Football analyst Anthony Herron joins the show to talk all things Bears heading into training camp

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Rahimi & Grote Show 19 min 3 speakers 3 chapters transcribed 1 month ago

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What should fans expect from Bears training camp openers and why does timing matter?

Mark Grote 0:01

Anthony Heron, score football analyst.

Anthony Heron 0:03

It's been fun watching the fantastic physical specimen that Darnell Wright is. It was on full display last week, and there were some really big moments he had against the Bengals, but he's going to have a unique challenge this week against the leading sack artist in the National Football League.

Mark Grote 0:18

Former NFL defensive lineman and Iowa Hawkeye. Anthony Heron receives... Big and Heron on 104.3 The Score.

Vinny Rotino 0:34

You know that music. He is never scared. It's also a sign that football season, it's on its way. Anthony Heron, football analyst for us at 104.3 The Score, Big Ten Network, NBC Sports. He is at Big Ant Heron on X. Ant, it's good to talk to you. He's also on Twitch, twitch.tv slash thescorechicago. It feels right.

Anthony Heron 0:57

It does. It is football season. It's finally here. There's no doubt. We've been waiting for it. The moment has arrived. You got the rookies and vets on the way. Practice field is going to be hit for the Bears. And as long as this offseason feels like it's been, now we're on the precipice, man. We're about to see them start going out there running and hitting and catching and get a chance to evaluate them in person.

Mark Grote 1:19

Love it, man. And Big Ant, what is the thing that you are most looking forward to seeing or hearing about as it pertains to Bears Training Camp 2026? Because there's always a theme to these camps. Last year it was the offense and Ben Johnson's angry installation.

How will Caleb Williams' preseason reps reveal the Bears' passing attack consistency?

Mark Grote 1:42

What is it for you this year? That's a pretty good way to characterize it, the way I just did, wasn't it?

Anthony Heron 1:47

If you do say so yourself, yeah. I think that the angry installation, if we look back to the first season of Ben Johnson, that'll be a good book to write about it. TM, is that a real thing? I think so.

Vinny Rotino 1:59

Yes, we trademark everything, actually.

Anthony Heron 2:01

Okay, good. That's all you, Groats. Thank you. It was pretty good.

Mark Grote 2:05

Sometimes I say stuff and I surprise myself. I felt good saying what I just said.

Anthony Heron 2:10

Oh, I wasn't surprised at all. I knew you had it in you the whole time. It's about time, by the way. I do think that for this particular training camp, it's going to be hard to get a real legitimate sense for the Bears pass rush until they get into some game action. And the preseason games, there are some younger guys who you're anticipating continued development from who will get a chance to kind of have a closer look at them. how they're coming along, the ones that end up getting healthy and playing in any of the preseason games. But I think beyond that, the hopes for the pass rush will really be answered more during the regular season. So from a preseason perspective, the efficiency, the quickness, the ease of the Bears' passing attack, I do believe we'll be able to have a sense for that, just how –

Anthony Heron 2:57

consistently Caleb Williams gets the ball out of his hands just to playmakers, taking the easy completions, taking the dump-offs, doing things that just look like they're within the structure of the offense because those special moments, those unscripted plays, Those will always be something he can access once you get to the regular season. But just doing the simple consistently, doing the mundane consistently, we will be able to have a sense for that as we watch Caleb and this Bears passing attack closely.

Vinny Rotino 3:28

And I think that's part of what we're trying to figure out. We heard Kayla Williams talk to Kay Adams in her podcast that just came out this morning about what the next aspect of what he needs to work on is. We all know we talked about the completion percentage, but truly we saw what avoid a sack looked like. We saw it in the very first drive of the Vikings game to open up the season last year. Suddenly things were very different. It looks sped up for all of us. So I need to know, you know, what is, what is, 201 look like is it more screen passes is it some of the simple passes that we saw in structure same routes same plays is it is it making those passes and completing them I want to know what he thinks that looks like because we're going to see a different version of that on the field