that's phrase a lot I'm trying to think of another way to put this uh because instead of saying like I'm really interested I used to say absolutely too often now it's I'm really interested every time I listen to the podcast back I hear it way too often you could fill up a little jar of nickels with how often I say that anyways Santos has like an extra point bug that I don't understand he's been money on field goals so we haven't had to talk about it but the extra point thing is weird and I don't know what's I brought it up and someone was mad in the comments because he missed that one extra point and they said it was the snap or whatever to me you could have the the ball down anyway he should make an extra point almost no matter what I agree with you I also think that I'm not mad at football's a results based game if I can be honest with you Nick I'm not mad about this until he misses a big kick like even one it's the sort of thing where it's like we've we have lost a game because of extra point where I believe it was last year the Bears ended up losing by one point or it might have been 2022 I would have to go look it up but I know there's one where they lost a game by one point that that was the that was the Lions game remember when Justin had the long run and an extra point was missed and they lost 31 to 30 yes exactly I know there's one where the extra point really was the difference but the overwhelming majority of the time you'll take all of the three-pointers to even if it means you got to trade some of his misses out in the ones to keep what was a couple years ago a I believe franchise record kick make percentage so Santos has been really good on nearly any field goal that he attempts but we've already talked frankly more about kairo Santos than I think I expected yeah no F that's all I got I mean I think it's um uh we're pleased honestly I'm pleased with a lot of guys we got back on practice squad I think I feel better about the D tackle room because they actually added at least more bodies in there um and I'm actually glad about the strategy the only ones would be Homer and and Kramer and I don't know that they're going to be on the roster the entire year my final thoughts are going to be very Frank very blunt and if you've been following this podcast you you'll probably agree with me Nick uh you probably are going to agree with me one of the most frustrating Parts about the uh Bears Twitter Civil War as it's become known that happened from gosh honestly it started around November all the way through February and March was that it meant that we T we did a lot of thinking about the Chicago Bears like an unhealthy amount of thinking about the Chicago Bears and that means that when Caleb Williams was finally drafted we had done so much thinking about what each side would be in terms of what those Bears outcomes would look like that Nick I'm just glad that finally we have the team in front of us that is almost to a man exactly the team we expected to see in May I mean this has been a long wait I could act like it's been this and that or the other but most of the news happened around free agency when they traded for Keenan Allen etc etc and while I certainly didn't expect a derell Taylor trade and I didn't expect Austin Booker to look this exciting if we're talking about that top 30 top 35 players in your roster those guys only barely make that group of guys I expect to contribute but they didn't make a massive Splash trade they still have all four of their day three picks in 2025 this is plus Health the team we expected and the only change is that instead of Ryan Bates at center it's Coleman Shelton which as far as I'm concerned is trading a C+ for a C+ so doesn't make a difference if anything I'm glad that Shelton looks solid that's a better uh outcome than both of them being poor which is the outcome we've had for two years running now exactly my final thought is that we are 10ish more days away from finally getting a resolution to all the questions we have been asking for almost 150 days at this point this has been a starving weight and you can only dissect so much I'm going to stream later this evening maybe you watched it maybe you didn't because I'll probably launch the podcast like tomorrow morning or something but Nick we can only dissect so much I've known this since June July what is the walr offense going to look like I don't know I can give you some guesses on what I think he thinks but I don't know y what's texter gonna look like I don't know what's the new defense going to look like I have no idea I can I mean even in the preseason they're blitzing more than they ever did last year as if Matty eberl is aware and learned a lesson from 2023 that you can't just rock up dude on dude when you don't got dudes and I love that I love an element of self-awareness in your defensive coordination and so I'm so stoked for this season I think there's so much fun that's about to happen this season but I'm almost having to temper myself just to get through the work days because we're finally done we could stop talking about distracting things and focus exclusively on the Tennessee Titans and what it's going to look like for the Chicago Bears to square them up and get that first one of the season and Nick I couldn't be more excited about it yeah and it's the other part too is when you look at the roster and look at all the things that we we really hoped for the Bears have made a lot of smart decisions here and like the spots like we just talked about that are like week let's keep an extra guy or two just to make sure that they're not super weak throughout the season like everything on there I'm like okay yep this makes sense like it's I I know almost every team has optimism you know but when you look at not Bears fans you look at experts you look at podcasts whatever they're like yeah actually I got the Bears as the as a wild card team this year yeah I got the Bears as winning 10 games I got you know it's like it's not just us and that I think is if Caleb's just average and I just hope Bears fans you I've heard this multiple times you can fan however you want to Fan this year okay I'm going to choose to be optimistic about my Bears and whatever and Kade mcnown and Rex grman and Mitch trabis and Justin Fields all of them actually have nothing to do with how Caleb Williams is or how he's going to be as a bear Caleb Williams and the teammates around him are G to be very different than what all those guys had so to me it doesn't matter I also Robert I know you have this I don't care what 2009 Green Bay did to Chicago because it doesn't matter okay 202 four bears are very very different and everything moving on from now I think is going to be it's going to be different I just hope Bears fans are excited and optimistic about it because it's going to be a different brand of football I'll tell you Nick that one thing that has been driving me nuts since we talked about this Bears team has been people bringing up the history at inopportune times I'm gonna take one more pass and say that as much as I forgive and I really do I have real trouble forgetting if you know me at all anybody who knows me personally you probably know that Nick I am a horrible Grudge holder and I don't want to be I just have trouble forgetting so yeah I remember all the times that RG3 said that Caleb Williams should try to be a Washington Commander I remember all the times that JD O Sullivan I think I can remember the exact quote said well when you look at the history of what's going on there and I'm like JT who cares about what Ryan Pace did who cares about what Lovey Smith and John Fox tried what about that has any relevance on this current team I mean and then I look at Caleb man what is the low band what do you think put a name on it is the low band for Caleb's year this year barring disaster okay so you're not allowed to pick disaster this is it goes pretty well it's just not amazing what's the name not even pretty well maybe just it's fine right yeah I would honestly I think like Derek Carr I the name I came with was rookie Kyler Murray not exactly the same I get it not the same play style but a little too much athleticism a lot of spectacular sometimes at the expense of his offense and about 4,000 total yards I thought I'm talking about like in terms of season like I'm thinking like quarterback 20 it's going to be disappointing but like that would be I think like the lowest bar I can imagine that's Pi car right I mean and honestly like it could be as high as QB 6 or seven I I agree and that's the thing what I'm mainly getting at dude is when I look at the potential for Caleb to be a Kyler Murr or a Derek Carr or much better than Desmond Ritter right I think to myself this is the best quarterback the bearss have had since Jay I mean the moment you get that at all you're talking about a much better quarterback production wise than the Bears have had in quite some time and so then you look at this team dude this is a really good receiver core I do think it gets overrated a little am I allowed to say that like we we do have Keenan Allen but it's like it's Keenan Allen at 31 we have Rome ad dun but it's Rome in the early part of his career we hope the two will inter change it's it you combine three receivers three very good receivers into two very good receivers that's the production I'm expecting the production of two sios which is still a lot I am not trying to get you to argue with me on that it's more to say I mean I mean you're about to get me I know you we're trying to end the podcast but I'm I don't I think I think a lot of teams would love to trade spouts with Chicago right now of course I don't want to pretend that that's not the case right this is where football I think it's so messy right is people go well the Bears receivers aren't as good as we think they are and then out of the same mouth I will tell you that a lot of the same dubiousness applies to the Vikings who are the other one that people keep bringing up because as good as Jordan Addison is are we sure I mean not only do we have problems off the field but we have one season and now we don't have Kirk throwing the ball and Kirk has been underrated since the day he started taking professional snaps so is Sam darnold gonna get the same level of production out of Addison that Kirk Drew out of Addison we've just kind of forgotten that the entire offense disappeared the moment that Kirk got injured so are anyways the same dubiousness applies to all PE kinds of uh groups around the league it's more to say Nick that this team if Mitch was starting for it is an exciting Bears team yes but Mitch isn't starting for it I mean God forbid they have a really fun rookie that L we forget the Bears spent the entire offseason legally cheating legally installing the offense three months early so where's Caleb in the progression what's gonna happen dude I don't know but I'm stoked to see how this thing goes because a lot of dominoes fell really well I thought that there was a very good chance and I never talked about this because I didn't want to jinx it that Kean Allen would already have a soft tissue injury by now and I mean irony is irony is he he did Mis practice today but like not that soft come on man it's not soft like when I say soft Not Fragile whatever you want to call it like he's not that fragile he's he's not a soft football player but he might have those issues just not on the injury report like you know what I'm saying he's he's 31 dude I'm you're more worried about Keenan Allen's Health than I am I'm I I never would to sound and I scouted Keenan Allen out of Cal I've known him way longer I believe than you have you have have I mean I Nick never ever want to sound like I'm Chicken Little trying to tell anybody the sky is falling it's more like Nick I think ever since I grew up with a wonderful father who believed that every year was the Bear's year and then somehow we would go eight and eight and I'd go I thought it was our year what happened I have made it my whole identity to try to help people see potential problems coming maybe they're not problems at all right and also help people try to figure figure out what to be excited about so when it comes to Keenan Allen he misses games that's like it he misses games and he's kind of slow but he's been unbelievably productive unbelievably productive Hall ofer since the day he met he needs a signature win to be a Hall of Famer it the NFL is silly but you know that's how it works dude Matt Stafford is probably gonna end up in the Hall of Fame Matt Stafford why is he going to end up being in the Hall of Fame he got a ring that's that's all it takes to change it doesn't it he also has going to have crazy amount of stats cuz he started and and Chuck the ball like 700 times a year but philli may not make the Hall of Fame like there's a chance Philip Rivers at the end of the day just struggles to get in Matt Stafford similar argument until he won that ring and then it changes so to me I don't know Nick this is all right all right ke Keenan if you're listening to this Robert saying you have to win a ring this year with the Bears okay I'm saying all right Robert we hear you that's what I'm saying I was going to build to it you just took it from me that that what a statement wi it would be we saw ke and Allen on Hard Knocks how fun would it be to see keed Allen with his daughters with his family like confettis pouring down they've got I agree that would be yeah and and then he might he could retire who knows at that point that would be kind of sick like right there he's like done he's he just tells him I got nothing left to closes here's okay uh I'll give you I want to give you the mic back because I I did say a lot of things but I do want to ask you this Nick if you got to choose today okay you get to choose today which of these two things sounds better to you and commenters you tell me phase or option one Rome outright displaces Keenan Allen by the end of the season whether Kenan is happy with his role or not that's that's a topic we leave for another discussion but Rome outright displaces Keenan Allen to the point where Keenan Allen feels like a luxury but not maybe not in a great way because the bears run a lot of 12 or Keenan plays so well that he keeps Rome subdued which of these two sounds better to you actually play so well isn't fair Rome displaces Keenan Allen but displaces doesn't mean anything or Keenan Allen is still the wide receiver too going into week 17 um I would rather have Keenan the wide receiver to going to week 17 because I I believe that's going to actually help Rome's development too learning from a guy doing well because I I assume if Rome just displaces him Keenan is like falling off the map and I'd rather have three good receivers than two good receivers so I will tell you that my main thought as I look at this season is if Rome is going to be a top 10 receiver and especially if Rome is going to be a good top 10 receiver then I don't see a way doesn't displace Keenan he should start peing around that point right like we've seen it you you know this this is a big Topic in fantasy recently that receivers don't need near as much development as we used to think they did and so they hit the league you give them a couple weeks and then they just start pumping out production left and right and center and so I can't help looking at romad dun wondering out loud okay when is he really gonna start moving and once he starts moving what's gonna happen and so I that because of that Robert I I mean again Pie in the Sky there's a real chance the Bears have three 1,000 yard receivers this year and that's not like I mean I know you obviously Caleb has to do well but because I think Rome is good and I think Rome is gonna play in two wide receiver sets when kenan's not out there but also I think Kenan is just too good of a crafty vet to not get his there's a chance all three get a thousand yards there is except the biggest thing that holds them back is that if all of three of them had a th000 yards Caleb probably threw for 43 and if Caleb threw for 43 Rome having a thousand yards is not the biggest story like Caleb Caleb 2 Caleb 3 is like your first three highlights on any Chicago thing and we're all okay with it we are I mean I I think one of the most interesting pieces to this season that has yet to play out and preseason did not help anything if anything it made it more confusing is how the target rtion is going to work between $12 million Cole KT and $5 million Gerald Everett those two in particular where I say to myself walr used a lot of tight ends walren also used a lot of tight ends because Seattle's offensive line was so bad that very bad you had to find some ways to disguise chips and get guys out and take advantage of the fact that you basically kept using your tight ends as so BL as blockers so often that they kept getting forgotten why would you not throw to these guys the Forgotten man is your favorite guy to throw to in an offense but I I'm right there with you where I think all of their receivers have the potential to go for a thousand yards each but I don't know how this all things is going to work and that's the thing dude I'm exhausted of waiting I'm dying to know are we legit are we not legit right right like but but I think but I think having that those three receivers having the two tight ends you know having Swift as a way better receiving back than what we've had is exactly what you need for a rookie quarterback with all of this potential because it's not like in in past years when it's like okay Deontay Foreman's coming in they're running the ball this guy's coming out that veis is in the slot agre he's gonna get a Jets weep like it's just not predictable which is what you want so then we're everyone's going to capitalize on top of that Nick I'm in a fantasy draft as we speak right now you have 28 seconds to give me advice I have I need a running back badly I did not realize it autodraft to meet Jamar Chase I could draft Dave Montgomery or DeAndre Swift uh and I'm not going to draft ra Andre Stevenson in this case who do I take um how deep are you uh this is like round six I just go I'd go Montgomery Montgomery easy yeah but I was thinking about it I was like do I take Swift because this could be a sick time to take Swift because Montgomery is gonna get a lot of rushing touchdowns he sure should right and and Gibbs and Gibbs already has a hammy he should be okay but he's already got a hammy so deont in that in that Ben Johnson offense is a fantasy dog and it's been fun watching him do that but man what an exciting season here's the where I think is best for me to end with you my dude because I want you to tell me because I'm dying to know today having done probably a lot less research than you'll do over the next 10 days when I know you're GNA get anxious about it right what do you think of the Titans I think the Titans defense is way more vulnerable than people want to talk about um I Simmons is good sweat is a rookie One tech uh they just drafted Ernest Jones I don't that seems weird to me Kenneth Murray's not good Harold Landry's not that their pass rush isn't there I think sneed's a bit overrated wer is already falling off they have a decent nickel corner I think Kaleb throws for 300 yards the first game I think that we're going to throw a lot on them um a lot of their team depends on how well will Levis does he's very inconsistent I think honestly right now Caleb goes for 300 yards and we two turnovers from will L us that's my prediction okay so first of all barring the fact that you just predicted a blowout which is the mostar over thing you could possibly do I love it I think it's not unrealistic it's more like okay Nick thank you for your awesome prediction I I'll tell you I think the funniest part about the Titans is that the Titans are the perfect example I really believe this of exactly the kind of team that we just don't and won't know anything about until the Downs actually count because on in theory there's a lot of good football players on this team in practice a lot of them have major issues major issues Tony Pard nightmare dude when he's healthy is awesome is he healthy uh dehop like on Pace at one point to be the best receiver in football he was one of the most dominant names in the game is he that guy still Calvin Ridley one of the most exciting players in football for a hot minute there but last year didn't go that well and then you have major problems on offensive line and I really mean major problems on offensive line they're I mean it's better they signed cushenberry they got leam they got you know Peter scy but also you have will Lis who threw four touchdowns everyone's like Wow first game four touchdowns then he threw four touchdowns over his last four games total we're also talking about a rookie tackle which never goes that well and he plays on the wrong side for where the Bears are going to match up Montes sweat so their other one is going to have to stop the Bears best and only one-on-one pass rusher like right out of the gate and not to mention I think JC Lam's pretty great especially as a run blocker his power is exceptional uh funny thing though the Bears now have two designated pass rushers that AAL your feet and that's where he's weakest so could uh derell Taylor or Austin Booker maybe make some or make some noise up against leam in his first NFL game dude it would not be a headline making story right the the biggest thing I think wrong for the Titans is your first game of the season on the road with a lot of new pieces and especially a new coaching staff like that's especially when that hasn't been had coached before though that doesn't normally go well a lot of new staffs don't do well at all especially early in the season so to me I think there's just too much new and I know there's new in Chicago as well but that team was really good towards the end of last year and if I'm G to lean one way I'm GNA lean a good defense so to me I think it's a I I I don't I'm not predicting blowout they still I think they could run on us I like Pard I like Taj Spears um but I think it's tough to think that will L is going to be consistent enough to pick apart I think a really good secondary it's going to be an unbelievably interesting test for the Bears because I think the Titans compared to let's take the eight or nine teams that they play before the by we I think the Titans are squarely in the middle of almost all of them I don't think the Titans are that bad the guys that they have I would better describe this Nick as they have a lot of guys that are good but people are going to act like they're great does that make sense like Calvin Ridley can play Calvin Ridley would be the best receiver on uh Carolina tomorrow that's not a question if you ask me but are is Tennessee good enough to make up for their deficiencies and are the bears as whole a team as you and I think they are those are two completely separate questions but if the latter is true Tennessee is probably not good enough yeah but then like someone like Sneed same thing right so Sneed is fell off a little bit last year and okay you have leria sne right if he's a great Corner why is Kansas City letting him go right right this is just like okay one of those teams they let the corner go as he's aging and now he goes to a new team and he's going to be great again I mean all these guys are dehops what 32 31 32 sneed's 27 28 Ridley's 30 like none of these guys are young y'all and and going to a new team and now it's just going to mix and be perfect I mean we have questions if Keenan Allen's going to be well that's one for us they have multiple oh and the Bears generally have an insurance policy that's pretty solid don't get me wrong it's easy to blow past the fact that I agree with you in general especially when you're talking about Tennessee's linebackers at Corners I think their defensive Line's pretty good people are going to act like they're top five but they are top 10 there are a lot of defensive lines that I don't think have the juice that they do but maybe that's partially because I think of Herod Landry is pretty dangerous I don't know if you do but I'm out there it's if you told me that the Bears traded for Harold Landry at the deadline I would say that's pretty sweet I like that move for them but that's going all the way through this plus they got a third guy whose Name Escapes me but when they mention the name I go oh yeah he could play too but so I mean Arden key was the 50th best Edge last year Lander was the 66th I think that sometimes PFF over penalizes C you could do that but make your argument for him then but I just know him as a dangerous speed rusher that has enough Bend to get around the edge and punish people that's it he's never been higher than 502 on pff's rankings partially because I don't think he's going to play the Run well right but are you looking at just exclusively passwor grade or are you looking at overall defensive grade I'm looking at overall let me look at his individual here as we do I I love that I love that we're like ah this podcast is almost done we can't get out of this oh I mean people laugh about it every time they always go like this best pass rush wow his best pass rush grade was last year 62.6 that's it ever his best run defense grade he said three that have been 64 or better well there you go that's a great reminder of like prior plus initial rookie take may not last forever I mean he he has he's had double digit sex last well he missed 2022 so 2020 in 2023 but I don't think it's it's I'm not scared of it I'm not telling you to be terrified of the guy right you don't need to quake in your boots especially because if there's one piece to the Bears preseason that I still think is almost flying underrated it's that Caleb moved so well in the pocket that he neutralized a lot of pass rush opportunity for the teams that were against him he'll be going up against much more dangerous rushers and frankly much better planned Rush plans that'll likely try to test the pies but dude Nick I'm going to say this one I'm going to say this more than once I'm not going to say this one time but this is the perfect time to mention that if you get a free rusher home on Caleb and to do so you had to bring a plus two blitz so a six-man Blitz and in that six-man Blitz that means you drop back let's say a three uh like a three under two deep uh like coverage package behind it and Caleb steps through your rusher you're toast like those those are the kinds of plays where so long as Caleb doesn't throw a pick or fumble the taking two sacks to Jimmy out one touchdown on a play like that becomes plus EV so we'll get there when we get there the the other the other part of this too just real quick I know there's the Ernest Jones trade we can get big into this but just in terms of I I think this is a net positive for Chicago y'all so so he goes to right now says hey I'm not holding out gets traded for peanuts it's really weird by by the way good player he has to learn the defense and you know be all ready to go for week one now remember the Bears traded for khil Mack right and he had the the great week one he's a lot better than Ernest Jones as a linebacker because Ernest Jones as a linebacker has to make all the defensive calls that's what his role is and so that's going to be hard I think to to do right away in week one so I think that's actually good while he makes their defense better you're not going to get all of Ernest Jones there and then week four Robert you play the Rams who just lost Ernest Jones so I don't think they're gonna be recovered to have a guy at his caliber so I think it's a net positive because you were gonna have to face a solid middle linebacker and now I think you're gonna face him not at his Peak because he's in a new system a new everything week one I will truly end with this I have nothing left to say after this Nick we started the offseason process and I felt pretty good about where the Bears were I actually felt very good I was like we're gonna get Caleb Williams we have an extra pick after that uh don't talk to me about the fact that Byron Murphy is playing very well in Seattle so far I I wouldn't trade him for Rome today if I had to more to say that I knew the Bears were GNA get a good player and had they drafted Murphy at nine doubt it but if they would have Nick they still would have there are a lot of good players that are in this league or that are in this rookie class then they trade for Keenan Allen then they add a couple other pieces like Coleman Shelton simple one to talk about but an important one to talk about because that's exactly the kind of player that becomes an extremely important part of your team and then you keep going and more dominoes start falling their way Javon Dexter looks like he can play Caleb looks like his movement's translated Rome is figuring it out the defense backs are popping off and dude Nick I I'll just say it this way I am almost irrationally excited about the bears but every moment I think it's irrational I look and I'm saying to myself no their schedule is a dream schedule they're a lot of dominoes have fallen their way they're pretty healthy right now in Chicago You're taught to feel like by results unfortunately like the moment you start feeling this way the sho's about drop but it should have dropped a month ago like somebody should have gone down with some major injury if that's the case maybe we are lucky enough Nick to be alive for the first legitimately surprisingly good season where things went better than they should have since 2018 and before 2018 what was it 2006 like how how far back do you have to reach for something legit fun with less controversy than you should than there should have been you're you're just you're just hating in my childhood back then Robert I'm going to I'm gonna end with this the same hype okay y'all if you want to feel a little bit of hype okay I'm gonna take a moment to shout out one of our friends I mean one of my friends Mr Roberts as well uh dwc okay uh the W City Productions uh dwcp o DZ um put out a hype video that Robert I think is the best hype video I've ever seen I don't think it's just because it's the Bears I think he and I I talked to him he put 15 hours into this y'all nice and I retweeted I'm sure Robert did like it's it is I mean he said celebrities retweeted like it is it's worth it um it's got you know obviously all the rookies all the new guys but uh the music the videoos in it the quality um if you want to feel you know like you listen to Robert type you want to feel the hype and see it through a video that is the best I think depiction of how we all feel as Bears fans and that we don't have to worry about the shoe dropping we can just enjoy the ride right now what a ride I hope it is man and the best part no I could sit here and cope I could sit here and say and the best part is if they come out flat against Tennessee I can say C's a rookie whatever but I really don't expect it I don't think he'll throw for 300 yards dude I'm going to be real with you but two 15 and a safe performance is totally on the table and if he throws for 300 yards so one of my favorite little um statl lets it's barely a stat it's more like an anecdote dude I remember I went back because I was like what is a normal rookie quarterback watch so I turned on Justin Herbert's first game with the one where he replaced uh the one where he replaced Tyrod Taylor long you ever watched that game he threw some Bobs he did is what you remember they all got dropped cuz he threw the ball too hard he had four incompletions on deep ends that came from blowing guy gloves off but he did throw for 300 yards do you remember how he did it no he dropped the ball off to Austin Eckler for at least 140 he threw a screen to another receiver I think it was like Mike Williams that clicked out another he threw to Keenan Allen a bunch like he it wasn't that hard because the team around him made noise and as the quarterback you get credit when you run the offense and your team makes noise so if Caleb throws for 300 Nick I bet you he has maybe three highlights that are like Caleb Williams highlights because people are forcing it and I bet you that's just a huge day from DJ Moore against larus Sneed I bet that's a big day for Keenan Allen against the Titans slot guys like you know what I'm saying you fles this thing out and it's like I bet you if Caleb's going to throw for 300 yard that it's not the Caleb Williams Air Show it's just the Bears look cohesive that's okay though that's great that's 300 I'm I'm okay with it either way that that's how that's how you build it it's how you should you make it easy for him I'm Juiced up man I'm Juiced up you ready to RP yeah man I'm good another short podcast runs an hour and 30 minutes oh D we tried man tried good stuff dude well thank you so much for listening if you guys enjoy the show please leave a pumpkin Emoji I think the pumpkin Emoji is really funny uh so I like seeing it every time the flags were funny too uh like surprises me put an emoji that makes me go I know you heard this uh because otherwise I would never see this Emoji in the in the comment section okay here here here's my request okay I want to know the random Bears quarterback that you've liked over the history okay it could be random it can be like Rick Meyer Peter Tom Willis Cordell Stewart Moses Marino who's yours give yours first my I think an underrated quarterback is Shane Matthews that's that's super Fair before my time so I don't remember the Shane Matthews days uh mine is I think that it will always end up forgotten that Nick fos was a Bears quarterback but of all the Bears quarterbacks I've watched he made me mad less than a lot of them where I mean he was on a team that was falling apart at the seams the coach lost any hair follicles that remained left on his bald head like dude Matt ngi looked like one of those president before Afters before I thought he was a young coach he leaves the Bears he looked old dude and so Robert all I'm saying man is there so much more pain that you haven't had to deal with man you're lucky I know I know I know I know but we went to hear your random Bears quarterback that you kind of still stand for even just a little bit but we'll talk to you soon thank you guys so much rate US if you haven't tell your friend Seasons around the corner it's around the corner my young boy is GNA turn we're gonna have a I I'm going to have a birthday party immediately after the game ends so hopefully it's not electric Nick because that's the I'm disappointed that we're not going to go immediately we have to have to wait a couple hours to post game but at least it means you get to watch the 3 pm slot of football which normally we pod right through I I I hope you're not like sad faed through the party either I will live it's we've got like 65 people coming we invited a lot and too many said yes who who who whoa whoa whoa I didn't get an invite Robert come on you want to fly down from Wisconsin you still can't I'm just saying you didn't give me an invite uh so you got time you got time in theory all right man I I'll check my mailbox it's not a flight Affair it's not a flight Affair but so anyways guys gals we'll catch you soon thanks so much for bearing with us [Music]