Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Danny Parkins explains why Bears are a regression candidate in 2026 (Hour 4)
18 Mar 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
I could do Stephen A. 's job, guys. It's not that hard. Danny Parkins. QB1 party. All are invited. Host of Fox Sports 1's First Things First. Coming in at number six, though, the team that should be the favorites in the NFC North, though the odds makers say they're the third best team, my Chicago Bears. Why can't the Chicago Bears be the best offense in football?
The Bears, plenty of reason to doubt them.
Chapter 2: Why are the Bears considered a regression candidate in 2026?
Caleb Williams, no. Former host of 670 The Score, before he abandoned us. That's a Caleb Williams custom, baby. Jersey number one is going to the Raptors. You guys made it seem like a Chicago Bears fan. We had our guy, Danny Parkins, all these guys. Danny Parkins on 104.3 The Score.
This is Rahimi Harrison Brody on 104.3 The Score, and Danny Parkins joins us as he does every Wednesday at this time. It is Mark Brody, Marshall Harrison, Layla Rahimi with you. Danny is also on Twitch, twitch.tv slash thescorechicago. He hosts the newly expanded First Things First OT from 4 to 5 p.m. on Fox Sports 1. But he was on early because Nick Wright was in Japan.
So Danny had the whole show every day last week, and Danny... You were on with us. Then you went less than an hour later to host the show. But you didn't tell me about this. Can I play some audio for you from your show? I love nothing more. Go right ahead. You held something back from us. More me, please. Okay, but this is something we have to discuss as a family here.
So let's listen to Danny moments later after we talked to him last week. These are regression candidates. My Bears, your Patriots, the Broncos, and the Jaguars. Jags seem to be doing it on purpose.
Yeah, Jaguars with some of the actual losses, the Broncos with the one-score wins, the Bears with the comebacks and the health on the offensive line, and the Patriots because of the schedule difficulty. We are going to talk about all of these teams as contenders, but there will be totally fair cases to make for all of them that these teams are going to regress. Wait a second.
What's all this regression candidacy talk? Turn in your robe. Wow. Not the robe.
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Chapter 3: What specific areas do the Bears need to improve to avoid regression?
What's all this one in a million talk? Yeah, I mean, listen, I think, does anyone dispute it? Like three areas where I would say the Bears are not likely to regress, but will regress. They will not lead the league in fourth quarter comebacks. They will not have 80% of their offensive line play 90% or more of the snaps.
Left guard, center, right guard, and right tackle last year all played 90% or more of the snaps. And what was the third one? Maybe it was the takeaways. Yeah, offensive and leading the league in takeaways. Thank you. Yeah. leading the league in takeaways, offensive line health, and fourth quarter comebacks, it's very likely, if not inevitable, that all three of those areas backslide.
And we've already seen one of them with the Dahlman surprise retirement. We already are going to have more uncertainty on the offensive line this year than last year. But that's just the case for regression. Because the case for... overcoming that regression is a very easy one. Caleb Williams will be better.
That segment, what you're pulling from there is when I was doing tiers and grouping teams together, and so we will talk about those teams as regression candidates, but the case for the Bears to back up what they did last year or take a step forward is... How much of Caleb Williams' inevitable improvement and consistency of production on offense overcome all of that stuff?
Like, if they go from number one in takeaways to number nine, and they go from one of the healthiest offensive lines to middle of the pack... but they are a top 10 or top five or top one offense and you don't need to rely on fourth quarter comebacks, that's how you overcome it.
So what you're playing there was me making the case for regression, but the obvious case to overcome the regression is the offense is going to be better and the offense is going to be more consistent. Do you consider that to be an easier path to overcoming the regression than the other candidates that you've named that obviously had good seasons last year? Okay, let's run through them.
I think that what Denver did last year is almost impossible to replicate. They got unlucky at the end because of the Bo Nix injury, no doubt about it. That was very poorly timed. It's rare you have wrapped up a divisional round game and get to play on Championship Sunday, and that's when you have to start playing a backup quarterback. That is horribly unlucky, but...
They played down to every opponent last year. They played a close game against the Raiders. They played a close game against the Giants. They played a close game against the Jets. You go back and look at the Broncos' schedule last year, and they were playing down to bad opponents. That's very, very tough to replicate, though I like the Jalen Waddell trade. The Jaguars...
They are another team, I think we talked about it a few weeks ago, Marshall, like the grouping of teams that believe they can be the best offense in football. They absolutely believe they can be the best offense in football because for the last nine weeks they were. But do I think that's a 13-win team again? Probably not. And then what was the fourth? Oh, and then New England.
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Chapter 4: How does Caleb Williams' performance impact the Bears' future?
That being a peak of Bayard and eventually Father Time being undefeated and trading that in for a 26-year-old versatile Kobe Bryant and then pairing him with a draft pick is like a much more... three to five year plan solution at safety as opposed to you're always going to be year to year with a guy of Bayard given his age.
And with Brisker, you're going to be year to year because of the injury history and the concussion. So is it possible you're going to have remorse on one or both of those guys for this upcoming year? Yes, but over the next three years, I think the odds are heavily in the Bears' favor that Kobe Bryant is the best safety over the next three years compared to the next one.
Wait, if you wanted an MVP vote, who would you have voted for? Yeah, this year I would have given it to Drake May. I would have given it to Drake May with the emphasis on value, like doing more with less. Stafford was incredible, obviously. He had a very old-school, traditional MVP candidacy, led the league in yards, led the league in touchdowns. But Drake May, with the win total jump ā
The performance under pressure, completion percentage over expectation, and just like Keyshawn Booty and Stephon Diggs and Hunter Henry. It was not exactly first-team all-pro Puka Nakua. and Hall of Fame to be Devontae Adams, who led the league in touchdowns.
Like, Stafford just was dealing with so much more help that given how close it was, I would have ā Ty would have went to value and exceeding expectations, and I would have given it to Drake May. And, you know, it ended up being, you know, one of the closest NFL MVP votes in history, closest MVP vote we'd had in almost 20 years.
So, you know, it was a great case for both guys, but I would have gone to Drake May. Danny Parkins joins us here on Rahimi Harrison. Grody, you can check out Danny on the newly expanded First Things First OT from 4 to 5 p.m. daily on FS1. Danny, here's my issue. I was looking at a graphic and I was talking to Grody about this. I look at the departures. I look at the additions.
I understand what you're saying about aging guys and guys that you don't know how healthy Jaquan Brisker is going to be for the remainder of his career. But it just feels like the Bears are coming up short, and it leads me to this one fundamental question. Do you trust Ryan Poles to draft defensive linemen who are good? Because I haven't seen Ryan Poles draft defensive linemen who are good.
Yeah, I haven't either. And this is one of the fundamental questions of how much are we willing to say the draft is luck? Because I'm willing to say a lot of the draft is luck. And, like, is Ryan Poles ā like, is he just ā he's really good at one position and really bad at another, and then he's okay at another, and then he's mediocre? Like, or ā
Is the defining thing of his era the trade of the number one pick in the Bryce Young draft? Is that fundamentally also a lucky thing? Because if Carolina was a little better and you get the fifth pick instead of the first pick, then Caleb Williams isn't a bear and maybe the Bears end up drafting J.J. McCarthy and Ryan Poles is fired.
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Chapter 5: What are the potential consequences of the Bears' offensive line health?
But how could you? You know what I mean? How could you based on the results? But also Dennis Allen is a journeyman, and Ben Johnson is like swimming in the Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, best young coach in the game waters. Like, you know, so like we ā
i do not believe that like that ben johnson is so married to offense that he is blinds to the idea that this team needs a defensive upgrade this year and that he needs you know front seven help this year because he knows that aiden hutchinson helped the lions offense in detroit and that it's a team game and he's the head coach so i think that we should be operating under the premise that like ben johnson might be a football genius
And if Ben Johnson's a football genius and he gets in the lab and Ryan Poles is like, okay, these five guys at positions of need, D-tackle, D-end, and linebacker, like front seven players, these five guys are the guys that I think we can get with our first-round pick. And Ben Johnson goes in and he watches the cut-up of all five guys.
I am totally comfortable giving him the benefit of the doubt that he's going to pick the right guy in that spot. I don't think that it's going to be like, Dennis Allen runs this draft personally. So, yeah, I think we give them the benefit of the doubt on Ben Johnson. And, yeah, Grody, I like that question. Go ahead. Sorry, we're supposed to wrap. You saw me holding it up.
I was told to go to break. Every time Grody sends me a note, he points it right at this camera, actually. Sorry. I'm locked in. No, what's up with the Radiothon? All right, so I still have not been given clearance for a date. But that's okay. It is going to be sooner than it's ever been before, which is also okay. And I would just say...
What I would remind people, if you are an individual, if you're going to be able to donate $25, $5, $100, whatever, we got all that stuff for you again, and that's going to be great, and you need to tune in on the date, and there'll be plenty of promotion of it leading up to it. But if you are an individual of means, a high net worth individual, or a company looking for your philanthropic
donation for the 2026 fiscal year to go further than it can anywhere else. Everything that is raised during the radiothon goes to the cause of cancer research. We raised $750,540. The money goes to Cubs charities and then it gets disseminated to brain up the charity that I'm on the board of directors of. Cubs Charities Wired Brain Up, $750,540.
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Chapter 6: What is the case for the Bears overcoming regression?
There is no overhead. Everything is donated. We all donate our time. We donate our experiences. We're all paid salaries so that, you know, I do things for other organizations. And it's like, well, there's an open bar and you can have the steak or the salmon and there's a DJ. And then at the end of the night, we're like, well, we raised 800 grand or a million bucks or whatever.
It's like, yeah, but it also costs $250,000 to put on the event. So it is a true dollar raised goes to dollar cause. And if you or your company want to get involved at a real level to sponsor an hour, to sponsor multiple hours, to be a presenting sponsor, my DMs are open on Twitter and Instagram. You can call the score. They'll put you in touch with me. 670radiothon at gmail.com.
I'm an easy guy to get in touch with on this sort of thing. And we got to do bigger than better. Think about it. We have people who have passed away since the last Radiothon. Rhino just passed right before. Obviously, Terry Boers, Troy Mertz. We got so many people that we need to honor and raise money for because cancer affects all of us. Well said, Danny Parkins.
He is at Danny Parkins on X. You can find him. He is also on Instagram. And he joins us to talk about what happened on the show last week. Danny, thanks so much. Thanks, Danny. Did that cause a stir? Did the regression thing cause a stir? No, we just wanted to mess with you about it because that's what we do. It was a little stir. A little stir. Not a big stir. There was no stir over here.
I was not stirred. A little ripple. We just wanted to make sure what was going on. Just like we didn't want to have to take away your bear's robe. That's all. I think he did. I think he tried to. Oh, I did. Yeah, you're right. I can send you a robe. You want a robe? Sure. He needs a smoking jacket and a fake pipe that blows bubbles. I do. For the pen. Yeah. What pen?
I don't know what you're talking about. Hey, you twos. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Every week you bring up the pen. I thought it was you this time. Sneaky Sneakersons. Oh, yeah. It was me again. Yeah. It was me again. Troublemakers. Danny, thanks so much. Bye, Danny. Are you back to your typical schedule this week? Yeah, yeah. Someone's got to do one hour of TV a day and call it a job. Get out of here.
Goodbye. Have fun, Danny. Robbie Triano is also posting on Twitch, so say hi to Robbie for us. This guy's got to get back to work. Man, Danny, it takes no prisoners. Coming up next here on Rahimi Harrison Grody, it is time to discuss something that I don't think I saw coming. It is a move that was made regarding a stadium and land. Or was it a stadium?
But either way, there's already plans for the thing. Justin Ishbia is working in town. So let's talk about it next. You're listening to Rahimi Harrison-Grody on Sports Radio 104.3 The Score. Doors closing. We might need to add a new stop. This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 104.3 The Score. And this story came out earlier today. This is courtesy of Crane Chicago Business.
Stop me if you've heard this before, but we have some land that seems to be being purchased here in town this time. Stop. by an owner of a team or set to be owning a team in the coming years when that happens regarding a possible stadium. Heard. Heard. Heard before.
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Chapter 7: How does Ryan Poles' drafting strategy affect the Bears' success?
6, 7, and 8 to the score contest line. 312-540-0670 will win a pair of tickets to a special edition of Take the North Live with Dan Weter and me, Mark Grody. It's on Thursday. April 16th from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Performance Studio. We did this last year as well. We had an absolute blast. We had a packed house.
You can come and see our performance studio, which is pretty sick, where lots of cool bands come as well. Again, call our 6, 7, and 8, 312-540-0670. More coming up also on the Rahimi Harrison Grody Show on The Score.