Cut over that Dj Moore nisode Touchdown, Touchdown, Paars, I am Jeff Joniac, whitz is on Dottie go up. What was like playing for coache Good gun. I don't want to answer any questions like that pressure coming is a big trouble, Donnie Go Mottest sweat.
Yea Bears et Cetera brought to you by Miller Light with the voices of the Bears Jeff Joniac and Tom Thayer.
Well Catle Williams, and the Bears offense getting high marks for spreading it around in a balanced attack called by offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and the end result a thirty three to six win in Buffalo over the Bills to start the second week of the preseason for the Bears. Welcome in, everybody. I'm the voice of the Bears Jeff Joniac with Super Bowl winning Bears guard Tom Thayer. This episode of the Bears et Cetera Podcast is brought to
you by Miller Light. This is episode number eighty four, Big Tom, and we have lots to discuss about that game. First and foremost, I want to get your overall reaction in the three phases. We'll start you off with the offense give us some highlights than to the defense and special teams.
The Ron Morris episode number eighty four.
Yeah, Ron Morris, Yes.
So you know you started out the podcast talking about the performance of the players and Caleb specifically, But over the last two weeks, I have a real congratulations to the coaches because they've done a really nice job of
getting these guys prepared. No matter what level you're considered first, second, or third level player at this point in the season, they played a real nice quality game of understanding the offense and they really mistake free and so that goes to the credit of the coaches for getting these guys prepared. Now you talk about their performance from the first week in the Hall of Fame game to now into Buffalo.
Thing I liked about the game in Buffalo that Buffalo brought a really supportive, loud crowd, Because as much as you want to try to replicate that in practice, it's almost impossible until you actually have a crowd that has the ebb and flow of the game, the highs and the lows. They know when to cheer loud and they know when to hold back when the offense is on the field. So some of the elements in this game that you cannot really replicate in practices. I think the
Bears coaches had all of these guys prepared. And then you talk about the performance of Caleb super encouraging, super exciting. I think when you listen to radio and TV since the game he's given, he's been given a lot of high marks, and I think he deserves them. But now that evaluation chart is started, and then where does it go from here?
All Right? I like the thirty runs of the twenty one attempts you're on the football, Caleb, though four of seven ninety five, A couple of those could have been caught. The long forty two on the bailout, almost hook shot throw, but a perfect spiral. At the same time that when you break that play down to DeAndre Swift, the forty two yard catch and run that kept the poison the
tight pocket wasn't jumpy, perfectly thrown spiral. I think that's probably pretty difficult pass to throw with that kind of spin on the ball in that environment. It's not like you just knuckled it or just got rid of it. That was a beautiful pass.
Listen, why do not a lot of NBA players shoot a hook shot like Kareem Abdul Jabbar, because it's not easy. And when you look at that throw by Caleb, it seems second nature to him. But it's also trusting your teammate, knowing exactly where they are going to be. It's not something you get to site, identify and then throw. It's pressure,
trust and completion forty two yards later. And like you brought up as we are watching tape, maybe if DeAndre cuts that out a little bit towards the sideline, we're talking about a touchdown. But when you talk about a forty two yard gain under those circumstances, equally as impressive.
Equally impressive, and maybe even more so the play on the run, moving to his right, a little hitch to try to get the defender off his feet, which he did which probably saved him a sack, and then found a way in mid air, feet off the ground to fire a twenty six yard strike to Cole Comet. An incredible throw, terrific catch, patience on what we now know is a guy who can really eat up a lot of real estate to the very boundary and still complete a pass. We've seen it in training camp every day.
All right, let me look at the opposite side of that, because what that play does it puts all the paranoia in the world and defensive coordinators and defensive ends now if they think they can get over aggressive and try to get a media pressure to Caleb and all of a sudden, he's doing nothing more than faking you out of position. And you look at the reaction to that defensive lineman after Caleb started to roll out and he faked him out, he had no chance of contributing to
pressure on that play. You know, it was a perfectly delivered throw to Cole Comet, great catch. And when you talk about the stats of Caleb, and listen, even DJ Moore brought it up on his sideline report with Jason McKee that, yeah, we had a couple of drops. You think four for seven if we are sitting here, talk about a six for seven performance, and then the amount of yards that those drops would have attached to the stats of the game. You know, now you're glowing even
more about Caleb. But when you talk about that one specific play of getting the defensive lineman out of position, loved it, loved to see it, and how effective it's going to be on the coaching on the other side of the ball.
Now, let's throw in the scramble for thirteen yards, because he has stated he doesn't want to be a guy who's going to run continuously out of the pocket. He wants to make plays from the pocket or as he's rolling out, buying time for his receivers forcing defense. That's just the plaster coverage as long as they can and you know that has a time limit out, it's going to run out. But his thirteen yards scramble alongs to demonstrates he does have the speed and the legs to
pick up first downs. And I'll be interested this year to see how many first downs he picks up just with his legs, not the dynamic runner that we have come to learn that Lamar Jackson is who Michael Vick was, or Justin Fields was. He's going to do it a little differently and still put as you like to say, paranoia in a defense.
Yeah, you know, you think about the exit strategy of that scrabble, Jeff, because we talked about during the broadcast. First of all, there was a stunt by the defensive lineup front that was passed off efficiently by the interior of the offensive line. The exit strategy wasn't escape to the outside right or left. It was escape when that crease opened right up the middle point A to point B.
That thirteen yards was a straight ahead run.
So that was the thing that I was really encouraged about in the one time he did want to take off that he understood and patiently waited for the offensive line to pass that stunt off, and then he took it off field. And you saw the slide in first down, A really good slider too on that surface turf, not easy balanced down the leg point with the left hand.
Let's go to a first down.
First down bears taste like Miller time, celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ninety six calories, three point two carbs per twelve ounces. We'll get deeper into the offense and some other players, but let's now shift to the defense, which for the second week in a row, shut down the run game. And that's a very big part of this defense that Matt Eberflus is employing and calling. They have to stop the run, and by virtue of that
they had eight sacks. We can talk about the guys that did the damage. Austin Booker certainly puts some great tape on for this performance, not just against the pass, but against the run, and his move movement skills, his length all showing up.
Tommy, would you agree, Yeah, you know, I just like the reinforcement from what I've seen in practice that carries over to the game because we've been down there seeing one on ones.
And you see Austin Booker what he's able to do. When you have a.
Designated drill of one on one pass rushing, the offensive lineman knows what you're gonna do. Now it's it's the challenge of him to defend against it. And he's done a really nice job in those drills. But now do those drills carry over to the game field. And that's exactly what we saw in Buffalo this past weekend. His innate pass rushing skills and ability they compute to the game field.
And that was super encouraging for me to.
See because he's only chipping away at what his capabilities can ultimately be. He uses his length real efficiently, he doesn't let an offensive lineman spend a lot of time getting his hands to his body, and then he's got an arsenal of moves where if the offensive lineman is able to intercept his first move, he's already got a
second move in mind. And so for what I've seen out of a young guy like Austin Booker, it's something that it's only going to be refined over time with coach Travis Smith and the rest of the defensive coaches, Eric Washington and so on. But you're really teaching a guy that has an understanding of what pass rushing is all about.
And Daniel Hardy had replica statistics. They both had the same stat line five tackles, two and a half sacks, three quarterback hits, and two tackles for lost. They played well off each other when they were on the field.
Daniel Hardy doing it two weeks in a row.
That's what I like about it, because you know, some of these guys, Jeff, they come aboard a training camp, we look at them in their jerseys for a couple of weeks, we really don't know what to think about them. So Daniel Hardy stayed on my attention radar after the Hall of Fame game, and then he was able to back up that performance.
But it's not only just with the ability to win.
It's hustle, it's hard work, it's just out, you know, playing his opponent. So that's some of super encouraging signs that you don't know if you can coach Hart. But Daniel Hardy so far in the first two weeks has shown that he's got a lot of it.
Veteran Khalid Kareem he also had a sack, four tackles, tackle for loss in a pass breakup, and then Aman Bamiga seven tackles to lead the way, a sack and a pass defense plus a special teams tackle as well, Dravon Dexter a tackle for loss and a hit on the quarterback. And Zach Pickens time I thought played better in this game, a tackle for loss for him, a sack as well in three tackles.
Yeah, I was super encouraged by I saw. I saw more results on effort from Zach Pickens because he's the type of guy that has got to be a playmate of Andrew Billings, but he's got to play differently, and I think when you can put him into the lineup and you don't have that big three hundred and thirty pound powerhouse brick of a man Andrew Billings, you got a little bit more quickness, a little bit more elusiveness by Pickens and just to real quickly, Deshaun Mallory and
Dominique Robins and super excited both of those guys had to tackle for a loss. I thought Dominique Robinson in terms of run football out of a defensive lineman, I think he played the best so far that I've seen out of him since he's been here.
Tom and this defense linebackers are going to get the hands on footballs. They had the eight interceptions at that position last year, and Micah Baskerville, we saw it coming a mile away. The pick up Bouschelle into the end zone for a pick six. An exciting play for a young player highly regarded undrafted LSU at special teams work a year ago, but the Bears are likely to keep him in the mix as a special teams player in
a backup at linebacker as well. Break down that one for me on Micah Baskerville.
I think that you could have called the play probably two or three seconds before it actually happened. The most encouraging thing to me about that interception that Micah made was once he had the opportunity to catch a ball, he caught the ball. Because you never know how a defensive player is going to react to a pass with some velocity out of the the arm of a quarterback. Is it going to go through their hands? Is it
going to stick to their hands? Are they going to be able to control it, catch it, tuck it, and run? And Micah did every single one of those things.
So I was super happy for him. Jason McKee has been.
Talking about him all throughout last year, last training camp and stuff. And if he lives up to the build a billing and he plays to the the accelerated rate that he can, he gives some great depth to this linebacker position.
We're brought to you by P and C Official Bank of the Bears. Let's talk special teams. Long snapper Patrick Scales was unable to practice or play in this particular game, so Lions the backup came back on the roster after his release at a need because you need a long snapper. So how did that impact? Cairo Santosi had a missed extra point and just the overall placement of the snap.
Now you're talking about a new snapper and a new holder for Cairo, So the difficulty of that, and I think it can't go underscore because people have to realize within the instance of time that you need to be able to throw a seven and a half yard snap back, get it placed perfectly, so your kicker that's already beginning his motion by the time the ball is snap that
whole transition of time has to be perfectly done. Now, if you throw a snap that's maybe six to twelve inches out of place, you're challenging the timing of the kicker, and so I do think the one miss that Cairo had interfered with his timing of perfection and pushed the ball a little bit to the outside. It's not going to happen with regularity. That's why snappers and holders everybody can't do it.
It's a difficult position.
But I think the work that Tory Taylor had as the new holder on this football team benefited him because some of the conditions he could face throughout the season won't be easy.
Forty eight yard average on two punts for Tory Taylor, one inside of the twenty, quotas weightman two for forty one and a half and a punt inside the twenty as well. Josh Blackwell a couple returns for twenty yards. Greg Strowman won for sixteen of the punt return game in Blackwell with four tackles on defense playing in that
role as the nickel. With Kyler Gordon hopefully returning this week, that's my hope anyway to get back on the practice field as they get ready to meet the Cincinnati Bengals. All right, so that's some of the highlights of it. Now let's break down some of the other hot topics, and one of them was putting Vaylis Jones at running back last week. So we know he's got the speed,
We know he can turn the corner on you. We don't clearly know what his instincts are as a between the tackles runner or of a point of attack runner. He is. He did have a rushing touchdown, six carries thirty four yards in return, one kick for thirteen yards. How would you evaluate his overall day including special team?
You know, I think the coaches are doing a nice job of the way they're trying to break him into a position. That's not as easy as everybody thinks. The skills of reading how the blocks are going to unfold in front of you. It takes that inate ability to see how defensive players are moving before an offensive lineman or an exterior blocker ever gets to him and they're
feeding him the right time. Kind of plays. When Dayalas Jones Junior has the ball in his hands, he is a courageous runner, even though he knows he's going to deliver a hit or he's gonna get hit. So those exterior plays that are using his side and his size and speed I think can benefit this team. But he's gonna have a wi He's going to need to have a wider variety of skills in order to be deceptive when he's on the field, because if he's only one dimensional,
the defense will call that immediately. So if he can catch a screen, if he can catch an outlet pass, if he can pick up a blitzer, if he can run an RPO in the middle of the offensive line and run it efficiently, whether not to take it or to take it, those are the types of things that Dayleas Jones Junior is going to need to show the coaching staff that he's starts to understand the position.
And now I'm going to talk about a couple of undrafted rookies. One Ian Wheeler who had a terrific two touchdown game five carries, I think for forty three yards rushing, he'd been banged up, but I've always enjoyed how he ran the football during practice. He's a four to three to eight to forty guy. He's got a lot of speed and it looks like he's got a big heart. Man, he wants this badly. He I impressed.
Well, you know the thing about Ian Wheeler and vailis you can talk. You can see the differences between the innate ability to read as a career running back, or you can see how a guy that has the skill that's trying to learn how to be a running back.
Ian Wheeler understands the design of the blocking up in front of him, and then how to pre predict how the defensive first level and second level are going to flow and where and how the hole is going to open up and listen for years, you know, watching players like Walter Payton or Thomas Jones or Barry Sanders or so on and so forth that have that in a they have those you know, how many carries do you have?
Forty thousand carries throughout the practice life, in the game life of their careers, and so when you see what they have to offer, Ian Wheeler he's got those innate skills, but he's going to be in testing, also catching and blocking.
Busy Heart Seltzer Flavors for every vibe Celebrate Responsibly Mosten Course Beverage Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. All Right, you know I'm bringing this guy up. You know I am. Who do you think I'm going to bring up next? Undrafted rookie Brendan Bates. Love this player, and yes he had he had some catches, but he also had three special teams tackles, and so that becomes an important don't care who you're playing against, that becomes a big deal, especially at that position.
What's your thought on Brendan Bates three catches eighteen yards?
You know, I like him since he's got here, he's in a really competitive position. He's got to demonstrate that he has multiple skills at the tight end position. Line up as a tight end, next to attack, line up on the back side of a blocking play, lineup as a wide receiver, line up as an h back, line up as a fullback, and then contribute on special teams. If you're a rookie, he's demonstrated every one of the
skills as you just acknowledge. So I like the fact that he's increasing the competition of the position and being a rookie, you don't know what his future is, but he's definitely showed that he has the skills to go out and compete at a position that has multiple responsibility.
In a stack position. Obviously with Cole Kmet and Gerald Everett and Marcedes Lewis, Stephen Carlson with the organization here now for two seasons, a fourth year veteran Tommy Sweeney, a fifth year veteran out of Boston College, had a couple of catches yesterday as well, and then bates the underlying factor for Baits in my opinion, he can run.
He's got a four to six six forty during his off season work at two hundred and fifty five pounds, So Gerald Everett at two forty five or in a four to six, and we looked at him as a terrific athlete playing that position. So this is one of the faster tight ends you've got here, carrying around two hundred and fifty five pounds pretty good, you know.
It just shows you how competitive the tight end position must.
Be at a college level.
For a guy like that with those types of numbers, doesn't get drafted, and then what the heck is going on here? Because he's definitely shown in the early stages of this offseason, then through all practices. This is not only on field on game day field experience that's showing it. He does it in practice as well.
He's one of the three guys that got dinged up in the game that came back in the game. Also they just did not this is you know, that tells me a lot as well. And then ready Stewart, we keep bringing him up. He's a five to eleven corner out of Troy undrafted. Five tackles again, Tommy, he puts his nose in there. He shows a great willingness to be a tackler.
You know, to me, it's one of the most it's one of the hardest picial positions to evaluate. Unless you're just one of those top tier guys that come out and one of the first cornerbacks picked in the draft.
It's a crap shoot.
And I see you see free agents that have incredible success Hall of Fame careers through throughout their life in the NFL. So all of a sudden, you see a guy that the game's super important to him. He prepares every day like it's his last day, and then he goes out there and plays with such confidence that it's
hard to ignore him. Because those are the type of athletes that can fit into special teams all over the place, and then if they can develop, you know, i e. Tyree Stevenson, Terrell Smith, or whomever else you want to look at. On this team, it's a great position to have a lot of good players.
We've been talking about, you know, the plays that can be made with the offense because they're all catching run type players. They can do it all. They can cover everybody grass. So obviously this is the entire game, but you have fifteen plays that you call big plays, ten plays or more, and that's my thirteen different players. So how terrorizing could this be once you get in the regular season and say, hey, who are we gonna who
are we gonna take out here? Because the skill sets are pretty impressive.
Jeff, When you talk about that many players having a hand in a ten plus yard play, it just brings me right back to the coaching. They're doing a great job on the practice field to get these guys ready, so when they have their opportunity in a game, they know exactly how to go about business and then they're productive accordingly. And that's when Ryan Poles what he said a couple of weeks ago, to you, it's gonna be real,
really difficult to make this football team. And every single time you talk about a guy from Ian Wheeler to Vlis to Bates at the tight end position, to all the other guys that had a hand in a big play opportunity and took advantage of it shoots. I think it's a great thing for the Bears. It's a great thing for the development of this roster. And you know, some of these guys are gonna have a chance to be on a practice squad that have the ability to have a long, six scessful career in the NFL.
Tastes like middle time. Go to Miller lit dot com, slash Bears pod tofine delivery options near you, Celebrate responsibly Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ninety six calories and three point two carbs per twelve ounces. All right, I saved the best for last. We have to talk about the offensive line. No over, absolutely now we're just getting started.
Offensive line. Tommy offensive line. So twenty snaps thereabouts for the first team offense that included quarterback Caleb Williams, so prior the starter at right guard. This week Jenkins Jones at left tackle, and Shelton was the center. So those are the guys that stayed down the field for those twenty plays. Evaluate that before we go into the second and third units.
I think Ryan did a really nice job of bringing Coleman Shell on the board because he's a legitimate starting center in the NFL. So when you have to move Ryan Bates over to right guard, then he has a hiccup and he didn't play in the game. They don't have Nate Davis. Then you think about bringing in Matt Pryor. This guy's a mountain six seven, three hundred and thirty three pounds and he's got the skill to play offensive tackle, but he's got the size and the power to be
an interior offensive lineman at guard. So I think the Bears in the offensive line they put out there, which included Tevin and the tackles, I think they did a nice job. They came in and did exactly what was asked of them.
Perform.
Protected Caleb, open up for the running game, give this offense the time to do a variety of things to make sure that they get a better understanding of what they're going to be able to do in the future.
So I'm encouraged by the group that Chris Morgan the offensive line could put out there to start the game, and if that's what they had to go to bat with week one against the Tennessee Titans, I wouldn't shy away from it, and I just hope this continues to increase the competitiveness on the offensive line.
On the other side of the line, a Jitari Carter and Jerome Carvin both played a team high thirty six snaps each had two penalty. He's Carvin jumping back on both sides of the line at guard if I'm not mistaken, and Carter has been here now this is his what third year with the Bears, trying to continue to prove that he could be in that rotation and battle for
that number three or four guard position. That is so important as well, given the inability for offensive line these days to stay completely healthy throughout the course of the season.
Jerome carbon he played center and guard in the game, and he's got the capabilities of playing all three interior position, which I think increases your value, especially when you look at a guy that's sixty five, three hundred and six pounds, he's a really good athlete. He's got good length to be able to put his hand on the ground and getting a three point stance at guard. And then he's got a good arch in his back to get underneath the football and play center. And then when you talk
about Jatari Carter, he's a multiple position player. I really believe that he could play either guard or either tackle. And when you talk about game day activations and a limited amount of roster space that you have for those fifty three guys, you're talking about two young guys, two young football players that their skill level is super coachable. They are intelligent guys that can accept the responsibility of multiple positions. And then they've demonstrated that they have the
athleticism to kind of plug and play. And when you're those types of guys, you're not going to get a ton of notice before your number is called in the course of a football game. So the versatility they've shown and the reliability that they've shown so far, they're interesting candidates for this team.
I'm a lake that we had no turnovers. No turnovers, yep.
Another another credit to the coaches again that you know, they did a nice job in the Hall of Fame game when they put out there and had a scoring two minute drive at the end of the first half of the Hall of Fame game. And then ball security. How many times throughout the course of your life, whether you were talking to a defensive coach, do they talk about trying to create takeaways in turnovers? And then on the other and the other hand, every single offensive coach
talks about ball security. So it's a super complimentary phase that the players are getting the point that the coaches are continuing to preach.
We're brought to you by PNC Official Bank of the Bears. All right, Tom, let's look forward to this week.
Now.
The Cincinnati Bengals will come on Thursday for a joint practice. They'll go their separate ways on Friday for the walkthrough, and then Sunday, excuse me, Saturday, a kickoff at noon at Soldier Field. I am disappointed to report though, that the head coach, Zach Taylor of the Bengals says they will not play their starters in this game, so we will not see Joe Burrow on the field during the game. And this is what happened, correct me if I'm wrong.
Same thing with the Colts and Bears in their joint practices last year in Indianapolis. The starters did not play in the game itself. So the practice ones will get all the work or most of the work for the Cincinnati Bengals. And you know, I don't know if that's going to be the same case for the Bears or not. But from what we know right now, he had his news conferences. We tape this here on Monday, and that's
what he has to say. So he says the opportunities are going to come for his team with different bodies, different looks, and they're going to be long practices, hard practices, in some ways, harder than a game. It is only one practice. But how we evaluating this then.
Well, I'm looking at it three ways. There's a seventy percent chance of rain on Thursday, and the worst thing that could happen if they come and they have a rain soaked day. And now they're super apprehensive on the practice field, trying to protect everybody. Stay up, don't fall down, watch your feet, don't slip, don't slide. Bears have great
practice fields. I hope the fact that rain doesn't come in here and interfere with the ability to have a really good, solid practice, especially if your starters aren't going to play in the preseason game.
You look at who is it.
There's two teams that had to cancel their joint practices because there's so many injuries with one of the teams, And you know, you're glad that that hasn't infiltrated the thinking of the coaches as of yet. I wish I knew I had it at the top of my head. I know you'll figure it out, but you know, I wish Joe Burrow would play in the game. I think he started this his game the other night, and he
started with maybe like a sixteen play scoring drive. So they understand what they have in Joe Burrow, and uh, you know, well, coaches nowadays are going to make those types of decisions.
That was the forty nine Ers and Saints. Okay, yeah, but.
You know have a lot of injuries and holdouts, Joe.
Burrow in particular. You know, I'm sure they're a little gun shy about this because he's had injuries. He's coming off wrist surgery. In fact, that game that they played against the Buccaneers. It was one series. It was twelve plays, but that was it. You know, that was on. He hadn't done that in the first two years. In itsas well.
You got to think in the last two years he's had a pulled calf that kept him on a lot of action. Then he had the risk thumb injury that
ended his season. So when you're talking about a fifty five million dollar quarterback, you want to make sure that he's there for Week one of the regular season and in the physical, long practice that they'll have against the Bears, he's going to have a red jersey on that makes him untouchable, so he can get through a hard practice against a really good defense and not be you know, not have the threat of being hit.
Don't forget his rookie year, Week eleven, he had an MCL and ACL tear, so he missed the rest of that season two So again, young quarterbacks, you don't want them to have to stagger through the early part of their career overcoming injuries because it doesn't bode well for the future. Now he's bounced back, got them to a super Bowl. He's been an incredible player. But Taylor also suggested that he's going to lean toward Matt Eberflus and how the Bears run practice to kind of set the
tone of how practice is going to be. If it were in Cincinnati, they would do it their way. What do you think about that they're going to kind of just follow the Bears lead in how they practice.
Well, I'll tell you an example when we went to practice against the New Orleans Saints at one point and the coach there, Maura, he didn't practice at full speed, but we did. And so Dika gave us a talk before we got on the practice field and said, you practice at our speed, don't ever go down to their speed. And it was nothing but fights, and so we actually had to end the practice sessions early, get on the bus and go back to Plattefell and that was it.
So I think you got to come to an understanding and allow the head coaches to stand before their team before they take the field and let everybody know what the tempo of practice is. No tackling to the ground by the running backs, no hitting the cornerback, and none of those sideline shots that we saw, you know, happen in the game. So it's just it's you know, for the betterment of safety, because these teams on a walk away healthy looking.
When we practiced against the Patriots in Foxborough, that was Anthony Miller special. They were the center for the young Belichick kicked him out of practice. So hopefully we won't get.
Anthony Miller, who just got signed by the Baltimore Ravens.
Very good, very good, Timmy, you're on it. Uh. The Bengals have some injury issues. I was really looking forward to seeing their number one pick this year, Amarius Mims. He'd off off to a great start playing at right tackle, a massive human being out of the University of Georgia. To Trent Brown hadn't been practicing, so now he's back to ramping up. But he's got a pectoral straand so he's going to be out a couple of weeks. So that's a loss and some other you know, star players
haven't been practicing yet for the Bengals. But you know, you want to get the most you can out of this, and if Taylor's looking at this as you're going to get better results out of this practice than you would in a game. You know, this is a very important practice then for both teams, and you want to see the best guys out there, and what do coaches get out of this? What do the gms get out of this? They're going to be looking at each other's players, no
question about it. But can sometimes a coach maybe or a team loose perspective on what they think they do or do not have when you go up against another team, one that is also playing in a very difficult division, obviously in the AFC North, a black and blue division all by itself, with Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore all run teams that'd like to run the football.
You know, if I could have two drills that were full speed one hundred percent, it would be offensive defensive linemen one on ones in seven on seven, because then I would get a better understanding of my coverage skills and ability with seven on seven. Both ways, you can go one hundred percent of you're not going to tackle, you're not going to be exposed to devastating hits, But then you're going to be able to judge the athleticism of your defensive players and the route running ability of
your offensive players. And then if you can go to one on ones, you can do that at one hundred percent full speed. Let it go, Let it rip. If you get beat at the line of scrimmage, so be it. What type of corrections can you make and what type of you know, techniques can you positively reinforce in yourself.
So those are the two drills that I would be.
Most hopeful that they do them one hundred percent. The other full team works, they're all tempo controlled, and there's going to be so many, so much talking about this is thud.
This is not tackling. You do not hit the quarterback.
And then if guys disobey the rule, the rules of the coaches, then you're gonna see chippiness, You're gonna see fights, and then you're going to be talking about a different type of tempo.
Tom would you, as a player, if you recall your practices, did you ever get any good ideas from how the other team went about their work or is it just so universally accepted everybody does what they do that this is a standard standard practices around the NFL. Or do you get good ideas from this stuff? You know?
No, I never did get any good ideas.
Alls I did is you know, when you're being coached as an offensive line you're being coached as a unit, and you're just again positively reinforcing that the techniques that we're using, the fundamentals that we're taught, are working, even with the acknowledgement that this is a controlled tempo practice. But every single time Jeff, that we practiced against the other team with Ditka, we kind we always had the conversation with the players after practice and they would always say,
oh my god, you guys do this every day. What you don't ever you know, kind of take a step back, and so they were more amazed at just the level of effort that we gave a practices and even you know in the preseason game. We played a lot of pre in international games against the Vikings, against San Francisco, against Dallas, and when we would go to these international sites and we would practice against the opponent, it was
the same way. And I remember practicing against San Francisco and you know, San Francisco, man, they jogged every single period, won a period in the next And Dicka brought us in the meetings that night says, look, I don't want anybody walking on this practice field. You're gonna jog from drill to drill, and we're going to pick up the pace and pick up the tempo. So some other teams influenced influenced us as much as we thought we influenced them.
Usy Heart seuts their flavors for every vibe Celebrate responsibily most in Coorse Beverage Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. All right, tom, before we wrap things up, the LA Olympics is next
down the docket for the summer games. But US sports will include baseball, softball on lacrosse, and there's going to be the debut of flag football and it's not going to be contact for of course, but there are plenty of NFL superstars that have already said, hey, they wouldn't mind being involved, including guys like Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill and Micah Parsons and even Gronk would come out
of retirement if he could do it. Peyton Manning apparently told Pat McAfee on his show last month that he'd liked to coach. Would you be interested in something like that or would you prefer to have the amateur athletes get their crack at doing something like this? Like it all had been in the past with Olympic sports, including young players in the college basketball world. Before the dream teams were put together.
You know, I think there's a lot of guys that are on the cusp of making an NFL team, or guys that have an extensive college background, and there's a lot of other countries that have never participated in football, so they're going to play a period of catch up. So I don't necessarily think that Mahomes or Brady or Tyreek Hill or some of these incredible superstars of the
future should be out there playing flag football. Listen, if they're not concerned about getting hurt in flag football, but don't ever tell me that you're concerned about getting hurt in a full padded practice on the NFL. And so, you know, I just think there's got to be protection for the NFL team if they have a guy does go out there and have some type of horrific injury.
That one time they had beach football at the Pro Bowl and Thomas, the running back from New England, got such a devastating knee injury that it might have ended his career. So you can't ever think that you could just go out there and play football. But you look at what the USA women's team has done. I think it's now eight straight gold medals. You think of what the USA men's basketball team did and winning the gold medal.
When you're the best, you're the best.
YEP, that was Robert Edwards. He jumped Robert Edwards, excuse me jump to defend a pass in a four on four flag football game leading up to the Pro Bowl in nineteen ninety nine. He was really on the way to becoming an impact player. He was a first round pick, eighteenth overall and they were just replacing Curtis Martin. And yeah, that damaged his career forever. So your point is well taken. I would prefer not to see NFL players me neither. I would prefer you know, we're growing this game in
a way that is impressive. We're getting women involved in flag football. I think it's fantastic. There's a lot of high school programs across the country, including here in the state of Illinois. And for guys that made you know, a guy my size back in the day would not have been even to play high school football, just too small, you know, But I could have played flag football. It would have been a fun experience. I don't know. I keep him in the NFL.
I was playing flag football in the Olympics because I think there's too many talented athletes. Yeah, that can show and demonstrate their athleticism in flag football at an Olympic.
Level for sure. All right, Tom, that's gonna wrap us up. You got any final thoughts before we let you go? I know you always got Tom's thoughts. Anything we left on the table, No.
You covered it all.
I'm super excited and I just hope it doesn't rain on Thursday, so if Joe Burrow is not going to play that he can go out there and they can have a lively practice instead of being field concerned.
Yeah, I'd love to see it. I'd love to see him and t Higgins and Jamar Chase and all those guys. It would be a fun practice. Indeed, it is open to the public for that one, so we'll have fans there. So hopefully the weather want to stage clear, Yeah, one of the Yeah, I'll be there early. Don't you worry about me.
I'll be early.
Oh don't know, I'm going to be there early anyway. All right, Thanks Tom, I'm Jeff. Thanks for listening. Everybody. Please subscribe now in the Chicago Bears Official at Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts spear down everybody