Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Dan Wiederer: Bears must figure out keys to sustaining success (Hour 4)
09 Feb 2026
Chapter 1: What insights does Dan Wiederer share about the Bears' young players?
Dan Wiederer, Bears reporter and senior writer for The Athletic. You're going to be relying on a lot of young players, guys that have to materialize into who they thought they were. The Bears are who we thought they were.
On-air contributor for 670 The Score. We'll mention this mainly because Dan Wiederer said we would mention this nugget. Host of the Take the North podcast. We're going to take the North and never give it back. Dan Wiederer. Thanks, Coach. We'll go first to Dan Wiederer. On Chicago Sports Radio, 104.3 The Score. Weezy!
Weezy!
That poor Bears PR guy. I think about him every time. This is Rahimi Harrison-Grote on 104.3 The Score, and we go to our Circa Resort and Casino hotline, CircaLasVegas.com. That is where we connect with Dan Weterer, the senior writer for The Athletic who covers the Bears. He is the co-host of the Take the North podcast, DTN, alongside our own Mark Grote. Dan, thanks for joining us.
Hi, guys. Welcome to the NFL offseason.
Oh, we made it. Look at that. The weed man has spoken. The season is over.
Dan, Mark is trying to call you the weed man, and I'm pretty sure that refers to something else. How do you feel about this?
Weed man, weed man, weed man. It does not apply to me, but I have been called that many times over the course of my life, dating all the way back to junior high. We can throw something out here right now. All of the people that knew me in childhood just call me Weed. And so my nickname has kind of evolved over the years during various markets and on this station as well.
And you can call me just about anything you want.
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Chapter 2: How did the Super Bowl influence the Bears' perspective on their season?
So we'll never know how Caleb would have performed against that particular Seahawks defense on that particular stage. We will get a glimpse next season of that matchup, though, and it'll be an interesting test to see what the Bears do with the offense that they have that's obviously evolving and we expect to improve against a Seahawks defense.
Guys, it was great all year, and then it may have been at its best in the biggest game of the year, which is really impressive because Mike McDonald does so much stuff that it just relies on the cohesion and the detail. And they just mastered it last night. They had the Patriots offensive line uncomfortable, which then made Drake May uncomfortable.
And they just didn't really ever let up until the game was well in hand. And I think at the end of the third quarter, the Patriots were averaging two yards of play after three quarters of a Super Bowl. And so you just got to give the Seahawks their flowers for how well they played. And it was an anomaly because we saw that all year long from that group.
I'm curious, Dan, what was your biggest takeaway from this game through the lens of what the Bears need to do to get to be on the level where they can play in that game next year?
Well, you just have to understand how hard it is to get there. And I think that they do very well. And now it's just about going and finding ways to strengthen your roster everywhere you can strengthen it to understand that you're in a different class than you were in at this time last year.
You have elevated yourself into the level of being a team that is a playoff football team that has a chance to stay there for the rest of this decade and beyond. And now you just have to figure out the keys to sustaining success that gives you the maximum number of opportunities to try to get hot in January, right?
Like that's what this is all about because there is a lot of Super Bowl contenders that never play in a Super Bowl, you know? And so you can be a legitimate Super Bowl contender and never get to play in that game just because of how difficult this league is.
And so I think the Bears' next step is figuring out how to sustain success in order to give themselves the maximum number of opportunities to play in January and, like I said, get hot and ultimately be in February one day.
Right now they are trying to replace success, if you will, at the offensive coordinator position. They have hired a press tailor. And Dan, this is a great question for you because you talked to press tailor quite a bit this year. In the hallway at Hal's Hall, we were afforded that opportunity a couple times a month to talk to the assistant. But it feels like you spoke to him.
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Chapter 3: What does Dan Wiederer believe the Bears need to achieve sustained success?
How do you think that gets filled? Do you have anybody that you're looking at that might step into that spot, whether internally or externally?
Yeah, I don't know that they've made any decisions there. I actually cast some lines on that late last week, and I still feel like they're making that decision. Jeff King is the obvious in-house promotion. You slide him over, I think his current title is Senior Director of Player Personnel.
He's been here since the early days of the Ryan Pace regime, and so he knows everything inside that building and has been a... A trusted resource for Ryan Paul. So we'll see if they decide to make that kind of easy slide over promotion or if they've got other things in mind. But yeah, that is something that they're going to have to kind of get solidified soon.
You know, two weeks from now, we will all be at the combine in Indianapolis. It comes quickly. And so most teams like to go there with everything kind of intact so that they can go do their business with maximum efficiency while they're down there.
A couple of business items here. A SCORE employee, Parth, has suggested that we need to get you a Weed Man lawn care endorsement. That's one possibility for weeds. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
There it is.
There it is. Or an edible endorsement. I mean, let's be broadcast here. Yeah, yeah. It's all out in the open. The other one, one of the texts is hilarious. I won't do it. I'm not going to read it.
Is it from 574?
That is pretty funny. Read it to me later, Cody.
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Chapter 4: What role will Press Taylor play as the new offensive coordinator?
You know, Gertie, we talked last week just about the number of big ticket expenditures they've had over the last 18 months. There's a ton of them and there is still a salary cap here in the NFL. It's not like Major League Baseball where you can just go do anything you want if you're a major market team. And so I just I don't I don't see that being practical or realistic for them at this point.
Oh, they can't do anything they want either, as we have learned. But to that end, Anthony Heron did ask this, and Brad Biggs gave us an update on this. I want to say somewhere around the time Micah Parsons was available. So August is... what the Bears are spending specifically out of their cap relative to the rest of their spending on the defensive line.
It's a significant number, and he asked one of the scribes, a.k.a. you, Kevin Fishbane, Brad Biggs, etc., to try to figure that out. Do you have a relative number, at least off the top of your head, because a significant portion of their salary cap is going to the defensive line?
Yeah. I mean, look, I don't have the percentage right off hand, but you're talking about the contract they gave to Montez Sweat. You're talking about the contract they gave to Dio Dangbo. You're talking about the contract they gave to Grady Jarrett. Those are three pretty big expenditures there.
And so I think people in this town are going to have to become comfortable with the idea that a good chunk of their 2026 improvement up front is going to have to be in-house improvement. Guys that just take the next step in their own production. And then obviously you're going to try to find some, some bargain signings and, and, and obviously the draft to add impact there.
I wouldn't be surprised if they, they put some focus on the interior of the defensive line over the next six weeks or so to try to, to get that a little bit stronger and then, you know, find their way through, through the draft and get the roster set there. But yeah, like this is, this is part of building the roster up and building it for sustained success.
And some of that is with players you already have, you have to get the return on investment of what you put into them. And so like, that's why some teams fall off the side of a cliff and other teams keep going up the mountain because that's really hard to do. And that's something that the bears are really going to have to focus on.
This is as optimistic as you've been about the bears off season since what year?
2019. That was a big offseason. People tend to kind of revise the history of that in terms of what the anticipation for what that season could be. Obviously, I think that the most notable difference this time around is you feel like your quarterback has a much higher ceiling than you had back then. And you feel like your head coach is more proven in terms of what he does best.
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Chapter 5: How does Press Taylor's background influence his coaching style?
And it's part of the, it's part of the equation for sure. And I think sometimes it gets overlooked.
Adam, we, Adam, Dan, we appreciate the time. Sorry. I was just reading something from Adam Schefter. Nothing of note though. Unfortunately. Sorry. No problem. Dolores.
We'll talk soon.
Okay. Listen, I can't just call you weed and be like, okay, thanks.
I'm a no on weed. I just want to be on the record.
Like thinking weed just seems unstable.
Again, you guys can make whatever decisions you need to make. I'm here for all of them. So I'll be flexible with whatever you decide.
Delores does not know what to do yet. That is now my alternate name.
Weedzy! Enjoy your week.
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Chapter 6: What challenges do the Bears face in building a successful roster?
I like Dolores.
I do, too.
It's a classic name.
It's a good alter ego for me. That was from Dan Weterer in our last segment.
First Dolores you think of. Crickets. I don't know that have a specific Dolores. Dolores, I have a question for you. What's your favorite cereal?
Grape nuts.
That tracks. That tracks. Dolores Leachman. Oh, Dolores Leachman.
Chorus. That's Chorus. God, at least we're together. You know, at least for every thought you have, we can find the pathway.
Isn't there a radio show, Dolores? Doesn't she do that love show?
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Chapter 7: How does the Bears' salary cap situation affect their offseason strategy?
So Rodney Harrison, first of all, comparing players to coaches is dumb because the players are not selected from the same process that coaches are. So I had a real problem with that. Shouldn't there be an unwritten rule somewhere in all of this, though, that the Hall of Fame coach, Tony Dungy, should probably vote for his brethren in Bill Belichick? And what you said makes sense.
I actually think that if there was ever a time to discuss conflict of interest or bias, don't you think that a coach who perhaps used, whether you want to call it cheating, whether you want to call it spygate, deflategate, whichever, take your pick. If that really is part of the quote justice end quote that came with part of this. Who has a bigger vendetta against a guy like Bill Belichick?
Is it going to be a writer who is observing his career from afar? Or is it somebody who messed with his opponent's money?
Uh-huh. So Tony Dungy could be like, I'm not voting for this guy, man. This dude cheated, man.
That's my issue. But either way, there should be accountability, especially from a coach who has been in the broadcast space for so long. Like, you're supposed to provide the coaching perspective. You're supposed to provide... transparency. The idea of having a head coach or a former one on a broadcast is take us inside the mind of a coach. How does he address this? How does he assess this?
And that's where Tony Dungy's vote should be public. Like you can say that, but Rodney Harrison is also asking on behalf of everybody else, why aren't you talking about this? Because we are. So why aren't you? That is part of your job.
I think the biggest thing is they're coming up with solutions to these problems. The problem, though, is I can't give you a lot of credit, Pro Football Hall of Fame, for coming up with solutions to problems that you created when you thought of this and you did not have the site. the foresight to understand how this would all end up.
I could see this train wreck coming from a mile away if you just understood, hey, there's going to be these five names and they're all going to be contributors you can vote for, but you're really pitting them against each other. It should be a thumbs up or thumbs down. Either you're a Hall of Famer or you're not. They got to redo how they do this.
It does keep being weird every time they line up the Hall of Famers and you see the names and they're all great names. I love seeing Roger Craig out there, man. That feels good. But no Bill Belichick? What? That's the thing. And that's a completely different category for people who don't know the contributors and the legends, Roger Craig, and the coaches are all in one category together. Yes.
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Chapter 8: What humorous moments stood out in the discussion about the Super Bowl?
Baseball could use this instead of just all writers voting.
If you've earned the right, though, to vote for these people for the ultimate honor in your business and in your industry, then the people who have that responsibility should be... Yeah, they should be brave enough to be able to explain why they made the votes they did.
Be held accountable. Yeah, and they've earned it. They've earned the right. They've done something right in their career. They have been good to the masses in some way. So just keep being that instead of getting cocky with your vote. And we've seen many examples of that, even locally.
Well, I don't even know if Tony Dungy was necessarily being cocky, but he just wasn't explaining, which his purpose on the broadcast is to explain things.
Yeah, the best explanation he gave was, yeah, we're all very frustrated with the process, which I just explained. I understand why he's frustrated with that, but I like the several people who have now come out and explained their vote and why they did not vote for Bill Belichick. At least they made it make sense. I get it.
You can disagree with it, but at least you understand where they're coming from. It kind of still doesn't make sense in some ways to not make Bill Belichick a first ballot Hall of Famer, because I know once you're in the Hall of Fame, you're a Hall of Famer, but not really, because most people who are first ballot Hall of Famers...
boast that they are first ballot hall of famers you say that mark but at the same time if you have someone on the ballot that if you don't vote them in that year they're not getting in the hall of fame and you know bill bellichick's gonna get more runs at it to your point once you're in the hall of fame you're a hall of famer but not really once you're not in the hall of fame you're never a hall of famer if you only have one chance on the ballot i understand why a writer would vote for you as opposed to bill bell let's get that m&m song going right now you only get one shot baby let's go
And on what planet should they only get one shot? Like, that's the other part of this.
That's part of the process. Everything is messed up. When does all the fixin' start? There's a lot of fixin'.
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