Chapter 1: What are the key takeaways from Ryan Poles' press conference?
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Rahimi Harrison-Grody, 10-2 on 104.3 The Score.
This is born too slow by the crystal method because I'm a million years old. And you love crystal meth. For a fired school teacher who cooks crystal meth, I'd say you're coming out pretty much ahead. If I did, wouldn't I be more productive? It's a joke.
That's true. It is a joke.
It is me talking about myself. And you wouldn't have such nice teeth either. Or skin. Or skin. Or a job. Or a future. All the stuff. But you might be a millionaire. If you sold it. I don't think so. No, then I'd be in jail. Hey, man, what's up? What you doing? What's with the Robin Williams routine, man? What's going on here? Why are you playing to the cheap seats? I'm just trying to act natural.
Well, why are you jumping in between different characters to do so? I'm not. I'm not doing that. What am I trying to add? If anything, I'm changing my volume. You acting like someone who's trying to hide it. You know who tries to hide it? Dudes who's buying drugs try to hide it. All right? That's how that usually works. Do you know what they call Crystal Bathmark where I'm from? Bathtub crank.
Fast tongue crank. Where are you from? They know all the slang terms. They have a list.
Even snowboarding?
Even disco dust. White girl interrupter? Even force bump. I wouldn't even try powdered donuts.
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Chapter 2: What specific problems did the Bears identify from last season?
Well, a lot, yes.
But Crystal Method, yeah, he is absolutely brilliant. Yeah, there's no other two ways about it. Method Man and the Wu-Tang Clan are brilliant. They include more original lyrics than original words. They include more word combinations in their songs than I think anybody, and it's been measured.
Really?
Yeah, so there's that. But all of that said... What about Busta Rhymes? I mean, that's a lot of words, too. Uh-huh, no, he's up there, too, on the list. This is an older list that I'm referring to. I saw that several years ago. All of that said... I think the two things that I really took away from in Ryan Pohl saying that wasn't just him talking about wanting to get faster.
I did also immediately think of the younger and more athletic line from what the Bulls wanted their offense to be. When Fred Hoiberg talked about that, they wanted to get younger and more athletic. They did talk about the running aspect of this. And additionally, how many times have we heard Dennis Allen breathlessly say he can run when he's talking about a player?
So knowing that, I feel like their actions needed to back up their words when it came to who they wanted in free agents. And I feel like they did that. Also, I've said this before and I'll say it again this week. My biggest concern was you have zero safeties on your roster at the beginning of the week, and you needed to add to your linebacking crew. They did both those things.
I think to a man, the bigger concern is, is that enough to improve your defense, which was... horrible and in the low 20s in passer rating defense and then in 22nd against the pass and 27th against the run? Yes, 27th against the run really stands out, folks. Did you do enough? And that's what we're trying to figure out.
Yeah, I mean, it's not enough yet, I don't think, unless we can positively sit here and say that because of one year and guys coming back from injury, I feel like we've said that over and over and over, Dio Dangbo is coming back. Jermar Turner. I.O. DeDangbo. I.O. DeDangbo is coming back. I.O. DeDangbo.
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Chapter 3: How do the Bears plan to improve their team speed and explosiveness?
Will the Canadian, Neville Gallimore, make a difference? And I don't think he was brought in to make a difference necessarily, but yeah, you are...
While we do justifiably obsess a little bit about the safety and the secondary, life would be a lot easier if the Bears were better up front and they didn't have to depend on the secondary to bail out the defense game after game after game last year with the interceptions.
With all of the tackles, you brought it up in the pre-show meeting, that Kevin Byard shouldn't have been in the 90s in tackles. He shouldn't have had to have had that many tackles last year. Same with Jaquan Brisker, who we'll get into a little bit later on, and Mystery Brisker on why he's going to Pittsburgh for $5.5 million and the Bears didn't seem to be able to afford that.
But we'll get into that a little bit later on. Also, Mystery Brisker is an excellent name for any sort of highlight. That's just a catchy name for anything relating to Jaquan Brisker. Yeah, the mystery of Brisker. I put in my power rankings in the Ryan Poles era, top five. Not player necessarily. Well, maybe player, too. Oh, you're saying quality of player, not mystery.
People I like to talk to in the Bears locker room. Right. So the biggest thing for me, though, was here's the direct quote. One, we wanted to get faster, more explosive. And I think we did that. I know we did that. We heard him say that. We wanted guys that are passionate about football, that play our style and our brand of football. I know we did that. I think that's something people say.
You do not need guys who are, quote, passionate about football. You need guys who want to do their jobs. They had that, though. They had that. Like you're talking about two guys that are not going to be back. Brisker and Bayard were as passionate as anybody. So this Bears team on offense and defense did not lack passion. No, they did not. And frankly, we've talked about this.
The majority of the turnovers were created by people who are no longer here. And then they replaced them with a guy like Kobe Bryant who had four interceptions, with a guy like Devin Bush who had three. But then additionally... Did they, we ask it again, did they do enough? And then also, are those guys going to fly around the ball?
But the problem is they shouldn't get to the linebackers and Kobe Bryant. You know, we talked about this too, Mark. Kobe Bryant had fewer tackles than Jaquan Brisker by a lot. But that's because unfortunately, the running backs did get to the secondary. 27th in the league, and the people listening to this show right here probably watched the games as closely as we did.
You know that opposing teams' running backs for the second straight year exposed the Bears' defensive line. The slot receivers did get to the deeper parts of the two deep, for example, or the deeper parts of just safety being deep or safety being high, whichever terminology you want to say. The point is explosive plays happen, and that's why a guy like Kevin Byard was the last line of defense.
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Chapter 4: What decisions were made regarding free agents like Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker?
I mean, the illusion is obvious, but the reason they didn't bring Kevin Byard back, I'm just going to talk about how good Kobe Bryant is. I think that that's GM 101, though. Mack Brown always famously said, you talk about the players you have, not the ones you don't have. And I feel like that's good media strategy.
But why then did he glow about DJ Moore and have the fun with it about his child and say, we love the player, we love DJ Moore, he's one of my favorite guys, and then he doesn't even mention Kevin Bayard by name? A fair question. Maybe because it was a trade and it was a massive one and he knew he had to say something about the trade. You know, the fact that that was a transaction.
But it's a fair question. I feel like when it came to wanting Kobe Bryant, that is part of it too, is what are the reports coming out of Seattle? That they were mad that... the Bears got to Kobe Bryant first. That's something that we've heard. Now, how strong that speculation is, that's a different story, but that was a key piece of the Seattle defense who was taken off the board for them.
Yeah, but it's as good as Kobe Bryant is and was for Seattle. It is not a premium position, and they do have many, many players to eventually pay if they want to keep the band together and have sustained success in Seattle. I agree.
I think safety is not as pricey as we know in the NFL, and it is one where you can replace players at an easier rate than others, say defensive line, edge rusher, for example. So let's hear Kobe Bryant talk about why he chose the Bears.
Kobe, so you had other options.
Why did you pick the Bears, and what do you like about the whole situation coming here? I mean, honestly, just feeling wanted. You know, that's the feeling I had it. You know, God told me, you know, just choose this place, and that's what happened.
Do you see this Bears team as an ascending team that has some of those traits?
Yeah, absolutely. Big reason why I chose to be here. Got the right guys, the right coaching staff. You know, just like I said, just taking it one day at a time and starting the OTAs. Okay, so feeling wanted stood out to me. Same. So he might, Seattle could say what they want about, oh, the Bears beat us too.
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Chapter 5: How does Ryan Poles feel about the Bears' offseason?
Hi, guys.
Nuts on Clark folks are here. Hi, guys. Good to see you. How are you, man? Nuts on Clark, woman-owned business as well. Hey, Robert. How are you, man?
This is live, guys, just so you're aware.
Yeah, hi.
Chapter 6: What were the key takeaways from the Bears' press conference?
How are you, man? Nice to meet you. Hi. How are you?
I'm Mark.
You're listening to the Nuts on Clark crew.
Yeah, that's Layla. Hi, Layla. Nice to meet you.
They got cool Letterman jackets on.
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of the Bears' recent player signings?
Oh, my goodness.
Oh, thank you. Thank you. Some popcorn.
Thank you so much. This is, oh. Oreo Shamrock. This is perfect. Oreo Shamrock. Oh, my goodness.
Chapter 8: How do the Bears compare to other NFC North teams this offseason?
Is it really? It's a beautiful mix. Wow. Thank you, guys.
Thank you, guys.
This means a lot. Thank you so much. Thank you. We appreciate Nuts on Clark. Our Nuts on Clark crew just coming in.
Thanks, you guys.
You want a sip of my coffee or anything? Okay, I just wanted to, you know.
I heard Grody sneeze earlier.
You're probably better off. Thank you so much. Take care, guys. So that was a live hangout with Nuts on Clark and Andy Gersher from WVBM. How about that? So getting back to what happened in the division regarding free agency. I don't think that the Bears had a week free agency, week offseason. Number one, offseason ain't over yet. We got a draft.
Number two, we have the obligatory press release where they say, hey, we signed X amount of players to this deal. And one of those last year was Nashawn Wright. And look how that went. The glad I called that guy guy oftentimes may come through, as we've seen. So in the meantime, I think the Bears just couldn't make the same kind of splash as they did even last year.
The priority last year was clearly improve the offensive line. They didn't have enough to do it through the draft. They went through free agency. It was spending and it worked. They had to fill gaps this year. They had to fill the gap of left tackle with Ozzie Trapillo being injured. They've reportedly signed, although it's not official yet, Braxton Jones. They traded for Garrett Bradbury.
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