Pace, Nagy, Phillips ready for kickoff | Coaches Show

beyond our control, this is the case. We have the great season ticket holders virtually, but in the contingency role we now live in and we dapt and overcome. So the Labor Day Coaches Show, as we all know, traditionally the kickoff event for the season exclusively for season ticket holders,

and we're glad you're here with us as well. It's not the same obviously, nor will the season opener be same or another home opener without fans in the stands, but we're thinking of all of you and can't wait for the day while here you're cheering on in Pearson. So without further ado, let's get going, and we're brought to you by Whippley and good to have everybody along. We'll start with Matt. Matt good evening, what access just to even get here today? Yeah, how you doing, Jeff.

It's it's great to be on here and it's here, you know, it feels good. It's been a long time. We've been through a lot together. But I think all the players are I know from from being in here yesterday, they're excited to get going. They can feel it. You can feel the energy, the buzz and and you know we're only days away now, so we can't wait. And Ryan Pace, you know, you are in a unique situation with a building that was prepped for as it turns out to be a moment like this at hallis Hall.

Everything that went into it. You met the media today by zoom, you went into some detail I don't know, weeks ago about all the protocols and just the size and the footprint of the building certainly has helped adapt, no doubt, Jeff. I think that's a competitive advantage for us as we enter these times. You know, Matt and I went into this process knowing we needed to exercise spatial distancing and be safe with our players, but this year, size of our facility gives us tons of advantages in

that area. So we're real fortunate to have what we have, and the president and CEO Ted Philip's good to see you as well. I'll leave it to you to give us a little state of the franchise right now, but to see you, Jeff. Definitely a different year. It's been a different offseason. I think that it's going to be as different a year as we've ever had. It's going

to continue that way. What I'm happy about is that every single employee, the coaches, the players, have shown an unbelievable ability to adapt, and they've shown patience, resiliency, and I'm confident that whatever challenges come our way, and I'm sure there's going to be some that we can't even predict,

that we're going to be able to meet those. And you know, we've kind of talked about how the teams that are best prepared and that and that can take personal accountability to do the right things are going to be the ones are going to be most successful. So I think we're well situated with that. And the leadership

from Ryan and Matt has been unbelievable. They've never once complained and their entire football lives have been turned upside down, right, And we all know, everyone's a creature of habit in this business, but they have immediately adjusted and adapted and can't wait to get the season started. This is the Bears coaches show here on a holiday Labor Day. Hope it all goes well for everybody out there and everybody

is safe in doing well. Matt. The conversation geared all toward the quarterback competition throughout the last couple of days, and I know Ryan took a lot of questions about that from the media today. Was it the most difficult decision in your three years as a head coach? Yeah, there's a lot of really difficult decisions that you have, but I would say for me, yes, you know, you have to say that it's one that you put so

much time into with these players. We all spend a lot of time with them, our coaches, you know, just trying to give them the best opportunity possible. And then

these two players compete against each other. They realize the importance of what it is to what it means to win the job, and so it's not easy, but I'm just really proud of the way that those two players, along with Tyler Bray, who was right in the middle of that with those guys are coaching staff, Ryan, Ted and George, just with the communication throughout the whole process of not just that competition, but everything, all of our discussions of how this team goes and how we like

to do things here. It's it's good people, and when you deal with good people and you have tough decisions, it makes it a little bit easier. Both of the guys handled it really well, and now they're just ready to go out there and Mitch is ready to go out there and help us win games, and Nick's ready to go help us, you know, support them on the sideline.

And Ryan. This was months in the making obviously, in terms of the process putting heads together, Matt and his staff, the four new assistant coaches that get to know you session, with Nick not having a chance to be here, the circumstances of Mitchell Trubisky's career and how that arc has developed, and all the different aspects of it. There's a lot to break down. Where you pleased with how the whole process ultimately went to where you are, Yeah, Jeff, I

would say this. I thought our coaching staff did an awesome job and just really creating a competitive environment that was fair for us to valuate both the quarterbacks and you know, obviously Jeff to no preseason games, creating that environment was critical. So I just respected the process and I respected how Matt, you know, ultimately came to making

making that decision. So proud of the process, I would say, and Ted you from your position as well, have to look at this as well, because it all matters to the entire building. It matters to each guy in that locker room how that process went. Yeah, just the whole the whole process of getting the building put together and to make given the players the sense that we're doing everything and more to keep them safe. You know this,

I know this is that it's an emotional issue. This whole issue with COVID has affected everyone individually in a different way. But I know for a fact that certain staff and players it's a very emotional time. And I think when they've come in here and they've seen how the meeting rooms have been set up and everything that's been done for cleaning and disinfecting, they realize that they can't be any safer. There's never a one hundred percent.

But I think right now the team feels like we're we've put them in a position to be successful and to feel good about coming in here every day. And welcome back to the Bears Coaches Show. We sincerely hope your Labor Day weekend has been enjoyable. This is our annual Labor Day special featuring Bears head coach Mattneggie and general manager Ryan Pace and President and CEO Ted Phillips, and virtually we are joined by some of the great Bears.

Season ticket holders should typically come out to the Peyton Center on this day and join us to talk Bears football. It is a game week and I think many felt this might have been a long shot in many respects, and that's not the case. Football schedule for Sunday in Detroit against the Detroit Lions, and good to have you with us on the radio on Sunday with Tom there myself with a nine am pregame and a new and kickoff.

Make sure to gear up for the Chicago Bears regular season with Jersey's caps and other must haves from the official Chicago Bears Pro shop shop now it's stored dot Chicago Bears dot com. Bat with Matt Naggie, Ryan Pace, and Ted Phillips. Matt Coaches are Wired differently laser focused on preparation. Is that how you've always felt in this process despite everything that has been going on, Yeah, it is, Jeff.

The preparation part is very important. But what you need to do is you want to try to do as much as you can in the front end. And we talk about, you know, expect the unexpected, and you can kind of feel it right now in a good way in our building. It's here as far as the prep goes. Now. We we've been working on Detroit and we know where

we're at and have an idea on things. But now you realize that, hey, you're you're really you know, six seven days away and you're finally into your normal schedule of how to do your you know, your day to day, hour to hour stuff. So it feels really good. I really love where our coaching staff is at right now with that, with being prepared, and so we're ready to get back at it tomorrow, get the guys in here

for a little bit and get the week going. And Ryan going back to the offseason zoom meetings and all that went into that with players. What resonated with you on how Matt and the staff handle it, because we've heard a lot of very good things would have loved to have. I've seen some of those speakers that it came in and what they all meant, But overall, the players seemingly got a heck of a lot out of it. Yeah,

you know, I've said this a lot. Everyone feeds off Mats leads, so he just operates with a positive mindset. You know, he's always looking for solutions, he's always speaking outside the box. And I just think that type of mentality that he naturally has really benefits our entire organization during these times. And I just think it's energizing to be around, and that's important right now, you know, Ted, I often heard even before this season, Ryan and Matt

talk about no excuses. You talked about no complaining. Even before the COVID pandemic and everything else that's going on. They never talk about that other than there is no there are no excuses. They rise above circumstances. How critical is that for adaptation in this what Matt has called

the Year of contingency. Well, it's huge, and I think some of the things they do so well together Matt and Ryan talking about is they get everyone pulling in the same direction, and they're always talking about solutions, not the problems. And when you have that kind of mindset, everyone feeds off of it, and they they have the ability to have a message delivered, and they're consistent on

a daily basis of delivering that. It's transparent, it's authentic, and I can't be any more proud of how they've handled it because this, as I said earlier, this is a very different type of year, and we have to be ready on a daily basis for uh, you know, unknown challenges to pop up a matt Your theme messaging is always something intrigued by what you come up with. And I know it's been a big conversation from you about mental and physical toughness. This is the kind of

team you want based on what transpired last year. Is the message any different than when you got the players together, then it will be on Wednesday. It's the first big practice for a preparation for week one. Right, No, it's not, Jeff, it is it's for us. It's it's about the details. But really, more importantly, I think a lot of our players,

coaches and support staff, everybody in this building. They keep hearing attacking and aggressive and there's a lot of different ways that you can look at those two words, but that's something that we all felt that we can be a lot better in in a lot of different areas. And so that mindset of having that attacking and aggressive

mentality is important. But then also too we like you said, we talked about being physically tough and mentally tough now at the time, we didn't realize that we were going to have to be as mentally tough as we all horror right now because it is. It challenges you every single day when you wake up, there's a possibility as something being new that none of us have gone through.

And just one thing I want to make clear too is you know Ted was talking about the relationship with Ryan and myself and and you know everybody knows how I feel about that and how close we are and when we think a lot alike and support each other. But also Ryan and I have had a ton a ton of support from Ted and from George and Missus McCaskey in helping us be able to do what we'd

like to do. And when you have that support and you feel good about that, and I'm talking about the you know, you have to come up with a plan on how are you going to attack the way you want to go about with COVID and all the rules that they give you, and they've given us the resources to keep our players safe. And when our players got here for the first day in person, they felt safe, they felt comfortable, and we Ryan and I can come up with ideas, but if you don't have support to

do that, then you can't do it. And we had support. And I think it's from the top down, and that's what's so cool about this Ryan, that includes you know, Matt's talking about players, but in his families, it's it's the assistance. It's Matt himself, it's you yourself. You know what kind of contingency plans are in place if if it outbreak hits and it impacts you or an effects impacts Matt, and that you know, Jeff, we've thought through all the different contingency plans and I think as we

work through the process. Really this started back in March, so this is one of those deals you open one door and there's six more questions, you know, as we go through this. But as you said, we have to have plans for all possibilities. That's for our players, and the league has done given us a lot of avenues to help protect our players and for our staff, and I think no matches said it from the McCaskey family, George, Ted.

We've been given the resources to protect our team in a first class manner and you feel it throughout our whole setup at Household, a whole new setup. But right now, like our mindset is, we cannot let our guard down. We cannot be complacent, especially as we're about to hit the road for Detroit. And welcome back to the Bears Coaches Show, brought to you by a Whippley CPA's and Consultants, a proud partner of the Chicago Bears. Learn more at

Whippley dot com. Jeff Jonny AAC along with Matt Neeggie, Ryan and Pace and Ted Phillips here on the Bears Coaches Show as we get up for the twenty twenty regular season opener in Detroit on Sunday. Home opener a week from Sunday against the Giants in our Labor Day special. Hey, we'd love to be in front of the fans at the Payton Center, no doubt about it, but that's not the case tonight. But we sincerely look forward to seeing everybody out and about at some point in the near

future and season ticket holders virtually joining the program. Tonight, fellas, let's start taking some questions from our season ticket holders that they sent in. We're gonna start with coach Naggy. This is from may Lean, Alabama, section four forty one from Mark Teachman. Wants to know what changes will the Bears be making to improve their overall performance in twenty twenty. Broad question, of course, because coaches like to say we

got to improve everything. Yeah, we do, Melee, and I think for us, the changes that happens every year, every every team is a little bit different. So you know, I feel like for us as coaches, we can coach the these guys with the details better. The players can really take these details in and then go ahead and execute it. Um. You can look across the board, whether it's offense, defense, special teams, and like like you said, Jeff,

it can be a broad question. But for us, we just know offensively we want to score a lot more points. We want to protect the football, create an identity on offense, and then defensively, we want to continue with that aggressive mentality that we've had, get you know, get that football away from the offense and play fast and play with energy. I think the biggest thing for us all three phases special teams too, is get that swag back. I think

we lost that a little bit last year. So if there's one big thing that we can all get better at, it's getting that energy and that that juice back. Is that you included, that's me included? Yeah? Well, I h yeah, it is. It's me. I know I can be better in that area and being able to help out these players. It's happening right now, Jeff in practice. If I hope you can tell that the times you've been out there and you can feel it. There's just a different vibe

right now in this building in a good way. And I love that and I don't want to take that away from anybody. Ryan. I'm gonna build off of that with you, because the player procurement aspect is in your hands and your staff and getting a guy that you're familiar with back to New Orleans. Jimmy Graham. Oh, I find as just an amazing story and journey through this life of his. Nothing came easy for Jimmy Graham, and he's turned out to be a guy that as Matt

uses the word juice. He brings juice to practice, he brings leadership to that room. On offense, you got developing guys in that regard that you've drafted in in that building team Matt coming in. I think Roquine could be that guy and Eddie Jackson. So do you feel you have guys almost in every position group that can bring some of what Matt's talking about? Oh for sure. And that's that's a conscious effort as we've built the team, Jeff,

to add those type of leaders throughout our building. And you mentioned Jimmy Graham, and I mean beyond the physical skill set that he brings, which has been evident in practice, the leadership that he brings, as Matt says, the juice and the energy that he brings it's infectious to the locker room. The swagger and confidence that he has. I feel like we had that in every position group now, and that's huge as we start this season because, to be quite honest, that hasn't been the case in some

previous years. But we feel good about that in every position room as we go forward. I think people would be in tried to know what your choice would be who brings the juice on special teams. Is it Corderrel or is it Cherik or I mean because because Cordarrel is doing just about everything, including being a gunner. One of the best players of the year last year was his play putting that ball down inside the one. Remember that one? For sure, I'd say, you know, definitely Cordero

and Tariq would be in that in that talk. And then Shark just with the consistency that he brings on special teams has been huge for us over the years. Ted this is from Bourbon at the old home of the Bears in terms of training at Mark Morgan from Section two fifty six. Since social distancing is an accepted practice, why can't the NFL allow so many fans based on a team's capacity to attend a game. In the Bears case, this would amount to roughly sixteen thousand fans per game.

This is a big topic, no question. Just heard that the Browns and the Bengals from their governor, and that's part of this government impact is saying six thousand fans can show up. What can you tell season ticket holders and fans in general about what the plan is moving forward? I know in initial stages that's not going to be the case. Yeah, that's you touched on it, Jeff and Mark. The reality is the league realized they couldn't dictate to each team, so it's up to each individual team to

work with their local and state government. Everyone's got different rules and regulations. And I can tell our season ticket holders this that we have worked tirelessly to come up with a plan reduced capacity. The plan that we had presented to the city and the state was about eleven thousand fans. The building was broken up into fifteen different zones with dedicated ingress and egress, and dedicated restrooms and food and beverage, and with one hundred people or less

per each seating section. That's how we got to the eleven thousand. The good news is the government officials, the public health officials, they loved our plan. The problem is that right now State of Illinois and the City of Chicago, the COVID cases keep increasing, and until that curve breaks and they get to start heading downward, we're not going to be able to have fans. The feeling is that it's not safe, but I know this that the plan

that we have people will feel very safe. We've worked with Populace, which is a global stadium architecture firm, and the plan we have has been responsive to the city and the state, so we have it. We haven't waiting there and we're just waiting now for the number of cases to start dropping where we can implement it. And we can't wait because we want to get our fans back in the building. Obviously great home field advantage. We've got the best fans there are in the league. Welcome

back everybody. During the twenty twenty season, the Chicago Bears are giving away one hundred one thousand dollars to a deserving nonprofit organization in the Chicagoland area. So visit Chicago Bears dot com slash community all Pros for more information

and how you can help out. Back on the Bears Coaches Show, sponsored by and brought to you by A Whippley CPAs and Consultants, Jeff Joni accled on with Matteneggie, Ryan Pace and Ted Phillips as we continue our conversation building up to the twenty twenty opener on Sunday at Ford Field. Uh, gentlemen, I don't I don't think anyone could have foreseen the reaction that has happened over the course of the last several months in our country and within each of our lives, and in your lives and

your building. Matt Nagie the Social Injustice movement concerns that you emphasize that listening was always going to be the big key, but no one was ever really, no one could be prepared for what happened. How revealing has this been for you and for the organization. Yeah, Jeff, it's um it really makes you take a step back when you do listen. We all think that we have all the answers. We all think we have our own stories. But when you sit back and you listen to other

people's stories, um, it's very, very impactful. And until you do that, it's hard to understand. And I think with that listening and you heard us talk about it and you feel it here with us? Is that word love? I mean that when I say that, I don't just say that and just throw that that that word around. You feel the love for each other in this building.

It's real, it's authentic. We have some tough talks. Now, there's some there's some talks that, um there there's a little bit of uncomfortable, you know, there's a lot of honesty.

But when you do this, because there's so many different opinions when you go about this right and where things are at and you talk about you know, whether it's a social injustice or whether it's dealing with COVID and how you handle that, and everybody has like when you when you're talking about COVID, right, some people from a level one to ten are a ten or eleven and others are one. But we're all like, you're allowed to

feel whichever way you want to feel. And and now you go into some of these other topics and when you do it together, it's a lot easier, and it does take a little more time, but in the end we've all become so much tighter and um, that part is what I'm proud of everybody being able to do that. So we we've it's a day by day process, but

we've done a good job with it. Ryan, from your position as general manager, what have you done to help ease the concerns players have and be able to engage in open discussions and just what the franchise is planning to do. Ted can jump in on this too, because Ryan, the one thing when we hear the zoom interviews with the with the players, and certainly the fans must know now we do not have face to face interviews anymore.

It's it's it's a mass interview with players. And the Bears have been great getting a number of players to get on these zooms. They all say they feel grateful

that they can speak about it. Jeff, You know, I think it starts at the top, and really we've had unwavering full support from the top down, so from the McCaskey family and George and Ted, and I think in every meeting we've had is just stressing to our players into our staff that they have our full support, and it's you know, recognizing what's going on in our country and having those real, honest conversations. And you know, it doesn't always have to be in a team meeting setting either.

Or I think some of the best talks that I've had have been one on one talks with our players and our staff, and that have been really good. And I just think listening, seeing it through different perspectives, having empathy is critical right now, And Ted about from your

perspective and how the mccaskey's feel about how everything's been handled. Yeah, Jeff, so I agree with everything that Matt and Ryan have said, but let me add that I think what the players and the staff will appreciate is that we have committed to take action steps they're being formulated, but it's not

going to just be words. I think that the tone has been set by listening and talking and having those uncomfortable conversations, but we will work with the team and come up with some tangible steps to make a difference, you know, And I was I just would like to share that, you know, Julia Jackson, who's the mother of Jacob Blake who was shot, had had some really powerful

words that she talked about. And what she said, and I'll just encapsulate it all briefly, is she said, we need love, we need prayers, and that we all everyone needs to examine our hearts and be united towards healing our country. I mean, that's that is powerful, and I think that's what is behind our desire to want to make a difference, and that comes from ownership. George and Virginia are a very, very committed to making sure that we take the necessary steps so that everybody feels that

it's not just talk. All right, Welcome back, everybody, as we break down the Bears for twenty twenty with Ryan Pace, general manager, Ted Phillips, the president and CEO, and the head coach of the Bears, Mattonaggie. As we talked to season ticket holders as well, normally this show on Labor Day, always at Hollis Hall. We'll go back to some questions fellas from our season ticket holders. Tim Becaro from Chicago section one thirty three wants to ask Ryan when will

Alan Robbins to get his new contract? Yeah, that's something you know, Tim, We usually keep those conversations behind the scenes. But hey, look you can have confidence. We know how important a Robbers that this team, the type of player is, the type of person he is. Um, So we recognize that, but we keep those things internal. Hey, Ryan, here's here's a blunt question as well from Michael Strauss section three

o eight. You're a half glass full guy, so it's tough to answer this question when you say, what do you believe is the weakest part of your team? And Sam for your strongest the strongest part of our team. Um, that's a good question. You know, I think the things that come to my mind right away, or pass rushers, you know, our pass rushers is a major strength. I think that's important in this league. We talked about us today with the media to hit the quarterback. Turnovers are

generated from that. I'm a glass have full guy the week, just part of our team. That's hard for me right now. Let's get a couple of games into it. We're constantly trying to improve our roster. That's something we're always looking at. But that's a hard one for me to answer right now. And Matt, the depth chart came out today for the first release. It's called unofficial for good reason, but getting

ready for Detroit. So the battles that we all had circled and you had circled as well, let's talk about some of them, right. Cornerback rookie out of Utah Jalen Johnson Listen as a number one corner opposite m Kyle Fuller, and then to Sean Gibson at safety. Thoughts on those potential starting jobs for week one. Yeah, both of those guys had really good camps, as did the other guys you know as well. For Jalen to come in here

as a rookie. The one thing I noticed about Jalen is he has a lot of confidence you know, you can see it. He's got great instincts. Came in here. I messled him every single day. I try to get in his head and try to tell him we're gonna go after him, and do you know, you go deep on him and do different things. And he had a great camp, he really did. I think he stepped up to the plate and um and and accepted every challenge.

Uh to Shaun Gibson. The same thing again with with him and Dion Bush having a great battle both those guys. You know, it's it's below the radar with the quarterback competition in regards to how that goes. But those two guys really really good guys that that battled it out equal reps um a lot of respect for Dion as well. And so Tayshaun comes in here with a lot of experience. He's a ballhawk, really really sees the field well. Um, I think he's gonna compliment Eddie Jackson really well on

that back end. And so you have some guys that have some experience and so when you have that with that that defense that we have, they fly around, they play fast. And Jerry Lathrow from section two thirty seven wants to know, what does the expected return for David Montgomery. Yeah, that's again that's gonna fall into kind of what what Ryan was saying with some of the questions. You guys

are asking some pretty good questions here. I like you, you're trying to help out the media, but uh that that'll will have more on that I'll don't want to help about Detroit. No, no, no, that's right. That's right. Um, you know, uh, we're gonna we're gonna keep that until Wednesday. It was funny because I did hear uh coach Patricia today say you know they asked him about guys too. He goes, well, as soon as you as soon as you find out from Matt who he's playing it, I'll

tell you who'll it's not gonna happen. Right, It's a good question though, Yeah it is, Uh Ted. Here's the question for you Bears fans obviously very loud on third and fourth down with the Bear Raids siren during critical situations.

How much of an impact well, not having fans in the team and critical situations where fan noise and the Bear Raids siren are normally at peak, and uh, are you concerned at all about and the league gonna really monitor the volume of noise from whether it's fake noise, pumped in noise, or whatever they choose to do, like we've seen in other other stadiums in years pasted. Is there is there anything on that. Yeah, well we're yeah, we're definitely gonna miss our home field advantage in our

in our packed stadium. UM. It'll be interesting to see that. I know that from a broadcast standpoint, the league is going to have audio monitored that's going to be somehow reactive to different situations. And they're also going to add what you call curated audio literally based on past actual crowd noise from soldier field UM. And they're going to have that also, UM, which I think will help mask some of the field level audio. So it's gonna be

interesting how it is monitored. I know there will be league officials there to keep the decibel level, you know, at at an appropriate um uh standard. And it's gonna be something totally different for us, and we'll have to just wait and see. I know we have a new PA announcer and he's gonna be calling the down in distance, so our first PA announcer and over forty years and he's got to do it with no fans in the building at least for now. It's gonna be different, definitely.

So that's that's the word of the day and for the year. I guess here in twenty twenty Bears Coaches Show brought to you by Whipley CPAs and Consultant's Counting Down to the opener Sunday in Detroit's Ford Field. Jeff Joniac back with you our final segment about five minutes to go, six minutes to go or so. Tonight, UH tackled a bunch of topics, but let's talk some football, Matt.

Let's go back if you're just joined the program, and we did talk about the the quarterback decision with Mitch Drubisky right now and Nick Foles in a backup role to start the season. Is there anything anecdotal that you could share with us about the conversation with both gentlemen

that we would be interested in. Well, I think, Jeff, the biggest thing is number one for these guys when they are competing, they're trying to understand, Okay, when his coach gonna go ahead and let us know what's going on, right, is this something that he's gonna wait over the weekend, is it right away? And and so once that decision was made, then it was imperative to bring each of them in on their own and for me to have a one on one conversation with him and break the

news to him. And that's what we did. So Mitchell came in first, and you know, again they don't know what to expect. So we just sat down and had had a real good conversation and I broke the news to him that he's going to be the starter, and I really it was really neat to see his reaction was just first of all, he has a mask on, so it's hard to tell some of it because you can't see through the mask. But he was very, very

excited when we told him the news. And I think for him, he just has he has this focus right now in this drive where you know, he understands, Okay, I just got the news that I'm starting, but that's not going to affect or change anything on my demeanor of where I'm going right now. And that's what I felt when I was with him, and so it was really good. We just got right into some of the things that we're looking at doing and now for him to understand that I liked it. I thought it went

really well. Right after that, then I was able to get Nick in, and Nick came in and again just broke the news to him that which direction that we're gonna go. And to no surprise me knowing Nick as a person, he handled it like a true professional. He knows that you can only choose one and that for

us as a decision that we went with. And again for people to understand that this is a guy that told me, hey, listen, I'm gonna do everything I can to help Mitch out with a schedule, a weekly schedule that has worked for me in the past, whether it's watching film, lifting weights, et cetera. Stuff, practice habits, and he did that. And then in the end, as a lot of people, as I said before, in the end, he said, can I give him a call and congratulate him?

And that's what he did. And I think that's what we have as two special guys rooting for each other to make the Chicago Bears better and Ryan, from your perspective on it, given what you've added, this helps significantly. Just watching Jimmy Graham, watching Cole Commet blossom before our eyes. Already the entire five man tight end class that you have here for twenty total revamp from last year, a more excited, driven and a guy who says he's going

to just have fun David Montgomery. The offensive line touched up the addition of James Jermaine Efetti, leading more towards that physical toughness that that Matt referred to. And then of course speed at receiver with developing players and Anthony Miller and hopefully Riley Ridley and Darnel Mooney, this should help the quarterback play as much as the quarterbacks help those guys develop. No for sure, Jeff. Before I answer that, I just want to acknowledge all the season ticket holders

that are watching tonight. I I really wish we could together. I know this is tough, but we hope to see you guys soon in the near future. But yeah, with what you're talking about, you know, every year there's change, and you know, we made a lot of additions. I think you know, we go into the offseason, you know, Matt, and identify our needs and we a variety of ways trying to address those needs. And this year it was trades,

free agency, the draft. Um, there are a lot of names, even more names that you didn't mention that I think are going to make an impact. And I think, you know, one of the benefits that we have right now is just the continuity of the coaches and in the scouting staff is the longer we're together, the more closely we're connected on acquiring players that fit our profile. So it's a physical skill set, it's scheme fit, it's football makeup

and character fit. And I feel like the Vets and the rookies Jet that we added, they're all natural fits to our roster, to our locker room. They're going to make a quick impact. Well, the weird thing is not weird, but the cool thing is for me to listen to these guys. First of all, ro Quin, I'm out the proach of people wrong. Khleil Mack has got an edge to them. Jail Johnson says, you know, he's got a chip on his shoulder, Trevis Gibson's got a chip off.

Everybody's got a chip on their shoulder, and they weren't all here last year, so you got a bunch of it sounds like. And again, anybody could pick pick through that and say, wow, it's just words. But if you're around people you know what's fact and what's fiction and what's genuine. Yeah, for sure, I think that's that's the profile that we target to guys with that kind of mindset, chip on your shoulder or driven, obsessed, whatever you want

to call it, we got. We got a locker room full of those kind of guys that are all pulling in the same direction, and that's when it gets excited. All right, Ted, I'm gonna give you the final question before I give Matt a chance to preview the Lions, to send us off in our final couple of minutes here with our season ticket owners, and again, thank you

so much for joining us. Hey, I have confidence will were back next year at this time at the Peyton Center breaking things down for twenty twenty one, and who knows how much fun we'll have here in twenty twenty with the schedule. But a final message to the fans here before opening kickoff, I would say to all our

season ticket holders, we miss you. Keep following us. Our social digital staff are working hard to give you some great content while there's no fans or limited fans later in the stadium, So keep following us and routing the team on and we can't wait to get your back in person to give us that home field advantage six days go Bears. All right, Ted, thank you so much. And Ryan, how about a sneak peek here at our friends up in Detroit. Yeah, you know we know this opponent.

Well there there's a change obviously with their defensive coordinator, but you know, same head coach is kind of driving that defense. A lot of skill at the receiver position. A quarterback that's healthy right now. He's a dynamic player. So yeah, we're gonna have our hands full. But I feel good about our team and our mindset going into this.

And you have told the team I saw it a nineteen twenty football drive, a great thing put together by the Bear staff that you believe they have championship caliber players in that room. So and Ryan, our Matt keep messen you guys up here. Mad final thoughts on the lines coming up? Yeah, just real quick too. I want

to echo to all the season ticket holders. Man, we appreciate it, Thank you so much, and we know you're all behind us, and we're gonna do everything we can to get as many wins as we can and and and everything. So U real quick, great team, great quarterback is where it starts with them, and so we got to make sure that we handle him. Defense does their thing, and uh, I just feel like for us, it's it's we got to worry about us. We do that, we'll

be good. We're out of time. Good night, everybody. This is News Radio seven eighty and one oh five point at FM WBBM