Cut open that DJ Moore end zone touchdown, touchdown Bears. I am Jeff joniyat blitz us.
On Donnie Go R.
What was like playing for Cody Good. I don't want to answer any questions like that pressure coming is a big trouble. Donnie Go Mottest Sweat Now Bears, et cetera.
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One more look back before we start looking ahead to what's next for your Chicago Bears. Episode one teven of the Bears et cetera podcast with Super Bowl winning Bears guard Tom Thayer. I'm Jeff Joniac, Bears, etcetera. Brought to you by Geico. Good to have you along. Dig a little deep in some statistics here Tommy and what could have made it better? And then we're gonna throw our players of the year on the table today as well. Should be a fun little conversation. No guests today as
we put a wrap on things. We're be coming at you now once a week in the off season, starting next week, so be sure to make sure you check us out and wherever you get your podcasts, we'll have some good guests for you, and some things off the beaten track a little bit. I'm excited about the time we've enjoyed doing this podcast, no question. Can't believe we've already done what will now be one hundred and twenty seven of them.
There's a lot to bring to the fans of the Bears, and there's a lot to talk about. And I don't think I've ever come off of an off season with as much as anticipation as there was this past season, especially when you look at the draft choices in Caleb and Roma Dunes, even though you didn't know who was coming aboard, just where they were in the draft, and then all of a sudden, that led up to the Hall of Fame game, and that led up the hard knocks, and that led up to you know, every practice you
saw in OTAs and training camp. It kind of caught your attention because you saw, you know, some really significant bright spots of the future.
When you talk about Caleb and Rome.
Right, and there are many others, there's no question, I know, yeah, many others, But I know we're all excited about it. We're all excited. I think the players were excited about I thought they they think they thought they had something cooking, and we had some dudes finally on the football team. But there are so many difficulties in winning in the NFL, and you know, probably the biggest thing is just that availability thing, especially on the offensive line, the continuity aspect
of it. I think that's something we'll focus on, you know, until it it's properly aligned, where guys are the same five coming out hopefully every single week for the twenty twenty five season.
And that is ubtainable.
And that's one thing the Bears really have to focus on, and that's everybody the coaching staff, Ryan Poles, the type of talent you bring in here. You got to bring in a group of guys that maybe are spearheaded by guys like Darnell Wright, who has got a super bright future ahead of them. And I think his upside is not even he has not even scratched the surface of
what he can be. But he's got to be that type of guy that transitions this offensive line from uncertainty to certainty, and I think he has every capability of doing that, and so I really have really high hopes for what Darnell can do in his career.
Tastes like middle Time. Go to middle light dot com slash Bears Pod to find delivery options near you. Celebrate responsibly Middle Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ninety six calories and three point two carbs for twelve ounces. It's interesting to look at the collective the entire eighteen week season, seventeen games and see what was produced. It doesn't all equate to wins or losses, but it's just some of the things that may be surprising the people of what went well.
We certainly know it didn't go well obviously, that the sacks were too many, sixty eight for the year, most sacked quarterback on first down of the NFL with twenty two, So that was really a heck of a place to start, frankly, because first down is so critical, both offensively and defensively. And then that leads into first quarter and fourth quarter. So let's begin there. Let's begin with that, tom because the slow starts were really something that was emphasized over
the course of the year. And then how the fourth quarter. Now you'd like to see that kind of production level out get into the first quarter. But the Bears were three and one with a halftime lead at home this year, one to zero on the road, so four or five wins. They had lead at halftime, losing at halftime one and eleven. So they had an NFL low twenty seven points in the first quarter, number thirty in the first half, but in the fourth quarter they ranked twelfth in points scored.
They did not score a touchdown on their first possession. Pittsburgh and Seattle were the only other teams that did not, so they only wound up with six first possession points. They made two field goals, missed one, and at thirteen points. They got better in the first possession of the second half, they had four touchdowns. So as you look at it, if there is a common denominator that we asked coaches, we asked players, no one could really say what it was.
Do you have an answer for what the first quarter common denominator would be? With the lack of production.
The thing about it is you're bringing in an inexperienced quarterback, and the only reason he's inexperienced in a professional level
because he's a rookie. He's a guy that was just recently brought aboard that had so many different things on his play, from being the first pick in the draft, from learning a new system, learning all that terminology, learning how the key components fit according to what he's saying in the huddle, and then you have an offensive line that you know Darnell Wright and Coleman Shelton are the only two guys that really played, you know, a majority of the snaps at the position that they were picked
to play, and I don't You can't really underestimate the difficulty of that for a football team because now when you're talking about in preparation for whomever your next opponent is in where you play him, there's a lot of advantages that you give the opponent's defensive coordinator because they know that you have a young, inexperienced quarterback, and they know that you have an offensive line that's going through some health issues that maybe there's certain instances that are attackable.
So they beat Tennessee at home week one, then they go into two hostile environments in Houston and in Indianapolis. And that's to me as an ex offensive lineman, as an offensive lineman that's played with young quarterbacks, that's always an advantage for the opponent because you get a supportive crowd, noise, it's super loud, and now you create a little bit of a dysfunction that can take you a little bit to get over the hump. So listen, this is not
a curable stat you know, analytic or whatever. This is something that the Bears will be an entirely different team next year in the first half than they were this year because now you're allowing Caleb to contribute from experience rather than just being an inexperienced guy playing the most important position in professional sports, you know, because the thing about it is you play at home and you feel the support and the introduction of the offense, and the
crowd is behind you, and that house was packed. Many were so excited to see Caleb and an entire Chicago Bear team and what.
They're going to offer them.
But then you kind of had the same thing when you were going down to Houston week two, because here they are coming off of a playoff experience a year ago, and now they are creating an environment that's one of the one of the more difficults to communicate indoors like that. So you know, every single first time experience, going to any stadium for a rookie is a first time experience, and it's it's it's kind of hard.
To explain, but it is a new experience.
In the fourth quarter, Caleb had the most passing attempts in the NFL one eighty and fifth most passing yards eleven oh eight, completed sixty six percent of his passes, ten touchdowns that was fifth best, tied for fifth best in the NFL, and just two interceptions, and a ninety five point three quarterback rating. So you know, a lot of that was working from behind. But there were about eight games in which he had the ball in his hands in the fourth quarter with a chance to tie
or take the lead. It happened a couple of times, but a couple of times it did not because of all the well documented missteps. But that's encouraging to me. I need my quarterback to be able to do that in the fourth quarter. So this is not to me a negative stat at all. It's a positive stat.
I agree one hundred percent with you, and it's something that held my attention throughout the season because even though you know, we are kind of a little bit flustered in the first quarter because of lack of production and lack of points, but there he was in the fourth
quarter making these heroic efforts. Whether he's buying time behind the line of scrimmage, whether he's making these accurate passes that he's fitting in to such a tight window, you know, the receivers coming up and making big catches for him. Probably the thing that left the most positive feeling in you know, at the end of the season is the fourth quarter experiences, the efforts and the production that Caleb was able to provide with his teammates.
Again, we're painting a picture from seventeen weeks. Yes, in between there are some dips along the way and some highs as well. But this ties into the complimentary football thing because listen to what the defense did then in the second half. Second half defense tied for fifth in third quarter and fourth quarter points allowed and number three overall in the fewest second half points. Just eight point seven points per game allowed in the second half by
the Bears defense. That gave the Bears an opportunity to hang in the games, and then Caleb did his best to deliver in the fourth quarter. That's also significant because it signifies a defense that did not quit. You look at their red zone defense. They wound up as the number two red zone touchdown efficiency defense in the NFL. Despite the fact they gave up, I shouldn't say gave up.
They were driven on the tied for second most red zone drives in the NFL at sixty three, so also inside the thirty scoring Bears were in the top five in the NFL. So they buckled down and they bowed up their next when they needed to, they held teams to field goals.
Yeah, you know, you know, one thing that game that really comes to mind was the Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit because everything that you want to think about the first half, the reason the Bears were in it in the second half is because the lack of production by Detroit in the first half when they got into the red zone. And then you go there and you you know, make some halftime adjustments and then you come out and you immediately are competitive right down to the to the
last series of the game. So yeah, you know, one thing that was the great thing about this defense is that they they tightened the windows of opportunity for their
opponents to succeed in the red zone. That a lot's why a lot of these drives ended on field goals, and so I think that's something if you can bring that with you to next year's development I think that your opportunities are going to extend themselves because you have a super stingy defense holding your opponents to three points and then allowing your defense to have some more scoring opportunities in the first half.
Yeah, and on top of that time they took the ball away in the red zone five takeaways, tied for second best in the NFL. Bears had one red zone turnover this year. Offensively, we're brought to you by PNC Official Bank of the Bears. So this game comes down to points, Tom, you gotta score points. In this division. You're going to have to score points because the other three teams are scoring points. At least. We think they're going to continue to be very strong in that regard.
So the Lions led the NFL in touchdown drives with sixty eight. Packers were eighth at fifty one, the Vikings were ninth at forty four, all top ten. The Bears were tied for twenty fifth at thirty three. But in addition to that, they tried the fewest number of field goals in the NFL at twenty five. Those automatic points that you can count on. Obviously, they have the second
most points in the punts in the NFL. So I'm saying here, you got to close that gap somehow within your own division to get into the mix here, and you got to find a way to score points. And that is a byproduct, of course, of big plays. And the Bears ranked in the near the bottom of the NFL, and that while those three teams are off top ten with at least seventy plays of twenty or more yards, Bears were at forty seven. So again, I believe that growth will happen, but to keep an eye on it.
When you're rebuilding what you're gonna have for twenty twenty five times, don't you have to look at the division first?
Yeah, but you know you're gonna have to look at the division because you gotta, you know, win the division in order to get in the playoffs. That's an obvious But the thing about it is when you look at those touchdown totals for each and every team, you know they're not gonna be They're not gonna be with with Caleb, and in regards to the opening quarters of next year's efforts, they're not gonna be as controlled in the environment. They're
gonna be much more aggressive. And I think when you allow your quarter back to be much more aggressive with the type of talent that they have in this offense, that is going to result in a lot more touchdowns. So as much as we sit here and talk about the production of the other teams, I think the Bears have a big void to filled with production that's going to get them right into those competitive numbers with the
rest of the teams in our division. And I think that has a lot to do with the experiences that Caleb got starting every game this year and how much more aggressive they're going to be able to be because they're going to know how he's going to react in environments that are in our friendly environments on the road, and I think they know a lot more about Caleb in terms of his quarterback play under those circumstances.
Have an newer gently used coat laying around. Head to your local jewel Osco until February tenth and donate one of your newer gently used coach to the thirty sixth annual Chicago Bears Coach Drive help keep Chicagoans warm this winter. All right, time to look at our players of the year. You ready, yeah, all right, Rookie of the Year, you go first, and if we're the same. We're the same, We're the same, We're the same.
Right, Yeah, I'm gonna go with Rome.
And I listen, I know what Caleb had on his plate and what he was able to do, And I said, the quarterback of the position is the most important position in football. But I think what Rome was able to do all year long. He was able to be included in all the targeting. He ran every route as well as you know the veterans on the team. He's got the speed to break open big plays, and he's got the catch ability that you're not necessarily being coached on
how to catch the ball. It's some innate ability that you have within you. And so everything I've seen out of Rome since he's been here, his speed, his size, his trust ability by Caleb, those are all the elements that I need in counterpart receivers. When you talk about guys like DJ.
All right, here's a stat for you and this will be our Geico More Football stat of the Week. Unday finished eleventh in the league in targeted air yard average according to Next Gen Stats of thirteen point seven. That's double the next guy on the Bears list DJ at seven point four. So if there was a big throw to be had. Caleb was looking for Roma Dunze. That's what that tells me, right there, thirteen point seven targeted air yard average for Roma Dunze, who finished just behind
Keenan Allen in yards. So I like your pick. I was going to go in that direction as well, but I went with Caleb seventh most passing attempts in the NFL, most in a single season in Bears history with five sixty two, one of thirteen to hit five hundred plus. Burrow the only one with six hundred plus throws in the NFL this year. Tenth in completions, seventeenth in passing yards, and that's pretty good given the situation, given the turmoil,
given the changing coaches. He still finished and a granted Bears trailed a lot, so we had to put the ball up. But seventeenth in passing yards in your rookie year, top twenty in the NFL, Top eighteen at thirty five forty one. He was also tenth tom in third down rushing with one hundred and sixty nine. Here's where I'd like to see that improve, because that clearly he was under pressure a lot, so he's scrambling for his life.
But he picked up nine first downs. And I know how you always say you used to when we used to pick, we used to pick Tom's keys to the game, and gave very statistical, very distinct not if he gets four rushing first downs, Bears are gonna win, right, But to that end, I'm looking at this. And so he was right there in the mix with all the top quarterbacks. But the number one third down rusher regardless of position
in the NFL in twenty twenty four was Jalen Hurts. Okay, Jalen Hurts was the most and he had two hundred and twenty three yards, not that many more than Caleb, but he had twenty nine first downs.
I listen, I think I think Caleb is more than capable of that. But Caleb is also a guy that stays behind the line of scrimmage in wats A final a receiver to get his first down, and he doesn't want to run necessarily run for first downs. That's the reason why Caleb started seventeen games in Jalen Hurts didn't.
So I go all four.
Listen, man, I'm all for Kleb taking his time, uses using his avoidability with his vision downfield to find out the best way to get the ball out of his hands efficiently.
I thought it interesting too, because there's stats. You know, we can go through stats all day long. There's hundreds of them. But I was shocked because most of the time Bears line up in three wide receiver sets. You would assume, right, I get three great receivers. But they only threw one hundred and thirty five passes in a three wide receiver set in twenty twenty four. So if you do the math and I don't have my calculator seventeen into one thirty five, that's not a lot per game.
Does that surprise you?
It doesn't.
It doesn't because they're not you know, they're throwing the ball out of sets that are deceptive to the run, so they want them thinking run. But they still have receivers. When you have the receivers that the Bears had, including the tight end position, you don't need to run four and five wide receiver sets. You can unsuccessful down downfield passing game with a two receiver set. Keep the tight end maybe to chip and help keep a running back into chip and help and more to give yourself an
open opportunity downfield. As Caleb gets more experienced, then you'll probably see more multiple receiver sets.
Well, crossing blue shield of Illinois right here at home, driving access toward healthier communities through it all. All right, let's go to offensive player of the Year, Tommy. I always will defer to you. You are the offensive lineman, and you are older than me by a year.
You know, this may catch a lot of people off guard, but I'm going with Coleman Shelton and you and I talked a little bit about this the other day, because he was the saving grace of that offensive line when you had an early preseason injury to Ryan Bates, early season injury to Ryan Bates. Coleman Shelton held down the fort, and he held down the fort with a rookie quarterback under some really hostile environments. And if you just, for example, say you brought in Ryan Bates, but you didn't bring
in Coleman Shelton Bates had an injury issue. Now I know they have Doug Kramer there, who's a center by trade, but Coleman Shelton has experience in the NFL. He understands his assignments, he understands every other offensive alignment's assignments. He understands how they're running backs fit into their protections. He understands the linebackers of responsibilities. And there's just a lot of times that the center is the most settling player for a quarterback of all of them. It's not a
wide receiver saying hey, I'm open. It's not any you know, any other exterior. It's about that relationship between a center and a quarterback, and it's really special.
All Right, I'm gonna go with DJ Moore, tight for thirteenth in the league in targets with one forty, had the highest average yard after the catch at six point two and five hundred ninety six yards after the catch. That was fifth best in the NFL and third among wide receivers is yards after the catch, trailing only Jamar Chase, who won the Triple Crown of wide receivers this year in Cincinnati. And they of course through the all six hundred times, and Buffalo's Khalil Shakir. So there you go
with the offensive player of the year. I think we both think a ton of DJ's talent and his importance on this football team.
I love that guy.
Man, listen, man, give me all a DJ that you can possibly give me. He's a professional, he's got superior catching ability, He's courageous, he's tough, he bounces back. You know, I could sit here and say a half hour worth of glowing, you know, compliments for DJ.
All Right Defensive Player of the Year, Tommy, I.
Would like to go with Kyler Goren, but I'm gonna go with TJ. Edwards because to me, TJ Edwards, when you look at the amount of tackles that he's put up in the last two years, you look at his effort when he's gonna make a tackle, you look at how he closes the distance, and he finishes the play with such a ferocious style of hitting. To me, TJ is an example of a great Chicago Bear linebacker over history of the position, and no matter I think what style of defense you want to play him in, I
think he would be successful. And a Bear defense, a thirty four defense, a four to three defense, wherever you want to play him.
Like you say, he's just a football player.
I appreciate the violence with which he plays. We heard Thomas Brown saying we got a violent game.
TJ.
Edwards plays violently. When he hits you, you feel it. You're going sideways, you're going backwards, and you're going to take a big hit, right.
I mean, listen the linebackers that we've had the good fortune to broadcast about, guys like Lance Spriggs and guys like Irlacker and other guys in there as well. You know, he kind of has that kind of delivery to the conclusion of the play, and he's he's speeding up when he tackles.
He's not slowing down. And I think it's evident when you.
Look at the shock that the ball carrier feels when TJ.
Edwards hits him.
By the way, I finished fifteenth in the NFL and solo tackles, I to him going with TJ. Edwards, you know the Bears again, the red zone defense, some of that is him, the takeaway, some of that is him inside the scoring Bears rank seventh, that's some of that is him. I look at him as an outstanding leader on this team. He's on the reserve side, but I think there's a lot of mutual respect for him on that roster. One hundred and twenty nine tackles over one
hundred for the fourth time in his six years. Fourth Bears defender with one hundred and twenty five or more in team history, more than once. That's crazy. And the solo tackles included four sacks career high for him, six and a half stuffs number one on the team. That's a run stuff that's getting in the gap and making somebody get behind the line of scrimmage. One interception could
have had more. Six quarterback hurries those are hits, twelve tackles for loss, a forced fumble, two fumble recoveries, and three pass breakups.
He did a lot good. Well, you know what too is with TJ. Edwards.
He kind of stands out amongst all the guys. But you know guys like Kevin Bayern and Kyler Gordon, both of those guys too, they should have an asterisk next to their name is high consideration.
You still have time, You still have time. We got a bunch of categories here, Tommy, you got time, You got time? All right, here we go. Special Teams Player of the Year, Tommy.
Josh Blackwell, who is this week's NFC. Yes, special Teams Player of the Week. But look at all the areas that he filled the void and he takes part in every single special team He's super productive. Whether he has the ball in his hands, or he's gonna make an open field tackle. So everything that Josh has been what he's done since he's been here, He's kind of in that category of the other special teamers that we've been able to broadcast about throughout our career.
Have been a bunch of them, really good ones. He finished with seven special teams tackles, but don't even focus on that number. I'll tell you why, because as a gunner, he was always first down the scene, whether that was pushing somebody into another tackle Tommy, or just being violent on the special teams with his own hits. And then
you throw in the punt return. There's a great deal of trusting him from Richard high Tier, the Bear's special teams coordinator, and he talks about him in glowing terms. Super smart guy and he's got his hand up. He wanted to be a punt returner, and that was one of the plays of the year. Obviously in the NFL. I'm gonna go with Tory Taylor finish. I know that's low hanging fruit, but he tied for fourth, tied for fourth in the NFL with thirty four inside the twenty.
That was important that's why he's here to field position to pin punt and pin number two in the NFC behind New Orleans Matthew Heyball. How about that for a punter's name, hey Ball hey Ball. Yeah, twentieth in net average, fifteenth in gross average, but those two finished number one in Bear's history in a single season. He broke a record that was held since nineteen forty nine. And I don't know if this is the right pronunciation. I need
to call Pat McCaskey George guli Onyx. At forty one point six net in a single season, that's number one in the Bear's history. All So, same story with the gross average and the net average. So outstanding job. Thirty eight fifty plus yard punts, number four in the NFL, number two in the NFC behind Seattle's Michael Dixon. And the Bears also has a special team unit. This has nothing to do with Tory Taylor, but an ode to
the special teams unit. The first team in the NFL this year with multiple block punts in a season, most by a Bears team in a single season since two thousand and eight. So special teams had some very very good moments over the course of the season. And of course Cairo Santos, he didn't get many opportunities. He did have a block. I guess he'd had a couple of blocks actually, but he was twenty one of twenty four kicking field goals. You can count on Cairo.
Yeah, I mean, listen, man, that guy has done everything asked of him since the moment he came aboard. And there's as much pressure on a kicker than there isn't any position in the NFL. And when you're a kicker that's made a career out of kicking in Soldier field, natural surface and outside conditions, you know, Ky has been a model citizen at the kicker position.
All right, I'm gonna throw this one a the surprise player of the year, meaning he went the furthest the fastest, and from where we thought he was when the season was in mini camps and training camps. And if you need a minute, I'll throw mine out there. You're your calling your well, I'm going Daniel Hardy. Daniel Hardy. The expectations of this player. He was a man out there. He was a beast on special teams. He was tied
with Bmiga with eleven tackles on special teams. Had the black punt in Week one that was a scoop and score for Jonathan Owens. Had a few penalties on special teams, no question about that, but just his demeanor demeanor on game day was hair on fire, physical, aggressive, violent, and I know you were asking to have him on the pass rush and he did sneak in there a couple times this year. I'd like to see that player continue
to develop. You know, have you have you have any history of players that started on special teams at a defensive lineman like that. I mean, he may he was moving man and he's not a small guy and then became a rotational figure on the defense and then get you five or six sacks a year or something like that.
Right, all right, I'm going to go to one and this is super obscure, and I'm thinking of the future, not necessarily present, but because of what I saw out of Austin Booker as an incoming freshman, incoming rookie for that, he's got the innate of skills, the innate ability to
be able to rush the passer. And he's the type of guy that you know, if you get him through that initial year of football, you get him to invest time in an offseason, he's in the weight room, he's eating correctly, he's getting stronger, he gets a larger arsenal of pass rush skills. Now you're talking about a guy that can go from whatever number he had this year up to near double digits within a one year jump. So everything, I'm not disappointed Austin Booker. I wish that
he would have had more pass rushing opportunities. However, I think that he still has a tremendous upside and can develop into that counter rusher to montest sweat that the Bears they need in part of their rotation.
Well, first of all, he's only twenty two years old. That's number one. He was for the most part of this year. He turned twenty two in December. He was a twenty one year old guy. If he would have stayed a Kansas he might have been a first round pick. And I looked at my old notes from the Senior Bowl that I'm getting ready for again, and he was considered the guy who had the best bend and that arc to get to the quarterback. He's his body flexible enough, and I think we saw that quite a bit. He
was in there. He was disruptive. So for the year, he wound up with twenty tackles, which is very good, right for a part time defensive lineman. Twenty tackles for a part timer, that's pretty darn good. A sack and a half he had one against Carolina, half a sack against Detroit on Thanksgiving, a stuff and a half, four quarterback hits, three tackles for loss, and one special teams tackle. But you're talking about a guy that was one of
the team leaders in tackles for defensive lineman. That's pretty good.
And you know, the thing about Austin is what I want to see in the future is he's got a couple pass rush moves that he didn't use very much, and they're very really hard to teach. Like I think maybe it might have been his first or second pass rush in full pads this year in training camp. He did an inside spin on the offensive tackle and he left the offensive tackle, you know, kind of sitting still, and he made immediate pressure.
And so from some of the guys throughout my.
Career that I've seen that have that move, that isn't really teachable because you have to have superior balance and quickness and then you have to have the timing that you get the offensive tackle off balance. Those are the types of things that I have expectations for Austin Booker to be that near double digit sacker in the immediate future.
He'll get stronger in this offseason, have that benefit, you know, and again and you you're.
Just not gonna have that senior college draft fatigue that you have. Now he's gonna finally have a chance to regroup. And you know, remember the shock of us seeing Dominique Robinson when he showed up back this year and what what how different he looked. I don't necessarily need to see that out of Austin Booker, but I do need to see him look like he's added a little bit to his frame, because I think strength is speed, and speed his strength. That's a quote from our dear friend
Clyde Emrick. Two hundred and eighty three snaps.
So he played twenty six the defensive snaps, and so I think the production, you know, that's that's that's all right, all right, strongest position group of the year.
I'm gonna I'm gonna go with defensive backfield.
You know, I I know that, you know when you look at Jalen making the Pro Bowl.
They brought in Kevin Bayern.
He was an immediate influence on this football team. Too bad happened to Takwan Brisker. You still have Kyler Gordon back there. You have Terrelle Smith, you have Tyreek Stevenson. I think that Tyreek again, I think he's the most ferocious tackler. Of the defensive backfield, Tyler Gordon is the most deployable. You have other guys like black Josh Blackwell and Elijah Hicks and stuff that were contributors to the
defensive backfield. So of one of the hardest positions to play in the NFL, I think they had really good coaching there and they had a group of guys that were able to contribute at a high level.
I am going to give the wide receivers the strongest position group because in the end, the Trio all got over one hundred targets and again Caleb finished in the top twenty in passing yard. So that directly is attached for the most part to your wide receivers. And not going to discount what Cole Commeet or Deandres Swift did in the passing game. But you know, some good stuff there. We already talked about what DJ did, what A Dunes did, and also Keenan Allen made some big third down catches
as he's done his entire career. Steinhoffels is our sponsor of the Bears et Cetera podcast, and Steinhoffel is a proud partner of the Bears and now open in Orland Park. Steinhoffels a Chicago dands, furniture and mattress leader with the largest selection to fit every style and budget and one hundred percent employee owned shopping store and online at Steinoffels dot com. All right, last one hardest working player of the year.
You know it may be have Golye.
See.
I mean there's a lot of choice of TJ with that. But you know, the guy that I really liked that finished the season injured was Andrew Billings because he has a really thankless job and you really don't notice him until he's gone. You don't know what he means to the work the workmanship of the defensive line until he's gone. And when Andrew Billings left the defense, they were a
little bit more susceptible to interior runs. And so Andrew Billings is you know, he's not going to be there standing at the podium, you know, meeting the media that often. But his production, his persona, his swagger, his alpha neess in the locker room is something that the Bears need.
So from the time I saw Andrew Billings start training camp this year to being in control of the calls of the defensive line, I think he's a guy that worked extremely hard because his work is not only during the season, it's also in the weight room in the offseason. And I do think that's the type of influence that you need that walks into that locker room and walks onto the practice field.
And that was mentioned by Ryan Poles as one of the biggest losses no question, turned into one of his favorite players, and that's Andrew Billings. And he's on his way back, ready to go, says he'll be here.
You know, Andrew Billings, he played havoc in the training camp when he was making the calls for the defensive lineman to move and shift, whether it was against his own offensive line or when Cincinnati came here. He was a type of guy that really challenged the communication discipline on the offensive line because of the calls he makes.
I'm going with Kyler Gordon. And the reason is, yes, he's a hair on fire type of player all over the field, but it's one of the more difficult positions to play. You gotta We've documented this. You gotta know everybody's responsibility. You got to handle tight ends, running backs, wide receivers, working the slot, work outside stuff in the run game, blitz, which he did a fair amount. Wound up with a career high seventy five tackles and no less than four in all but one game when he
had three against Detroit. He had ten hits on the quarterback. That's an element of the blitz game. And he allowed only twenty nine pass completions all year. So I'm gonna go him. And if I had to give a one a because I really like this player, Tom, I really like DeMarcus Walker. DeMarcus Walker, I agree. In his last twenty five games as the Bear, he's got twenty seven hits on the quarterback. Montest what has twenty six hits on the quarterback in the last twenty five games with
the Bears, So you know the production is there. He just doesn't get a lot of attention. Now you know he hits on the quarterback, they matter obviously we want to see sacks, and if the guy gets rid of the football by the time he gets there, it's still hit on the quarterback. I just think he really does a nice job of putting the heat on the quarterback.
Yeah, you know everybody's name you just mentioned and I was just thinking this because you kind of made me think of it. I think my favorite hit on a quarterback all year was this last week, Kevin Bayern hitting the Green Bay quarterback because he defeated a block at the line of scrimmage. The quarterback had no idea he was coming, and he never slowed down and he lit
him up. And of all the you know the sacks you talk about on this team, all the big hits and stuff, that was probably my favorite quarterback hit of the year.
Three point three seconds and next Gen stets had it three point three seconds to hit the quarterback on that one. I went and tried to look up all year with the pastest one I believe of Tremaine Edmunds Week one against Tennessee was a three second sack and Will Levis, but that's pretty good, man. That was the That was one of the best hits of the year, no question.
The way it was, you know, and too you know, the first of all, defeating the block at the line of scrimmage with such a mediac to get him in position to close the distance and make that hit. There's a lot that went into that play. And when you talk about the different roles in the different lineup position of a guy like Kyler Gordon, I was exciting to see that. In the latter part of the year they were given Kevin byern some of that opportunities.
All right, A couple other stats were done with the players of the year. That was a fun exercise. Actually, this is just something in the category of kind of a wow. Cole Comette had the highest catch percentage of any receiver in the NFL, regardless of position. He caught eighty five point four or five percent of his passes. Nine of the top eleven in top catch percentage were tight ends in the NFL. So what we're saying is, yes, we'd like to see him more involved in the offense somehow someway.
Well, you know the thing about it is when we talk about the lack of production in the first half and in the first quarter specifically, that's got to be a coal Comet time because I do think that the matchup difficulties for the opponents against Cole Comet is evident and obvious.
You're not going to be able to get a running.
Back that's a linebacker that's going to run well with Cole, and you're not going to have a defensive back that can have the size requirements that you do against Cole. He's courageous in his catches, He's got really good hands. He he stands on his feet after he makes the catch, and he gets yards after the catch. So if you want to say, Okay, what am I going to immediately start thinking about to increase my production in the first half next year, it's going to be about targets for Coal.
And listen so is. He also had the highest average separation yards on average of any receiver on the team at three point nine. So I got a four yard advantage of separation on his opponent. So that tells me, I mean, top fifteen in the NFL regardless of position. That's pretty good. That means he's getting open and.
He can come out of every stance. He can come out of a two point stance. That's just relaxed a little bit from the line of scrimmage. He can come out of a three point stance. He can line up as a wide receiver, he can line up as an HPAC, he can line up as a full back. So the different areas that you give him his start is a lot of different ways to create open opportunities for him.
All right, good news, Chicago United Airlines is getting brand new planes with all the bells and whistles, like Bluetooth conductivity screens at every seat in room for everyone's roller back again nighted proud to fly the Chicago Bears, and you too, hope that was a fun exercise for you. Tommy enjoyed it. Some good stuff to look at as a building platform for the next season, and the Bears did do plenty of good things that should have in
most cases could have resulted in more wins. So moving on and we'll start looking toward the future as we go through our podcast in the coming week, says the coaching search is well underway.
I'm excited to see what's ahead and I can't wait to, you know, to get a chance to talk about everything that's going on. But listen, I got a Notre Dame Penn State game to start worrying about right now, so you know, good luck good that's gonna occupy a little time too.
For time there, I'm Jeff Jonahyek. Thanks for listening to everybody. Please subscribe now in the Chicago Bears official app, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcast. Spear down, everybody,