GM, HC search begins | All Access

Coaching Combo for the Chicago Bears. We talk about it tonight here on Bears All Access on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy. The scorts brought to you by IGS Energy. Good to be with you once again. I'm Jeff Jonaghac with Tom Tharem, my broadcast partner from news Radio one oh five nine w BBM at our producer tonight, Sean Adderson, thanks as well to Dan Billy and Jordan tread Up. Tom Good evening. How are you doing, Big Jeff. There's been a lot going on the last couple of days.

Oh my gosh. I'm glad they're in the process early. I hope they can get themselves in front of the best candidates possible for both positions GM and head coach, let each other sell each side and see who they can come into the best possible football people agreement they can. Well, I think there's probably a strategy to it with the people involved on that committee and namely George McCaskey, with the help obviously of a Hall of fame general manager

and his career mister Polian. As to what the chemistry might be between the candidates for head coach, and I believe I think there's nine of those or might have it swift, but there's like twenty people involved here, so you're trying to get the best chemistry with the head coach and general manager. How it all plays out, I mean the thinking is would be best you hire a GM first, you can have a little bit of a say, year in the head coach. And this is what they're

trying to find out right now. These initial interviews are coaches, Tom are all zoom interviews. If they really like him, if it's impressive and there's a mutual attraction here, they're

going to be invited back at us. Yeah, you know, Jeff, you have to ask yourself though, which side of the ball and who are you trying to attract the most, because obviously if you're looking at a defensive candidate for the head coaching positions, then you've got to start thinking about the defensive line row Quan Smith, Robert Quinn, Jalen Johnson, and the rest of the defensive backfield. If you're looking at an offensive guy, what is his immediate philosophy with

Justin Fields? And I think that's really something you have to research in depth because if you're going to have success over the next five to ten years with the quarterback positions, it's because you have a guy with the traits of Justin Fields, and you got to see how that head coach candidate on the offensive side of the ball is formulating a plan that involves Justin. Jeff and Tim with you here on Bears All Access brought you by Giff Sanders. She coming up on tonight showed around

a few minutes from now actually six oz eight. We'll be joined by Barm Bears quarterback and current co hosted Sirius XM NFL Radios Jim Miller from Moving the Chains with Pat Crwin and then near the bottom of our joun by the Hall of Fame NFL writer from the Athletic Damn Pompey interviews announced by the club todaytime we know one of them. Champ Kelly a real a guy who's always got a smile on his face up at

how To Saw, super optimistic guy. Assistant director of player Personnel the last two years and prior to that two years as director of pro scouting. So he earned himself a promotion here during this four year run. He's got a lot of great insight to the locker room. Very close to players, always has been. He's always talking to players at practice, three four games. He's got a great connection to the locker room. Yeah, he knows the building,

he knows how to get in and out. He knows kind of the setting behind all the scenes and of the elements of a successful franchise a you want to be able to put on the field and commit compete with. So Champ has paid a lot of dues and I'm glad that he's getting an opportunity to sit in front of the Bears decision makers and get an interview and present his case. He's interviewed with Carolina and Denver last year, and then before that in nineteen before the Jets hired

Joe Douglas, he interviewed with the Jets. Also Cleveland Browns vice president of football Operations, quesse Adolpho Mensa Hope, I said that, right, this is an intriguing candidate, super bright guy, not a football background. He was a Princeton basketball player turned commodities trader. He started working for the forty nine ers back in twenty thirteen in their research and development department. Joined the Bronze in twenty twenty. Interviewed for the GM

job at Carolina last year. Another intriguing guy. I know what's gonna happen. He's gonna get lumped into the analytics angle to it, and that is a part of it. And without a football background in terms of playing it or where he started from, there's gonna be some thought about that. But he has now been with two organizations and people thought of him enough, said he's a candidate.

You just have to look at the players that he's instrumental and picking the guys that he's scouted, maybe some of the free agent that he was interested in bringing into the program. And I think you can you can learn a little bit about the candidate by the types of athletes attract their attention. And yesterday they interviewed another Browns front office guy, Vice President of player Personnel Glenn Cook,

also interviewing Doug Peterson. Coming up next, Jim Miller joins us here on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy The Score. Welcome back everybody to Fairs All access here on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy The Score. Jeff, Jonnick and Tom Thayer with you. Good to have you alongside, and please to be welcome by our good pal Jim Miller, special guest each week during our off season. I guess this is the off season. Far from it, though, Jim, so

much going on. Just before we get your overall thoughts on the collection of candidates and what we've already seen interviewed here, what were your thoughts on the decisions made by by George Kaski, chairman of the board and the Bears organization. Yeah, I think everybody kind of felt it was was heading in that direction from you know, the offensive standpoint. You got a young quarterback and it just it hasn't looked right the past a few years or

growth in that area. You know, you're still calling timeouts, you know, not getting lined up in things that that nature, and you know, I just think they felt a move needed to be made and you know from the growth process from whether it's Michell Mitchell Trubisky and who had a winning record and he moves on and and now Justin Fields. Uh, I think they felt it was time to make a change. They've got a great resource and obviously a Hall of Famer and Bill Polian to help

them out from from this. But there's a lot of candidates. Like you said, this is covering a wide net here to try and find the right guy. Now. Is it going to be a first year coach, will it be a more established guy? And you know, there's they're kind of covering all the bases here of what they're searching for right now to come up with the right general manager and head coach. And good to be with you guys as always, Hey, good Jim, Good to be with

you also. So, Jim, would you like to see a general manager first then allow him to have a little bit of input on the head coaching position, or would if there was a head coaching candidate out there that was super attracted to the skills of Justin Fields and what Darnell Mooney and Cole commet, Dave Montgomery, Khalil Herbert can offer you or even if you are on the other side of the ball and a guy came in here and said, look, I can turn Roquan Smith and

do a defensive MVP candidate, and I think Jalen Johnson's a good starting point in the defensive back. So, first of all, you think it's GM before coach, And do you think the other elements are enough to help make that decision. Yeah, they're all different kinds. We see guys that are kind of involved in all of it, and Bill Belichick and obviously Andy Reid. I don't think that'll

be the case in Chicago. I think you're right. I think it'll be a symbiotic relationship with the general manager in the coach that are on board together, working together, because I think that the last thing you want to go through is like what the Giants just went through here Dave Gentleman retires, then they have you know, they kind of leave Joe Judge hanging out in the wind, and they start interviewing general manager candidates and what does

the general manager say bringing in my own coach and here are the reasons why? You know, and you know they'll go through their list or what they liked or didn't like about Joe Judge and lo and behold George Judges or Joe Judge, excuse me, is relieved of his duties and then John Merrin and Steve Tish come out and say, yeah, our general manager is going to choose our next head coach. So I think you do want it to be a symbiotic relationship because you just don't

want it, you know, stair stepping. You know. You think about when I came in with when Dick Guron came in, the Bears didn't have a general manager in place, and then Gerry Angelo comes on board, and they kind of would never you know. I think they worked well together, but I don't think they were always eye to eye because normally the general manager does come first if you want the traditional style of how things are done in the NFL. If it's more of a veteran coach, they're

probably gonna have more input from that standpoint. But I think the Bears are gonna go with the more traditional style of things. You know, Jim, even outside the Bears, is there any other college candidates other than Jim Harball that will get consideration or a look see or maybe even evaluated or interviewed, or is he like the top guy in college that is has programs looking at him, and is he looking at programs? Yeah, I think he's

definitely looking at programs. Even said that to a recruit that you know he would be interested if the NFL came calling again in his name has been out there. I don't know, man. I think you look at Urban Urban Meyer. I think he just set back college coach. It's about five years. You know, you would think Lincoln Riley, a lot of teams have courted him, but with him taking the job that he did, you would think he's out.

You got Marvin Lewis back there at Arizona State, obviously, I think he would be a consideration or even right there close to home. You know, it's been rumored and talked about would Pat Fitzgerald be a guy that whether I think Green Bay had looked at him a couple of years ago. Would the Bears be interested in that? But I think from the Kyle's level is kind of

cooled off with the Urban Meyer situation. But I would think Jim Harbaugh definitely has the leverage with how we performed this year at Michigan, There's no doubt about that. Because he can come with a package, right. I know coaches that have already called Vic Fangio to add him to his staff. You know, he had a lot of success out in San Francisco with Vic Fangio as his defensive coordinator, and I would think, you know, he could come with a pretty good DC right away if he

makes a phone call. And Jim one of the candidates today Jim Miller with us here on Bears All Access with Tom there, Jeff Jonnyak were brought to you by IGS Energy. Choose clean energy for your home at IGS dot com because every good choice adds up to a better world. What do you know about Cleveland Brown's vice president of football operations, quesse A Dopo Mensa interviewed for the Carolina job last year. He was with VIC at the end of VIC stay in San Francisco as part

of their research and development project. Yeah, no, he's highly respected. Like I believe, he doesn't really have a football background now, so the analytics side of it, not that he doesn't know players and strengths in all those things. I think we know you can grow in those areas. But the other names that I know of that are really qualified guys obviously you're going to point out Jeff Ireland, you know, you have to point him out not only the picks he made for Miami, but what he's done for the

New Orleans Saints. Omar Khan of Pittsburgh that that is a very good candidate, I will say from that standpoint, But you know, it depends on what you're looking for. Say Detroit last year when they tapped into the rams in Brad Holmes. Brad Holmes basically conducted the last eight drafts for the LA Rams, and you just look at how aggressive he was for Detroit right or he trades away. Matthew Stafford requires a lot of ass sets and you know, and it's granted their season was for now, but he

drafted pretty good this year. Penney Sewell and the guys that they played all played right away for that team. So you know, you're looking at those type of things as well as how guys can identify talent and go and get talent to acquire and build your football team. And you know there's some guys that have done that

that they're they're looking at. And again it'll have you know, Bill Polian comes as a great resource as h talk talk about that and more, a little more, because obviously he's a part of your family there at Sirius Sex. Sam heard him last night on the radio, and he's done a lot over the years at ESPN and and stayed involved, and I hear his connections and his passion

for this is off the charts. He's connected for a lot of these search interviews, whether it's at say Notre Dame or every other colleges that are recommending coaches or at the NFL level. A lot of people, you know, tap him as a resource. He has a huge rolodex where he can tap into what he believes could be a good fit for your football team. And he's had some disciples of his go on. Some have done well,

some haven't. You know, you look at David Caldwell down there for the Jacksonville Jaguards that did not go well, but you'd have to say Tom Tolesco, that's not bad out there in La Chargers Land, right, you know, they identified their quarterback in Justin Herbert and all those type of things. So very well respected, very deep in terms of his rolodecks and who he can tap into, and he knows a lot of people that really can steer

organizations in the right direction. And I know for a fact the Bears have had other calls placed to them that have given him good, really good advice of potential candidates. Jim, Let's look at the Bears over the next two years, because you think about a new general manager, new head coach coming in, what the record was at the end of this year, and then you think of the limited amount of draft choices they have with a complicated salary cap issues, and then next year. So is the pressure

start for the GM next year? And almost he has to get through this year and gets value out of the limited amount of picks he has, or you think it's immediate, like the pressure starts the day before he gets to the job. Yeah, I think there's always pressure. You know, free agency is going to be big, Like you said, can you parlay more picks from that standpoint when you can strike a deal with another team? And

I just think the development of these young players. I think we're well aware that we feel pretty good about the tackles, we feel good about the young quarterback. You feel good about you know where Roquan Smith careers at. They have Darnell Mooney. I mean, we'll get into these players that you know, a lot of people are excited about that the Bears are young in certain areas, but I think the development those players is going to be crucial.

And I think that's where the head coach, his staff, all those really playing you know, you know, come and come to the fold of how those players are going to be developed because you're not getting rid of all these players. This isn't like Houston last year where they signed forty eight free agents. That's not happening in Chicago. So I do think those are going to be critical areas that the Bears are going to uncover, and it's just, you know, do you trust a first year coach to

be the guy to do that? I think those are some areas where the Bears have struggled where you go through those growing pains with the first year head coach and you know, our first time coach, I should say, in the NFL, and you know, I think you're seeing the brunt of that with some other teams that are already going in a different direction where they probably feel we need a little bit more experience. I'll use Joe Judge as an example. Again, was that really the best

move to fire Jason Garrett. How did their offense look after he left? It looked atrocious? I mean atrocious. So, I mean those are the things you got to be a leery of. And is a veteran guy more the way you want to go or is somebody just going to blow your socks off that you say, Man, this is our Mike Tomlin type of interview. This is going to be our guy for the next fifteen years, we believe. I think it would take that type of candidate to

really choose a first time head coach. Jim, I've been waiting to ask you this all season, and it's a completely different direction away from the Bears right now. But you hear a little a lot about the roster of coaches that are going to be coaching the Senior Bowl and everything. Does the new um moneymaking nil agreements for the college players? Does that take hurt your roster or does it not affect your roster for the Senior Bowl? I? Wow, that's a great question because I still think for this

year it's not going to affect the roster. Here's why, because you know COVID and everything. You know, you think all the opt outs, I mean, players were begging to play in that game because that really was the only game that was available for them to put stuff on tape, you know, and it still was an issue this year at the college level. So I still think players will

want to be in that game. You know, ninety percent of those players that go down there get drafted, and in my opinion, if you do go down there and play and perform in the practices during the week, you can increase your stock anywhere from one to two rounds. So I still think it's a very attractive game that you're gonna want it. And we've seen quarterbacks do it, right. Carson Wentz goes down there, Philadelphia trades up to number two to pick him. I mean, you look at some

of the quarterbacks that have been picked. Who has been hurt going down there to play as a quarterback? Did Daniel Jones get hurt? He got picked sixteenth overall? And there was like, dude, the guy played at Duke, He's he's nothing, and he went, you know, sixteenth overall to the Giants. So I think, if I'm a player, I'm playing in that game. I'm playing in that game, and I don't care what my agent says. That's Jim Miller

Jeff Jonny Act, Tom Pare with you. I'm Bears All Access here on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to score the Texans move of David Cutty's dismissal. Today. It's drawn a lot of very strong opinions and criticism. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people felt that, you know, he was thrown into a lot of bad circumstances, but I think he had an understanding of what was going to happen. I do think Nick Casserio, the general manager, he was waiting on a

certain candidate, and some are speculating its Brian Flores. I do not think it was Brian Flores because he took the job as GM when Brian Flores already had a six year contract in Miami. So I do not think that as Brian Flores. Now, Gerard Mayo, Josh McDaniels, you know, potentially, I would think there, and I think from what I understand, you look at Gerard Merrill may have the inside track there, but I think, you know, David Culley was under no

delusions of grandeur. He's a twenties year I was with him in Pittsburgh. He was our wide receivers coach. No, David's he's tremendous, but I think he was under no delusions of grander and if anything, the situation he was put in is probably people are coming away giving him more pelts on the wall with what he dealt with. I mean, they were playing literally all their young players, Davis Millsey on quarterback, who they drafted in the third

round out of Stanford. All those young players were playing and David came on serious not even a week and a half ago. It was raving about. He said, hey, our young players are playing well. Nobody even thought they'd win four games. So I think he overachieved with the one year opportunity he had down there in Houston. Any bank rolled quite a bit of money, so that's the good news about it. And he'll he'll find his way somewhere else. And the Baltimore Ravens get compensatory pick last year.

I get another third round compic this year because a team hired a minority only to find him leave and be dismissed in Houston. Coming up next, we'll be joined by Dan Pompey at the Athletic we'll talk about a number of topics, including What's what's up with the potential Hall of Fame first ballot Devin Hester. That'll be one of our topics coming up next here on Bears All Access on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to Score. The segment of Bears to All Access has brought to you

by Athletical Physical Therapy. Visit Athletic dot com to request an appointment and clinic or virtually and start feeling better tomorrow with Tom there, Jim Miller, Jeff Joniac Please to be joined by our good pal from the Athletic, the Hall of Fame NFL writer Dan Pompey, who's going to be quite busy here in the next few weeks, not only chasing these stories about who's next and where and why, but also the Hall of Fame with Devin Hester on

that list of fifteen finalists. Dan Good, evening, How you doing good evening, Jeff and Tom and Jim Good to be with you guys tonight. You know, it seems like once the regular season gets over, the action really begins sometimes, right, Yeah, You're you're not wrong about that, that's for sure. You

penned a great piece in the Athletic. Your thoughts on what the Bears, in your opinion, should be looking at in terms of types of coaches and more importantly, what do you want the team to look like, what the identity is, and it begins with toughness. And I know you and I have had these talks many times and

we share a common belief in that. I know Tom does as well, assuming Jim does as well, because I've said this routinely and attempts have certainly been made to do this, but it should reflect what the franchise's history is and what the city they play in is like. And this city loves rough and tumble, rough and tumble football, and that's kind of been your theme here in this article that you wrote this week. Tell us more about it in your opinions, Well, you know, I think when

you look at the Bears now. A matter of fact, I was talking with another front office executive about an hour ago about this and he said, I don't know who they are. I don't know what their identity is. And I said, yeah, I don't either. I don't think they know. You know, I think they kind of lost their way. And you know, a lot of it is kind of the offensive design, but some of it's just the team construction. You know, the Bears history, I think is a great blueprint about what they can be, what

they should be moving forward. But you know, if you look at the league realistically, everybody says, well, it's a new era. You have to pass the ball, it's all about the quarterback. That's all fine, and well, when you've got Aaron Rodgers, you've got Patrick Mahomes, you've got Tom Brady, you know, for the other twenty nine, you better find another way to do it because you can't create those guys, and unless one of them falls into your lap, you're gonna have to find a different way to win. And

the different the different way to win. What you can create is toughness. You can create big and physical and mean and nasty and go bloody their lips. And the Bears have done that repeatedly throughout history. You know, if you look at teams like the Ravens and the Steelers, they do it year after year, era after era, no matter who's in charge of the team, no matter who the plays are. And I really think that the Bears need to get back to that and stick with that forever.

And if they ever end up with and Aaron Rodgers, you know then they can worry about how to alter things at that point. You know, Dan, in your article you talked about the Bears developing the middle linebacker position and the other traits of toughness they've shown throughout their history. But you have a long exploration in their history with one hundred of year anniversary book that you and Don Pearson wrote, and the amount of sidelines you spent at

training camp and such. So where is your immediate attachment to what era, what type of football team? I mean, I mean, is it something as obvious as the eighty five Bears or is there even a history before then that you would go back to? Well, yeah, I think you know, there's a lot of eras or teams that you look at in the Bears history that you say,

you know, you can build a team like this. I mean, the great thing about what Jim Finks did in the late seventies early eighties is he said, I'm going to build the lines first, and he made some great defensive and offensive lines, of course, which you were a big part of. And you know, he invested in those lines and then he said we'll worry about the other things later. And the other things came and they were great too, and of course there was great coaching. It was a

perfect storm and everything came together. You know, if you go back to the time before that, when the Bears were a championship team in the nineteen sixties, early in nineteen sixties, you know, in nineteen sixty three, it was pretty much the same thing. You know, it was all about that defensive line, great pass rush with Doug Atkins and Ed o'bradovitch, and you know, they had one of the all time great defenses. Some people still think the

sixty three defense was better than eighty five defense. And you know, with the exception of the one time in their history in the nine team forties when they were kind of offensive dominated because they had this revolutionary offense with Sid Luckman and the T formation. You know, the Bears always have been a team that tries to beat you with defense and toughness. And I think, like I said earlier, that's a that's a great way for them

to move forward with that in mind. You know, let's run the ball, let's play defense, let's play special teams. You know, the resurgence that they saw in the two thousands with Lovey Smith's teams, it was the same thing, you know it was. It was even even on the team Jim was on. You know that did so well in two thousand and one. Was it off top of my head? Yeah, two thousand and one, Uh, you know, the same thing. Great defense and they ran the ball

and obviously Jim did his part of the quarterback position. Well, I agree with you, Dan, because to me, that formula wins and it still wins today. It's the style of play and they you can be a wide open offense. I mean, just look at Philadelphia. They ran themselves to the playoffs. Since Week eight, they're averaging one hundred and seventy five yards a game with a young quarterback in Jalen Hurts Or I'd say it even about Arizona. Everybody

thinks Arizona is just some empty, wide open offense. James Conner has eighteen touchdowns. I mean, they're top ten in terms of their style of play in running the football. And how did that get lost? Because I don't forget Yeah, forty nine are a great example as well. But you know, how do you think that gets lost? Because that style of play has always been such a big part of Chicago. Yeah, you know, the Eagles I think we're a team too that.

You know, their season was kind of teetering on the brink before they figured it out that hey, we've got to change things and we've got to run the ball. You know, another team two that has been really following this blueprint all along is the Tennessee Titans, and they continue to follow it to a degree, even after losing their MVP candidate in Derrick Henry. So, you know, I know a lot of people think, well, you know, in

this era, you can't win that way. It's you know, meatball football, you know, I say Bologny, I say, you know you can, and you do. And football will always be football and you can always win by punching someone in the mouth. And you know, I think, you know, I think the Bears can move towards that kind of football again if they consider it in who they're hiring, in the types of philosophies that both the general manager

and the and the head coach of spouse. You know, Dan, you think about a team, you think about a coach like Andy Reid. Andy reads a former offensive tackle in his college days, and they threw the ball a lot. Yeah,

but he's almost reluctant to run the ball nowadays. So if you're in the interview room looking at all these candidates are coming at you, and guys ask, oh, you know how, you know they're they're less, they're more reluctant to want to run the ball when you look at a guy like Justin and maybe what Darnell and Cole Commat and the other guys that you're going to bring aboard can offer you. So are you kind of putting

some restraints on that thought process immediately? And you do want to be successful with the running game, Well, look, if Andy Reid's available, go hire him. I'd say, you know, we'll figure out the rest later. I don't think Andy Reid's available. You know, you're talking about a Hall of Fame coach probably and someone who's really special and he's figured out a way to do it, you know. But I think otherwise you have to you have to do maybe look at different ways of doing that. You know.

I think if you do have a big physical offense that runs power or oh, and you know you have a philosophy in place that you know you're going to run the ball and you're going to out physical opponents, well, I think justin fields becomes better. Then I think the pressure's off him. I think Darneld Mooney becomes more effective because he gets less attention. Cole Commet. You know, you see everything he can do, so you know, I think a good running game, I mean that's that's the beauty

of a running game, right. It benefits every other aspect of your team, including maybe most importantly your defense because uh, you know, it keeps it off the field and keeps it fresh and lively, and you know it reduces turnovers. I mean that was a problem the Bears were this last year. They were you know, in the takeaway calm. They were in the wrong end of it. And you know, if they ran the ball better, they'd probably be more apt to be on the right end of it, even

though their defense didn't produce enough of them. Let me ask you this, Dan, because you've seen a lot of you know, first time head coaches taken on the chin. Joe Judge, obviously, Matt, you look at David Culley today. What happened now there's that he's a season coach. Obviously we look at Culley. But from what I understand, Nick Kissario was in the booth every weekend, managing every situation, even with Culley as a head coach. How do you

see it for the Bears? Is it a traditional style where the GM hires the coach and do you expect it to be a seasoned or a seasoned head coach. Let's just put it that way, whether it's a you know, a Billy O'Brien or somebody who's been kind of been there, done that. From that standpoint, yeah, well, they're obviously talking to some coaches who have experience, who've you know, had previous head coaching jobs, and you know, I think that's

always a good thing. I mean, they're casting a wide net in the search, and you can't go wrong with talking to as many people as possible. You know, I think it's easy to identify a lot of candidates who could be good. The hard part is figuring out which of them have the traits that would translate into being a great leader and being a great head coach. And you know, it's easier sometimes to know those traits, or to at least identify them in someone who has done

it before as a head coach. You know, you've seen the body of work for Dan Quinn and then he could come in and tell you well, how would you you know, Dan, how would you be different from what you were last time? What did you learn? Or Jim Harbaugh, you know who's not only has he been a head coach, but he's been a very successful head coach at every level he's been at. So you know, you have about

Doug Peterson. Doug Peterson obviously, I mean, you know, he's got to be at the top of almost any list as a guy who's won a Super Bowl and you know, out coached maybe the greatest coach of all time in that game. So you know, I think, to me, that's that's a great benefit because the more you can know about head coaching candidates, the better off you are. You know, It's kind of like sometimes when you fall in love

with the backup quarterback. You know, everyone's cheering for him and wanting him to play, and then once they see him play, they start buying him because now you found out why he was on the bench. Sometimes that way

with a coaching candidate too. You know, he looks great when he's the offensive coordinator or the whatever he is, you know, assistant coach, but once against that chance, you start to see some of the things that maybe he lacked or some of the things that separate him from some of the other really good head coaches in the league. Final moments here with Dan Pompey from The Athletic Our Pro Football Writer, with Tom Thayer, Jim Miller, Jeff Jony Hack Here on Bears All Access brought to you by

IGS Energy, with our producer Sean Anderson. All Right, so this is a big time of year for you as well with the Hall of Fame. You'reround the committee and Devin Hester is somebody you'll be presenting. How how are you preparing for this and what do you think his chances are as a first ballot Hall of Famer? He's one of the final fifteen. Yeah. You know, I've talked to a lot of people this past week who have opposed him, and I always like to get their perspective

what it was like. And one of the things that I really came away with was that, you know, Hester didn't just change games. He changed the game because he forced opponents to adjust to him in a way that very few players in the NFL history. Did you know he came in the first two years of his career, he was on fire, scored five return touchdowns, as a rookie to set a record. Then he broke that record the next year with six, and then he fell off the table. You know, there were a couple of reasons

for that. One obviously was that teams refused to kick to him anymore. The other was, you know, for a couple of years there he was mostly a wide receiver and not so much a return guy anymore. But um, he got back to that then, and teams still refused to kick to him. One of the things I asked Devin about, I said, you know, he scored twenty return touchdowns in your career. I said, how many do you think you would have scored if people kept kept kept kicking to you? He said, I think I would have

scored over forty. The interesting thing about so, how about that crazy? That's a crazy notion. But you know what, he believes this kind of stuff, no question, I believe it too. How about this. The twenty that he scored are thirty percent more than any other return guy. And here's here's an interesting thing. So I looked at like, well, how many more touchdown passes did Tom Brady throw them?

The next quarterback? Only nine percent more? Emmett Smith. I think it was twelve percent more than the next leading rusher, So I mean he was he was not only the greatest returnment ever with the greatest buy a wide margin. Yeah. I love these discussions, Dan, because I brought that up, the things you're talking about. I think you break a great case about team's not kicking to him. Right Away, somebody's going to call up and mention Brian Mitchell, who

is tremendous. Everybody knows Brian Mitchell was was tremendous with what he's done. He had more years than Devin Hester, but like you said that, the impact and he was productive. He's got more punt return yardis, he's got more kick return yardists, but the touchdowns are still there. For Devin

it's like ridiculous when it comes to them. Yes, he is ridiculous, Yes, yeah, But like that because I mean, your job is such a difficult job because right away, you know, people like right away people wanted to refute that Brian Mitchell should be in before Hester. You know, how how do you personally deal with stuff like that

when you hear those type of things. You know, Brian Mitchell was if you were if you were basing a guy's hall of Fame crencials on you know, longevity and you know contributions over time, you'd say, O'Brian Mitchell's a guy. But if you're basing it on a player who changed games, you'd say, well, it's definitely Hester. Hester scored one touchdown every thirty two point one times he returned the ball. Mitchell scored one touchdown once for every eighty two point

three returns. You know, huge difference. You know, even Dion Sanders only scored one once every forty point seven returns. And you know, I think if this up to the point of Devin Hester, Dion was considered the greatest return man, if not GAYL Sayers, who played a little different era and didn't do it as much. But you know, I don't think that. You know, if you were a special teams coach and I ask you games on the line, we got a kick to one guy, would would you

rather kick to Brian Mitchell or Hester? And I asked that of thirty two special teams coaches, thirty two or thirty two would kick it to Brian Mitchell guarantee. It's the sad thing about this is Devin Hester maybe the last returner that has a chance to go into the Hall of Fame because of what they're doing in college football and not letting the kid these kids return, it's a it's just an awful shame that they're taking a talent away from one of the biggest game threats away

out of the game. Well, and the whole punk game has changed too. I'll just give you one more status. Sounds like you guys are on the way out. But this year in the NFL, there were two punt returns scored in the entire league by every returner. Devin Hester scored more punt returns than that alone in three seasons. That's good stuff. Dan. You always do your homework. You're you're the best guy for the job. Good luck with that. I know you enjoyed that. You take it quite seriously.

And it's a privilege question about it. Thanks for all your time, Dan, all right, Privileged to be with you guys too, appreciate it. Jeff Jonyac tap there, Jim Meler back with Moore as we take a look at the Bear season, and I'm gonna put these guys on the firing line here with their awards for the Bears for

twenty twenty one. I'll be at a season that didn't go as planned or what every one to hope you'll look at the with what good things happened here in twenty twenty one for the Bears on Bears All Access on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy The Score the segment of Bearings All Access brought to you by CDW. People will get it. Jeff, jony Ac tap there, and our special guest Jim Miller from Serious XM NFL Radios moving the chains with Pat Kerwin. All Right, guys, we're gonna

go quick hitters here. I'm gonna start with Jim. We're gonna do a Players of the Year for each of the three phases and some other awards. Player of the Year, offensively, players of the Year. Give me your top three offensive players of the year of the Bears. A top three David Montgomery obviously, Mooney would would be another one. Um and you want to win, you know, because I don't want to anoint Justin Fields yet. I'm gonna say Khalil Herbert. I like what I saw from Khalil Herbert when he

had an opportunity. Tom, Where are you going? Oh my gosh, I'm completely different. I'm gonna go to Jason Peters. Number one. You look at where he came aboard and what would have been the situation if he didn't come up and step up to the plate and play the way he did. I think the Bears would have been in the worst up position. And I like Dave Montgomery. Huge fan of David first, second, and third down and can't wait to

see more of him. And I do think he's being complimented by Khalil Herbert, but it's a nice kind of one one a punch there, and you know, I have I need to see continuous and higher development from Cole Comet because he has high expectations on him from where he was drafted in what guys like Kittle are doing in the NFL, and so somewhere in between Kelsey and Kittle, we need to fit in Cole Comett. All right, I went Mooney Montgomery and Jason Peters as well. Defensively, Jim,

were you at three guys? Definitely Roquan Smith, You're you're definitely going Robert Quinn. I like what I saw late in the year from well, you'd probably want to say Jalen Johnson, but I like what I saw from Trevis

Gibson later in the year. I really did. Tom. I'm going alec Ogletree number one, kind of like my Jason Peter candidate from offense came in here, and if he didn't come up and step up to the plate and started the interior linebacker position, they would have had nobody number two Jalen Johnson, because if you're gonna have any consideration in front of your name, if you're gonna have some type of number attached to it, you gotta perform. And I think hopefully the best is yet to come

from him. And I know it's not a fun position to look at. And I'm not ignoring Roquan Smith because there's different categories for these things. I need to see what Kiris Tonga can bring to this defensive line. If a new defensive coordinator is going to run at the consistent apposition, he needs to be a big player in the in the inside you look at more future. Okay, I'm going to Rokwan, Robert Quinn for sure, and Jalen

Johnson Special teams Jim um Well. I thought Herbert obviously did a job, good job early, but you gotta go with jakeem Grant. I thought he had instant impact when the Bears made that trade and acquired him. So I'm gonna go with Jachim Grant. Tom, I'm going Cairo, best kicker in the league and the hardest stadium, and that the league and the points are at a premium for the Bears. This year, every one of his kicks mattered. Yeah, and Cairo now the number one in accuracy in Soldier field.

I'm going Damian Williams, Jachem Grant and Cairo Santos Williams a real fined on special teams. Quickly, your comeback player of the year, Jim, It's gonna be Robert Quinn. You know he's certain mentally comes back and is the player I thought he was a comeback player of the year. I consider him from the league comeback player of the Year. I know Dex brought Deck Prescott is probably gonna get it, but I like what Quinn did Mentally. I'm gonna go Quinn. Also,

it's hard to ignore what he's accomplished. No brainer, what a year eighteen sacks. We have more rewards and final comments coming up next here on Bears All Access, brought to you by IGS Energy in Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to score. Alright, our final moments here on Bears All Access. Jeff Joning, Act, Tom There and Jim are from Serious x MFL Radio. I don't know why I'm laughing, but I think at Jim and I. You know, you're one of the funniest guys. I know, there's no question.

Glad you're back with us, buddy, Well, good to be with you. Thank you. You are ridiculous. Yeah, you're a little bit a little bit. All right, let's continue our Roger you already touched on at you guys, but I'm just gonna just go down to this Jim Rookie of the Year, Rookie of the Year. I'm gonna go khalil he. I love what he did stepping in for David Montgomery. Tom, I'm going justin, how could you not most high profile position on the team, and we have super high expectations

for his future. I did with Herbert as well, really did a nice job on special teams and when he was in there to led the NFC those four weeks in rushing MVP. I can't imagine this is in unanimous. Jim Roquan absolutely, guys, a heat seeking missile man. A lot munch to play. Yeah, I've got a hundred percent fourth in the leg and tackles, and he emerged so

significantly as a leader. Uh you know, and I you know, when I did a feature with him, I said, Roquan, you know you're the leader of this team right now he goes on one off. Now you're the guy until further notice. Justin eventually that that will be his mantle, you know, if all goes well. All right, Jim, I don't know if you can remember all these plays because you're so busy. Offensive Play of the year, do you have one. It's gotta be Fields run versus San Francisco.

That's mine too, Yeah, reverses field and then you know, takes it into score. My other one offensively, it'd be demere bird out in seattam, you know, getting the two point catch. And and for defense, gotta be when Robert Quinn broke up strown. Now you gotta get that. We're doing one at a time. We'll get time, give time

a chance. Well. Offensive play of the year. Offensive play of the Year, I'm going Mooney's touchdown catch against the Pittsburgh Steelers because it wasn't a broken play like Justin's run. It was more of a design play where Justin never lost sight of receivers downfield even though he was getting ready to scramble outside the pocket and run. He readjusted the grip on his ball and threw it to Mooney for a touchdown. So those are the types of plays that we want to see out of those two young

guys for a long time to come. Yes, because he thinks big play. He thinks downfield all the time. Yeah. That that scramble fourth and one to forty nine, ers twenty one and you're down twenty three to sixteen. It's week eight, fourth quarter, play clock at two and he makes the magical move. Defensive play of the year, Jim, I'm going with Quinn's breaking Richard Dense record. Its unbelievable for him to do that, Like said, where he's been and what he was able to cover, and he did

it in sixteen. There will be no asterisk next to his name. So good for Robert Quinn. Tommy, I went Jaalen's pick against Cincinnati because I was thinking, oh my god, it's so early in the season. He's picking off Joe Burrow. This is gonna be things that are gonna be yet to come throughout this whole season. So I have to draw back to find that one interception by Jalen, but

I need a lot more like it next year. Yeah, I was torm because the sack of Aaron Rodgers that really brought into the Spider Man recognition of Robert Quinn was mine one a is role quants pick six of Joe Burrow because I wanted. I think he's capable of those kind of plays because his ability to cover, But that that kind of signal Robert Quinn is just finding any relentless way to get to the quarterback you possibly can. I would imagine a special Team's player of the years

of slam dunk Jim, what do you got? Well, you guys talked about the kicker earlier. That's why this is where I was going to go. Santos and how I mean the guy what was he at one point thirty six in a row? It was ridiculous how well he played so like you said, and points were at a premium, and so I'm gonna go Santos there. Tommy, you know, it's hard to ignore Jacam Grant's ninety seven yard punt return. But didn't they get in a punt return fumble and the errors are ye DHC the scoop and score. Yeah,

that was pretty as well. And you'd love your special teams unit to be as nasty and as tough as the rest of your team to create those kind of kind of plays. But that you came play with something else probably put him in the Pro Bowl because, as Damn pont Paye told us, just two punt return touchdowns period. So that brings this to uh NFL Wild Car Weekend. Jim Quick Quick sneak peeks in our final two minutes here Vegas. Cincinnati a pair at ten one teams, followed

by New England and Buffalo on Saturday. Yeah. I think both Cincinnati and Buffalo were there were a lot of pressure that they got to perform. I still think that they will come out on top for the Saturday matchup. So I like Buffalo and what they're doing in Cincinnati. I think Josh Allen, if he goes, he's tough to handle. Man. That guy's like a wild Bronco. I mean, he can get out of rule. Now I'm going Cincinnati, New England. I think New England is gonna have the first upset

of the playoffs. I'm pulling for Buffalo, but I think New England will win. All right, we only have thirty seconds, So Philly, Tampa, San Francisco, Dallas, Pittsburgh, KC, Jim Tampa, San Francisco, in Kansas City and Tom. We only have time for you to pick Monday nights. How about Arizona and the Rams on Monday Night? I'm Woh my god, I'm Arizona. I'm pulling for Arizona. Jim in Arizona. Too. Too many picks by Stafford down the stretch. Thanks boys, it was fun to be back together. Jim Miller from

Serious x M NFL Radio. Thanks to Damn pomp Pay from the Athletic and most of all to you for listening. For Tom there, I'm Jeff Jonia. Thanks Sean Adderson, Jordan Trent Up and Dan Ba. Really Mark Rody is next. This has been Bears All Access on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to score. Talk to you next week. Good night, everybody, thanks for listening to this Chicago Bears Network presentation of Bears All Access. Podcasts are available on Chicago Bears dot

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