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Hey, everybody back with you. I'm talking Bears football here on Bears Weekly. Last week of OTAs for the Bears limited though rookies, probably some young players, special teams work. Father's Day come on up on Sunday, So Happy Father's Day. Jim Miller and Cole Comet got married over the weekend, so I saw some pictures of that, So congratulations to
Cole and his new bride. NFL writers still churn it out copy trying to get a handle on what's to come in the twenty twenty five season, including the Bears.
We'll dig you into some of that as well.
Tonight on ESPN one thousand of the Bears Ready to Go not work with Super Bowl winning Bears guard Tom Fair and Jim Middle from Serious XMNFL Radio. I'm Jeff Jonahak. We'll here tonight from Grady Jarrett. Tom and I visited with him recently, so we'll explore the Bears defense in detail tonight. Dan Brillly Jordan tread Up is our producing crew, and in the ESPN studios, I think for the first time, we welcome in Jake Santos, the executive producer of the
Bears Radio Network. Eric Ostratski, Good evening, gentlemen, never shortage of information.
Tom.
I was listening to Jim on Serious XML working in the yard this afternoon, and I was rolling because you know, these fans are They're great.
Fans are great. We're first couple weeks of June.
Here, we're still a bit of a way from the start of training camp, and everybody is. They're lit up, they're just ready to go. They're ready to talk, discuss, argue. And you're not too shy a boy jumping in the pool with him.
Jim, No, not at all, not at all, because this is what we do every single day. And you know, I remember a lot of things, you know, I remember certain callers that call in and are adamant about their beliefs. But hey, fans can get it wrong, just like gms get it wrong, say on the selection of a quarterback. There's been numerous teams that have got it wrong. Bears are one of them. There's other teams that have got
a wrong. There's no harm, no hot foul. You got to keep on taking swings at the plate until you get your guy. And hopefully Caleb Williams is that guy for the Chicago Bears. But yeah, there was a call that called in was adamant about their quarterback, and boy, they quickly jumped ship and they were pointing towards this year rather than last year when they were banging the druma about their guy that they believed was the guy. And now they quickly moved away from that guy. But
if gms do that, they're fired. Coaches are fired, players are fired, gms are fired. All new regimes are brought in. And so that's great for fans to say that I had home on their lawnmower, but they're not getting fired, right. So jobs get lost and families get moved in. It's a big business.
What you know whatmmy one thing about the NFL.
So there are stories they start Jaira Alexander, the linebacker from Cincinnati. So those are things that the fans pay attention to, whether it's in your city or if they're
just fans of the NFL. But I also think it's probably one of the more important times of the year that's gonna dictate the success and failure of a player's career because everything that happens from the draft until the last ota, you have an itinerary, you have a schedule, you're inside the building, you're learning about your football team and all the elements that are involved, from the weight room to the cafeteria, to the on field requirements, to
the new offense and defense that's being installed. But now you have a six week opportunity and what are you gonna do with it? And the great Clyde Emrick used to say, it takes you two days to get out of shape and two weeks to get in shape. So don't come back to camp thinking that you're going to have time to be you know, get yourself in shape before you become competitive. Then it's gonna you're you're gonna see the season in your rear view mirror. And then
the same thing with your tablet. If you can take your tablet home and you can invest a lot of time in studying this information, so you hit the ground running when training camp starts again.
I do think it's one of the most.
Important times of a player's career that they control themselves and they don't have somebody looking over their shoulder. So when you say we got one more week of OTAs when they get ready to go home, it's not about a six weeks vacation. You can have some ZID vacation time, but make sure you're staying prepared for what's required of you from the very first morning you get back to training camp.
Basic Basically, you're saying you got to be a self starter. You got to be a self starter when you when you leave the building. You got to rely on your execution and your discipline. Now I got to ask both of you guys, because you guys didn't have tablets back in the day. So whatever off season, did you spend a lot of time watching film? The actual film? Did you guys do this or what did you guys do well?
For me, I was fortunate to be in the system for so long that you kind of went right back to muscle memory. So we spent more time in the facility lifting weights with our teammates in inside old Hallis Hall, which was the size of a wedding reception hall.
It wasn't like where they have now.
So we were still around each other and we had a lot of football conversation, and we were encouraging each other in the weight room, and.
We were under the guidance of Clyde Emrick.
So we had that part of it offered to us that made us a closer team and better players. Nowadays, it seems like everybody scatters and they go in a thousand different directions. So yeah, the requirements of what the coaching staff is going to expect of you is going to be proven within the first three days you get back to camp.
Jim, if you had a tablet back in the day, would you have been even more prepared or it was the tape in the building enough.
No, I think I'd be more prepared because it's with you all the time now, so you could actually take the tablet out to say a football field where you're working and maybe go through a script. That's what I used to do. We watched all the tape like during the OTAs and the mini camps, because again back in the day, we just had a rookie mini camp and a veteran mini camp, and then you were gone, but you watched all that tape before you left the building. But what I would do is i'd take the scripts.
So I'd take the scripts home with me, and what I would do is then i would go out to a football field and I'd say, all right, we're going to run you know, eighty two dig and it says on the script what coverage it's going to be, and so i'd just simulate the play. I would go through my reads what coverage it is, and then i'd throw out scenarios. All right, let's say it's we'll do cover two. Now we'll do cover six, you know, so I just throw out different coverages. Where would I go in this scenario?
So I'd go through the script. So then I would simulate drives. So you have your first and second down, like when you're doing your inside run, that you go through all the footwork in that period. Then you'd go through, you know, your your team period for run, play action pay plays. I would go through all my footwork and that would I'd be thinking what I audible any plays against the defense we were against. Then I'd go through all of seven on seven because that's all passing stuff.
I'd want to know all the coverages, what are my drops, what would I check to all those types? And then you got your team period. So you just roll through the scripts and it's going to give you a lot of different looks.
Who are you throwing to?
High school kids?
You could start plucking guys off the street.
With Yeah, I'd go up to old high schools and guys would be out there working out for their high school saying, man, you mind catching some footballs?
Yeah?
They were up for it, and that's what you do.
That's great, that's awesome. That's that's good old fashioned football right there. Uh, Tommy, did you ever run the hill with Walter Payton?
I never did.
I never wanted to because I heard so many horror stories of guys showing up and kind of challenging him inside the locker room and he was saying, Okay, just show up and we'll run it. And there's a lot of guys that he left in.
In the dust.
And but you know the thing about Walter, when he went to run the hill, he was taped up, he was spatted, he had his uh kind of.
His running uniform onm that he put on and.
He took it really serious and had those spikes in his shoes that were grabbing into that hill. And listen, Jeff, if you weren't really honestly ready and prepared and understood how to run that hill, there wasn't a lot of guys that were able to do it. So one off season I went down to Houston and when my buddy from college, Larry Morty was Larry Moriarty was playing for
the Houston Oilers. They had a forty yard ramp that was covered an astro turf, And so I went through a series of a couple weeks of running this incline with these guys, and they did a bunch of different drills to lengthen your stride, to shorten your stride, to power and all that. And so I knew it wasn't the same as Walter's hill because his was a lot harder, a lot longer, and you know, Walter was Walter Payton.
But when I went down and I was kind of encouraged and excited to be around some other guys from another football team, it was kind of neat to do. But Walter, no, and I've, like I said, I heard a lot of Horset. He's about guys leaving before the end, before Walter was done, and I think it kind of encouraged Walter a little bit more to leave these guys in the dust.
Yeah, no question, Jim, what's the craziest training that you ever did? Like, maybe it would be out of the norm that others would say, ah, you come on, you didn't do that. I know it's different for a quarterback. You know, you're throwing passes, you're staying in shape. But anything crazy you did in an off season, as you remember, or somebody recommended something, I mean it nowadays it could
be you know, it could be anything. Could be pilates, could be boxing, could be I mean, whatever, did you do anything crazy?
Well?
Greg Lloyd got me into tea or taekwondo. He was a black belt in taekwondo. I mean it did help me in flexibility, but I was like learning patterns and stuff to get another belt, and I was like, man, what am I doing here? You know, let's just go throw the ball. You know, I'm doing like back kicks and stuff. I'm like, who am I going to be back kicking? Dropping back on a seven step trump?
You know?
Sons like enough, But what am I doing?
All Right? Greg?
This was this may work for Greg Lloyd, who's going after people, but it wasn't. It wasn't the best thing for me.
So it was a bust.
Yeah, it was a buzz. All right.
When we come back, we'll talk some serious Baul. We'll talk with Grady Jarrett. He's coming up next, the Bear's new defensive tackle. Here on ESPN Chicago and the Bears Radio Network.
Face is Bears Weekly with the voice of the Bears for twenty four years, Chef y Chef on the Bear's Radio Network.
Man.
This segment of Bears Weekly he brought to you by Igs Energy, Jeff johonny X, Tom Bear, and Jim Otter from Serious x MNFL radio tenure Atlanta Falcon. Now a first year Chicago Bear defensive tackle, Grady Jarrett kind enough to sit down with Tom and I recently, and I brought it up to him that when Tom scouting reports when the Bears played the foul Fulkins were always about Jared, like whenever he fa the Bears meant he was going
to be the most difficult assignment. And in three games, couple of sacks, six tackles, the stuff, three quarterback hits, three tackles for lost and a pass break up against the Bears in those three games in which Grady Jarrett won two. So that was my entree into the conversation with a veteran defensive tackle along with Tommy. It's going to be a problem, Jeff, and you have been a problem for opposing offenses. Now you can be a problem
for us in a good way. How good does that sound to you that somebody you know looks at you that way?
Man, This sounds amazing.
You know.
It's just respect, you know, and always one of the way the way that I played the game to stand out, and I think it has and I just want to continue to get better every year, you know. So I'm excited to be playing for the Bears now, you know, bring that energy, that that that that passion to to Chicago and try to go get some wins, to go dominate.
As line of scrimmish, did you always know your template was going to be successful in the NFL? And what I'm saying is you talk about the changes, You're not going to become taller, but so your size has been an asset to you.
Do you feel that?
Yeah?
Absolutely, absolutely, Being a shorter defensive tackle. Knowing the things that I needed to be better at where my some knowing your limitations or is a strength as well, because you know, I'm gona have to be a little quicker, I'm to be a little faster, a little stronger, and that has contributed to to my game and so uh so, yeah, there's no secret about you know, the things that you know, whether it's scouting or people try to hold against me.
But you know, I only can control what I can control, and I can make the most.
Out of the things that I can.
And I feel like I've done a really good job for myself up to this point, and I would just want to continue to get better, you know here now going in this is to year eleven in a new place with new teammates, and I'm ready to just you know, go go dominate.
Did you ever compare notes with Aaron Donald?
Uh?
Did you ever compare notes?
You guys have a similar explosiveness, size and everything.
But I mean people always love to throw our name in there every time I every time I do something good, somebody has bring him up every time. So so I mean it's you kind of set the tone. Yeah, for so for sow for show. But no, I definitely know respect to respect everything about him. But I think just that that that the shorter, quicker defensive tackle that's explosive, like a play sideline, the sideline. It's kind of the thing with people talking about when they speak about it.
I got a question for you, as a former NFL starting guard, how would you deal with Grady?
Because I always ask him, I hate ooh.
The guy that kept jepping that he was always Reggie White. Reggie White kept YEPI nit right.
Yeah, oh yeah, but Reggie White's size and power and everything. Yeah, in terms of I don't know how I would ever win leverage against you, because I mean, I'm not that much taller than you. But again your explosive, this how low to the ground you're inate ability to understand the rhythm of a snap count. So I would be thinking about all these types of things of.
Worry about getting him getting on your edges.
But I would beg the guard, the tackle and the center that I'm playing next to.
If Grady is in that gap, at least give me leave early.
Don't leave to early.
And they like to get on me clearly like they like to try to give me before I get going. So I got to give myself a space off the ball a good bit of time, and uh, if I do crowd the ball sometimes for a good reason. So I kind of at this point know where the guys try to try to try to stop me pretty good, like they like versus like chest punches. They try to punch me like in the face, nick area type, because it's like the it's it's it's stuff that they be trying.
But the work, you know, you.
Can't that the helmet to the bottom, the tin strapped now they get them right.
So, because you have so much experience in the league, do you pay attention to any of the conversation of the offensive lineman or the way they're kind of acting in the huddle in preparation for mens something necessarily they're gonna do to you, but what they're gonna do, uh in the next player down.
You definitely pick up a little bit of dialects sometime, like calls and they'll give you a fake call sometime. I they act like they're about to do W and they'll be like double double and they'll try to run a track play of something to get me going up field, and uh, but I think more than anything, you just got to really study your tape and really just trust your instincts, because if you get too caught up and trying to listen to for trying to cheat code every time.
You could, you can mess yourself up, sleep s up down.
So and then just like us on defense, I'm sure they changed calls sometimes the week to week. So if you get a beat on something, it'll help you, maybe a couple of players a game. But it ain't nothing that you want to hang a hat on all games just because it's it never stays the same.
I know this is almost cliche nowadays in the scouting world, and I follow that considerably, the phrases and the and the terminology.
But you guys are both heavy heavyweight wrestlers.
Yep.
Back in the day, ye, it's significant. It's important. I look at offensive line.
If they get a wrestler, I know, we got we got some good hand fighting, we got some strength. They care about the weight room, the leverage. It is that beneficial. Was that beneficial?
I absolutely think it was definite. It was beneficial. Being a wrestling high school. I think just the principles of it, whether it's just from the mindset just disciplined mindset of competing. Like you said, the training is different, you know, the competition is different. You only got, you know too, three rounds of like two minutes, so it's like you're pushing yourself to the max, you know what I'm saying, to try to be another man one on one, you know
what I'm saying. And then just the principles that you learn from movement, leverage, stuff like that just kind of naturally trans over to the football field, especially for linemen. And and so I think that's something that I was like redirected in through coming up through school. I never was like I want to be in a wrestling team. The truth of the matter was I was trying to be on the basketball team in middle school and got.
Cut, unlike Michael Jordan got.
So I pivoted went to wrestling, and it's really helped me in my football career.
Everything happen for a reason.
And I'm a big advocate of you know, wrestling, even I mean even just as you know, child development. I think it helps them with the confidence and gets competing doing some doing some stuff and you know, just learning how to protect yourself a little bit. Sometime you get grappling.
So I mean, it's just awesome.
So your dad played in the NFL great linebacker from the Atlanta Falcons. First, what did he teach you about how to play the position? And does he tell you that the defensive tackle position is the most important to middle linebackers success?
Not necessarily?
You know, our relationship growing up was good. I didn't grow up in the same householders and so we really didn't talk ball much at all, if ever, but he had to have a great, great career with the Falcons, and I was super super cool to be able to, I guess, play for the same team he did. How it happened was really crazy, like a like a note like because a lot of people never knew that. I was like, yeah, no, son, and so so just this is cool. How you know, how fun a god works
and put things together. So it was pretty cool. And uh, but I mean just watching him just play the game was really good. My biggest kind of influence from a former player standpoint probably was like ray Lewis with somebody who was close in my life that I watched to just you know, be the best at what they doing play in the middle linebacker position, and just one of the best players ever played the game, and the way he went about his business and just.
You call him uncle.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, we're real tight and so so I was able to work out with him a lot growing up and with his sons and stuff like that. So that was that was cool and it definitely contributed to my career. Why number fifty, Uh, number fifty was my first number that I had playing football and then for the Rockdale Patriots, so so I literally kind of went through the numbers like they changed up a little bit.
I had fifty a couple of times, and then when I started playing playing in high school, it was like one of the and I was a I was a guard slash defensive lineman. So I didn't want like a nineties number because I had to play guard too, so I didn't want to wear like no. Sixty numbers. But the fifties was open. The fifty was right there, so
I let him get fifty. So I really wore fifty all the way through high school through college, and then when I first got in the league, it really wasn't letting the linemen wear fifties until like a couple of years after that. So but ninety seven was open, like only ninety numbers. So that's how I got ninety seven in Atlanta, you know, fell fell in love with that made of my own.
And then well, Patrick Kearney were before me. He was balling up in the A.
So but and then I had the opportunity to do to come here, and and Andrew Bidams already was ninety seven and all the other ninety numbers were kind of taken and fifty was open. So I was like, maybybe you know, a full circle moment, go back to fifty. But then I wanted to check and make sure because I know Mike Singletary were fifty here, so I'm like, let me make sure it's not like a thing or like see like you know, if it's like a retired
to what's the what's the parameters? So I acts and I I looked at him, but I've seen guy's wearing been wearing fifty for the past couple of years, so I'm like, okay, cool, So I ain't really you know nothing much about it. So I was like, shoot out, I would like to wear fifty, and so cool, let me get fifty. And then from there then I started getting like people like why isn't fifty retired.
I'm like, look.
Nobody said nothing else.
Is nobody about fifty?
Then I could get fifty.
But I can understand, you know, being like a top defensive player come to get it. So I mean, I know what, I know what the weight hold and I definitely will definitely understand the significance of it. And just give me motivation try to be my best. You know what I'm saying, And I know that means a lot to Bears fans, So that you know that I gotta go do what I gotta do to represent.
Well it looks good on you and Singletary.
Would be proud.
Yeah yeah without that time Walder Payton and Mana he Black for Walder Peyton. So coming like you said, meant to be without without it, I believe in here without it.
I mean I couldn't. I couldn't think about think about being in a better place right now.
Man.
I mean just I mean, it's it's just so much transition to happen and I don't even know for my football career, but in life too. And it's been it's been good. And like I said before, it's been refreshing and I'm not gonna let this opportunity slip.
Got refreshing for us as well.
Yep, yeah, I tell you, Tommy, And I think I said this early in that interview that I edited some of it out but for time constraints. But he's probably I'm most intrigued of the veteran additions by this player, just because of what he means in the locker room, what he's going to mean for that defensive line, and the energy he'll bring the training camp and.
Practice and every day.
He's a fun guy and he's a full go every single day.
Well, you know there's a couple guys like Javon Dexter, Senior, Zach Pickens and even sher Are the new guy we drafted. All these guys can learn a little bit from him, not only how to prepare yourself during practices, how to prepare yourself for the game, how to become a better football player, and he leads by example.
And two things I would have liked to ask.
Him is the influence of Ray Lewis the wrestler on him, and if he could ever take a guy like Gable Steveson, who was a great wrestler from University of Minnesota who tried out for Buffalo last year and didn't make it. Could he take a great wrestler and turn him into a great football player? So remember those questions for the next time we get to talk to him.
All right, maybe Jim can answer that as well. Wrestlers turned to football players. There's a lot of them. Oh yeah, it's the leverage. It's got to be the strinth. But you got to have the medical capacity to handle this sport as well and the feat.
Right, Yeah.
I always bring up Carlton Hasselrigg. He was a you know, a guy was a world record holder and he was basically on a practice squad essentially back in the day. He basically just developed year one and then his second year he became a starter and was all pro. I mean, this guy could snatch and just throw people to the ground. But the numerous wrestlers is time to point it out.
I mean, look at Tristan Wurfs. There's just a ton of offensive linemen that they just really no leverage if they have a really a wrestling background where they really excel at the at the game of leverage.
You know, you look at guys like Matt Suey, Jay Hilgenberg, John Wojahowski, Jimbo Covert. They were all great wrestlers throughout their time in Heights Hole and Olan. Yeah, and it all translated to being a great football player. And a lot of it has to do with you is your hard work ability, because it's a hard working sport.
Yep.
Winning in the trenches that helps that man oman o type of activity that you have to beat the guy.
Across from the and the line of scrimmage.
All right, we'll dig deeper into the defensive line and the defense in general, go through each player and see how they outfit for the Bears this training camp approaches. This is Bears Weekly on a ESPN one thousand of the Bears Radio Network.
Welcome back to Bears Weekly on the Bears Rainio Network. Here's your host, the Voice of the Bears, Jeff Joy.
This segment of Bears Weekly.
It is brought to you by Atletico Physical Therapy. Visit Atletico dot com their question in clinic or virtual deployment that started feeling better tomorrow? I just heard from the Bears new defensive tackle Grady Jared' So let's look at the rest of the defensive line.
Guys.
Let's let's see how it stacks up head of the training cap. There's there's a lot of guys on the line of scrimmage, the guys we're most familiar with and could see being in the rotation as starters and uh getting some relief from some of these backups. But you got Montest Sweat and again no depth charts. So this is just just me talking Montest Sweat and Dio adang Bo on the edges, Javon Dexter Senior, and Grady Jarrett on the inside. They'll be competition, they'll be you know,
let's see who starts where. Andrew Billing, certainly in early downs is a is a weapon, was outstanding against the run last year.
The run game suffered with his absence last year.
And then in the rotation Shamar Stewart, Zach Pickens and then two gentlemen that.
I A'm gonna keep an eye on now. The old staff really liked what they had to do.
Let's find out what Dennis Allen thinks about the play at Chris Williams and Jonathan Ford. Jonathan Ford was a late season addition, had some really good efforts in there, good games, and Chris Williams surprised us.
All season long.
So let's just start with that group for starters and how it all stacks up and what Dennis Allen Tommy will start with you could could do with this kind of rotation of talent here.
They're all different types of players.
Yeah, you know, and I think down a distance is going to be very specific about what they can contribute on the defensive line and how many plays they can play. Because if you look at a guy like Andrew Billings, he's a legitimate zero technique run stuffing noseguard that can take on multiple blockers. But I think Dennis Allen wants guys that can get upfield. So is he able to trans to transfer his game to the style of what
Dennis Allen wants. You know that Gravon Dexter Senior and Grady Jarrett and Turner, these guys got the explosiveness to get upfield and we'll see how that plays a part and their role on this team. And then you got Zach Pickens. Here's a guy that shows he's had some explosiveness. Now he's got a develop that type of trade into an effective interior style of play. And then when you
talk about the outside guys, Montes and Dio. Yeah, you have those guys, but you can't live life in the NFL with two outside rushers.
If you don't have.
A minimum of four, it's gonna be tough for you to really translate into a good exterior pass rushing football team if you're expecting two guys to take a bulk of the work. And so when you talk about every guy, they're going to develop what their traits are, what their assets are, and how they can get better in the style and the demands of Dennis Allen.
Yeah, I think you know it's gonna be down in distance. Guys are going to have to earn it. I think Dennis Allen has a good idea about what he thinks guys can do. But once the pads are on, I think that's gonna dictate it and guys will be competing for jobs. And I do think it'll be a rotational type of thing where guys are gonna earn snap counts. And again, you don't want to wear guys out either.
You know, you know they're gonna have to have a good rotation because that's just where kind of the NFL is now, with especially four man fronts, you see a lot of teams rolling, they're gonna roll eight guys in there. Essentially. Look at Buffalo, look at a lot of the four man teams out there, they're rolling guys through. And I would think the Bears, because really, really, Montese sweat. Does anybody else have the credentials that say that they dissowe
they're guaranteed to start opposite him? No, I don't think anybody's credential. You know, that's kind of gonna have to be earned. And I would think upfront, other than what Tom said about Andrew Billings say on first and second down stopping the run, yeah, I think Grady Jarrett has earned it. No names after that, though, you know, those guys got to earn it.
Yeah, and then the others on the edges.
Dominie Robinson certainly got some good pray from head coach Ben Johnson is somebody that surprised him during the OTA session of the offseason program. Austin Booker, second year, still very young, flashed, has the length, likely needs to add some more weight.
Not sure where that's at.
And Daniel Hardy, who, as I proclaimed many times, really turned my head throughout the preseason here or not the preseason, the offseason just by how he looks and the fact that they're taking a look at him as well to compliment him at a strong side linebacker as well as rush the passers, certainly special teams. Then you get some guys to check out. These are in the checkout department guys at training camp. Rookie Xavier Carlton. He's six six seventy three, so he he fits the bill in terms
of measurements. Jammery Croma, who was on the practice squad last year as an undrafted rookie and then undrafted rookie six three sixty four. Jeremy Robinson, he's out of Kansas. Played with Austin Booker last year, so there's a there's a lot to dig through.
You know.
One thing about the defensive line in Dennis Allen, because we're all going to get to know him once training camp starts, is the versatility that all these guys offer to me. I've been a big believer that ya Von Dexter Senior could play outside, he could play edge on first and second down, and it seems like that's one of the things that Dennis Allen often says, is that you got to be able to stop the run. If
you want to rush the passer. So I think if you're talking about Austin Booker, if he is in there on first down, he's got to show that he has the power to leverage and the getoff ability to be able to stop the run if they want to intentionally run the ball at him.
And so all these.
Guys, even Dio, he can play inside, but he can play outside as well, and he's got the similar template to what you just mentioned, the six six two seventy pound frame.
The length.
Dennis Allen love speed, but he loves length, big long linear players as well, and they are going to off the line of scrimmage. You get upfield no No, No two gap and looking Jimmy, they're going they're coming after you. All right, we're gonna take a break. Well, hold that thought. We gotta take a break. We come back. We got Tom Stotts and we'll get some gym starts as well. That segment coming up next here on Bears Weekly on
a ESPN one thousand of the Bears Radio Network. Welcome back to Bears Weekly on ESPN one thousands of the Bears Radio Network. Jeff Joniyac, Tom There and Jim Miller, as we continue to look at the Bears.
In time for Tom Stoughts. Jim, we know we love Tom Stotts.
He pens some today, We're gonna fire through them preseason playing time. He's not even waiting for the start of training camp. He's not waiting to the interview. He wants to know what can we do to answer the questions with preseason playing time? Tom take it from there. What are your expectations? Listen, it's gonna be really important. And I don't think anybody out there. Maybe Jim's talking about a guy like Montes Sweat or Grady Jarrett, but they're
trying to learn a new system. The coaches are trying to learn a little bit something about them. They're trying to instill install a system and how that's gonna fit into the regular season.
So do the.
Practices or the combined practices they go tell them enough so they don't have to play them in preseason games, Or do you have to take a guy like Caleb and DJ and Rome and Colston and these guys and play them a little bit more because they're not familiar with each other, and Ben's trying to get to know them a little better. I think it's gonna be really interested when you're talking about a new coaching staff installing the new system with three preseason games.
And how do you how do you satisfy what you think these players.
Need before they go out on a Monday night football field against the Minnesota Vikings.
Yeah, especially bid the battles, you know, the battle left tackle for one strong side linebacker.
How are you gonna divvy up that stuff?
You know it'll be it'll be interesting because, like you said, it's a first time head coach.
What do you do with a guy like Jakwan Brisker? Do you play him in the pre season? Do you not play him in the preseason? Here's a guy that hasn't been on a meaningful football field in almost the year. So you know, there's just a little decisions that you have to make that are going to factor out in the big picture of this football team. Because you have a bye week in five weeks after the start of the regular season, so you got to get these guys ready to roll from week one.
They'll be logging a lot of snap totals, I mean, whatever isn't covered or how much they've played in practice, and maybe how they're evaluated that they're going to know, Hey, we need to get this guy more work with this guy is not maybe a player X isn't caught up on some of the calls that we need defensively, we need to see him in more live action, or they
need we need to increase their practice time. That's all going to be evaluated where you know, Dennis Allen and the defensive line coach, I'm going to say, all right, Montes Sweat is right where he needs to be is conditioning, where it is he's on point with the playbook and the calls. And then of course there's individually and then there's collectively as a unit that hey, we need to be more together as a unit. Now, can that be done in practice time or maybe, like Tom said, maybe
it's live action. It's got to be pre season action where the pads are on, it's full tackling, and we need to see these guys perform as a unit together making the calls that they need so they get used to one another and they get used to this new system. So you know, it may be logging more more. You know, the kid gloves kind of got to come off. It's
the old story. Or do we worry about injury, Well, you better worry about whether they can function as a unit because those early games are going to mean a lot.
You know, one thing about it is your early opponents too, they're going to be doing some research and development about how they're going to gain plan against you. And if they feel that you have susceptibility to a new system that's being installed and you're doing things good or you're doing things not so good, those are.
Gonna be the guys looking at you early also.
All right, then my next one kind of I reduced it, Tommy, for purposes of time. What are your expectations, respectively, Jim and Tom of the top.
Three picks, Let's do the top four picks.
Tight end Colston Lovelin, Luther Burden the third receiver, Ozzie Tapilo on the offensive line, and Reuben Hippolyte the second the fourth round Pike at linebacker.
Tom go ahead, Uh, you know, I think every one of these guys, first of all, they have to impress the coaches enough to be able.
To make the team.
But once they make the team, how are their reps gonna be decided? Is Luther Burden a type of a guy that can come in here and be an asset at the receiver position to give the quarterback more options or give Ben Johnson a little bit more versatility within the offense. Is Colson Loveland gonna be up the speed after recovering from an injury to go out there and do the multiple components that a.
Tight end can do for a football team.
In asie Trapillo is, you're going to take a guy that is a right offensive tackle and can he Is he a good enough athlete to go out and play left tackle? You have to have certain traits and you'll be able to see those things within the first couple of weeks of training camp, I believe. And then you know, linebacker, running back, defensive tackle. Those are guys that are gonna be involved in reps. They're not gonna hold down a singular position. They're gonna be a part of a rotation.
Right, I mean the leaf turnaround. We talked about him early. Go ahead, gimmy, yeah.
But you know those guys won. Their health is going to determine it too. Obviously Loveland hasn't been in there, he hasn't been practicing, and so he's behind. You know, there's really no other way to say it. You know, we'll see how quickly he can get caught up at camp. I do like Luther Burden. I think he's a guy that could be a burner, take the top off the defense type of thing, and he will have a critical role in certain situations minimum that he can help out
the offense. And I think we know how competitive left tackle is, so Trepillo is a guy to keep your eye on. I just think the as we know that the door is open there at left tackle. If I were Trapillo, I would be salivating coming to Bears camp right now. I mean I would be in my playbook doing everything I can, whatever weight room stuff I gotta do. I would be just a mad man. As soon as you know the Bears leave their you know, when they're
able to leave the facility and go back home. Because if I'm Trpillo, for me or any of these or keys, it's time to get the work. Because first impressions mean everything, and I would want to make a good first impression, especially at a position that potentially is up for grabs.
Somebody send me a message. As a Bears fan, he loves the pick of Hippolyte compared him in some sense, believe it or not, this is a name from the past, but Nick Bonakhani, who was a thirteenth round draft pick by the Boston Patriots in the Old American Football League and made it to the Miami Dolphins and one of the best linebackers, went to.
Notre Dame and wore my number.
Oh.
Always a tie in, Jim. He's got a tie into everything, no question about it. One more segment to go after this break on ESPN one thousand of the Bears Radio Network.
Welcome back to Bears Weekly on the Bears Radio Network. Here's your host, the Voice of the Bears, Jeff Joan.
This segment of Bears Weekly brought to you by it whyt to Go Physical Therapy visited, let go dot to request it in clinic or virtual deppointment at Start Cleaning Better tomorrow. Final segment close it out with some thoughts.
The NFL dot COM's digital content editor, Jeremy Berman, penn to piece this morning on just how long it took franchises to turn things around just win a playoff game, and it's always an education when you dive in like this, and is just again underscoring how hard it is to win in the National Football Buffalo in twenty seventeen made
the playoffs for the first time in eighteen years. Cleveland won a playoff game with the first time in twenty three years in twenty twenty twenty twenty one, Cincinnati won its first playoff game in thirty one years, and of course, the Detroit story twenty twenty three won their first playoff game in thirty two years. So there are six teams, including the Bears, that have not made the playoffs in the last four years. That's a minimal amount of time.
Though the Bears have not won a playoff game since twenty ten. Atlanta, Carolina, Indy, New Orleans Jets and the Bears like to break that streak and get in the playoffs. And with a new coach and some surprise sucker punches, you could throw to some opponents and get some early wins, pocket some wins and if everything comes together.
There's a lot of ifs.
There, But do you feel do you feel better about it than you did before you knew Ben Johnson and what he was going to be like as a head coach already because we're seeing a lot of positives.
I feel that Ben Johnson has the talent to mold into a playoff competitive football team, although the division is really a difficult division. We're not talking like some of those other teams that are starting from the basement and trying to amass enough talent to put him on the competitive level. I think the Bears have the talent to be competitive.
This should be one of the probably one of the more talented offenses the Bears have ever had, in my opinion, they have a lot of things that they should be able to do very well. It's going to be how quickly the young quarterback picks it up, how quickly he grows the volume he's able to handle. Because I do think that the Bears offense is going to have to really cover for the Bears defense for a little bit.
That's you know, I know Bears fans, Monsters of the Midway and all the things, but hey, this team finished twenty seventh in the league at stopping the run and they've been held the task over and over again just due to poor offenses throwing them to the Wolves with
three and outs left and right. For once. I think this Bears offense has to protect the Bears defense for a while, and it's really going to be dependent on Caleb Williams to be up and running early for that to happen, for the Bears to have success early in their season.
Interesting points on both ends. All right, Tommy, you you in a break said you had something. We're talking about off season and all that, and what you guys did.
You said you would receive off season gifts.
From Golden domers got paid like that. What's that talking about, tom.
We're talking about half point. We're talking about the importance of the offseason. These players really what they have to do. So we used to spend all of our time working out up at Hallis Hall, and so at the end of the off season, Clyde Emrick used to make a determination that if he felt it and you put enough time and made enough improvement, that you would get a gift.
And so you hear about these guys that spend.
A million dollars or seven hundred thousand dollars on their body and all this stuff that get My gift I got was a twelve inch TV that had it built in VCR, and I thought it was the greatest gift I ever got, so much so that I brought to training camp every year, and then two of my nieces brought it to college and use it as college. So you know, for what these players get out for these off season incentives. For us, it was a twelve inch TV with a built in VCR.
Jim, did you get anything like that in the off season as a reward for your efforts?
No, I didn't get anything, especially something that could be a hand meet down. Not once but twice to Nisas, I just got a Hey, good job, pat on the back. You're one hundred percent at all the OTAs and good attendants.
Keep it up, yep, keep it up all right.
That's gonna wrap us up for this week. Good show, fellas, Thank you so much. Thanks Dan Brilliant, Jordan tread Up and Jake Santos in studio for Tom there and Jimmela.
I'm Jeff Joniac.
This has been Bears Weekly on the radio home of the Chicago Bears ESPN Chicago.
Have a good night, everybody. Black and Abdala are next. Good night, everybody.
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