All Access: Pagano hired, Pro Bowl update

Serious x MNFL Radio, the former Bears quarterback. We got Tom Thayer in studio at the Score Studios observing the week before the Super Bowl and the Pro Bowl festivities. And today here at hattisall I'm situated in my booth as we review the introduction of Chuck Pugano as the defensive coordinator Chicago Bears Fellows. Good evening and welcome everybody to Bears All Access here in Chicago Sports Radio six

seventy The Score brought to you by IGS Energy. So we got all kind of different perspectives tonight to bring to the table. Tonight We'll start with Tom in studio time. How you doing I'm doing good. You know, it's funny you got the picture of Mitchell Trubisky in the back of the Sun Times. You know it's a Pro Bowl practice when you're in short sleeves and sunglasses, and you know, that's the indication that the Pro Bowl and the way these guys getting ready to prepare for the week and

for what the Pro Bowl has become. I hope there's better effort than we've seen in the past. And then, but I think today as about Pogano and a lot of fans that don't know a lot about Chuck Pagano being in the AFC through a majority of his career, getting an introduction to see how he'll be up at the podium, how he's going to answer questions. When I was saw Chuck Begano when he was coaching with Indianapolis

or Baltimore, he was always a cliche talker. And I think today you got a little bit wider exposure to Chuck Begano, what he's been going through the last couple of years, you know, the success of his coaching career, and even I'm glad that asked him the question about the desires to be a head coach. I think he's extremely content to be where he is. Yeah, he sounds like that very much, and he loves his quotes. I had an opportunity to visit with him. He's got it.

He's a quote machine. He's got all sorts of sayings he's gonna roll out to his players. So it'll be fun to jack those down over the course of the season, and he's got big plans for that. We'll hear from cuts from him throughout the broadcast here this evening to a let you know, if you missed it earlier today, but Big Jim your year onto the draft, the draft right now, my friend. Yeah, it's been all week. It's down here at Theresa Sea Bowl. A lot of talent,

you know. I can see definitely probably about eight first rounders that are down here performing in this game. And we can get into some of those names, you know, obviously the O Warrior, the defensive back. There was a little bit of scare. He's from Penn State. He went down early in the practice, but portually he wasn't hurt

and was able to return. And you know, so there's a lot going on, like you said, and I was happy to hear all the things that Chuck Pagano said, I listened, I've read all your quotes today and what you were tweeting out, Jeff and and just how he's not going to change the terminology on the defense. I think that's a good thing that, you know, all those players on defense won't have to get to know what a different terminology. He'll keep it the same and it'll

be familiar to the players. Now. I always say this about play callers. Though, He's gonna have a different way he calls a game that's different than Vic Fangio. He's gonna have certain tendencies that are different than Vic Fangio,

things that he obviously believes in. You know, when he's gonna heat up an opposing quarterback, will he be more aggressive in terms of the blitzing, because certainly the Bears front seven they've been fantastic and I don't think Fancio has always had to do that as much as some other teams in terms of providing pressure. And then just the talent, you know, to continue to develop the young talent. That's going to be imperative for Chuck Pagano as well.

You know, to Jim, I think it's really important to keep defensive line coach. Why am I losing his name?

Jeff Rogers or Jay Rogers. It's important to keep him on the staff because if you are going to keep the same terminology, and you're keeping the terminology together to be able to have these guys experience the same terminology that they learned this year, there's going to be a coach on the staff that has the ability to explain little nuances of the defense to Pagano and I think it's important you talk about and even he talked about

it at the podium. You know, you made a quarterback make it an indication that we're going to blitz you from one side, But as soon as that clock winds down and they get to the point where they can't make a transition, he'll blitz you from the complete opposite

side and overwhelm you with bodies. So now it's good that they can put that into the terminology, so the players know what the coach is talking about, and easier for you know what, four new coaches on the defensive coaching staff to learn it, rather than every single player forgetting what they've learned over the last couple of years and trying to learn something new. So I think that's importan and part of the development, the continuous development of

this defense. Here's what his vision is. Our vision for this defense is to be the best, and we'd be the best in the history of the game. Pieces are there, they'll continue to add pieces, and we'd be better than we were last year. Absolutely, it will be very, very difficult and be a huge challenge, but one that we're all up for. Well, he's not just sitting back and saying, hey, you guys are really good and hope to be really good. He's shooting for the stars. I love it. Yeah, you know,

it's you know, and I love it too. And you talk about new players coming in here, and Jim, you brought it up a couple of minutes ago because you are down at the senior ball and you see all this upcoming talent, and then I start thinking about coach

Pagano and where he fits in. But this upcoming draft, because you know, everybody talks about what the Bears don't have in terms of numbers, I think this is probably as an important draft and the players that you bring in as if you had a load of first rounders, because you can't have missus. You can't go out there and reach out a guy that maybe you think he can come up through the ranks if he's in a

small program. You have to get these guys like here, Eddie Jacksons and stuff that there's a reason there in the fourth round. But the reason is that they're they're a good football player with maybe a little bit of hiccup of injury in their past. All right, we'll get to Jim Miller and some of that. The Bears will have a guy making those decisions. Ryan Pace has had some very good mid the late round draft picks that have stuck and stayed and some are in the Pro

Bowl right now. We'll be talking to one of those guys, Charles Leno Jr. Former seventh round draft pick. We'll be joining the program from Orlando, where some practice took place today with his six other Bears teammates and having a good time. We can see that from all the pictures and all the video we've seen from Orlando. This is Bears All Access here on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy

the Score. Welcome back to Bears All Access, brought to you by IGS Entergy, 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 Jonyak up at Hattisaw with Tom Fair and the Score Studios and Jim Miller down at the Senior Bowling Mobile allowed them. I'll pick

it up with Big Jim Weather Edman Grade. Eh No, they had to actually yesterday they had to moving inside and go into South Alabama. At least now they they have a facility that they can go indoors and practice. They had to limit the amount of you know, representatives for each team. The teams were only allowed to representatives. So that's unfortunate because you got all the scouts from every organization that's down here, so they're really gonna have

to scout off the tape. But at least the players did get in a quality practice. And you know, back even when I played in this game in ninety four, I remember we had a practice that was canceled. We ended up doing our practice in the ballroom with a hotel. Imagine me throwing an out routes into a fold up wall. I mean, so, at least now they have a facility that they can use but it has been pretty bad weather down here. Hey, Jim, I have a question for you.

Your era is different than Meyer when I when I came out, you had the Blue Gray Game, you had the East West Shrine Game, you had the Hula Bawl, you had the Japan Ball, and you had the Senior Ball. So you had that all these players were able to make a choice. Or I also went to maybe one, two, or three of the bowl games throughout at the end

of theirs college career. Do you like the way the bowl games are for the players that are looking for an opportunity in the NFL Or did you have that access to that many when you came out of college as we did and we had to make a decision what bowl game we wanted to go to. Yeah, I think now it's pretty much, you know, in terms of the competition, I think the Senior Bowl still is the premier bowl. If you get an invite to the Senior Bowl, ninety percent of the players that play in this bowl

game will be drafted. And again it's where you have the most first rounders too. I mean I can easily see a good thirty players through round one through round three that will get drafted that what I saw down here is probably one of the best groups of talent that I've seen in a in a senior Bowl. And think about last year Baker Mayfield played in this Bowl.

Josh Allen played in this Bowl. So you can really improve your stock and the players that even playing something like last week was the East West Shrine game, right, so players from that game that really stood out have moved on and come over here to the Reesa's Senior Bowl. Jim Nagge, the executive director, leaves some invites available so that players that do really shine in that game can come out and come over. And the one guy who really stands out to me is the offensive lineman from Elon.

This guy is six six, three hundred and forty five pounds. He's a tackle all right, only you don't get to know his name. Because he shined and dominated so greatly last week in the East West Shrine, it was a no brainer to bring him over here to the Reesa's Senior Bowl, and he stood up. He's gone against a great pass rushers that are down here, like Montrese Sweat from from Mississippi State, and they've really showed that they can stand up against some of the top pass rushers

that are down here. Well, we'll be keenly interested to see and here not only from you, Jim and Tom You're analysis, but other analysis out there about you say, it's a good crop of talent down there, but at the combine, like they are going to be a bunch of key players pushed down into that range where the Bears are going to be drafting since they do not have a first or second round pick. Yeah, that's gonna be a critical part of it because you know, again,

quarterbacks are going to drive the draft. We've seen it. Even the Bears they traded up to get Mitchell Turbsky, and you see teams always trade up to do it. Kansas City they traded up to get Patrick Mahomes. And I'll tell you what, there's some good quarterbacks and I think all eight of these quarterbacks are going to get a shot somewhere. You know, mcsorley's a probably the only one from Penn State that's really not a true pocket passer. We know he runs a little bit more of the

RPO stuff in terms of the play action stuff. But Daniel Jones is here from Duke. He is definitely going to be a first round pick. I like Drew Locke from the Missoo Tigers. I think he's really had a good, good week. The kid from Auburn, Jarrett Stidham, he has really impressed me too. I think he has definitely improved his stock. And then Gardner Minshew from Washington State. He put out a clinic in accuracy today in the red zone. So quarterbacks are gonna move up and think about it.

I didn't even bring up some of the underclassmen that have declared. You know, obviously when you look at Haskins at Ohio State, a lot of people think he may be the first quarterback off the board. But it's gonna do what then if all these quarterbacks go then I just mentioned potentially four that could go in the first round. It's gonna push some good players down the draft board. Jim Miller is in Mobile, Alabama. Tom Fair here in town along with Jeff Jonia. This is bears All Access

brought to you by IgGs Energy. Chuck Baganto introduced today. I think widely from what I've read and just talking to reporters here at Allisall earlier this morning, they got a good vibe from this coach and he feels very fortunate to be here thirty three years in coaching and then sitting out last year. You know, I can't tell you how excited I am to be back on the grass and at such a special, special place. And so I'm I'm very very grateful, and I'm thankful and very

excited obviously to be a bearer. Yeah. You know, as he told me that there is nobody to root for anymore last year. You know, when he's watching games, he's just watching games. There's no investment in terms of who's who he's coaching or who he's rooting for here. And it'd spend some time in the NFL office, time working with officials as a consultant, and he got a different perspective of life behind the scenes there. Yeah, you get to see the good and the bad of the NFL

season and it's entirety. You sit in the room full

of monitors where you get to watch every game. You get to watch how the officials react, You get to watch the different styles developing in the RPO offenses as opposed of the different styles of defenses now that you have to put on the field to counter or counteract against the RPO offenses, and it's probably as beneficial to Chuck Pogano to sit out there and watch the development of the NFL as it was for Vic Fangio to be around Matt Naggy before he gets a head coaching job,

to get more exposure to the RPO offense. And you know, one thing about Chuck Pogano is a lot of times, you know how many what's the percentage you look at all these guys that are hired this year in the NFL, whether you're a coordinator or a new head coach, you're coming into a project that you need drastic improvement as quickly as you can get it done or you will

be fired again. Chuck Pogano is coming into a team that has elder statement leadership in the locker room, It's got a syste him in place, that has championship caliber and qualities to it. He was able to spew off all the interceptions, the turnovers, and everything that the analytics

that complemented this defense. So now you think about everything that Chuck Pogano has gone through in the last five years in terms of his coaching and health up and downs that he's been able to work himself through to be able to step in at the Chicago Bears and you, man, you have a super Bowl caliber defense that's you know, putting your lap just like we are giving Kalel Mack

at the end of training camp. Yeah, I think it comes with the expectations when he says, hey, we want to be great, you know, meaning to you know, go back to the eighty five Bears and how great that defense was. I think he comes with a lot of credibility. I mean, Chuck Pagano has been with teams that's had great defenses. You just go back to the days in Baltimore. He knows what it looks like and he knows what it takes to be great. So you know, you look

at a team like last year, like Jacksonville. You know, they talk big, they talk like they're they got a great roster in all talent to all those talented players on the defensive side of the board, and lo and behold some games they got lit up for forty five points. So I think for the players aspect of it, they've got to live up to it too. You know, you can't just walk into the building hallis Hall, and stride out to the field and think that you're gonna be great if you don't put in the work. So I

think Chuck Poganno will definitely challenge these defenders. And they are mature guys that I think do understand it for the Chicago Bears. But I think they'll all push themselves accordingly to reach the greatness that they want to be. I think he's got the right group of guys to do it. He's already said many text messages from his guys. They're ready to go already. These are a group of guys that love the game. You gotta love the game. You gotta really love the game to put in the work.

He says he's going to keep it likable and learnable. An acronym for kill sounds worse than it is. But he's gonna let him loose because he has an aggressive mindset, that's for sure. Here more on Chuck Pagano Hope here from Charles Letto Junior, as well from Orlando, Florida at

the Pro Bowl. This is Bears All Access with Jeff and Tom and Jim on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to score, escape the cold and head to the Reu Palace coast to Mouse Harris in Kancoon with your favorite Bears players including Prince of Mukamara, Rokuan Smith, but Al Nichols, plus Inside the Bears hostess Lauren Screeden and Anthony Adams. Visit Apple Vacations dot Com, Slash Bears the book today and you don't leave yourself. Yes, you're one of the

personalities that are goings. Never leave an opportunity alone. No, I want you. You should. I know your name is in that message somewhere You're not written down, so you know. But I am going And I was very year ago. And another beach miss. Don't have another beach miss app at this time about Jeff No that was that was offer. And there's there's a guy on the phone right now from Orlando, Florida who witnessed it firsthand. The Pro Bowl

left tackle the Chicago Bears, Charles Leno Junior. Get evening, Charles. What are you doing, guys? How are you guys doing? I'm doing good, You're doing real good. Hey, you know how fun is this for you? Man? Man? That's really cool. Um, it's really fun. Having a great time and join us weather. Uh, I don't want to go back up to where you guys at right now. That's what. It's very nice. Uh yeah, I'm just enjoying it, having a good time, meet some

great people and just relaxing. Hey, Charles, you've been around the Bears a long time now. We got to know you. Well. Will you ever become I'm chuck to us. Are you

always going to be a Charles? Oh? Charles only if? Um? Hey, this year the seat when from the beginning of the season to the end of the season, what what what did you wanted to prove upon and what did Harry help you prove upon to the point where you're elected the pro ball We saw that the stats from your season are incredible in terms of penalties and mishaps and stuff. What what was the difference between you changing yourself and what Harry had to do with it? Um? Yeah, Coach

Easton very great. Harry's a great coach. Man. Um. He came in and he just wants to find tune some of the things that I already I'm already good at man, and he knows I'm athletic, you know, if I can move really well, um, good with my hands, things like that. But you can have all those great tools, but you got to find tune it and you know, dial into the technique and the details of your blocking. So that's

all I was doing. I was just hunging in and keep my hands and saw doing like simple small things that you know can be problems if you don't take care of it on the field. Well. Well, Charles, Jim Miller here, congratulations on a great year and going to the Pro Bowl. I saw you guys tweet out the family photo today. There's so many Bears down there. That's got to feel pretty good to see your teammates getting the opportunity to enjoy such a great honor of being

and playing in the Pro Bowl. Oh. Absolutely, it really is. Um. Just hanging out with these guys again, was picking off when we left off. We having fun in the huddle. It's to read Cody and then you know, be a team over there jumping around and Cal Fuller and Eddie out there. This is really cool. As to seeing all the boy Charles Letto Junior, our guest here on Bears All Access with Jeff, Tim and Jim as we get

you set for the Pro Bowl. From the eyes of Charles Letto Junior, it's not all work, obviously, but you're you're with all these stars of the league that fans and and uh and coaches have put in there, and for you for being the first time, and for a lot of these guys, all these guys being for the first time. Are you drawn on the experience? Are you talking to these other guys from around the league about how they go about their business just from the general

practice time and time you're spending with them. Yeah, absolutely, just not too long ago. Talking to guys like I'm talking to Trent Williams, somebody who I look up to, somebody who I think is like one of the best tackles in the league, and I'm just trying to pick his brains so I can get to the position with he's at, because I still feel like I'm far away from Mordat in the league. So it's just really cool, like, you know, hanging out with these guys talking to him,

picking their brains so I can keep elevating my game. Charles, I remember last year being in the weight room up at Hollis Hall and you were in there and you kind of you missed a really super heavy power clean. All your teammates continue the encouragement, got the excitement built up. Bam, you pulled it. The next one throughout your career. How important is the weight room ben to the success that you're enjoying now and for every young player that needs

to be have heavy duty involvement in the weight room. Oh, the weight room is a big part of it, especially as the offensive alignment. Uh, it's like putting on that body armor. The body armor is something that you gotta have when you and the when you when your offensive alignment. So that's just what it is. Sorry, just a lot of noise, guys, I'm I'm around. A lot of people

were about the league to go to universal videos. So okay, well, well, Charles, let me ask you this obviously a tremendous year making the postseason and the success that you guys had as a team, how do you what do you draw from the experience as you decompressed from the first playoff running? Um Man, we had to have a season. Um as I decompressed, I look at it like a lot of people didn't. But we were supposed to be in a situation.

We know the type of time when we had, We knew the type of players we had, and we just had to buy in and believe. And we did that and we compensate our things, but it's still one goal in mind at the end of the day. So when you when you sit back and you lose the game like that, it was a tough one, you know that it gets too more hungry and more camped up for next year. Charles Leno junior guest and remaining moments with you, So we'll let you go here shortly to enjoy the

evening up. How big is this for Mitch from your perspective? Pro Bowl? How big is the Pro Bowl experience for a guy like Mitch? Oh, it's really big. I mean he's having a great time. He started hanging out with Dad, Russell Wilson, seeing a lot of different leaders, you know what I mean, picking their brains and stuff. H I would like know when when did you realize that James Daniels got it? Because I think we are all so

impressed with his development throughout his rookie season. But when you're talking about a left tackle, now you're breaking in an offensive guard, You're breaking in a tight end. When you talk about Trey Burton being new here and even the rest of the tight ends with the new offense, when did you realize going, man, this James Daniels, this guy gets it. Um, you see, like I've seen it early because you see like a little like little snippets,

like little little clips of this guy. If he if he just keep doing that, you got to figure it out. And it's just slowly, even surely, he just kept getting better and better and better every week. And it's uh, it's something that I mean, he put in a lot of work. I mean talking about saying after after practice, keep working his rest, doing it early, you know, getting filmed in with Tody and the guys stuff. He's just

gonna keep being a pro and keep getting better. Well, last one for me, Charles, does it go through your mind? I mean not that you don't face the best pass rushers every single week, but you know, the FC's got the best on the other side of this Pro Bowl. Are you going to bed at night prior to the game thinking, Hey, I can't give up a bad sacket going into this Pro Bowl game. I'm about to go out there and do what I've been doing all year. Um, I know, well, I mean it's going gets the best

of the best here right now. So I'm just happy to be here and I'm about to just express myself on the field with my excitement and play with him nity, play with some joy and knowing that you know, this stuff doesn't come along often, so I'm d thing play my game all right. Last one before I let you go? Were you playing dodgeball? No? I didn't get to play

dogs wall? What what fun? What fun activity that they have you doing with all these different drills, um you know, playing catch with the uh, playing like a little fat and go aligning, thinking some fly routes, catching the ball and stuff like that. That's the only fun I've been doing so far. I'm headed to Universal Studios hopping on the bus right now. I'm excited to do that. That's all the fun right now. There you go. It'll be a big hiding have fun. My man. Good to talk

to you and enjoy the whole experience. I appreciate you guys, talk about thank Charles Leno Junior down in Orlando, Florida, our guest here on Bears All Access, having a good time with the fellas you've seen, you know, as you would expect. Terry Cohen has been doing a lot of social media. He's been having a good time and a Keem Hicks is genuinely thrilled smile ear to ear, bouncing his step, and I could not be happier for a

game that Jeff and the times that. I mean, I've never played in the Pro Bowl, but I used to go with Jay or all the other guys on the team all the time, and it was a big thrill for me to be around the other players from the NFL to rub shoulders with a Randy White or see Howie Long in person, or whomever you got to see play against. And so, you know, for a first time guy like Chuck and the rest of these guys that are first time Pro Bowlers, it's got to be a

huge thrill. But even the participants, the fans, the players that go down there, it's it's a big thrill to be able to shake hands and get an introduction, you know, from these guys that's not pregame or post game. Well, I think the biggest thing, Jim, is that you're not quite in NFL Siberia anymore. You're a playoff team with a rising expectations. You put eight guys in the Pro Bowl.

Now when you add them all up, and Khalil Mack injured, but these guys are getting the rub shoulders of all these guys, they're hearing from their p how they feel about them, how they look at the Bears. It helps, I think down the road in free agency, I think you develop relationships that could last a lifetime. Whatever they do down there a lot of you know, right, yeah, I think it well too. Is it's just validation. It's it's a tremendous honor to get voted to the Pro Bowl.

Like you said, your your fellow peers, the coaches, obviously the fans are acknowledged in respect to your game that you're getting votes to go to the to the Pro Bowl. And I think, you know, from a competence standpoint, it just validates all the hard work that you put in. I think you do want to be recognized and respected for how you play the game of football. And these guys are truly got a ton of talent and now that is being recognized. So I think for them it's

got to feel pretty good. And like you said, you're around the some of the best in the games that have been acknowledged as well. You can see how they work, how they prepare, bounce ideas off their head, and it really is probably a thrill for them and obviously quite an honor, and I think it's something that they you know, all know that their game is respected just how they present themselves on the field. It's Jim Miller, what Tom fare? I'm Jeff Jonnyak and this is Bears All Access on

Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to score. You can help deserving families by donating a winner coat for the Chicago Bears jewel Osco Coach Drive at participating Jewelosco locations now through February first donations benefiting the Salvation Army. And man, is it gonna be You're gonna be all right time this week? Oh yeah, coal make it, I'll make it. I'm built for this. Hear bill for this. Yes, I'll tell you what it's. It's quite the reality for those

though that could use coats. So contribute and donate as much as you possibly can. Jeff and Tim here with you and Jim Miller and mobile Alabama getting ready for the Senior Bowl. Now, are you gonna be broadcasting the game again this year? Jim, Yeah, we'll be broadcasting the game on Saturday. And surprisingly a lot of you know, the NFL teams, you know, they don't really take off. This is kind of the last day. The coaches and the and the scouts are here because the last practice

is finished up. And a lot of the general managers that I've talked to, like Dave Gentleman, he's going to stay for the game, you know. To Bruce Allen, who's the president of the Washington Redskins. There's quite a few gms that are staying through the game this time because they want to see how the players play with the when the lights come on, you know, when the game actually starts. The guy last year who really didn't have a good week, he's from Texas, San Antonio, Marcus Davenport.

Remember the first round draft pick that the New Orleans Saints traded up to Green Bay Spot and they gave up next year's number one pick as well to get him. He really flashed in this game. It's really the best he played all week. And it was all because of the game. Why the New Orleans Saints felt that they were motivated to trade up and get this guy. He's a small school player and certainly he had a big first year for the New Orleans Saints as a rookie.

I think it's important to stay down there. I think you do. I want to see the way a player react to game day, how they react to a mistake on the field. Do they rebound from it intelligently thinking athlete, or do they let it, you know, linger in their

head and maybe they're susceptible to other mistakes. And you know, when you talk about a team like the Bear specifically, and we mentioned without having a couple of draft choices, they need to investigate the talent within this draft as much as they ever had in the history of the draft, because those players they need to make a pick on.

You know, they have to work out and when you go and you watch the practices down there gym that luck luckily enough we get them on TV that you see some talent there that is going to be around for the Bears. That's going to give them an opportunity of blow Nichols or some of these other guys that come in and you know, they start cultivating their talent immediately and then they work their way into the lineup and then you become a starter before the end of

the year. So I think it would be important to stay down there and watch the actual reaction of these guys, not from a video where you don't hear anything. Yeah, it's really according to just the way it's shaping up right now. It looks like there's going to be a lot of good edge rushers in this draft. There's a lot of good defensive linemen, and there's a lot of good offense the lineman. You know, you think about you know, some of the teams that were lighted at offensive guard

and offensive tackle last year. And the one kid I know you're gonna love tom as a kid from Boston College, Chris Lindstrom. I mean, this guy's an absolute maller and how he's plays. He's currently rated I think the second best guard coming out in this year's draft. But safety position is another deep position, and again they got a lot of pig defensive backs down here. So unfortunately, Josh Allen, the most talents are probably linebacker coming out in the draft.

He d committed and is not performing in this game. But man, I wish you were here because there's a lot of good linebackers as well that have really shown up all the league along and the lead up to the game. So you're right, just seeing how a player reacts in the game is big. You know, how a quarterback if he throws an interception, does he go into the tank? Can he forget about it and move on to the next play, or whether it's a fumble or a guy misses a tackle in space, and how does

he respond. So it's big and I think that's why a lot of GM's elected to stay around this. You know, you know too is you know you think about offensive lineman. They can come in and they can start their rookie year that that tackle that's there from Washington as a big guy six six three twenty five, three hundred and

thirty pounds. So you offensive defensive lineman, these guys they can be plug and play if you have the right surrounding talent around them like Charles Leno Junior and Cody Whitehair developing a help development with James Daniels, and you know, those are the types of guys and defensive lineman they come and they contribute to the rotation of the defensive lineman.

You don't have to have a guy that's immediate first day starter, but there is a lot of talent down there that these teams will be looking for these guys to play and contribute, some immediately, some as the season winds on. Dump there and Jim Miller are here with us, Son, Bear's all access that tackle. That's Caleb McGarry six eight three twenty four. Yes, he'll be wearing number fifty eight

for the the North team. If you're gonna watch the game or if you're watching some of the practice session, that's a center guard number. And they think this Phillis guy out of sixty or seventy. You're you're that big of a guy. You need a big number to cover it up. Jim, I'm sure you saw the video of the Western Illinois defensive lineman, Lyman Kaylin Saunders, who did a backflip. It almost like when JPP did seventeen in a row of the backflips, and oh yeah, man, yeah.

It was at the end of practice. John Gruden calls up the whole squad of the North team to watch it. He says, all right, Kay, you know how to end this practice, and so he does this backflip. And to see a three hundred and fifteen pounds defensive lineman do what he did, everybody was high five in him. It

was the funniest part of practice. Jim. At the end, he says, I'm here to be a football player, not a gymnast, So he kind of wanted, yeah, I'm talented and I have the courage to do this at this body weight and stuff, but don't look at me because of that. You know, the Bears a couple of years ago had that kid that jumped out of the swimming pool Ron Gilbert all right, and that all that ignited everybody. All my god, this guy's got to be an incredible

football player. UM, no offense to him. I'm just thinking of you know, mental recall. If you see these guys do something and then that's the that's the label they get stuck with. So this guy made a point of saying, look, I'm a football player that I can but I can do a flip. Hey, if you want to jump on as well. Three one two sixty four sixty seven sixty seven, three one two sixty four sixty seven sixty seven or

with you until the top of the hour. Jim Miller in Mobile, Alabama, Temp there here in Chicago, and Jeff jonianc here at Hallisaad Bears All Access brought to you by IGS Energy. Jim, some of the big names at receiver have really lit up in the in the in the practice sessions. Uh, this Deebo Samuel h. Many people are saying he was the MVP of practice. What about him? He's been awesome every single day. You're right. He's out of South Carolina. He's six foot two hundred and ten

playing for the San Francisco forty nine ers. In this matchup, he's sick. He is just one. He's smooth in his routes. He can separate and has his speed, good route runner, catches everything. But he competes the defensive bacts. I don't think there's there's not one guy that's been able to be able to cover him. He has had that good of a week. I'll give you another name of a guy on the North squad. He's about as fast as as quick as a hiccup. Andy Isabella. He's he's the

wide receiver from Massachusetts. He's been really good from the from the slot side of things. He's six one two o five and Penny Hart. Penny Hart from Georgia State. He is. He's built like Tarik Cohen all right. He's diminutive in stature. They only have him listed at five eight, one hundred and eighty pounds, but I'm telling you know who he runs like Tyreek Hill. This guy's an absolute burner.

And you know he just jumps out at you when he watched him practices just physically much faster than everybody, just so the way he moves and how he runs, and he has been difficult, has made big plays all week long here down in Mobile and Andy Isabella I watched some of his route work today. Wow, I'll just say that he can make He can turn a defensive

back inside and out. And you got a lot of speed with that Ohio State kid Terry McLaren, very very fast guy there with the football in his hands as well. It's a long way until the draft, and without a first or second round pick, I don't know the fans are gonna be going gaga over the draft right now. But this is the details of the draft will be the story of this draft for the Bears, you know. But Jeff, where all right? You know we talk about the draft and the picks they don't have. Where do

the Bears need to draft? What position? Where do they need the ranks? Where do they need the numbers? I mean, because you think of all the receivers they have or the you know, every single position, where are the Bears at right now? In terms of what the fans or what people think they need going into next year. Well, because you're still you don't know what's gonna gonna happen with Alan at the at the defensive back or the safety spot. This is a very three feet draft for

safeties that I mentioned. You got guys like carry Willis from Michigan State. It's down here. He's performed very well all week on. Because your first you got to think about your free agents who could be leaving your team. When you look at Adrian Amos is probably the first on that list who could potentially could be moving on. And then of course corner. You know, you look at Prince and Lukamar. He only signed a two year deal with the Bears. Do you want more depth that corner?

And there's big corners that I mentioned here. I threw out a Warier from Penn State. He has been phenomenal with what he's done out here. And he's a big guy. Another guy he's six foot two hundred and three pounds that has the ability to do everything. So you've got a lot of good corners that are going to be in this draft as well. And you can never have enough corners and never enough pass rushers and you know it as a matter of taste right now, Yes, they're

going to have their own list of needs. I'd like to see that defense continue to maintain its excellence, and so as much depth and strength at that spot the better, and the rest of it. You fill in the blanks and you keep loading up, keep as much depth as you can. It's been a big part of why this team won this past season and why they hope to be among the Super Bowl contenders in twenty nineteen. We'll step away one more segment to go, Jim Miller and Mobile,

Tom there, Jeff Jonik here in town. This is Bears All Access on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy. The Score, The Chicago Bears Network presents Inside the Bears, brought to you by Verizon. Anthony Adams and Laurin Screten cover the world of Bears football on and off the field, every Sunday night at ten thirty five pm on Fox thirty two Chicago, or watch anytime at Chicago Bears dot Com

or on the Bears official app. We're gonna get to our phone calls here and Todd and Mark, thanks for hanging on real quick, though little Chuck Pogotto from today, what this defense will be revoc and be calculated about it. I want to be aggressive. I want to dictate the temple. Put a premium on fundamentals, put a premium on the ball,

taking the thing away. Nobody did it better than the Bears, you know last year with thirty six takeaways, I think in twenty seven interceptions and throwing their stop the run and pressure with more than four if you have to, but hopefully with four. That's the game plan for Chuck Fagano and the Bears. Fans certainly love hearing that. So the phone we go wheeling our stop for Todd. Todd, thanks for hanging out, man, Hey, thanks for taking my call. First,

I just want to say, hey, Jim, thanks man. I'm a big fan. When you came to Chicago, it's been it was a while before we had a good quarterback, and I'm so glad you got here. And you know, if they would have gave you more of a team to work with, I'm you know we would. I'm sure you would have been a lot more successful. And then, Jeff, I'm telling you, when I watched the Bears game, the best thing to do is turn down the volume on the TV set and then tune turn you up on

the radio. That's the best way to watch the Bears game. But I'll make a quick Uh. These assistant coaches Townsend, Uh, I guess the defensive backs coach, and this Manchino. What are these guys solid? How would I mean? What do you know about him? I haven't heard much discussion about them on the radio. And then I'll hang up and then, uh, listen to you guys, all right, we'll talk. I'll talk about this Shake Townson. Obviously, he had a very successful

career as a player. He was a very good cornerback and long many years in the National Football League, then went right into into coaching. I think his you know, because he's you'll be well respected one because he's played the game. He's gonna know a thing or two in terms of how to attack receivers and things of that nature. So I think from that standpoint, it'll be fine. And Chuck Pagano obviously reached out to him, so he thinks

shili of what he can be as a coach. But I think it'll be no issue from the players from the Shay Towns inside of things because he played the game, and I think players really do respect that. And Ted Monikino Tom has has been with Pagano, so he was with him in Baltimore, Indianapolis as his coordinator, so there is familiarity there. I like the way the defensive side

of the coaching staff is rounded in a place. And like I said, I'm glad they left they kept the defensive line coach Rogers here because you need that goal between maybe learn something about a player a little quicker if a coach has experience with him, and in the coaches that Pagano is bringing with him, it's because of their experience, their experience of success either with the team they're coaching or the success they had as a player

in the style of defense they played in. So I think all of these moves to the defensive staff is are positive ones. Considering you know, all the guys that Vic brought with them to Denver. I think Pagano was putting together a really solid staff and you know, Matt's got a lot of years of experience in the NFL along with Ryan, so they're not hearing these guys' names for the first time. They have an understanding of what

their background is. They want teachers, and that's what excelled for the Bears defensively here in the last few years with Vic Fangio and his staff three one two sixty four sixty seven sixty seven. Will stay on the phones here and head out to Mark from Michigan City, Indiana Market evening. You're on Bears All Access. Hey, Mark, pleasure talking with you guys about six years agoys A, A

Q and A with Jay h Jay Hilberger. And the question I had was we refers to Super Bowl twenty in the play acts and pass after the start of the in half where I d end zone the Bears were back at the four, did a play ash and passed to Peyton through great blocks and Jane Hildenberg didn't know it the name of the play where he came in from dica or it was an audible from McMahon and time I'm relying on you for the information. If you remember the play called it coming from the bench,

Was there an audible? What was it? Off? It was it was a fake forty five trap pad. Oh no, it was it was a fake forty five slant pass. So McMahon came into the huddle on that play and he said to you, guys, listen to me. If you show me a good run fake, this is play is going to be huge. And I do think it was

completed to Willie gaul for a huge game. But that was a play that was specifically as we ran the ball so much, we ran the ball so effectively, we're not really in that game as wish as much as we should have with Walter, but they were intended taking him out of the game. But because they were intended taking him out of the game, they went for the play action fake so aggressively that McMahon knew exactly what he was talking about, and it did convert into a

huge play that first play of the second half. Never can stop going down memory lane. Canny, but you know, you kind of you kind of remember him coming into the huddle and just making a point of saying, all right, offensive lineman, listen to my snap count, but come off the ball like we're running in. It's gonna be huge. And those are kind of the subtleties that we knew. But Jim knew him as well as anybody in preparation to call the play, because he had to be thinking

about it from the time. Ed Hughes or Ditka called it on the sideline, to the time he approached the huddle, to the message that he delivered in the huddle, and then the football he delivered to Willie. I'm impressed time with the recall. That's normally how it is for offensive linemen. They hear wa wa wa wah wah, and then they just hear the protection on two. That's pretty good, Tim. But Jim, what was your favorite all time play that

you called in the huddle? That was something you'll never forget. What was it? Well, we ran the crap out of X shallow cross and obviously Marty or does White, we ran that place so much was either Z shallow cross or X shallow cross seven seventy two. So I'd bring Marty in motion. We go zero strong, Z half fly seven seventy two, Z drive and you can count on

Marty Booker. Marty knew how to read coverages. He was gonna hook it up versus zone and if it's banned, he just if he's looking, he's booking, meaning if he's looking at me, I know that he's gonna keep on going. And Marty Booker could run that route as good as anybody. Man talk about recall as outstanding. Can you get the whole playbook down? I can go through a lot of them.

They're in my head still somewhere. You know. It's amazing for quarterbacks, receivers, backs tight ends, how much communication that they can do without ever saying a word. If you give the verbiage inside the huddle, man, you can communicate with three or four different guys just by the subtleties of expression that Jim's talking about. An offensive lineman, they

can do it. They can hear a couple things in the huddle, and you've got to be aware of You could be either working with your center if their defenses in one position, or you could be working with your tackle, and all those messages are conveyed to each other with otiver saying a word. It's just buy a subtle tap or an expression that you get you get that message across. I always used to remember Rex Tucker, if you remember him, the offensive guard. He would always say, I don't know

what any of that means. So what I just said, zero strong, Z have live seven seventy two Z drive. He'd here wa wa wa seven seventy two. He knew it was seven seventh step drop seventy two protection. That's all Rex Tucker cared about. And then he'd hear me say, all right on two or whatever I call the staff count up. But that's that's kind of the life of

an offensive linement. A lot of them don't pay attention to the routes and don't want to get get caught up in seventh or Z drive and all those things. They just want to hear the protection and what they need to do with their specific assignment that they're going to be asked to. You could take a kid out of college, you know. That's you know, maybe two or three years in the NFL probably has never heard of

a seven step drop, you know. So when you when you think about the archives in the old school terminology and you get those igniters. Now, if you've got Charles Leno jor he here seven seventy two and he's got no tight end to his left, he's going, man, this protection for me is one of the extremes do I have to protect for a long time. I have to maintain my balance. I can't give him an outside edge

or turn my shoulders too quickly. So yeah, the offensive lineman, they hear what the protection is but then they have a role of dex of information going through their head in terms of how they have to win that specific play. Kim Miller and tent there breaking it down XS and os for those of you who love that sort of stuff, and there's plenty of football fans that do. You can't get enough of the great stories. All right, now, remaining moments.

Bears are going to London next season. Thoughts on that real quick against the Raiders. I'm glad they're playing the Raiders. You know, I don't know. I don't know what to expect out of the Raiders next year. I see John Gruden in the quarterbacks face at these Senior Bowl practices, like his next out, his next quarterback. Maybe maybe there. I don't know what Derek Carr thinks about that, but you know, I like playing a soldier field. Yeah, I'm

glad it's the Raiders. John Gruten already admitted this year he hates to travel go to London, so you know, he says he's still disoriented from the trip the last time last season. So maybe that'll be a good thing because logistically, I think it'll be much easier on the Bears. All Right, Well, there's lots to discuss between now and then for certain, and we will be in Atlanta next week. Jim, I'll be with you on the show from Atlanta covering super Bowl. Should be a fun week to break down

Patriots and Rams. Tom will have his thoughts here from Chicago as well. Thanks as always to our producers Eli Herschkobitz and Herb Lawrence. Most of all to you for listening tonight, Thanks to our guest Charles Leto, Junior Dan really our producer, and for Jim Miller and Tom There, I'm Jeff Joni act that I'll do it tonight on Bears All Access. Why don't you Ago Sports Radio six seventy the Score, Good night, Thanks for listening to this

Chicago Bears Network presentation of Bears 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 CDW, Athletico Physical Therapy, and Ford