Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Mike Florio talks Drew Dalman's retirement, Maxx Crosby trade buzz
04 Mar 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a man who's got a massive brain. Mike Florio. He used to be a lawyer, then he decided to take his talents to the internet. NBC Sports. I'm sorry I'm late, I was talking to Robert Kraft. That isn't the time for an airing of grievances. Pro Football Talk. I got a lot of problems with you people. No, you're going to hear about it.
On Chicago Sports Radio, 104.3 The Score. I want to keep talking Legos. Yeah, we want to keep talking Legos too, except there's been massive Bears news that we have to get to. So we will discuss it with our guest. He joins us on our hotline. He is the creator, editor-in-chief of Pro Football Talk. It is Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk on X. And he's on Twitch, twitch.tv slash thescorechicago.
Mike, how are you? Doing great. How are you today? Good. Oh, you got the fireworks. That's nice. Yeah, we enjoyed your conversation with Chicago guy, Carnell Tate, by the way, about Legos. That was fantastic. That was a lot of fun. And one of the things about having access to the prospects at Indianapolis is Number one, it gives them some camera time.
It's different than the stressful nature of everything else they do. And it gives us a chance to get to know a little bit more about them. So we ask them about their families. We ask them about their hobbies. And I'm a fan of anyone who enjoys a good Lego set. And that's exactly what... Carnell Tate told us he's working on the Titanic. He has been. He's got a five-foot Eiffel Tower.
And he's going to move on to the Star Wars collection next. So it's good to see someone willing to open up about hobbies that some might wonder, is that really a hobby? For those of us who enjoy Lego, as you can tell by the Ghostbuster Firehouse that is back there somewhere, yes, it's fun. I love that. And when you said working on the Titanic, I wanted to say, aren't we all
Just my droll attitude, Mike. Hey, I guess you could say we kind of have a titanic situation here in Chicago. It's been all Drew Dallman all the time. Mike, what do you think about your reaction to Drew Dallman playing in the first year of a three-year, $42 million deal for the Bears, and Dallman dropped a whopper on the world. The 27-year-old has retired. What is your reaction?
Well, the way it works under the collective bargaining agreement, the signing bonus that a player would get on a three-year deal of $6 million, the Bears could, if they choose to do so, recover $4 million from Dahlman. So in addition to anything he's giving up by not playing, he could have to give back the $4 million.
And my thought last night, when you consider the timeline, this happens right after Indianapolis. Is it possible... that Dahlman and his agent looked at his performance last year, took every snap, every snap in the regular season, started 17 games and two postseason games, had his first Pro Bowl berth, arguably outplayed his contract.
Is it possible this is part of a dance aimed at getting him a raise? The Bears say, no, he's in the finals, just retire. I'm told that that's not the case. He's just done. And I'm a big believer in any player, once they decide they're done, then be done. Don't play if you don't want to play. The game's hard enough if you're all in. If you're anything less than all in, you shouldn't play.
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Chapter 2: What surprising news did Drew Dalman announce regarding his NFL career?
Here's how the sausage gets made. When the deal's close, an agent will text four or five different people. They'll all tweet it within 30 seconds of each other. That's how the word is out there before it's official. Apparently, it's now official. The Rams just said yesterday, through GM Les Snead, they're looking to acquire a Pro Bowl-level talent in their secondary.
And Trent McDuffie, I think, last year was the first-team All-Pro slot corner player. So this is a guy who has shown he has ability, and it comes down to how do you allocate your resources? How much are you going to pay a guy? What can you get in return for him? And the chief's making a very clear-eyed decision at a time when they've got plenty of needs that they need to address.
They've got guys they need to sign. They've got guys they need to... resolve their futures. They need to know what Travis Kelsey is going to do. They got a lot of needs.
Chapter 3: How does Drew Dalman's retirement impact the Bears' financial situation?
They got no running backs right now. They could use another weapon at receiver. Their front seven needs to be bolstered. They've got some things to do while they try to improve this team on the fly. And as Patrick Mahomes recovers from a torn ACL. So it tells me that whatever McDuffie wants contractually, the Chiefs said, we just can't do it. Let's go ahead and trade.
And much like they did four years ago with Tyreek Hill. Mm-hmm. Also, what about Trey Hendrickson, Mike? You know, the Bengals declined to franchise tag him. That seems like that was the most peaceful departure and breakup for both parties. But I have a feeling, number one, that he may have made a business decision last year when it came to his injury status.
And then number two, that there's going to be a team that's going to want his services. I thought of Tampa there, too. Well, it got very ugly between Hendrickson and the Bengals in the last couple of years. He signed a contract, grossly outperformed it, and the Bengals are one of the teams that is cheap and highly unlikely to say, we'll rip up your contract.
Even though the teams have the ability to rip up the contract of a player who underperforms, Some teams don't like to fix a contract that is out of whack based upon the player exceeding expectations. And it didn't make sense to continue the relationship, but I thought there was a chance the Bengals were sufficiently dysfunctional to apply the franchise tag just as a power play.
Just to remind the players, specifically Hendrickson, but more broadly, everyone else who plays for the team now and will play for them in the future, of who's in charge. And we have a device available under the CBA, and we're going to use it. They decided not to do it, and I think that's the right decision for the team. They can reallocate the resources to someone who wants to be there.
And now Hendrickson is going to be one of the top players available, and we know how important pass rusher is. The most important position is quarterback. The second most important position is player who affects the opposing quarterback.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of Drew Dalman's retirement for the Bears' roster?
Right here in our backyard, when I say that, I mean in the division. Things going on with the Minnesota Vikings, that they are reportedly going to release Aaron Jones and Javon Hargrave, and now Jonathan Grenard's name has come up. What do you think about everything that's going on in Minnesota right now?
Well, and with Jones and Hargrave, it's just a matter of the Vikings are looking at their contracts and saying we can't justify this expenditure in light of being millions over the salary cap of $301.2 million. With Hargrave, he wants his contract to be adjusted, and the Vikings can't do it. So they're looking to possibly trade him to a team that can.
But this is the direct result of going all in last year and being ready to go with a potential Super Bowl team at every position except one quarterback. And now they're in a mess. And now they've got to slash and burn the payroll. They've got to create cap dollars.
And as it relates to the quarterback position, it makes Kyler Murray extremely attractive to the Vikings because, number one, I was told last year during the season he'd like to play for the Vikings or the Raiders. At the time, they had Chip Kelly as offensive coordinator. That's obviously gone now. So the Vikings are a team that Murray would be interested in.
And because the Cardinals owe him $36.8 million fully guaranteed for this year, he could go to Minnesota on a one-year $1.3 million deal, make the balance of that between 1.3 and 36.8 directly from the Cardinals, and stay in Minnesota for a year and see how it goes. And that would give the Vikings a very, very cheap option for someone who could come in, compete with J.J.
McCarthy, or be the number two quarterback and play inevitably when McCarthy gets injured again. Yeah. Well, and that's part of it, too, is we were wondering what was going to happen to Kyler Murray, Mike. And then we get the news that he's going to be released from Arizona.
And, of course, you know what I thought about was all the conversation surrounding Tyson Bajent that the Bears had at the Combine. Ben Johnson with a glowing discussion of who he is and what he's meant to the team. That hasn't changed, I think, from anybody in the front office. Does his market increase because of this possible movement that has been created by Kyler Murray?
I think, if anything, it hurts the market because someone would have to trade for Bajan. And I saw last week during the nonstop activity at the Scouting Combine that the Bears may be looking for as much as a second-round pick for Bajan. Why am I going to do that if I'm a team? Why am I going to do that when I can get one of these guys who's already available in free agency or is going to be cut?
Kyler Murray is going to be joined by Tua Tagovailoa, Geno Smith most likely, Justin Fields. Kirk Cousins is definitely getting cut. So when you have guys you could pursue and not have to give up a draft pick, whether it's a two, a three, or a four, you have to give up nothing to get these guys.
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