Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Nick Baumgardner talks Bears' outlook for NFL Draft (Hour 4)
16 Feb 2026
Chapter 1: What is the Bears' current outlook for the NFL Draft?
I don't think the process changes. You're going to identify the guys that fit what we want in our football team, which coach hit, and you just keep trying to acquire those players. We know what they look like. We know how they act. They know how to talk. We'll continue to do that.
I think that's part of the thing is, one, can you self-evaluate and be critical of yourself and your team to make sure that you know what you have in the building? And then can you just keep pounding away and stick into your process? You make tweaks, of course, but stick to the process of bringing in the right types of people. You tell them, Mr. Poles.
Let them know what a good draft class looks like because you can finally do that. It took a little while. But we got there. It's a ramp up. It's a ramp up. You need some experience. That is Ryan Poles talking about the draft process and building a team and what it takes and going out and getting the guys he likes. For more on that, we welcome in Nick Baumgardner.
Chapter 2: How does Ryan Poles evaluate talent for the Bears?
He's the senior writer and NFL draft analyst for The Athletic. He joins us on the Circa Sports Illinois hotline. Download the Circa Sports app today. Nick, joining us on Rahimi Harris and Grody Russell Dorsey in alongside Marshall Harris. And Nick, it's about that time, I guess, right? What number of mock draft are you on right now? Um... Two or three? Two or three.
I did the first three-rounder, so we're in the third-round area. So we're that deep into it now. What's so great about this is that you're saying two or three, and I'm still thinking about one because the Bears were actually in the playoffs, and that extended our discussion of the actual football season. I know. Back in the day, you guys have been looking at this stuff in like November, right?
Like after Thanksgiving, it had been like, okay, what's draft looking like, right? But it's like I'm in Detroit, so I know that feeling where it's like it's a lot better to ā to have something else to think about maybe in January than what your team's going to draft. But, hey, look, it's draft season for everybody now, so that's good. Good for us.
Yeah, you're thinking about depth and stuff like that now as opposed to, like, all right, where are all my starters going to come from? So here's my thing, Nick. As you're going through your draft prospects and ā trying to grade guys and see where different fits are for people who are now switching their brain over to, okay, combines coming draft is coming.
What's a theme that is big in this year's draft compared to let's say last year's draft. Yeah, I think this year's draft is really unique in that the linebacker class is like for the first time in a while, it feels like there's more teams in the NFL that are more willing to lean into these hybrids and these special like unique athletes. And there's a lot of them this year.
This is like this feels like the deepest linebacker group we've seen in quite some time. The two guys at the top, Arville Reese and Sonny Stiles, both from Ohio State, both 6'4", 240. And both kind of similar, you know, guys. They can get all over the place. They can run. They can wear different hats up front. They can rush off the edge. The best case there might be like a Micah Parsons, right?
And there's a lot of guys in this class like that as you go down the list. So you can go all the way down into like Pittsburgh as a kid. Kyle Lewis. Kyle Louie. Lewis. I can never remember how to say his name. He's like 6'2", 25, right?
But he was one of the fastest players at the Senior Bowl, runs like a safety, but he's like 225, 230, kind of like what we see with Nicky Minwari there in Seattle, right? Obviously, he's a special case with his explosive and as fast as he is.
But this class has a lot of guys who can kind of do different things, wear different hats, and maybe make defenses more explosive at a couple different levels. We're looking at this, and you mentioned linebacker.
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Chapter 3: What unique trends are emerging in this year's linebacker class?
Like we just said, like if a team wants to best around down there and trade up or trade out for Ty Simpson or like Chambliss was the one for me, like if he was going to make this draft or he was going to be in this class, he was a guy that I thought would have been like Jackson Dart, a great example of
sit there bottom of the first somebody comes up and trades into that spot and takes him i don't know if they would do that for garrett nussmeyer i don't know if he's quite on that level i think he might be a stretch maybe he has a great combine and changes people's minds i don't know but beyond that um I think that they're going to try, but I think it's tough.
The two things that I would look for, though, in terms of teams wanting to trade around, if some guys start falling, like if Jeremiah Love starts falling, Caleb Downs probably isn't going to fall too far. But if those guys start sliding, Kenyon Sadiq, the tight end, who's really special as well. that can kind of mess with things, right?
That can kind of mess with the board and change people's whatever. So that's when trades can kind of start happening in my mind. So it's possible, but I don't know how likely it is because that third quarterback is not really jumping off the page. You mentioned safety, Caleb Downs. I don't think the Bears are going to get up high enough to get him. But they do have a need at that position.
And I'm wondering, with the way the safety class looks this year, how far back can you go and still get a good safety? Because the Bears might be needing one, maybe multiple safeties. Yeah, the Bears are in the first world problems group now because this is what you do. The Ravens have done this for so many years.
You just wait because there are really good safeties, and we never know where these guys are going to be drafted because people don't value it as much as they should, but Caleb Downs is no worse than the second best player in this draft. I think he's the best player in the draft, and we're talking about him as a guy that Could be there at like 10, you know, which is crazy to me.
And then the same conversation with some of these other guys too. But like, but that to me, like the safety classes we're talking about, McNeil Warren, the kid from Toledo, Dylan Theanaman, the kid from Oregon, or the other two, both those guys, I think some teams will probably have them graded in their top 30. I think those guys are good enough. Like those guys are big.
They can play multiple safety spots. They can come up in the box and hit as well. But if they slide down the board, all of a sudden you're looking at like Nicky Minwari went off the board last year in the second round.
And I don't know if teams have learned their lesson, but like, you know, one of these years Malachi Starks was the best safety in the, in the draft a couple of years ago or last year, I think it was, and then went to the Ravens at the bottom of the first. Right. So it's like, One of these years, teams will learn their lesson, but I don't know when.
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Chapter 4: Can the Bears find a quality linebacker in the draft?
It's a cool story. But Love was the best. For me, when you turned it on and said, who's the best player out here, it was almost always Love. Offensively, it was him. So I really feel like he's another one, almost in the same conversation as Caleb Downs, where it's like if teams don't want to do this, I think you might end up regretting it.
I don't even know how much, like every running back needs help. Like Gene T last year, I still think he's going to be a good player, but he goes to a terrible situation. I think Love is almost good enough to where he could even make a bad situation a little bit better, right? Like if he didn't go to the Chiefs and went somewhere else. He's a special player, so I think he's one to watch for sure.
Last year, we saw Ted McMillan go in that first round, and it felt like what we saw in the NFL, we kind of saw in the process leading up to the draft. Who is that guy in the first round amongst the wide receivers, or is it multiple guys that could have that type of impact this year? Yeah, this is a cool receiver group, too. There's three at the top that it's going to be, I would think, a debate.
wail through the combine and it might be one that, you know, teams have different guys, you know, all the way through draft night, depending on what you want. Um, Colonel Tate from Ohio state, the big six, three, 200 pounder, maybe two 10, whatever he is that played opposite Jeremiah Smith, a big guy who can play like a small guy, but also was great in the air.
And play all three spots and do all that good stuff. Jordan Tyson from Arizona State, he's the most complete. When he's healthy, he's had some injury issues in the past. When he's healthy, he's the most complete receiver in the class. Physical, blocks, like he's a very good blocker. Like a bigger Amon Ross St. Brown, if we can think about that, like a bigger version of that.
And then Makai Lemon from USC is the smallest of that group. He's probably about 5'10", 5'11", maybe 190, but fearless, awesome in the air. Another guy who could play all three spots and block and do all those good things. All three of those guys, I feel like, are top 15 players in the class. Wouldn't surprise me if somebody in the top five or six, like the Giants or somebody says...
He's a perfect fit for us. We're going to do this, and away we go. So those are special players. I think that, again, like Ted McMillan, when we see receivers like that, it's smart to do it, especially when you've got a young quarterback who needs that oomph. These young guys come in, and they're ready to go. So this is a really exciting receiver group, especially at the top.
Nick Baumgartner giving us all kinds of insight, the senior writer and NFL draft analyst for The Athletic. You can find him on The Artist, formerly known as Twitter, at Nick Baumgartner. That's his at. He joins us also on the Twitch stream. So if you're looking there, you can follow the Twitch screen at TheScoreChicago. That's actually our handle for everything these days, at TheScoreChicago.
One last question before we get you out of here. Fernando Mendoza, any way he doesn't go number one overall? I don't think so. I think the Raiders had waited way too long to pick a quarterback, and they got lucky here. I mean, this guy fell into their lap. I think he's the real deal. Reminds me of a more athletic Jared Goff.
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Chapter 5: What strategies should teams consider for drafting a quarterback?
I don't want to use an app. Bring a lot of mild sauce because I'm going to squirt it all over the place. Put some hot sauce on my burrito, baby. Rahimi Harrison-Grody. Middays, 10 a.m. to 2 on Discord. Edgecombe doesn't have the response. Another off the board. Moselle has tried. It's finished. Modest Buzella's doing work. That's right.
He is a three-time Rising Stars participant, and he is a champion this time around. Playing on a team with Chet Holmgren and, more importantly, VJ Edgecombe. If you're looking to see what prospects look like versus what. You want to see what it looks like? It looks like that. Yeah. VJ Edgecombe is a dude. Yeah. I can see him in the All-Star game very quickly. A lot of shades of D-Wade in there.
That man can play basketball at a very, very, very high level. But you know what? Not everybody was happy with All-Star Weekend because guess what? People like to complain about NBA All-Star Weekend. It is an easy mark. It is low-hanging fruit for a lot of reasons. But my partner today, Russ Dorsey, here on Bohemian Harrison Grody, he has some issues with the man leading.
The association at this current juncture, Commissioner Adam Silver. Before we get into why Russ has issues with Adam Silver, Adam's got a lot of people upset with him on where the league stands on tanking in the NBA after he issued a $500,000 fine against the Utah Jazz because they pulled their starters off. Larry Markkinen and Jaron Jackson Jr. after three quarters in a game recently.
And then also against the Indiana Pacers who weren't playing the full complement of players available to them as they continue their tank efforts in the 25-26 season. Here's what happened with Adam Silver when he was put on the spot All-Star weekend. Yes, it's been part of this league for a long time. I mean, back in the 1960s, there was a coin flip.
At some point, I think it was in the 1980s, we moved to a lottery. That lottery has been changed, I think, roughly five times over the years to try to stay ahead of some of the behavior of our teams. The incentives are not necessarily matched here. I think that the tradition in sports where the worst performing team receives the first pick from their partners,
When any economist comes and looks at our system, they always point out you have the incentives backwards there. That doesn't necessarily make sense. I think there was a more classical view of that in the old days where it was just sort of an understanding among partners about in terms of behavior. I think what we're seeing is
of modern analytics where it's so clear that the incentives are misaligned. I think when you maybe further answer your question, are we seeing behavior that is worse this year than we've seen in recent memory? Yes, is my view.
and which was what led to those to those fines and not just those fines but to my statement that we're going to be looking more closely at the totality of all the circumstances this season in terms of teams behavior and and very intentionally wanted teams to be on notice and there is a bit of a note when you see it quality to this I mean we spend a lot of time at the league office going back and forth with teams on injury reports
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Chapter 6: How might the Bears approach their 25th pick in the draft?
And I think the league has tinkered a lot. But when you look back at his tenure, what that they've tinkered with has actually worked to the level that you think or they thought it should. That is the voice of Russell Dorsey here on Rahimi Harrison Grody on.
104.3 the score we're talking nba commissioner adam silver and your question is is a good one what what is he going to be remembered for more like i think he'll probably outside of donald sterling because i think that's what i say his biggest he stepped up in times of crisis and handled it the right way i would think is the the biggest thing they got through the bubble season in the right way uh
I think even this all-star talk, I think, is secondary to the fact that the league is strong, and they're now doing a transition to the next set of stars, LeBron, Steph, KD, to the next guys. I like where the game is. I think the issue is basketball has changed because sports and our attention span has changed. If... The shot clock, excuse me, pitch clock, excuse me, didn't exist.
We'd be having a very different framed conversation about baseball right now. But they made the two big adjustments, the shift and the pitch clock, and now the introduction of ABS, I think has helped move baseball into the modern era. The problem with basketball is there's still 82 games in a season. And the way we as a society have made it a... Rings are nothing culture.
Teams are now gearing to make sure that their guys are healthy for the postseason, and they're not as concerned with the regular season. And why should they be? They tried to change the minimum number of games played for all the NBA honors, whether it's MVP, Ricky of the Year, All-NBA. That hasn't worked. I think they're still trying to figure it out, to be honest.
Russ, do you have any good suggestions for our commissioner, Adam Silver, of the game that we love? So when it comes to the product of basketball, I don't want to put 100% of the blame on him because I don't think ā He and the office in New York can necessarily control how the game of basketball is played. I think that's a grassroots thing that has happened over time.
I also think that the rise of Hall of Famer, future Hall of Famer Steph Curry has changed the game of basketball significantly. But I don't like the idea of like, oh, I saw a suggestion like you take away the three-point line. It's like that would bother me because it's like, bro, no. What about moving it back? I don't necessarily love that either. You know what I mean?
Like once you start changing, and I know rule changes are part of the game, but it's like that would feel, what's the word for it? Inauthentic might be the word. You want to bring back hand-checking? What do you want to do, Russ? Tell me how you want to change basketball. Yes. Oh, you wanted to get physical again. A little bit more.
Because I think one of my issues with, and I love old heads, and I mean that with all due respect, but I never like talking about basketball. Like, oh, back in the day, you couldn't just come in and let... I don't think being able to punch people when they drove to the basket... That's not good? That wasn't good basketball. But more physicality, I think, is helpful. But also, I just...
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of trading down in the draft?
And Reggie Miller, he got the chance to interview the former president. But Reggie Miller... Probably didn't know exactly what he was asking for when he started asking Barack Obama questions. That run by Michael Jordan in Chicago. Do you have a favorite moment during that time in Chicago during the 90s? I always enjoyed watching us beat Indiana. Oh my goodness. I knew you were going to say that.
Although I will say that nobody terrified me more than Reggie Miller With a possible three-point shot at the end of the game. You did push off Michael on that one play, though. Come on, Mr. President. Everybody knows it. Did he push off in the Utah series? No, right? They didn't call it, right? No, no. We gave it to you. You had to come back in game seven, though. Didn't happen.
You know how I know he didn't foul him? Because the referees told me so. And Tim Donahue, I don't think, was at that game. So that's how it worked. Courtesy of NBC there as part of the All-Star festivities, Barack Obama's waiting for him. Waiting for him to ask a question where he can roast him. Yes. He's enjoying himself as not the president.
It's probably way more relaxing living than being president of the United States. You can just go to games with your lady and talk to Reggie Miller. Front row. And talk crap. And talk to Ant Edwards and have Ant Edwards say he's my favorite person. Like, yeah, it's probably a way more relaxing vibe for Barack Obama. Is that what KD's going to be like in retirement?
Because he's my favorite player that doesn't play for my team. KD is a hoop head to the core. KD is such a complex dude because I know KD loves basketball. And I don't know what way he'll give back to basketball, but I think that's going to be important to him. It might not be broadcasting, but he has all his other stuff with boardroom. One of the best... sports investors you're going to find.
Like his portfolio. He's got a wild portfolio. You're talking about a guy that's very close to a billion dollars net worth because of his investments. But yeah, I think guys are leaning into it more. I think it took a couple of generations for guys to say, oh, the media. Yeah. But guys are finding their own ends into it.
But again, to circle back on what we started talking about at 11 o'clock, and if you want to listen to that conversation about why the All-Star weekend isn't as bad as you thought it was, use the Odyssey app. Hit that feature to go find that chapter. Part of the Rahimi Harrison Grody show. But listen, Kevin Durant is out here talking all the time. Anthony Edwards is talking all the time.
Back in our day, you had to wait until a feature on NBA Inside Stuff. A model shot. Yeah, like, that's what it was. You couldn't get all this free game. But now, free cheese everywhere in these social media streets, whether it's a clip of a podcast or a whole podcast. Yeah. There's just no imagination and no anticipation, except for one guy I can name who does that. Who's that?
The guy that gets paid millions of dollars to talk, and that's Michael Jordan. Oh, that annoys you, doesn't it? Yeah, because I just didn't... Look how entitled you are right now to Michael Jordan's thoughts and inner workings. You know what's funny about the insights of a champion or whatever they called it? Insights of excellence, I believe. Ray, that's what it's called, right?
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