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Chapter 1: Can the Bears achieve 11 wins again in 2026?
Rahimi, Harrison, Groovy. Midday's K-2. On Chicago Sports Radio. Here we go. Fourth and four. It's a blitz. Joseph. Command in motion. Williams. Drifting. Sprinting for space. In all kinds of trouble. Put it up for grabs. The edge of space. Unbelievable!
That is Mike Tirico, courtesy of NBC. This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 104.3 The Score. Dan Wiederer is in on this Friday because we need to represent the Take the North podcast more equally as a society. Like, Grody gets a lot of mic time, but, you know, Dan's on our show as a guest, but not necessarily as a co-host, so I'm glad you're here today.
Thank you for having me. That clip that we just came back with, I don't know that I've ever...
fully listen to that little cackle from chris collinsworth in there it was just the amusement of the ridiculousness of the play i don't think i i don't think i've ever listened to that without watching it and so that was the first time i kind of picked up on that element we had a texter 312-644-6767 is our number vent to us they confessed that they watched the cleveland game when we were talking about the screen game and that's a great one to watch because they scored over 30 points but they they
They said they re-watched the Cleveland game recently on their DVR, and I was like, you're not a dork, and you have a life. That's what being a sports fan is. I, one night, randomly decided to reassess the entire first round of the 2015 draft. It is bad, by the way. It's bad. But that's the point. This is what we do.
Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot to unpack with all of it. Man, you know, and married up with what Alan was saying at the end of the last segment, like the level of expectation both inside Chicago and around the country throughout the summer and throughout training camp is going to be immense for the Bears.
And I thought it was interesting that he was talking about sort of finding ways to embrace that rather than invade it. And that's going to be I think that's going to be a big part of this for the Bears in 2026 is how do they handle that element of what's coming for them?
Well, and you, I think we've talked about this, what the storyline we think of the 2026 season is, you know, can Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson's improvement override the challenges of a first place schedule of having your turnover machines, takeaway machines. And yes, I know I said machine. Having those guys leave the building, you replace them with different people.
Now you're having a rookie starting safety, for example. There's been a big roster change.
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Chapter 2: What challenges do the Bears face in the upcoming season?
Can all of that override, even the left tackle situation, which we thought was settled and now it is very much not, can that override all of those challenges? And not only is that part of it, but I think it's also... We see this in the division. We should accept it as understandable when you see the Vikings drop off. Yes, you do not have a quarterback who just won a Super Bowl.
But at the same time, you were a regression candidate for a few different reasons. You wanted to develop J.J. McCarthy. That was going to cost you. You know, we see the Lions, who we thought were the standard bearer in the NFC North. As long as Ben Johnson was there, he leaves the building. They're not making the playoffs.
They still get two games against the Bears that I'm pretty sure Ben Johnson is still mad about.
And I'm sure the Lions are very happy about.
Right. And now the Lions don't have to deal with a first place schedule. So. It should make sense as to why, if you're looking at this from a big picture standpoint, maybe this is the year where there's a slight step back, but you don't want it to happen.
No. Here's what I tell people in the neighborhood, people in my family, people that ask, like the Bears could have a worse record this year, they could miss the playoffs. And you can still feel good about their direction.
Because the whole goal of this is, again, opening up this window that for the next six to 10 years, you feel like you have every time you walk into training camp, you feel like you have that legitimate swing.
at winning the biggest prize you know and so they'll dictate you know which direction this season goes but when you talk about the division like there is not a team in the division right now where you're like well they're a mess and they're completely retooling and it's going to be impossible for them to close ground like all three of those teams finished with winning records last year i remind people that you know obviously there's a lot of sliding doors to this but if the bears don't pull off that win in minneapolis last year they're
They lose a game. The Vikings win a game. All of a sudden, they have matching records, and the Vikings, by virtue of a head-to-head tiebreaker, would have been the team that won the division. That's how small that margin was.
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Chapter 3: How can Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson impact the Bears' success?
This is genuine praise. fear of having to compete against them because they know the danger of what that brings.
And more importantly, respect.
Right.
It's not just fear. It is respect. It is respect the league has for the head coach. It is the respect that opposing players have for Caleb Williams. It's the respect for the athleticism and the execution. And that's uncharted waters for us. And I've thought about this too.
I know I gave Gertie a lot of guff for it, but I also think 2018 was the year we looked back on in a lot of the comparisons midway through the season last year. But I never felt like I knew the Bears were building something sustainable or even that there was a long-term approach or even that there was a long-term commitment. And maybe that's hindsight 2020.
But it just didn't feel that way for me. Not like this, where I'm like, okay, if one year is a setback, ultimately... you still feel like you've got a future because the quarterback is different. We were sold on Mitch Trubisky by any means, and apparently neither was Matt Nagy.
You just feel like coach quarterback-wise the ceiling is higher and the ability to unlock every little ounce of potential in both of those guys individually and then together gives you just a chance to dream bigger dreams. And listen, there were dreams being dreamt here. In the summer of 2019, I bring it up all the time. This city was alive. It was electric.
Everyone that was anywhere near the 3-1-2 on the opening night of the 100th season of the NFL remembers the electricity that was absolutely pulsating through downtown because of what they thought that season was going to be and the potential that was there. It ultimately didn't become that.
And, you know, listen, like Alan Robinson probably had two more chapters he would have given us on what else derailed that group from sustaining success deeper. This group now has the challenge of trying to figure out that formula. And you just have a little more faith that that that Ben has thought of everything. You know what I mean?
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