Chapter 1: What insights does Ryan Poles share about team strategy?
This hour is brought to you by Chicago Golf Show. Rahimi Harrison-Grody, 10-2 on 104.3 The Score.
Emory Hunt, that is good stuff. He was the analyst for CBS Sports HQ. He was at the HBCU Legacy Bowl this weekend. He is the owner of Football Game Plan. Thanks for coming on, Emory.
You know what's fascinating about that is the fact that, you know, when you look at this thing holistically, and I'm not a fan of any team, I'm just a fan of being right. Okay, look, you didn't trust me. You can trust one thing.
love to be right is there going to be something at 25 that can help them immediately and is that more likely to happen at edge or left tackle if so glad you asked that question because i've been compiling a list of things in life that were a mistake number one speakerphone speakerphone number one and number two might be airports but why airports i know you don't i i'm usually very good with names but i'll be damned if i haven't forgotten yours you stole my cab
I've never stolen anything in my life. I hailed a cab on Park Avenue this afternoon, and before I could get in it, you stole it.
You're the guy who tried to get my cab. I knew I knew you. Yeah. I just flew back from the Legacy Bowl, like you mentioned. It was 10 a.m. in the morning in New Orleans Airport. There were three young ladies sitting there eating a big plate of nachos. Like, how do you even have the taste for that at 10 in the morning? Well, Chris, since you're royalty now, I made your favorites.
Dinner for breakfast? Third and fighting hard for third might be...
mock drafts have you done a mock draft yet and where would you who do you have going to the bears at 25 if you have i only do two a year okay dot com one is a small school only mock draft small schools are schools that are fcs d2 d3 because what they've now tried to do nowadays that made me add to my list two things that were a mistake They're adding now, oh, this guy goes to a small school.
Oh, yeah, what school? And you think it's Illinois State. You think it's Southern Illinois. Oh, no, he went to Iowa State. Let me get out of my face.
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Chapter 2: What are the implications of Ian Cunningham's departure?
Me, I can speak to this personally because... I actually got a job with the Bears and saw the extra players that the Chiefs got. So the fact that they were on the field tells me that you guys do give out the picks. It's not something that doesn't happen. Why is it not happening here?
We've heard the explanation, but you pair this with what Ian Cunningham said, and it seems like the NFL is getting a consistent message from both camps.
Well, and that's it. Ian Cunningham also spoke at the Combine today, and he said that he thinks that that should be in place. And if you guys don't advocate for yourselves when the league has already selectively applied this rule, you're not doing yourself any favors if you don't. So credit to Ryan Poles, credit to Ian Cunningham for being in their positions.
The Combine is as much a front office business as it is looking at potential players for the league business. This is where everybody talks. What did Bragg Biggs call it? Legal tampering is done. But let's face it, we know that everybody talks about players in the NFL.
Lots of room to do that.
I'm not here to legislate it. I do want to let our listeners know we are going to listen to this, pause it. You'll hear the whole thing with us, but we do want to react when we hear stuff. Just because it's the easiest way, that's how we do it. So you will hear Ryan polls in the entirety throughout this hour here on 104.3 The Score with Rahimi Harrison-Grote. We want to get back to it.
One more thing I wanted to say from that first little part there. When Ian Cunningham first came into the building with the Chicago Bears, it felt like from day one he was being ushered out because they wanted him to get an opportunity. So it was always hilarious to me that that was, okay, let's see every – Two or three months.
Ian Cunningham has heard from this team or that, or we're trying to give him the opportunity. And so get to know Jeff King because he'll probably be gone soon as well. The new assistant GM for the Bears, if the Bears are to continue to succeed.
Yeah, Jeff King is the director. He was a director. He's now the assistant GM. He was the director of player personnel. And from what everybody says, and this seems to be the overall sentiment, a well-deserved promotion for him, for sure. We continue our Combine press conference with Ryan Poles, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers here on 104.3 The Score.
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Chapter 3: How does Ryan Poles plan to approach the draft?
I'm not saying like this year. But I'm saying perhaps maybe before even the fifth-year option gets discussed.
Well, that would be next offseason is basically what you're talking about. And that wouldn't surprise me at all. I think everything that they do, whether it's Ryan Poles, Matt Feinstein, Jeff King, it's got to be geared to we need to make the most out of this rookie contract, but also be malleable when we know Caleb's got to get paid. And so everybody that they sign, everybody that they draft –
Understanding this guy who's here right now definitely won't be here when Caleb gets paid because, well, that's just the way life is. Even if they're good and the better they play, the more money they're going to want to make. That's kind of an issue already with certain members of the secondary right now.
Unless I'm missing a name somewhere along the line here, I do believe the last time the Bears gave out a second contract was to a gentleman by the name, to a quarterback, was Jay Cutler. Unless I'm missing somebody. Yeah, and they didn't even draft him. You've got to go way back. And they didn't even draft him.
And some people, as it turned out, I remember being for the payment of Jay Cutler in the second contract, but it didn't ultimately work out with him getting that. Or was it a third contract? It might have even been a third contract with Jay Cutler. But he's the last one that I can remember. So, in other words, that would be a pretty big moment for the Bears whenever it does come.
We're going to listen to Ryan Poles for the rest of this hour, kind of react with us. If you like, you can join our conversation. 312-644-6767 is our number here at 104.3 The Score. You can text us and you can call us. And we're going to listen to this and also what Ben Johnson has to say.
Pause it, discuss, and then reassess and evaluate because Combine News is happening fast and furious here in Indianapolis. We heard from Brad Biggs earlier on the morning show. with Mully and Haw, Ruthie Polinski filling in for Mully. We also heard from other people talking about what they expect the Bears to do.
Chris Emma will join us live from the Combine at 1 o'clock, so you don't want to miss that. And in the meantime, we broadcast live from the Scores Hyundai Studios, brought to you by... your local Hyundai dealers. This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 104.3 The Score. Our producers, Ray Diaz, Tyler Buderbaugh, Sean Sears helping out today. And you can join us on Twitch. We have moved on Twitch.
I know a lot of you guys don't know. It is twitch.tv slash thescorechicago. So you can find us there. Let everybody know because I know we changed our address on Twitch. So we are there as well. You can join our Twitch chat, Connor O'Donnell. Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, and Cody Westerlund help us out there. So we have a lot more to come. Don't go anywhere.
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Chapter 4: What are the challenges facing the Bears' defense this offseason?
And it wasn't even just the broken leg. You know, he was dealing with multiple injuries. And he wasn't a player known for injuries until this past year. So that was also something that came to mind. So when you heard that comment about the linebacker, what did you think?
Yeah, no, that was the first thing I thought. And, of course, you think about Tremaine Edmonds and the possibility of him getting waived because that's what we've been hearing from everybody. But, yeah, no, I worry about T.J. Edwards. The good thing about T.J. Edwards, though, is he doesn't necessarily depend on, like,
high athleticism and speed to do his job that a lot of what he does well and he has all that but he's more instincts and being in the right place i always go to lance briggs as an example like briggs obviously a better player than tj edwards but briggs didn't have that like outstanding speed but he was quick as hell and he knew where to be on the field at all times That's TJ Edwards.
The instinct plays in this. Look, they understand that they have a lot of injury questions that they will not have answered until probably after the regular season starts.
Well, in 847 on our text line says, the fact that the easiest to most obvious cut this year, Edmund, hasn't happened yet is interesting. Polls in years past has made these moves prior to this week. There may be other plans for him, trade extension, just weird he hasn't been cut yet. So this is his last year of his deal.
So I don't necessarily know that an extension is on the table there when you're in your last year like that.
Well, Darnell Wright's the guy that you've got to think about, too. And maybe he will be asked about. I'm curious if Darnell Wright will come up in this conversation because he is a candidate for a potential extension. And just to keep people refreshed on Tremaine Edmonds, if they were to release him, that's a $15 million cap saving. Cole Komet would be an $8.4 million cap saving.
And while we're at it, DeAndre Swift, number three with a bullet, a $7.47 million cap saving. I'll take that team you added on the end of the seven. He would be a $7.47 million cap saving. So those three guys that, let's see if there's more questions about that.
Yeah, and the DeAndre Swift one, that's the one where I really bristle. You know, that's the one where I want to give serious pause if I'm putting a GM hat on.
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Chapter 5: What insights does Ben Johnson provide about Eric Bieniemy's departure?
That is a glowing recommendation from Ben Johnson when it came to not only Eric Bien-Ami leaving, but just letting us into the process of what happened because his hiring here was notable.
And it makes sense the way he talks about Eric Stoosville because of their time together in Miami and understanding that it's a continuation of – let's be honest, guys. One of the more surprising stories of 2025 was the running backs and their production. You could have said, hey, DeAndre Swift might have a decent season. You probably didn't expect him to have –
Chapter 6: How did the Bears' running backs perform in the 2025 season?
Maybe the best year of his career. And then Kyle Mungai, for him to bust onto the scene in the manner in which he did with multiple 100-yard rushing games. In fact, games where both of them rushed for 100 yards. That tells you they built what Ben Johnson felt like was fundamentally important to him having a top-flight offense, which is a rushing game.
I remember the bye week this year ahead of the Washington game, and there you had Ben Johnson telling the world that, yeah, we got the right guys in here. The production was not good early on, but I think they also knew they had the right guy to coach them, and that was Eric Biennemi.
The hope is that, all right, you have soaked in, you have taken in everything you could possibly take in from Eric Biennemi. The running back goes to get you on this path. Hopefully the baton goes to Studensville, who looks like he is extremely capable of
veteran been all over the place so i'm not ultimately not worried but that doesn't mean i can't praise what eric bnb did you know what i really like about the bears position coaches that we had this past season you know a lot about the details of what they did on the job like for example how many times did one of the secondary members say to us you know al harris says i need more turnovers i'm still hungry they would tell you what he would say to them in practice
Chapter 7: What are the Bears' coaching staff dynamics and expectations?
I feel the same way about Eric B enemy. For example, you knew that he was a guy who would say, I need you to run between the tackles. Like he put it out there. You know, when he talked in the off season on the bears, et cetera, podcast, I believe it was where last this time last year, he talked about what he wanted Deandre Swift to do, what he wanted the bears running backs to do.
He didn't back away. He was unapologetic. When you have that understanding and, as a layman of what the position coaches want out of their players, it lets you know how good the coaching is.
I want to say with Ben Johnson, the consistency from day one, and now I'm looking at it into year two, right, about his message to us, but also his message to through us to his own team and his coaching staff.
Chapter 8: How does Ryan Poles address the future of DJ Moore and the team's strategy?
And it feels like there's a level of consistency that maybe we had been lacking in coaches past. Is that a fair statement to make? An understatement to make?
I haven't heard any of that.
But here's the thing, guys. It was bad. And maybe we knew it was bad, but maybe we didn't realize how far that bad was compared to what it takes to actually win. And now we have a fair sample of the just range, the gap, a sizable canyon of a gap. that Ben Johnson has been able to fill with his ideas, his messaging, most importantly, his execution, and just getting the freaking job done.
We didn't know what it sounded like previously. What does hearing from a good head coach really sound like every single day? And while we've had that in spurts through the years, where a coach will locate, like, man, Aggie, Sounded pretty good when he talked in 2018. Yeah, things sort of made sense.
And then all of a sudden, 2019 and 2020, he starts saying things that don't make as much sense or maybe things that you let go, like with Ben Johnson. And I know he just had a winning season, so you could say the same thing, that everything sounds good. But we know that there is substance to the things that he says that, to your point, Marshall, we hadn't heard previously.
And also, guess what a good coach does? He hires other good coaches. And Matt Nagy, at this point already, after his first season with the Bears, there was a big turnover in assistant coaches. Do you remember that and how that changed? And there's a lot of people who said Matt Nagy brought in a lot of yes men. And you need that contradiction on a coaching staff.
You need that friction because those guys are looking out for your blind spots. And if everybody agrees, that makes it hard because you know what the other team is doing? They're trying to find your weaknesses.
Yes.
They're going to be your no-men, and you'd rather have them on your own staff in your own building.
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