Chapter 1: Why do the Bears need to improve their pass rush?
This hour is brought to you by The Great Escape.
Rahimi Harrison-Grody, 10-2 on 104.3 The Score.
Tony in Downers Grove has been waiting over an hour. Tony, what is your grade on the Bears draft?
Really? Like, thanks for making me the loser of all time, saying I hold on for over an hour, but that's okay. So I'm not going to lose her?
Oh, honey, you're not a total loser. I said, so I'm not going to lose her?
Oh, you have, wait, so your perseverance is now losing, sir?
No, to be on with you three, I feel like a winner for the day. Okay, now you're talking like a winner. You ready? Okay. A, I give him an A, and here's why.
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Chapter 2: What are the expert opinions on the Bears' draft class?
First, no one else is going to give him an A, but mostly... Can I interest you in a B-minus? What's going on, B-minus? What's a heps? No, no, no, no, okay, that's the second thing. There is no damn B-minus, B-plus. That's like grade school. When you get your grade point average, do they say, you know what? My grade point average was 3.95. No.
I mean, this is a fourth grade participation medal for soccer. It's literally a medal for sucking. Now that is a medal for trying.
Let me tell you something. This guy was always a great tryer.
My grade point average was 3.95.
Chapter 3: How does free agency impact the Bears' roster decisions?
It is kind of a cop-out.
You're right.
And at ExxonMobil, they won't hire you unless it's over 3.85. So, yeah, it comes up.
Yeah, but, well, Layla, you went to North Texas State.
What was your GPA?
Mine was only 3.2. Hey. What is the deal with the smart car? How smart is that? Those things are tiny. Can you even drive them in traffic? I'm so smart. E equals MC squared. I drive a smart car.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of the Bears not drafting an edge rusher?
That's not smart in my book. Ray, put Tony back on hold for another hour, and then we'll get back to him on this.
Layla Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody. Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 104.3 The Score.
We'll be right back. On social media, I definitely got a couple of tweets, a couple messages. I love it when people slide into my DMs about sports because I like to answer questions. And I got a lot of that over the weekend. And a name that kept popping up, for example, was... Is now the time to call Cam Jordan? I'm like, listen, I don't hate the idea.
And I feel like, Marshall, you were also percolating on this thought as well.
Time for the percolator? It's time for the percolator.
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Chapter 5: Which free agents should the Bears consider for their defense?
It's always time for the percolator.
You're damn right it's always time for the percolator. You know what should be percolating right now at House Hall? Can we make sure that we can restructure people so that we can add, I don't know, a defensive end, an edge rusher, someone to get to the quarterback? Because look... It's interesting that we got through free agency. There was a lot of talk about maybe they'll go do this.
Maybe they'll go do that. Whether it was trades, whether it was figuring something out where they could bring one of the top of the line guys in, Trey Hendrickson, or go out and get a Max Crosby. That didn't happen, right? And the whole time we're thinking, okay, that's okay. You don't overpay for the edge. The draft is right around the corner. And in the draft, it is a deep edge rusher class.
And even though you don't have any picks between 25 and 57, surely you can find someone to at least give you a little bump, if you will.
Chapter 6: How does the Bears' defensive strategy compare to other teams?
That clearly did not happen. They did not take one edge rusher in their seven draft picks. And so I started thinking on the back end, and I know what they're telling us. The Bears have been very adamant that they feel like they have enough already in-house to improve as they get healthier,
When you're looking at Shamar Turner, when you're looking at Dio Odingbo, players who are respectively coming off a torn ACL and a torn Achilles. But I got to tell you, after giving it some serious thought, they need to go out and get one of these guys who are still floating around out here in free agency because... At worst, they need to add a little depth, a little bump.
Because even if you expect Austin Booker to take a big step up and it's him and Montez Sweat, you need depth behind that. And at best... Those two guys I just talked about, Turner, Odingbo specifically, there's no guarantee that they will be, one, ready for the start of the regular season, two, the same player that they were a year ago from a physical standpoint.
Because if you show me a guy who came back year one after a torn Achilles and was as good as he was when he went down, I'll show you a modern medical miracle. It has not happened. So they owe it to themselves. understanding that they have to be better at getting to the quarterback to just go out now and get someone. I've got a couple of names.
Chapter 7: What are the potential risks of the Bears' current roster?
Top of my list is Jadavian Clowney, who's obviously a former number one overall pick, a little longer in the tooth than you may have liked at 33. But this is a guy who last year with the Cowboys, eight and a half sacks, 32 pressures in 13 games. Extrapolate that out over 17 games, you'll find a double-digit sacker.
I just think if it's him or if it's Joey Bosa, who's a little younger at 31, you're giving yourself some margin for error. And the error may be you thought you had a fully ready-to-go pass rush in the form of guys who did not do it last year, whether it was because of underperforming or injury. That's all I'm asking. Just go get some insurance.
If the Bears don't realize that they need help on the defensive line, then the coaching staff is not as smart as we think they are. So they are saying what they have to say publicly, and that is to support the players that they all identified last year in Shamar Turner and Grady Jarrett and Dio Odengbo. Those are their guys. That's Dennis Allen's input. That's Ben Johnson's input.
That's Ryan Poles' input. So, of course, they're going to support those. I will see your Jadavian Clowney and raise you a Cam Jordan.
Chapter 8: How did the Cubs perform in their latest game against the Padres?
Who's your guy? That's my guy when it comes to if the Bears are to sign one of these. And you're right, by the way, Marshall. They do need to do this. Cam Jordan, 36 years old. He's going to be 37 on July 10th. This will be, assuming he plays, his 16th season. Last year, 17 games, 10.5 sacks for Cam Jordan. Here's the other thing about Cam Jordan when we worry about his age.
He's aged well, and he... I was looking through his numbers. This guy's only missed two games, two games in his career in 15 seasons. Also, we are to believe that the Bears are a playoff team. Cam Jordan has played in 11 playoff games. So Cam Jordan is my guy if the Bears are to get an edge rusher, which is imperative still.
Well, I think it makes sense, Mark. He's a person who the Bears, I think Bears fans appropriately have talked about with us for a long time. I mean, when free agency started, that was the name that came up from a lot of people, whether it was on our text line. You can text us 312-644-6767 here at Rahimi Harrison Grody. You can call us 312-644-6767 is our number.
Or it's like the Twitch mob, you know, on twitch.tv slash Twitch. The score, Chicago, it's been there. Or just Twitter or wherever else, his name has popped up a lot. There's also the obvious Dennis Allen connection. I feel like that plays into this quite a bit. You know who the prototypical Dennis Allen guy is when he's one who played for Dennis Allen.
But there's also reports that he may stay with the Saints, which makes sense since that's where his career was. So that is a headline that popped up yesterday. The landscape is clearing up on a potential Saints return was the quote that from NFL dot com. But the other part of this is the Bears have like seven dollars of cap space to work with.
And it's partially because, as we've mentioned, all those either backup defensive linemen that they've signed to contracts or. or it's because of the defensive line they're currently paying. As I've mentioned, Jervon Dexter is on that rookie contract still, thankfully, financially for the team. But he's in the last year of that.
So you're looking at a very expensive unit already when it comes to how they put this together. There's the obvious. The obvious is we follow the money and, again, notice that their actions have indicated they felt like they made their splash. But it kind of goes back to... Even Ryan Pohl saying, we were in discussions for Max Crosby. So you're telling me there's a chance.
You're telling me you did address your defensive line differently. I know it's Max Crosby. He supersedes a lot of needs. If there's a chance you can get him, you figure it out, no matter how good your defensive line is. But you did acknowledge that this is something that you think can improve when you decided to put that out there.
It feels like Max Crosby feels that... BPA designation, best player available. If you can go get him, he's the best player available in football.
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