Chapter 1: What are the Bears' expectations for the 2026 season?
This hour is brought to you by Cars for Kids. Rahimi Harrison-Grody, 10-2 on 670. Philip Rivers took himself out of consideration for the Bills head coach job. What's next for Mr. Rivers?
We all seem to understand that the true value of Philip Rivers getting a job and extending his service time in the NFL was that he gets five more years of health insurance for him and his very large family.
You know anything about kids...
health insurance why i i thought you said everything was fine diana russini who had this news and then mike garofalo who said sounds like he enjoyed the process with buffalo but now isn't the right time for him or his family My family. Sounds like wifey might have had some input on, you want us to move where? We're putting the house on the market. Where are we moving?
Is the house haunted?
I don't know, because his kids are having kids. Like, he's to the point where they're self-policing and whatnot.
He is a grandpappy. Not ignoring that fact.
I don't know that it's like Joe Flacco, where he just wanted to have an uninterrupted meal alone.
I'm tired of this, Grandpa! That's too damn much! Will Brinson, senior writer for CBS Sports, NFL writer. Maybe the tweet of the year, it's early. Phillip Rivers pulled out. Certainly wasn't expecting that.
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Chapter 2: What happened in the Bears vs. Rams playoff game?
That's why you play Jenga on the first date. Let them know. Let them know.
Oh my goodness. This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 670 The Score. I needed that laugh. Thank you for that. As did I. I always need a good laugh. Always. Always. There was a time where I was at a McDonald's drive-thru and I was having a bummer of a day and I was getting coffee. And at the time I was more physically active. I was...
you know, shooting every day for a TV station, 25 pound camera on my shoulder, like 30 pound tripod.
When you said shooting, I was like picturing you at the range.
No, no. Shooting video.
A little skeet.
Yeah, no. I have shot clays, yes. I keep it to just clays.
You know me, I'm just a duck hunt guy.
There you go. But so I was, yeah, you carry 75 pounds of equipment every day. You work out to carry it. So needless to say, I could treat myself a little more at the time. So I was like, hey, can I get their frozen coffee? You know, not the iced coffee, but the frozen, like the frappe that they call it. I pull up to the drive-thru and I was like, no whip, if that's all right.
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Chapter 3: How did DJ Moore perform during the season?
And then I get to the drive-thru and the woman at the drive-thru goes, you said you wanted extra whip, right? And I was like, aww. She's like, just kidding. She gave me the trigger. I was like, yeah!
It would have been better if she said, okay, we got you. Put a little extra nay-nay on it for you, though.
Well, I loved the joke. So point being, I love a good laugh, even when you can make something out of nothing. So that that woman at the drive-thru still brightens my day. Over 10 years later, I still laugh at that a lot. And yeah, the Tyler Buterbaugh Open did it for me. So we get to have a smile on our face today and we get to have some jokes and laugh about the drama going on in the NFL.
And meanwhile, I wouldn't call it drama with the Bears because I think it was more of a, whose responsibility was it? Game is never won or lost on one play.
And the fact that we have to bring it up, not that we're bringing up old stuff, but when somebody new comes into the discussion, who's of consequence after the Bears and Rams loss and the final, the final Bears play that occurred in overtime, which resulted in the cam curl interception and It's good to have another voice. We hadn't heard from DJ Moore, as we've discussed.
He wasn't available in the locker room on Locker Cleanout Day. But friend of the show, Jarrett Payton and WGN Sports, credit to them because they will do a lot of Bears offseason interviews. And they got to talk, Jarrett did, with Antoine Randall-El. So it was a great conversation, especially with Antoine Randall-El being a local guy.
Talked about, you know, the joy of having a quarterback as a Bears observer now on the Bears team as a coach. Being in Chicago, talked about that, just Chicago having a quarterback. Talked about the expectations for the season. We're going to get into that in our next segment. But then he also did discuss DJ Moore.
And I would say that Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson in the press conference last week were very HR about their answers, right? Like, what was your takeaway when you heard those two talk about DJ Moore not being available? It was our show partner, Mark Rohde, who asked that question and gave the context.
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Chapter 4: What insights did Antoine Randall-El provide about the Bears?
What did you think when you heard them speak?
I felt like they were kicking the proverbial can down the road, like this is going to be addressed. They understand it's Chicago. It's not going to go away. But at the same time, I don't think it's going to fester like some of the other things.
Like if you go back to early in last offseason when we learn about the Seth Wickersham book and the excerpts from that book and what it said about Caleb Williams, like that's a situation where like Cable's got to get to the podium as quickly as possible, address it so it can be over because it was not going to go anywhere.
Nip it in the bud, as we said.
Nip it in the proverbial bud. Mayberry RFD style.
And guess what happened? Once he addressed it, then we all moved on.
We did move on. So this, I think, is similar but different. And here's why it's different. Because no one's questioning DJ Moore's effort level, I think. I think it's just a clear explanation that Ben Johnson did give about the miscommunication, which obviously Caleb Williams also said. And the accountability was eaten up.
imagine this, by the head coach, which we kind of talked to Tim Jenkins, our quarterback expert about, our guru, our film guy, about the head coach going into next season. That's just another area they have to work on where they have to make sure everybody sees each play, the field, and coverages like Ben Johnson does.
And say what you will, I did see a lot of people questioning DJ Moore's effort. I did see people online asking if he was fully running out the play. And unfortunately, that's something that I feel like built from a video where he came off the field hurt, you know, a couple that was two seasons ago. And it looked like he was lollygagging on the play. I didn't think that was the case.
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Chapter 5: How did the Bulls perform against the Lakers?
He didn't block it, a horrible game blocking, and I forget who it was against. And then his targets did get limited.
Oh, in a hurry. They fell off a cliff.
The other part of that was everybody else got targeted more. DJ Rome, Colston, the like.
Luther.
I'm not trying to pick on Olamide Zaccheaus. But the point is, when the ought to seem to not be there, when the effort was not there, when you didn't do the thing coach told you to do, you saw the consequences. So if that had been the case with DJ Moore to a significant enough pattern, you would have seen consequences. Instead, you saw plays of confidence. So I want to keep that in mind.
Instead, you saw DJ Moore make huge plays for this team, catching game-winning touchdowns. So let's listen to what Antoine Randall-El said to Jarrett Payton, because this is new information, and this came out yesterday. If you missed it, WGN has a YouTube page. This is courtesy of WGN Sports.
When I turned the film on from last year, before we got here as coaches, and you turn this film on from Carolina... you say, man, there's something missing, really. There's something missing. Like, this dude, not that he ain't still, he isn't still special, but the special doesn't show up all the time.
Well, for me, this year, the special was on display in terms of his route running, in terms of his run out to catch, blocking for his teammate, in terms of him catching the ball. He had some unbelievable catches this year. And the effort that he put in to become a better player in the offseason and as the season continued and went on was great.
And what you expect as a coach and what I wanted to see as a coach began to show up. We had a long conversation before the season started just about my expectations, where I came from in terms of Hey, blocking for your teammate, the run out to catch, the block out to catch, all these things. We're going to be football players and not just pass catchers.
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Chapter 6: What factors contributed to the Bulls' loss to the Lakers?
Let's try to get him the ball. And he showed up. And again, the catches that he made over and over again throughout the season have been, were amazing. And then you, again, you talk about the guy in the room, which is a big deal. When you come into the room and your veteran is DJ Moore, and you speak to your veteran about what you want to see your room to look like, and he begins to lead that,
That's when you, all right, he gets it. He understands team.
That was Antoine Randall-El, local product, Bears wide receivers coach, speaking in a way that I think we all needed to hear to give this more context. when it came to how DJ Moore is thought of on the Bears. And frankly, from somebody who's played the position, which I think gives extra credit here since we hadn't heard from DJ.
Well, I think the other thing that makes Antoine Randall Ellsworth count a little bit more, have a little more zip, not just because he's the wide receivers coach, but because he's the assistant head coach. So you know the direct line he has in a different way with Ben Johnson and maybe with the front office even.
In these discussions that they're having to have about how do we want to prioritize – whether it's managing the current cap with the restructuring of salaries versus who we're keeping.
I found that to be a high-level endorsement, a public endorsement of really what DJ Moore has meant, not just in a simple catches situation, but also his impact on the receivers room as a whole and the team, therefore.
DJ Moore played all 17 games. He had 50 receptions despite his targets being cut from about 8 per game to an average of about 5. He ended up with 85 targets, 682 yards. The average is 13.6 per catch. Colston Loveland was the Bears' leading receiver in the regular season. 16 games, 58 catches, 82 targets, and 713 yards. For the rookie tight end, that's outstanding.
And what you want is to have more targets on a team. There's no doubt about that. But that means that somebody else probably isn't getting theirs as much when you're trying to establish the league's third-best rushing offense. So that's where some of this comes in. But that did not, to me, sound like a coach who was very candid with Jarrett Payton
That did not sound like a coach who doesn't have confidence in DJ Moore. That sounded like a coach who wants to see him come back, understands that the position comes with responsibility, especially when you're the highest paid player on the team per AAV. And knowing all of that, still saw a guy produce in many different ways for the team.
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of the coaching changes in the NFL?
It makes me consider the play differently when I hear that as well. And it's okay if it was a miscommunication. Don't forget what Danny Parkin said. which was there was a discussion about involving a new route process in this particular play. If they wanted to incorporate this in a new route concept, which you should do, you should add to your game in the playoffs.
And unfortunately, that was an issue. That made it make sense to me. But I understand why emotions, even now your head coach and GM, may still run high two days, three days after that game ended. That makes all the sense in the world.
It sounds crazy to say but On that drive the entire time, I was like, be as conservative as possible. The Rams' defense is tired. You've got them worn down. You already got your stop. Now you just need to take care of the football, and you're going to be able to slowly but surely matriculate down the field.
And that's why the Kyle Menungai on that play, being open as the check down, that's what I wish Caleb Williams had done. But at the same time, I understand why he went for the jugular, because that's what they've been doing all season, right? That's what Ben Johnson has instilled in them. But I think...
I don't put that on DJ Moore as much as I put it on Caleb Williams, because clearly he thought DJ Moore was doing something. DJ Moore was confused about what was happening, and therefore that's what led to the interception. I don't put it on like, this is because a bad play was made. It was a miscommunication. You just can't afford to have a miscommunication in that moment.
Yeah, I don't necessarily know that I blame one or the other more. I don't know that I put it on Caleb Williams more than I put it on DJ. I don't know that that's... I hadn't thought about it that way.
Well, I think the reason I'm saying that is because Caleb Williams ultimately has the decision-making in that situation. And he can always opt to check down, get three or four yards, and see what my young guy, Angry Runner, as we have talked about, can do after he gets the ball in his hands. That's all I'm saying.
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Chapter 8: How does the episode reflect on the future of the Bears and Bulls?
And look, ultimately, it was a great season. It is a learning point. We knew things would be difficult for Caleb Williams going from step one to whatever you want to say that was, step 20, I guess. And I understand that they'll come back next year. They'll be more evolved, more resolved. And Antoine Randall-El is a great guy to have as one of the links of this team from the staff to the players.
Well, there's no doubt, and I think that that's something where when you put it together like that, when you consider Antoine Randall-El's passion for the Bears, which goes without saying, his devotion to the team as a coach and as somebody who grew up here and how he feels about his receiving core,
I don't necessarily know that it's the answer I needed to hear, but I think it's an answer that we should hear given the discussion. It shouldn't ever come down to the one play we know it always seems to in the league. We know that it seems to come down to one score more often than not. But...
The more voices you have seeing what happened, the better, because you're hoping that doesn't happen again. And we know that wasn't the only play of consequence in that game, that's for sure. There was a drop in the end zone that was pretty bad and pretty outright by a guy who you want to depend on in Roma Dunzey. But given all the factors into this, and we still don't know if DJ Moore...
Had an actual... They'll never say if he had an actual concussion because he came back out onto the field. But was he 100%? I can't say that with any level of surety.
Yeah, I think the extended time in the blue medical tent tells us you're erring on the side of he's probably hurt. And the thing is, you could be hurt but not be injured. He was definitely hurt.
I think everybody in the NFL in December who's playing is hurt but not injured.
Right. And so between that and Colson Loveland taking himself out of the game because he obviously felt some type of way, it's understandable.
Yeah, and we're probably going to keep talking about it as long as there's new information that comes to us because that's what we do. I don't necessarily know if we're dragging on this. I think it's just the lasting memory of the Bears playoffs shouldn't be the final play of that drive and the interception by Cam Curl. It shouldn't be how I remember the Bears playoffs.
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