Chapter 1: What were the Bears' main draft strategies and decisions?
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Rahimi Harrison-Grody, 10-2 on 104.3 The Score.
708 has another one on our text line, and this is a question for the class. The Bears can't stop the run, can't rush the passer. How is one safety going to make a difference? And that goes back to what we discussed. Are you building your team from the inside out or the outside in? Let's listen to what Ryan Poles had to say about defensive line as far as this draft is concerned.
The D-line helps the back end more often than not. But in this situation where we have good corners, good safeties, we could be in a position where maybe we could have the quarterback hold the ball a little longer. He's putting so much more faith in those players than I would and I can.
And there's no receipts to say, yes, Ryan Poles, I believe these will work out because they've worked out the best. There's no evidence that you are good at picking people who play on the line.
You made the wild allegations, but you have proven nothing.
You could say Jervon Dexter has been fine, but not a dynamic difference maker that you would expect to get in the second round. I guess the good news is that some of these guys who at least we seem to value are around today. Will they be there for the Bears who pick in the second round their 25th? I prefer to do it in the second round and say they have the 25th pick in the second round.
They have the 28th pick in the second round. With the 57th pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, the Chicago Bears select Logan Jones, center, Iowa. With the 69th pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, the Chicago Bears select Sam Rosas. Nicely done. Sam Roush, tight end out of Stanford. I don't come up with this stuff. I just forward it along.
You wouldn't arrest a guy who's just delivering drugs from one guy to another.
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Chapter 2: Should the Bears have prioritized defense in the draft?
This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody. On 104.3 The Score, Mark Grody, Marshall Harris, Layla Rahimi, and you talking draft. We will take your calls today. 312-644-6767 is our number. You can call us and text us there. So if you just need to vent about the Bears draft, tell us what you think of our text. We're down for that, too. And
It's funny that that was the part of the open that I thought about because it was in my head all weekend long as we were watching these picks come off the board for the Bears in the draft. They take seven total players. And the first thing we wanted to see go off the board for the Bears in the first round. I want a defensive line. Thrilled about Dylan Thienemann.
Now I know who's starting at safety. It was every play's competition, whatever. No, it's Dylan Thienemann. In the meantime, I'm still asking the same thing that that texter asked us on Friday, which is, did they get enough in the draft to help their glaring upfront problem on the defense? I can't say yes.
More than that, Layla, we talked about it in this very studio about how much do they actually believe in people already in the building? And do they believe they have enough up front to make the improvements necessary to improve what was one of the worst pass rushes in all of football last year?
The answer, I said, would be determined by what they decided to do later on on Friday and then on Saturday. Guess what? By the evidence laid out in front of me, they believe they have the guys in-house. I don't know that I agree with that, but I understand at least why they did what they did in terms of making the picks that they made.
I'm not as down on this draft as a lot of people are because I do believe that Ben Johnson believes what I believe, which is Caleb over everything and making this offense as good as it can be. You can see with the picks that were made throughout this draft, they're still fine-tuning what they want that offense to be, not only this season upcoming, but into
the future there was just enough gray area with all of those names in the second round that came off of the board to the point where and where i was not as enraged as a lot of people were and i'm not here to quell anybody's rage i mean it's glaring the bears defensive line ranked 29th in pressure rate at 31.5 percent last year their rush defense was what 29th last year. It was mostly bad.
Do the Bears need defense?
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Chapter 3: How does coaching impact the Bears' pass rush improvement?
Yes, but I wasn't mad that they didn't force the issue, that they didn't just take a guy because everybody says they have to have a guy. I go through the edge rushers, TJ Park. These are the guys that were taken in the second round. TJ Parker, Mason Thomas, who ends up going to KC. I should say TJ Parker at 35 goes to San Francisco. Mason Thomas at 40 goes to Kansas City.
Cassius Howell goes to Cincinnati at 41. Derek Moore, the edge, goes to the Lions at 44. Zion Young at 45, the Ed from Missouri. He gets drafted right there. There was enough gray area in my studies of this draft that I made the point about how ambiguous and gray it was that these guys were floating between late first round and second round and some of them going to the third round.
Was it a deep draft? Yeah, but that doesn't mean it was a dynamic draft. So I find myself in a confusing place right now where I'm not as angry, but I concede I found myself getting more angry about what they didn't do last year or the guys that they brought in last year and Dio Odangbo and Grady Jarrett and maybe the drafting of Shamar Turner as well.
And then just thinking about Jervon Dexter and him being drafted and not being dynamic. I was more angry about last year than I was about them not taking one of these guys because I saw it and I've talked about it throughout this whole draft process that it was weird with the defensive linemen and the edge rushers beyond the dynamic guys at the top of the draft.
A couple things. The Bears have not drafted a defensive player in the first round starting in 2019. So that's how long it has been. Additionally, I remember when Ryan Pohl said, we have to keep a future contract extension for Caleb Williams in mind. Now, he said he's not there yet. He made his case, and I agree with him in that. But that's why this gets tricky.
Don't try to sit here and tell me that certain positions aren't more fungible than others in the NFL. We see them change. Yes, you hit on Kyle Menungai in the seventh round, but that doesn't mean that you can do the same thing with a defensive tackle or an edge rusher. Look at the price in free agency. Look at the price you're paying your own defensive line.
So you mean to tell me when Montez Sweat is your highest cap hit at 25-08-5 at 8.3% of your cap next season, when Jalen Johnson is second and another defensive player, then it's Joe Tooney, then it's Dio Odengbo and Grady Jarrett.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of the Bears' draft picks for their defense?
So you mean to tell me that you understand how much of your cap is spent on defensive line? And yet you don't want to try to refill any of that. And this is a free agency year for Jervon Dexter coming up at the end of the season. You don't want to refill any of that through the draft. Positional value matters.
That's why a lot of teams build from the inside out because it's the most expensive outside of quarterback. So tell me how this process is sustainable when you know what you're going to have if all things go well and you have to extend QB1. How does that work? How much money are you spending? It seems like a lot to me.
Well, I look at what you're talking about with the way the contracts are going to play out and understanding that they can basically just get rid of Dio Dingbo after this season and it's not a cap hit in the manner that some of these other guys are. And Dio's going to have a year. This is basically like a contract year for him.
in terms of needing to produce something, anything, close to what he was paid to do.
This is his second Achilles tear. We don't know when he's going to be back.
No, no, that's all fair. And I think they're of the mindset that they're going to build that offense first and foremost and get Caleb because of What he can do as the X factor in this offense to get him as comfortable as possible and making sure that he has everything they need. Because they've got to evaluate this and make sure he is the franchise.
I think they already know, but they want to make sure. You're not going to pay him the type, you know, $50 million plus a year, the type of money quarterbacks are going to be making by the time he needs a contract extension. without being absolutely positively sure that he is the guy. And I'm not saying they aren't already absolutely sure.
I think with defense, you've got some of these contracts that are going to come off the books or can be moved, and then they can concentrate on that. They're more likely to pay guys on defense as opposed to draft guys on offense. That's the way it's played out through two years, right, Mark?
But here's the problem is when you pay guys on defense... This will eventually cause a problem because you have to pay so much to an expensive part of the team. That's the issue here.
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Chapter 5: How do the Bears plan to develop their current defensive players?
How much did we see Trey Hendrickson get? How much are we seeing Max Crosby getting? How much do we see these edge rushers get? Lawrence, who just got extended. Think about that.
oh no i got that my whole point is that's ryan pole's job is to be able to manage the cap and figure it out he set himself up now where in certain positions he's going to have to figure it out from a cap management standpoint and that's what gms get paid to do is it's not just finding the talent and drafting them and and making traits you've got to if you've got somebody in mind you've got to figure out how do i make this work and that was going to be the case if it was max crosby or trey hendrickson or any of these guys that we've been talking about at the edge they don't
Have an edge. Right. Well, and this puts a ton of pressure on, and I know they probably wouldn't use that word, on Dennis Allen. And by the way, Dennis Allen does have a say. He has a say, too, in draft day. Like, we look at some of these names that I just went through. I don't know if all those guys were a fit for Dennis Allen in the draft room as they're talking through it.
Dennis, you like that guy? I don't know. I'm not sure if he'd be a fit for us. We talked about it last week. Layla, you brought it up very wisely that the Bears are actually looking for good fits in their scheme as opposed to just taking a player willy-nilly. So let's not leave the Dennis Allen part of this out. And...
Hey, if Dennis Allen is what he is supposed to be and touted as a top five type of defensive coordinator, he's got to get Dio Odangbo better. He's got to get Grady Jarrett better. He's got to make sure Shamar Turner develops. He's got to get Jervon Dexter better. All of those guys. So he's going to play a huge part in this. But I guess my whole point is that that's where my anger is today.
I am not, and maybe I should be because I feel like 80% of the Bears world, and I know Layla, you are not happy with, and I understand it, but my anger goes back to last year as opposed to the gray area guys this year, none of whom in that second round as they were all going off the board. There was nobody that was like, you got to have TJ Parker. You got to have Mason Thomas.
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Chapter 6: What are the fans' reactions to the Bears' draft decisions?
You got to have Cassius Howell. I just wasn't moved by those guys, and I don't think the Bears were either.
Well, and that's it. They want to stay true to their board, and they've said that over and over again. And I've maintained, especially on the defensive side of the ball, I don't trust this GM's board.
That's fair.
I feel like defensively, there's still a lot of question marks when it comes to the evaluation, partially because of what we heard Ryan Poles say when he says, oh, we're drafting for scheme now. No, you still drafted for relative athletic score. Like, look at the relative athletic score cumulatively of these draft picks, and you can see that that was still very much important to them.
What was it, out of the top six, only one of them was a sub-nine relative athletic score? That's still how they're going about their business. Don't get it twisted, Ryan.
I'm not a Ryan Poles defender, as you know, by any stretch of the imagination, but I will say one of the stated goals was to get more athletic and to get faster, like speed. They have definitely added speed.
Yes, now they've got two Kalief Raymonds, and one of them runs a 4.28.
Savion Thomas, boy, he's going to beā They used a third-round pick to replace Durham Smythe. I'm now making a prediction. Those of us that are covering training camp this year, we will overexpose Zavian Thomas because of the speed, and we'll all be talking about how fast he is in his 4.28 speed. I'm very curious as to how exactly they plan on using Zavian Thomas.
Is he going to be in running back type situations at times? Well, he's a Kalief Raymond Light. That's what he is. Well, but he's faster than Kalief Raymond, right? But I'm not saying in terms of athleticism. I'm saying in terms of what they do. Kalief Raymond is going to be your kick returner and punt returner. That's why they drafted Xavier Thomas, because he can do that as well.
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Chapter 7: What are key statistics regarding the Bears' defensive performance?
Kalief Raymond is going to get 300 to 400 yards receiving, probably, line up in neat, fun places, and he'll return kicks. So there's a lot of repetition. I mean, you've got... Repetition at center with Logan Jones, who maybe will be the starting center by the end of the season.
That I don't mind. Yeah. Because that is an inside out. I love that. You know how I feel about this. Use your high picks on the inside, then move out.
Amen. And that was a guy during our TTN Live. I mocked him to the Bears at 60 overall. Thank you very much. Sam Roush, repetition. No doubt about it. At some point in time, maybe he replaces Cole Komet. But I don't even like saying that. Why do we have to talk about replacing Cole Komet?
Because the way it looks with the restructuring of his contract, the drafting of this guy, where they draft him, you can see the writing on the wall. You don't have to have 20-20 vision, 20-10 vision to see the writing on the wall.
But in the meantime, for right now, with what you're doing, he's replacing Durham Smythe. In the roster spot in the position room, that's your third round pick.
Yeah.
Is replacing Durham Smythe.
But is that because they want to run more 12 and 13 personnel?
They have no choice. Now you're better with this group.
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Chapter 8: How do the Bears' draft choices align with their long-term goals?
Maybe they want to do even more.
To his credit, I liked what Durham Smythe brought to the table. Yeah, yeah. So if you look at the... This is according to Math Bomb. That's where relative athletic score lives on Twitter. Here it is. And yes, there were two players, two players out of six total where they were drafted or where their relative athletic score was sub-9. So Dylan Thienman, 9-7-2 Oregon.
Layla Rahimi has no problems with that pick. I thought it was a great idea. Logan Jones, I'm still good. 9-6-3 on the relative athletic score. Sam Rauch, Stanford, 9-9-4. And they marry these two with how they select in the draft. Like, be aware. Xavion Thomas, Louisiana State. 8-7-9, and that's despite the 4-2-8-40 at the comp. That's crazy.
Malik Muhammad from Texas, and I actually think that this could be a real key pick for them as well. 9-51 relative athletic score. Keyshawn Elliott, another one where I feel like people don't hate the pick. He has value. The resume, I think, speaks for itself. Part of that New Mexico draft class with Diego Pavia. Or a recruiting class, rather. He's 8-7-4.
And then Jordan Vanderberg from Georgia Tech, a 9-9-9 relative athletic score. If you need a tiebreaker to figure out how the Bears draft board falls, look no farther than a relative athletic score. And I feel like that will answer a lot of your questions.
However, like those last three guys, Malik Muhammad, that's also a need. You absolutely needed a cornerback in this draft. And you need a tight end. And you need a linebacker. I mean linebacker. I don't know why I say tight end. And obviously they needed a defensive tackle. So the relative scores are right, but those are also needs. And they didn't need an edge.
That's what I read from watching seven players go by.
They have edge at home.
They have edge. Look, look.
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