Welcome in Tubble Bears Weekly, a Chicago Bears Network production download the Chicago Bears Official at brought you by Verizon to follow the team on the go. Bears Weekly has brought you by African Healthcare, Athletico Physical Therapy, Beth Rivers, CD Dollan More, Connie's Pizza by Gens Energy, and Miller likee Kira. Your host, Jeff Chiloniak aka the Mayor of Bearsville and his sidekick Tom the sur Faster There.
Welcome Evan, everybody, Welcome in Too Bears Weekly. We're deep into the NFL scouting combine and we are going to be talking all about it all night long. Got some special guests as well. Great Cosel breaks down tape for NFL Films will join us. The hot topic is the quarterbacks, of course, and also Bruce Feldman, who does an outstanding job writing about Cottage football for The Athletic and the
sideline reporter for Fox College Football Saturdays. He does a great job and has done a deep dive already on a number of these players He's gotten to know very well with the course of their respective careers. I'm Jeff Jonnyck with Super Bowl winning Bears guard town there. Jim Mitill be along from the Combine as well. We're up at Hallise Hall. I drove back up here because of an event. We have tonight up here at Halls Hall. But I've been there all week, so we can talk
about that in time. I know you're watching everything on television right now and you're getting a lot of good information. But this is about quarterbacks. This draft about the top three, and then we're the rest fit in and potentially the first round. Of course, the Bears are the talk of the entire draft. Again, it is to.
You, but I'm a position.
It is to you, but I'm a position player, so I pay attention to a little bit more outside just the quarterback position. I tell you what, I see a lot of speed, a lot of athleticism. I see a lot of physical development. I see a lot of guys that aren't shy about getting into the weight room, and I'm glad to see it because I need to see the reflection of commitment by these guys that are invited to the combine that this is what they want to
do for a living. I've seen a lot of evidence in the forties and some of the drills that the different positions have done today.
Right, the first of the drills today. And now we're joined from Indianapolis by former Chicago Bears quarterback from Serious x MNFL radios, moving the chains, Jim Miller here for a couple of segments. He's got a big dinner tonight with the entire crew from Serious Exam. It's a big night for you and it's been a busy few days. What have you what have you learned so far and certainly how it pertains to the Bears.
Jimmy, Yeah, obviously, you know, you do wonder about the future of the combine when certain players won't be doing all the testing and some won't even be doing the medicals. Believe it or not. That's what the combine was formed to do, was get the medicals on all the players where teams, you know, can submit that information abroad to all thirty two teams. But I think Tom kind of nailed it. I think you're seeing the you know, the athoticism of the edge rushers, the big defensive lineman that
got on the field today. So there was a lot of buzz because you start to see the numbers that Braden Fisk from Florida State. What a show that that guy put on and Pat and I interviewed that kid. Seventy one games in college, five years at Western Michigan, transfers to Florida State. The guy missed one game, he missed four practices total, and he actually put on a
show today four seven eight and is forty. He's a very explosive player, very productive and really, you know, he's right there in Michigan City, you know, just down the street from the Chicago Bears. He just wonder if they want an explosive free technique. This guy has literally checked every box from the Reese's Senior Bowl to what he did here today at the Annapolis Combine. I just saw the recent numbers of Dallas Turner, the edge rusher. My goodness,
what he posted today. But again, you got to be able to play football all the tape factors in. But you know, there are a lot of different things that are unfolding here at the Combine that are not traditional and things have been done differently than in the past.
Hey, Jim, I asked Jeff this question. I'd like to hear your answer because last year there was so much conversation about Bryce Young.
CJ.
Stroud in the quarterback position almost at sometimes sometimes and I get a kick out of watching the rest of the position players and to see their performance in the combine. And then you think about what the narrative, what the conversation has been about the quarterback position this year.
Is it any different this year than it was last year?
Just because the amount of quarterbacks they have at the upper upper side of the scale.
Yeah, yeah, well I agree with you, Tom, I think this year is a little bit different. Yeah, quarterbacks always drive drafts, but you look at the guys that are out there available on the free agent market. I don't even think since when I played there have been this many guys available. You've got Ryan Tannehill, you know, you know, a player like Russell Wilson is expected to be released. You've got you know, other players that are out there
that come with the extensive playing time. Gardner Minshew, he's available on the open market. Kirk Cousins is available on the open market. So just the volume of quarterbacks in free agency and what the draft is going to supply is a lot different than what has been in the past. And as we know, sixty eight new starting quarterbacks had
to start games this year. So much so that the NFL already came out today and Troy Vincent, they're at three forty five Park Avenue in New York, said that they want to change the grounding rule because they know it's a problem because if your quarterback gets hurt, it's going to affect the outcome of games and the play is going to significantly drop for teams that have an
opportunity to compete. So very interesting year all around what's considered to really protect these quarterbacks and what's available out there to make your team better, you.
Know, Jim, another topic that has interested me because not only are paying attention to the Combine, but paying attention to the NFL over the last few weeks. But now it kind of picked up a little speed here at the combine. I've never heard the conversation quicker about coaches being on a hot seat because they got Belichick and Vrabel and some of the other guys waiting in the wings for their coaching opportunities.
So it's almost like a combination.
If they don't get the draft right there converged to performance and development at a high level, you could see guys that are in jeopardy already are losing their job, and for me, it's kind of a weird topic to being brought up at the combine when this should be about the players and not a coaching future.
Yeah, but I think we know that that window gets smaller every year, and it's not just for the coaches. I think it's for the general manager. Certainly, a guy like Bill Belichick with his success, you know you're gonna, you know, got to respect to him and what he's done. You know you're gonna want him to see it through. But you've got new bee coaches, and I think we know the reasons why. I look it down there in Carolina with Dave Kanellis who was just hired there, not
a lot of guys would have taken that job. It's not an acceptable job, you know, with what they've done and how impatient the owner has been, and so it's just not an attractive job, and typically that guy wants to win. Now, these owners are aggressive, they don't have patients, and that's why he's already gone through four new head coaches. And I think that that's truly a new trend around the NFL as well. Think of the new owners out in Denver. I mean, they signed the contract for Russell
Wilson and then brought on Sean Payton. All right. If I'm the owner, I'd be like, dude, that's why I brought you in here is to fix the quarterback, all right. And this is a guy who's played at a high level, and it sounds like they're already to cut ties. So impatience is at an all time high. Whether it's a veteran coach in Sean Payton or whether it's a rookie coach like Dave knelis.
Where the impatience is is at the most important spot, offensive coordinator. Since twenty twenty one, every offensive coordinator has changed, and gonna be is that insane? I mean, we bring it up with with co Sale, great coach selling. Are any of you coming up here a bit later. I'm
just stunned by that every single coordinator has changed. Now, they may have been rehired by somebody else from that group, but Jim, when you're talking about QB and offense is taken several years to really digest, get understood, and you're
changing languages constantly. It flies in the face of all the discussion we have about guys like Peyton Manning, who had the same offense for all those years, and and Aaron Rodgers and Green all these different offenses where quarterbacks flourished in because you took your time with them and you didn't have all this change. It's not good for
the sport. It's not good for offense, not good for these quarterbacks who you know, we beat them up when they don't do well, but maybe in part because we're not patient with the offensive coordinators that are teaching them.
No, I agree with that, Jeff, because you know that's never good on a young quarterback's career, or when you're constantly changing offensive coordinators. One coach coaches it one way, another coach coaches it a different way. They've got different schemes, different philosophies, different terminologies that you've said and discussed and really just you know, laid out right there. When these old coordinators need to adjust to the talent that they have and gear the offense to the talents of the
players that they have, and you don't see that. This is a lot of cookie cutter stuff where it doesn't work out. Let's move on. Let's get another guy in here, and he's gonna want to do it his way. Here's what he believes in. And you look at a guy like Alex Smith, who I bring up all the time. He had nine different offensive coordinators as the quarterback for
the San Francisco forty nine ers. All Right, he moves on to Andy Reid, and by the way, he took them as the first number one overall pick to a championship game. Andy Reid identified the talent they trade for him. Thus they win the AFC West Championship before they ended up going to Patrick Mahomes. All right, by then, he had been through the gauntlet, He had been through every system, he had learned everything. It was a school of hard knocks for him, and it's just never a productive way
to go about it. I think we all acknowledge Alex Smith ultimately had a good career, but it was a rough start. Man for all the reasons that you just mentioned. That guy was just going through offense after offense and never could settle in. He was constantly learning the new offense, having to get on the same page with the new coach, when really the coach really needs to gear the offense to the players that they have.
By the way, Braden fisks forty faster than Patrick Mahomes ran at the combine. I just find that amazing for the red shirt senior transfer to FSU from Western Michigan. All right, Jim, I'm going to take a break. We'll have one more segment with you with Tom Fair. I'm Jeff Joniack. Thanks to our producers Jordan tread Up and Dan Burrelli and also the Jay Cantu in the ESPN one thousand studios. This is Bears Weekly on of ESPN one thousand and the Bears Radio Network.
Bears Weekly with a Boys of the Bears for twenty three years Jeff Jack on the Bears Radio Network.
And the segment of Bears Weekly brought to you by Igs Entergy, Jeff Joniick, Tom there, Jim Millers in Indianapolis taking care of combine duty. We're headed back there tomorrow to here quarterback Caleb william and Drake May and Jayden Daniels and all those guys that Jim the Lion to get in. There is going to be interesting. People are saying this is going to start showing up at five am.
Because if people can understand in the old days, you know, you'd get one or two guys and you'd have a lot of room to operate and you can actually ask questions. But now they bring in ten or twelve players at once and you have to pick your your lane. But the crowd will be around Caleb Williams, that's just the fact of the matter. And there's TV cameras and a lot of reporters and you're not going to be able to even hear what he has to say, so you may have to wait to hear it later. But what
are your expectations. What kind of questions do you think he's going to get?
Yeah, I think you're going to get a ton of questions one and it's just totally different now, Jeff, I think about when I first started with Serious, there were only two hundred and fifty credentials offered by the NFL. Now there's over twelve, over two thousand media credentials that
are approved by the NFL. Because this has became now a TV event, right and the media comes down here and it's it's a big event, and now they're broadcasting it on TV and it's somewhat must watch a TV But yeah, I do think everybody's going to surround Caleb Williams. You know, he is projected to be the number one
overall quarterback taken. I do think he's been well prepped, much like his the release of the statement the other day about how much he, you know, would love to be drafted by Chicago and he's talking about deep Tis Pizza and Sirius Tower, and you know, somebody prepped him. You know, somebody prepped him to say the things that he did. And I think he'll be prepped tomorrow and
very polished with how he deals with the media. He's not going to show his cards and we know he's not going to do a lot down here, but the media is part of it because his camp wants him to have his story told. And that's just part of the test match that goes in to the NFL draft nowadays.
Ask each of you want to start with Tom and then Jim pick it up, pick up the baton. What do you need to hear from him? Sylvia and Wado asked me that same question. I said, I want to see and hear the depth of his love of the game. And sometimes that can't be rehearsed, it's just comes out organically. What do you want to hear?
You know he started and now he's put that ball in motion.
I don't know if there's any injury concerns throughout his college career that we should be concerned about. Is he trying to hide something that's been bothering him. Is that why he doesn't want to do the medical Does he just not want to take that time up. So I would be interesting to, you know, just hear it from him, to say if there's any concerns about you know, any any issues that may come up in the future. I don't know if he'll answer him honestly, but I would
like to know that. But you know, I'm I think, like Jim said, he's been prepped to talk enthusiastically about any of the top cities that are up up in this draft, and you know, I don't think that he'll you know, you can ask him a question to really get an honest answer out of him. But just because now I have medical medical concerns, if he's not willing to stand in front of an X ray machine or get tested by the doctors when they look at your knee manipulation and the other things.
They do, well, I think from his standpoint, that's a big mistake because as we know, they always have the medical rechecks, and at some point he's going to have to give the medicals to all the teams that potentially would be interested in him. There's no team that's going to sign off on just drafting him without having the medical. And so if this is unprecedented for a player to do this, this could be unprecedented for a team that says, hey, you don't give us some medical or taking you off
our board. And I hate to be as blunt as that, but your body is your resume, quite frankly, and teams need to push back a little bit because that's what
this Indianapolis combine was designed for. But any one of those teams that potentially and obviously the Bears are in the number one pole position to do it, they're going to get the medical and they will put him through a workout whether he likes it or not, because if he doesn't, then they may take him off their board too, No different than any other team, because those are what the fact finding, mission guided discovery that teams are looking for when they were to make that type of investment
into a player who was refusing to do so.
Jim, have you altered any of your thinking on any of the top quarterbacks, and that includes like JJ McCarthy and Michael Penis and Bone Knicks, not just the big three that we're all discussing that could go one, two, three in the draft. Because of who you've spoken to scouts or your own analysis of the tape and just your research.
Yeah, I think Jayden Daniels is going to leap frog Drake May and like getting him from North Carolina. Yeah, I do think you will. I think teams are really he in order the way I hear it from teams, they look at him as another Lamar Jackson, who's what a two time league MVP now right, So that's the feeling they're getting about Jayden Daniels. I do think Michael Pennix is going to be big on the medical but I do think he will go in the first round. I'm somewhat surprised at how high a lot of teams
look at JJ McCarthy from University Michigan. A lot of teams have him in the top twenty right now, which surprises me. I personally don't rate him that high, and not that I don't like him, but I just think that's too high for him. I think he's more of a system guy on a very talented team in my opinion. But a lot of people will go back and say, well, go look at the TCU game with him. He threw it all over the lot. Michigan has eighteen players down
here at the Combine. They are a very good football team. I personally think he's overrated, and I think if you look at a guy like bo Nicks, I don't think he's going in the first round. I think he's a six year player who's kind of at his ceiling right now. You know he's got sixty one games played in college, so I think you know you've seen him at his best. But Michael Pennix's guy I'm interested in. I think his medicals, if they prove true, I think he's a guy you'd
want to take in the first round. So I see probably five guys going in the first round.
And lastly, before we let you going off, Tom ask one more question as well. But in terms of everything else, is there a position group that you're most intrigued watching? And you're watching certainly the stuff today from the defensive line and linebacker level that you really want to see.
I know we're going to watch those quarterbacks on Saturday but any group that you need to see to verify some things or to push up, especially as it pertains to the Bears, who you know, I would think edge safety, not not that they won't fill those needs in free agency, but receiver, those type of things.
Yeah, I think receivers. You know, there's all kinds of good receivers and they come in all sizes that seem to be that seems to be the case the past few years. I am interested in these pass rushers. One specifically is the Missouri kid Darius Robinson, who ran I think to four to nine to one today at two hundred and eighty seven pounds. I mean, this guy is like to me, he's like a Cam Jordan type of player. I think he's unique. I do think there are linebackers there.
You're unique. And I do think there are a lot of big corners in this draft. A lot of big corners in this draft, So that intrigues me. An offensive tackle, this is a good offensive line draft, you know. For Michael Haynes, I think I brought him up from yukon the Garden. There's good centers here. I think the Bears are positioned a draft a good center. Powers Johnson out there from Oregon is one to really keep your eye on.
But a lot of good centers, a lot of good tackles, and some good guards so o line corner or pass rusher I think are interesting. I think all areas that should interest the Chicago Bears.
You know, Jim, when you look at the tight end position and all the job requirement of that position in today's modern day game, you know, sometimes I find it difficult to see a solid evaluation of what the upside of is the of these tight ends. You know, you got bowers from origins and young kid kids like that. But is there a group of tight ends here that, when we talked about it last week, that Bears maybe should be interested in getting one similar to the template
of Cole kmet in the versatility. Is there a talent amongst this group of guys?
Oh yeah, I think if you look at Ben Sinnett from K State, check out this guy. I mean, this guy walks on at K State, He's got a full ride to South Dakota. He walks on to K State. He tells his dad, dad, I'm gonna earn a scholarship in a year, And his dad's like, hey, man, why don't he just take South Dakota that way, I don't got to pay a year of school, right, So he says, Dad, I'll earn a scholarship in the year, goes to k State, gains forty pounds, earns a scholarship in his first year.
And this dude's a player. He's a player. He's a movement tight end. He's gonna get better at his inline stuff. But this guy has earned it everywhere he's played. And he, like I said, he walked on and he would he was not a big guy. He said he's got the cle He did his first day and said, I thought I made a mistake, but he said, I'm going to see it through. And he made a promise to his dad and he filled it. The other guy is Theo Johnson from Penn State Legit six six, two fifty seven.
You should hear the story of his family. Crazy moms from their husband was abusing her. She took their six kids, walked away from the marriage. She now has become a lawyer. I talked to this young man today. He's the real deal and he can do it all. And he's got the frame, the character, the discipline, the drive. Everything you're looking for. He's a very interesting guy that I'm sure a lot of teams want to coach.
Yeah, I was there listening to that story and he was so he says, I am proud to be here. My mom did everything for us. They were homeless for a long while and and everybody in the family is on its way to having successful life. And she's a partner in the law firm. You got that one last thing.
I will just say that, Senat because you talk about the template of Colecombett. You know, in high school letter and base golf, tennis, track and hockey, So you talk about athleticism, versatility.
He's got a little bit of in his athletic background.
All Right, big Jim, I know you got a big den. Where are you going tonight?
We're going to Tony's Nice Little Tony don't know.
It, don't know it never been well. You guys have a great time. You guys have a lot to celebrate. It's been a heck of a run with everything you guys have done here in the off season, with the Senior Bowl, Super Bowl, now this, then the Pro Days, then the Draft. You guys work hard over there. We'll see you up there again. I'll be back tomorrow, guys.
Good to be with you, all right.
Jim Miller here on Bears Weekly. Coming up next. We're joined by Greg Cosell from NFL Films and interview I did with him this afternoon in Indianapolis with Tom There, I'm Jeff Joniak on ESPN one thousand and the Bears Radio Network.
This is Bears Weekly with a voice of the Bears for twenty three years. Jeff Jonak on the Bears Radio Network.
Well on VIP accession including exclusives, eating cebline, credentials and more to every Bears home game next season. Well, join the wait list to get the ultimate VIP fan package in twenty twenty four by visiting Chicago Bears vip dot com. We're talking combine, We're talking quarterbacks, Jeff Joniek and Tom Thayer. Interesting stuff from Big Jim Miller, as he always has a unique perspective. He talks to so many of these guys every single day. And I was watching him yesterday.
He's on his set, they're doing morning interviews for their afternoon show. But then he's walking around and he's just talking with coaches, executives, and it's just a constant. This is what it is during the period of time you're available. And in the old days it was all day. Now they've taken these interviews Tom and they're twenty minute chunks of groups of players, and so one day it may start at eight am and be done by noon. Today it started at nine am and was done by eleven thirty.
And it's really condensed the time the players have to be available, and it creates than a day of constant search for other information, and the halls are lined up with reporters trying to snag somebody to find out a nugget, and that's what it's become, camping out looking for info.
Yeah, you know, you think of every interview Jim starts with the background of being a quarterback. In no matter what player, what position coach you're talking to, what player you're getting ready to talk to, it's always, you know, comes from the Jim's ideals from a quarterback and how it fits along to the different position and position coaches that he gets to talk to. So he has, you know, it has a different an interesting take on it, just like I would have the same as an ex offensive
lineman if I was talking to linebackers, defensive linemen. You know, different members of different coaching staffs. I would have different thought processes as well. But you know, Jim's got a ton of experience of you know, talking to a lot of different people in.
The league, don't I don't think we're talking about tackles enough. I mean, these tackles do these tackles are a really good times? Let's say they are very good. Resumes they project to being very good. Everything's a projection, obviously, but that are there could be seven or eight first round tackles.
Well, well, you know, you know, taking the consideration right now, what's the second most important position that Bears have to get right this year? And when you consider free agency in the draft, and it's probably center. And we won't talk about center Jeff until the third day of the draft, which is a shame.
But I think you know it's a Now, this is a question for you you and know better. So, whomever the quarterback is for the Bears starting Week one, do you want a rookie center or do you want a veteran center to take some of the load off the quarterback.
That's not a prerequisite for me, okay, I want a talented center that throws a really efficient shotgun snap back. Considering what percentage of the time you're in a shotgun offense nowadays. I want a guy that has the ability to be a leader immediately.
I don't want to I don't want a shy, passive center.
I want a guy that comes in here that has a type a personality with an attitude, and a guy that is familiar with the weight room. You know, I was talking to someone about something. You know what they said, what's a different evaluation you would do uh with a guy.
If you wanted to get to know him a little bit better.
And I would take an offensive lineman, I would take a position player, and I would take him in the weight room and I would know. I would say this, put one eighty five on the bar for me in and now if they got to okay, that's a forty five on each side, and then you got to put a twenty.
That was you know.
So I want to see how repetitiously you've been in that weight room to tell me a little bit about the reason why you're here. If if again, if your need information fed to you about how to work in a weight room, that tells me a little bit about your off season preparation. So if I have a center and I have a guy I want, I'm concerned about his two twenty five reps. I'm concerned not necessarily his forty. I'm concerned about his ten. I'm concerned about his his vertical jump.
You know.
So the explosive aspects of those type of judgmented players is what I'm interested in.
Yeah, I'd be nervous sitting with you in an interview because I'll tell you what your demands are going to be different, and they're going to be football related and not going to be any you know. I'm saying this in in a positive way and a compliment to you, because you would you'd get right in there with them and you'd mix it up a little bit. You know.
It's like I would say, I just want to see how well they know their way around the room.
Yeah, well, you know, these guys all have trainers that are loading those bars, so I don't know if they can I don't know if they're computing.
Listen, as much time throughout your high school and your college career that you spent in a weight room, you become so familiar with way to add it up from the forty five to the thirty five, to the twenty five to the ten, the five, and the two and a half.
You can ask me any combination.
Of what you want onto a bar, and I can go in and put it on in a second's notice.
If you've got to sit there and do it with a.
Calculator, you're telling me all I need to know about your investment in the weight room.
Great Coachsel does great work for NFL films. He's breaking down video and game tape he's done at his entire career. I ran in into this morning in Indianapolis to talk quarterbacks and other things.
I mean, obviously, you know you have Kaylee Williams, you have Drake may have Jaye Daniels. They are the guys being talked about right now, is you know the top guys. You know, I think all of them have really positive traits and and are good prospects. And you know, I always think in terms of these guys as prospects. Until a guy plays in the NFL, it's hard for me
to talk about them as anything more. You know, we've seen in the past when players are talked about generational and that kind of stuff, and you know, it doesn't necessarily work out because it's it's a little harder in the NFL than it is in college.
You know.
I think Williams is a really interesting guy. You know, he's clearly gifted, clearly gifted, controls the ball really well. He's an easy thrower of the football, obviously, can make wow plays above the x's and o's and off script. You know, played enough that doesn't necessarily translate really well to the league. So on tape you probably didn't see as much, you know, timing rhythm, throws, hit the back football, come out his own window, throws, things that you have
to do in the league. My guess is he's more than capable of doing that, but you still would like to see it more and then so you don't know until you see until you see it.
You know.
I think Drake May, I think he'll wow people a little bit because he's going to be so big. You know, he's going to be not quite as big as Josh Allen or Justin Herbert, but kind of like that. So I think he'll be an impressive physical specimen and he's a.
Great athlete for that size.
He's a very easy thrower of the football. It's like Joe Burrow with a better arm, like he throws it very easily. But he's got a few concerns on tape, you know. I think he misses a few too many easy ones. I think he drifts a little bit in the pocket, which causes some problems for him. But somebody's gonna look at his traits and sizes a trait and they're going to feel like this guy is has what it takes, and you know, whether he's ready to play
week one. That's that there's ten different variables that come into play there. Jaden Daniels is a guy that's really really grown on me. I watched him last summer from twenty twenty two. I've watched a ton of him from twenty twenty three. I actually spoke to someone who said he's up to two twelve. I don't know what the
numbers are. We'll find out, you know, at some point here soon, you know, because obviously there are people concerned about his bill that he was, you know, lean, and obviously he's not as great a runner as he is. I think one of the things that's really impressive about him is he just uses that as a parachute. He doesn't drop back and look to run. That's his last resort. So you know, he's really comfortable.
In the pocket.
He's got good mechanics, good technique, not a gun, but can make every throw. I think there's enough on film with him that shows that he can make the kinds of throws you need to making the NFL. To me, he's kind of an ascending guy. And I heard I actually spoke to a coach who interviewed him and said he's super impressive as a kid, like super impressive, like you want him in your quarterback room. So you know, those are the main three guys.
I guess the big question is no, no, no, no. The big question is who jumps into that now number four out of those, you know, because it's a lot of taste, whatever your tast After that.
You're starting to get into scheme adaptability, coach, who a coach feels runs their system, you know, at a higher level. And then you know, I don't think anybody next is going to be a top ten guy in my view. You know, I particularly like bo Nicks as someone who you know, but he's a scheme guy. I mean, I think he's an efficient player with movement ability. Some might like JJ McCarthy because of what he was in college her and an NFL system at a relatively high level.
I don't think his traits on tape are really high level, but you know, he's he played at a high level in college football and ran a system really well.
And won a national championship with seventeen of his teammates. At the scouting combine, I cut that short a little bit to give you a moment to talk about it before we go to break, But we were walking and talking, so there's no notes that he knows it cold like. It was a very fascinating interview. I talked him for like twenty minutes and went deep dive on everybody.
Yeah, you know, so if you look at the three quarterbacks, and you know, you look at Caleb Williams, Caleb Williams reminds me of a guy like Lincoln Riley always counted on him as a bailout. He'll bail me out quarterback. He didn't have great receivers, he didn't have great offensive line, but Caleb will make a play that.
Is going to get us out of this.
The worst game that he played was probably Notre Dame game when he tried to do too much, but I still believe in Cable Caleb Williams and his throwing ability.
When you look at Drake.
May, the thing that concerns me about him, you though he's a big, strong guy, he never has the right foundation of his feet and he counts on his arm to get the job done.
I think if you don't.
Have a solid throwing foundation, you create inaccuracies in your own decision making process of trying to throw the ball. And one thing about Daniels from LSU, He's lived under the pressure of one of the most pressurized coaches in all of college football, and that's Brian Kelly. I think one of the biggest things that you can learn on how to handle pressure is when you have a coach like Brian Kelly and the mount of pressure that he puts on you to be successful.
And started with Herman Edwards in Arizona State before transferring to LSU and having that long crease played a lot of football at the college level. When we come back, we'll have more on the combine from Bruce Feldman. He writes for The Athletic This is Bears Weekly at ESPN one thousand of the Bears Ready Network is.
Bears Weekly with a voice of the Bears for twenty three years, Jeff Juni on the Bears Radio Network.
This segment of Bears Weekly brought to you by Athletical Physical Therapy. Visit I thoughtic for dot com to requested in clinic or virtual deployment and start feeling better than borrow Jeff and Tom here on. He has been one thousand of the Bears Radio Network. Bruce Feldman, another member of the media. We're trying to get a lot of opinions,
a lot of thoughts about the quarterbacks. And I was impressed with some of the writers from around the country and the football enthusiasts that are covering the sport, because all of them are not pure writers. They're football analysts that have podcasts or whatever. But a lot of these guys asking the teammates or the opponents of Caleb Williams and Drake May how they defended them Tommy throughout the course of their careers, and the different respect and for
Caleb Williams. In the case of Caleb Williams, it was got to keep him in the pocket, otherwise he's going to kill you. And just that mobility, the second reactive throws that he could make off off schedule and off and a magician back there, So that was consistent. And then with Drake May just you know, he's he's got a laser and he just he does not he's not afraid of ripping off a pass and he'll fit it in the tight windows. And everybody respecting what Jaden Daniels
over the course of his careers grown into. So that's from players, and I think we're hearing a lot of that too from the media. And then of course the discussion about, you know, justin fields and what's going to happen there, that's the other main topic. It's a topic every single minute up there. What's going to happen? What will the Bears do well?
I think it's a wise approach to go and evaluate the mindset of players that played against him. But if you go back and you look at the teams that has had success against Patrick Mahomes since he's been in the NFL, and it's pressuring him inside the pocket and making him getting a retreat position, and then that's when you try to make him make sacrifices in his accuracy
in locating a target. And I don't you know, maybe that's the same thing Caleb Williams is going to face throughout his NFL career is being you know, having you know, these guys to keep them inside the pocket. But what happens you face a team that has a deficiency in closing the ranks around a pocket and he's able to use his fluidity to find targets to get outside the offense and open up an offense that's more designed to
you know, hit what he sees and everything. So, you know, any any of the quarterbacks, you're gonna go out and you're evaluate the players that played against them, and they're going to tell you something different about each one.
Yeah, and how they their scheme, how they prepared for him also, so that was also very different how they chose to defend these players. Also, you just hit upon something that I'm answering every question at the combine. I've done a lot of interviews national well, other teams, whatever, and you know, what are the what's your focus beyond the court line of scrimmage remains because if you're talking about playoff football, what we saw and we texted each
other these things, it's it's it's pressure. If you can't protect your quarterback late in the season to get into the playoffs or in the playoffs, like you're referring to it, Patrick Mahomes against uh you know a couple of years ago when the when the Tampa BA Tampa Bay was ferocious, and if you can't apply pressure that gets home, you're gonna lose well, So that is important.
Go and look at some of the games that the Bears played this year, Tampa and Tampa. They weren't able to close a line of scrimmage and they got beat down there Kansas City. In Kansas City, they weren't able to stop the line of scrimmage and block Chris Jones even though he just came aboard and the rest of their defensive lineman, and you saw the end results of it. But you know, you have to think about within your own division if you can't go out there and put
up a pass blocking force against Green Bay Packers. Because the Bears have run the ball pretty well against Green Bay, but eventually they're gonna have to match wits with Jordan Love and that's gonna be about pass protection in getting your receivers.
Out into the open, all right.
This conversation I had with Bruce Feldman again, he writes for the athletic college football. He is very popular for his Feldman freaks, the unbelievable athletic accomplishments of some of these athletes that were watching right now at the Combine over the course of their careers. But also a sideline reporter. He's been in many games of some of these players
and quarterbacks on the sidelines multiple times. But we start with the expensive and very adventurous journey that almost every team takes and trying to find a quarterback.
No, it absolutely is because you're the franchise. You're the person who's going to change everything, and like I said, they get it wrong. It's a position where guys get hurt a lot, you know, and even the ones who we think are oh, this guy is got everything, you find out there's something missing, you know. And I just think that that's why, you know, that's why this is a really interesting draft, especially because it's so top heavy
with franchise quarterbacks. If you asked me last year, and I feel like I've said this, I was more sold on CJ than Bryce Young. Part of it was CJ's just a physically bigger guy, but I thought he had everything you're looking for, and I didn't think he would be as great as he was as a rookie. But I think you're just trying to get to the most consensus in your head and kind of squeeze out the most wiggle room, and that's what that's kind of goes into this.
So how do you evaluate this group.
I think it's a really good group. I think Caleb could be special. Drake May is really good. I don't know what. Like Jayden Daniels blew up this year. He really improved. I'm a little more skeptical on him physically, you know, he's not He's got a narrow frame, guy who can run, and he did you know, had a statistically terrific season at LSU, had two great receivers. I'm a little more not as if you told me he's the third pick in the draft, I'm not. I'm not sure.
I would be a little leery on that one. I like Michael Pennick Junior a lot. I know he has the injury history. I think he was as impressive to me he was the most. He was my heisman vote number one. I like his character. I like that he has faced heavy at personal adversity come through the other side and is open to talk about it. I think, you know, it depends on what situation he goes into.
I'm a big fan of his. I you know, he's one of the guys I'm most interested to see how he turns out and everything.
I loved watching the Pac twelve this year. I mean early in the season, you know, and then just the receipt. Roma Doonzay I fell in love with immediately. And while everyone talks about Marvin Harrison and he will be great, I'm sure Roma Dunsay and a bunch of others are not not players to sleep on. Would you learn about Kaleb Williams, and I'm sure you did some of his games on the sidelines. What can you tell us that?
I think he managed some things pretty well, you know, like I know guys on that staff who really people like him. I just think he was handed a different set of problems than a lot of other quarterbacks. The offensive line this past year was terrible. The defense was so bad that you know, I used this line before that an NFL scout had told me where It's like he's trying to hit a five run home run every play, And you wonder, do you pick up bad habits from doing it that way, you.
Can definitely happen. You think about some I mean, I think a David Carr.
I was gonna say that too. They're obviously different style quarterbacks, but David Carr got sacked. I don't know what the number of, like seventy five.
Yeah, yeah, And so I was seeing ghosts after while.
Yeah, and you know who else said seeing ghosts? That was another USC quarterbacks, Sam Darnald. And I think Caleb is much more talented than Donald. But I do think there's something where you may have to unlearn some things that got worn into you. So if he goes to the Washington and he's going home that's where he's from. You know, he'll go to Cliff Kingsbury, who knows him very well from his time last year at USC. That's
favorable circumstances. But like I hope, you know, I again, like you heard a lot of stuff about like you know how some of the dads of his father's thoughts on what needs to happen and everything, and it's like I change the game is a thing that can be a little leery. Like you know, Tom Brady did some you know some you know, stuff way beyond football.
But he did it.
Long after he won Super Bowls. To go in and talk about these things, I think is maybe puts a lot on your son, especially when your son's not that old.
Jake may in the same situation, different send circumstances in twenty twenty three versus twenty twenty.
Two different for him to also fill Long was more of an air raid guy. That was the OC he had previously, and then new system last year handled it well. I think he was a I don't say he was flying under the radar, but at least relative to Caleb and the other guys in the Heisman race, he certainly was. Everybody I know who's been around him likes him personally.
You know.
Again, if I think he's going to be a really, really good NFL quarterback, I don't know what people would fault him on. I just and I do think it's good that he not good for it wasn't good for him at North Carolina, but just that he's come through a couple of systems and I don't think he I don't think he buckled with any of it, and.
No, he did not. He was their team leader. Great guy. Loved some of the features I've seen on him, will pick up Tom's thoughts and all that in our final segment coming up here on Bears Weekly on ESPN one thousand of the Bears Radio Network.
This is Bears Weekly with a voice of the Bears for twenty three years, Jeff jony Aik on the Bears Radio net Work.
All right, our final segment is brought to you by CDW. People to get it and get the ultimate VIP fan package this season by visiting Chicago Bears vip dot com. Remaining moments thought, you know br.
Well on, Bruce Felman and everybody else that has an opinion about the quarterback. No one is an agreement on the opinion about the.
Quarterback, which scares me.
Well, I wish that we could do a show here on a Thursday night and take calls for the whole one hour in only about the quarterback position, and then tally them up at the end of the show to see where they wanted to go. And I bet you'd be one third, one third, one third, you know, one third, keep justin, one third, keep get Caleb, or one third you know one of the other guys, Drake or Daniels. So it's just that no matter who you interview and the different people that you talked to down at the
combine and will continue to talk to you. There's never gonna be an agreement in the room of what your decision you should be you should be making. So when they show those of Ryan polls up with the combine, that's why he is the most interesting man in the combine this year, because everybody's trying to pick his brain and think exactly what he's thinking.
Yeah, I mean, and it's a billion dollar decision for a billion dollar franchise. Yes it is, and it you know, and this is a listen. They invite it. You know, they'd rather be in the pressure department than not, so that you're in the highest level of sports, and they embraced this kind of stuff for sure, only.
If I was hoisting the Super Bowl Trophy at the end of the season and I was the non pressure of that pick.
All right, Well, it's been a fun show. Headed back to Indy. We'll have another show next week on Bears Weekly. We got our podcast Bears et Cetera coming up on Tuesday, and we're gonna have to start looking at free agency time in our final thirty seconds because some of those needs we talked about will be filled in free agency. We both feel about free agency the same way. I think. Don't don't blow out the.
Budget exactly, you know, and look for an immediate starter if you're going to go out there and you can get the return on a TJ. Edwards, Tremain, Tremaine Edmonds and those types of guys that bring him on.
All right, Thanks to everybody, our producers and the executive producer of the Bears Radio Network as well, Eric Ostrotski for Tom and Jim Miller. I'm Jeff, Joniac Bleck and Abdalla are coming up next. Thanks for listening, everybody. This has been Bears Weekly on the new radio home of the Chicago Bears ESPN Chicago. Good night, everybody.
Thank you for listening to the Chicago Bears Network presentation of Bears Weekly, hosted by the Mayra Bearsville, Jeff Juniac and Surfmaster Tom Thayer. Podcasts are available on the Chicago Bears Official Bears Weekly has been brought to you by Apple Podcasts, Ben Rivers, Igs Energy, and Miller Lite