Welcome in to Bears Weekly powered by IGS Energy, a Chicago Bears Network production. Bears Weekly is brought to you by Advocate Healthcare, Athletico Physical, effericly CD, Jallady, Connie's Pizza, IGS Energy, and Mener Liked. Here are your hosts, Jeff Chilliac, aka the Mayor of Bearsville, and his sidekick, Tom the Surfmaster Thayer.
Well in you the teams.
Now we have the roadmap to Santa Clara, California and Super Bowl sixty. First year head coach Ben Johnson will make his Bears debut at Soldier Field and the home opener against the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football. Good evening, everybody, and welcome into Bears Weekly on ESPN one thousand of the Bears Radio Network with Super Bowl winning Bears guard Tom Thayer. We're joined by former Bears quarterback Jim Miller from sirius XM NFL Radio.
I'm Jeff Joniac.
Coming up in the program, we visit with Bears GM Ryan Poles as we dive into each of his eight selections.
In the draft one more time.
Now he's at some time to look at them, watch them, talk to them, and it kind of sets, the Bears roster up for twenty twenty five. The discussion our producers Dan Brilly and Jordia Treadip and the ESPN studio Justin Pottinger. Executive producer of the Bears Ready Network is Eric Ostrowski. Last night the schedule came out, fell is in. It was like Marty gra for all football fans, amazing the interest.
But the Bears open up with two division opponents Tommy Monday Night football at home against Minnesota and then right up to Detroit for Ben Johnson's first NFL road game against the team he once coordinated offensively.
Well, you use the term mighty gras, I use a term like a Christmas list, because we know what the presents are going to be, but we don't know how we're going to unpackage them. And then you see two divisional games at the beginning of the schedule, when last year we really didn't start the division schedule until the eleventh week of the season. So I'm super excited about where and when we play these guys, and I'm excited,
you know, to come out on Monday Night football. Ben Johnson is going to be running on the field and his feet is never are never going to be touching the ground. And you know, we'll talk about the rest of the schedule accordingly, two.
Really good tests. We're going to see where the young JJ McCarthy is at in his career. I like that opener against the Vikings. I mean they could do a lot of things defensively to potentially challenge challenge that young quarterback at the Vikings and then Detroit to see where their pass rush is at. Is Hutchinson Aiden Hutchinson going to be one hundred percent? Have they signed enough guys to really put pressure on young Caleb Williams. And you
know it's a division. Games are important, So the Bears They've got a lot of work between now and then to get ready for those division matchups because those games truly matter to get off to a great start in the division.
Yeah, I call it diabolical the NFL, Tommy, what they do for matchups. You look at the Jets open up with Pittsburgh in the possibility that Aaron Rodgers will be playing against his old team in Week one with Justin Fields for the Jets and for McCarthy, Nazareth High School first NFL regular season game in Chicago, where he grew up against his hometown favorite team, Like this is I love this stuff.
Monday night football.
I mean, come on, you couldn't give him a noon start when he's kind of scattered around the country other games, but you give him a Monday night start. But then the Bears go to Week two, they have a short week because you play Monday night. Then you I don't know what the schedule is going to be like with Ben Johnson, and then all of a sudden, you're playing on Sunday at noon.
Already.
The only thing in the early in the five week portion of this schedule, Jeff is I don't like the bye week in week five. I wish you was farther on down the season. So I don't hate the schedule. I just don't like the bye week so early.
Yeah, Jimmy can't control that, obviously. The bye week is the week it's the earliest bye week since Week six and twenty nineteen. The last five years, they've had eleven, ten, fourteen, thirteen seven as their bye. Last season, it's the fifth Week five bye since the format started in nineteen ninety. The last time, though, was Matt Naggy's twenty eighteen maiden
voyage team that went to the playoffs and shocked the world. Right, that was a week five bye, so you can make something good out of it, right, But you got thirteen at the time.
Repeating ay straight Wall, Hey, I've got something good to say about it too. Here's what I'd say is, Tom knows we all have the five week breakdown on teams. That could be an opportunity for Ben Johnson to shake some things up offensively in terms of what they do. Because they'll have four games in obviously vikings at Detroit Cowboys and then at the Las Vegas Raiders, and then
have the bye week. Maybe you can start to wrinkle in some different things because when they come out of the bye week and go on the road at Washington, maybe you could surprise the commanders. Not that they're going to be surprised they faced each other last year, but whole new play caller. You can add some things offensively, do them some things differently in terms of your scouting report to maybe you know, throw off Washington a little bit.
But I'm with Tom, you'd like your bye week a little bit later when guys are a little banged up, get more well rested than things like that. But that's the only positive I can think about. That early bye week is shaking things up offensively.
You know one thing, Jimmy, Jeff, is when you have the bye week in week five, you gotta think you got thirteen games after that bye week. So you have to have some maturity inside that locker room to hold this thing together for the long haul, because there's not anything looking forward.
Oh, we'll have a long weekend, we'll have a bye week.
And even if you play a Thursday night game, I'm not always you know, mini bye, I don't take I don't take that into account. I just look at the bye week, but that was that thirteen game stretch after the bye week will be the telltale signs for this team.
Yeah, how about the schedulers as well. Last year, the Bears out of the bye week out of London went to play Washington. That was week eight out of the bye and the Bears should have won that game, as we all know. So it's not like that they were being outplayed by Washington by any means they had. They had the game in hand on the road and then went on that.
Ten game losing.
So it'll be the most discussed matchup of the early part of the season.
No question, what's going to happen in that game?
Fourth consecutive meeting with the Commanders, the last time in prime time in twenty three, DJ Moore went off and he exploded and the Bears first win of the season. Then they went seven and six the rest of that year. The Bears only have three home games in the first nine weeks. Now that Vegas game might be a Bears home game, let's be let's be honest. But now out of the bye you got Washington on Monday night, Then you got New Orleans in Chicago, and then two really
challenging matchups. We ate nine at Baltimore at Cincinnat. You get Lamar in his home building and you get Joe Burrow in his home building.
Jim Well, I think we know. I mean the Saints they got a young quarterbacks right now. I mean Derek Carr just retiring. I mean that could be Tyler Shuck, yeah, starting that game. So I like the matchup against the Vikings and the young JJ McCarthy. I like the game against the Las Vegas Raiders. I mean, I like the game against the Saints. I mean, minimum can the Bears, you know, come out of the you know, you know, looking like they have a winning record. I think it's
a possibility. But then it gets difficult. As you mentioned Week eight nine on the road against Baltimore and Lamar Jackson. I already threw out Lamar Jackson's record against NFC teams. It's really phenomenal. That is going to be a challenging game for the Chicago Bears. And then to see where the Bears offense is week nine against Cincinnati. What do we know against Cincinnati now that they've resigned t Higgins
and Jamar Chase. That team was averaging thirty four more points a game the last nine weeks of the season. So where are the Bears point totals going to be in Ben Johnson's offense, Because on the road against Cincinnati, you're gonna have to have your offense up and running early, and by week nine it should be humming pretty good because they're gonna have to match point per point for point with the talented Cincinnati team.
Well, you know one thing about it is Trey Hendrickson this week said if there is no new deal, he's not gonna play in With Sam Hubbard retiring this year, now they got probably their two most important positions for their defense that they have to have accountability for.
And maybe the Bears could take.
Advantage of some susceptibility at that pass rush position.
And that Baltimore game, they're gonna run the ball. They led the league in rushing and they had the number one sack total fifty four from a defensive point. If you are right, we'll continue on book, all right. When we come back, we'll here from general manager Ryan Poles to sit down with him as he reviews the whole draft process.
Interesting conversation.
Next down, Bears Weekly on the ESPN one thousand of the Bears Radio Network.
You were tuned into Bears Weekly with Jeff Jonyac on the Bears Radio Network. Well, welcome back to Bears Weekly on the Bears Radio Network. Here's your host, the voice of the Bears, Jeff jony Act.
This segment of Bears Weekly is brought to you by Igs Energy, Jeff Joniac, tumt There and Jim Miller. Let's listen in to us sit down with Ryan Pold's one final look at the twenty twenty five draft, the players and the process and where it leaves this team. Well, the fourth NFL draft of your Young Bears career.
How do you feel it went overall?
Feel really good?
It came together, makes me part of the properason that we put into it. Talked about us running simulations all the time ever since we put that process in, it really is eased armand in terms of different scenarios that could pop up and make sure that we're ready to adjust adapt move around the board.
But I thought all of our.
Work that we put into it, it came through for us.
For those who don't know what that is, and I've heard you mentioned more than ones, Now, what is that technology?
What what is that simulation thing you got going on?
Yeah, we feed a lot of data into basically a draft pick simulator that picks the players around us. And what it does is it forces us to look at the board in the situation that we're in in terms of our we're going to pick, you know, player air, player B will sequence the board, so we literally have player one.
Through one fifty ranked in sequence.
So when we go through that, it makes the selection process a lot cleaner, but it creates a lot of really good discussions before the draft ever kicks off. We probably ran that three hundred and fifty times before we actually got to the draft. Jeff King holds the title as the most the heavy, heaviest user of all of us. But I was personally able to do that, you know, one hundred, one hundred and fifty times before.
So you just feel comfortable and confident with the different things that could pop up.
That's quite the rabbit hole.
Yeah right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It also can help with just kind of the you know, the depth of the drafts in different positions.
It has a feel for that. Obviously, the further you go.
In the draft, the less reliable it becomes, but really gets us tuned into where we need to be for the first three to four rounds.
All right, first draft with this coaching staff.
You've already commented what ways do you feel it affected your draft strategy?
And better words, probably impacted your draft strategy?
Yeah, I think just to have a refresher to sit down and start over from the basics, what are we looking for for every single position? They did a fantastic job providing clarity for us of exactly what they needed to be successful, and we were able to apply that and ask ourselves hard questions as we went through the evaluation process. Does this guy fit our system. Are we going to get the most out of them? Is he going to allow our offense to be versatile, to be
hard to plan for? And the beautiful thing is what we did too, is we actually put you know, DA and decline and been in the same room and watched opposite sides of the ball, and then we were able to ask, you know, DA, is this guy going to be a headache for you to prepare for?
Yes? No?
And that really helped us kind of split some of those stacks up that you know it was one, A, B, C, D and so on. So that clarity was outstanding and I appreciate the time that they put into it. These guys, you know, evaluated a lot of players, and that's hard when you're in a transition, you're moving into a new place, you're trying to get your system set up, you're trying to get to know the players that are currently on
the roster. To be able to spend that much time in the evaluation process was really helpful for us.
Many described this draft as a draft where there are not as many stars. Potentially we will lead that to the players and their developers, but a lot of starters. Do you do you feel four picks in the first two rounds will get you impact on this roster long term.
I do. I have a lot of confidence in that.
I did think this draft provided a lot of for really good starters that can help our football team and really increase the level of competition at multiple positions.
And to me, that was key going into this year.
We have more talent than we've had on this roster before, and to create that competition is gonna draw out the best out of everybody.
All Right, how do you see Colston Loveland and Cole Comet working together on the field and complimenting each other's skill sets.
I think it's gonna be a real beautiful situation for us. We can be in a personal group, or we can run the ball and run efficiently and kind of dictate the terms to a defense of what we're gonna do, but also create mismatches off of that. Colson's smooth ability to get in and out on top of his ability
to block, it's gonna be critical that versatile piece. You don't know what you're gonna get from him, and with Cold the same thing, a bigger presence in the run game, who also is very capable of winning in the past game. That's gonna create some mismatches and headaches for defensive coordinators to go against. I'm excited to get both those guys in the same room. I think they're gonna be great
for each other. There's a lot to learn in terms of Colson learning from Cole on how to be a professional, how to go about his business, and I think we're going to see both of them rise through this.
And this offense has been weaponized. So Luther Burden the third joint us the mix as well.
How does how do you envision his fit?
Yeah?
I think here's a really smart football player that's highly competitive and a playmaker. And really the beautiful thing about him is you can put him anywhere on the field, inside, outside, backfield. That allows Ben's creativity to really flow and it doesn't
stop there. We know we have Rome, we have dj we Zequias, we have DuVernay, we have Tyler Scott, and to be able to have all of those different pieces to again create mismatches and really wrinkles in our offense is going to be critical for us and also for a young quarterback to have those weapons to rely on.
It's gonna be helpful for him and an outstanding wide receivers coach and Antwine Randall l He's been there, he's done that, He's.
Been a super Bowl star.
Yeah, he's a multifaceted athlete from Chicago. Now he gets his hands in, so he's looking at the guys who've been here from a different perspective, and now he's bringing these new guys into the mix.
I mean, what are we looking at here from him?
Yeah?
He brings passion, he brings energy, and he brings detail when you stand around his position group and how he teaches it in the individual period, he is very detailed of how he wants those guys to play the position in terms of their footwork, their stance, their get off at the top of the route, very detailed. So you're going to see a group that is going to get very refined, very fast, and they're going to play the
game the right way. That passion that Anteline Rendel shows up with every single day is infectious and it's going to flow through our entire offense, our entire team, but certainly the receiver group.
All Right, he traded down on the second What was going through your mind? Is you waited hoping for Asie Trapillo, Schamar Turner that they'd still be available.
Yeah, that was one of those situations where our preparation really paid off. We were going to move back and we're going to just kind of get a feel for who's going to be there. Do we need to take the defensive lineman first or the offensive lineman first. We felt both the chance of both of them being there was going to be pretty high based on our projections, and then the domino started to fall right around those picks.
We made a switch. We took Ozzie first.
We felt there's a little bit of a drop off after Ozzie, and we just knew that he was dependable, he was smart, he was tough. Some of that's going to compete for a starting tackle job, regardless if it's the right of the left. Then we were crossing our fingers and DA was too that Schamar was going to be there for our next pick, and he ended up
being there, and the whole room was really excited about that. Overall, that trade was one of the cooler trades that I've seen, just in terms of moving back to get value and moving our third round pick into second, giving us three twos, which I thought was in the sweet spot of this draft, and that was a move that we didn't project to happen, and it came together for us on drafted.
I don't want to put words in, but do you expect an immediate impact from Ozzie and Schamart some form of fashion on this twenty twenty five roster.
Yeah.
I think the first place is going to come from is the competition that ow line of d line. I think it's going to bring out the best in everybody.
Two.
I think the energy level that Shamar brings is very infectious as well.
He plays the game the right way.
He plays hard, his motor runs hot, and that's going to again impact the guys that are around him by increasing the competition. But I do believe he has the skill set, the physical traits, the toughness, and the intelligence to impact us on the defensive line as well.
So you met with Loveland, Turner and Trapello at the combine. What stood out in each interview that made you confident they'd be a fit here?
Yeah?
And fit for the coach?
Yeah.
So with Colston, not only did we meet with him at the Combine, but we also met with him at Michigan during the pro day, and there's something that's just different about his personality. His ability to kind of capture a room, take over the room was incredible. But then he had this really beautiful blend of humility and borderline cockiness that you're really like. And there's some people where they only can be on one extreme end of that. He has this beautiful blend of both. He lets you
know that he's there. He lets you know that he's a very good football player and he's going to be even better as it goes. He's got high goals and a lot of passion for the game, and the intelligence was outstanding. He's going to be able to pick up our offense very fast with Ozzie. His tape and his personality and who he is is identical. He's dependable, he's smart, he's exactly where he's supposed to be. Presents himself very well, and that high level of intelligence is going to.
Be important too. And when he walks through the door, he fills the doorframe up quickly.
You just get a real good vibe for how big of a man that he is. And then shamar his intensity. You know, I think he's one of those guys where he presents himself really well, he's got a bright, big smile, but he lets you know that there's a switch there that he turns off and it becomes a different person on game day. We really fell in love with that intensity and the overall personality.
Let's move on, and what did you learn from your Top thirty visits with Ze Frasier, Rubin, Hippolyte and Luke Newman that confirmed the fit?
Yeah, again with all of those guys, high level of intelligence, can talk football very easily, passion for the game, and really with all of them, there's a level of traits, physical traits, if it's lean, mass, speed, explosion, power, strength, they had some combination of all of those things which stood out to us. But having them met on a thirty visit, especially Hippolyte and Newman not.
Going to the combine.
We take a lot of pride in that, you know, we identify some players that maybe weren't captured by everybody else, that we believe in, our coaches believe in, and we think we can develop to impact our football team, not only this year but in the future as well.
And then let's talk about my young guy as well. Yeah, in that mix and Day three pick I just put on his pass pro tapeal fall in love at a minimum, just that.
Yeah, there's a level of physicality that plays with violence, toughness, contact, balance, always looking to get the positive pick up. Not only didn't always run into the best situation crowded box in terms of how they defended him, he always found a way to get positive gains out of some negative situations. And then when you talk about the past pro that's where I think you kind of see the character of a football player. It's that selflessness. He's not getting the ball,
but he's protecting his quarterback. He does that in a very violent way. You can see his strength and his power in that part of his game.
Yeah, overall, the day three picks, I mean typically if you sit back, you know Day three is kind of a.
Lifeblood of a roster right down the road.
You keep developing Day threes give him a chance to compete. They impact the roster in a big way. These are not just guys you pick right, These these are guys you.
Want, yes, and that development is critical for us as we move forward. Myself and Ben, we really emphasize that to our coaches and to our staff, to our performance team. We have to be elite in our development of players that feeds a roster, and we really believe that these guys can help us again, not only now, but into the future.
Is the draft.
It's a big show, it's made for TV special, but the work it starts starting for twenty six already. Yeah, if you could just crystallize what it entails, walk us through what the full preparation for something like this is, and just understand the scale of the team effort that you alluded to early in this conversation involvement.
Yeah, I mean, you've got about nineteen twenty scouts that have put their hands on some part of this.
Process to get us where we need to go.
You're talking about thousands of reports being written just to select seven eight nine guys per year. Our guys who live across the country are going into schools ask the right questions, trying to identify the talent that's going to be best for us. And if you just understood the path and the amount of miles that they put in in their cars and flight time, it's incredible. But the one place that I know we're specialized is our relationships.
Our guys leaning to the relationships at these schools that they go into the game and really gather the information to bring back to house all for us to discuss, and then.
Just countless hours.
We've spent probably probably anywhere from sixty to ninety days in that draft room, grinding tape.
Watching players over and over and over and over.
Again to make sure that we have everything captured so we put a proper value on them and have a.
Good opportunity to bring them here and put them on our roster.
Hodia, make sure what you're watching that everybody is going to start looking the same.
Yeah.
Yeah, we have a structured pretty good just in terms of we work vertically down the board from top to bottom. And the reason we do that is you can feel that split. You can see where the talent kind of drops off player to player. It becomes very clear. And then we also have really good debate. There's a lot of eyes. We're very We bring everybody in the room
to watch these players, and it's an open conversation. I want everybody speaking, so if someone doesn't see what maybe the other scouts are seeing, they have the freedom to speak up and say, hey, I'm not seeing what you all are seeing.
Can we watch another game or can you explain why you see this?
And those really good discussions allow us to detail the board, understand kind of how the sequence is, where the drop offs are in terms of the value, and we have a beautiful group that works extremely hard and they work well together.
Knowing you have a new coach and Ben Johnson looking to build a culture, do you feel the players you're drafted align with the vision he's building here and does a team, in your opinion, reflect.
It's head coach. Yeah.
Yeah, So we don't bring players here that don't relign with what our coaching staff is looking for. And we took a lot of time and we're very specific on what type of players.
We're trying to identify not only.
Their skill set, but their football character, their personal character as well, and we have a very specific criteria that we're looking for and these players had to meet that
to enter in the Alice Hall. So I have a lot of confidence in our system and how we separate the different players, but we have to make sure that those traits are there to fit that because the more players you bring in that are matching the culture in those traits, our entire roster starts to mesh together and play as one and that's what we're looking to.
Do, so with free agency in the draft.
Now in the rear of your mirror, how do you feel about your roster heading into the season.
Yeah, this roster has a lot of talent.
It's a blend of young players along with experienced guys that have played a lot of meaning meaningful ball, especially in the playoffs late in the Super Bowl as well, and I think that blend of playmakers, youth and experience is going to come together and.
Be highly effective.
We've talked about just matching what our coaching staff is looking forward now in terms of our culture, but our scheme as well. I really believe we've hit on a lot of those players and it's going to increase the level of production that we have.
And you're probably not done yet.
Are you? No? Never done, Never done?
Thank you, Tom.
He had a lot to say, and in particularly iny he likes where the roster's at.
I focused on that the very last question.
You know.
I liked his opinion on every single player that they picked this year. But the one thing that would interest me he talked about the team had three hundred and fifty simulations of the draft and how it fall and he did one hundred and fifty himself. I would like to see if any of those attempts at that anybody got any any simulator got it all right, because that what interests me just to see is is how accurate
is this simulator that they go through. But I hear are really confident Ryan Poles in that interview, and to me it's encouraging because after seeing some of these guys and hearing from them, I think they have a tremendous upside.
Yeah, and well, Tom, I think what's pretty interesting in that interview, and we had this conversation a week ago about Trapillo. Trapillo could be an interesting player to watch, you know, if this is a guy that maybe through injury or just through adding more competition on the offensive line, if he makes it interesting at the left tackle.
That's Jim Miller top there. I'm Jeff Joniack.
When we're returning, we dig back into the schedule from week ten to week fourteen. I'm gonna save the final four pack for another segment. This is Bears Weekly on ESPN one thousand of the Bears Radio Network.
This is ESPN Chicago, WNVP, WTBC HD two Yago A good Karma Brands Radio station.
Well, welcome back to Bears Weekly. Become a Bears Radio network. Here's your host, the voice of the Bears, Jeff Joeian.
This segment of Bears Weekly is brought to you by Athletical Biscal Therapy. Visit Athletico dot com to request it in clinic or virtual deployment. It start feeling better tomorrow, Jeff, Tom and Jim. As we look at the Bears twenty twenty five schedule, we certainly knew the teams. Now, we know the when, We certainly knew the where. All right, let's pick it up. We packed in the first nine in the first segment, so let's take the next bunch.
Like we talked about and I emphasized so much a year ago, because of the amount of division games that the season would begin a week eleven, maybe begins at week ten out of the Baltimore and Cincinnati and the very difficult AFC North. You know it's going to be physical when you play any of those four teams in the AFC North, just like the NFC North. But then you have the New York Giants sitting there in week ten.
I don't know who's going to be the quarterback at that time when they roll into Soldier Field, They've got so many options. I heard Phil Simms yesterday say, hey, when surprise me if Jackson Dart comes out as the leader and becomes the starting quarterback for the New York Jets.
Jim, do you see that scenario?
And maybe it is week ten, Brian Dabo's been there a minute now and they got to start winning.
Yeah, there's no hurry to rush Jackson Dart out there. So, like you said, you could right around week nine, week ten, that's where a young quarterback starts to settle in. I do think Jackson Dart is well coached by Lane Kiffen. They're at Ole Miss and you're right, at some point, maybe the numbers are stacking up against the Giants where they say, hey, we're probably not going to make the playoffs and let's put the young kid out there to really see what he can do. I also will say this,
the Giants they do have pass rush now. They drafted Abdul Carter, they traded for Brian Burns, so that'll be a good test of where the Bears pass per ten is at that point of the season. We know it's a new system, Caleb Williams being broadlong a different way. We know how Ben Johnson likes to attack defenses. I'd like to see where they are dealing with a premier pass rush group. Because the Giants granted he didn't Lawrence Taylor didn't grant Abdul Carter his number. He's got to
earn it on his own. We'll see if he earns it versus the Chicago Bears.
But how about Abdul Carter wearing number fifty one in Chicago when you're talking about one of the greatest defensive players in the history of the NFL and Dick Buckets, and here comes a.
Guy that has a little.
Cache, a high profile beginning to his NFL career and he comes in with fifty one. But to me those outside the Philadelphia Eagles, every one of those is a question mark at quarterback kill because we're not going to know what JJ McCarthy is by then, because he's still going to be a rookie and still going to be We don't know what the Giants are going to have, We don't know what the Steelers are doing, but we
know what Jalen Hurts is in the Philadelphia Eagles. So there's a little bit of a quarterback uncertainty in that little stretch of games outside of the Eagles.
Yeah, and that, of course is the Friday night prime time game. I didn't know this. The Bears have played Friday games in NFL history. Last one was nineteen sixty six.
Friday Night under the lights. Wa I miss that one, Jeff, I was born in seventy one.
You really have to prove that you're younger than us, don't you. Nicely done, nicely done. But that is a teeth of a schedule at Minnesota, we know is always challenging, There's no question about it. They've done a lot on their offensive line, They've added pieces on the defensive side of the wall, and really I am impressed with what Kevin O'Connell does at the quarterback position.
So are we looking at a.
Beginner's journey like Bo Nixon Denver last year? He did a very nice job led that team. JJ McCarthy's smart, he's accurate, he's a good quarterback. He was a good quarterback in Michigan.
He didn't play it down as rookie years.
He had all this chance to absorb and asked if he was a college freshman who was just going to classes and not taken tests.
And you gotta believe Minnesota they're gearing it. I know they've got those talented receivers, but there's a reason why they put all that money into their offensive line. Obviously, they paid Will Fries a lot of money in Ryan Kelly as well, and look what the Colts did. Colts ran the football as good as anybody with Jonathan Taylor in the background because their old line could run it and they struggled at quarterbacks, so they've insulated him very well.
They're going to run the ball with Aaron Jones. You think of JJ McCarthy, even at Michigan, he threw the least of all the quarterbacks that came out in his draft. So even with those talented receivers that they have, where is their run game going to be at? Because they're going to count on that quite a bit early until they branch out offensive.
And of course they added Mason from San Francisco to that mix as well.
But yeah, I mean, you got JJ over there. It's trouble with the cap tee.
By the way, Ben Johnson's Detroit offense again, the Bears are not going to be a Detroit offense.
It's gonna be the Bears offense.
But they did put up thirty one points October twentieth at Minnesota in twenty four and a two point win. Did it again at Ford Field against the Vikings on January fifth, thirty one to nine. So just food for thought if nothing else. And by the way, the Bears are twelve and one in the history of their matchups with the Pittsburgh Steelers at home.
I'll take that.
I know it doesn't matter, but hey, it's history. We'll have fun with it.
No matter what.
They got, DK Metcalf bye by George Pickens, and then that Philadelphia game, the Black Friday Special. Vic Fangio will be the key to this one. So great as a defensive coordinator number twoe points. The game allowed number one yards, number one in passing yards, tenth and rushing per game. Quarterbacks had the third lowest combined rating against Fangio last year. You got Saque, you got aj Brown, you got Devonte Smith, you got an offensive line that's still premiere. But that
matchup will be for me anyway. How Klee deals with Vic Fangio, Jim.
Yeah, totally agree, and I think it'll be really a validation of Ryan Poles in the interior work that he did in free agency with the interior offensive line, right, do you look at Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis. That is a big group of defensive tackles. They were dominators. They did not have to blitz pretty much all year long because there are two defensive tackles freed up their edge rushers. So to me, that is an offensive line game.
Talk about trench warfare. That's how Philadelphia won it. Where the Bears are Week thirteen, when they go on the road against Philadelphia will really be about where the offensive line is for the Chicago Bears.
I could agree with you, Mare Jim just that statement.
Time for a break, that's to there. I'm Jeff Joniak Jim Miller. This is Bears Weekly and ASPN one thousand of the Bears Radio Network.
You were listening to Bears Weekly on the Bears Radio Network.
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The voice of the Bears for twenty four years years with Chef Hilney at Chef Pumped Up Bears Radio Network.
This segment of Bears Weekly is brought to you by IGS Energy. We're breaking down the twenty twenty five schedule after the release last night with Tom Thayer, Jeff Jonahak, and Jim Miller. And now we get into the teeth of the schedule. We got through week thirteen in our last segment, let's spend some time with the week fourteen fifteen sixteen trio. The whole segment is about this trio. It's a rare thing. You get the Green Bay Packers
coming out of Philadelphia. That's a Friday to a Sunday noon start in lambeau Field with the Bears one in January of twenty five. Then you host Cleveland and you can't trip on that game. I don't know what I don't even know who we cording back? Who will be quarterback of the Browns? Is Joe Flacco going to be upright? Is Shader Sanders is going to be in there? Who knows how that's all gonna work. That's a long way from now. You got a block Miles Garrett and they
have added two rookies to the backfield. Then you get Green Bay at Soldier Field on sad it's either a three thirty or a six thirty start. Well know later on, but that'll be a standalone game. And the Bears have five standalone games, and this is just part of the ten games against teams that made the playoffs in twenty twenty four, with this Packer team twice in three weeks. Tom you said something in the break you lean back in your chair, you're contemplating by playing the Packers twice.
So what Ben Johnson, or what the coaching staff for Green Bay. There's not gonna be an exhaustive amount of changes. You're gonna look at things that you did well in the first time you played them, and you're probably gonna repeat a.
Lot of those things in the second time that you played them.
If you expose some vulnerabilities the first time you played them, then you're gonna try to alleviate those things that you became vulnerable against. And I just think when you play a common opponent, because there's a lot of time during your tape study during the course of the year, as you're looking at other teams, you're also going to be looking at the Green Bay Packers. For example, when you get ready for the Minnesota Viking in week eleven, you're
gonna be looking at Green Bay stuff. When you get ready for Minnesota and Detroit in week one and two, you're gonna be looking at Green Bay film, so you're always gonna have those guys in the back of your head and within the common opponent. Two times and within three weeks.
It just.
It makes interesting.
Battlefield because because of the commonality you have between them.
Yeah, I'm with Tom. There'll be a lot of carryover when you have a quick turnaround like that facing the opponent, because they may be doing certain things well at that point, unless you know, in that two week stretch, unless there's like a key injury or something like that for Green Bay or vice versa, then maybe they try to expose
something different. But typically with quick turnaround games where you play the same opponent, you're gonna stick with what you guys did or what you did well, and there'll be a lot of carryover from that. So that'll be interesting how it works out.
We can, I say to say one thing, and even though you played Green Bay twice in three weeks, and if I'm an offensive lineman, especially in the offensive tackle, the lingering effect of those three games is gonna.
Be Miles Garrett and I don't know, you.
Know, because if you play against a guy that has that type of unique ability and that type of respect around the league.
As much as I'm thinking about the division games.
If I'm a tackle, it's gonna be hard not to think about Miles Garrett.
First time playing within two weeks since nineteen ninety eight, two times in thirteen days, the first time since eighty five. So you played two games within thirteen days Tom in nineteen eighty five.
I don't have the schedule memorize. Maybe you know who that was, but this.
Is thirteen days between games between the green Bay Packers sandwiched in with the Cleveland Browns.
So it's gonna be interesting.
One of the games is Cleveland Browns is on Sunday. The next Green Bay game is on a Saturday, so you're losing one prep day. They are really two preps because you know, you kind of lessen the workload in those shorter weeks.
Jim, what do you think of up what the Packers have done in the offseason.
Yeah, they've done a lot of good things. I mean, people forget this team green Bay. Granted they didn't farewell in the division, but they were a top five offense and they were a top five defense. So and now they've they've drafted some pretty good players because Obviously they're not happy with Christian Watson the way they attack their receiver position. So this is a formidable team looking to
take another big step. And so you know, we'll see they are a very good football team and that is a well bill roster and great.
One thing about it, Jim, how does Golden play in extremely cold weather in December on a natural grass field at that time of the year, And that's where the first time we're going to be able to see him. I'm talking about the first round draft choice for the Green Bay Packers. If we come into extreme conditions in week fourteen and week sixteen at may affect some of these first time players.
Yeah, and not only that, they added save On Williams, the TCU weapon, because he's a big receiver, he can run. And they also added me Cole Hartman. So I thought they had plenty of receivers, but they must not. They must not love every one of them. So adding more depth for the quarterback there. And also you got to make sure you stop that running game of Josh Jacobs.
All right, one more segment to go, Well, wrap up the rest of the schedule that's on our docket here on Bears Weekly on ESPN one thousand and the Bears Radio Network.
You were tuned into Bears Weekly with Jeff Joniat on the Bears Radio Network. Welcome back to Bears Weekly on the Bears Radio Network. Here's your host, the voice of the Bears, Chef.
Joni a.
This segment of Bears Weekly is brought to you by Athletico Physical Therapy. Visit Athletico dot com to request at in clinic or virtual appointment and start feeling tomorrow. Jeff and Tom and Jim Miller from Serious XM NFL Radio week seventeen at San Francisco for a seven twenty Sunday night kickoff. Tom, that one gets under your saddle, A burn a saddle a little bit back to San Francisco where they struggled last year with George Kittle and Brock Purtty.
That connection was nasty.
But you know you're not getting home till Monday morning at seven am.
Right, So you play Saturday Green Bay game Week sixteen. Then your next game is Sunday seven fifteen in San Francisco, So.
That means you lose a whole day. You get back Monday.
You kind of give the players a day off to kind of refresh and then you conclude with a division game that hasn't been announced yet. So I just I'm not.
A big fan of making the Bears.
Travel all the way to the West Coast play a seven to fifteen game. You play, and you get home at sometime Monday morning. So I'm just not a fan of the t ask of this game.
Yeah, and if that game against the Lions is played on a Saturday, like you said, Tom, hit it there, you basically are losing that whole Monday. I mean, let's be honest. And then they if they do indeed have to play on Saturday, thank god it's a division opponent that you know well, in the Detroit Lions, because that could be a meaningful game if the Bears can find themselves in the mix for the division. I mean, there will be a lot on the line potentially that Week eighteen game.
You know, Jim, the Detroit Lions changing all the coordinators. So you play them in week two, then you don't play them again until Week eighteen. There's going to be a lot of different changes within the Lions probably and the Bears as well. And then when you talk about if you do have to play them on that short week schedule, it could be.
A tough coaching challenge.
By the way, the Bears have won eight of the last thirteen meetings at home against the Lions, so they've played them hard. I think Ben Johnson acknowledged that when he took the job that it was challenging, and of course we felt that the Bears were in position to win a couple of those games against Detroit and the first time to close the season against the Lions since twenty fifteen. One other nugget on the forty nine er game at Levi Stadium, the home of the Super Bowl
here for the next twenty twenty five season. The last time the Bears won on the road against a forty nine Ers team that finished with a winning record was your nineteen eighty five team.
Time. Do you remember that out Do you remember that game?
Twenty six to ten. We crushed them. We ran the ball so well against him, and that was the get back game. That was the first game that Mike dickt inserted William Perry into the backfield because of Guy MacIntyre being inserted into the backfield the year before in the NFC Championship game. So that game was all about the vindictive Mike Ditka.
You know, I also want to mention something about the Packers back. Would this twice and thirteen day thing ratchet up the angst, ratchet up the you know, playing through the echo of the whistle and a little ear hustling going on and some paybacks from the previous game. I think that could be a war the second one around.
Listen, if the Bear's going to Green Bay and beat him at two years in a row, it's gonna up the angst a lot.
As you say.
Yeah, if the Bears can win on the road week fourteen and Caleb goes two to zero in lambe week sixteen, will matter. Just hey, just go back to draft day. I thought that was hysterical about Caleb Williams is undefeated in Lambow. It definitely is going to ratchet up.
Yeah, that was our guys, Seth We had. Seth Rollins was on our Bears et cetera podcast a week and a half ago.
He was hilarious.
Yeah, he did it up right, He got him all stirred up. Over there final nine games of the season, Bears will left five home games, including three of the final four, So team's got to deal with the potential weather at Soldier Field. This I find it was from a leftover note last year, not knowing if Caleb Williams would be able to take every snap, but he did played every game, and then Bob Abolini the only quarterback to start every game in consecutive seasons in the modern era.
So Caleb knock on Wood play the entire season, that'll mean good things for you, good things for the team, and good things for continuity. You wouldn't ordinarily make that comment, but it's been a struggle for the Bears to have a quarterback play all the entire schedule each and every season. So I hope that that happens. If that happens, I think good things are happening for the Chicago Bears.
All right, boys, that's gonna wrap us up.
Appreciate your time taking a journey through the twenty twenty five schedule, and I know, Jim you're gonna be breaking down every single team in great detail from now until the start of preseason camp. And by the way, we should also mention the preseason schedule to be determined against Miami at Soldier Field Buffalo is a scheduled seven pm Sunday, August seventeenth, and at Kansas City back to back seasons in the preseason times buying the barbecue in the Tacos
Tacos Friday, August twenty second at seven to twenty. We won't invite Jim Miller long for the ride on that one as well, So a to be determined Sunday Friday. Preseason seems pretty harmless, not too bad. One short little trip to Kansas City in the preseason gym.
Yeah, hey, hey, I'm looking forward to I'm glad, hey, Black Friday games. We got these standalone games, the international games. It's hard to keep track of all these things. But I think this is a decent schedule. Let's to me, it's a nice schedule for the Chicago Bears. And you know, I think that's a good opening game, a good two week opening games, and see where they sit, and I personally do I think they can get off to a fast start. Las Vegas Raiders. They're slaying a foundation out there,
so that to me, that's even steevesman. I expect them to be two and two minimum out of those first four weeks.
Three and one or else.
Yes, thanks to our producers Dan Brilli and Jordan Treadup at the executive producer of the Bears Ready Network, Eric Ostrowski in studio, Justin Pottinger, Thanks to everybody for listening. For top there and Jim Miller. I'm Jeff Joniac. This has been Bears Weekly on the radio, home of the Chicago Bears, ESPN Chicago Black and Abdalla are next. Have a great night, everybody,