GMFB Thursday Hour 2: Bears Optimism? DK Metcalf requests trade, Travis Kelce's return

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Good Morning Football. It was not pretty.

We're going to talk about the Bears and why there might be some optimism brewing. So yesterday in the middle of our show, we had to bring Ian Rappaport in our NFL network insire because news broke Ian and it probably made Caleb Williams pretty happy when this news hit his phone.

There's actually been a couple big news items for the Chicago Bears. The biggest, though, you're right, during the show yesterday, Joe Tooney, the multi year All Pro Pro bowler, one of the best cards in the NFL, thirty two years old, due for a new contract, was traded from the Kentas City Chiefs to the Chicago Bears. Ryan Poe's The Gentleman

Give it absolutely all right, let's take that and run with it, because that twenty twenty four video, it really took a dark turn. And now we know that Joe Tooney is going to be in Chicago after agreeing to terms with the Chiefs, and then of course Joondah Jackson now arrives from the La Rams. Kyle, what optimism about the Chicago Bears going into last season? Are you prepared to reframe that excitement with this team once again in the Windy City?

Down right? Damn right?

Listen, If you're not excited in March and April, when are you excited? Let me tell you about the Bears. The Bears are going to push people around next year. Now, I don't know if they're gonna win yet, we'll figure that out. They are going to push people around, all right. The Joe Toney signing, of course, it's good for Caleb, of course. I don't see it that way though. I see it as representative of where this team is going

Guys.

I saw this report from Jeremy Fother that they're looking at Durham Smite, that tied end from the Dolphins, who Ben Johnson has a deep relationship with. I don't know if you win a Super Bowl with Durham Smite, I don't care you run the ball with them. They are putting together assets and it's not just gonna be DeAndre Swift, mark my words. They will add a running back through

Ribbi right on the play.

We're gonna run because, mark my words, the Vikings, Lions packers all really, really good against the run. And nobody knows that better than Ben Johnson. He has a PhD. In the NFC North. Those teams are great against the run. You gotta fight that, and you don't fight that with wide receivers and DeAndre Swift.

You gotta add to that. You want to know what.

Twenty twenty two, Mattie Rafluse gets hired. All right, let's see how he made his foray into his first free agency as Ben Johnson. Before we even get there is adding someone like Joe Tuning.

Other pieces you look up to.

Twenty twenty two Transaction report the Bears add Byron Pringle, Tayvon Young, Trevor Simeon. Due respect to those guys, this is a different type of thing going on. If you want change if you want a new era, they're already making it. We haven't even hit free agency yet. We'll see if they win. Well, you figure that out in the fall. They will push people around and they will be physical. The Toney signing, it's great for Caleb. It's

Guests me fired up.

Yeah, I'm not even a Bears fan, and Kyle, you got me fired up over here, but I'm damn let's go. I was ready to be all in on the Bears as soon as they hired Ben Johnson. I think that is the best hire of the offseason. It's a home run for them hiring within the division as well. But Ben Johnson is one of the best offensive lines in football.

He's also a young coach, and.

That means he's a player's coach, and I think that's great for Caleb.

He's only thirty eight years old.

We saw what he did in Detroit, what Jamier gives and David Montgomery in the different ways he used Jamison Williams right. He was them the ball through the airs. And they also give him some run game things and give him some endo rounds. And he had some big plays on the ground, whether they use Sam Laporta.

It was so much from the watch, and.

Then Amin Ross Saint Brown would get his touches. What that tells me is he's going to go to Chicago and do the same thing. They have a lot of great pieces on offense. He can get everybody their touches because he did the same thing in Detroit. I love that, and like Kyle said, the most important thing, he knows what it takes to win in the NFC North. He knows what it takes late in November, late in December and those cold weather games. How to run the football

That is very important.

If you invest the number one overall pick in your quarterback, you can't just invest in him. You have to invest in your offensive line. You have to invest in the guys around him. Said the same thing with Drake May. If you want to set these guys up for success, you have to do exactly what the Bears.

Are doing right now. And they also have a lot of money.

To spend this offseason, so I think they're going to continue to get better. I don't know, Kyle if I'm ready to go all in on the Bears, but they are definitely going to make it as a contender in twenty twenty five.

I guess, like the Raiders, this is one of the smartest moves the Bears have made in the long time, hiring Ben Johnson.

I like the Joe Toney signing.

You plan him at left guard and say do what you do best. I do worry about our wonder about Jonah Jackson and where they play him, because it was an adventure trying to move him to center and it didn't work out. There wasn't a place for him, and now he's in Chicago, so where you play him along that line of scrimmage is going to be very very interesting. But I think it's all It's all up to what Caleb Williams does and supporting him, and I thought he

It's hard. It's hard. You go all the way back, never had one.

It is tough to play quarterback in Chicago. It gets cold in December, tough to throw the football. But we'll see what Ben Johnson has. We'll see if you can get Caleb Williams going. But I like the direction in Chicago's headed.

I'm a big Kayleb Williams guy because obviously he's a Sooner despite following the Sith Lord to your school.

Yeah yeah, own him, Josh, Kayleb Williams is a Sooner.

But when the Bears drafted him, I like Roma Dunsa Why they didn't take that Fuaga guy instead. If you draft a quarterback number one overall, your next pick has to be an alignment.

Especially when you have DJ Moore and Kenan Allen on the less.

Well to your point, though, Joshua, the Bears at the number ten pick right now, if you're looking at Charles Davis, if you're looking at DJ who we all love and follow, Daniel Jeremiah, they both have them taking Calvin Benjamin, Kelvin Banks, excuse me, the tackle out of Texas right this year at least so Kyle. It kind of bolsters your point that they're building for the run game and for offensive production.

Yeah, I agree, Jamie, and I think if you're tuning in right now, we should address the lower third.

On the bottom of the screen.

Is it okay to be excited about the Bear? What does that mean? Well, the context is there was a lot of excitement about the Bears in the last offseason. I was the drum major out in front of it. And the season was cataclysmic.

It was awful.

The team was not just bad, they were completely broken. They fired the head coach. I think a lot of the excitement is not just about what's going on. It's not about joke tooing, it's not about getting a guard. It's still about the head coach. And last year when they were drafting all these players and it's going to be Joe Leverett and Roma Doomsay and Keenan Allen. When the Bears fans were screaming about that and tweeting about that, if someone would say, okay.

Great, do you like your head coach?

How about Matt Everrafluss, and the response to that would be like, well we got Roma Doomsay, though, never mind that, who cares? No, no, no, no, I'm asking you about the coach. Do you like the coach? Did you see what Keenan Allen did? It was complete ignoring it, and there was an awareness of the Bears fans that I'm not sure we have a guy on the sideline who is going to lead us to the playoffs. And they found out

Is that's the excitement.

It's okay to get hurt again, That's what I'm saying. It's okay to go out and date again. Get up, open the blinds, take a shower, go out, have some breakfast, get outside.

It's okay. That's what we do in the Springs. Sure. Yeah, the most important thing too.

And the last thing I'll say about this is when you invest in your quarterback right, you got him, get offensive linemen around him, and he cannot take sixty eight sacks every year. Now, I know some of those are on Caleb. I'm not going to just say that it's the offensive line's fault. He holds the ball sometimes too long. He can help himself by throwing away and trying to picking up some of those extra yards. The superman Clark can't in comparison, right, No one to eat it.

No when to go down.

The defense is going to win some that's okay, don't compound the problem. But he is not going to last long, whether you like him, whether you don't, whether you think he's the answer, if he continues to take hits like he is. So I love that they're addressing offensive line because it shows that they really love their investment in Calebly, I want to look at.

You two guys at the front of the table here. DeMarco, you are the side line analysts for the La Rams. We played for the Rams. You are a Cowboys fan. You guys live within the NFC. You watch the NFC North unfold. Last year, the Vikings were on one. The Lions looked great, the Packers held their own. Is there something that the NFC North is quite powerful? There's something to fight with here? Or is it right for the Bears to bubble up to the surface a little bit?

Okay, So I'm not sure if the Lions could overcome the loss of two of their coordinators. I know Jared Goff's not going anywhere, and Detroit is not going to lose what they've gained over the last couple of seasons. They are Super Bowl contenders, but we'll see. This is new for them. Green Bay, I had to adjust how I felt about Jordan Love. I have to put him in with one of the great quarterbacks in the league because Green Bay has been pretty good since he's been quarterback there.

But the Bears, the Bears to.

Me, have always been their brand has been physical and defense, and they've been anything but over the last couple of years. So it's weird. I know, you have to support the quarterback. Like I said, it's tough to play there. But if the Chicago Bears want to get back into the race in the North, they're going to have to get physical. I like what Kyle said, They're going to push people around. That's a good start, that's how you developed that brand.

I think Minnesota takes a step back just because if McCarthy is ready. I think Starnold had an incredible year. I don't know if McCarthy's going to be quite as efficient. And I think the Vikings were just had an incredible run flash. I think the Lions will their pieces are in place. They're going to be solid in stay. So Chicago could ascend to that number two spot. I think they could. Yeah, because I just love Kayleb Williams, because yeah.

Sooner, Kyle, anything else you want to get off your chain, since you wanted to appropriately therapize and correct why the lower third is existing right there? Anything else you got on the Bears that you want to well.

I'm good. Other than I correct myself.

I mentioned that the Dolphins head and Durham Smite that they may get him. They've got him, like he's going to the Bears. Rap sheet has reported it, and listen, you may sit at home. Durham Smythe Durham Smite is a blocking tight end. He is really good at it. Going back to college. He is a tough, physical guy. Ben Johnson, they're showing their hand right now, guys, they're showing their hand. We're going to protect and we're going

Kyle, can you give us just a quick geographical reference for the Viager Triangle in Chicago just for those who heard that correctly, if.

Anyone doesn't know what that term means.

Okay, So right in downtown Chicago, there is this cool little era and it is cool where there's very expensive steakhouses and very expensive restaurants and it's very touristy.

But as it was explained to me.

They call it the Viagra triangle because let's say that there are a lot of like, kind of slick fat cats who are maybe with like in their fifties, maybe sixties, maybe even seventies, who are looking for friends at the restaurants. And if you want that kind of person and you want to date that kind of person, there they are waiting for you. There is your real free agency frenzy or adult a great restaurant do in Great Steaks.

Number ninety eight wearing the silver and black is an absolute menace for the Las Vegas Raiders defense. And now Max Crosby is going to stay there a little bit longer. Ian Rappaport, welcome back. Inside. We get a lot of news that we got to cover as we inch closer to free agent frenzy coming this Monday. Let's start with one of the big paydays or extensions if you will, that happened in Vegas yesterday.

That's right, a massive three year extension for Max Crosby.

Not a free agent acquisition, but really just as good.

As one, because had this deal not gone through, had Max not really bought into the new Raiders regime, that was very real chance that he was going to be on the move. He wanted to see a clear plan, wanted to be locked in long term, and the Raiders got it done in.

A way that I would say, rarely do you see what the Raiders.

It was clean, it was decisive, it was fast, and it made Max Crosby highly paid. It's a three year, one hundred and six point five million dollar deal, ninety one point five million dollars guaranteed key number here, thirty five point five million dollars average per year new money. That makes him the highest paid edge in the NFL and sets the market for guys like Michael Parsons, Miles Garrett, and potentially Trey Hendrickson. We also had some news in

There was some questions.

About whether or not the Chargers would want to back. In fact, they did want to back, just had a smaller number saves about twenty five million against the Cat. Theoretically there's a chance he could end up returning there, but don't be surprised if at least the San Francisco forty nine ers consider consider bringing in Joey Bosha alongside Nick Bosa on the edges for San Francisco.

It's really cool. It'd be like if TJ and JJ had ever played together.

We'll see what happens in the meantime. Ian.

I don't know if the Bears need another wide receiver, but the Hariboo company that makes gummy bears and gummy worms is located in Chicago, Illinois, so it might be a desirable landing spot for Dk Metcalf, who lives on those things. He wants out of Seattle. Tell us everything and where this is going.

Yeah, I think that company exists mainly because of my kids, Max and Jude, who eat those things.

All the time.

Every snack is about some sort of harriboo you got, like the cherries, you got the snakes anyway, Yep, yeah, a lot there. Yes, let's talk about DK Metcalf and his trade request from Seattle.

Yes. Ay.

Sources told me and Collie Tompos that these conversations, which have been going on for the course of the last I would take two months really ever since the season ended, came to it yesterday he met with Seattle Brass and Gordon Love his request to seek a trade. They've agreed to at least explore. Now the price is going to be high. He's going to want a new contract, but there are in fact several teams interested. He would be,

Teams are going to be inquiring.

And then Seattle also said goodbye to one of their legends, Tyler Lockett, the veteran receiver made some of the biggest plays for Seattle over the last decade, was deformed.

Of his release, and it's sad.

Releases are always sad, but this one was sort of like a mutual hug. Seahawk said thank you, Lockett said thank you, just agreed to kind of move apart, go their separate ways with appreciation of what one has done for the other. I would imagine he will be a highly honored member of that franchise moving forward as of now sixty and eighteen.

All right, well, at least the candy shelves will be safe in Seattle moving forward, maybe if the Seahawks are able to execute this. It's the rap sheet kids and it's DK Metcalf that are into the gummy bears. We've got that all straight. Let's get into DK Metcalf, because this was massive news yesterday. Once you move on from one wide receiver to have the room look at themselves, Kyle and say no, I don't want to be here anymore either.

What was your initial.

Reaction to this massive star within the NFL and a big time wide receiver that oftentimes in last coal beers had been just used as a decoy within this offense.

I think there's a lot of that going around.

Is that you got big name guys and big contract guys looking around and saying, what am I doing here?

What's the future? What are we up to? DK?

Six seasons in, he's twenty seven years old and he wants a fresh start. It's same deal with Miles Garrett a little bit older. But it's like, I think I might have spent enough time here. I think if you're looking at DK Metcalf to go and get him, and if you're a fan base who wants k Metcalf, I just look at it as a very expensive luxury item. This is a Ferrari. Not in the physical sense I'm talking this. I'm just talking about in terms of the expense, the splash.

It is going to be very expensive.

Like Ian said, like the big time draft picks and then big time money.

If you are a team.

That has your quarterback situation set, who has your defensive end, who has your left tackle, you got all the pieces, and you got a coach and you think like, I don't know, I want to kind of do for our team what aj Brown did for the Eagles, and one of those things where you add the big time and you're going to spend This is going to be very, very expensive.

But if you're a team.

That you have a home and you have your kids taking care of and you just are like, damn it, I'm buying a Ferrari, Well, then there's one right there who wants out of his current home right now, go get it.

Other than that, and if you.

Don't have all your stuff taken care of, I would move on to the next asset because you're going to pay through the teeth for this.

Yeah, and we talked about it earlier. The team that comes to mind is the New England Patriots. If I'm Drake May, I am on the phone right now. I'm at the front doorstep Mike Rabel's office saying we need to get this man in New England. But first I'll say this, I want to give a shout out to Tyler Locket. Unbelievable wide receiver, so much fun to watch, someone that I watched when I was in the league.

He's just such a great player, the king of not taking.

Hits, right, that's even so good catching the ball, getting down, not taking unnecessary hits. And that's why you laugh so long in the NFL. So he's going to be missing Seattle.

The other thing too, I'll say about DK, it's interesting. I mean, it's not like they're a team that's struggling. They won ten games last year.

I know he only had five touchdowns, didn't get to a thousand yards, but I was surprised when DK said that. But the guy that comes to mind for me is Jackson Smith and Jigbum And I know we can't put the tweet up, but he said on Twitter.

Basically, what the heck is going on?

Right?

Everyone's leaving now?

Tyler Lockett's released DK Metcalf wants out, what does that mean for me? Well, he's on a rookie contract, so he can't do anything about it.

But it's just for me.

It's really interesting what is going on in Seattle right now because the first question you asked us are they going to a rebuild? Is you know, what's the future like for Gino Smith? What's the future like for that offense? So I don't know, but if i'm Drake May, I'm telling you right now, I'm on the phone saying let's get DK Metcalf to New England.

I think the other great fit for him would be Green Bay. That if you carried him opposite Jayden Reid. I think one of the problems with Green Bay is they've got a bunch of, you know, second tier guys. If you added DK Metcalf to Christian Watson and Jayden Reid, I think Jordan Love takes a huge leap.

I agree, and that would probably Incord Metcalf.

Well, yeah, I go up and get it.

I do wonder what Metcalf would do and would he like going to play with Drake May. I mean Russell Wilson was his quarterback. Geno Smith was his quarterback. I don't know where you have them ranked, but to go to a Drake May, I wondered what.

That interest him.

If I'm him, I want to go to some ghost some place where they have an elite quarterback where I can show all my skills.

And I agree with you.

Lockett to me was by far the scarier receiver of the two. Dk Metcalf was a lot of sizzle, not a ton of steak.

He looks the part. He is. Scary is all get out when.

You see the guy warm up, but when the game happens, I don't know. Sometimes he just checks out. He makes a lot of mistakes and they seem to be not in sync a lot. So if I'm him and you think you're better than what you are, I think I'm headed to a place to where I know that guy is elite, maybe headed for Canton someday that can deliver me the football when I needed most.

Regardless of how much I.

Think Josh is all over it, I think Josh I like the Packers pick a lot and let's just pull from the headlines. Back during Super Bowl Week, their star running back Josh Jacobs is going around radio row saying we need a number one receiver. He wasn't mixing words at all. So we got guys, we need a guy who is a proven number one. And watching the Packers last year, they're one of these teams has a nice collection of wide receivers. There's some talented guys. There is

So it was twenty nineteen DK Metcalf comes out when he was on the scene, Kyle, you guys were a couple of years into GMFB. He used this massive, dude, big personality and he goes to Seattle. Can you just say, refresh us on what the expectation was for dk Metcalf coming into the NFL. And when a guy asks to leave a team and resets his own identity, maybe he's in an offense, Like what is the outlook for him within a new team, whether it may be the.

Packers or not.

Well, Mattcalf's entry into the league is always hilarious for me. It always sticks out because it is a perfect example of NFL draft bs schlock analysis. People didn't like him in the draft, and you could look it up. It's like, well, you know, his hips are a little high coming out of his routes.

Look at him. Just take a picture of him and look at his body. Watch the tape of him.

I understand you have a job to do and talk about his catch radius. And then people passed on him. You could look it up. The people who were drafted in front of him, I'm not gonna mention their names, infamous infamous names. Then Wiley Pete Carroll comes in and two seconds later, Pete's ripping his shirt off to show DK that he still got it. And he was awesome from the get go. So he's also a cautionary tale.

Look at it.

Look at this guy's hips are two inches too Hi come out of his route, So.

We're gonna pass on him? What are we doing? Just drap them?

I will always think of this of like I understand, the analysis gets really deep, and that's some of the stuff we celebrate. You know what I like more than the analysis. I just like the anatomy. I like it better. And this guy's second to none. If there's a dude who's a super freak physically, maybe you don't let yourself be hissh hooked by deep, deep, deep minutia about his route running.

Go get him. I just remember.

A couple of years later, the Seahawks as a show go to Munich, Germany, and the Seahawks are playing the first ever regular season game in the NFL in Germany, and it's the Seahawks and it's the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And this guy gets off the plane and has to find a cheeseburger immediately in the land of Meat and potatoes DK back off of just walking around the streets of Germany like I landed. I wanted to stay awake, and he went out and find of Germany a cheese steak and cheeseburger in Germany.

Excuse me and.

The fact that he still looks like that needs all the kiddie we can't wait. This is a new found excitement that we might see in free agency. Frenzy not a free agent, I get that, but it's gonna take something for a teams again. I'm basically exactly.

I love playing.

I still feel like I could play it at a high level, and possibly at a higher level than I did last year. I don't think it was my best outing, you know. I think I let my guys down in a lot more moments than I than I helped them, especially if you look at my track record and how I've been in years past. I just, you know, I I want to give it a good run. I got a bad taste in my mouth on how I ended the year and and uh, how well I was playing, and you know how accountable I was for the people

Yet.

I put in a lot of a lot of hard work and I put in a lot of you know, focus into into being the best that I can for case and last year it just, uh, it didn't end well for us, and I just I feel like there's a responsibility in me to to play out the contract that I initially signed to give Kansas City and the Chiefs organization everything that I got, and uh, and that's what I'm going to do.

Man.

Jason and Travis Kelsey kicked the tires on a lot of topics on the New Heights podcast. Kyle, but this is one that everybody was interested in beyond his dating life, which anytime he goes down that avenue, people want to know the answer. But Kyle, Chiefs fans, the NFL, they wanted to know if Travis Kelsey was coming back. And there's your answer. What's your reaction to that? And why he did it?

No respects because I think the proper context, especially is that Travis could make a ton of money without playing another down of football. Guys stay on because they want to hit the check again, and I get it. Keep making the money and then you have to decide what you're going to do after football.

He already has all that set up.

He could probably make much more money not playing football than he could play in football and risking injury, that can everything that comes with it. He wants to play, and that's a guy where you're like normally when someone says it's not about the money, like, of course it's about the money.

For him, it's not.

He actually wants to play, and I think NFL players have this infatuation with ending things right and he wants to do it. He said it himself. I wasn't that great last year. He has nothing to prove, first ballot, Hall of Famer, multiple times super Bowl champion, maybe the greatest tight end who ever lived, all these lists. He's like, I got money, I got future, I got everything. I just want to play football again for those people and

I respect it, nothing but respect for Kelsey.

He's tremendous and I'm in some circles he is the greatest head end to ever live or ever play the game. I hope he's not making a big mistake in coming back, because I mean, you ended in the Super Bowl, no shame in that, and you lost to Philadelphia. This could end worse for you next season if you try to come back. And I've heard this before from older coaches, if you're thinking about retirement, you already are so coming

I think he's making the right choice because the Chiefs still have a good window here. And I also like having players in the league that I like rooting for, and he's easy to root for, so'm I speak for all fans, mister Kelsey, thank you for coming back.

Yeah.

And the first thing that stands out to me as a former player is the accountability. I love that he came out and didn't blame anybody else. He said I wasn't at my best. I still think I can play better than I did a year ago, but it was my fault. I made a mistake here. I did things wrong.

Right. I'm with josh on that, you know, I think he.

Is going to come back because he wants to end on the right note and fans like watching that, right, you want that superhero effect.

But I will say this, you have two greats.

And Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelcey, and now they have extra motivation. So I don't know exactly what that means, and they didn't need it, but now they have a chance to make another run. And Travis Kelsey's going to get right this offseason and have another go at it.

At the end of the clip, he says, plays out the contract that I signed. He's entering the final year of that. So clearly he had a commitment in his mind to Kansas City that he wanted to fulfill. The Patrick Mahomes Travis Kelsey experience is one of the most electric teammate battery combinations that you can see in terms of pitcher and catcher. They are amazing and their friendship is one that is covered internationally and I think it's an amazing story that will continue to unfold.