Welcome in to Bears Weekly, a Chicago Bears Network production. Download the Chicago Bears official app brought to you by Verizon to follow the team on the Jove. Bears Weekly is brought to you by Advocate Healthcare, Athletico Physical Therapy, bet Rivers, CDW, Connie's Pizza by Gens Energy and Miller LIKEE Kira, Your hosts Jeff chilneyak aka the Mayor of Bearsville and his sidekicked Tom the surfmaster there.
All I gotta say is wow, are we in for a show tonight and the first look at the newest Bears starting tomorrow at HAT. I saw two days of practice with the twenty twenty four rookie Class nine undrafteds and I think nearly what thirty rookies and Vet's getting try out. So we'll discuss tonight on a special edition of Bears Weekly. We are welcomed and absorbed into the Wattle and Sylvie show right here at he It's been
a one thousand Have the Bears readio network? My name is Jeff Joniek with Super Bowl winning Bears guard Tom Bear Jim Miller off tonight but joining us Bear's radio network pregame host Mark Sylvie Silverman and with the Cubs Dark today, Jesse rochers Pin hitting for Tommy Wattle.
Good evening, guys. How's everybody doing very well?
Said, good evening to you guys.
Ex ready for.
Tom How are you?
I'm doing good? I'm doing good.
You know.
I think Sylvie also needs the introduction of the halftime host in the first halftime host in the history of NFL brought and I was reading an article somewhere a couple of weeks ago how they felt that was such a unique idea and how cool it was. And you know, it took me a couple of weeks to kind of get used to by standing in the back of the booth and listening to Sylvie take calls during halftime of NFL games. I'll tell you what, man, that that is an incredible feel.
It'll be interesting to see as this team grows if the phone calls kind of peter out of the little bit, because you know, people call when they're upset more than than when they're happy. But hopefully they continue. If they're up thirty five to nothing and at halftime, I hope people are calling up celebrating that as well as sounding off.
If things go wrong, Jeff, they better be calling with praises, right, I mean like I want love. Like like this is like someone said to me when you guys were doing the show after our show on draft night at the Bear's official draft party, and there was someone in the VIP section as I was walking out of there, and they looked at me and they go, Sylvie. And this was after Rome and Caleb Williams was drafted. What are
you guys going to talk about now? You spent months talking about this draft And I paused and I looked at him and I said, wins, and right, I mean, that's what this is about. It's not about belly aching, it's not about complaining. It's about building a sustained winner here. And what Ryan Poles has been able to do is build a better roster and now hopefully this leads to lots of wins and hopefully happier phone calls at halftime.
So Sylvie, we talk about the halftime phone calls. We talk about your pregame show. So the first time you're sitting out there Playoff weekend, I mean, I think that's gonna be some of the most exciting radio that there's been here and don't I don't know however many years that you know they would have a you know, a just a home field or even just a plus situation like that, be.
Oh my goodness, like to talk about a playoff game like let's go, Like I can't wait for something like that.
The anticipation, you know, starting tomorrow is so cool and I'm obviously you two more than anyone, are going to be involved in this.
Just everything Caleb and a Zoom you know from Dona.
Everything they do is is for the first time, right first first mini camp tomorrow and then eventually first camp in general, then first game, and it just that's gonna be cool for the city to sort of follow this thing from the beginning, and you guys will be right there, you know, for every second of it.
Obviously we've had first round draft picks before at the quarterback position, but just watching what's been going on on social media from just regular regular few people fans and podcasters and block whatever you want, the build up, I don't think we even understand yet just how much attention Caleb Williams is going to bring to the team. And for that, Matt a Roma Dunes, Uh, they're getting so
much love nationally from every writer. In fact, the NFL dot com they came out with eleven band, Wanger band, Wangerons, Wagons, Yeah anyway, and the number one and that it could be a team. But this is his projection about what is going to be the top topics, and the number one is the Bears. Uh, it's Caleb Williams. It's everything that's going on with the Bears. Everything else is either a coach or a player, and the Bears are getting
a ton of attention. Yes, there's gonna be a lot of expectations, and deservedly so.
I mean, we went through the paint.
Everybody went through the paint, from the coaching staff to the front office to players that are not even here anymore. And it's it's a significant thing. It is a significant thing. We'll start to roll it out tomorrow. I got to say thanks to our producers as well, Dan Brilly and Jordan tread Up and in the ESPN studios we got Meller, we got Achi, and we got our executive producer Eric Ostrotski as well.
No guests tonight.
I tried to get I tried to get one more teammate, Sylvie and Tommy I tried to get Jason McKee aboard. He says, Hey, I'm about the t off. I'm down in Orlando golfing with the future Hall of Famer Devin Hester.
So how cool is that?
What's the countdown, Jeff on the Canton game?
Here?
How many weeks away are we from our first kickoff of the season for Devin Hester getting inducted and the Bears taking on the tax set.
Hey, we're inside of three months. I mean we're inside of three months. It's August first is the game if I'm not mistaken, So yeah, we're inside of three months.
Can't wait. Hopefully until that point, training.
Camp will go as smooth as a uncrowded highway so that the Bears can just hit the gas and pick up where they left off for the second half of last season and roll.
That's my expectation.
I think there will be some growing pains, obviously with a Caleb Williams, a rookie quarterback, there always is. But I just think he's a little he's just built a little different, and that's what we keep hearing. How many people have you guys interviewed on Wattle and Sylvia or on the on ESPN that have just touched on that. The experts, everybody's digging into his past. He's just built a little different, right.
Yeah, I love it. You know, some of the stuff that Albert Breer has written. I don't know if you read The Morning Quarterback, it's great and like what I liked to Jeff, and I didn't bring it up on Wattle and Sylvie today, but Jamal Murray from the Denver Nuggets, who is a hell of an NBA I love Jamal Murray. He's a big NBA Finals games. I hope one day we could be talking about Caleb Williams having big Super
Bowl games, having big playoff games. So I admittedly I'm talking about apples and oranges here, Jeff, where this is a very accomplished PROS one championships and has been there in the biggest moment.
But something that was apparent to me from.
That article from Albert Breer that Ryan Poles talked about when he evaluated Caleb Williams was dealing with adversity and what he analyzed with Caleb Williams was that Notre Dame game. And oftentimes we had fans call in, guys, what about the Notre Dame game? What about the Notre Dame game.
I'm very disappointed with the way he played. That was a big red flag to me, and Poles took it that he liked what he saw from the Notre Dame game, because you've got to see what a quarterback does when he deals with his adversity, and never was he checked out.
He was always looking for answers.
Never did he hang his head, never did he choose somebody out in a bad way. And I bring up Jamal Murray because during that butt kicking that they took in Game two to the Minnesota Timberwolves, he starts throwing stuff on the core and then he doesn't get suspended, and then after the media comes down and they want answers two days later, instead of being accountable, he had a chance to say I'm sorry, I'm glad the league didn't suspend me. I made a really really big mistake.
As a champion, you think a guy would do something like this. He never did, and so I thought it was very interesting that here's this battle tested champion who wouldn't even be accountable, wouldn't even deal with adversity in the same way where I draw this with Caleb Williams on One of the selling points that Ryan Poles talked about that they liked about him was the way he dealt with adversity.
Right, body language is gonna say a lot.
How many times have we over the course of our time a quarterback who sits by himself after a couple of rough series instead of working on answers with his teammates.
Don't want to see that.
And the other aspect of it is this particular individual has been thinking about this since he was ten years old, so he has been engineered.
He engineered himself.
He's had every aspect put before him, the proper training, the proper teaching, the proper footwork, and then the competitive spirits got to come. That's got to be organic. And I think we all see it and he's going to be. And I can only say this from watching him, just from watching him at the Combine.
We touched on this on your show a couple of weeks back.
I followed him around after his initial interview at the podium and he had to do another ten and just what he was like, what you know, hey, one time, I you know, at the combine. I went up to Kyler Murray right after and he wanted no part of me. I just wanted to say hello because he lived next door to my daughter Kelly at Oklahoma, and she was the girl on the white truck that was dropped off at Oklahoma's exercise facility every morning because she was working
in sports science there. And then his face lit up. But you know, are you that guy? No, you can't be that guy. You're the CEO of this football team in one of the greatest football towns in America, the greatest football town in America. And this town is hungry, and he knows it. He knows how hungry it is. And and this has nothing to do, by the way, with what my predictions may be about his performance on the field, what he's going to be like in the locker room.
All that's going to work itself out.
But I appreciate a guy who also embraces the history of the game. Too often now with young players, you hey, you know, they don't know who anybody is. They walk in that building at hallasall now they purposely have that entrance with all the names of the great players. It's great they pounded in. I want them to embrace the history, and I think he embraced it.
It's funny.
I wrote an article about Bryce Harper recently and when he joined the Philadelphia Phillies, he dove into that franchise in the history of the franchise, he.
Went, not how much they love him?
Now, yeah, all right, he's mister Philadelphia. So if Caleb has that aspect to his personality, that is huge.
That is a huge way to entear yourself to a fan base.
I love Go ahead, Tom Good.
Now you know the thing about it is is you know, a baseball locker room and what they need in order to show the reflection of good is different in a football locker room. And because a quarterback has so many things that he has to be incorporated in. He's a big part of the run game. Now with RPOs, he's a huge part of the passing game. He has to know the terminology and what it means to every single segment that he's saying it to and how he can
benefit himself and the better he knows it. And then there's such an age variety inside in the NFL locker room that you have to make make sure that you know you become a part of it. And again back in eighty five and we're the youngest team in the league, and the role of the older guys in that locker room, how enormous their role was in the success of that team.
So there's so many different elements that they all have to come together in order for Caleb and Rome and every one of these guys to benefit from it.
Tom Jeff really quick if one thing that I noticed too, which I really really love, is that Keenan Allen, who's brand new, who's a veteran, and it's something that Tom just hit on, Like at the Cubs game, at the Sky game the other day, Keenan Allen seems to be with Caleb Williams where he's going and I love that, and I love that he's showing him the ropes and that even though it's it's it's Caleb who's getting the love and this is a future Hall of Famer, that
there's Keenan Allen right by his side, and this scene to be something that's gonna work out very very well.
Yeah, I'll throw one more in there that, you know, the idea that Ryan Poles and we got to take a break has all these former Chicago high school stars that are now back at home, not unlike Tom Fayer and the eighty five Bears. But Cole Comet, they if Caleb has any concerns, questions, or as things go well or not so well from week to week, throughout his career, or just whatever may be the case, they can give
him a little history. Listen on Chicago. Also, Hey, here's how it is here, this is the way it is. Here's how they're gonna embrace you. Here's where they're gonna get a little hot under the collar. And he'll get a real good impression of it. Because Cole Comet, TJ. Edwards, all these guys grew up huge Bears fans. All right, let's take a break here on Bears Weekly with Tom Bhayer. I'm Jeff Joniak, Mark Silverman and Jesse Rodgers on ESPN one thousand of the Bears Radio Network.
This is Bears Weekly with a voice of the Bears for twenty three years, Jeff Jony on the Bears Radio Network.
This segment of Bears Weekly is brought to you by Igs Energy, Jeff and Tom and Mark Silverman along with Jesse Rodgers. Off the baseball we beat into football and it's never far from the front of your mind, isn't it right?
Jess no, no, it's not.
You're talking about football, right, yes, no, no, And I'll give you the fan perspective because I was thinking about this last segment as you guys were talking. I went, as a fan, I always do Opening Day, and I mean, the Bears throw a couple of great tailgates outside.
You know, a bunch of us paid for that.
We had a blast outside and you guys, you know, we had the radio on, revving us up everyone's and then we go in there and what a dud of an opening day that was. I mean that, And I'm just thinking fast forward to this one and the excitement's going to grow again, and I'm hoping it's different. But we've been more disappointed than than satisfied in the last few years, so hopefully that'll change.
Who are we opening up against? Any guesses? Who were you?
What's the what's the NFL and their magic machine gonna throw off their next Wednesday?
They won't Retroit Detroit Lions.
Yeah, that's what I'm wanting prime time. Maybe I don't know.
It, could you know, it could be a barn burner way to kick off the Sunday season by a noon start in Chicago of that division and so I think it would be pretty interesting. The Bears should have beat Detroit twice last year they beat him once, and if they did come out strong and beat Detroit at home, it would already start the conversation about what the future holds for the Chicago Bear. So hopefully we'll see it. And you know, there's no more emotionally attached coach right
now that shows it than Dan Campbell. So's there's a lot of stories to live up to.
Jeff, it's a it's that's a really good, a good one that a couple of people have guest or have there that it could be the opener. We know the Bears cannot open up against the Packers because that's the Friday night Brazil game against the Philadelphia Eagles, so they are off the table. There's a couple that I like,
My guess was the Texans. Now there's a couple of flaws in that is because they do play the Texans in that Canton game that I said, would the league want them to play in the exhibition in season and then really quick in the opener. I know a lot of starters don't play anyway, but I think it's an intriguing matchup between a second year quarterback and the rookie quarterback, two wide receivers who are studs who just change teams. There,
two really good up and coming teams. There's a rumor out there that the Texans could be the opener for the Chiefs.
So but I like that game.
And then someone said this to me, Jeff, what about the Bears and Commanders. It is the two the last two Heisman Trophy winners and Jaden Daniels and Caleb Williams and the number one in two picks going up against each other this year, and it's Caleb Williams returning to his hometown.
Okay, now that's very good. That's a very good one as well. Uh yeah, that's intriguing. I'm thinking they'll wait down the Houston one just because, hey, let let Caleb get his experience in and that is going to be some holiday game or something. And look look how far he's come in year one. Look where the Bears are at, and look where the Texans are at. Because everybody's saying that it's low hanging fruit, right Tommy, that the Bears are poised to making Houston Texans type jump this season.
I don't like those kind of comparisons. It's always what's happened last week?
I can't Thank God, I'm not wait, I'm not I'm not saying it won't happen. I'm just saying that's the easy answer all the time, Like what happened last season?
You know what I'm saying, It's a whole different situation.
Listen that that that deal. It's like the Adrian Peterson of knee injuries. When knee injuries were so unrecoverable within a year and a half's time and you could not contribute to your team, and then Adrian Peterson came around, he got a knee injury, then the next year he goes for over a thousand plus and one of the best runners in the NFL. So listen when CJ. Stroud put the quarterback effort on display that he did last year with a new head coach and the enormity of
pressure on him. When you consider Dak Prescott in Dallas and what the situation was with the Texans when they lost Watson, and now that now everybody's going to say, Okay, if CJ. Stroud did it, any quarterback that's a rookie that gets drafted after him can do that. It can do that as well. So I think that the CJ. Stroud pulled that engine cord on the quarterback position, people think if he did it, the next guy can get.
Any three for four thousand plugs.
Just can I give a counter though, Like I understand what you guys are saying. The only difference is, while yes, it's the rookie quarterback comparison is, let's not forget the Houston Texans were three thirteen and one and then they went on this run last year.
The Bears are coming in at seven and ten and.
We're a really different team in the back half of the season, so they wouldn't be coming out of the blue like the Texans were a year ago. That I think they're well ahead of where the Texans were a year ago.
So my expectation for.
Them to win ten or eleven games is not as outlandish is predicting what the Texans did from three wins to this year?
All right, Sylvie point counterpoint Like that old show that you see on Sundays, I like it. So you're saying Sunday, I mean you're saying seven wins, Is you really think that's the catapult to success? You know, because you're saying three and thirteen for the Texans now that the Bears won seven, because I listened seventeen games, as you know, okay, and they lost three or four that they should have.
To me, if they would have won those three or four, that they should have then, and I think we'd really be talking about, you know, a special surgeons from the from the year before. But you know, when when we walked out of there at the end of the season after a seven win season, you know, I think I was thinking, man, this team needs to make significant strides when you look at what Green Bay is going through,
what Detroit's going through. And so seven games wasn't as exciting for me as it was some people.
And I'm glad you're not satisfied. That's good.
That man's never going to be satisfied the trophy, sure, but I got to talk about this because you know, also a lot of folks are thinking the NFC North is now going to be arguably one of, if not the toughest division in football. Some people have put that out there, maybe some of your guests have done the same, the experts, I don't know, but.
Getting the Bears got to beat the Packers, and.
The Bears got to beat the Lions and they got to take care of business against the Vikings. So that's a defensive team that has Brian Flores and he's got a little more pieces to his puzzle that he likes to do his pressure defense. The Packers are on a climb again, young and beafed up their secondary and a second year now with that offense.
That really surprised a lot of folks. And we know what Detroit's doing.
So you know, we're projecting like playoffs and talk like this, but are they're gonna Are you saying that the Lions and Packers are not playoff bound? Because are we gonna have three teams in the division going to the playoffs?
Yeah, that's a legitimate question.
I think this is a great point because I use the phrase fully formed, and when I talk about a lot of baseball teams, like the Dodgers are fully formed, the Phillies, the Braves, the Cubs are trying to be that fully formed team. The Lions and Packers are pretty fully formed. I'm no expert, but they look pretty fully I mean, certainly the Lions and the Packers may have been and the Bears.
Are are Are they fully formed? I don't think so.
We may know more about, you know, ten weeks into the season, but I think you guys would agree there are two more fully formed teams. And even you know, the Vikings, if they didn't have a quarterback issue, might be flipping more fully formed. So there are steps for the Bears to take that we don't know when they're going to take them necessarily.
Hey, Jesse, you know where the Bears need to take steps. It's in the crowd. The crowd can't sell their tickets to Detroit fans in Green Bay fans that we've seen over the last couple of years, because throughout the amount of time we've been around the NFL, we've been to Detroit when it's more Bears fans than it is Detroit, and that's not the way anymore. And then you talk about Green Bay, it's still Green Bay fans that you know,
cause the noise there. And then Minnesota with that inside stadium if they're in a good kick and a good role, they're also Viking full of Vikings fans. So Bears fans, keep your tickets.
And he went all indeed on everybody, right, Hey, he did?
I like it?
He did so because I'm watching him on zoom, because that's how that's how we verbalize here through zoom.
And he gets a little red faced, he gets a.
Little things going, oh yeah, it's a.
Good Yeah, he does. He does. All right, Let's take our second break here.
This is Bear's Weekly with Tom and Jeff and Mark Silverman and Jesse Rodgers on ESPN one thousand of the Bears Radio Network.
Bears Weekly with a Voice of the Bears for twenty three years. Jeff Junior on the Bears Radio Network.
Calling all Bears fans.
You want unforgettable access to see the Bears play at Soldier Field this season VIP Official ticket Package. He's available as soon as the schedule is released. The word is reportedly next Wednesday. Unlocked access to exclusive ticket packages that may include entry to in stadium hospitality lounges, pre game
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When that schedule comes on, We're not going to be suckered into going waddle and Sylvie show and having this big schedule prediction that came back to Haunus last year.
Hell you will, Yes, I gotta tell you, you know, Sylvie, let's set the stage.
Let's set the stage. A year ago. Schedule comes out.
A few days later, Tom and I do a video for the Bears website. We don't make predictions, but we you know, we give you the deal and then you invite us. We had to go down to the studio and there I am on State Street, a rare appearance, and you guys say, okay, we're playing the schedule game, and I'm like, I'm not doing this.
So they shamed me into it and.
It was fun, and I'll tell you you guys had me rolling Jesse.
I was head to toe sweating, sweating. I'm not joking.
I got so into it and I was talking myself in and out of Wins wound up with eleven, knowing full well in my heart that was not gonna happen. But as Tom indicated in a previous segment here on Bears Weekly on ESPN, one thousand of the Bears ready at work. Should have been three more wins, so I might have been only one off.
It's why this schedule game is fun. It is because you may want to say I think the Bears are gonna win ten games, but when you do the exercise, you may find yourself mapping out twelve because you're like, well, there's no way they're going to Arizona and losing this. So I've got this as win. And I think they've got Detroit in a good position here because Detroit's coming off of their yeah this, and so like I've got to win here.
Any sentence that starts with there's no way, Yes, there is a way.
This is the NFL, right, Jesse, Jesse.
What happened was I kept trying to go back and erase my answers, and Sylvie said.
You got to stick to the exercise. There's no there's no redo.
We keep these shows on tape. We keep these shows on tape.
By the way, they're stuck it on the window. I'm sure, I'm sure it's just still sitting there.
I mentioned you'll being the fan among the four of you here because I'm not working like you guys. I just want to go back to opening date. Do we think it could be at night because of the obviously the Kayleb Williams factor.
What do you guys think?
I mean, it could be conceivably, you know, they could want to put a you know, a marquee guy and a hopefully a franchise that has taken major steps forward, and the way they finished the season defensively, and how explosive the offense could be. Maybe maybe they will. You know, that's the thing about it, Sylvie, you should go back and check your schedule from last year, because when no matter what we had in our schedules and our predictions, at the result after the Green Bay game to open
the season, I was almost inconsolable. And so even if we had, you know, and that was a game, I go, I'm they are gonna beat Green Bay. They got a new quarterback coming aboard, and I know this is the year for the Bears with Justin and everything. And then it just failed to work out that way, and it was, you know, one of the more disappointing days of the year for me. Honestly.
Yeah, yeah, you had thirty eight to twenty.
And I think we say it every year, guys, Like I said, it before the end of the year Packer game, like this is the one where it turns like you can knock the Packers out of the postseason, you can end the season with a three game winning streak. And so I think we're gonna say it this year with the improvements, with a new quarterback, time to end the ten game losing streak, time to start a new way against the Green Bay Packers.
So problem is, back then, we were doubting Jordan Love a little bit.
We didn't know what he was gonna do right now.
As I mentioned before, kind of using that fully formed phrase, he's a tough He's a tough nut. You know, he's a tough god getting cracked there.
Yeah, But Jeff, so what with Montes sweat. He had a total of twelve sacks last year between the Washington
Commanders and the Chicago Bears. But so what I I guess what the bigger thing was what I'm saying, if he has that combination, that double digit total of sacks by one guy, which the Bears have been missing for so long, that there's other guys that are gonna be that you have access to sacks, whether it's blitzing, whether it's the talented linebacker rushers that the Bears have, hopefully somebody that one of the other guys in the defensive line develops into an an honest threat. So you know
that that's a key ingredient too. And if you can steal possessions away from your opponent and get them off the field on third down, create more opportunity for you offense. But you know, Montes Sweat said it in the offseason that they cannot lose the Green Bay anymore, and I'm glad he said it, but it's all about his production.
Twelve and a half sacks.
Hey, I want to talk about a different kind of production because I went and looked this up the other day. So what's the big thing that it hurt the Bears in recent vintage here? And it's it's like the struggle of struggles. It's the score points correct even in victory. And so do you see any potential for this team to hit their heads on scoring four hundred points? Because nine teams did last season, so it's not simple by no means, and those are I you know, most of
those are playoff teams. But the Bears had four hundred and forty five points in twenty thirteen, they had four hundred and twenty one and twenty eighteen, and they had four to twenty seven in their Super Bowl year and O six. That's it in the since two thousand, that's it. So that's too infrequent and too many years in between.
Is the the.
Offense set up right now? And I'll go around the horn. We'll start with We'll start with you, Tommy, if everything goes well. And another thing is as we pass our condolences to the Avellini fan family on the death of Bob Avellini, the only Bears quarterback to start every game in consecutive seasons in the modern era. He started fourteen and seventy six and sixteen. So you know, are we going to have Jay Cutler's first season with the Bears? He was sixteen for sixteen, but then that was it.
So not many sixteen game starters at quarterback in bearsit. So can he play a full season?
Can he?
Can he learn as we go? Can the offense thrive what it needs to and clutch he key leverage situations as the season grows and success grows, and get to a point where we are threatening teams with our offense.
Yeah, I mean, if you get these weapons to stay healthy, as in terms of the wide receiver position, if they have the input from the two tight ends, Gerald Everett and Cole Kmet in different short yardage, red zone types of scenarios that will face them. If you continue to have the running game contribute to the offense that it has over the last couple of years, you're going to be even more explosive downfield. The caveat is Caleb Williams.
He can start seventeen games. Tell me how many games the offensive line is going to start together of those seventeen. Because when you talk about Nate Davis not participating in training camp, Tevin Jenkins getting hurt at the end of training camp, the situation they went through at the center position in the sort of its inefficiencies in Braxton Jones
miss some time. If they can go throughout training camp and compliment and learn the cadence and understand the whole the way the quarterback works, and then the quarterback can understand how the offensive line works. I think as much as you want to talk about Keenan and DJ in Rome and the other guys, it's as much about the offensive line as it is Kaylee you.
Know, it's interesting you mentioned four hundred points seventeen games. That's like a team total of twenty three and a half per game. You know, for better's out there, twenty three and a half is kind of like a number when it comes to a team total for a team. And this is the way I think of a Jeff, like twenty one is the floor. They gotta be twenty one, like that's a given, has to be twenty one, but that extra field goal is the difference maker. Can they
average twenty four a game? If you start averaging about twenty four a game, you're gonna start winning a bunch of games, right, Yeah, But that's.
The question from twenty It doesn't seem to answer model right.
Twenty right, twenty one to twelve, because I think twenty one's got to be the floor with this kind of talent. Maybe I'm wrong, so, but twenty one to twenty four doesn't sound like much, but it is.
It is. So I want to.
Believe the answers, Yes, team total over twenty three and a half for the season, But I don't know. I just don't know because there's so much new on offense, especially with the quarterback.
I love what Thayer said, and I think it starts up front.
I think you get all the toys, and you get all the you talk about the quarterback, you talk about all the skill position.
They're so important.
We know that those are the guys who are gonna score, and it's up to Caleb to distribute the ball. And then Shane Waldron comes into it. What we mentioned, But I think the line is going to play a huge role in all of this. And then to get within the numbers, Jeff, on what Jesse was just saying, you.
Covered Ron Harper, right, you remember harp.
Ron Harper used to say this, to average twenty points in the NBA, it's not as hard as you think it is.
You score five points a quarter. How hard is it to score five points a quarter?
Wow?
Twenty right?
I mean yeah, five points a quarter.
It's twenty three and a half points again a game, Jeff, that's six points a quarter.
And with this defense, who.
Should score two should get you a good field position. We now they drafted Tory Taylor. You're flipping the field. You're getting good field position. This team better score four hundred points per per per season for the season.
Yeah, because and.
Then the years that you mentioned how many years were those that we didn't play seventeen games?
I think those years were.
Yeah, yeah, sixteen games, so you're getting an extra game now.
That's a good point.
And six and eighteen were defensive touchdowns that they took the ball away, which this team it's capable of. So yeah, that's what has me excited when you put it all in a pot. The shorter fields potentially taking the ball away if they continue to thrive defensively, and this offense has a lot of spark plugs on it.
We got to take a break.
This is Bears Weekly on ESPN one thousand of the Bears Radio Network.
This is Bears Weekly with a voice of the Bears for twenty three years Jeff Jony on the Bears Radio Network.
And this second Bears Weekly brought to you by Athletico Physical Therapy. Visit athletical dot com. The quest an end clinic or virtual deployment at Start Feeling Better Tomorrow. Jeff and Tom, Jesse Rodgers and Mark Silverman from the Wata and Sylvie Show as we hijack an hour of their Juata and Sylvie Extravaganza. Hey, one more thing on the point thing, So all the nine teams that scored four hundred or more all made the playoffs. Oh no, wait,
with the exception of the Saints. Saints didn't make the playoffs, so that's eight of them. But Dallas scored five oh nine, Miami four ninety six, San Francisco four ninety one, Baltimore for eighty three, and Detroit four to sixty one. So I mean, by no means does this mean that's an automatic to get to the playoffs.
But I just want to see the Bears score more.
Whilst they have had problems scoring points, Kansas City averaged twenty one to eight a game and was fifteenth in the league, scoring their three to seventy one and their champions a second consecutive time.
So you know, that's the last thing I'll say about that.
I think if if Sylvie's taking phone call about the defense halftime, I think you'd be happy about that, you know what I mean? Like, we have never come out of a season where it's where it's thirty points a game, even if they went seven and ten. So what like, we just don't see great offense around here, So let the defense be the focus. If the offense can be great, that's fine with me.
You know one of the So Jeff and I did a podcast the other day with Mark Carrier, and here's a guy that came in ten interceptions. His rookie year was defensive Rookie of the Year, and he talked and we are kind of comparing notes about the speed of the game initially, and I think the speed of the game affects offensive linemen, it affects quarterbacks, and it affects
defensive backs the most. And so, yeah, Caleb is going to have those growing pains that go through even though you have multiple weapons, you got to be able to understand. You know, accuracy is complimented by speed, and the windows
of opportunities are different in the NFL. So I think when they go through training camp, they're going to have to have elevated speeds in preparation at training camp because there is a different speed of preseason to the first game of regular season and then so on through the season.
So I think if we're talking about an offense that's going to be able to use all of its assets and it's going to be able to score over that twenty three point threshold per game, it's going to be because Caleb is already understanding the speed of the game requirements, and you know, as an offensive lineman practicing in against the eighty five Bears, it took a couple weeks and
I didn't know if you were able to accomplish that. However, that is going to be some of the growing processes that we watch Caleb go through in practice, because you think of the Bears defensive backfield their experience now, and when you think of the beginning of the year last year with Tarik Stevenson, he was going through a little bit of speed of the game growing pain, and then at the end of the season he was playing as well as anybody.
I'm interested, and we talked about this earlier on the waterlind Sylvie Show. To hear from Shane Waldron this weekend too, I really want to hear how he plans to put all these parts together. He's got a big task, really because he's got a lot of these skill position players. Not only are there a lot of people to keep happy, but there are a lot of new people to put into this offense. So Dj Moore is here, but he's
got to learn the offense. I heard you guys interview him on draft night and hear him talk about the differences between the languages and how hard it is to learn the offense, and he thought it was not so.
Hard, right, said it was simpler.
Yeah, yeah, And then.
You got DeAndre Swift who's got to get in here. You've got another new tight end who's got to get in here.
You've got a.
Couple of new wide receivers who's got to get in here. You've got to develop a new quarterback. So I think the pretty big for an offensive coordinator who is starting with a brand new team.
Tom who gets lost in the shuffle in a situation like this, therese those weapons he just rattled off. For all talented, they've all had the ball in their hands a big amount in their respective careers where they've been before. Is there a risk that somebody gets, you know, lost in the shuffle a little bit?
Well, the thing about it is about the installation of the offense. From the first day of rookie minnie camp out through OTAs and in the training camp. Well, you're basically doing is you're taking and you're thinking about all the weapons you have at your disposal while you're installing the offense, and then repetitiously you run these plays a number of times to get everybody comfortable, and then week one of the regular season, you start studying tape and
you think, Okay, where is our opponent's deficiencies. Is their deficiencies at the slot coverage? Is their deficiency at the number two corner? Is they do they have linebackers that cut and can't cover. And I think that's going to be the the coolest thing about this offense. Caleb and Shane and Chris Morgan is weak in and week out.
Going to the evaluation drawing board and get the reports that their scouting department is given to them and say, Okay, when we break down the analytics and we study tape, this guy can't play or this segment of their team it can't work against the Bears offense. So I think that I think all of us are going to have to study the Bears more this year according to what their opponents are going to allow them to be and allow them to do.
To Tom, I have a question for you, because I'm curious about the relationship from its inception here between Waldron and Caleb Williams.
Have you seen maybe.
This is a naive question, have you seen quarterbacks and offensive coordinators kind of not bond as things go, like even from the beginning, like they're just not on the same page and it just doesn't work because of that, Like what's that relationship like and what should it look like?
There are examples of that throughout the NFL history, But you know, NFL offensive coordinators probably become more aware of it when they're sitting in meetings with these guys and they're asking him to respond to either new installation or play that they've ran a hundred times already, and then if they don't come back with an answer in a timely fashion, you kind of understand going, look, maybe I need to put more of a learning emphasis for this
for this guy to grow. And but you know, Caleb has got a lot of experience in offenses that he's been able to play at in college. He's been able to go from one college to another and have success. He you know, it seems like he's got to you know, learns football well in the classroom. But you know, it's the same thing as an offensive line. You know, you know,
you can't hesitate, you can't think. So evaluation of a quarterback and how that relationship is going to develop comes from the classroom as much as it does the practice field.
Well, we're gonna hear from Caleb Williams tomorrow. Roma Doonzay coaches the next two days, Friday and Saturday, up at Hallis Hall. I know Sylvia will be there. I think Tommy Watta'll be back in town. He'll be there and Sylvie. When we used to work the beat together when we're you know, reporters and having some fun watching things, he used to kick my tail, Jesse. I'll tell you that right now. He had his eyes on air. How did
you see that? When did you see that? I didn't see that, and you know, and he got the special interview that I didn't get. He was always kicking my room anyway. It is true.
However, his big thing, tom and Jesse was sight scene.
So what are you looking for tomorrow when you're out there watching practice, hopefully in non rain conditions over there at Halisall.
What sites are you going to be looking to see?
I am going to be looking to see everything from the quarterback, everything, every action, every move that he makes, how he reacts with all of his teammates, not just the throws, because I think everyone wants to see the throws are the accurate.
I want to see the interaction. That's what I want to see.
Like everyone said, is he this is he that I want to see how.
He's working with his peers.
These are the rookies, so I think that that's going to be very, very important. But of course you want to see Roma Duneesa. You also want to see who sticks out because there are there's always Jeff someone that you don't expect to stick out in these things that you have no clue that will. Like Tyson Bagent was not on anyone's radar a year ago, there will be someone who is not on your radar tomorrow that will make this football team. Jack Sanborn wasn't on anybody's radar
two years ago. John Jackson is his best friend.
He played at.
USC a year ago. I think he went to Nevada. He's getting the invite, so he will be there. So just look, keep your eyes open for anything, and if you're just fixing on one thing, you will miss something that you're you're probably supposed to see.
Well, I have a long drive tomorrow, so what I want to hear about because I am driving to Iowa City to pick up my daughter from school. And she tells me this kid was the second biggest celebrity on campus.
After you know you're looking for podcasting.
She wasn't kidding. Tory Taylor was like a fan favorite.
I mean it was in a sarcastic way in a lot of ways because I couldn't score. I want to hear about Tory Taylor's punts tomorrow.
Good Hey, Philby. You know one thing that's kind of neat when you go to practice, and so if you say you're watching offensive defensive line one on one, so you're watching seven on seven and you're watching the defensive backs rather than the receivers. Are these different types of drills? Take one whole drill and only watch feet, don't watch the upper body, because that's going to tell you a lot more if they have the athleticism to live up
into their job requirements. If you're watching in an offensive lineman and he backs up and his second steff heat gets tripped up, or he gets his speed too wide, or a cornerback when he tries to make the exchange in coverage if he can't make it. And I think it's always neat to follow a position and watch the feat.
It's great he'll be watching Theo Benedette, the offensive tackle from British Columbia sixty seven, two ninety five outstanding athlete. He paired up with Giovanni Manu, the fourth round pick of Detroit. They called him Geo and Theo over there in university. They're both six seven and great athletes. The Tonguan and Theo Benedette. They're good friends. We'll keep an eye on that. I'll be interested to see all of it.
And it's always a lot of fun. Hey, we appreciate it, guys, thanks for letting us up barge into your night.
It was a lot of fun.
Great was a lot of fun.
You guys are always welcome the best.
Appreciate Jesse, keep doing a great job as you do on the baseball beat for Tom Thayer, Mark Silverman and Jesse Rogers. Thanks to everybody our producers, and that'll do it for us. Will report from Bear's rookie camp tomorrow, a memorable one with Caleb Williams, the number one.
Pick right there.
White Sox Baseball coming up against the Guardians next. Connor McKnight, take it away, Good night, everybody.
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