Cut over that DJ Moore episode Touchdown, Touchdown Paars, I am Jeff Jonia.
Blitz Us on Donnie got.
What was like playing for coache goodgo.
I don't want to answer any questions like that pressure coming is a big trouble, Donnie Goes.
Mottest Sweat Bears et Cetera brought to you by Miller Light with the voices of the Bears, Jeff Joniac and Tom Thayer.
Well, this is one of the best weeks on the NFL calendar where we situated in downtown Indianapolis for the annual NFL Scouting Combine with Super Bowl winning Bears Guard Town. There, I'm Jeff Joniac. Episode one thirty four. The Bears et Cetera podcast is brought to you by Miller Light. NFL GM's head coaches go through the media car wash Tuesdays.
At the Combine and on the back end of.
His interviews scheduled today, we will hear from Bears General manager Ryan Poles on this show. Lots of interesting stuff, Ben Johnson at the podium and Tom. Really, I want to start with Ben because it's his real first introduction to the national media as head coach of the Bears. Had not done anything since his introduction as the Bears
head coach back in Chicago. I thought he handled himself terrifically, had great optimism, great insight, and he's got me real excited about twenty twenty five.
How about you.
Oh, you can feel the excitement. The excitement's out the roof, the energy is palpable. And then when you think about what the combine means to either a college football player going there for the first time or an NFL head coach going there for the first time, you got to be prepared because you don't know what direction the questions are going to come from, who they're going to come from, or.
What you're going to be asked about.
And I think Ben was as prepared as any first time coach has ever been in my NFL lifetime. And I was excited to hear it because I don't want him thinking about answers. I don't want him trying to look for information that isn't realistic or isn't there. So I felt super confident about the decisions that Ryan Poles and his staff made. By the hiring of Ben Johnson and his staff, I.
Was listening to one of his old teammates I'm speaking of Ben Johnson in the coaching department. To Aaron Glenn, the defensive coordinator, Int Trode, now head coach of the New York Jets, was asked about Ben Johnson called him very very smart. You hear that constantly about him. Understands defense too and how to attack it. That's significant as the play caller, especially how to maneuver, and that goes with things like motion and how you can create your matchups,
the out of structure stuff, the off schedule stuff. So that is going to be a very fun task to figure out how he's going to pull all this together to make it really interesting offensively.
For the Bears.
And what he said about Caleb Williams, you know, stripping everything by position, but also with Caleb stripping it down to the bear wire again down to the studs.
Stripping it down to the studs, and he's excited about what he can do off schedule. And those are the type of plays that I think encourage you a lot about the quarterback that you're going to start working with soon. And he kind of even made mention this is the first time that he has a quarterback with those types of qualities. And when you think of Ben Johnson. Think about Ben Johnson, the offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions.
He probably knows the defensive personnel of the Chicago Bears better than he knows the offensive personnel of the Bears. But he's going to come in here and he's going to be the offensive coach and he's going to have to learn about the offensive personnel of the Bears. And it's kind of an interesting perspective when you are you become a head coach of a divisional opponent, because you spend so much time studying the infrastructure of your division, but you you spend a lot of time studying the
defensive personnel groupings. And now it's going to be interesting to see how he puts all the parts. And I'm glad that he brought up the fact that it's not about five offensive line and it can be eight or nine. And that is the reality of shortyards and goal line offense and the different packages that we've seen out of
Detroit over the last couple of years. And we haven't seen a team get through the season with five offensive linemen in quite a while, and so you need a significant package of offensive linemen to make your offense run efficiently.
The other part is because everybody has the assumption, and I've been down that road as well, that you have to hire a bunch of new bodies to create this offensive line. He goes, one guy can change an offensive line. Now, I think that won't be the case here. I think you'll need more than that. But that's quite the statement too. You get one guy that makes everybody better. Do you agree with that?
I do, because if you bring that alpha in the building, because the alpha in the building isn't only on seventeen weeks on game day, It's about what are you doing in the weight room, what attention to details are you paying.
In the eating rooms?
What are you doing in the commitment to come out to practice when you feel less than one hundred percent. You need that type of personality, that type of guy that's inside the room that's elevating the desire, the willingness, the ability of every other guy in that room. Then all of a sudden, that becomes contagious. That one guy starts to attach to two, and then that goes to three, and then all of a sudden, it's the entire room.
So I do think.
That Ben was right on what he said but I think that one guy can be important enough to attach himself to the other ten or eleven.
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Go to millernine dot com slash Bears pod to find delivery options near you. Celebrate responsibily Middle Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ninety six calories and three point two carbs per twelve ounces. So let's listen in to the podium at Indianapolis at the combine from head coach Ben Johnson to the Chicago Bears.
My condolences to the McCaskey family. You know, only being there for five weeks in Miss Virginia, passing like she did. You talked about a powerful experience for your young coach like myself. Just to see the level of support, respect, love come from the community and her family was overwhelming. So I want to start off with that. Listen, the last five weeks have gone outstanding. Putting the staff together, that was that was priority number one. Feel really strongly
about the quality of people that we brought in. Character, integrity, those were the first things we were looking for. And then great teachers, great work ethic, demanding on and off the field. I think we checked those boxes with all the coaches that we.
Brought on board.
And then as we've gotten going with the roster evals of our current guys, the free agents coming up, as well as getting into the draft prospects here, it's been it's been a great process. I can't speak highly enough about Ryan Poles and his staff.
I've been able to sit in some.
Of their their draft eval so far and to see how well that that machine's clicking.
It is, It's just rolling on along.
It's very impressive to see and so looking forward to seeing that grow as we go through the springtime.
If you only get one opportunity to make that much set the president Brian for.
How they'd amazing.
So you've got to be play oppositions. What you told him, you got to have all out of the.
Draft and Grant well, we we as a coaching staff, we sat down with the entire personnel department and we went through position by position what the ideal athlete would look like for each spot. We're very flexible on both sides of the ball. Coach Allen, myself, Declan, Richard Higetower, big process everyone's going to be.
Heard in terms of what we're looking for, and.
We very clearly outlined what the ideal look would be in terms of attributes, high weight, speed, in terms of makeup, which is of critical importance for what we're looking for. But at the same time, if it's a good football player, we're going to make it work as a coaching staff. So there's a balance going on with that, and I think the dialogue has been very, very very healthy so far. Listen, everywhere is different, and this process is a little bit different than what I've been a part of.
You know, it was different in Miami.
It's different when I first got to Detroit, it was different when I when I left Detroit, and and so whatever way you go with is is your way. And I feel really good about the voice that not only I have, but the rest of the coaches are going to have in terms of picking these players.
When I talked about the ovision of people establishing a foundation of das steps of years, that kind when I got out with.
Well the springtime, not just for Kleb but for the entire team is we're going to go back to the basics, and that's the fundamentals of each position, blocking, tackling, catching the football, running after the catch, ball security. We're going to break it down to the studs and work to develop it from there. And so for Caleb, it's the what are the important things about playing the quarterback position at the NFL level.
It's as simple as the.
Procedure of the huddle, breaking the hull, using cadence, motion shifts, all those things that can help attack a defense that we feel like can take another step here in Chicago. That'll be the starting point and we'll look to build around him as well with the talent level and the
rest of the support staff. Yeah, Listen, talking with Da has been very enlightening because we share the same mindset when it comes to defensive football, which is we want to affect the passer and there's a lot of different ways you can do that. Certainly up front, the pass rush is the primary thing you think of, but also on the back end it's challenging the receivers and disrupting the timing.
And so when we look get.
Guys that are available, absolutely we want to upgrade the pass rush and we also want on the back end to be able to come up and lock down receivers.
As well.
So it's that fine balance and marriage between the Russian covers that we're looking to augment.
Your offensive background.
But you think it's quarterback, You think of those defensively to what are some of the things.
That I don't want this on the other side of the line, ways the guys that I.
Don't want to waste to stand the foreign back and are.
Those kind of the guys here.
Lost foreign big and most of those evans.
Yeah, but I understand where you're coming from with that. Yeah, we we want playmakers all over the roster, doesn't matter offense, defense, d line, secondary, we want them all over the place.
And uh yeah, as an offensive guy, I look on at defensive players and if it's an issue for me to game plan against, and absolutely we'd love to have them on our roster as a defensive player to go after our opponents, but it's not always that easy, and it really at the end of the day, it comes down to eleven guys doing their job.
If you don't have that star, that's okay. You can still be an effective unit.
And so, uh yeah, we want as many playmakers and stars as we possibly can. But at the same time, we know that complimentary football wins in this league. We know that eleven guys playing is one also wins in this league.
Tries to look at hil Mary's.
Damer would have no more and one of the guy.
He's the most is to start to build the OOSUS in.
A round listen super talented uh.
I think Declann mentioned it when when he got interviewed a few weeks ago.
The out of structure, the off schedule, the creation.
That's that's what stands out the most because that's really the way that this league's going right now. It seems like as much as you want to make it pure progression one to two to three, there's just too much variety. The pass rush is coming down and to have an athlete like Caleb extend to play and potentially find it explosive down the field, that's what That's what gets me
going a little bit. I get excited thinking about that because I haven't really been around that since I've been in the in the in the league, but I've seen I've been on the other side, and I have experience, and it's demoralizing when you're on the other side and you're watching that happen to your defense.
Have a lot of run games and plane and don't necessarily.
Curious.
Yeah, there is a marriage between the two, there's no doubt, But I I would agree with what you just said. You don't necessarily have to be a great running team to get reaction in the play action game. I think it all starts with what your line up front can do, what your backs do well, and you take it from there. And and listen to what's so beautiful about the coaching staff that we put together is I didn't hire a
bunch of my friends. I went outside of my circle on purpose because I wanted to collect a different mix of experience, of energy, ideas, and we're all gonna make it come together and it's gonna be the Chicago Bears going forward.
And so uh, it can look a number of different ways.
Eric Biennemy's got a lot of experience in the in the Gun Run game and what they did in Kansas City obviously, and Declan has a lot of success from the Sean Payton tree and Press Taylor has a lot of success from the Chip Kelly all the way on. And so we've got a lot of library, if you will, to draw from and and we'll see it all come together once we get our hands on these guys.
You see DeAndre Swift season the.
Potential.
Yeah.
So I was with Swifty when when we first drafted him in Detroit a number of years ago, and I followed his career even after he left Detroit, and uh, I think very highly of him. He's an explosive athlete. There's a number of things that he can do, both in the running game in the passing game. I do think he can help ignite an offense because he's got that playmaking ability.
So it'll be fun to start to work together again here this spring time with him. Why Chico how Park like Antwine ran Hill to Chicago. Listen, L's a stud and that's that's one of the reasons was Uh.
Not only will he help me out tremendously, but he's gonna make this offense. He's gonna make this team. He's gonna make that receiver room better. He's gonna leave it better than when he found it. I know that for for certain. And it helps that he's coming home too. So I'm really excited about him being able to get in the building be around these players because he does. He's got a special energy and aura about him that just rubs off on everybody.
Working.
Yeah, so I think Ryan talked about it this morning a little bit. We feel really good about free agency in the draft and and how the supply matches up with our demand. And so it's, uh, we've we've been able to dive into the film over the last few weeks. But now we can verify the personality, the football intelligence, and all those types of things that you wouldn't normally have known just by watching the tape. So it's just the next step in the process right now. And and uh,
we're just cooking on along. You want names, Is that what you're looking for?
There's a listen. Yeah, we want a physical group, all right. It starts with that.
And that's just not that's not just the offensive line, that's the entire team. D A and I have been talking about what that looks like on defense. Uh, it's gonna look that way on offense. Starts in the trenches up front. Uh, we talk about finishing in a dominant position. We want to be around the football. The best football players they finish around the ball.
Uh.
And so that's what you're gonna see from our unit. The five guys that that we roll in to and it's not even just going to be five. Last few years, it ends up being six, seven, eight, nine guys end up playing significant number of snaps. So we've got to find those five best guys, but we also have to get a good bullpen.
If you will ready to go to go in at a moment's notice, makes sense, you.
Ut frame, Is it realistic?
Flip that any offen?
Yeah, I think it's been done before, right, I mean, I think there's a number of teams that did that last year. The Panthers come to mind when they went out in free agency and got a couple of top guards and really changed the dynamic of their offense. And you saw them clicking there in the second half of the season once they started to really gel. So there's no question that you can change the dynamic of a
room just like that, uh that particular room. It does take a little bit of time for five guys to come together, especially if you have to deal with the attrition and the injuries. For five guys to be be working on the same page. It's when you watch the tape and you come away with I think I made this statement in my opening press conference that that's an area we have to get better. That doesn't necessarily need me, and we need five new starters because all it takes
is one individual to blow up a play. And so we're just identifying where we can get a little bit better, and we're gonna continue to raise that floor and and we'll find the right mix of five to eight nine ten guys.
Also saw that thanks getting yourself with the quarterback and your staff to make sure that.
Clock management. Well, I'm not working with the quarterback right now, but I will be soon enough.
So we are already we already have a plan in place in terms of Uh, Harry Freed was already on staff. He's someone I've got a relationship with from going back to Miami. I think very highly of him, and uh, I'm really looking forward to sitting down. We've already started this process. We call it the breakfast Club. He and I go thirty minutes every day right now, and he's just taking I said, teach me like I'm a rookie quarterback from the start to the finish.
And so we're about halfway through his program right now.
And so once we get through that, we'll make a decision on where we want to go in terms of when the players get in and educating them on how we want to handle the situations that can pop up and potentially win or lose ball games for us.
Declan so a great story about him.
I ended up calling John Morton, who took the OC job at Detroit. He'd worked with Declan the last couple of years, and.
I asked him. I said, Hey, how's Declan doing? Is he ready to be a coordinator?
He said, Ben, listen, he's another Ben Johnson, which I think that's a good thing. I'm banking on that being a good thing, So listen. I think he and I are a match made in heaven. He thinks very much like me. It's been awesome getting him into the building the last few weeks and extremely detailed, extremely organized. The age does not matter. He is going to be respected by not only the players, but also his fellow coaches
as well. I can already see that coming into place with the coaching staff meetings that we're having right now.
He's very well informed. It's just like anybody.
If you can help make the people around you better, they're going to find value in you. And so that's what Declan's bringing to the table force right now.
Ye thank you a couple other big things that really stuck out to me because we talk about this, you and I all the time off the air. He wasn't interested in hiring a whole staff of his friends, and I thought wow, because I saw him beforehand. Tom, he was getting ready to walk over to the podium just exchange pleasantries, and I said, Man, I'm really impressed with the type of staff you brought together, the different experiences, the older guys, the guys in their sixties to the
young guys. And he goes, Man, he goes, yeah, yeah, I just I'm excited about it, you know. And I said, yeah, this is something that's not small. This is a big deal, like the type of staff you put together. And you'll hear in our interview with Ryan poles Out, you know, he gave Ben a lot of credit for picking those coaches. I mean, I'm sure there was some talking conversation, but he picked his staff.
Picking a staff of your friends is detrimental to success because you can't be worried about hurting feelings. You have to be making sure that these guys are brought in with the successes. They had to coach the different positions that they have to be accountable for and sometimes you have to hold them up to a certain level of expectations that you need in order to ultimately see the
success that you're fighting for. And that was one of the most encouraging lines out of Ben throughout the press conference was the fact that he didn't go out and hire friends.
He went out and.
Hired quality coaches, and that's super encouraging for the development of the players, and the players should be excited about that.
Also, looking for the type of people that you want. He talked about physicality, physicality across the board on this team. Certainly you need it in the trenches. So in my mind's eye, I close my eye. I know I have a definition of what physicality looks like. I don't know if it matches what a town Thayer's definition of physicality looks like, or Ben Johnson's or Ryan Poles for that matter, But I know speed is king in this NFL. But I'm rolling it back a little bit. I'm back to
the old days. I don't care how fast you are anymore. I care how physical and violent you're gonna be, because if you're a smart player, you're gonna play fast.
And so I know you know you can't substitute a four to two guy beating you deep. I get that, but those guys are rare.
I want a physical, nasty football team to watch and enjoy and wrap my arms around in the city of Chicago, and I think that's what they're heading towards.
I look at physicality from the defensive side of the football. I want sideline to sideline physicality. I want to see an offensive opponent if he's going to make his way to out of bounds and that defensive player has a chance to take a shot at him before he gets out of bounds, I want him to take it. I want him to be relentless in getting to the quarterback. I want them to be able to be physical enough where there's players that have concerned if they're going across
the middle or they're exposing themselves a little bit. I want them to be able to research the vulnerabilities of the offensive opponent they're taking their playing and then take advantage of that. And then when I think about physicality on the offensive side of the football, I want to say, if I have a designated point of attack and I go to the line of scrimmage and I say, okay, we're going to run the ball right here for three yards that you can do it, that's the type of
physicality you have to put on display. And then if you have those multiple offensive line packages that add that element of physicality to it because you have bigger bodies up at the line of scrimmage, maybe taken advantage of what the defense is trying to do to you. Then that's part of the success of the movement of the football on your offense. And physicality can be in the play action passing game as much as it could be in a physical running game.
And from what we've seen out of Ben Johnson.
And preparing for him as a coach of an opponent, he's shown it, he's called it, he's put it on display, and we see results of it. So I'm encouraged when you use words like physicality because that's the type of football.
Team that we want to see.
And then obviously it's got to carry over to special teams as well, because they can make some huge plays in the special teams game, either to get you in a scoring position or take your opponent out of scoring position someone else.
To sustain physicality because you can all taste the tone of the day when special teams down the opening kickoff rock somebody and you have to start your eleven yard line on a long field. Crowd's going crazy. But as the game where I want the physicality that started then to continue over the course of the game. So you finish and have that other team just feel battered, weakened and there's no way we're going to be able to bought up our fist anymore.
Today and we're cowering out of here. That's my mindset.
I think you're talking about physicality that's a reward to the people in the stands because when you talk about physicality and do you see something that you're really excited about in the first quarter, imagine if you're seeing that in the fourth quarter as well, and then everything in between. Now you're talking about a packed house at Soldier Field. That's rewarding the players their effort on the football field. That can help you sometimes make your opponent look a
little dysfunctional on offense. So physicality is a great reward to everybody sitting in the stands at Soldier Field. And because of the Bears travel so well, that physicality on the road that travels well is something that is a reward in opponent stadiums as well.
I know your mind works in mysteriarious ways and that you can you can remember virtually everything that's happened in your football playing life.
Do you remember a game.
As physical as the Bears are back in those days, and as physical as your offensive line was that you met your match, so to speak, with a physical opponent that you remember like, wow, that was a war.
Give me.
I remember two games.
We played San Francisco forty nine ers in Soldier Field on Monday Night football.
We ended up winning the game ten.
To nine, and it was one of the most physical collision games I've ever played in. I probably had the biggest long distance hit of my career against Ronnie Lott in that game.
And then another one was.
The Philadelphia Eagles after Buddy Ryan became the head coach, when they had Reggie White and Jerome Brown and they had.
Pits and they had.
Simmons and they had that whole defensive backfield, linebacker Seth Joyner and the crew. That was just an unbelievable physical opponent. We won the game, but when you walked off the field, you felt the game. And that's something different because usually when you win a game, you don't feel the game, but sometimes you win the game and you still feel
the game. In those two games, specifically the forty nine ers on Monday Night football in Philadelphia Eagles in Chicago, you felt them, and you know sometimes I still feel.
Yeah for savings and service, get more with Geico had a chance and thankful for his time to sit down with Ryan Poles a part of what we call the car wash here at the scouting combine. He did many interviews here on Tuesday, so did Ben Johnson for that matter. That's part of the course for every NFL team. But Ryan sat down with a number of folks, including us, to discuss the hiring of Ben Johnson, what's going on
behind the scenes, and what the future looks like. Well, I appreciate it, but now you're an old pro here. I think it's bigger than ever radio row here at the combine.
I didn't. I walked in and was startled.
But you're used to this now, right, used to it. It's the old car wash and uh, but it's fun.
It's it's kind of a gateway into this this next season in terms of you know, acquiring new players to help us take the next step.
I like what you had to say earlier this morning with the with the local and national media. You know, momentum or things that didn't go well doesn't matter season. This season, you're starting fresh. You have to and this is obviously a reboot that can't get lost on everybody. Right, that's significant statement.
Demand, Yeah, it is, it is, and we got to remember that, you know, coming off a successful year or coming off a year like we just had, it's opportunity to hit the reset button and we got to focus on places of improvement and attack that, you know with all of our energy so that we can you know, show up next year and be as successful as we possibly can be.
And it is a heavy lift when you're trying to build a football team and then reboot. I'm talking about your job. So there's no there's no time for anything but that. Now, take us behind the curtain a little bit after you can X say a little bit the staffs together.
What have you learned?
Yeah, first, starting with Ben, you know I've talked about this is just how thoughtful and strategic he is and really all the decisions that he makes, uh, seeing him work through and talking through different you know, hires that he had on the staff and hear him talk about the chemistry of the group and not just the individual.
He's got really good perspective and really just a really smart football person, which is really encouraging because we're gonna have a lot of these tough decisions we got to make and we have to be thoughtful and it can't be about one person or any type of ego. It's
got to be what's best for the organization. So it's been really fun to see him work through that and then spending time with the staff that he's hired, and really seeing our front office and coaching staff come together to talk about how we want to move forward into the future.
So we have really good group of coaches.
We have good are good evaluators, highly community communicated at a high level, and just a lot of fun to work with.
How does it help your job when they're good evaluators, because I've seen many coaches have not been good a value.
They think they are, but they're not.
They don't that's not their full time job, obviously, But to have the range of age and experience on the staff. How purposeful is that? How purposeful was that and how important is that?
Yeah, that was very strategic and that's where I thought Ben did a great job is just pairing expertise with with former players, with guys that bring a lot of energy, that have been around a lot of different types of of of players and organizations.
So when you.
Combined all of that, you have a really good group that's very knowledgeable and not only just building football team but coaching and developing players, which is critical for us. But that communication has got to be there. So again, we're not gonna see eye to eye with everything, but you do want to kind of be within certain parameters, so you feel really confident about bringing in the type of players that you think can help your football team.
You know, and anybody's walk alike if they have a group of people they've been put together with and there's this moment when there's an excitement and electricity and you just feel, man, this is gonna be good.
I got a good team of people.
If you had those moments, can you share one? I mean, does anything like oh my gosh, this is better than I thought is.
Going to be. This is gonna be good.
Yeah.
The one thing I can point to is when we brought the coaches into the draft room, had all of the scouts from all over the country come in for our meetings, and we went position by position and went over the criteria that they're looking for for our offense and defense and special teams to perform at a high level. And I think just the back and forth, the questions that our scouts asked, the response from the coordinators, the openness between the two groups. You can really feel that
energy amongst the whole unit. So I'm excited. You can feel that energy through the whole building with with everybody that's here.
Yeah.
Now for scouts, they go out during the season and you're looking for your types of guys for the current staff at that moment. Is it a is it a title shift? Is it a seismic shift in types of personnel now? And does that challenge your scouts to now try to come together and find the right types of guys.
Yeah, it depends on the position and the side of the ball. So there's a couple of tweeks with different positions where you know, maybe physicality outweighs speed. Obviously both front office and coach would like to have both. Yes,
but you always get to right. So there's always a point in player acquisition where you can't have all the trades in one bundle, so sometimes you're left picking and deciding, and that's where it helps us create clear vision of how we're gonna go about and who we're gonna target. So slight adjustment. There's some you know, schemes, adjustments defensively where we're gonna change some things up where the physical criteria changes a little bit, So we'll work through that.
I think there's some guys on our team that adapt really easily. Other it's gonna be a little bit more challenging and we'll work through that. But the one thing I just love is is that the communication has been very clear.
You know, I say, the third of the roster, the bottom of the that turns over every year, a lot of wave of one year signings of free agents, you know, to give you depth and plug people in that can play right away, and were looking at a potential like there could be a lot of new personnel.
On the team.
We have the opportunity to bring in quite a few players this offseason. I wouldn't say it's gonna be, you know, anything crazy, but when I look at the draft and I look at free agency, I do love the fact that.
Our needs and the supply to match up nicely.
So I think there's gonna be opportunity to bring in players that can help us win early.
I mean, everybody knows and everybody feels that we've talked about the line of scrimmage is certainly important, but you've done this before, so the best steps to building an offensive line that can make an immediate impact. Because everybody's oh, you know, I'll be able to draft for starting offensive lineman. They're gonna make mistakes. I mean, how do you balance that with the need to succeed, you know, while growing, You know what I'm saying.
Yeah, I think it's been in locks up with Ben and his staff.
I also think it's gonna be some type of combination of older players that can get up and get running fast with some younger players that come through the draft and maybe some guys that are in their second year that are still learning.
How to play at a high level.
And when you combine those with good coaches, good teachers, you can still achieve some of those goals of getting up and getting running fast. But we also know that when you are putting new scheme together, you have a new coach, new players coming in there is going to be a process to get this thing up and get the full speed and but we're excited to go through that.
Thank you to our partners CDW and Lenovo who make amazing happen. Learn more at CDW dot com, slash Lenovo. Let's talk Caleb because it all it all centers around his continuing development and I know you mentioned it's like almost a reset for him. Fundamentals, techniques, process, all that learning with a guy like Ben who's how impactful do you suspect it will be and what their relationship will grow with?
Yeah, it's going to be very impactful. And their relationship has to.
Be strong and their trust in each other has to be very very high because in order to get Caleb to where he needs to go, there needs to be a lot of truth talk in terms of what he needs to accomplish to his game to a level that can elevate the entire team, which is gonna take time and everybody knows that.
And there's truth talk like that's been mentioned quite a bit.
What does that mean just telling it how it is? Like in terms of what's good enough and what's not good enough? And I think one thing we talked about at the end of the year. Is just like challenging everybody to elevate their game consistently.
Whether you're a pro bowler, all pro like, there's always room to get better.
And I know Ben's gonna challenge Caleb to take the next step because we saw some special moments.
We just got to see that consistently.
But we got to attack some of the areas that he's got to improve, and I know they'll get that done.
The business of football.
Do you feel good about some possible extensions.
Yeah, that's that's another really fun part with the new staff coming in is watching tape, getting caught up and making sure that the players, certain players fit what we're
trying to do. So we'll we'll meet with some reps while we're here just to see if things make sense, and then we'll get back and have some good conversations and spend some time with Matt fein Stein, who's done a wonderful job making sure our cap space is in a healthy position, remain flexible, and obviously we always wanted to take care of our own and resign guys that we draft, so we'll look into that and hopefully some of those things will work out.
As we go forward.
Also, I know you like challenging yourself. How have you said about doing that for twenty twenty five.
Yeah, this whole process, you know, going through the coach search, reflecting on why we came up short this past year has been really impactful, not only for me, but for our whole group, just in ways that we can improve both play, our acquisition and pur agency and the draft, making sure that we're honed into the right areas, that guys are coming in with the right criteria to elevate
our team and elevate their own game and develop. And then even like I said, going through the coaching search, just learning so much through that process of what is necessary to coach at a high level and bring a team together. It's been a lot of fun to go through. And again the most important piece like can you self
assess and be critical of yourself? And I think we've done that as a group and I've done that as an individual to make sure we don't make repetitive mistakes and we continue to grow and get better.
Good luck, good to see you, and it's going to be fun fun right, Good luck with everything. Thank you Tom As always when I do these interviews, I miss you. Well, what are some of your takeaways when you heard that.
I'm super excited for Ryan Poles because Ryan Poles is the man in charge. He is running this football team from the driver's seat all the way down to the last seat on the bus. And I think when he came aboard in the first go around with the Bears, he there was already pieces that were in place that
Ryan Poles didn't have a hand. And right now, Ryan Poles, when you look at some of the evolution of his scouting staff and bringing in this coaching staff and being allowed to make these choices that he has been setting hisself up for his whole career, you can almost hear it in his voice, the excitement, and you know, his ability to sit up there and answer questions from you
without needing to know the questions beforehand. But he's intelligent enough to know exactly how he's going to answer the question. So I'm super excited for him, and I wish him all the success in the world going forward. Because you know, I don't know if he said it to Ben or Ryan, but you talked about the excitement for the announcer as well. Yeah, and you know Ryan, Yeah, and I was excited like what I heard out of Ryan, his tone of voice and the way he addressed the media.
Yeah, I saw some other interviews and Poles indicated that some foundation steps in the process of getting Caleb up and running as a rookie were skipped and felt that that need to kind of accelerate the process. You can't skip steps, and that's what he realized. And so you know, team games can pour over tape and find all the weak points that maybe you didn't emphasize enough. So it feels Ben Johnson are not going to allow bad habits, are not going to allow things to regress.
That's not the way he rolls.
So you know, it's quite the admission, obviously, and he is one who does a lot of internal analysis. I appreciate the honesty, and yeah, in the name of winning as soon as possible, you still can't you still can't cut corners.
Of course not, but sometimes your hands are tied. When you're taking a quarterback to first pick in the NFL draft and then you annoying him as a starter immediately, then everything is moving forward with Caleb. Caleb doesn't have a chance to go through the growing pains and maybe suffer some setbacks during the course of the season. You have to be treated like a veteran, expected to live up to a veteran type of performance and then see how it goes from there.
And then when you have the opponents studying the.
Vulnerabilities of your offense, sometimes you're asking Caleb to get you out of that when he doesn't have all the answers about everything. And you know, for one of the things that frustrated me towards the end of the season, I thought they were neglectful on using Cole Kmet as a really valuable.
Tight end weapon.
And I think when a guy like Ben Johnson comes aboard and studies a little bit about a little bit about what a guy like that is capable of being, you know, that could be a quarterback's best friend. And he knows what DeAndre Swift is about. He uses the play action pass as well as any coach in the league. So I do think there are solutions to some of those answers that he's going to be able to figure out as he watches tape.
With the rest of his coaching staff.
It sounds like they have clear vision here on what they're looking for by position, So that'll help in free agency and then the draft. And you know a lot of people are looking at free agency saying, well, it's not a great free agent, but in terms of of what's available, however, they do match up with bears needs and wants both the draft and free agency in terms of availability, and obviously they're not shatt away from it.
Everybody knows the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball will get some serious attention.
Well, you know, Jeff, the cupboards aren't bear.
This isn't looking you know at a ross that you're trying to overhaul from top to bottom.
You got it.
As good as a defensive backfield as there is in the division, and some of the better in the league. You have great linebacker play. Like I said, I think you have good tight ends. I think you have good
running backs. I think you have good wide receivers. So if you can take some of the assets that you have available to you, both money and free agency and the draft, and you want to start developing that infrastructure the offense and defensive line that can last eight to ten years, you have access to it right now, as soon as free agency opens, and then as soon as the draft takes place. So this is not a cupboards are bear type of a roster. This is how can
we get the piece. This is the put in place that, yeah, maybe there's a guy playing a couple of weeks faster than you thought he would be playing, but then all of sudden, two months down the road, he's developing into the veteran that you thought he would become.
And then you know, behind the scenes, you and I have.
Talked about a couple of second year players that if they take a big step forward, it's really gonna, you know, add more to last year's draft than what's already been at it.
And you're talking about Karana Magaji and Austin Booker, both sides of the ball, right.
You know, Karanamgaji, if he takes a starter step and all of a sudden he is in there competing as one as the starting offensive lineman. You're talking about a guy that's played very little to a guy that's going to play a lot. And if he proves of the coaches that he can be a starter, that's a tremendous asset that you got in last year's draft. And then if you look at Austin Booker, I'm not asking for you to come in here and play sixty five snaps
a game. I'm asking you to come in here and play thirty five snaps a game and an extremely high level both run stopping, rushing the passer, and being the athlete that you've already put on display.
If those two guys that.
Are contributors from last year's draft choice, you're talking about a significant upgrade in the overall draft class of last year.
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So the executive director of Football Technology is Mike Santarelli, and he has a big role in having everything ready for the new.
Coaching staff to hit the ground running.
And Ryan Poles made a point of that in his news conference with the media from all over the NFL in Chicago, because that's a big deal. He wants that to be known as world class and Mike does a ton of work getting the computers set up. Coaches all have different wants and needs, and some are more educated in the technology and some are not, so you got to bridge that gap.
And apparently it went real smooth.
For the new coaching staff, and that was officially announced obviously last week, but they've been in the building, so I've heard a lot of great things about that. And secondly, Matt Feinstein becomes the vice president of football administration. I know Ryan's been very fond of Matt and what he's
done to help him understand the salary cap. And as we sit here right now, with the expansion of the salary cap per team and the departure now of DeMarcus Walker and the departure of Gerald Everett, the Peers have the fourth most cap space available. That's to re sign, to go into free agency, to take some big swings if they so desire, or to populate the roster with bodies that are no longer going to fit what the new schemes are going to call for.
And then you have all these draft picks.
They're they're well positioned, and I gotta I gotta give a tip of the cap to those two.
Gentlemen, Oh you get and they're deserve it. And Mike, Mike and Matt both they both deserve a pat on the back because their role in their importance and the overall success of the entirety of a roster and how they fit inside the building. Yeah, they're not going to stand up there and be doing interviews at podiums, but their value to a football team is as much as anybody that can stand at a podium.
So I'm super excited for both of them.
And I know that they're professionals, and you know, it doesn't surprise me that things are so professionally done by the two of them that they're in a good position on both of their what they're both responsible for.
A couple of observations. Since you're not on X, you're not on Twitter all these Number one, I've been coming here for thirty years, almost even before I was involved with the NFL, and it's stunning with the radio row now even this year has probably grown by another thirty forty percent.
I walked in today.
And then you know, our good friend Pete Burst from the Vikings Radio Network and the Chicago area native and a Golden domer.
You know, he was there.
We just cannot believe how many people are broadcasting live on their version of radio row here and it's just exploded. And so you're seeing videos from all over the NFL. So I caught one at Pete Carroll on a plane ride with his former general manager in Seattle, and the thinking is they spent like an hour talking, whispering, and all they're trying to get Geno Smith over in Vegas. Then you see shots of it's just it's crazy what
this has become. Like rumor city and it's video. Everybody's getting videotaped, and wonder what they're talking, who they talking to?
What agent?
Oh that must mean this is going to happen. Oh, they're trying to trade for Miles Garrett. Oh my gosh. If you love ball and you love the off season, you're loving this.
Yeah.
I wish someone turned the camera around and walk back to coach and look at the poor players that are sitting back there six', five three hundred and five pounds sitting in the.
Middle scene and, Coach so you saw you saw that?
Video NO i, DID i JUST i JUST i flew on.
That, Plane, JEFF i know THAT i know that player plane.
That, Well, No i'm talking about you, know on the flight To oh you're saying the flight To, indie they're not giving you first class, ticket, Right that's What i'm.
Saying they got those coaches that are setting up there in first class and they're sharing stories and strategies and. Stuff that's WHY i, SAID i wish someone turned the camera around walk back into coach and watching the poor kid that's flying in From, Seattle, washington that's six,' five three hundred and ten pounds sitting in the center seat.
And, COACH also I got i saw a quote that you. Will like it's From The philadelphia eagles, general Manager How. He roseman he's done a great job at the. Podium today, he SAYS and, I quote i have an unhealthy obsession with offensive and. Defensive lineman he simply can't. Have ENOUGH, and i, YOU know i think we both subscribe to that.
Same Theory and ryan was asked a question by one Of the chicago media members and, he was, you know he made an assumption where you have the tenth pick and you've got all this money in, free agency so if you spend money on a pass rusher in free agent doesn't mean you're you're not going to get one at the, tenth Pick and ryan corrected him because and, rightly so you can ever. Have enough you can never have enough pat look at what happened In The. Super bowl you can never have enough.
Pass, rushers, right well more defensive, you know on that conversation of offensive, defensive LINE and i know we probably don't have time to do IT because i would go off on a rant that may be even not be suitable for.
A podcast is this whole deal with the?
Tush, push okay and the fact that there's a team out there that's saying they. Should outlawed it's insulting to me as an, offensive lineman because offensive lineman they win. By leverage the tush push is a play that is Leveraged one and in my forty years Around The, chicago bears we have probably had two centers that would be good enough to run the, tush push and that'd Probably be Jay.
And olan and.
It's not, simply, Done right and if it was, simply done everybody would be. Doing it and then for a team to go out there and be so offended that they want to go out there and say we want to outlawed it, that's Offensive.
And nick, sirianni said as much. He goes we spend a lot of time working on.
That play it's not an easy play for anybody that thinks that it's just a matter of. Lining, Guys, SO jeff i think we were Playing The dallas cowboys back in nineteen eighty Five and Walter And william perry was in. The Backfield walter payton was stuck in the at the. Goal Line william perry picked him up and dragged him across the. Goal line they threw a flag because that used to be called a, legal advancement and then they took that rule out. Of it and that's why you
can have this play that they have designed. It NOW and i just, think that, you know when somebody can't defense a certain, successful play then they go to change.
The rules and it's just got my blood.
Going today, you know you can take it out of, this podcast, BUT no i just want my feelings to.
BE known, i, KNOW no i, respect It and i'm not taking it out because, if hey what's the old saying IN, the nfl you run it until somebody. Stops it that Was the, lombardi sweep it Was The. Dallas cowboys they had a play that they kept, running it, running it. RUNNING it, i, mean hey a coaching staff For The chicago bears ran power oh on the first nap of every offensive, game plan and you know we're going to.
Do it they, stop, IT right i mean that's the way, it.
Works right.
You know and that's the thing about, it is some times success is. In simplicity and if you're just a more powerful line of scrimmage than, your opponent and you can run that same, play repeatedly then do it until they figure.
Out a way to.
Stop YOU so i guess the only way that it would become a red flag if there were repeated injuries or a serious, injury developed how that would.
Be taken it wouldn't be taken in a. Great way it's a.
Minimal collision it's offensive line and defensive line are probably six. Inches apart it's who can get lower and who can get off the ball. More powerfully that's what. It's about it's not when you're having a running back that's running fifteen yards into an. Oncoming linebacker that's not.
The, case WELL all i got to say is after listening to, everybody Here and i'm going to be here the rest of. The week you get more and more excited about what shape the twenty Twenty five bears are going.
To.
Take cool they'll add they want, playmakers Everywhere And ben johnson said.
As much you can't have. Enough playmakers and that's the way. Head coach just look.
At things scouts are on. The march they're looking for those playmakers for savings. And service get More. With geico you hat any final thoughts BEFORE we, i mean you were ready to. Play today if this was a, game day you would be ready.
To go you came.
Out ready it's more COMBINE because i. KNOW what i know HOW excited i was to go to, the COMBINES and i know what the PERFORMANCE that i wanted to put. Out there when you look at the Guys Like dave Remington And jimbo Covert And bruce Matthews And don mosebar and just the great offensive linemen that were a part of the, MY combine.
I wanted i wanted to live up to. Those guys and so the combine is still exciting.
For me and one thing About this bears offense is we're going to have to be prepared for the UNEXPECTED because i think the mind and. The Creativity and ben talked about it how he and his brother used to draw plays when they were, little kids and no play is unusable and because you don't know If is caleb stuff umbling or is that part of? The design Is Uh darnell wright gonna pull out to his left and
throw a pass or throw. A block, i mean there's so many exciting elements to what the future of this offense. Could be it's gonna be fun.
To.
WATCH well i also like what he said about the different influences on. The Coaches declan doyle has Been With, Seahn peyton you've got you know and others on. The staff, you've got You, Got ben you've got the influence now on the defensive side of the Ball Of. Dennis allen there's gonna it's gonna be. Whatever happens it's gonna be a blend, of something.
And it's gonna Be the.
Bears offense it's not gonna be a Replica of detroit or and it's going to Be a bears offense and it could be.
Quite UNIQUE and i love.
The ex players that are part of.
THE staff i Do they they've all have a great reputation, and uh they deserve to be here and they've earned.
Their stripes i'm gonna tell you that the guy who's, Making THEM like i, Asked, somebody hey, you know have you met you spend any Time with Antoine. Rendel man he's he is, juiced up he's he's got a lot of charisma in. That Building, ex, player quarterback wide receiver IN, the nfl. College quarterback, Uh yeah i'm Excited about andre and window l and how.
He coaches He's a, chicago guy so it's in. HIS blood i.
LOVE that I think ben only referred to him at the podium As. L, oh, yeah yeah.
That's.
Exactly right, all right well you're you're. T Squared so i'm gonna wrap up with this, and uh we appreciate it for savings.
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For.
Listening everybody please subscribe now In The chicago bears, Official, App, apple, spotify YouTube or wherever you get.
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