Is the Excitement Justified for the 2024 Chicago Bears?

all right you ready are you ready let's do it the Chicago Bears they're offseason in 60 seconds drafted Caleb Williams the first overall pick seems important hired Shane walren as their OC Eric Washington as their DC huge extension for DJ Moore four years1 110 million $80 million guaranteed Jaylen Johnson also gets a monster deal one of the highest paid Corners in the NFL now DeAndre Swift in free agency Kevin byard Gerald Everett also signed Coleman Shelton to potentially be their starting center trade for Keenan Allen traded for Ryan Bates as a dep piece along the offensive line just traded for Daryl Taylor from the Seahawks ver in Edge depth and then Chris Williams from the Browns Darnell Mooney and Justin Jones both gone in free agency other notable draft picks drafted romad dun with a ninth overall pick which is fun as hell uh a tackle from Yale whose name I'm not going to try to pronounce in the third round blue chip checkin for the shakago Bears what do you got Caleb William no I'm kidding I mean maybe um but more realistically I think I I came down on two uh Jaylen Johnson I think is is kind of in that tier and then DJ Moore I think it's not like a Sure Fire Blue Chip guy to me but if I'm gonna put Drake London in I think I have to also put DJ Moore in so I'm I'm gonna be consistent there and do that so I I'll say those to I'm still giving Keenan Allen the half it's it's just a career achievement award at this point he had a really good year last year I'm giving giv him the half he is still good I'm G him the half even if we got worries about what he looks like in the preseason I'm giving Keen on the half red ship guys I throw Mont SWAT in there Montes SWAT is a really nice player he helped transform this defense last year I I don't think there are that many other guys on that level on this team but the thing about this team is there are just so many potential ascending players Tyreek Stevenson Kyler Gordon Darnell Wright you know we'll see what Tevin Jenkins is like there's just a lot of promise on this team considering how young they are but I I don't think that there are any other even red ship guys to mention honestly the one that surprises and this might even surprise you but it definitely surprised me considering what I said after they signed him I think Edmonds played some really really good ball last year like he played some of the best ball I've seen from him so I don't know about like quite up to mon montz sweat red chip category but maybe in that next tier with the with the guys like Darnell Wright and stuff like that he played really good ball the linebacker room is very very solid like TJ Ed TJ Edwards and tman Edmond like if that's your two linebackers you're in a pretty good spot considering the state of the position around the week what significant question marks does this dep chart have in your mind still kind of on on both trenches you know Mont sweat that trade was turned out awesome and he's been really good every other Edge spot you're kind of banking on young players who and you know I know Austin Booker's looked good in the preseason but until I see it in the actual season I'm not going to put yeah like let's let's let's slow down I know people are excited but like let's chill out for a little bit so there's a reason this team is trading for D Taylor and was trying to trade for Matt judon like two weeks ago exactly they still know and I think even Eber flu said like two weeks ago he was when they were talking about the sweat trade he was like he openly said he'd be like yeah it'd be really nice if we had another one too it's like okay they know they don't have a clear other star outside of sweat so definitely that and then the offensive line I think you're still banking on a lot of unknowns is probably the best way to put it there's no doubt I mean Coleman Shelton is maybe fine as your starting center but this Nate Davis thing is an ongoing issue he hasn't been able to practice for a huge chunk of training camp again he was probably a minus player when he was on the field last year so the interior the offensive line I I think is still something to pay attention to and you know the tackles are fine but without a step forward from Darnell right there's a chance that this group goes from being acceptable to worrisome based on how a couple of these things break what are you watching in the first month of the season with the Chicago Bears you don't have to get queued here yeah I mean it's basically just how do you want to spin the Caleb Williams thing um to me it's actually what are we going to get from him in structure because obviously the big talking point with Caleb Williams coming coming out of college is oh he's this backyard guy and he's too crazy it's going to take him a while to learn you know the ropes of the NFL I actually said when he was coming out of college that having a real structured NFL offense that isn't the you know Lincoln Riley we can kind of do whatever we want it's a lot of bsrps I think having a truly NFL style structured offense is going to be really good for him because he's obviously more than talented enough his pocket presence is really good and in the instances where you saw him do real dropback stuff at USC it was pretty clean like it wasn't always perfect because offensive line wasn't great and his receivers especially his final year weren't as as clean as obviously having Jordan Addison before but man like it's just I really think if you get him in a good structure he can play good sound consistent ball I just kind of want to see if that's going to be true or not I'm with you I mean that's to me one of the biggest questions is like how how does he do with the easy stuff how does he do with the subtle stuff that that's going to determine where this goes because we know the spectacular is going to be on the table but even some of the stuff he's done in the preseason like he's spinning into space and looking to throw the ball or he's doing stuff outside of the pocket on a bootleg or he's like creating space and time by moving outside of the pocket he's not a Scrambler he wants to make plays with his arm even if it's out of the pocket he does a lot of crazy [ __ ] but it's not for the sake of doing it like it's it's not I don't think that's necessarily true I think he's trying to see what he can get away with every once in a while did you watch hard knocks this week okay there is some of that but it's like I don't know man there there's a method to his Madness I think I think whereas when you watch some of the guys like Baker Mayfield or Zach Wilson like the obviously not very good guys at this they're just guessing bro I don't think Caleb is guessing I think he truly knows he can do some insane stuff and there's like a method to it I think the ratio of I want to see how cool I can do this versus I'm trying to accomplish something real is correct like that throw to the throw to Rome in that game he went up to the ref afterwards and he was just like that was cool huh like he likes to put some sauce on this stuff and I think I'm fine with that I am totally fine with him wanting to make like a spectacular play every once in a while but I think what he'll do in Rhythm on time with the easy stuff is going to dictate where this goes and and that first throw we hit on Third and 12 in that first preseason game the Bas he plays with like the nuts and bolts and the foundation of how he plays the position those are things you can build on those aren't question marks I I think it's just about how much he wants to adhere to it when it comes down to it and I'm curious what the answer to that is going to be I mean minine is how good is the guy like I that's what I'm watching in the first month of the Season like how else do you want to spin this like this is it what are we doing here this is all that matters the talent is the talent is incredible and and I just am excited to see what it looks like in structure and just within the parameters of an NFL offense that's it and like how quickly do we see a gamechanging type of player do we see it in the first month of the season do we see it in the first half do we not see it at all this year like how do we think about him over the course of this year is all that really matters for this franchise well and here's some people have have said the thing of oh you know rookie quarterbacks typically aren't that productive and it's like that's generally true one he's not a typical rookie quarterback he's incredible two he's stepping into a situation that is obviously better than most rookie quarterbacks significantly better he's stepping into something that is closer to Dak walking into Dallas or Justin Herbert walking into you know Los Angeles where they had some real pieces that he could throw to I mean shoot Keenan Allen is here you know what I mean like he's stepping or CJ stad last year where obviously it didn't seem like it was going to be that great but the offensive line played at a higher level the the play caller was really good Nico Collins took a huge step like that ended up being a great situation so I think what Caleb is walking into is something more akin to that than you know the Urban Meyer Jaguars or or some other bad team that you know the Sam darnold Jets it's it's not going to be any of that I was talking to the assistant on their staff and he said this is the best skill position group I have ever been around in my entire career like from top to bottom and it's hard to argue with that like with a lot of teams and what they're trotting out there like Keenan Allen even at this stage of his career if he's your third best receiver by the end of the season like you're doing pretty good and we said the offensive line acceptable is what you're going for here and I do think there are a lot of paths where they get to acceptable so I'm with you I think that he is better positioned for Success than so many guys drafted number one overall and part of the reason that it's that their pick they weren't drafting number one overall like the the sheer luck and fortune that has allowed them to arrive in this moment is kind of insane so how much does that set him up for success I mean that's going to dictate some of this that's I I have to add really quickly that is the difference that bit of luck and the the Bears not having their own pick that ended up being first overall that's the difference between what we're going to get from Caleb as a rookie versus like what we got from Trevor as a rookie where that was an actual bad first overall team this is a team that was almost a playoff team who kind of has locked into a star player I'll be curious to see what the offense looks like around him just because in Seattle they played in all these super wide formations was very outside the numbers and I think again talking to people there that was more an expression of the talent that they had there more than how they wanted the offense to be structured you know Tyro Locka weighs 180 pounds he's a vertical player DK maaf for all of his strengths is kind of limited in what you can ask him to do this Bears team their top eight skill position players all weigh at least 210 lbs that's what I'm talking about that's an offense it's just a weird sort of team in the modern age when you every team has one undersized receiver DJ morways 210 I didn't even know that 6' 210 and they're not slow though DJ Moore can move Rome is really fast like these guys can move they're not just big for the sake of being big but when you compare it to what he had in Seattle last year Rome can dig out a safety from the slot if few want him to you know DJ Moore can play inside out Keenan Allen is a slot player that really has a skill set that before they really understood how to use jsn was missing within that offense so I do think that it's going to be a little bit more traditional in terms of how they're attacking teams how the receivers are deployed and my concerns about some of the limitations of that Seattle offense have been uh assuaged a little bit as I've kind of gotten more an understanding of how they conceived of this and how they want it to look what is keeping you up at night with this year's Bears team it's the interior of the offensive line you know the tackles like we mentioned should be fine I don't think that's too much of a concerned but the interior your best player is tein Jenkins who I think is a solid player when he's healthy he's just not real flashes last year like real flashes yeah he he really looked which is crazy because that tackle he just looked completely lost but they've moved him to Garden he's he's looked like a solid player it's just a matter how many games are you actually going to get at him I think that's the biggest concern and then at Center and Right Guard you know like you mentioned Davis has not really been practicing and even when he was playing last year did not seem nearly as effective as he was I think in Tennessee and then Coleman Shelton maybe you can get to like replacement level where this is you know not completely sinking the offensive line but if that's your second best guy on the interior that's not a great spot to be in especially if Jenkins ends up going down at some point so I'm just really worried about the interior potentially being like a nuclear problem I hope that Ryan Bates can give you acceptable play if one of those guards gets hurt I mean that's part of the reason that you trade for him just to give yourself some optionality at those spots but I'm with you if I look at the offense it's absolutely the area that I'm most concerned about mine is more existential uh than anything else like what's keeping me up at night other than 37 years of consistent disappointment I I'd say it's a couple things one pass rush like for this year like where are they going to get it from can Austin Booker give them something what does that look like but as we take it wider than that did they do enough to set Caleb AMS up for long-term success and we just talked about how good the situation is in the skill position Talent I'm not talking about this year I'm talking about his entire career trajectory because you bring eberl back because of what you got on defense in the back half of last season but by doing that you have a defensive-minded head coach where you're just kind of picking from who's available to be your offensive play caller you go get a guy like Shane Waldren who is capable but I think that the ceiling on how good your offensive ecosystem can be is defined with a guy like Shane walr we know he can do the job but I think that there are more intriguing options out there this offseason with potentially higher ceiling you know a guy like Zack Robinson who knows what it'll be but I do think that those sort of options were available so by doing it the way that you did it where you bring eberl back and you go get a guy like walren it does feel like the ceiling is a little bit capped so do we get to let's say the end of the 2025 season and you realize that this iteration of the franchise has run out of Road and you have to start over again that is what is keeping me up at night I know they're not going to fire this group after one year because they're not going to drop that level of dysfunction back into this thing but even if it's two years are you going to get to a place somewhere along the way where his development got stunted because of some of the decisions that you made this offseason I think all of them were defensible in the moment and I don't really disagree that strongly with either of them but again this is like some of the existential stuff that Creeps in when you're thinking about like the three four five year trajectory of this thing you're trying so hard not to buy this and I I get it again 37 years of being a Bears fan when your best quarter today is my 37th birthday I have been alive for 37 years and I have no reason to be optimistic about how this is going to go I I listen that's why I think this is great because I'm completely unaffected by the Bears the the Bears have not hurt me I got to watch Jake Cutler and say this was fun as opposed to whatever it was that Bears fans were feeling during in the Jay Cutler era so I get it however do you think it's like kind of realistic that they end up where the bills are with Josh Allen and John mcder like that's one of the best that's to me is one of the best possible outcomes is that so he they came in he had they removed Rick Dennison after year one of Josh Allen's career they went to Brian dble but even Brian dable went to college even Brian da was like a slightly different version of the Brian dable that he had been when he had been a play caller in the NFL I think he had learned a lot I think he had grown a lot because he had spent time away from the league so even though we had seen him it did feel like there was a higher ceiling that he was bringing to that job compared to what he had done in the past and I don't know if that's necessarily the case with walr but I I do think there are examples of this where the situation hasn't necessarily been perfect and the quarterback is so good that it doesn't end up mattering like Joe burrow in Cincinnati like it's not great but it's so good he's so transformative that doesn't really matter Justin Herbert it hasn't been great over the first three years even if it was good in year one doesn't really matter Lamar there was a cap and how they could play Within that offense but he was so good that it didn't really matter so that's absolutely on the table where he is just such a Transcendent player that he's able to kind of overcome the relative limitations of the infrastructure that you have built around him I'm not discounting that I'm just saying that it does add a small barrier to accelerating how fast he can get to the place you want him to go on the flip side what do you think is actually the worst outcome for K like let's take injury aside obviously that could happen to anybody like to me it's like what has happened with Kyler in Arizona like that to me is like I really think his floor is so high that it's probably not anything worse than that but the skill the talent around Kyler was so bad it was so bad like you look at the offensive line and what they were piecing together in those years I mean they had DeAndre Hopkins and nothing it was really really bad so even that I think is worse than what he's going to be dealing with this isn't like I'm so worried that it's going to Bott him out and fail I just wonder if he's good how has what they've put around him going to determine what the ceiling of this actually looks like that's it I think that's fair though you were sold of Patrick Mahomes Josh Allen so you're hoping that you can get everything out of out of that fruit yes you hope that he is given enough of a chance to reach his potential that that's it and again I think that the talent they put around him on offense initially will put him has put him in a position to get there this is more about what it looks like three four five six years down the road we just talked earlier in the show about how important it is to have a coordinator you can build with to have a staff that you can build with where there's constant development and you're able to kind of build on everything year over-year is this going to be that for him and and I think that's what's keeping me up at night is the thought that it might not be and what that means means for allowing this guy to become everything that he can become what are you most excited about with this year's Chicago Bears I think in a post Caleb Williams world yeah I think other than Caleb Williams who is obviously incredibly exciting I think other than that I'm going to go with the secondary uh you have two corners who to me I think you already feel really good about Jaylen Johnson obviously they paid him Kyler Gordon has looked really really good since basically he came back last year and has played more than nickel he's looked really awesome awesome player yeah and it's not even just coverage he's one of those nickels who is just absolutely crazy person uh when when he needs to come down and Tackle whether it's screens Run game all that she lowered the boom on a sack in the preseason dude yeah that when you're doing that in the preseason you are clearly your brain is working in a different way but that's what you want out of your slot player you need a guy it sure is boy yeah you you need those guys especially like we've said in the modern NFL you need one of those so they've got one and then Tyreek Stevenson I don't know if he's you know necessarily a great player yet um but the potential is certainly there and I think he already played serviceably last year and so if he takes literally any step above that you really really cooking with this with this cornerback room and then Jaquan brisker I think is a promising safety um and honestly here's my my cope or I guess my hopium with Kevin byard if he's your worst player in the secondary that's probably fine like even if he's taken a step back and he can't run the way that he used to if he's your worst player having a veteran like him some of his ball skills it's it'll probably be fine best secondary in the league is 100% on the table for this team this year and I think best cornerback group in the league is Within Reach like I I love what the Browns have but dzo W has been banged up like it is absolutely within range for this to be like the best quarterback room or best secondary in the NFL by the end of the year if things break right definitely I I really don't think that that's crazy for me it's a skill position Talent on offense that's what I'm most excited about post Caleb Williams I think that people misunder understand how Bleak the Bears receiver history is it is as Bleak as the quarterback history and obviously one of those informs the other but if you look back at it since the merger the Bears have produced 11 seasons of at least 1100 receiving yards 11 since 1970 that's 53 years Keenan Allen and DJ Moore have nine combined oh my God yes this is what we're dealing with here if if DJ Moore has a thousand yards this year he will be 27th on the Bears all-time receiving yardage list he's only been on the team for a year yeah he's barely been there he he's had a cup of coffee one year this is his second year so the fact that that it's not just the quarterback the idea that the Bears have like one of the best receiving rooms in the league potentially is so hard for my brain to comprehend based on what I have dealt with for most of my life like we had that one or two year stretch with Alshon Jeffrey and Brandon Marsh it was glorious martalis Bennett was involved it was glorious but this is such a huge departure from what I am used to and that combined with a quarterback that has the sort of potential this guy does that is easily the thing that I most excited about and you should be I mean just think about even very recently some of the players that they were putting out there darno Mooney he's cool if he's your third best receiver in a really good offense and can just run down the field that's not what the Bears were asking they were asking him to be a lot more than that they were putting like equinus St Brown out out there and again if that's your fifth receiver coming off the bench cool but they were actually having him play serious reps the fact that now you're going to three like truly adult really good receivers who are capable of a thousand yards in any given season it it just almost doesn't even feel like the Chicago Bears it's crazy I mean even watching Keenan Allen walk out there in the jersey for the first time I was like holy [ __ ] Keenan Allen is on the Bears like this is absolutely wild when you think about where this team was a couple years ago so cannot wait to watch that week in and week out and just the idea every week potentially that the quarterback can give you a chance to win that is a totally foreign concept to me like Justin Fields over the last few years it was excitement like I was excited to watch him play for a lot of that stretch because of some of those moments that you knew could come throughout the game but there's a chance like by the end of this season that there is a feeling as a Bears fan and people in this city that the quarterback is putting you in a position to win the games that you're playing like every single week that I've never felt that way like I ever I I mean I really can't think of of why you would again I love Justin fields too but you never got to the point where you were like every week we feel good about this it was more like maybe in two years because of some of the flashes but Williams like you said by December we might be like oh he's already one of those guys and we don't even have to think about it anymore that would be fast right like that would be very quick for a rookie for you to feel that way by the end of his first year but if if we can at least feel by the time the season ends that we're on that road and by the start of next year you feel like you're going to be there again that that is very far away from most of the things that I have dealt with in that area most important supporting character on the Bears in your mind is every single person getting after the quarterback other than Mont sweat so that is like a lot of people that's like six or seven you could throw the defensive tackles in there if you want I don't really care but every person outside of Montes get into the quarterback because even when they traded for him last year they were like 23rd 24th in pressure raate or something like that they were not getting after the quarter back I think the way they were hoping that that trade would transform them obviously they were a really good defense anyway but man if they can get closer to like even just slightly above average if they can be 15th in pressure rate this year with some of the what they're going to get out of the secondary dude they could be oh 15th would be amazing if they were 15th with the secondary that that would be music to my ears because I'm just worried that it's going to be like a bottom quarter of the league unit and it's going to torpedo the talent that they have on the back end and it's going to make it not matter so I'm with you I think in the lines on both sides of the ball like to me it's Geron Dexter like can Geron Dexter be that guy who takes a big step forward in year two you've heard all offseason about how he's transformed his body and how he looks different can you add a guy who's a real differenc maker as a pass rusher in the interior combined with Montes sweat and what does that end up looking like I think that's going to go a long way in dictating how this defense feels over the course of the year what counts is a successful season for the Chicago Bears first and foremost obviously it's just Caleb looking like everything that he was sold to be which pretty much anything after that is just nonsense as long as he looks great um that that's perfect I will say though because this was a competitive team last year even without a guy like Caleb Williams I think they should probably be in the playoff picture like post Christmas like those last two weeks they should be on the graphic at least and they should be maybe they just lose a tiebreaker that doesn't get them in something like that but they should really be up until the wire a playoff team I think that's exactly right I mean are you playing for a wild card in week 18 like are you in that position I think that you should be and the other side of it is the quarterback is a guy and and and one more layer to this you establish yourself as a place that gets the most out of its defensive players like we talked about the bills and we talked about that model can you be a spot that feels like those Shawn mcder bills teams where we know that we are going to be a top eight to 10ish defense because we lift everybody that walks through here on that side of the ball and after the way that it went last year with eus Callum plays I don't think that's crazy like I do think that that could be they could be that sort of Team moving forward and I think if you're going to retain the guy that has to be a Hallmark for success for this season is for you to get to that sort of spot yeah 100% you have to prove that it's not just Caleb it's that Caleb kind of brought this home but you were already there I want to be in a place if I'm the Bears where I walk into next offseason thinking all right if we fill in a couple of these gaps are we within Striking Distance of the best team in the league this is the third youngest team in the NFL last year and if you look at it the vast majority of their core guys are 26 27 years old most of the teen guys who will make up this roster in 2026 when you think they could be real real contenders are still aren't going to be 30 like Kevin by and Keenan Allen are the outliers here you're going to walk in next off season with like $50 million in capf space probably you have two second round picks are you going to be in a spot in March when we start free agency and people are saying man if they can hit a couple of these and they have one more decent draft draft this team could be cooking with gas and if that's the case if you're that sort of team I think that's absolutely a success kind of no matter what happens in the win loss column for this year right it should be on the table I mean if they win nine or 10 this year you go into next off season you get maybe a center you draft a really good uh you know uh maybe another pass rusher in the second round it's like okay this pretty quickly became a really strong team and I hope that is the case I hope we're talking about this team in two years like we're talking about the Lions right now and if we are I think that's exactly where you want to be all right that's all we got that's the NFC North that was fun I was looking forward to that one how good did bears hopium actually feel I know you tried to fight it a little bit in the middle but how good did it actually feel to to talk about this team like that I am really excited to watch the season I'm I'm really when week one starts and then that game kicks off at noon and I'm turning on Bears Titans I'm really really excited to watch that and that's really all you can ask for considering how some of the years have been and just how hopeless so many seasons have started with like the Andy Dalton Nick fos quarterback battles are just like I hope that they're a memory you know at this point and I know the Justin Fields thing just happened but this is different and it's different because of things we've talked about like the creativity he has as a thrower the creativity he has from the pocket it aligns with the traits that Define the best quarterbacks in the NFL Patrick Mahomes is not Patrick Mahomes because of that stuff it's not because the flexible arm it's because of how he's wired it's because of how he plays with inst structure it's how he understands defenses it's the quiet stuff so the fact that the quiet stuff is probably going to dictate how far this goes not the talent like the talent ceiling is sort of unlimited that feels like a different sort of spot and I just am excited to see what the process ends up looking like and that starts in week one and I'm really looking forward to it I just wanted to squeeze out one one last little drop of of hopium there so I'm I'm glad we could I'm excited on your behalf [Music]