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Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show

Tim Jenkins previews Caleb Williams' playoff debut

06 Jan 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the significance of Caleb Williams' playoff debut?

0.217 - 1.233 Marshall Harris

The score!

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2.309 - 22.399 Tim Jenkins

Tim Jenkins. I've got people real mad at me in Chicago that how dare you? There's a radio guy up there, Mike North. He was real mad. Sounder and CEO of Jenkins Elite. I'm Tim Jenkins and welcome to All Things QB where I watch every single clip and break down the most important ones today. Breaking down the positives and negatives. You've seen progressions that align with the quarterback's eye.

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22.419 - 32.113 Tim Jenkins

I hope that's what we get more of, but I hope we continue to see some of these concepts and the way we build things are better for the quarterback versus just looks good on paper.

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32.093 - 38.863 Marshall Harris

Tim Jenkins with Rahimi Harrison-Grody on Chicago Sports Radio. 670 The Score.

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39.907 - 63.38 Leila Rahimi

That's what he does. Tim Jenkins is the founder and CEO of Jenkins Elite. He is a quarterback guru, and he watches the film. You can check out his breakdowns on YouTube. They are at All Things QB. He joins us via the Circus Sports Illinois hotline. Download the Circus Sports app today, and he is on Twitch, twitch.tv slash Chicago 670 The Score. Tim, thanks for coming on.

64.802 - 74.053 Tim Jenkins

I'm fired up. I'm fired up. We got the whole gang back together, too. I feel like with the holidays... You know, sometimes it's hit or miss, but I'm pretty fired up.

74.073 - 81.658 Leila Rahimi

The whole gang is here, and it's the playoffs, and we've never done a pre-playoff week. This is very exciting.

83.09 - 108.765 Tim Jenkins

Yeah, what an honor. I was saying that today on the closeout. I did a little members video, and I was saying today, I go, you guys, this is exciting. We've never had a playoff week together. I've been sitting there with Justin Fields and some different stuff. Yeah, we haven't done this. You know, is it sunny in Chicago? It feels like there's some optimism in the air. You know, it's funny.

109.025 - 115.197 Mark Grote

It was sunny earlier today. As soon as you say that, look out. And now it's like overcast. So let's not have that be.

Chapter 2: How does Tim Jenkins assess the Bears' chances against the Packers?

115.217 - 118.684 Leila Rahimi

Hey, it's above freezing. And that's a great thing.

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118.764 - 119.586 Mark Grote

We're in the 40s.

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119.726 - 121.77 Leila Rahimi

So that's a big deal.

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121.75 - 146.863 Mark Grote

So I want to ask you this, Tim, because I feel like this is a culmination at this point. We are playing with somewhat house money here. So let's go back to the beginning of this Ben Johnson-Caleb Williams partnership and tell me how prepared you feel like they are after last week's performance, really the last month plus of playing better teams, right?

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146.843 - 152.049 Mark Grote

for this playoff journey that begins with, of course, a familiar team in the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field Saturday night.

153.45 - 170.589 Tim Jenkins

Yeah, so I'm going to kind of go for a while here because I got some exciting stuff for you. I feel like we're playing with house money too, but let me tell you a small story and I'm going to pat myself on the back while I'm doing it, which is Mac Jenkins in his first year of tackle football this year, third grader. First year of tackle football, mom was worried.

170.69 - 187.732 Tim Jenkins

I remember in the kitchen before we started the season thinking to myself, man, I got a bunch of, you know, I got a bunch of kids that I'm not sure they're athletic. Hey, I just want to try to, you know, have a winning record. And then we made it to the playoffs. And then I'm like, all right, I want to go to Super Bowl. And we made it to the Super Bowl. And I say, I want to win the Super Bowl.

187.852 - 205.803 Tim Jenkins

Right. And so quickly the house money becomes big expectations. And unfortunately, you're talking to a Super Bowl losing coach right here. Third grade Super Bowl losing coach. That's me. So. The house money only lasts so long. You got the Packers coming to town. And I feel like what all of us would have said is, man, how cool would it be if they made the playoffs?

205.863 - 230.751 Tim Jenkins

Now, all of a sudden is like our expectations are let's win some playoff games, which is which is dangerous. But simultaneously, you want to sit at the table and you want to have that high expectations in an NFL organization. So I think it's a positive now. How ready are they? I'll tell you that we've lost two straight, and I am way more confident in them than I was before that game.

Chapter 3: What improvements does Caleb Williams need to make for success?

248.994 - 264.95 Tim Jenkins

Like they look like they got a tough schedule. They dropped some games. They shouldn't have, they should be in the dance too. Um, so, you know, the fact that we were, we kind of struggled and then found it and then had a chance to win. Like that to me has me way more positive.

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265.711 - 284.26 Tim Jenkins

When I looked at the tape, the thing that's missing is, you know, there's critical third downs early on in the game that we're not converting on and there's conversions eligible on it. Like, you know, he, you know, Loveland on a bench route early, Caleb misses him in the progression. Then, you know, Loveland again on a Hank route, he misses him.

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284.24 - 295.153 Tim Jenkins

So third down, I think, is an area where this week, if I if I was to say, what do I think's going on in the building? I think what's going on in the building is Ben's kind of probably telling Caleb, hey, dude, I need you to trust me on third down.

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295.654 - 311.293 Tim Jenkins

And I need you to work these progressions before you get into create mode, because what I think's been happening to Caleb on third and fourth down is I think first and second down, we're seeing a different Caleb Williams. We're seeing a Caleb Williams that plays within the progression, does everything you're supposed to do.

311.273 - 329.855 Tim Jenkins

And then I think on third and fourth down, especially short to medium, I think he does start to think, oh, let me hold on to this ball and use my legs a little bit. And it's like, dude, let's still trust the progression. But again, are your legs more eligible on third and fourth down? Of course they are, right? Because you're a playmaker. You can go and get it yourself or extend it for us.

330.315 - 338.445 Tim Jenkins

However, we still want him playing within the progression early on in the play. And I'm guessing that that's something they're hammering going into this week.

338.56 - 351.142 Leila Rahimi

Tim, that picks up right where we've left off in this conversation. I talked about how I feel like we've seen more pocket passing concepts, especially going back to that first Packers game, you know, and you would know watching the film and what you're seeing.

351.262 - 359.556 Leila Rahimi

But it does feel like there are certain things that are being taught right now, and maybe they culminate to whatever we might see on Saturday. What do you think?

Chapter 4: How has the Bears' offensive strategy evolved this season?

426.053 - 446.123 Tim Jenkins

And that for me is one of those where I go like, all right, you know, we struggled on third down. It still came down to the wire and we had plays out there on that final drive to seal it. And I just feel confident in them getting the third downs cleaned up and or the end of game cleaned up. Either one of those is going to get a win against the Packers.

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446.143 - 466.442 Unknown

I love the optimistic viewpoint of what you're talking about, Tim, but it just scares me that this has been the problem. I put that in air quotes. If there's a problem with Caleb Williams this year, it has been persistent the whole year. I'll say the San Francisco game, he got going in the second quarter.

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466.422 - 476.114 Unknown

But for the most part, it's been the third and fourth quarters, and you're giving good solutions. Be better on third-down conversions, or if there's a fourth-down conversion, be better in those spots.

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476.514 - 491.012 Unknown

I'm wondering, though, is it realistic to think that that's going to change this year, just like we were talking about with the defense earlier, that it may not be realistic to think that the defense is all of a sudden going to magically tighten up and be good against these guys coming up this Saturday?

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491.971 - 503.532 Tim Jenkins

It's funny because for me, I probably lean your direction in terms of being like, hey, is it realistic for that to happen? I probably lean no, but man, it's going to be exciting in the fourth quarter. That's kind of how I lean.

503.612 - 504.113 Unknown

It's so true.

504.754 - 528.539 Tim Jenkins

But then I go – but then it's like to me – you know, the, the fixes are so simple that I still hold out a piece of hope because it's, I'm not sitting here saying like, Hey, guess what? You know, Caleb doesn't even know how to take a drop, right? Like it's, it's, it's, Hey dude, just instead of three and move on three, hitch the bench. Like to me, that's such an easy change.

529.019 - 537.807 Tim Jenkins

And I've seen it with him that it makes me, I think more hopeful for the third downs getting cleaned up. And I do think,

537.787 - 563.71 Tim Jenkins

those third downs though you know a couple of those third down conversions are the difference between us being a fast starting team and a slow starting team is all of a sudden the third and fourth quarter Caleb just starts converting on third and fourth down right that's all it is this Bears offense starts converting and early in the game we're not we definitely have to start fast listen I think our scripted series has to be elite this week if our scripted series can be great we've got a shot um

Chapter 5: What are the expectations for the Bears in the playoffs?

634.794 - 635.395 Tim Jenkins

I really do.

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635.375 - 655.627 Mark Grote

He is Tim Jenkins, the founder and CEO of Jenkins Elite. He joins us for Elite Radio each and every Tuesday here on Rahimi Harris and Grody. Tim, I love how you've laid this out because you've given me even further reason to believe that the Bears can win this game, Sari, which I don't know that I was leaning that way. I still might not be leaning that way, but you're making good points.

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656.328 - 676.943 Mark Grote

I guess the question I have is you're saying in the second half he's doing the things on third and fourth downs that he wasn't doing in the first half. Is there a mental component to this in your mind when you've seen all this tape now for a 17-game stretch under Ben Johnson? Because you're saying it's simple. If it was that simple, they would have fixed it by now?

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677.905 - 695.966 Tim Jenkins

Yeah, I think you're onto it. Is there a mental component in terms of Are you early on in your NFL career? And it's kind of like, you know, you take possessions for granted. Right. Which, you know, again, I'm not sitting there saying like Caleb Williams sitting in the meeting room saying this possession doesn't matter. Of course, that's not what he's saying.

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696.046 - 717.701 Tim Jenkins

But is there a piece of it that as the stakes get higher? you start to really lock in on, okay, hey, my progression on this, or I start to lock in on, okay, hey, remember, if they go to this coverage, I got my Hank. I'm sure there's an element to that. And again, I think there's something that, it's just something to me that, you know, it's hard.

717.942 - 744.508 Tim Jenkins

I don't really know how to completely articulate it other than, The three fixes that I saw on tape this week were so simple that it's almost to me, you know, when you hear Ben Johnson say, man, we had an easier game plan and we had just had some mental errors. It's almost like, did we just not execute our footwork here? Did we just not execute with our eye placement here? And if that is the case.

744.488 - 767.957 Tim Jenkins

Those are easily cleaned up. And I say that because I think he has a body of work proving that he's cleaning that sort of stuff up. Let's go back to how poor we were operationally week one to now. We have a body of work of steady improvement. So I do think it's something that he can do. In terms of what do I think the difference is, one, I think every NFL offense gets better in the second half.

767.997 - 781.455 Tim Jenkins

And there's a big piece of me that I watched a lot of teams this week. Week 18s, Actually, I think one of the more fun weeks to watch because you sit there and you see that, you know, Riley Leonard running out there for the Colts.

782.197 - 804.606 Tim Jenkins

You see a team that's been on a horrific slide since their quarterback went down and they're competing with the best wildcard team in the AFC and they're running things like fake punt. and then fake pun again, right? And it leads you to this piece of, then you watch the fourth quarter of NFL games and you watch the Steelers come alive after doing virtually nothing for three quarters.

Chapter 6: How can the Bears' defense impact the playoff game?

814.418 - 830.74 Tim Jenkins

How much better are you going to be? And I do think it's interesting because I do think Ben Johnson is one of those guys who, and I know this week we're talking about them being a slow start and they've been slow start before. I do think Ben Johnson is cut from that Kyle Shanahan tree, though, of it feels like we're coming out of the gate attacking, right?

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830.72 - 853.014 Tim Jenkins

Um, so, you know, do I see, you know, there's not a ton of glaring things on tape of what's different in the first, second, third quarter than the fourth, other than Caleb's own execution is better in the fourth, which then is it like, Hey, you know, when things are heightened, does he lock in more? And if that's the case, how can we get him to do that earlier on?

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853.034 - 861.046 Tim Jenkins

That's, you know, going to be a big piece of their quarterback coach in building, figuring out, Hey, how's he wired and how can we get him to elevate more? First quarter, second quarter.

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861.486 - 881.095 Leila Rahimi

So one of the things, Tim, that was fresh with us was Ben Johnson yesterday still carrying some of that same energy of what he did after the game on Sunday. And he said, we looked back at the transcript, that he counted six mistakes in the first 11 plays of the game. Did you see what he was saying?

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881.767 - 899.413 Tim Jenkins

Yeah, that's not shocking at all. I mean, I feel like and again, remember, Ben, you know, a lot of stuff I highlight on YouTube is the pass game. Right. And again, that's just I'm I'm a quarterback. And, you know, that gets me excited. And I feel like most fans get, you know, everybody wants to see the pass game. What I'll tell you, though, is the run game.

899.894 - 917.543 Tim Jenkins

To me, we were missing on some of our doubles, you know, climbing up to the second level that we haven't missed on in the past either. Right. I think it was just one of those games. I'm going to be honest. Like, you know, we act like, you know, how many times do we, you know, shoot, how many times do I come on here? I only got to come on here and be great for 19 weeks. You know, six of them.

917.923 - 935.622 Tim Jenkins

My mic's muted when I start. Right. So it's like I'm you know, I'm six for 18 right now in terms of even starting out OK. So it's like we all struggle at our jobs to start at times. The Bears are no different, and I just feel like this is one of those weeks where, unfortunately, I think we probably thought the Lions were going to lay down. I don't know why we would think that.

936.603 - 955.574 Tim Jenkins

And they obviously did nothing but that, and then it took them a while to get going. What they did get going, though, man, I mean, you watch some of that. The shallow arm angle throw, the reset on the post-touchdown, like that's his third progression, the post that he hits. You know, I mean, shoot, he's looking at the end route that he's hit a million times and he's on to the shallow.

955.614 - 967.714 Tim Jenkins

Then he peaks the post like, you know, the two point play where he's where commit, you know, you guys, everybody I always see on Twitter, you know, commits on the ground again. But it's like, hey, commit finds himself on the ground again. Guess what? He pops up, finds a way in the end zone.

Chapter 7: What are the critical areas for the Bears to focus on during the game?

980.752 - 996.996 Tim Jenkins

And it just, you know, we didn't quite dig out of it. And then our defense, you know, who I thought did pretty decent those first three quarters. Like, I get it, they were moving the ball, and I get it, they scored 16 points at, you know, to start, but... You know, I thought they played pretty decent. You know, they couldn't have they didn't have one more stop in them. Right.

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997.016 - 1022.866 Tim Jenkins

We needed our offense either be sustained or them have one more stop. We got neither. We lost the game. But again, you know, I think it's hard for me to feel like. I don't want to completely go to college, but you know Oregon, right? Oregon's got James Madison at home, right? JMU. And they don't really completely kill them start to finish, right?

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1023.346 - 1044.216 Tim Jenkins

How good was that for Oregon then going into Texas Tech where it's like, you got to win, right? Hey, the Bears, we got the two seed, but we got a ton of stuff to coach and be hard on you and have an edge this week so that you go in to the playoffs and and you're ready to go to war. There's something beautiful to it to where as a coach you could sit there and go, man, do I ever want to lose?

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1044.716 - 1063.48 Tim Jenkins

No, but shoot, man, if I got a week where I got a ton of stuff to coach on and I can really get after these guys and all of a sudden, hey, we got a bad run drill on Wednesday, shoot, man, I can jump our line. This is exactly how we started, right? You can really get after them. It's got to make you feel like these guys are going to be ready to go to war on Saturday.

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1063.73 - 1072.149 Leila Rahimi

I love the being fired up, and we love it when people coach us up, too. Tim Jenkins, I'm sorry about the Super Bowl, but congratulations to the third graders, man. That's a big deal.

1072.43 - 1080.388 Tim Jenkins

Yeah. It was a big run. It was a big run. I hate to blame our quarterback, but Mac Jenkins just didn't have it at the Super Bowl, so it is what it is.

1080.368 - 1083.334 Leila Rahimi

But that's the adorable age where the helmets are bigger than their body.

1083.354 - 1099.086 Tim Jenkins

Yeah, that's my favorite thing. The parents that are worried. And I'm telling you, I think the ground made more tackles. Our boys tripped over lines more often than we hit anybody. So it was fun, though. It was a blast. And yeah, it's my favorite quarterback I've ever coached, though. So it was it was good.

1099.066 - 1103.737 Leila Rahimi

I love that. The turf monster is also my biggest opponent in life, so I feel that.

Chapter 8: What insights can be drawn from past performances against the Packers?

1103.838 - 1116.268 Leila Rahimi

Matt, congratulations. Tim, congratulations. And thanks again. If you want to check out the full breakdown, it is worth it. Go to YouTube, All Things QB. It is a must-watch every week. Tim Jenkins doing work for us. Thanks, Tim.

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1116.308 - 1119.736 Tim Jenkins

Thanks, Tim. All right, team. We'll see you next week.

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1119.796 - 1121.038 Leila Rahimi

He's in coach mode, team.

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1121.118 - 1123.101 Mark Grote

Totally. I love it. He's on it.

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1123.301 - 1125.464 Leila Rahimi

I'm telling you, though, the turf monster will take me down.

1125.624 - 1138.321 Unknown

Well, I was thinking about it. There are a bunch of kids who have not grown into their bodies yet. Do people grow? Do we only grow when we're sleeping? If you're young and you're still growing, could you just all of a sudden grow in the middle of the day?

1138.341 - 1139.282 Mark Grote

No, you need to sleep.

1139.302 - 1141.986 Unknown

While you're sleeping is the only time people grow? Okay, thank you. Really?

1142.166 - 1143.027 Leila Rahimi

That's proven?

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