All Access: Lynch on defense's attitude

CDW and Forward. Hey everybody, Jeff joniak with you with my broadcast partner from news Radio seven eighty one to five point FMWBBM, the eighty five Bear, Tom Fair in the Score studio, and former Bears quarterback Jim Miller joining us as always Welcome into the program. Bears All Access presented by IGS Energy. Fellows, how we all do on? What? Where is your heads at right now? Where we got a couple of weeks to go? I don't you know, Jim may feel the same way I do. The last

month before training camp always started as a player. It was the worst mood of my month, and I didn't want to talk to people. I didn't want to see anybody. Just wanted to sit in a room by myself and wait for that to begin. Now it's different because just they take a little bit better care of you. But I don't know how Jim, as a player, you live that last month before training camp, because that's that's the

real stuff, that's when it really starts. Yeah, I don't I don't want to get what I want to say, dark, But I like being in a prison. It was a prison sentence, like top saying, because you're doing the countdown of the days until your freedom is finally there. You this unleash yourself on a football field. But I felt the same way. It was always on my mind. I

was always anxious. You're always questioning yourself, have I done enough to prepare and knowing that I did, knowing that I did, but you always have those questions and hey, and you know, finally it's there and it's upon you. But you know, it was constantly twenty four to seven that you were thinking about it. Things you wanted to do, things you wanted to accomplish, and if you did enough

to really raise your level of play every offseason. Honestly, the average person would say, now, wait a minute, this is a game that you know, you're playing a kid's game at a man's level, and you're getting paid very nicely for it. You should be excited to get, but no one really knows the inner workings of the day to day grind, especially when you guys played in time. But it it was, it was difficult. It's your living, it's your life, it's your livelihood, it's your financial stabiling.

What your your opportunity to gain some ground on your finances as you get older, because it's not gonna get You're not gonna solve your finance situation. When you played football back in our era, you had to play as long as you can to earn the opportunities you earn, So you know, just the everyday competitiveness of it and that thought that is in your mind. It's just how

mentally stressed were both of you. Seriously, if you had a bad day at practice in training camp with a guy breathing down your well, I'll talk from from my personal It's not like you know, I wasn't a first round pick. I was a sixth rounder out of Michigan State. You know, I believe in myself a new eye talent. But literally my rookie year, I broke my hand, broke my hand in my livelihood and they said year done. I got in one preseason game. How happened. Jason Gilden

came in, we were doing third down. I got thrown in with the first team in Latrobe. Pao was playing extremely well. I was I think they were thinking of making me the two because I thought at that point I was beating out Mike tom Sack me personally, and I think that's why they were throwing me in with

the ones. More because I had come off of really two good scrimmages against Washington and Buffalo played well, and then we were doing a blitz period and Jason Gilden came in and we were I was throwing a pass and Gilden swatted at my hand. I broke my thumb and tore the ligaments in my thumb, and that shelved me for that year. I'm like, man, are they going

to keep me? Is what's going to happen? So I felt I was on the bubble to begin with because Andy Kelly, he was a big Arena league star at that point, he was the fourth quarterback, He had played a lot, he was older than me at that point, so I knew there wasn't a given and he was having a good camp too, and uh, you know, so I didn't even know coming out of that training camp.

And then the next year they draft Cordell Stewart. I'm played into the World League and I break my wrist, my livelihood, so I thought that year I was gonna get cut. I came back and had the camp of my life and they kept four quarterbacks. And that was back when you know, very rare. Did that happen that they keep four quarterbacks? And they did that year too. It's but two years I came, I made the team with injuries. Believe it or not. You gotta drink more milk.

See now you know you sixth round picked Tom. Yeah, and but he's a quarterback. Now that that that that's like being a fourth rounder because everybody wants to find the quarterback. And Dick Duron used to tell me all the time, if Jim could have stayed out, the kid had been a Pro Bowl quarterback. But did you ever hear or read and don't tell me you didn't read. Did you ever hear the term? Well, he's never gonna make it, or God forbid, he's a bust forget about it.

For me, personally, I knew I could play, you know, I knew when I stacked up in that first camp gave me a lot of conference confidence where I said I belong here. I knew that, But sometimes in the NFL, it's things are happenstance. You get labeled, you know early, you know, I had injuries early in my career. Is the injury prone. I had, you know, to two separated shoulders in college, you know, so you know, so you had got to overcome all those things and then you know,

work yourself and kind of shed those labels. And I had been bounced around the league. And when I arrived to Chicago, I knew from my standpoint, I was mentally and physically ready. I was, you know, even though they had drafted Kate mcdown and Shane Matthews was there. I was ready and I knew I could I could do well. But you know, unfortunately for me, that injury bug returned. You know, torn achilles, tenants, shoulder injuries, you know, you

name it, you kind of go through. But you know, mentally, at that point, I knew I could play, and I knew I belonged to start in the NFL. I knew that personally, and I knew I could do it. Tom, you were a warrior out there to say the least, were you ever in a position in a game or a practice when you thought there is not a chance I can play through this pain I'm in at the moment and still was able to do it because you

didn't miss anything. No, but you know, it's funny that we were playing the Pittsburgh Steelers once and the second play, the second to last play of the first half, we were running a screen and I went to stop my guy and then release him and go out on the screen. And when I stopped and planted my foot, I snapped my plan or fashion, and it hurts so bad I

couldn't believe. So I made it through the next play, and then I ran into the locker room and took all my foot off, my shoe off and everything, and then I got my foot injected. Right now, I think you've told me this story on Team Plane one time, that the needle was the whole experience is brutal because they shot all around your foot on top of it, and you don't want to get into that story. But anyways, that was one of the challenges because the instance of discomfort,

it hurts you. And he said, okay, I got twelve minutes at halftime. Let's get this taken care of, and now the next six or seven weeks were awful. But you know, aside from and is going to put you in a position where you're talking about yourself. And I know you don't like this, but you're you're you're physically gifted. You worked your tail off in the weight room. You made yourself strong and ready to play snap after snap after snap for a long period of time. But there's

a mental component. Were you mentally stronger than you were physically strong? Yes, but that came from my mom and dad. It did, and it is you know, give it Where do you give credit? Where credit to due? You know, my dad worked outdoors every day. It was life for forty three years. My mom's eighty six and she still goes to work every day. So you do develop it, but you're also given the good genes and in the good you know, upbringing to challenge yourself like that. We're

gonna take a break. The interesting aspect of asking two former NFL players who played long careers is that you're getting ready for training camp here in a couple of weeks and all these same topics who will be discussed with the current ninety man edition of the twenty eighteen Chicago Bears. You're finding out who's physically who's mentally strong and ready to You're listening to Bears All Access on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to score and welcome back

to Bears All Access everybody. This is 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. Jeff, Jony Act, Tom there, Jim Miller with you on another edition of Bears All Access. Counting it down really the training camp. I don't know if you guys had a chance to check out Chicago

Bears dot com. It's been all over Twitter and all the different platforms. The Bears put out information and features. The Meet the Rookie series. It kicked off last week and it features Roquan Smith, the linebacker, Anthony Miller, James Daniels, and Joel Eway. But James, I just messed it up. But anyway, James is an honor yet, is he? Yeah? Oh yeah, I just saw it, yeah, because I saw

the first three. Yeah, So and Jim. I don't know if you've had time to to see those, but they're really revealing about the roots of what they're all about, where they came from and the coaching they got no different than the two of you. How you guys were raised from the great school level all the way through high school, college and into the NFL. But I love the journeys, man. They tell a story and all their different people who touched their lives in the way of

football or their parents. It's really interesting to see the journey of where and these guys appear to me to be very mental. Well you know, it's funny is we're all slapped with a little bit of reality early in our sports life in some way, shape or form. Because the two linebackers of the Bear drafted were first interested in basketball and then something introduced some of the sport of football and that's where mentally physically in with the enthusiasm.

That's when they really flourished into what they became, which is really interesting. And then when you watch Anthony Miller, this guy about those routes he's running. But right this this guy is straight up self made. There is there is there is no boutique of about him and this guy. I can't wait to see what becomes of his career because what he's invested in and Jim's talked about trusting himself as a quarterback when he knew he could play.

This is Anthony is always I'm all in on myself and I'd tell you and that piece was really interesting to see. To give even more of a presence of it, well, I think you do see teams paying attention more to you know, the just the character of a young because I do think the Bears drafted all character guys, you know, from Roquan even to Iggy who you're referring to. If you read that guy's background, he's got an interesting background.

I thought it was interesting. His coach and if you go to Chicago Bears dot com and read the Rookie series, Mike Sandford, who was his coach in college, just said, Hey, this guy is a number one character guy off the field. Just he goes, I want my kids around him all day. So these are solid citizens number one, because I think sometimes we get caught up in not realizing that there's a human being underneath that helmet. Granted you see the player in the game with the with the helmet on.

But there is a human element side of this and what these these players not only are going to be as football players, but as citizens in general, because we should all care about that at the end of the day. And I think they drafted a lot of solid character guys who won't care about football tremendously because they're they're they are driven by the sport that they love to be successful. But even if they weren't played football, they'd

be successful as well. Joel Ea booney way is the proper pronunciation, and that's a part of the piece as well. But whenever I hear student of the game from a coach at any level, my ears perk up. I'm a I'm all about that, because that's kind of the plan. Ryan Pace wants smart football players, right if you don't, I mean, we've seen many in You have to be smart in order to play the sport at this level because you see the complexity of what the coaches requirements.

But there are guys that are not, then they don't play. But hold on, now, so the guys that don't have the FBI the football intelligence that Scout's always attached and Jim you you talked to head coaches more than Tom and I do you talk to them all. There are not many things you can do with a guy that doesn't have football intelligence. Unless they're athletically gifted, they get a chance, and they're usually in many cases well if they're not football smart, they are first round picks with

a lot of talent that they never realized that. All. Right, say you take a guy like JJ Watt, so jj Watt and say he didn't know a lot about scheme defensive football, but he uses explosiveness to be so disruptive that that's what he did. If you take a guy on offense and you think he's just going to freelance, no, your whole offense is going to be disrupted. So there may be certain superior skilled positions that you could take

and put a guy out. If you put Reggi White anywhere on the defensive line and didn't even tell him the defense, just tell him to do what he wanted to do at the snap of the ball, that was junior. Say he did what he had lived his whole career, but he was Hall of Fame caliber, right, I mean guys like that, you know there are there's a difference between instincts and football intelligence. Would you agree, Fellows? Yeah,

I'll agree with that. Why I remember when I was in Pittsburgh, we played San Diego and I remember Ron Erhart was our offensive coording. He said, guys, junior sale, this guy guesses a lot. He'll attack the wrong gap, you know, because he would he would look at our formation. He just kind of you know, using FBI and guess wrong sometimes and we gashed him for big plays. But he was a tremendous player and when he was right, of course he was right and could could stuff the play.

But early in his career he was out there like any other rookie with a chicken with a head cut off in his younger years and a lot of times just relying on his athleticism and he could recover and

still make plays and things like that. What you you know, much like the discussions we've had about Brian Urlacher, who was another Hall of Fame player, you know, and good for Brian going in this year, but you know, I bring up that that training camp story all the time where he guessed wrong, attacked the lead and was a good play fake, but yet had the ability to recover.

But later in Brian's career because he did have football intelligence and instinctive and all those things that he was dealing with the knee injury, Brian was still out there play and making plays because his football awareness, his knowledge of the game had had grown to a level that he may have been slower in terms of the athletic ability, but was still able to make plays just due to his intelligence and knowledge of the game and love of the game, like so many players are able to do

over the NFL quickly. You know, look at a guy in this generation that plays on instincts. You know he doesn't look the part, but he plays the part. When you played offensive line and you knew a guy across from your guest a lot, did it make it more difficult for you to defend or to block him and

execute your game plans or not. Yeah, a guy that really guessed and you didn't couldn't predict what direction he was going to go, And all you had to do is you had to trust your fundamentals because that's the one thing with footwork, and coach Stanfeld he always built in, Look, this guy's going to go one of three ways. Your footwork if you stay fundal and a mentally sound is always going to be your savior, and that's you know,

that's something y'all. Anybody that goes out there, no matter what position they have they play, they have to go out there and rely on what they've been taught all week and all their life. Meet the Rookies, by the way. It can be found on Chicago bears dot com, the Free Chicago Bears Official app, brought to you by Verizon and Bears social media channels including Facebook Watch. So a couple of things. James Daniel, he's twenty, so it was brought up in the piece that is a seemingly okay,

the twenty year old James Daniel. He dismisses that because he says, hey, I'll be going up against thirty five year old guys as well. He says, it doesn't matter. Does the age matter? No, you know, when I first got out of college, I went right into the USFL and I was like twenty years old or something, and I think one of the first guys I played against was a defensive lineman they named Koy Bacon. And I think it was forty when I was twenty. Koy Bacon. Yes,

it's so kidding me. No, man. Listen, I could throw out a lot of USFL names that I played against that were vintage, But again, I had so much confidence in myself that it didn't matter the experience of the guys.

Here's the question for both of you. So you go up against a forty year old man or a thirty five year old man when you're twenty twenty one, do you feel their strength or do they feel your strength as a young man who was dedicated to the weight room, Because they always say when you get to the league, you feel that the maturity of them physically, not just mentally. I mean no, no, strength with strength. Strength was always

my confidence from college through pros. But you always had to be aware of guys that had great experience and instincts Keith Millard when he won defensive MVP of the League with the Minnesota Vikings, he had such superior quickness and strength and such great inatability to understand the snap

count that sometimes he was untouchable. You know. So there are guys that you know played with played with greatness that yeah, you're scared the entire week of preparing for him, and then the whole time you were playing against him. Jim did anybody ever force you to drop your when you went back to throw because you were worried about them coming to get you. Um No, I was broken in pretty good early with Greg Woyd and Kevin Green

on the other side. I mean, I mean literally that if they would come in and punch me in the gut, you know you're not a supposed to hit the quarterback. They just wore a test to me to see how tough I was. But so I didn't have to deal with the strength part of it, but the mental part of it I did. Because one we had a lot

of veteran players obviously Rod Woodson's a pro bowler. Had to go against him and Carnel Lake and the great defensive players that we had, which tested me early, and we'd scrimmage like I remember, we went and scrimmage to Washington Redskins and Darryl Green. They threw me in with the first team against the Washington Redskins first team defense. And I remember, you know veterans who were savvy as Darryl Green. I mean, the guy played forever, what was

it seventeen years the guy played or twenty years. He could mess with you. You know. It looked like it was going to be pressed at the snap of the ball, he'd do a press bail. He'd manipually and try to get in your head from a veteran standpoint, and just things that you had to to learn and overcome as a rookie. So you know that those were great experiences for me growing up. But you know that the physical aspect of it never really was there where you know,

you know you're gonna get hit. You know, you just you absorb it and you take it. And you got to be able to look down the barrel of a gun sometimes you know it's coming, and so you just, you know, you got to learn to take And I think it, you know, it shows your toughness to other players in your locker room that you know on your team that you're willing to take the punishment just like

they do. And uh, but you know, in terms of experience and younger players going against old and and uh, you'll you'll know this name when I say it, Tom Carlton Hasslerig. You remember, yeah, of course, Carlton. Yeah, the year before, no, the two years before I got to the Bear or to the Steelers. He basically this guy won like a Championship in wrestling. The guy was basically a back up his rookie year. His second year, he's

inserted as a starter, goes to a Pro Bowl. Wow, Pro Bowl, and that would have been my third year. So I arrived, get drafted. He got hurt the same day I got hurt breaking my thumb that I mentioned earlier. And Carlton had a lot of off the field issues, drug problems, all those type of things in the day that car Or Carlton and I went to the hospital

to get checked. That's when he left camp. But in one year's time, that guy went from no playing time to a Pro Bowl because he was that good in that talented of a player extrever played football extremely rare. We're gonna take a break time there and Jim Miller gracing us with their stories from days gone by. We come back, let's take a real quick look at the Bears as they had to training camp, and we'll be

looking for get some thoughts on that. This is Bears All Access hon Chicago Sports Radio six seventy The Square. You got the latest Bears news, photos and videos delivered straight to your mobile device. Download the Chicago Bears Official mobile app. Presented by Verizon, Jeff Jony Act, Tom There, Jim Miller here on another edition of Bears All Access

counting Get Down to Training Camp. I mentioned you can get some of these Bears rookie features that were done, meet the rookies, four players on these sites and so forth. And I want to go back to Anthony Miller because we had him out a couple of weeks ago. He is obviously brimming with confidence. He wants to be one of the best receivers in football history. He's not shy about saying it. But I want to go back to some of the highlights and stuff that I've watched, and

you guys watched the piece. The quickness of his footwork and his cuts are so sharp. You don't often see route runners coming into the league that precise and quick and really sharp, running guys off out of the slot, beating guys with a burst to get to the football. Is you have top end speed, He's got enough speed, but that route running it makes him fat. I'm excited to see him in this offense and just when he doesn't have to think about it, let it rip, because

his route running to me is special. You know, I think Jerry Rice's career became about route running because he wasn't blessed with Blazer speed, but he was blessed with great out running and he paid attention to it. So you think of the two backgrounds of the two players list, I'm not comparing him to Jerry Rice. He hasn't caught

one pass yet in the NFL hallover. When I watched the piece, and I look on the determination of a player, his desire to be great, That's as important to me as any of the highlights I've seen up into this point, because this kid only wants to get better, and I just I'm really excited to watch the develop and I really pull for him because he's you know, he's that type of guy that he's never get first round credentials, but man, he could be a Hall of Famer at

the end of it all. Yeah, I'm excited about him. I think he's tough, not only mentally but physically, Jeff, As you said, his feet are like pistons. They are just a rapid fire. The way he sets people up. He's got head fakes, he can close on defensive backs really quick. He's got the quickness at the top of the stem of his route, And like you said, some may question his long ball speed. All you do is see him make a big playoff and nobody's catching him right,

And that's another thing. His ability to track the ball is another thing. But all three levels of the defense is not safe with this young man. Here's what I got to say about it too, When I if I have to slow down the tape just to figure out how he managed with his feet to get by his defender, I had to keep slowing it down. How did he do that? He sinks? Well, as you said that, those

feet are like pistons. They are running NonStop at the line of scrimmage, not even getting touched in press coverage. I mean, granted, you're going to change in the NFL level. He had a whow our Taylor, Gabriel and m Are they on the field at the same time? Heck, yeah, they're gonna be right. Well, I mean, where are what position will they be follow? Are they going to play

all the receiver positions across the border? Is Anthony Miller going to be starting at one position specifically at the start of training camp just to get introduced to the system, or are has this offense big enough for he and Taylor Gabriel on the line of scrimmage at the same time double slots Jim, Yeah, well, yeah, I can see that happened. Or say, bunch sets, you know, think about

you know how teams subdefense. Let's say, I mean, you know the defense that the Bears are playing, maybe two dbs go down and you know the secondary defensive backs that are coming in maybe are slower a foot. Yeah, you'd want to attack their weaknesses. Nothing better than getting two speedy guys out there. So bunch sets where it maybe causes the defense to contract a little bit, and now you got these two little speed demons coming out

of those bunch sets. We used to have a big bunch set with obviously David Terrell and Marty Booker and Dez White, but we had smaller guys too. When we want to get more speed out of it, and we just explode out of these bunch sets and just beyond those defensive backs so quickly that they'd be behind them

before you could, as quick as a hiccup. So I think they will have opportunities for that where they'll probably put out, you know, have a speed package that they'll they'll put out there on offense where maybe they want to take a shot play or something like that if the situation calls for it, or you know, again, you know,

just mismatches that we talk about. If maybe a you know, a defensive back goes down in a team that likes to play their base defense and keep their their regular d out there, and you've got some opportunities to maybe getting a foot race with your opponent just because their personnel isn't going to match up with the speed the Bears now present. They didn't have that a year ago. Bears, that's the legitimate package in their offense. Now, red zone

I think is going to be extremely different. I mean, the Bears have struggled in the red zone scoring no no doubt about it. They have now a wide variety of red zone options, from big guys catching fade routes to tight ends all capable of being a red zone weapon, to the running backs out of the backfield, to guys like Taylor Gabriel and a guy like Anthony Miller and

hopefully Kevin White stays healthy. I mean there, I am very high on what the red zone package might look like for the Chicago You know, would you guys agree, yeah, you know, the athleticism of the cornerback position and then Trey Burton. I think right there, those are kind of two matchups that's gonna hard to deal with in that short zone. But then you add all the other pieces in plays, I think it's gonna be you know, to me, the biggest the guy that overwhelmed me the most throughout

all the OTAs was Trey Burton. I just think that he's a matchup nightmare, no matter that much opportunity because of what he had. So this is going to be interesting. It's like Jim talking about Rigg not playing that coming in and being a pro bowler. You know, Trey Burton gets an opportunity to have more exposure. Just hope the best happens. Yeah, I mean for him, you know, with Selik and obviously ERT's there in Philadelphia and the heat here.

He is just marinating and behind the scenes doing his thing, getting better every year, and then you know they use him in key moments for big plays, almost like a secret weapon. He's not a secret weapon anymore. He's going to be a premier part. I think of the beer offense, like what Tom talked about, and then other guys that need to be a red zone presence. I mean, Allen Robinson is a big, physical receiver. He's got to be a red zone presence. I think Adam Sheheen he's got

to take the next step. He's got basketball skills that what he can play above the rim, and you know, he needs to be a red zone present. He had three red zone touchdowns last year and there were eight games we didn't even get tired. I got a realistic question that we got to talk when we talk about Alan Robinson from from the very first regular season game? Is he I mean, are you do we have expectations that he's going to be the number one receiver for the Bears or I mean, are we expecting too much

from him too early? And the injury revery, Yes, we are talking about numbers. How about if you recover from an injury. In the last eight games, he had sixty catches. You know, go ahead, Jim, I'm sorry, I hear you. I you know they're going to monitor his workload and obviously where he's at and all the sidebecks testing in the of course, they're gonna talk to the player. Just you and I've been through that, Tim, and I think they're gonna be very cognizant to not overwork that knee early.

I do, And it may it may limit his touches in his reps early in games, And I'm okay with that. Yeah, and yeah, maybe the first game he's in there thirty snaps instead of sixty five. And I think you're right. It's again not how you start, it's how you finish. And I think they want him to finish strong. But and you're hoping, I'm with you, like by week you know, I don't know when it's gonna be, whether it's week four, week five, week six, maybe it's week eight that finally, hey,

I'm ready to go, give me more. It'll be interesting. It'll be a challenge for him because he was on the field for ninety seven percent of the snaps. Jackson, right, But you know, when you when you look at Trabisky and you look at um Tree Collin, and you look at Taylor Gabriel and you look at Anthony Miller, there's

there's not a lot of big guys right there. But you look at Trey Burton and then you bringing Alan Robinson and you're bringing Kevin White, and then you add you know, then you have a the contribution of size, but we don't know what we're gonna get out Kevin, you know, and so it's just it's just weird to think of the pieces that they're ultimately going to have. It's just that I hope that people don't have unrealistic Let me let me, did you say this real quick?

Because we're talking about and everybody does right now. You talk about the glowing aspects of what could be, and we're we're all realistic here too. I don't mean to make this seem like the Bears are gonna be powing ups, you know, six hundred points. I'm just saying that the potential for it to develop over the course of the year. I'm not saying it's going to be that way day one, but it could. You never know, and we are I mean, I think we are realistic. Offenses take time to marinate

and this is going to take time. Yeah. I think the defense is going to have to be strong early to keep Bears in games until the Bears kind of ignite, and I do I think there'll be a touchdown better than what they I mean, sixteen points is nothing in the end. That's what they average for an entire year. They are just much more prepared to explode at an offense. Now again, will that catch fire a week four, week five, maybe when Alan Robinson's is one hundred percent healthy and

they can finally come together as an offense. But even early, if that is the case where they're managing Alan Robinson's you know, reps and how many snaps that he gets, I still think they have the ability to do it. If Kevin White is then moved to X for the other thirty plays, or say they do personnel sets, who knows, maybe Trey Burton will be out there as an X and you've got a three by one set with Trey Burton. Is the defense going to put a safety out there?

Because that's what Kansas City did with Travis Kelsey. Now, I'm not calling Trey Burton Travis Kelsey or Zach Ertz or anybody. He's his own guy, but they know enough about him that I think they signed him for a reason. Where you can do some things offensively and you're still much better and can present more as an offense, that's going to create a lot of problems for those guys on defense, where I think the Bears are going to be about a touchdown better than what they were a

year ago. All right, we're gonna step away take break. Coming up next, we're going to be joined by new Bears outside linebacker Aaron Lynch, Jeff Jony, Act town Fair, Jim Miller on Bears All Access brought to you by IGS Energy. Will continue the conversation after this on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy the Score. Sign your child up for a fun, non contact Chicago Bears You Football camp

brought to you by Gatorade and Athletical Physical Therapy. Visit www dot bearscamps dot com to say fifty dollars Today Jeff joni Ac, along with Tom Thayer and Jim Miller pleased to be joined by one of the newer Chicago Bears outside linebacker and the veteran Aaron Lynch. Good evening, Aaron, thanks for joining us, hopeball, your summer is going well,

and that summer is starting to shrink. But for a guy like yourself coming to a new team after several years in San Francisco and reconnecting with your old defensive coordinator, Vic Fangio, your excitement level got to be well off the charts right now. Where's your mind at and where's your expectation level at for this role you're gonna play with the Chicago Bears. Oh guys, thank you for having me on the show. Yeah, my excitement has been shoot

off the roof right now. You know, you know, freshly start over here, reconnected with Fangio, you know, coming into the system that I know already, and uh, you know, I've been able just to focus this summer on just my body and my mind and getting in physical h shape to come to camp and show my talents. Hey, Aaron, you know I went to know Ames. So I've been following you for quite a long time. And you know, you had a hiccup in your college career, you had

a hiccup in your pro career. Why is Aaron Lynch gonna be here in four years? What is it gonna take for you to be here, be a part of the Bears in four years, for to have that type of tenure, you know? I mean, like you said, I've had these hiccups, and um, I feel like everybody has some type of hiccups, you know, in their career, in any in any business. So I mean I feel like I've had my hiccups, and uh, I've learned from my hiccups, and um, I just have a different mentality now and

my mind is on the right place. You know, outside of football, everything is just going great and it is just an amazing feeling right now, and I just have an amazing how my future is going to go. And that's basically what it is. You know, outside of football, everything is going amazingly great. So that's why I feel like, you know, I will have a pretty good and great career here where the struggle is well, Aaron, Jim Miller here,

welcome to Chicago. And you know, from from that standpoint when you talk about here, you're a more mature guy. You're you're ready to be a pros pro. And then just getting reacclimated to Vic Fangioe in his defense that you were introduced early in your NFL career, How quickly has that been for you? And you know, is it like riding a bike? Did you pick it up quick again where you feel you can excel moving forward? Yeah? It was almost, Yeah, it was almost like you know,

you haven't ridden a bike for a while. You know exactly how to ride the bike, but it's just a different feeling, you know, just being out of it for a few years and whatnot. You know, I said, catch upon a lot of these things that he's put into the system. But it was a it was an easy catch on. You know, I came in, I knew it. A lot of the plays were already Kevin, some of the new ones, but I mean, nothing shaves me. Took

a full on it. It's just great. Aaron Lynch our guest Bears outside linebacker Jeff Jony Act, Tom there j Miller here on Bears All Access brought to you by IGS Energy. If I may just go back to what you were talking with Tom about there. You said, you have an amazing feeling. You're feeling great, everything off the fields great. What got you there? Was there a Was there a seminal moment for you that got yourself thinking, okay, the change of scenery, everything going well in my life.

Was there a singular moment that you feel is going to be your benchmark momentum? You know, like I said, it was my outside life that really changed everything for me. You know, I have three kids, two of my own, and with the last one, it's just been you know, it's helped me find it's made me more religious and so there I've just been spiritually free, free minded, free of just you know, all the things that I've had in my past that kind of kept me from getting

to where I got. I feel like my family has been a huge reason why I feel like everything is just amazing right now. You know, I think that's really what it was, was my family, having these having my boys and science. Sam said it just being a father. Being a father has really helped. Hey, Aaron, you know when you see you guys all together, you're an easy guy to pick out of the group and six six

plus two seventy Why are you a linebacker? And why haven't you transferred to a defense even throughout your career? Because I know I read about you in high school. You came out of a three point stance a defensive end. And then when I started watching you Notre Dame and stuff, I'm going, Wow, this guy is one of the biggest outside linebackers I've ever seen. What in your athletic background or what in your traits has kept you at that linebacker position. I mean, I guess just I can move,

I can move there, and I move well. I mean, I know, coming into the league, I was like, man, I want to be in a three point stands, you know, and playing in Vic's defense as standing up, being able to see the whole offense, see what's going on before the ball is snack and then when he left, and then I had to go put my hand in the dirt a couple of years after, which was I mean last year I had put my hand in the dirt and it just totally changed the game how I was

used to. And um, I think just being able to I think, just move it. I don't know, do you gain a faster advantage. Do you gain a faster advantage coming out of a two point stance as opposed to

you coming out of a three point stance? You know, everybody has the different preference, but I do believe that like if you're standing up, being able to see the formations, being able to see the quarterbacks movements, you know, right, the things that he does, even the offensive line, Like you can instead of seeing the person in front of you while you're standing, you can see the guy on the opposite side. And I feel like that gives you a major advantage on anybody that can't see those things

while being a three point stand. Well from your standpoint, you know here your years in San Francisco. Now you're getting to know a new group. A gentleman, you know, a Keem Hicks and all the all the players there are young Leonard Floyd and players that have been there. How, you know, how do you prove yourself to them because they're you know, they want to welcome, welcome you into

their fold as well in the locker room. But it sounds like all the vibes are great, but how do you create that that sense of trust with your new teammates. You know, these guys have been great to me and they have been actually great for me. You know, they the way this defense as far as you know, deep were talking about defense, as far as the defense goes, these guys the way they attack practice, attack the scull room, and just how they attack you know, the locker room outside.

They just they are really keened in. And if you don't come in, you know, you're not doing your part, or you just come in with a big head and uh, you know, just all the things that you shouldn't be doing. These guys wouldn't make you feel comfortable because they are all about doing all the right things. And I mean there you guys, come on, now, you guys watch them. They're a bunch of dogs. You gotta be a dog

to sit in with the dogs. So I guess, you know, me coming in and you know, not coming here and thinking like I'm just gonna come in here and take somebody's spot. You know, I came in here with the mindset I'm going to earn everything, show these guys that I earned to be in the locker room with them, on the shield with them, and uh, it has just been I guess they you know, they've been great with me,

So I guess I'm doing all right. Aaron Lynch our guest here Bears All Access brought to you by IGS Energy, a couple of more minutes with the Bears outside linebacker we mentioned, and the reacquainting with Vic Fangio. His coaching style, his mind, how it works, how he looks at defense versus other coaches you may have played for. Not to demean them or to discount them, but has his impact on you been as most significant of any in your

entire playing life, NFL, college or otherwise. Definitely most Definitely he's a genius, and he's you know, he's more a genius. How to explain it? Like he knows how to exactly work with a guy, you know what I'm saying. So, you know, some decordinators not talking down to anybody, but just some decordinates they don't necessarily how to work with

the actual player themselves. Zig knows how to work with each and every person, put him in each and every position that they're going to excel in, because I mean, he's got to excel too. So I feel like he just knows about who he's picking, you know, where he's putting these guys and how they're gonna sit his scheme and do the best day can for him. And um,

I'm just coming into the league, you know. He he you know, he grabbed me out, grabbed me right out of South Florida, and uh I did Okay, I didn't. I did pretty good, you know, for him as a rookie, And um I felt like that let on a little bit after because it was the same type of type of defense. Didn't have to change anything. And um, I guess he just has that type of mojo. He leaves with you even if you know you're not with him, because you know, he just he's just that type of person.

In other words, does he know how to press your buttons, you get you where you need to be. Yeah, he definitely does in the good ways. In the bad ways, he sometimes you know, he can make you mad, you know, get get getting inside your head. But in that the outcome is always going to be greater than what you're feeling.

And at the time, you know so like sometimes he'll get on the meat and make me feel like I'm doing more than somebody else's and it you know, you just mentally you're like, man, why am I doing so much? But at the same time, he knows what he's doing, and the outcome always is the greater benefit. Hey aarony, come you get a fresh start here at the Bears. You got to a big time first rounder in Roquan

and they got Iggy another inside another inside linebacker. Did those guys make you feel older and experience or do they make you feel young because you're kind of attracted to their excitement and the fun they're having. It's kind of both. You know. It's like, even even going into my fifth year, I'm still a young guy. I'm still young, you know, by age, and a lot younger than a

lot of dudes on the team. But man, both those dudes, is their juice is just out there, and they kind of like it, kind of like feeds off into your juice too. So they make you feel young because you're like, man, I'm gonna do a dig onna, dude, I want to be like, you know, stuff as different practice and uh yeah. But then I feel old because I'm like, God, these kids are young that you know, they kind of got

a not a young man tatty. But you can just tell the young kids, you know, prociate out of college, you know. Yeah, that's how they make me feel a little older. Aaron lynch Our guests here on Bears All Access, we really appreciate the time, you know what. From my perspective and not knowing you other than just meeting you at mini camp and so forth and up at OTAs. You seem very happy and content and ready to roll. So we wish you luck and nothing but great success.

You could play a huge role in this defense here in twenty eighteen. Good luck to you, Good luck, Aaron, Thank you, I appreciated. Aaron lynch Our guest here on Bears All Access. Joanniac there and Miller with you when we come back on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy. The Score This segment of Bears All Access is orchestrated by cd CDW people who get at Jeff Jonniac town there

and Jim Miller. Aaron Bears All Access brought to you by IGS Energy our final segment tonight, and enjoyed that conversation with Aaron Lynch because frankly fellas, you know, the guy's got a load of potential. We know that he has. You have to realize that potential when when he does, let's let's say the optimism when he does, we're talking a double digit sacker, an outside linebacker on a very good defense. Closed it by saying he could play a

huge role in this defense. How you guys optimistic about this? I am? I think I am. I mean I think a lot of it. For him, it sounds like it's where his heart is. Yeah, you know, like like Tom said, there's been some hiccups. You know, uh, you know when when he transferred out of out of Notre Dame, you know how much did he love football? Was his heart in it? All those type of things. I think everything is. Everybody knows he's talented. I mean, he is physically just

one of those gifted players. Um that that's how he was born. You know, he's been given a gift and now if the mind's if the mind's right, the body will follow. And I think that's really up to him. And it sounds like he's in a good place. Sounds like he's in a good locker room and with a good organization, with a coach who knows him extremely well. And don't forget Vic Fangio did this a year ago

with Kyle Fuller. I mean, thinking about how he pushed his buttons and how well Kyle Fuller played a year ago. You know, every one of those specials that we saw about the rookies coming into the Bears, they always had one guy in their background was an instigator and their success. Let's hope at this stage of his life that Vick

is the instigator of success for Aaron Lynch. Because listen, folks, when you see this guy, he's the guy that you want getting off the bus first, right after Roy Robertson Harris and then you know, I mean, he's got all the skills and you ask him, why aren't you a three hundred pound defensive end, Because he's got the athletic ability to cover guys and you know, and that six six two seventy five. Yeah, it would be an awesome

fine for this particular Bears defense. All right, fellas we're doing our position look running out of positions as we tick towards and started training camp here and one of our last shows before training camp, we're gonna go to the secondary which last year and Tom's talked about Jim one hundred times, it was. Yes, it was the big question what was going to happen? Now we know we got some established guys back there, they still have to

take a step, will they? And we got the starting four as of right now entering training camp intact, Kyle Fuller, Prince of Mukamara, Adrian Amos, and Eddie Jackson. And now they hope to be Bryce Callahan as a nickel and be pushed by these other guys. It should be a good thing with a better pass rush. What do you think? I like it. I think they're like an orchestra, all right, they're all in symphony. All right. All these guys have

played together, and even guys that have stepped in. Bryce Callahan, Deon Bush, DeAndre Hall, Marcus Cooper, these guys all should be in sync with one other. They know what the coach has asked. They've all stepped on the field, even Cravon Leblock. You know, so all these guys should know exactly everything about each other, what the coach wants to accomplish, what he wants to execute, and I think they are going to be in say, I expect that turnovers to go up even more. It was an uptick last year.

I expect an uptick this year from this group because they've all played together, including Sherick McManus. I mean, let's face it, not all all those guys have played that I just said, every one of them. So more is expected. And this group is intact to start out and we'll see if it goes. If one guy drops out, if one guy falls out due to injury, another guy should be ready to step up and play because they've already

done it, you know. Marcus, Marcus Cooper, Senior DeAndre Hall, those two guys got to come up and play some football because you know, we have We had hope for Adrian Amos and he fulfilled all of our hope. And I think that his arrow is still pointing up and he's going to play better. We knew nothing about Eddie Jackson, what he was going to do is come in here and contribute to this football team. And we got the

best out of both of them. But now you see these guys, Marcus Cooper Senior being a high price free agent that was brought in here. He's got to play to his size. He's got to play more like a Charles Tillman. You got to go out there and use your six one and a half as a weapon, and we need to see more on that. And then DeAndre Hall here's another guy that's been blessed with size, but what is he He's never been able to stay at one position as a cornerback or a slot corner or

a safety. So I mean you got to get something out of his size and his style or you know. So those are going to be the guys that are going to have to come in and contribute to make this a unit. And the health. The health for a guy like Callahan, for example, when he is healthy for a consistent period of time, he makes place. He's a blitzer, he's physical despite his size. He's very confident young player. Craive On le Blanc, they're they're similar in each other.

Oh yeah, well, Blank, I mean you talk about the word dog that he's got. He's a dog. Yeah, he's like that way. I got one for you, Jim from your analysis at the draft and so forth. Kevin Tolliver an interesting candidate to make some noise if he can stay healthy as well. I think he was nicked a little bit in OTAs. He's a six two one ninety two pound cornerback at LSU with again a five star recruit attachment to his name, one of the top young corners coming out of high school where he had he

had he had two. He had some hiccups at LSU. But if this guy he's talented, now, well, do you know? Yeah, I think you know. I think for him college free agent, like you said, he has the size that you're looking for at six two nine two. I think ultimately in terms of the techniques and everything he's going to be asked to do, I think he's going to be a practice squad player that is going to be interesting and

a guy they're gonna want to develop. You know, Bears have drafted other college free agents as well that have played significant playing time. Matter of fact, one is now a Detroit Lion as a linebacker. I think we know

who I'm talking about. From that standpoint. So Kevin is an interesting guy that I think that they're just gonna want to marinate, develop and see where it goes with that young player, because he's got the size and the athleticism that you mentioned and comes from a good program down to the LSU that kicks out a lot of top phenomenal athletes and Kevin is one of them. Yeah, he rises me a less Lee Fraser. He's got a bigger body, he's tall, he's got some length to him.

But the best thing that you just mentioned, Jim, he's got some quality college reps. They got athletes down there, and they got the best conditions to practice. And so if you're in that conference, whether you're playing in a game or you're playing against your practice opponents, you're you're always getting reps. So who are you referring to the big cheese? Oh okay, that's so I thought we were talking about the secondary. That's why Christian Jones I was

gonna say, I didn't want to look dumb. Hey, I love think about him. He was he was expected to be a fourth round pick, and the Bears got him as a free agent lay a lot. But then Christian Jones is like the DeAndre Hall of the defensive backfield. You're never able to settle into one position your whole career to be able to but oftentimes that's not even on the player. There's little there. There's a log gym, there's no room at the ends, and they have projection.

If Christian Jones was great at one position, he would never leave that position. The thing about it is he was never able to capitalize on the athleticism they see out of him in practice. You have to everything's gotta connect. This week on Inside the Bears, go behind the scenes on Draftnet with a Rowe, Kuan Smith, and Spice Adams catch us up with his former teammate Matt Forte. Inside the Bears as Saturdays at six pm on CW fifty Chicago and Sundays at ten thirty five pm on Fox

thirty two Chicago. You can all watch show segments online at Chicago Bears dot com or on the Chicago Bears Official app. Anytime, Fellas, we fooled them again. Jim Miller, We're done, Tom Bear, Jeff, Joni Yak, We're out of time. Thanks as always to our folks out there listening at home, and you know we got a lot of things covered here today despite not having a lot to talk about on the lead up to training camp. Well, let's know

how it works. If the best thing about this show is Aaron Lynch starts sixteen games, then this was one darn good show. We appreciate it. As always. We'll talk you next time here on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy the Score. Thanks for listening to this Chicago Bears Network presentation of All Access. Podcasts are available on Chicago Bears dot com and on iTunes, or download the official Bears mobile app. Bears all Access has been brought to you by IGS Energy and sponsored by CDWPNC and Ford