Right justin middle of the field forty five to fifteen, bring Russ in front of a leading Lions in this work, I am Jeff jonihacklitsus on dot go.
What was like playing for coach Bigdom. I don't want to answer any questions like that. Sixty one yards? What's Sunday stroll for?
Justin field? Ye Bears et Cetera with the voices of the Chicago Bears, Jeff Joniac, big time thayer Jeff Jonahack with you from Hatis Hall, and we are opening a new chapter in our broadcasting history big time. This is my first goal around on our own podcast here with
the Chicago Bears. It's called Bears et Cetera. Our debut edition here from Hattus Hall, the first day of availability with head coach Mattyberflus and gentleal manager Ryan Poles, with hil from from players as well, and a exclusive interview with wide receiver DJ Moore coming up in the program. They tell us town, we're supposed to just have fun with this, so are you ready to have some fun?
Well, you know what, Jeff, I'm glad we didn't debut the podcast until today because I don't want to talk about the past. I want to talk about the everyday future. And I think that's one of the unique opportunities for you and I is what do we do.
Go to practice.
We're able to talk about it in a real time sense, and so if we are talking about speculating about what they went through in the offseason, I almost think that's a waste of time. So I'm happy the debut is today and I look forward to going on with this season.
And we have plenty of sponsors as well. Miller Lite, the official beer of the Chicago Bears, tastes like Miller Times Chicago. I love the first thing that really came out of Ryan Poles's mouth today and that has attacked the process, because all of this is a process. It was kind of echoed along with some of the players justin fields. You'll hear from DJ Moore, Tremaine Edmond said kind of the same thing, Eddie Jackson. And that process started when these guys ended twenty twenty two and got
into their mindset and direction for twenty twenty three. And here we are on the eve of the first practice of training camp, discussing attacking the process. As a former player and a star guard for the Chicago Bears and the Miami Dolphins. What does attack the process mean to you?
Believe in the guidelines that they set out for you after the last season concluded, what they expect out of you body weight measurement and strength, what they want you to do in terms of mentally, so you can advance in the competitiveness of your position.
But it's got to be about everybody believing it.
It can't be one of three guys are starting to believe in your message and then all of a sudden you have kind of an unconnected commitment here.
I think you have a connected commitment by every.
Single guy in the locker room that's creating an opportunity for themselves. And so I like Ryan Poles's choice of words, but I think when you have everybody connected in the way that we're hearing, in the way that it seems where they are in this and the direction they need to go, it's important, you know what.
I had a conversation with Matt Eberflus over the weekend, and one thing that really resonated with me because you and I talk about this all the time, and we talked about it on our show Bears Weekly on Monday, night is that it is very difficult to guarantee when you bring players in, especially guys coming out of the draft, and the Bears are draft heavy right now the last two years. We saw how many snaps they played. Last year is finding fifty three guys that love the game,
not just the money that comes with it. And Mattyberflus fields he's got a locker room of guys who love the game. So I asked him, I go, well, how do you know, he goes, you put on the tape, You put on the tape and you watch how they play. Is that pretty much the essence of it. I mean, you know and I know that you love the game to this very second, so I would never have to worry about a Tom Thayer type of player.
But when do you know, well, you know, I think if you can match the commitment within the guys that you're looking eye to eye at in the locker room, because you know the alpha males in that locker room, if you can live up to their expectations of their work, habits, their accomplishments, then you know that you're going to get better.
But when you talk about commitment to the game and love of the game, it's a twelve month a year process. I have to see a guy that enjoys going into the weight room is excited when he sees Pierre and Jimmy Arthur in the weight room, waiting for these guys to encourage him to get stronger, because I think that is contagious, is what they.
Do on the field.
But I think when you get a group of guys that like and respect each other, they encourage each other to work harder. I put more effort into their skills. In when Ryan Polds was talking about he's really encouraged by the guys that went down and participated in some of the throwing events with Justin Fields. That's a part of that twelve month process that's equally as pore into anything they do during the season. Hi.
That cues up a great point in this broadcast right now to Turn two wide receiver DJ Moore, who talked about that very thing, the connection with Justin Fields and more. Take a listen. You're helping us out here big time. This is the debut of the Bears et cetera podcast, first Bears podcast ever, and you're our first guest. So thank you, buddy, thank you.
That's a pleasure to be the first one there.
Yes, yes, Do you listen to podcasts?
I do listen to podcast What is your flavor?
What do you like.
More like on YouTube? The podcast on YouTube and all the different interviews and.
Stuff, but.
Sports related or it could.
Be anything sports like music, culture, even down to like lifestyle.
Yeah. Yeah, it's for an older guy. It's it's not something I've gotten into, but you know, slowly but surely so it is certainly a way of the future and there are so many things to learn about. Have you always been a huge sports fan, regardless of just playing football?
Do you like all the sports? I haven't.
I've been a huge sports fan, but I do like all the sports, like I like track, baseball. I don't really watch too much basketball, but I played it growing up, follow soccer like.
I like sports, but I just don't want to do all them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're rocking that white Sox red cap version with the white letters. Great old emblem. How did you discover this lid?
I had a few white Sox hats back in college, so when I needed new ones, I just got a red one back then, and I had to get a new one sock I won like a few weeks ago.
It looks good. It looks good. I always liked those, the old school as from the sixties and seventies. So white white socks. Why, Yeah, I.
Have no clue.
For some reason, I always like Chicago and I just like the socks logo. So but I do have a cups hat and.
I don't want to.
No, you can't do that.
No feathers around here. So I got both.
No, you can't. The excitement around you. I know when we first met, the first day you walked in here, you kind of felt it already, not only from the building, about the outside and the longer you've been around. How would you characterize the excitement you feel about Bears football from just the people you've walked into and ran into over the course of your time.
Oh, the fans, everybody, they just ready for us to get on the field and put pads on and finally go live so they can be witnessed to something best of that going on here.
Yeah, and so in the locker room, do you feel the same.
Yes, everybody's excited in the locker room. I know, we just got back and everybody is so excited. I was talking to each other hugging each other and just ready to go.
It was a play during one of the OTAs. I was standing on the sideline and Justin through you made a double move. I think it was Justin threw a deep ball and you didn't quite get it, and you knelt down there and was just looking out looking back at him for the longest period of time, and it
stuck with me at rest with me. I don't know if you remember this particular play, but do you when you do something something like that, are you trying to evaluate what you were going to do next, if you would have caught that ball, or how that didn't maybe happen. I mean it was to me it was an important thing. And then you came back and talked to him.
Yeah, it was more of like where did I go wrong?
At what part of the route did I not get up to speed to get under the ball to catch it. So it was more of like me reflecting on the route that I just did and all the steps that I went through.
See, I think that's big. I don't know if the average fan would care about that, but for me, it just talked about the being a professional, like really caring about every single detail to the tenth of a second, because really, in this sport, whether it's offensive line play with footwork or where your hand goes, the slightest adjustment makes a difference between you're in success. And I'm sure you have that in your receiving game with route running and steps and timing right.
It plays a big part. You could take one step in and the ball be placed outside and then you're like, dang, that's my fault, or the quarterback going to feel like, oh man, that's my fault. Went in doubt, it's always probably like the receiver fault for doing something wrong like that.
You know, we're in the era and now and I don't know if this happened back in the day. Things are different with OTAs now and what the what the old school guys did. But when your quarterback calls you up to say, hey, we're getting together. We're going to Fort Lauderdale for a week or whatever it was, we're gonna work out a little bit together. It's funny. It's like the bat phone rings and you're going right. How important is that? Nowadays?
It's really important, especially the newcomers. Like I wasn't able to make it, but I know they had a good time. But we threw before he went down there, so when he called, it was like, all right, I'm coming so because I knew I couldn't make it to Florida. But doing stuff like that is very special. You know, bills those come roun and then those relationships on top of that, but also gained good work in so that's good to do.
You know. It just seems from watching you guys together and again in a few snapshots that I've been able to see, or just hearing you talk about him and justin talking about you, that has almost been an instant chemistry, an instant connection between you guys. Would you say that's a fair representation.
Yes, And we still got a long way to go through camps, so we're going it might even get stronger, and it might even get a little weird, but it's going.
To be a good weird.
So what do you mean by weird?
People don't think that we like InSync like it's going to be crazy.
But that's that's key. I mean, every great quarterback has had a great receiver with him or a great tight end and you guys grow together and that's you know, just like NBA. When you watch NBA you know, got to kind of have three guys, three triplets thing, and then you build around it and it just kind of takes off. That's that's the chemistry that helps everybody else. How do you continue to forge forwards.
That constant community? Uh?
Looking over the bad plays, Uh, even the good plays, but mainly the bad to see where the miscommunication or mis rep was better.
You feel like a new man coming here.
I do feel like a new man. Uh.
It lit another another, another flame under my high my belt, so I'm ready.
I'm thinking you don't need too many flames litting to get to get all jacked up.
Uh.
How would you assess the rest of the room? Because when a number one receiver comes in, everything gets slotted and everybody's best attributes are on display. But I think that's happening here, a domino effect for the rest of the room.
I'm gonna say, So we get Mooney back. I've seen Chase chases. Chase was good during ot A, so I'm excited to see Mooney. I've seen EQ step up, Dante's stepped up. Baylis Baylist is fast, so he's a blazer and I'm ready to see what he does.
And Tyler Scott's blazer.
I'm waiting to see him unleast his speed, see who faster him?
More?
Bail was you know if you could send a message to Bears fans on this debut podcast about what twenty twenty three could bring to this city and how this team is going to look week one, how would you kind of frame that a little bit for us?
Oh, exciting, excitement, a spark.
Yeah, well it takes one match to light a fire, buddy. Yes, appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Hopefully we'll talk to you again on this podcast. Thank you, djmore Tom. I'm really impressed with DJs Moore's professionalism number one. I watched it during the OTAs just how he handles himself. We touched on it in the interview when he was just trying to make sure he's calibrating the right rhythm
and continuity with his quarterback. But the instant connection between these two that has to come naturally, It just can't. You just can't say, oh my gosh, Bear's got a number one receiver now DJ Moore and they're gonna have an instant connection with Justin Fields. No, it's got to be something they work at it. But he said something today as well. He said, you know, I will be friends with Justin Fields the rest of my life. That's
how quickly this has has gone together. And to me, that will be significant on how it sets up the rest of the offense.
How about you, well, you know the approach to football.
He mentioned how once in a couple times during OTAs that they make eye contact communication, and I think that says a lot about their building relationship because when you talk about a free agent coming into a locker room that's looking for establishment, it's not immediately connected. You need to have a little bit of time, a little bit of conversations inside the whether you're in a meeting room or you're in the lunch room, and those types of things galvanize the relationship between each.
Other, you know.
And I DJ Moore when he was at the podium, they said what do you like to do? And he says, I like to watch movies and make popcorn. My mom made popcorn every single day of her life chef until she was.
Eighty seven years old.
I want to ask DJ Moore does he make it the old fashioned way or easy? Throw one of those bags in the microwave and that'll tell me a little bit more about DJ Mormer.
Well, how do you do it? You do the old fashioned way. I burned the house down. I'd burn the house.
Mom My mom picked the right type of pans to make popcorn on the stove, and she had real strict requirements. Album and uh, I just found I just found that funny by by DJ.
Yeah.
If I had a guess and I didn't get to ask him this question, obviously, we'll do it down the road. And my guess is it's the microwave version. Right, We're all we want everything right away.
I listen, if you make a point of saying you watch movies and you like popcorn, I think that DJ does it the old fashioned way. And so maybe in the next couple of days we'll have a chance to rub elbow and ask him.
All right, we're gonna put a wager on this one.
Tom.
You're gonna make me your famous uh uh tacos yes, and then uh and if I lose, I'll make you h.
Thank you.
No.
Hey, I'm a good cook too, buddy, Right, but I'm cook to.
Cooking is not the same as popcorn.
Hey, I had to bring this up before we keep talking about some of the interviews today Mattyberflu's true to form because you go in his office and you see all the greats in Bear's history, all the Hall of Famers. The picture's on his wall right behind his desk, and it's significant. I mean, it sends a message, and he's always embraced the history of this organization right out of
the gate. But to talk about Walter Payton's birthday today, July twenty fifth, he would have been seventy years old, or as I might say, he had have been seventy years young, because that's how it was. Right when you heard that, I know how important he was to you and how you think about him all the time. It's an ever present reminder when you're at the Peyton Center or you hear his name, or you mentioned anything about you know, it's funny how we're talking about running back
so much in the league. How did that hit you a little bit?
You know what? Early early this morning, I was watching TV on a national show and they brought it up in the show and it kind of shocked me a little bit because I can't imagine Walter as a seventy year old.
I can only see Walter as a.
Thirty five year old, full of energy, full of love, full of toughness, as committed as a football player, businessman, father, husband as you could possibly get in this world. And so I was super excited to hear Matt Eberflus pay his respects to Walter's seventieth birthday. But you know, when you get up at five point thirty in the morning, you turn the TV on and all of a sudden, there's a show that is paying their tributes to the Gray Walter Payton, it tells you a little bit about
what who Walter touched. He didn't only touch Bears fans in the Chicago Land community. He touched sports fans around the world.
You know, Ryan Poles and I don't know what kind of notes you took on all these news conferences today, but having a championship mindset, which is really down that is coming from obviously the McCaskey family, it's coming from new president and CEO Kevin Warren. But Ryan talks about it all the time, the championship mindset. And we know Walter had a championship mindset from the first time you met him in the huddle and you were like, oh my gosh, I'm in the huddle with Walter Peyton. That's
even before Walter became what he became. And then right behind you, we're on a zoom call looking at each other. Right now, Tom's at his home, I'm at Halis Hall and the picture of the Bears behind you there that iconic picture, and I see hamp and the sweat on his shirt. I mean that group had a championship mindset. What does championship mindset mean to you? Because it can mean different things to different people.
Well, you know, whether it's the picture.
You look at the roster of the eighty five team and you look at every one of those guys, and you look at what their traits of success were, and they were all different, whether it's Willie and world class feed or Hampton and McMichael, the most unbelievable tough combo of defensive tackles, the intelligence and the commitment by Mike Singletary that he put into the job, the overall love and ferociousness of Wilbur Marshall and Otis Wilson and all
the other guys. And I think you got to be a close group of guys because you have to have the conversations that you're having as an offensive linement with a defensive back as much as any other positions are
enjoying talking to each other. And I think when Ryan Polls sets a sight on the type of building blocks and he wants to put in the locker room to build that championship caliber team, I think he's doing it in the exact way that we hoped it would be done, and we want to see him flourish because of it. And I think the stronger the locker room gets, the more successful they'll be on the practice field and that will result in wins.
Really underscoring it is mastering your craft first, is what Poles said. That bleeds into the entire unit, your entire unit, and confidence believing, not hoping, they can win. And boy, when that when that turns now A guy like Eddie Jackson who spoke today Tremaine Edmonds had a lot of success in Buffalo with an AFC championship team in a near Super Bowl contender every year. You know that that confidence has to come from those veteran guys to trickle
down to the to the young guys. But let's let's leave that behind. Eddie said, he's sick of losing. He hates losing. I mean, you gotta hate losing more than you love winning to win, and do you think that can be cultivated here this year?
You know what, if you're if you're a group of guys that converge at Hallis Hall tomorrow and get ready to start training camp and you're on the field getting ready to prepare, if you ever thought that there is a season that you could go out and win the division and accomplish everything you wanted, this is the year.
I don't care how long you have or haven't been together, but there's a lot of pieces within this division are moving around, and you know, Eddie said, you know, you gotta win the division first, and that's going to give you your opportunity to get in the playoff. And I do think this is a team that needs to be focused on a first place division championship at the end
of the season. And I think that they have the right caliber of players that if they take that next significant step of improvement, that they are a team that can accomplish exactly what they're set out for.
All right, Seaman me, We're about twenty minutes into this thing, and I haven't touched on the old line because as much as everybody's talking about QB one and justin fields and where he needs to improve. And he was asked where he thinks he needs to improve and he wouldn't give anybody any details. We know what they are, though
we'd certainly do. But the offensive line, and you hear that Darnell Wright comes in, as Ryan Pole said, crush the conditioning test and I don't know what goes into that, but lost weight, trimmed his body fat, cares wants to be really great, and that is important. The mental toughness, because tough days are coming. You got to be locked and loaded and ready to go. And how encouraging is it to hear that your top pick and a cornerstone piece for the offensive line is locked in and ready to go.
You know, I'm really excited that the guys are here. They've been together all OTAs. This is where I'm having just a little bit of worrio. Is in the first three days of practice, it's going to average about ninety five degrees and what you've been doing to get ready in the last forty days is not what you're going to face in the next three days.
So I just want.
Darnell to go out there and feel at ease and understand what, you know, everything that he's going to do, take to learn about his job, about the specific techniques, how to learn about Nate Davis and being the dominant
player he has a chance to be. But you know, we've seen guys, even no matter what conference they come out of where they're born and raised, they come here hit the field with that blue helmet on, with that Guardian shield over the top of it, those blue jerseys on, and also that one hundred feels like one hundred and ten, and you know that's part of the test of your mental structure. You know, how tough of a person you are.
This is a weird question because I know what it was like in Plattvil because I started covering the Bears in eighty five. The eighty five ten was the first time I started covering sports, so I saw what you guys went through, and that is, you know, the sprints after practice to two a days and just dripping wet and the heat up there. I know you were in the USFL and Arizona. Did you guys practice outdoors or
indoors in Arizona? And how hot was it or because it was a different time of the year, the temperature was adequate. And did you fear practice more about the heat than you did your opponents across the line of scrimmage and what you were going to be going through.
Well, you the super super hot days in Platfil, Yeah, I did worry about that because I was susceptible to having to having cramping problems and that's a painful, painful thing to go through. So but in Arizona, because it was so hot during the daytime, we showed up at the facility at four o'clock in the afternoon, we met from four o'clock until six o'clock.
When the sun went down.
We practiced from six thirty to eight thirty at night, and so we never faced the abuse of abusive heat like these guys are going to face in the next couple days. But again, you know, when you when Matt and Ryan talk about the development of the camaraderie and the teamwork and what these guys learned to you know, be in the locker room, those are some of the most difficult days that make your team the closest because
every single guy is going through it the same. So there's nothing more fun than going in the locker room after a practice like that and get into that big complaining session. We used to call it a different word, but it's nice when you can only have your teammates to complain around. And that's what kind of is fun of being on a team.
Do you so explain to people, because you've told me what happens to you if you cannot deal with the heat. You're a sweater number one, so you sweat significantly. But when you say it's a painful process, because I've never experienced that, what happens to your body.
And you know your body is a muscle, all the muscles that are so dehydrated that it cramps up, and it's so painful that you can feel at start, and then once you get to a level where you got.
An iv yourself.
And I had to do it a bunch of different times on airplanes, in my dorm room at Platteville, laying on the ground in the locker room after the game. And but you know that's just me, because you know what, and that's why I say the coach that I like the most in the organization now is the hydrate, the hydration and the diet coach, because we never had that type of advice, and we are out there just trying to survive.
On our own.
And if I would have had the advice of the people that's their department, they would have helped me as much as Clyde Emerck did in the weight room.
Yeah, the performing staff is something else. It's not just putting the right food in your body, but making sure everything is hydrated. But in a way that's so technical now and so keenly a part of this that it's if you don't take advantage of it, then you're not being a professional. Frankly right, you can't do it your own way.
You know.
I just heard something. They were talking about it on ESPN one thousand here in Chicago about DK Metcalf. Did you hear about this? He was on a podcast and I don't know whom I can't recall now, but his diet. He gets out, he works out twice a day, but he has a cup of Starbucks and then he eats a lot bags of candy, gummies and life savers and all this other stuff, and then he has one meal at eight o'clock at night. Now he looks like an Adonis. He looks like you back in your day just yoked up.
How does a how does someone's Is it because he's in his twenties he can survive this or is he just working out so hard he's burning off everything.
He's got a superior metabolism and he's got the god gifts of having uh, the physique that you were blessed with. But it's it takes a lot more than that to get to where what he looks like. But you know, there's you know when when we didn't have access to food during the day, I would I would come to practice, I would drink coffee all day and sometimes I never had.
My first meal until I left the facility.
Matt Suey was a guy that always used to have a pocket full of hard candy and that's what he hate.
During He's hidding me. No, that's crazy.
That's the funny thing about it, where you know it's hard to control everything you know that that people do. It's it's not it would be nice having access to it the all life they do today.
Which leads me to game day snacking calls for good foods. Chunky guacam mole made with avocados, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime juice. Perfect snack to watch while Bears win. Score some today at your local grocery store. Game Day is walk Day and score huge savings on an impressive lineup of items with jewel Osco for you. These handy app features hot digital deals on everything from premium produce and savory snacks to butcher fresh meat and more.
Get additional details at jewelosco dot com. This is Bears, Etc. Tom Thayer, Jeff Joniak our maiden voyage. We heard from DJ Moore earlier today, Hey, what do you want out of this podcast? Over the long term, We're gonna come to you during the season twice a week. We're told, you know, we're supposed to have some fun here and we're trying to do that, and then once a week in the offseason. But it's an exciting time to roll out some of our thoughts because we do a lot
of homework. We do a lot of information that never makes the airwaves, so good storytelling time. And we'll have a few guests along the way as well.
Well.
Before every show, I want you to declare if you're in a good mood or a bad boot, because just how I want to let the audience know a little bit about Jeff Joniac because as the season winds on, sometimes you're a little more sour than I.
Am so well, which is saying a lot, because there's some sower in you as well, my friend.
I want our audience to be able to appreciate because I was looking forward to this podcast because there are hours of conversations that we have that we never let the public yea to be a part of and so and so we're.
Going to work, We're gonna let them in. We're going to let them into our lives. Is that what we're doing?
This is it?
Man, Listen, There's gonna be some sour moments during the season that you're going to have to talk me off the legend.
I will, you know, try to do the same for you.
The fact of the matter is that we we also want to win, and we have been a part of this now twenty seven years in some form of fashion together. This is the twenty seventh year. Twenty three for me is the play by play guy and that roller coade to ride it does impact you. I had a rider one time say why do you care so much? And and you know you care because hey, there's nothing like it.
I talked to a former player the other day. I'm not gonna say who, and I said, you know, when your team is in the mix, and it's December and it's already been a long grind, it's been a long season, but there's nothing really to play. You know, it's not you're not going to the playoffs. You know, you got to find somewhere to continue to capture those moments in games right where you're charting the history of the game. That's what we're doing. We're doing it. We have to you.
You gotta do what's in front of you. You got to play what's in front of you. But when it's when you're playing for something, you're different. And I'm different. You can tell when we walk into Soldier Field or any road game we go to, because we know that every single snap is gonna matter in that game. And I've never been more in tuned to a broadcast when every angle snap matters in a game and there's something to play for.
Agree every minute, every minute during the week matters. And that's the thing about it.
You know, you get up there on those media days and you see that the house is packed with national media because the Bears are the story that everybody wants to cover. And when you get into that winning type of you know, that winning flow every single day, you can't wait to get to the facility. You stay there a little bit longer. You're having longer conversations, maybe watching a little bit more tape, trying to do something different
in the way room. So winning is contagious to seven days a week and not just the you know, the eight hours that we may go to Soldier Field with on game day, everything else that the plane ride homes from away games after you win a big game, it's it's it's just it's just a fun atmosphere.
To be in.
And when we do come home, we fly United Airlines, official airlines of the Chicago Bears. All right, let's hit some key topics before we wrap things up here. Obviously, one of the hot button discussion points for a variety of reasons is Chase Claypool. So he is ready to go. He will be on the practice field tomorrow. He's had extra time with the staff to get himself ready. He
worked with Justin Fields for a time. Fields indicated that Claypole had a little cranky knee a little bit, but he's ready to go, and if he plays to his potential, that is a major, major bonus to the offense. With DJ Moore, Darnell Mooney and all the other gang that they're going to get the ball to to spread that ball around. How important is this in your mind for Chase Chase Claypool to hit the ground running, develop that chemistry and be an impact player.
You know, last year when they brought Chase a board, they kind of started thinking about the defenses they were going to face and how are they going to configure their coverage against Claypool, Darnell Mooney unless include Colon there amongst the other guys. So now when you have a guy like DJ Moore along Chase, Claypool and Darnell and the tight end position they have, now you're going to get a kind of a better understanding of how the defensive team that you're facing is going to try to
take away your receivers. How I DJ now is always number one, and then you got two to three split up between Darnell and Clayon.
Because of the formation, you.
May have an advantage not only a height advantage, of speed advantage and an experience advantage with Chase that you could take advantage of. And then if it's if they say, oh we need to get a little bit more effort focused on Chase Claypool, is that going to open opportunities for DJ more Darnell in the.
Tight end position.
So I just think it has a real overall effect, not only with justin reading the coverages, how they're going to play coverages, and then where is going to open up your best opportunity against either a mismatch or a better route to the coverage.
A couple of new additions on the Bears roster and we expect to see that throughout training. Buddy Johnson a linebacker from the Pittsburgh Steelers. Four five eight forty guy time at linebacker. He's a running chase linebacker and wide receiver Isaiah Ford. He's been I think on four or five different clubs. Four six ' one forty guys got some size to them. But this is it you know
here at allis hall. When you go to training camp on days where they're not practicing or while they're practicing, they may be practicing on fields three and four, but on fields one and two they're working out guys and guys are going out to the practice field and they're seeing guys that could take one of their roster spots. It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen. But it happens every year.
You know, Jeff.
The last year I went to the Miami Dolphins, I went down there on a Wednesday, and I went off on a side field with three other guys they brought in and we went through some drills to see who they were gonna pick. And I knew the guys that I was going against, that I was better than. And so here we are, we're practicing. Over here, I can see you can see the whole office of team looking over at us, like who were we with?
Positions did we play?
It was an awards scenario, but it's everything, you know, It's everything you have lived for.
You know. Darnell Mooney coming off his first injury in his career, and it can be a lonely road for guys, but he worked with Eddie Jackson and Ady Jackson said they motivated each other. Jack Sanborn as well, all three of being cleared and ready to practice. Excited about seeing that. But you never really were injured until you injured your back,
but you didn't miss games. How hard would have that been for you to go through an injury that you had to have an entire off season to reload and try to get yourself back again, because there's gonna be good days and there's gonna be bad days in the rehab.
Yeah.
You know, the older you get, the more precious your weight room time. Your weight room time is because you gotta stay strong. You have to challenge yourself. You got to be able to make sure that you're competitive on the strainth side of it. But when you're rehabbing from an injury like I was doing from a back injury, there's approaches to it and it takes a long period
of time. When Darnell Mooney went up back on the field after the Texans game and brought that jugs machine and was catching after balls after a game, that tells me all I need to know about Darnell Mooney. He's just as committed a guy as you can possibly get on a football team, and I would want him in my locker room. So him recovery from an injury doesn't
surprise me. I know he's going to be one hundred percent and he's just the type of you know, that's the type of commitment to the game of football that he's made.
And lastly, I want to touch on Tremaine Edmonds to wrap up our first podcast, Bears Etc. Podcast with Tom There and Jeff Joniac. I love his attitude. He became an instant leader here. He says he was a natural born leader and there is still a lot of room to grow in his game. This is year six for this twenty five year old. It's strange how the numbers
add up, but he says he feels great mentally. He's in a good place and trying to improve on everything and making deposits in those buckets to be the leader that he knows he can be. A guy coming into a new locker room, though, had to try to feel it out little bit, and to his credit, he did that as well, leaning on guys like Getti Jackson and guys who have been here, because there's not been a lot of guys that have been here for a while,
so it is a fresh start for everybody. What's your takeaway on Tremaine Edmunds at middle linebacker.
Is the saying talk softly and carry a big stick or walk softly no big stick.
He can do both.
He's a soft spoken guy.
But I think when you see him out there and no paths, and then you see him out there in pass, you're going to get an understanding of how big of a linebacker this is. And then you're going to be impressed with his running skills, his ability to get in past coverage or support support the line of scrimmage. Listen, man, he's been successful since he's been in the NFL, and he understands the commitment from a team, a teammates that
it takes to become successful. And I think that's the type of message that you want to have inside this locker room as soon as possible.
Maddybrifleu is saying today we're in a day to day business, but the Bears are in a better spot. The rosters basically ran new with a lot of leftovers from last season that are trying to develop into big time players for the Bears. He's looking for elite talent and named just two out of the gate. There are more, but he named justin Fields and he named Tremaine Edmunds. So a lot to look forward to here for the Chicago Bears. I know Tom it rips your heart out practice tomorrow,
but the first padded practice not until next Wednesday. And that's part of the whole league's doing it. It's part of the collective bargaining agreement. I know, you don't have to like it, what it is, what it is. It's I would rather.
See the NFL teams go out there for one hour in pads than two hours and no pads. And what you can do is you can get warmed up inside the building, come out, have an individual period, have a nice stiff nine on seven, have a teamwork in full pads, and then call it a day for four or five days. Wrap yourself up that way instead of going out there in no pad nonsense.
All right, Tom Thayer has spoken and his words reverberating through the National Football League and the Players Association. United Airlines official airlines of the Chicago Bears, one of our sponsors here on the Bears Etc. Podcast. That'll wrap up for today. Tom will be back with you on Thursday. We'll review what happened on Wednesday's practice and look ahead to the weekend.
How about it, got a boy looking forward to it.
That's Tom Thayer. I'm Jeff Joniac. Thanks bearf fans for listening. We are underway and Our Bears, Etc. Podcast. We'll talk to you on Thursday.