Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Have the Bears done enough to replace 2025's defensive difference-makers?
12 Mar 2026
Chapter 1: What are the Bears' recent changes in their defensive lineup?
Rahimi Harrison-Grody. Could you imagine Lovey Smith doing the whole good, better, best thing and saying bleep the Packers?
Come on, guys. Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Never let it rest. I'll see you on Tuesday. Middays 10 to 2 on 104.3 The Score. This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 104.3 The Score. Mark Grody and Layla Rahimi are in with you on this Thursday. And we are awaiting later today to hear from the Bears front office.
Ryan Poles is speaking, and I think that that's important because we haven't heard from him a lot, which is really, really good to know. So we'll hear from him. I think we're also expecting to hear from some of the Bears' new acquisitions. So that'll be really helpful to help fill in our gaps over at Hallis Hall. But in the meantime...
Marshall and I were talking about this yesterday, Mark, the waves of free agency and how you kind of time them. I feel like this is the close of the first major wave of free agency. When the league tampering window opens on Monday, you get all the smattering of free agent news on the first day and then it kind of closes out. And then the GM speaks because it's a new league year.
And then we'll get like the details guys signing like Nashawn Wright did last year. You know, that was the, the Bears have also added these guys and it's like 10 guys who they've signed or something.
So now that this first wave of free agency is closed, do you Mark feel like the Bears have done enough in replacing the players who left with guys who can help this team improve on the record they had last year?
I think it's a good start to what they have done with, you know, specifically the signing of Kobe Bryant was a good signing. The fact that Kevin Bayard is not coming back to the Bears is bad. So there's another hole. And I don't think Jaquan Brisker is walking through that door either.
I'm okay with Devin Bush as well to be paired with DeMarco Jackson and TJ Edwards and maybe the speedy Reuben Hippolite as well. You added a little depth on the line with Neville Gallimore. You went out and got your center, and then you got a bunch of depth pieces as well. To me, it's a good start. But there's still lots of holes as we sit here right now.
There's no way I can say that this Bears team is better on paper than what they had, than what they won 11 games for them last year.
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Chapter 2: How has free agency impacted the Bears' roster decisions?
And didn't he have a fumble, too, I believe? Like a recovery fumble? Yeah, he did.
He had a scoop and nearly score, I think.
He thought he had scored or maybe... So that's how many? 17? 17.
17 of the 33 takeaways. Those guys are gone. And if you want to even narrow it down a little bit more just to the interceptions, the Bears had 23 picks last year. So 12, I guess that'd be more than half. Oh, and then add in Edmonds's. What was it? Four?
Edmonds. So seven for Bayard, five for Nishan Wright. That's 12. Another four for Edmonds.
The 23 picks are gone.
And that's what I'm trying to figure out. That is the part that I try to quantify.
And then without those, Layla, real quick, without the takeaways, which I think we could all agree that to some degree, takeaways are fortunate. Right place, right time. I'm not saying that some of them aren't schemed and some of them aren't from watching tape and knowing what the other team is doing. I would be insulting people's sensibilities if that wasn't part of it.
But let's face it, there's a luck factor. The Bears, with all the takeaways they had last year, Bears passing defense, 22nd. The rush defense, 27th in the league. Total defense, 29th. Sacks for the Bears. They had 35 of them.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of losing key defensive players?
Tied for 22nd. So even with all of them, that's how dependent the Bears' defense was on takeaways last year. And teams... They're nice, and maybe the Bears will have another 33 takeaways next year. But you cannot depend on that going into a season. As a matter of fact, you have to look at it as if maybe this guy will have two or three or four interceptions, but not seven to ten.
Seven interceptions led the NFL this year.
And that's it. I know that it was a stroke of luck. We talk about that. We all knew that it wasn't sustainable, at least not for multiple seasons. We knew that.
We did.
The fact that it was sustainable for a season is wild. And then do you know who's behind on who also left and is behind those guys on interceptions? He is. He's to CD Garner Johnson. So everybody who had multiple interceptions for you last year is gone.
God, is there anybody who had multiple interceptions or fumble recoveries or forced fumbles that is left on this team?
Yes, DeMarco Jackson.
Thank you, DeMarco. Welcome back, buddy. $7.5 million.
This is a long table. Tyreek Stevenson, two forced fumbles.
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Chapter 4: How do the Bears plan to address their defensive gaps?
Can they do it to you? I know they put it together last year with Braxton Jones and Theo Benedet and Ozzie Trapillo when he was healthy, but that was hard. That was maximum effort for the Bears to make left tackle work last year.
Yeah, that's not the max that we want to talk about. I mean, it is, but it wasn't the max of the day that we wanted to prioritize. 312-644-6767 is our number. We've gotten a lot of texts. We're getting some calls. So we will talk about this more coming up next here on Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 104.3 The Score.