All Access: Amukamara growing in defense

Bears All Access. Good evening. Hope everybody's doing great out there. You and I haven't been face to face out of the show for several weeks, you know, obsessed with obsessed that the term of the year for the Chicago Bears from coach Naggy. Obsessed with OTAs and mini camps. And now it's the downtime a little bit. So good to see you, big Tim and Jim when you're making your way back to town. That's what I want to know.

I will be back probably in a few weeks. I'll be back, and I will be out of training camp down there in Bourbon, a lovely Bourbon. A hope to show up there towards the end. Of July, probably the twenty sixth through the twenty eighth. No, the Bears started early. But you know what, could he says, Football's finally here. I can't wait for it. He's the only Jim rolls with a private pilot. He doesn't. He does a roll with a limo driver or maybe drive his own self

here for god knows four and a half hours. Jim as a private pilot lands is close to the practice fields around the NFL landscape as he can. And I don't know if this is a good thing or bad thing, but but I've had you know, adult cocktails with that pilot. You know when he's coming. So probably I'm the only one stupid enough to trust him as a buddy of mine to fly with him. But he's always appreciate itself.

Oh yeah, he's a great guy. But you know, I believe this, And as I've been pouring over the stuff or you know, you're gonna be looking on all these players now, just not just the fifty three you think you're gonna make this roster, but the ninety guys. Learning little nuggets about everybody over the course of the next five weeks or so, so you can hit the ground running. But you know, a year ago, I always said I honestly thought it was something along the lines you just

don't know what to expect this year. You could say that, but I'm going to add, you miss a little, you can miss a lot because this is going to change rapidly from one day to the next. I believe this team will grow. You guys agree, Well, you know the thing about it last, no matter what we all want to sit here and think in the nice rosy pitcher we painted, there was the divide at the beginning of camp. When you have Mike Glennon and your draft Mitchell Trubisky.

There's no secret, no denying that. So that would really created a little bit of angst at the beginning of camp because the reality of it is is you want to turn this thing around and start winning football games, divisions, playoff games, right, So you didn't know who really gave you the best opportunity even at the conclusion of camp. I think right now, at the end of OTAs the end of mini camp, going into camp, you know exactly what you got at that position, and I think it's

really important. Yeah, And we always talk about, you know, here the limited practice time and how your break up reps, because yeah, a lot was dedicated to reps to you know, Mike Glennon, but here you're still trying to bring along a young quarterback that you know, at some point in time he's your franchise face the franchise and going to be your quarterback of the future, and they want to give him work as well. That's not the case this year.

So I think, like where you're talking about Jeff the growth, it's great for Mitchell Trubisky that he basically has gotten every rep with the ones, learning a new system, learning the nuances, and has his feet wet already from playing in year one. So I do expect rapid growth from his standpoint as well. And that growth has to come for this team to make the next step, and it

will take some time. There's no question. A new offense and a completely new designed offense with all the coaches, all the players learning at the same time, which I do think is a bonus as well. We're gonna remind me to bring up Kyle Shanahan at a news conference I guess this week talking about how teams are going to defend the read option now have they figured it out?

And he had a great answer, So I want to talk about it a little bit later as it pertains to Mitchell Trubisky, because I think he checks all the boxes of how to operate that offense, because it's not just about read option. It's what you do off of the read option if they stop it, and what you're able to do beyond that to open up the entire field. And I thought he had a great answer to that. We're gonna be talking about Prince of Mukamara coming up

as well in our next segment. The veteran cornerback is a big piece to that defensive puzzle, and we oftentimes lose sight of the defense because we're only focused on this offensive. Head coach a great staff. He's put together the development of Mitchell Trubisky and all these new pieces. But I was just downstairs at WBBM, and you know, Keith John says, Hey, how aggressive, how developed is this defense going to be? And that's the question I haven't

got very much asked about. Okay, on the other side of Prince of Mukamara, we need to talk about the whole division because there's so many coaching changes within the division. Not only you're gonna have a hard time predicting about what the Bears are actually gonna be offensible. You're gonna a little bit about them defensively. Each team has home has had so much transition within the division on their coaching staff. There's gonna be a lot of changes all

over the map. And I think that's gonna be the most interesting with our division is what is Detroit gonna be all about? Is Matthew staff are going to come back when Matt Patricia is he offensive minded coach. Even though they got jim By kuber Coutter, it's still an you know, he's still the head coach, and so all the other you know, offensive defenses and within this division, it's gonna be interesting. Yeah, it's a It's a good point because at Detroit, I think they made a conscious

effort that they need to run the football better. I think we see that with Kerrie on Johnson, and they drafted, they signed with Garrett Blunt, they addressed their offensive line. They feel that's better. How about Mike Burton is now a Bearer as a fullback. Detroit couldn't even offer that personnel group in a year ago. They didn't even have a fullback on the roster. And so they drafted a

guy in the seventh round. He already tores acl Nick Boughton, I think it's his name, Boden, and he tores ACL. So they moved Nick Blore the line backer over the fullback for Detroit. So they are they're gonna have different person no groupings that they're going to present. And as Tom just alluded to think of Matt Patricia, I'm here in Motown. They're talking hybrid defense all over the place. They're gonna run four three three four, So they're gonna

be different. And how you attack them offensively, Green Bay. You bring up a great point there as Mike Penton, he's gonna be a more of a press pressure guy, press man in terms of their cover. That's why they drafted Jayer Alexander and Josh Jackson out of Iowa. They feel that those guys can man up. They'll be on an island outside. Bring back Joe Philbin. He'll help McCarthy with the game plans how they used to do it

to prepare Aaron Rodgers. And then Minnesota as John d Filippo stepping as their new OC, he's a first time play caller. Sounds great that they got kirk Cousins for eighty four million. But gonna take time for that offensive get up and running. Why they get suited with each other? I do like that coach though, I do like coach d Philippo. Outstanding offensive mine. All right, we're gonna take a break. Coming back, Prince and Mukamara, the Bear's veteran cornerback,

would join us. This is Bears All Access, brought to you by IGS Energy on Chicago's sports Radio six seven The Score. Welcome back to Bears All Access, brought to you by IGS Energy, a proud partner of the Chicago Bears, providing electricity, natural gas, and home warranty products to over one million customers across the country. Learn more about IGS Energy at igs dot com. Ready to go with Bears All Access, Jeff Joni Act, Tom There and Jim Miller

enjoined now by Bears veteran cornerback Prince A Mugamara. Good evening, my friend, How things I'm doing well? How are you guys doing great? Doing great? Hey? I know you got a camp coming up this summer in Glendale. A lot of guys are doing this obviously around football. Mitchell Trubisky just had his and mentor. And we'll get into that as we talk in the conversation, but before we do, Prince, just want to get your feel about wanting to come

back to Chicago. You took a chance on yourself a year ago, in a one year, did a great job, go back to back year. That's what I'm saying. Why why come to Chica? I'll go, my friend, why why even with the coaching change? Yeah? UM, I think there's there's many there's many different factors that I feel like I've been asked this question so many times and I feel like my my answer has changed every different time.

But UM, but I I would say the main point and on the quick bullet punch are UM one wanting to win another championship in my career and UM flourishing in this defense and UM and just the coaches. So start number one, like wanting to win the championship my career.

I feel like the championship starts with the quarterback. Like if you look at all the Super Bowl Championship teams, like they have a great quarterback and and I feel like we have that in in in the Metell Trubisky, I mean, Mitchell, Mitchell knows this and and we all know, um that I've been around the game and played and played. Is that like he still has to go out there

and prove it. But just what he shows, how he just the leadership in maturity he demonstrates, Like even when he was backing up planning, like this guy was like an hour after practice throwing and then I seen I just seem paced like gazing at him like man, and and I was gazing at him too, like man, this is crazy. This guy like just out of college, like staying after in an hour after after practice, is still throwing the while still making great passes, and he would

think that that's coming, but that's not coming. Like some guys think they've already came here, they've made it. And he was still working. So I saw that from early on and then now his second year, just how he approaches practice and how he takes charge of the huddle and how he takes charge of the offense. I love that. So just to trust to Mitchell Trubisky and then flourishing in this defense, I feel like, um Vick Sangio is

a mastermind. I can't I can't, um, I can't rave about him so much like he's he's he's just a simple mastermind with how he calls the defense. I feel like he always puts us in great and great positions UH to make plays. And that's and that's not um. And you don't see that a lot in a lot of defense. You see a lot of great players making plays, but you don't see like the actual defensive coordinator calling great plays for the for the defense to make plays.

So and I feel like that's helped my career a lot. And and just with the coaches um um coach Donntel, I mean it's been amazing for my career and younger guys career just as passion and how he cares for the players and and us ask people and just wanting us to be better man. And then when I met Naggie, I mean it was it was it was easy. Like as a player, you kind of always want to look for a players coach. However, there are other coaches that um that can fit UH, that can fit teams also

that players like, and those other coaches. I mean, I love Coughlin, but I don't know if everyone anyone would describe as a player coach. And this is no shot at Coughlin. This is just as coaching style. But I feel like Naggie compliments and um and I really like that a lot. Hey Prince, last year, at the beginning of the season, there were so many question marks in the defensive backfield, and now a lot of those questions have been answered with yourself and Kyle Fuller, Adrian Amos,

Eddie Jackson and the rest of their crew back there. Callahan, that's been helping is can you can there be more vers versatility in the defensive backfield when you guys are in the same system, you've been around each other, and you know the opponent's quarterbacks in this division aside from cousins, Yes,

I think that that call Neudy helps a lot. I mean if you look at all the great defenses from like Seattle, I mean Denver, San Francisco, when when when Vick was there, like they all had a consistent cool group of guys, whether's Patrick Lewis and and and the safeties or Seattle with Earl Thomas cam and um and Richard and Denver with Um Chris Harris Acute and and there'ss like you always have a consistent group of guys and um And before I got here, the defense was

already h trending trending upward, and I'm just here to compliment that and help that. And now we can actually start to learn to be inside each other's bodies. So there might be a route where um Eddie, Eddie might see and he might avoid, he might go away from this coverage to go make a play and um and and actually take my responsibility and just stuff like that. You start to work and sink and kind of cover each other, and when a defense starts to do that,

it gets scary. A prince Jim Miller here, good to talk to you, my friend. And you mentioned that Super Bowl year as a giant super Bowl forty six, you went in and Eli as you mentioned the leadership that Mitchell's is displaying. Eli Manning at that point it already won world championship, and that was Super Bowl forty two, and that was his third year in the league, believe it or not, for for Eli. The reason the reason why I'm asking this question, how did you get a

feel for those teams? I know Tom's talked about it before. I've talked about it before of teams I've been on coming out of, like you know, during the OTAs and when you're practicing out there during spring ball and you say, hey, this team's got a chance. We got a good bunch of hard working guys that love to play football, and just how a team gels. Do you get that sense about this year year's barrass team because it just seems like everybody works well together and everybody's busting their fanny

to turn this around. You had some some my first year with the Giants, I didn't really get because of my injury. I didn't really get reunited with them into like week ten. So I'm so I'm just a lot of like chemistry and in team building that was being done there. And I think our year was kind of um different than most because we were we were just trying to fight to get in. But we knew once we got in, like it was gonna be scary because I teams just catch on a street and you can

tell what what teams, what teams those are. UM. During during the season, they just start to they just start to approach the game differently and UM and when you start watching foom, you start to see, wow, like this this this team is going to be a problem. And I and I feel like that was the type of UM that was a type of character that we've displayed that year we won Super Bowl. Prince Amukamara our guest here on Bears All Access brought to you by IGS Energy.

Prince July fourteenth, The free camp for ages eight to seventeen out in Glendale, Arizona at Apoto High School. You can register at Others Foundation dot org. I know it'll be well attended. Have you done this before? And what is the Others Foundation all about? Yeah? So this is this is my second year. Um do it during this camp. And and I've never been to a kid camp when when I was young. And also um, and also I've never got to like meet and and and touch and

get taught by a current or former NFL players. So the fact the fact that the fact that I can bring this uh environment and bring this atmosphere for the kids and in the in the city and town that that I grew up in, I'm extremely excited about that. And um, Others Foundation. Others Foundation is a foundation that me and me and my wife and a friend of

mine started. Uh. Like I mean I'm young, just turned twenty nine, but um, like the last decade of my life, like I really feel like, uh life should really be about others. I feel like, especially as an athlete, a college athlete and now professional athlete, I feel like, um, I've been taking. I've been taking a lot a lot of stuff UM's been offered to me, and um, I really just want to be I really just want to

give back and just give to others. And even after just being the father, even being married, just realizing like, hey, like life is not about you anymore and stuff like that, so I kind of want to spread and share that message. Well, congratulations, It's an awesome opportunity for the kids out there and where all the players are wherever their hometowns and doing

the camps. I think it's a great thing. Hey, Prince, real quick before we go always, I saw you get a couple of interceptions this offseason, and that that's what the Bears fans want to see. But give us a snapshot of the Bears offense from day one to the last day of training camp. Did it pick up speed, did it pick a momentum? Is Trey Burton going to be the weapon that I thought I saw him being out there? Or what's going to happen with this offense.

It's kind of hard to evaluate. The offense as a whole without in Allan Robinson because I mean because I played, I was with him two years ago and and he brings such a different dynamic, a different field to the offense. But um, but evalue in the offense now, I feel like they're very very creative. They're they're um, they're they're explosive. Uh. I don't know who's calling the plays, Nagie or coach Helfric, but the plays like they definitely keep you on on

your toes. And it's great for us as a defense to get those different looks with the teams that we have on our on our schedule. So um, it's it's kind of hard to kind of uhcause at the dB UM, especially during through going through practice, you kind of see like a repeat of plays but with but with coach Nagie and health again and their offense, it's kind of hard to um to trying to narrow those plays down.

You you might get one formation you and and you might get a play out of that look, and then the next play you get the same formation but um and say motion but complete different look. So that's what's a little challenging for for the for the for the defense for that offense. But um, they're they're very, very high as an offensive. The last day there's there's some trash talking going on, and um, and we're just excited to put pads on in a month and go at

it well, just for the love of football. And I thank you for holding that camp because here in my area, my boys are playing flag football now and the local high school where there will be going just one of the state championship and football numbers have never been as

great as what they are right now. And I'd like to know how how are your numbers in terms of attendance out there in Glendale, Arizona, because the game's never been safer with all the rules changes, and obviously to preserve and protect the game that I'm sure you love, Prince in the game I love for all my life. I'm a lifer in football. So I'd like to hear

how's your attendance out there? Yeah, it's great to hear. Yeah, I mean as soon as I as soon as I posted out the flyer, I mean it was it was probably it was filled up within within four to five hours, and and and and that's kind of the speed it filled up last year and that's when I you like, Wow, Like these these kids, they're they're they're craving something like this, Like they're they're excited for something like this, and this

is something that that they're looking that they're looking forward to. So again, I'm just really um uh privilege that I can bring that experience to them. Prince and Mukamar kind enough to join us tonight. Prince, We're gonna let you go appreciate it, enjoy your next five weeks, and then it should be a lot of fun in bourbon A. Good to have you. Thank you so much. That's great to have you. Bears cornerback. Prince and Mukamar, we'll talk about some of his comments tonight about a lot of

things about the Bears offense and such as. We take a break first here on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to Score. Get the latest Bears news, photos and videos delivered straight to your mobile device. Download the Chicago Bears Official mobile app presented by Verizon. Jeff and Tom and Jim Miller with you on Bears All Access here from Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to Score. Eli Hirskovitz, I get there right, Eli, Yes. Eli used to work with me over at BBM. He knows what I'm all right,

So anyway, he's handling the board today. So let me just say this real quick about Prince Jim, there's a there's a rare athlete, especially in the NFL nowadays. He gives his honest appraisal of things. He's been that way since we met him here two years ago. And he'll give you opinion about what is and what's going on or how he feels about somebody without being negative or trying to be demeaning. But he I love He's honest. What we've got to known about Prince of Mukamara is

very respectful. I mean both in the way he answers your question, the way he treats everybody. I've ever seen him around and we've been events with him. People love him right. But the thing about it is, before Prince got here, there was always suspicion because he has some injuries in his past. So we think of him as a football player first, and then we get to meet

him as a person second. And so everything that we have gotten to see out of Prince, he is a quality character guy and I think he means a lot to some of these young teammates that need his influence. Well, I mean he's respectful, he is from royalty, I mean why he's named Prince. But I agree with that definitely. What Jeff talked about is just his his honesty, you know, and I just don't think, you know, when you get that many players saying stuff about Mitchell Trubisky, his leadership

I think is genuine. You know. I just don't think you can fake that or really pooh pooh it of what this young man has done in terms of work, and he knows it's in there. I think everybody knows it's about the young quarterback and the jumps that he makes for the Chicago Bears, and so consistently, whether it's from Prince the other teammates, how Mitchell's been attacking this offseason. That that's good to hear because it sounds like he's won over his teammates and they truly do believe in him.

So we'll see where it goes. I think Mitchell said it the other day at his camp or on a show. I think he was on one of these shows, these morning shows on NFL network or somewhere. He said, I can begin from day one and be the leader I want to be. That's also critical in this case. Forget about the performance and all that for just a minute. We believe he's going to be an outstanding quarterback, but he can feel comfortable being that guy. Is that important? Yes?

It is important because last year, no matter how much he wanted to show his leadership and where he was draft in the position he played, he didn't have that luxury because of Mike Glennon, And you kind of got to respect where you go into a locker room. If he was the guy that was drafted and brought here to be a starter and Mike Glennon wasn't waiting in the wings, he would have carried more cloud, but he had to respect Mike Lennon. Yeah, you know, like you said,

now everybody's turning to him. They're looking to Mitchell for answers, and when he first arrived last year that that just wasn't the case. You know, He's just he's a raw player. There's a lot to learn the NFL game. And that's all changed, like I said, since since the moment that season ended and Mike Lennon was shipped out and now signed with the Arizona Cardinals. Mitchell knows Hey, I'm the guy. Now I need to you know, this is my responsibility with the keys to the car. And I think he's

generally taken serious. It's important to him. He wants to prove it to his teammates. And I think he's shown that again because what everybody's saying the same thing. It's one thing to do the regurgitated Oh he's the first guy, had last guy to leave. That's one that it's not. It hasn't been that way. You can just tell there's a genuine excitement about the leadership he's displaying. But he knows he's the guy and he's got to get it done. And I think he drives from that role and it's

almost like he braces it. Jim, you don't have the luxury of being here. But I've known Tom a very long time now, and he gets this grin on his face and he's been grinning. So he's got something for me. Jim was last to leave because they had free beer in the equipment room. That's why he was last to leave. But no, that would be the video that so I grab a couple of pops and go down to lots

some tape. Absolutely, what is it? Did you wanted to you or No, I was grinning because that devilish No, I was just I wanted you to rehash because you said you brought up a question to Jim and I before and we didn't answer it like he wanted to answer on the defense. Oh no, I just what do you guys feel the next step is for this defense? Is it going to be as aggressive as the reputation of vic fan Joe has been. If they're top ten last year, I realistically think it's top five. It's hard

to reach. Granted, they gotta stay healthy and the ball has to bounce their way and things like that. I think they'll have to carry the offense early until the offense gets fired up and scoring points and gels together and all those things. But yeah, I've got high hopes for this defense. If they're top ten a year ago with all the injuries, I'm thinking sky's the limit. Why can't they be top five? I think they have the

ability to do it. I really do, you know? Again, just to continue to repeat myself, because it's just something I've been paying attention to the offseason, and just like last year, when we are so concerned about the defensive acts and they came and they proved everything to us with coach Donnitel and Vic and the whole crew there

and Kyle Fuller. Again, it is about these guys in the nineties, and I keep saying, it's Jonathan Bullard, it's Eddie Goldman, it's Aaron Lynch, it's Royal Robertson Arris because those guy and Leonard Floyd, they have a connection to the success and failure of this defense. So you know, you got Keim another name I know, I know, I know A Kima. I'm not worried about him. A Kim is a guy that I you know, I'm glad is there, and I'm glad that Sam Macho is there too. That's

why I don't include him. But there's these other group of young guys and they're still kids on this football team. Is they have to come here in in the short time they've been around the NFL. They have to have a career year this year for the Bears defense to perform.

Feeling that how great would it be if an offense comes together and I don't know when it will, what quarter of the season it will, but to have an offense that can get you the lead, so you can play defense on the lead, which that defense hasn't, but you also have to compute time of possession with it because one thing you want to do for your defense is you want to be able to score points and

keep your offense on the field. And that's why I think coach Naggie a couple of weeks ago in his press conference, he realized that you haven't seen the importance of a guy like Jordan Howard. You have because of the perphial aspects they were trying to introduce to this offense. Now, if you do have that power guy and you can sustain that time of possession later in the game, yeah,

SCOREFF thirty early. And that's another good point because I think the Bears with the Billy granted, Kyle Long's got to come back healthy and all those things, but I think they legitimately can they run the football to dominate

for a time of possession like that. I think early in the year that's going to be relied upon as the passing game grows as the season goes along, and then by the end of the season, say week eight, week nine, I would think that passing games should be starting to get pretty confident where they feel that they can get more aggressive and fling the ball all around

the field. So I think ground game early and then it'll just continue to grow and they'll continue to score more points and by the end of the year it should be humming would be my take. But I think they can dominate the time of possession with the running game early with that one two punch with Cohen and obviously what Jordan Howard. Last year, when I looked at the schedule, the game that scared me most was two

weeks Week two in Tampa. Now this week, the first two weeks of the game are night games, So you're not going to have that abusive heat early in the season where the conditioning jumps on your back the most within the first couple of games as an offense, and so if you can have those cool games, it's gonna help you contribute to keeping that offense fresh and where you want it to be in the latter part of

the game. What will the threat of a zone read with Mitchell Trubisky and Tarik Cohen and the presence of a speechter like Taylor Gabriel and how a defense reacts to it all these RPOs, how will that impact the run game? That's gonna put so much pressure on the exterior of the defenses in which they face because they're gonna they're gonna have more area of responsibility at the immediate snap of the ball. It's not just blow a field and try to get to that point where the

quarterback is. It's gonna be rushing with respect, keeping my outside arm free, making sure that you don't try to bait me to the inside. So these the exterior players of the defenses they're gonna face, they're gonna have so many responsibilities. It's going to be tougher for them. Jim Kansas City last year finishing the top five and outside rushing yards. Is that doable? M Yeah, I think it's doable.

See because like what you're saying, when you're doing RPOs or the spread option and things like that, you know, you're you're like here we were talking about can you dictate to a defense? Yes, you're dictating to them. They're gonna have to make a decision at the end of the day. So let's say you're isolating the defensive end with a you know, a spread option run with Mitchell Trubisky and you know, an inside run. Let's say an

inside zone run to Jordan Howard. The defensive end has to make a decision or whatever however they call it defensively to you know, whether the defensive end crashes to take the inside run or they blow it up with the back or coming up to blow it. And now the defensive end is going to have to decide and making the decision one. Am I going after the quarterback? Am I taking that inside zone run? Or potentially there could be a slanting coming behind me with the X receiver.

And so I think the Bears will have the ability to dictate some things with some good athletes that can put a defense in the bind. And they got to prepare for a lot more defensively with what the Bears are going to do with that stuff. You know what too real quickly is within the quarterbacks within the Bears division, you're not going to get the other teams running a lot of RPO because they're gonna preserve Aaron Rodgers. They're gonna stave Matthew Stafford, and I don't think Kurt is

really that RPO guy. Good point. Thank You'll continue on the side of this break. This is Bears All Access brought to you by IGS Energy on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to scoring from the best five K course in the city in the BNC Chicago Bears five K and crossed the finish line on the field at Soldier

Field the Race Saturday, June twenty third. You can register right now in Chicago Bears dot Com Slash five K. Jeff Joni Act, Tom Fair and Jim Miller your host tonight three one, two, six, four, four, sixty seven, sixty seven. If you have a question, comment thought on the Bears. Five weeks of dead time. Hey, everything's haze in the barn for the NFL right now. I don't believe there's anymore mandatory mini camps. Everything's been done. All thirty two

teams put it away as of today. Is that right? Right? But that's when the trouble starts, right, That's what That's what I was gonna say, but I didn't want to be the one saying it first. So, you know, guys, officially summer vacation with an asterisk, because just like Matt Naggie said, don't start stopping your workouts. Hey, if you think this, if you if you think this is a vacation, you're gonna be talking. You're gonna be cut. It's just good.

It's gonna decide your own faith. And that's the whole weeding out process of the NFL is when you give these guys a little bit of leash, what do they do with it? You know? And so you know, the facility is still open. You can go to any one of your facilities and lift weights and some of the top weight facilities in the country. And if you think that you're gonna go and you know and vacation and work out, you're gonna have a tough time when it all gets going. Yeah, you gotta be disciplined. And I

don't know about utile. I always said this was kind of the time where I cranked it up even or you know, got more throws in to get ready for training. Again, we were doing two a days back then, so you threw a lot more, but you kind of crank it up, you know. Accelerate not decelerate, is what I would say for somebody who were you throwing too back in those days? Who'd you who'd you pull into your offseason high school

field workouts? Yeah, I had a whole bunch of guys would just go up to the local high school here or even my old high school, and we just you know, mark off all the distances you're throwing. You know the route tree on both sides, both left side and right side.

And so high school players that you know, because a lot of the local high schools will have their workouts because their training camps just around the corner as well, So they'd go up their minimum three days a week because they'd have, you know, their sprinting programs to keep up with what they're gonna have to do for their two A days. So I'd have a ton of high school kids i'd throw to or just local friends, and

I wouldn't even make them run routes. I say, hey, just stand there like an outroute with your hands out like this, because a lot of them couldn't run with So I I'd do my normal drop and know the timing of the throw when i'd have to get it there. But I'd just be working on my accuracy and velocity and arm strength and all those type of things. If they couldn't simulate the speed of the receivers you're running within the NFL at the time you lived in the

weight room, Jim did not. But now I was a joke. I'm sure, I'm sure, but you did live in the weight room. But did you also take the time in the whatever a little time you had in the off season and work on footwork. Well, yeah, because we had a whole process kind of Clyde Emrick ran everything for the offseason, the off season conditioning and the weightlifting part of it. And he's he's one of the smartest guys in the history of weightlifting. Go look up as bio

if you don't believe me, Clyde Emerck. But anyways, he would take control of the weightroom, but when we would go outside, it would kind of transition to camaraderie conditioning. Everybody would have a hand in it. They could suggest the type of running they wanted to do that day. They would have a lot of it to do with foot movement, high feet off the ground, alternate movements one

way or the other, coming out of your stance. But so it was it was conditioning, but you know it's it's also a kind of a period where you're transitioned into a really bad mood for a month straight leading up to the beginning of training camp because there's nothing fun about it, and you kind of know it as an offensive Lineman. There's doubly nothing fun about it, and so that's that's the process of it. You get ready

to go in there and be ultra competitive. Oh Tom, how many how many times did you ask yourself this? Because that, to me I hated because you always knew, no matter what the training camps a day closer, I could never get away from thinking about it, and I'd just I'd be sitting there on my couch watching something. I'd be like, somebody else is doing more. So yeah, I'd go outside again, start throwing more and stuff like that. You do, your mind plays tricks on it because you

know it's ready. Never leaves your mind. I mean you don't sleep, and if you do wake up in an instant, it's because if you're reminded about something, and then again once the process start, every time you go to sleep, the next thing you wake up to. But the camaraderie and the fact that's all because that's the thing everybody misses. Every guy I've ever interviewed, I missed the locker room,

I missed the fellas. Does that ease the pain. The pressure of earning the job overwhelms all the goodness of the sport provides you. You know, you get to come in after practice and sit there with your buddies and bitch and moan for thirty five minutes. You know why you're getting ready to go to meetings and stuff, So that that's the good thing about it, But it is, you know, whenever you choose that sport for your life, you know you think about really what you want to

get out of it. And I play with a bunch of guys that all wanted to be starters. Jeff Jonkap there, Jim Miller with you on Bears All Access presented by Igs Energy Fellas every writer that I've read about the Bears and what the training camp is going to reveal and what questions need to be answered, most of them contained the development of Mitchell Trubisky being one of the

top five questions that need to be answered. Would you what are your respective must answer questions once training camp begins? And ultimately the first press conference of this offseason, Ryan Pace called Mitchell Trubisky the most important asset on this football team. So yeah, you got you have to start with there, but you also, Mitchell Trubisky needs support, and you know, you think of what the receiver position did not provide last year for the offense. So Alan Robinson,

Taylor Gabriel, Kevin White, the whole crew. Guy's got to come in and help Mitchell in that portion of it. And then you think of the inclusion of the tight end position specifically, they got nothing out of it last year after Zach Miller got hurt. So they got Trey Burton in here. You got Adam Sheheen, you got Dian Simms, Daniel Brown, Ben Bronicker and the rest of the crew. So you just need to provide a lot of help. And don't say, Okay, Trubisky, he's going to be the

reason we succeed. No, it isn't. It's gonna be because everybody on the offense understands their role and on the defensive side of the ball, and special teams as well. Yeah, growth of the receiver, growth of the Mitchell Trubisky, the health of the receivers, because obviously Kevin White and Allen Robinson factoring from that standpoint in the development of young Anthony Miller, we do think obviously they've improved greatly in this area, but obviously their health is going to be important.

And a couple of guys are coming off injury, and I think again that tight end spot's going to be critical. This is a tight end driven offense at least everywhere else it's Ben has been so Trey Burton, can you know young Adam Sheheen make another jump? Deon Simms, I don't think Deon Simms has played to his potential. I really I expected more from him out of Michigan State. That is a talented tight end that I think truly needs to push himself to reach the heights of what

he actually could play as an NFL player. So I think those are all going to be critical. Thanks for the Chicago Bears offensively, What do you suspect because it's not chiseled out yet? Even Matt Naggie said it the other day last week at the end of the mini camp, what the identity of this team is going to be? If you had a guest, we wrap this up, you know, after the regular season and hopefully there's a playoff trip attached to it, and this team made major input, what

would be the identity? What do you think the identity of this team is going to be high octane offense with power when I think they have the ability to be a high octane offense on the outside, including the tight ends. But if they need power out of a running back, you have Jordan Howard. So I don't think it's a one dimensional team, but I think the emphasis

is high octane. Yeah, I agree with that, and I think, you know, for defensively, and I'm going to say it again, I think they have the ability to be a really good defense where they can you know, they really can close the door on some teams. Again, some thing's got to emerge, Leonard Floyd. We've talked about all of it in terms of the past rushtional those things. Turnovers started to come a lot more frequently last year. That should

go in a better direction as well. So overall, a mentally tough, hard nosed football team that can maybe you know, overpower and surprise some people with their ability to play. That's what I'm looking for. A nasty, physical attitude, offensively aggressively, defensively aggressively, special teams aggressive. How come we haven't even

mentioned the name Roquan Smith. We'll do that on the other side of this commercial break and invite your phone calls three one, two, six, four, four, sixty seven, sixty seven. This is bears All Access on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to score. The segment of bear zol Access is orchestrated by cd CDW people who get it. Jeff, Tom and Jim with you on Bears All Access. Let's go

to the phones and we invite your calls here. In our final segments of the nine three, one, two, sixty four, four, sixty seven, sixty seven, Edison Park Bryan on the program Get Even, Brian. Hey, guys, I'm enjoying your show immenseally. I love this time of year when we start talking about the Bears. Me too, Brian. Why wouldn't you right by? Yeah,

the momentum just searches in it and it's great. My question is, what won't it be exciting if Kevin White Abbott actually turns out to be able to stay healthy number one and number two, if he turns out to be the player that we drafted him to be. Wouldn't that be great? Brian? That would be awesome. And I think there's a lot of people that have high hopes for Kevin White because he is a good kid and

he's important around the locker room. But you know, that's the thing about it is you gotta stay healthy and there's guys that you know that have a hard time doing it. Kevin's prepared, he understands his commitment to the offseason to get through the season. But I think that'll be probably one of the most highly anticipated watches of this NFL season to see if a guy like Kevin White can make it through healthy. Just want him to

experience some success for a change. Yes, you know, just so many whether it's happenstance and these injuries and things have happened. Injuries happened. I think we know that. But this want him to experience something good for his confidence because there's still a set of doubt in his mind, Hey can I do this? Because he hasn't done it yet. You know, he hasn't experienced that. So he's got that set of doubt and hopefully he can just shedder right

right through that glass that's been holding him down. Back of the owners meetings, sitting right next to Matt Naggie and Orlando said, why, what a great story it would be, and what a great challenge it is for a new coaching staff to get him to reach his potential and give him some you know, with the Good Lord, give him some luck. Who's healthier right now, Kevin White or Allen Robinson, And it's gonna be Kevin White because Alan

Robinson is coming off of a knee injury. So I think that's a little bit more why you need Kevin White to succeed when you look at his size and his structure in going through the paces in the in the OTAs in mini camp. Hey, he runs well, looks fresh, looks big as a receiver, So he's gonna provides He's gonna have to provide some comfort to that position. Well, there's players of know him on that team. Jim aid your names was his roommate in college. You heard Prince

of Mukamara earlier tonight in our second segment. He said, Hey, I'll be able to evaluate the offense once Allen Robinson's in it because he's he's a number one. That's a bold statement. I'm surprised to hear Prince say that. Well, I think you bring up a good point because Kevin's always been a true X. I think Allen's a true X receiver. For the listeners out there, that's you're you're split at what's the workload? You know? Are they gonna

make you know? All Robinson coming back. You gotta believe they're not gonna throw him out there and say, oh yeah, take every rep so they'll be all to spell each other. Why Alan continues to get healthy. So I think that's

a big part of it as well. You know, earlier tonight I had set the table a little bit about Kyle Shanahan to wrap up news conference during mini camp for the forty nine ers, talking about his system and what it's done for running backs in the system and just in general, and somebody said, hey, I asked him our defenses have they figured this out yet? And he says, no, it's a sound scheme. There are answers to everything that a defense tries to take away, and then you have

to make them pay for taking that away. Do you believe that is the case with readoption offenses and these RPOs that we're talking about. I think if you call a play in the huddle, you go to the line of scrimmage and you see the initial lineup of the defense and you know that someone's terribly out of position to influence him to a bigger, gaping hall, then I think you go with it. Yeah, So I think it is you're gonna have to break the huddle, and you're

gonna have to do a bunch of evaluation. Usually we watch quarterbacks and Jim talks about watching the safeties and how they moved. To tell you a little bit, I think with a run pass option, it's more of looking at like the exterior of your team. And if you have a defensive man that is good, maybe doesn't anticipate the napcount very well, he doesn't have great change in direction, and those are the type of evaluations that the offensive

coaches will make. Yeah, you got to have you know, and basically what he was saying, you got to have the right guy to run it right. The quarterback has to be a threat to run to make them commit to stop it, and you got to protect them too. Yeah, and you know, so you do need a certain like you're obviously not going to run that with a quarterback like me. You know, I'm not going to be able to get to the corner and do all those things that Mitchell and some of these athletic quarterbacks are able

to do. You know. Conversely, it just depends on what system you run, you know, because if you've got more of a pocket guy, they're just as challenging. Tom Brady can audible any play at the line of scrimmage and get you in any play. He wants to that to take advantage of what the defense they're presented. So again, it takes a certain guy. I don't think you want to major in it offensively. I think it's kind of

like a if you go golf. It it's a club in your bag that you want to use if you're able to provide it because you know what about that though, that club though, has to be defense. So you, like Tom said earlier, the beauty of it is you gotta practice. You gotta practice. Yeah, you got to dedicate time to it. Yeah,

you do. Offensively they do to stop it. Yes, that's what I'm so yeah so again, And I think that's it's nice to have more clubs in your bag when you want to pull that certain club when it's when it's needed. You know, you're you're not if you don't have a sand wedge and you're in your in your bag, you know, well, good luck in the sand trap. You

know I've seen, so you you're beat. It makes you more multiple as an offense, which I always think is better because it makes the defense have to defend more and prepare for more. So it's always good to be more.

You gotta be you gotta be eleven on all well, you know, going back to Notre Dame when we used to play the academies in that whole week of practice, when we would try to simulate what the academies were on, but then our defense and you look at the expressions on their face when we're we're you know, blocking them low, when they're they're at the advantage because they have sigh and strength. But because of the techniques the academies were using, air force beat us two years in a role because

of it. And I think there's similarities to the way defensive ends maybe that don't have the flexibility and the athleticism and they know they're playing a team that is going to have a run pass option. You know they're gonna be on high alert. All right, Fellas gonna wrap up here shortly, real quick. We want to get the position groups each week. This will wrap up the offense.

Quick thought on the offensive line and where it's at. Well, obviously, Harry, he said, the new offensive line coach here, He's a guy that constructs an offensive line that's powerful at the point of attack, and I think that's one of the things that you're going to be able to see out of it, use the power of Jordan Howard, but be able to have the athleticism and the offensive line for all the pass protections you need for Trubisky. So again, Earl Warford a guy that they brought in here. How

do you say his name? Watford? Watford? You brought him in here, number seventy one. I think he's going to add a lot of competition to the interior offensive line. He's got versatility and without you know, still and a little bit unknown about Kyle Long. It's nice that they brought Earl in here because I think he can be a competitive starter from day one. Yeah, agree with that. I like the versatility on the interior of the offensive line. I think Charles Leno has been nothing but a pleasant

surprise with how he's performed. So I like how it's coming together. I really do. I think all those guys again got need to stay healthy. That you know, you don't want Cody white Hare to be moving from center to guard and bouncing all around. So do think you know ed guys like James Daniels in the draft and Watford. You know these guys walk, Cush is there. Cush is a good player and soul has that you know they have, you know guys that could branch out. You've been mentioned

in his name credit. Well, you know what. I've been in the weight room to watch these guys and there's a whole different way that they're going about developing strength on this team. And I think that's one of the keys that's going to help the offensive line. And I think Herons Grossue is one of the guys that stands out to me the most of this offense that's gained the most size and strength because of the program. But as we've fold them again, good job Jim Miller, Tom there.

We'll talk to you next week. This week on Inside of the Bears, I sit down with Bears new tight end Trey Burton at a Keem Hicks faces some tough questions from one of our kids club members. Inside the Bears there's Saturdays at six pm on CW fifty Chicago and Sundays at ten thirty five pm on Fox thirty two Chicago. You can also watch show segments online at Chicago Bears dot com or on the Chicago Bears Official app anytime. Four time there, Jim Miller, Eli Hirshkowitz and

our special guest Tonight, Prince and Mukamara. Thanks for listening to everybody. We appreciate you and we'll talk to you next week on Bears All Access on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy The Score. Thanks for listening to this Chicago Bears Network presentation of Bears All Access. Podcasts are available on Chicago Bears dot com and on iTunes board download the official Bears mobile app. Bears All Access has been brought to you by IGS Energy and sponsored by CDWPN Scene and Ford