Right, justin middle of a field for fifteen bring Russ in front of.
A leading Lions in his way.
I am Jeff jonah Ack Whitz.
Is not Donig.
What was it like playing for Coche? Good do?
I don't want to answer any questions like that. Sixty one yards?
What's Sunday stroll for?
Justin field?
Yes, Bears et cetera brought to you by Miller Lte with the voices of the Bears, Jeff Joniac and Tom Thayer.
We got a game this week, Big Tom Sayer, Jeff Joniack, and welcome into Bears et cetera preseason style Saturday afternoon and noone start against the visiting Tennessee Titans.
Yeah.
I'm excited about it, Tom, I'm excited about real football.
Oh me too.
I mean, there are so many elements of the game that we don't get to pay attention to in an organize and control practice atmosphere. When you have a game, all doors are open. If you feel you have a vulnerability left in your game and the mental part of it, the physical part of it. If you're a player trying to gain confidence, here's either an answer to a question or part of the solution. Or something you have to work on. Then that's the same thing with the coaches.
You don't have a scripted practice down. You don't know what defense they're going to face on the offensive side of the ball, and vice versa. So I think it's a really important part of the preseason are these games they play.
You know, I saw tweet earlier from Kurt Warner, the Hall of Fame quarterback whose career, obviously if you follow the story, was a miracle in many ways, wound up being a Super Bowl MVP and a Hall of Famer, advising or reminding those players who aren't getting a lot of snaps in practice right now, your time is coming on game day.
You're gonna play.
You may have not been getting a lot of snaps and reps in practice, but you're gonna play in these early preseason games.
I'm telling you, you know, And sometimes you won't. And that's when you have to have a good convicted attitude that if I go back to practice the next day and I don't play in a preseason game, I have to give that same effort with the same confidence that I did up to that point. Remember, Jeff, we talk about it all the time. I didn't play until the second half of the last preseason game my rookie year, and I used to walk out of those games and
tears for not playing. So I'm that same person that Kurt Is, But we had a different road to getting to where we wanted to.
It's hard to imagine giving your experience and how long you played in this league.
Remember Bears, etc.
Is brought to you by Miller Lite Tastes like Miller Time Chicago. Also coming up in today's podcast. An interview I did last week when NFL Network was here at Hallis Hall and visit with Scott Pioli, the former executive in the NFL with the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs in Atlanta. Falcons on conversation about his career and his relationship with general manager Ryan Poll. Some good insight there into the Bears general manager. All right, so
a lot going on. We had the family Fest at Soldier Field. How'd you think it all went? It was a good twenty thousand plus fans battling a few rain drops. Early Tony Medlin got all over me because I didn't bring a hat. My hair was and so he was worried about me. Yeah, you know, I really worried about me. He is, He's concerned.
You know that it's the same concern he asked for you that he does for his players and the coaching staff and everybody. To have the right shoes on, the right equipment, you know, the same thing put a hat on if it's raining. But you know, when you look at the Family Fest, I have a certain appreciation for the fans that come out here. You know, they invest a whole Saturday and coming out to watch a Bears practice. But I think it's really important for the Bears as
a team. You don't want questions coming up next Saturday at noon about where's my locker room? How do I get to the locker room, which is the best closest path to the field, what do I You know, Tony doesn't have time for these, The coaches don't have time for it. So you get those little things out of the way by having Family Fest. You know the route to get the Soldier Field, you know where you park,
you know how you leave the stadium. So those little things that you don't want to spend any game day thinking about it. The Family Fest accomplishes a lot.
You know.
One of the takeaways from my perspective was about and we talked about it on the sidelines. We were able to stand there and watch up close. But you know, Dj Moore, the suddenness of that player making a catch, planning his foot and he's history, he's in the end zone. Chase Claypool's got some sudden news to him, Darnell Mooney's got some suddenness to him. And then Roseean Johnson likes contact. It appears the big running back with the pads on, he likes to deliver a shot.
So I'm excited about that.
You know, first of all the wide receivers, there's a group of guys that are very sudden. Then they have a group of guys that are very big and talented EQ. Saint Brown, Chase Claypool, just to mention a couple of them. So it gives a variety of options when you have a two or three man game to one side of the offensive formation for the quarterback and for Luke Getzi.
So I like what you see out of all those guys really puts a lot of you know, anticipation thinking on the defensive backs because they know how quickly these wide receivers can go in and out of their routes, and then when you look at Roshan Johnson, I'm really excited to see this guy in a full contact drill. He's got running back in He's got the innate ability to predict where the hole is going to open up.
And I've seen some things in practice out of them that I want to confirm and verify in my mind before I go to the mic with them. However, everything that I've seen out of Rochon, I really like, I'm.
You been teasing for a while about this. There's something brewing on rochan What do you keeping to yourself?
Here is one thing that you always want to look at.
To a running back that is so talented at the college level, and he can run away from defensive backs, he can see the hole and he can burst, but very seldom are they challenged with an extreme responsibility of protecting their quarterback. There's not a lot of blitzing on the inside where the top running backs are responsible for. And then when they are responsible, do they improve at
that task. Rochean Johnson, I gotta say, is one of the best pass blocking running backs I've ever seen come into the league as a rookie and it's fundamentally sound, it's sustaining, it's contact with feet. You know, when you have a guy like Walter Payton, he would explode into a blitzer and he would just blow him up before he could take another step. That's not always the way the job is done. Sometimes you have to anticipate the distance that's going to close by a linebacker and you
got to be in a right fundamental, fundamental position. You got to be able to have some explosion into his body and then you have to shift your feet, just like an offensive lineman doesn't his pass protection. And from what I've seen out of Roshan Johnson, it's not a common occurrence. I'm not sitting here bragging about one of these guys year and a year out. And when I saw Rochan do it through some individual drills out in the practice field, it is as impressive as I've ever seen.
Refreshed my memory. I want to say that Neil Anderson was pretty good at it was.
He Neil Anderson was great at it all so, but he's following the immediate example of the guy in front of him. And that's the way Walter Payton went about his business in office of running Backs coach Johnny Roll, and that's the way he taught it. You go up there and you meet the linebacker in the hole. Nowadays, sometimes you don't have it because of the play action. Fake gives you a little hesitancy before you commit to
your block. And so what I've seen out a Roshan not only as a runner, his blocking is as impressive as that score.
Huge savings on an impressive lineup, but items a jewel ast go for you. This handy app features hot digital deals on everything from premium produce and savory snacks to butcher fresh meat and more. Get additional details at jewelosco dot com. Jeff Joniac, Tom There. This is episode five of There's et cetera, Big Time. I gotta say, you came in a little, a little lame today. Bad shoulder?
What's up? I know?
I just my shoulder sore sometimes, you know, it's like one of those injuries they always make. They can feel it when it's gonna rain or that. Sometimes it's sore. And I so, my right shoulder hurts and I know
exactly why it hurts. And when it started hurting. In nineteen eighty seven, I took a rep at left guard because Mark Bortz was kind of hurt, hurting a little bit, and so I was doing a one on one against Dan Hampton and he took an inside rip on me, which is to my right shoulder, and it tweaked my shoulder so much. And that one rep that I've remembered at the rest of my life and every time my rights, Yeah, I swear to God every time my right shoulder starts hurting.
I told Hamp that this year when we are doing the show over the Marquee, I go, you know, Hamp, my right shoulder hurts today, and it's all because you. I've never had a problem with it, but that one move. You know, you go against the Hall of Famer and sometimes you get a little ding.
All right, that's internal fire there, internal you know, you catch a friendly fire. How about anything that's ever happened that you're still feeling out from a opponent?
Uh No, not really, not like that.
You know.
There is one time that I was playing against Pierce Holt and the San Francisco forty nine ers out in the San Francisco field, and when I went to plant my foot and kind of stab at him, the grass gave way to my right foot and my hip kind of like popped out of place and then popped in place. And I remember saying, God, if you know we had an off week or something at the end of the season, I go, I don't you know, if it was a week away, I don't know if I'd be able to play.
That's one thing I do remember, But that was because of crappy field conditions, all.
In a day's worktime, all in a career's work There's plenty of guys out here feeling the pain as well, and they're playing right now because once camp starts, you're never healthy the rest of the year, one hundred percent anyway.
Your body never feels as good. Now, well, how do you overcome that?
You know, I think you're healthy, but you have body soortus. That's just a part of it. And they have one of the best training staff's training rooms in the NFL, where if you have something they have to bring to the attention of one of the trainers, they're going to be able to help you out. And so that's just part of the game. And when Matt talked at the podium last year about developing callousness within this team, that's part of the callous is that you have to develop.
You're not always going to feel great. You're not always going to feel one hundred percent. So when you do, you got to go out there and give your best effort, effort, and you know what, we still have the same expectations for you. We're not going to let you miss blocks or tackles or plays because you got an Awi.
Panc Bank, a proud sponsor as well of Bears, et cetera, brought to you by PNC official Bank of the Bears. As I alluded to it at the top of the show, Scott Pioli and I sent down the former NFL executive to talk all things football and all things Ryan Poles. A comprehensive look from his perspective on the Chicago Bears in the NFL in general. Kind of enough to join us. Scott Pioli one of the premier executives in NFL history.
And I say that because for those who don't know, you were named executive at the decade in the two thousands to twenty ten.
That's significant, right there.
A lot of Super Bowls, a lot of touchstones, and now spreading the knowledge on NFL ago. Yeah, but you know what still spreading the knowledge on NFL Network, Serius XM and all things football because you love this game.
I love this game. Thank you for so much, so much for the kind words. Yeah, I don't like this game.
I love this game.
I love the history of the game. I love the history of the people that allows I mean, look at us, we're sitting here in a room talking about and everyone's doing across the country, and it's and it's because of the people before us. You know, I love and respect this game on a level that you know, even when you end up working in it, whether you're a coach or a GM or scout, all of us were fans of this game as boys. And you know, it's interesting. I told the story. I love this franchise, I love
this organization, I love the city. Well, part of it goes back to again, I am a complete sap for the history of the game. But you know, throughout my entire football life, meaning when when I was a player in Pop Warner in high school or junior high, high school, and college, I wore number fifty one my entire life,
and it was because of Dick Buckets. He was, you know, watching him on NFL films when I was you know, when they'll give you go oh, my gosh, and and what gave me goosebumps, and like, I'm not a I'm not a fanboy in the sense where you know, there was never a point in my life where I met celebrities or athletes and was kind of taken back. It's only happened twice in my life, and the first time was when I met Jim Brown when I worked with the Cleveland Browns, and a year later we were actually
playing the Chicago Bears. And I don't know if you remember, but in the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium, all the radio was done up on the roof right and that's where we watched the game from too, and I knew Dick Buckets did the radio, and I was making.
Sure that I was around. I was like, I got to meet Dick Buckets.
And but the history of this organization and the McCaskey family, the house famidly, this entire there's so much history here, and again, if you love and respect the game, it's not just about the now. It's about understanding how we got to where we were and the endurance that families that are at the heart of this game it's you know, I.
Just love it.
And again I could say City, Gallimore, I mean, Gail Sayer. I know those are big names, but they're you know, Doug buffoone. There were when I turned on TV as a kid and saw the Bears. I mean, I understand what you know.
You knew there was a butt kicking gonna go on. You may not win, but somebody was gonna leave the game. Yeah, absolutely, well you'll be I wish you were around when this happened because you would have got a huge kick out of it. The late Gail Sayers and I sat down and went through his six touchdown game with the old tape in a studio. Yes, broke down every run. Now, he he he didn't have complete memory, but I'll tell
you what. He lit up when he said, look how I ran because it literally looked like he made cuts in mid air. It did, and it felt and looked like when you watched it on tape. And I was I had the clicker, so I was in charge. That was fascinating. And then but comic was yeah, canas combat. But but Gus agreed to do a long interview in a hotel room in the city and we sat there for almost five hours, going through every step of his life.
And these are rare things that not every organization has. Right, you don't have that history starting in nineteen twenty, but you embrace every second of it.
I too.
You know, we practiced against the Patriots years ago when John Fox was head coach, and I took the chance, if I may say, of Santa Lolo to coach Belichick as we're walking off the practice field, and you know, and he's always dialed in, so I have to respect that as a coach. I just introduced myself. I go, I love the history of the game. I try to
collect books on the NFL. Stopped in his tracks and he starts telling me about the convergence of West Coast offense after World War Two at the Great Lakes Nabel and.
Where his dad was coaching, yeah, and playing.
So I love connecting those dots. It's I think you when you the passion of the game never goes away if it's instilled in you, and it was at a young age by my dad and clearly was you.
And that's one of the We could talk about this all day, but that's one of the keys to a relationship with Bill Belichick. And Bill and I when we met. One of the things we talked about, just very naturally was the history of the game, because he had asked me questions, and I knew. I grew up in New York and he and I knew every Giant from the late sixties to the early seventies, but then even the
ones before my lifetime. So it's it's again having the context of the history and and and the respect for this game because that we enjoy so much, is just always remembering where we came from. It was funny, I was, I'll, I know, we've got questions to get through. But I mentioned to someone yesterday how the last time I was at Bears camp was in Plattville in the Cheese League when I was with the Cleveland Browns YEA, and I was there ninety four w It was those practices were
out of control, out of control. They were out of control, because remember we're supposed to have that one last big practice canceledmag it was canceled. Each team had to have inner squad scrimmage. But I mean, people, I mentioned the Cheese League, and like all the guys looked at me, like the Cheese League. Yeah, there were eight NFL teams that chose to go to Wisconsin or Minnesota right on
the board. I think they were in man Cato, I think maybe, But I mean the Jacksonville Jaguars bought their their training campus.
Saints took the Saints up there. That was my first year covering NFL was the eighty five Bears as a young, pimply faced kid who was scared the death of Steve McMichael and Dan Ampton to go up to interview him. But the present day Bears hope to have that same brow, the same growl, you know, get that defense taking the ball away.
Lots to talk about.
But everything goes back the arrow points to QB one wearing that number one. And you know, we touched on this in just some casual conversation and I get I've got become kind of opinionated about the whole, you know, just because Jalen Hurts and Josh Allen made the jump from year one to year two and then year two in the takeoff year three and by the way, they happen to get Stefan Diggs, they happen to get AJ Brown and the Bears get CJ.
Moore. It's amazing.
Now it's almost every fan, every media person think it's an automatic.
Every story is different.
Explain why I'm glad we talked a little bit about this. I'm so glad we're visiting this now because I think it's so unfair right now to justin fields when you hear those kinds of things and when you make comparisons, Because when you make comparisons on certain small data points and don't look at those data points in context, there's a lot of mistakes to be made, and there's a lot of expectations that can be created that are unfair
and just very unfair. And to me, I've always believed that player development, particularly at the quarterback position, is circumstantial. And I say circumstantial in the senses of what is the rest of the roster, like, what are the teachers around the people who is raising this, what are the circumstances that they come into, who are the people that they're around, what is the talent like that they're around. I mean, Jalen Hurts, he has a lot of talent
around him. And oh, by the way, he's had consistently one of the best offensive lines in the National Football League. The Bears are not there yet. Are the Bears. Are the Bears getting better? Have they improved their receiving room? Absolutely? Have they improved the tight end room by bringing in Tunyan who can also compliment Coleman. Absolutely. We don't know what their running game is, although the rookie from Texas is one of those guys I have too. But is there offensive line better?
Heck yeah.
But again I think everyone needs to tap the brakes because if the expectations for justin fields or the comparison is these things that were spectacular, there were so many other factors that impacted. You know, I go back, Hey, I was there when we drafted Brady Right. I saw him sit the bench. I saw what he came into, and I know we won a Super Bowl that year
and his first year as a starter. However, everyone talks about Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, and Tommy had a He had a above average, he had a good season, he had some good games. But what led that team to a championship was our defense and our special teams. We were
an opportunistic team. We put our offense in situations and so circumstances where they could do the things that were in Tommy's wheelhouse and in Charlie Weiss's wheelhouse and Dick Raybund, who is a quarterback coach, and those things came together. What Tommy didn't do is he didn't lose the game. He didn't screw things up. But really, you know, the other thing that we had was we had a twelve
hundred yard rusher in Antoine Smith that year. So there's all these things that lead to the development of a quarterback that are not only teammates but again circumstantial.
But I also don't want people to just say, hey, but the game's different now. You know, you don't need to run the football to win. I still believe you do, especially in the playoffs. You need to have a great defense, you need to take the ball, you know, all those things to set your guy up.
I want to jump in there because you're saying something brilliant, Chip, Yeah, it's in order to pass the ball, you need to be able to run the ball. Yeah. At some point in time, they're personnel wise, they're going to find ways to lock things down and if you can't run the ball in the National Football League, you're gonna have problems eventually.
Growth of Ryan Pulse also end this equation. When you're thirty six. I think he was when he got the job, inevitably, and you've been in the shoe many times in that chair which he makes. I sat in his chair in the draft room the other day because I had to do something for him for some Chicago school kids, and he goes go sit in the hot seat and I sat next to George McCaskey, shaman of the board.
I felt blushed.
I can't be sitting in this seat, but the seat is always hot. But growth will come. Everything's not gonna happen for him right away either. There will be decisions that don't always work out. They're going to backfire, and you just hope to in the bigger picture, build the foundation and then the structure, and then the roof on the house, and you decorate the crap out of it, and then you become a Super Bowl contender.
Right takes time, absolutely, And here's the other thing is is Poles has built in humility. He makes decisions with confidence, but he combines his confidence with a degree of humility. And quite honestly, he overthinks. If he hears this, he's probably going to hate me saying that. But I can relate that because I'm an overthinker also, But there's something
about the overthinker. It means you have some humility, that you don't have this hubris, that you want to get it right, and you want to get it right for the right reasons, and that you're willing to make a decision if it goes wrong, you look at the process and figure out how you're going to get it right the next time. You know, it's funny you mentioned polls,
So polls. I was thirty five when I got into that role at the New England Patriots as well, and there's you know, Poles and I have talked about this. You get in that position even though I didn't have that title. I was the vice president of player of personnel, and I was making those decisions and setting the draft board and free agency, all the stuff the Poles has, and heck yeah, you're going to make mistakes.
Heck yeah.
And that thing is you know, I was, I was. I was complimenting him on the things that I saw that were good, right, and the things that he had done well. And he very quickly and not in a disingenuous way at all, he let me know. Yeah, but here's where I screwed this up. And this is what I did. You know, I felt awful about this one player where he did. And I had to look at mister mcat at George and say, you know, and just feel that guilt.
It's not fantasy football. It's a billion dollars. You know, I get it.
And I said, listen, you're gonna make those mistakes. It's going to happen. And one of the coolest things that helped set me free mentally and emotion that I mentioned the Poles yesterday was there was a point in time where I made a movie. It was a free agent move. It costs Robert money, and a bunch of them were working out really, really well. This one didn't work out well. And I'll never forget Robert had this moment where he can needle you with the.
Best of them. Time about Robert Cracraft, I'm.
Sorry, and he could needle you with the best of them, but he also could read me well enough at that time where he said, hey, listen, let it go. That's the cost of doing business. And I said to Poles, I said, you know, there's gonna be some times in some places where you're gonna make decisions. Man, you ain't gonna get him right. There's gonna be some times where hey, that was the cost of doing business because it seemed right at the time. Just get most of them right.
And and you know, we he and I can bond over the fact that we were you know, we were kids in this industry. He started thirty five, I started thirty five. In terms of that.
Role, and what a resource for him to have. You oh, as you know, he brought him into this game. Now you did. You brought him into this game. And that's a nice, nice resource staff.
I appreciate that. But I'll tell you this, even when Ryan was young, when I hired him in two thousand and nine and I was the general manager and we had won all those champions, I had all these pelts, right, that dude came in and helped me in ways that I can't even fully articulate in terms of balance he had. You know, I used to kiddingly call him the union leader, right because he was. He was one of the youngest guys in house on the scouting staff. And I don't
believe in sycophans. I never wanted to be surrounded by sicka fans. Poles knew that understood that, and he had the strength to come in to me. And again, this guy that I had just hired, that I knew him when he was at BC and he would say, hey, Scott, you know, can we close the door? And he would bring things to me that he felt I was I don't know if not that it was either wrong about or that he felt needed to be discussed. And so
he was a blessing in my life, trust me. And I'm not saying that just because.
But it takes. He was a blessing, real fortitude.
Yeah, But the thing was he could do it in such a way in it Here's the thing with Poles. You quickly learn his heart and when you understand his art, you understand his intentions. He was not in there telling me things to be manipulative. He was not telling me things to be, you know, intentionally disruptive. And I think he knew that I trusted him, so he could say things to me, and he did say things. And as leaders,
you I want people like that. You need people like that around and too many people fail on the side of surrounding himself with SICCA fans and people wanting to be on the right side, I grew closer to polls because he told me truth.
So is darn all right a perfect Ryan Poles pick?
I don't know if it's perfect time i'll tell, but i'll tell you what.
I'm just saying the type of player that we're looking at potentially here.
So you know, it's interesting because I evaluate a lot of these guys to do some college consulting work with programs, and so I saw a lot of sec tape. I saw this, you know, I saw quite a bit of him. I saw the Alabama game that everyone likes to talk about, and is that matchup? And you know, public perception, he wasn't one of the guys, right, he wasn't. And Poles and I talked about that and he said, you know, people have this perception, say, but I just think that
he's got this maturity level. And here's what I say. I don't know how this career is going to work out. I don't know how the season's going to work out. But you've been here enough to see you saw what he looked like last season on tape from a body tape type and a body makeup standpoint. This is a guy who intentionally hired an offensive lineman as his agent,
who's going to speak truth to him. He came back and now the story's out there everyone how he trained and prepared by running the wide receiver, you know, conditioning test. But you've seen his body, yes, And I don't know what the numbers. I think it's ten twelve pounds that he lost sixteen, but sixteen pounds sixteen, But the days he he has reproportioned his body in such a short time. Here's what here's what I do know. This kid cares.
This kid cares about being successful. He cares about being good. He's got the tools, he's got the skills, he's got the ability. I saw yessay in practice. You know they're they're not even they're in shells, they're not even in pads, and he wants to screw someone into the ground. He can't wait for the pads to get on. He's got everything that you need. And sometimes you don't know what rate. Guys are going to mature right now in a short time.
I've seen a guy who just finished the season at Tennessee and is moving right now towards a pretty quick maturity level.
All right, we got to watch practice, but wrap us up with a short answer on this question. The impact of a Edmunds who experienced so much success at a young age and took things over at nineteen. Now he's making all the cause here. And then just the Super Bowl experience of a guy who fought hard to get where he is, an undrafted free agent and a local guy in TJ.
Edwards. What will that do for the Bears?
Edmunds and Edwards, they're taking the team over. They've taken that defense. You could see they have an energy. Sometimes you can sit there and do scouting. You know, all the data points again and all the analytics, all that stuff, but when you see dudes doing stuff and leading people, you know, that's things I tell people. One of the most underrated things about our championship teams in New England. We had good players, we had better leaders.
We had a.
Locker room led football team. And there's an energy with some of the guys that you just mentioned that are you know, it's it. You could see this thing shifting. But again, let's not expect the Super Bowl this year. Let's not expect necessarily even the division championship. Do you want it? Heck yeah, But there's some good competition. The Bears are getting better, the Lions are getting better. The
Vikings are pretty good. This is not a rollover a division, so just be patient, let the process play out.
We could talk forever. We got work to do. That is Scott Peely, thank you so much.
You're welcome.
Thank you so a nice conversation.
We got a lot of insight into what Ryan Poles really is behind closed doors and working elbow to elbow with somebody shoulder to shoulder with which he did coming into the league with Scott PIOLDI brought him to Kansas City in two thousand and nine and eighty takeaways from you.
Yeah, you know.
The thing that I always liked about Ryan Poles and his development into the GM position is the fact that after his career was over, he didn't take time off. He stayed in the football business, kept his mind and his eyes on the business and the development of all all the stages of the inner office. And I think that's why Ryan has raised up the flag pole and he's a GM in the NFL right now. And you hear Scott poly say positive things about him in his
upbringing into this business. This is why Ryan is as successful as he is.
How about the other aspect of what everybody's talking about in the Justin fields comparisons other quarterbacks trying to you know, we brought it up on this show by Josh Allen his third year and his new receiver, and now with Stefan Diggs, and then you go to what's going on with Jalen Hurts and he gets aj Brown and now DJ mooores here. He said, it's a bit unfair because it's circumstantial. There's other factors. I thought it was a good point he made.
It is a good point because talent is a big part of the support of the quarterback and the support of the team. However, the improvements that you want to see Justin go through con factor on every single stage of the offense. His running ability, He's throwing ability in the way the offense runs itself in the running game. So hey, it's always be fun to pay pay attention to Justin because he has explosive athleticism, he has an
unbelievable arm. Now you've got to be able to put consistency in the system that's borne by Luke Getzi into the eyes in the in the way Justin sees.
It bears et cetera.
Also sponsored by the United Airlines Official airlines of the Chicago Bears. All right, Charles Pena Tillman was in practice this week. Got a chance to talk to him. Then he was also at family fest. Enjoyed talking to him there as well. You had a long conversation with him. What it stuck out about peanuts perspective of what's going on.
Charles and I were sitting there talking about hand play from offensive line standpoint of view, how you got to be able to keep your hands in the framework of the body of a defensive lineman when you're in past protection or just trying to control him. He was saying that as a defensive back, his hand fighting was very
similar to that as an offensive lineman. When he stood in the stance above a defense, above a wide receiver, he kept his hands up, where you see a lot of defensive backs keep their hands back in their side. He was saying that he thinks that the time that you take to raise your hands gives an opportunity for a wide receiver to get into his route. So with Charles's length, he's able to keep his hands up and become an immediate hand fighter as soon as the movement
of the wide receiver. They don't pay attention to the cadence. They don't pay attention to the snap of the ball. They pay attention to the movement of the defensive back. So I found that really interesting, and so ever since Charles and I were talking about that, I started paying attention to the specific hand placement of defensive backs, whether it's on the Bears or in the first preseason game or the preseason games coming up.
Now, that's why I like corners with length.
If you can get it, you know, get him in here, if they can play, if they marry it with their feet, because even if they get beat, they can rally that length matters. They can get their hand in the bucket in the basket and knock that ball away if they happen to lose a step on a guy.
Charles was great.
You know, that's the one thing I love about the opportunity that we have to be in this job for so long because we have a chance to broadcast the entire career of a lot of these guys, and then you have the ability to have conversations with them after the fact. So we're not talking to you about what you're going to do this weekend. We're talking about what you did ten years ago, five years ago, whatever. It's the same thing as that family Fest talking to Patrick Manley.
You know, he's the same guy that you can put some questions about snapping and everything. And then this morning on the phone, I talked to Gary Fencik and he was at the family Fest. So there's so many great questions that come up between these guys. But going back to the Charles Tilman conversation, I got a great education by just the conversation with him, and I think it's really beneficial going forward.
Yeah, a lot of guys were giving him a fist bump on the sideline. Just being around somebody like that that has a reputation and can give you some insight, any little advantage to help in your development, then that's also critical.
That same day, Charles Tillman all so caught his first offensive pass of his career. So he's standing off to the he's standing off to the sideline, and it's good discipline by Justin. Because Justin took the snap, he looked around, there was nowhere to throw the ball, so Charles threw a right to him, standing us sideland Charles made a perfect catch back. And I said, it's kind of funny
as talking to Charles that family festor going. You know, I saw you catch your first offensive pass in your career, and after all these years to get a thrown to you by Justin. You know, it's it's pretty fun.
I had plenty of interceptions and pick sixes in his career, that's for sure. Game Day snacky calls for good foods. Chunky guacamalodi made with has avocados, tomatoes, onion, cilantro on a squeeze of lime juice. It's the perfect snack to watch while the Bears win. Score some today at your local grocery store. Game Day is guak Day. Jeff and Tim here on Bears.
Et cetera. Got a busy week ahead. Can't believe it's a game week. It's just it's now.
It's a rhythm. Now you get into a rhythm of games. And then next week we're off to Indianapolis for the two practices with the Colts. And I don't even want to preview that yet, but I'm super excited.
You know, you sit here. We sit here all day at training camp, we watched practice all day. We get a chance to watch some tape, and then at night they got the preseason games. That's our Thursday night and it's part of the addiction, you know it is. And even though you're not at practice and I know there's games on TV, I can't not not watch it.
Listen.
Okay, six point three million viewers of the Hall of Fame game. Not one starter played in the game, Yeah, six point three.
I think it's the appreciation for football action. Not only do they want to see the new Hall of Famers that are being brought into the to the Hall of Fame, but I think there's a lot of excitement around the league.
And you know time the NFL has no peer in this regard. No, I mean, people love this game. They just can't get enough of it.
You know. It's like poly was saying, you know, we have an addiction to this game. You just love love the game.
All right, any other things that you'd like to discuss, because I'll do one and then you can throw one at me.
Darnell Wright.
Comes out there with a very serious demeanor.
Yep, and he's going to be a bad man out there.
Yes, he is going to be exactly what everyone thinks he's going to be, and that is going to be a nasty right tackle. Some of the technical things that madd Eberflush talked about after that family Fest practice was Yep, he's staying square, he's using his hands. He's got patient hands, sets quickly. A lot of good things there for both the run and pass game. Well, what are your observations about him? And then some other thoughts.
You know, he's a very powerful man, so if they need an impact zone on their offensive running game that they can go by it even when the opponent knows that he's got that type of explosiveness. He's got very low drive and leverage against the running game. He can really get underneath players even though they happen to be shorter than him. He's got very clever feet where he can adjust and readjust from an outside move to an aggressive inside mood a move. He always keeps his head up,
in his body square. He's got a really wide frame, but he can still be very active with his hands on inside. I'm so excited to watch the overall development of Darnell. And remember that picture I showed you of me and Mark Boorts walking out to practice a couple and you looked at the expressions.
On our face. You're quite serious.
Same thing with him. When I think of the expressions you used to walk out with the morning practice and just know what you were getting ready to go through. When I look at these guys and I like to get to the practice early to watch their approach to coming in the practice field. So you can tell a lot about these guys. Do they hit the practice field with a little hop in their step or are they dragging their cleats where they're not even coming out of
the grass. And so Darnell is always giving me a really positive feeling.
You know, another thing about being out there earlier, just showing up at Soldier Field long before the activity started, just the assistant coaches, scouts, whether you just your storytelling. So we learned that John Hook ran a four five forty back in the day. Yeah John Way to go. Yeah nice. You know he's NFL days.
He's an athlete, he's my age, he's my era. So I'm glad he's back.
Aboard of the Bears the United Airlines official airlines of the Chicago Bears, and Miller Lite, the official beer of the Chicago Bears, tastes like Miller Time Chicago. I got one final thought to wrap us up. Yeah, Marcedes Lewis, he's just different. His body's different. He's eighteen years deep in this league and he looks fantastic.
Now.
Can't wait to see him at practice and what he's gonna leave in the locker room for these guys. And the same with Jenikin got Away when he shows up for practice here on Tuesday, here at Halis Home.
I love guys that love football, and there's no way that you're going to play eighteen nineteen years in the NFL if you don't love the sport. And I think that's some of the reflection that some of these young KI guys need out of an older, experienced guy like Marcedes Lewis is. The game is important to him. He's got all the desire in the world to be on a football team, and here he is now wearing Chicago Bear blue and orange.
Thanks for listening, everybody, please subscribe now in the Chicago Bears official app, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hope you're enjoying Bears, etc. For Tom there, I'm Jeff Joniac. Thanks for listening. We'll talk to you on Wednesday.