Chapter 1: What is the current state of the Bears' safety position?
This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 670 The Score. A happy Wednesday to you. Yeah, when we were giving grades, Big Cat gave his out and he said 89. Here we were thinking we were being reasonable. Those Gen Xers, man. You're included in that. I was about to say, I'm an exennial. I'm right on the cusp. Exennial. It sounds like a... You know what it sounds like?
The next great show on that new series you just created streaming. Netflix Max Minus.
Oh, Xenial.
Plus Minus. Yes.
Two-thirds to the third power.
That thing. Max. I feel like all of that. Also, the 2012 Ravens. Joe Flacco was the quarterback. I think he's actually a better quarterback this past year than he was then.
No. He had a postseason run for the ages. Go look at his postseason game log.
That was the origin of elite.
It was elite.
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Chapter 2: How significant is Kevin Byard's potential return for the Bears?
We saw how it played out in this past year. And the Rams game, if that's the last game that we've seen of Jaquan Brisker, he left it all in the field. Single-handedly changing drives. Keeping your team in the game.
So the Brisker thing is interesting because recency bias, especially in 2026, is such a strong thing. People will remember what you do in the playoffs. You heard Caleb Williams, Ben Johnson talking about regular season is about making your money. Postseason is about legacy. So good. It's so true, though, right? That's what people remember at the end of the day.
And that's why those Caleb Williams throws were so... Iconic. Prolific. Yes. And understand this. The Bears' defense would not be where it was last year without Kevin Byard, as you said, getting the takeaways. And you said 22. It was plus 22 on the differential. They actually ended up with 33 takeaways to lead the NFL.
That's right. Yeah, that was the differential. But still significant because his were part of that differential. They were straight-up takeaways.
They're not doing it without the efforts of the defensive backs with him and, of course, Nashawn Wright being the biggest power behind that. And you have to ask yourself, how much is that type of play in your early 30s worth? Because when you're talking about extending, you're getting into what I like to think of as the danger zone for an NFL player in most positions, which is the 30s.
Let's be honest. With a running back, it usually falls off very hard when you put a three in front of your number. With other positions, you can go into the early 30s. But now this contract would take him up through like a 34, 35.
Yeah, he's turning 33 and he's entering his 11th season. And that's where this gets tricky. But he was also a huge leader on this team, as we know. He was part of a veteran presence that was needed and I think, frankly, helped this team learn how to win. There's no better example than seven fourth quarter comebacks.
If you want to show that there was proof that they learned how to win, all of it matters. It wasn't just Joe Tooney. It wasn't just Grady Jarrett, although they were huge additions, but they also come with big salaries. And that's why this gets tricky. You can't always kick out the money. like people think you can.
Like Howie Roseman is probably the best example in Philly of how they've extended everybody's contracts and how they've made sure to try to deflate the cap as much as they can, let that air out of the balloon slowly. But don't you forget, for example, the reason why Joe Tooney is here. It's because the salary cap came calling for Kansas City. You have to make some allowances here and there.
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Chapter 3: What impact does Jaquan Brisker's injury history have on his future?
By the way, to go along with 93 total tackles. What more can you say? To earn the All-Pro for the first time, as you mentioned. To go five years without being able to do so and then you get it again? That's a renaissance. That's a win for Ryan Poles. That's a win for everybody. But where's the loyalty? And I feel like for Kevin Bayard, he earned this.
If some other team wants to back up the truck for him, it's the last time he's probably going to get paid to that extent, to that kind of money.
Exactly.
You have to exercise your options.
262 on the text line. Very simple and really echoing my sentiment. Keith Bayard, he's a ball hawk. And he proved to be a ball hawk this season. And I think this is one of those things where... We're going to have to see how they measure it out.
And you're going to find out pretty quickly how Ben Johnson and Ryan Poles and Ian Cunningham view roster construction in a way that last year it was sight unseen for Ben Johnson. He could scout guys. He knew guys. But he didn't work with guys. Now we're going to find out who he really likes and who he does not like.
Well, that's it. It's game knowledge. And this happens, I've said it before, with any new head coach. It happens where you realize after a couple games or maybe you know right away that that player is not a specific fit for your team despite having a huge amount of talent. Unfortunately, usually a huge amount of talent pairs with a huge amount of cap space.
You know, you're taking up a lot of space under that salary cap. In this case, it's just a matter of This might be one of the toughest choices Ryan Pulse has had to make as a GM when it comes to how he manages his secondary, who he can afford to keep and who he can afford to lose. That's when this gets really tough.
The first couple of years when you've got a lot of money off the books or you're trying to clear it, the destruction part or the breakdown part, that's easy. This is where it gets hard because your loyalty comes at a price. And that's what did in Ryan pace in a lot of ways. It wasn't necessarily his talent assessment.
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