Speaker 1: Welcome in toub Bears Weekly powered by IGS Energy by
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Speaker 1: by Advocate Healthcare, Athletic Goo Physical Therapy, C D. Jolligan,
Speaker 1: Connie's Pizza, IGS Energy, and Mellerland. Here are your hosts,
Speaker 1: Jeff Chiliack Kka, the Mayor of Bearsville, and his sidekick
Speaker 1: Tom the Surfmaster Thayer.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: A new chapter in Bears football now includes one of
Speaker 3: the premier coaches in the National Football League, the thirty
Speaker 3: eight year old Ben Johnson, leaving Detroit for Chicago, and
Speaker 3: his introduction yesterday at Habisau created what best can be
Speaker 3: described as a significant buzz throughout Bears Nation, fans, players,
Speaker 3: everyone in the building at Habisaw and excitement rained supreme.
Speaker 3: I'm Jeff Joniyak top Thayer alongside the former Chicago Bear
Speaker 3: and Super Bowl winning Bears guard and former Bears quarterback
Speaker 3: Jim Miller from Serious X that movie that Chains with
Speaker 3: us as well in the ESPN studio spin in the
Speaker 3: day House tonight is Kendrick Smith. Thanks to Dan Brilliant,
Speaker 3: Jordan Treadip for the Bears and the executive producer of
Speaker 3: the Bears radio network is Eric Ostrotski.
Speaker 2: Good Evening one and all Good Evening Top. There. I
Speaker 2: bathing in the the.
Speaker 3: Sunshine of a Ben Johnson hire right now, because everybody is.
Speaker 2: There's a couple of things.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: Ben Johnson has been the most talked about head coaching
Speaker 5: candidate over the last two years, and so to see
Speaker 5: the Bears set their sights on Ben Johnson, get him
Speaker 5: in on the zoom interview, bring him into the building,
Speaker 5: and get him signed to a contract, it's exciting. It's
Speaker 5: excitement in the building. You could hear it with the
Speaker 5: questions asked and answered. But I'm a man of the people,
Speaker 5: and so when I'm out at the grocery store.
Speaker 6: Today, I had to allow my time extra time in.
Speaker 5: The building because I was stopped in every one of
Speaker 5: the areas of the bakery, of the butcher, and in
Speaker 5: the vegetable department talking to all the guys about the
Speaker 5: new hiring. And it's some sincere about that these guys
Speaker 5: were as excited about the hiring of Ben Johnson on
Speaker 5: the outskirts of Hallas Hall as there was that you
Speaker 5: saw in Hallis Hall.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I'm particularly interested in the butcher because he's
Speaker 3: been he's been on fire off season long.
Speaker 2: What's his name? By the way, do you know I don't.
Speaker 2: We gotta get him on the podcast.
Speaker 6: I know me Gene.
Speaker 5: I know he's in the vegetables, But my butcher is
Speaker 5: a guy that I have to allow him the most
Speaker 5: time and when I'm going through the grocery store.
Speaker 6: But it was exciting to talk about.
Speaker 5: You could feel their excitement and like I said, from
Speaker 5: all the coaching candidates to in hallis hall to now
Speaker 5: it's reality.
Speaker 2: Let's let's go, let's go.
Speaker 3: Well, we're gonna hear from Ben Johnson from an interview
Speaker 3: I did with him for the Bears platforms. We'll also
Speaker 3: hear from Caleb Williams Todite, and we'll also hear from
Speaker 3: Kevin Warren from his interviews with the media yesterday. Jim
Speaker 3: Miller also joining us, and he interviewed along with his
Speaker 3: crew at Serious Except NFL Radio. He interviewed the new
Speaker 3: head coach of the Bears, Ben Johnson, and there's a
Speaker 3: commonality between you two, Jim, good evening. How you doing,
Speaker 3: And that would be John Shuope, your coach with the
Speaker 3: Bears in all one through three, because they are very tight.
Speaker 3: Those two gentlemen living on the same block in Ashville
Speaker 3: with I believe his mom and dad coach along with
Speaker 3: coach shupeh was not coaching in Europe.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and yeah, John Shup and his wife, Mom Marshall,
Speaker 7: were there. She became an ordained minister. But they started
Speaker 7: out at North Carolina together. That's where really Ben Johnson
Speaker 7: crossed paths with Shoop and he was struck.
Speaker 6: Shop was very detailed.
Speaker 7: I brought that up, and I actually asked Ben Johnson
Speaker 7: a question about that. I said, you had to love
Speaker 7: the detail of John Shop because one thing I really
Speaker 7: appreciated about shop was past protections pass protection conscious. Every
Speaker 7: week he would go in on his off day, he'd
Speaker 7: write up all the protections, here's how we're treating it
Speaker 7: this week. And I'd go in there and I'd get
Speaker 7: a carbon copy of it, and then you, of course
Speaker 7: go out to your your blitz pickups and all that,
Speaker 7: and it always went seamless and smoothless. And it was
Speaker 7: the detail and the preparation of John Shoop and that
Speaker 7: is carried over definitely to Ben Johnson.
Speaker 3: What's the reaction league wide? And had you interviewed him before?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I have, I've had conversation when we go on
Speaker 7: training camp tour, much like when I visited the Bears.
Speaker 7: I ran into Ben Johnson at Lions training camp this
Speaker 7: a couple of years ago, and he came up. We
Speaker 7: had a nice conversation about our commonality with John Shoop,
Speaker 7: and you know just where he wanted his career to go.
Speaker 7: And so I think he congratulate the Chicago Bears. I
Speaker 7: got the top coordinator out there. I think a lot
Speaker 7: of people are pretty excited about Joe Bate Brady too
Speaker 7: over there in Buffalo. But I think really Ben Johnson
Speaker 7: blew everybody away. And I do like his statement about
Speaker 7: I want to take the hard path. I don't want
Speaker 7: an easy path about staying in the division of the
Speaker 7: NFC North.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that's one of the first things that
Speaker 3: came out of his mouth. Sitting down with me as
Speaker 3: well as with the media yesterday. You could tell he's
Speaker 3: a fiery competitor and everybody. There's all sorts of adjectives
Speaker 3: that you in your canvassing of people around the league
Speaker 3: that have either coached with him or against him, or
Speaker 3: people who know him, and they're all coming back with
Speaker 3: a similar uh tapestry.
Speaker 2: So to speak about what he is.
Speaker 3: And and that is no nonsense, very very detailed focused.
Speaker 2: Obviously, he's got.
Speaker 3: A very very very good football mind for the ex's
Speaker 3: and o's part of it, but he also Tom and Jim.
Speaker 3: He's got a fiery temperament on game day that allows
Speaker 3: him to uh to be to take some chances and
Speaker 3: and and and put things out there that maybe other
Speaker 3: coordinators not. And I should also mention today named Assistant
Speaker 3: Coach of the Year by the Pro Football Writers of America.
Speaker 5: Tommy, that's nice to see, you know, because you think
Speaker 5: about when they brought Jared golf along, there was kind
Speaker 5: of an uncertainty about what how his career was going
Speaker 5: to further after they make Detroit for Matthew Stafford, and
Speaker 5: you see the numbers that he's able to put up.
Speaker 5: You see the way that he got Jamaar Gibbs involved
Speaker 5: in the running game, even though they already had David
Speaker 5: Montgomery and all the wide receivers and tight ends that
Speaker 5: he had a board. He got them all actively involved
Speaker 5: in in each week's performance of that offense. And I
Speaker 5: think when you look at the Bears and the offense
Speaker 5: he's coming to, I think he's got a quarterback that
Speaker 5: has more athleticism. I think he's got the big play
Speaker 5: receivers in Roman duns A DJ, He's got the tight
Speaker 5: end and Cole Kamet, and he's got the running backs
Speaker 5: and DeAndre Swift and Roa Seawan Johnson, and I know
Speaker 5: there's gonna be other pieces added here, including the offensive line.
Speaker 5: But it's gonna be interesting to see how he constructs
Speaker 5: the talent of the Bears after he constructed the talent
Speaker 5: that he had in Detroit.
Speaker 3: Jim second youngest head coach in the league right now
Speaker 3: behind Mike McDonald oft. Believe it or not, you would
Speaker 3: think as long as Sean McVay has been in the league,
Speaker 3: But Sean McVay is right there behind it.
Speaker 2: He's now he's third in the list.
Speaker 3: But Sean mcvace still a young thirty eight years old
Speaker 3: as well, just a couple of months older than Ben Johnson.
Speaker 2: How about that. I mean that's kind of crazy, isn't it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Well, I mean, you know, he's got the energy.
Speaker 7: I know everybody's said, you know, we got guys out
Speaker 7: there like Pete Carroll or seventy three that have a
Speaker 7: ton of energy. But I think a lot of teams
Speaker 7: want the young and upcoming coaches that have that energy
Speaker 7: that you know, deal with the modern day player and
Speaker 7: how these guys are being you know, really being developed
Speaker 7: for what you want him to be, and that's to
Speaker 7: have a winning organization. So you know, again, let's see
Speaker 7: how it all comes together. It's going to take a
Speaker 7: lot of hard work, but new direction, and it does
Speaker 7: seem like an emphasis will be to get this offense right.
Speaker 3: All right, let's applaud the process, okay, because there were
Speaker 3: some detractors of the idea of broad scope journey towards
Speaker 3: trying to find the head coach. So a lot of interviews,
Speaker 3: but that's information gathering within the framework of the rules
Speaker 3: that are set forth by the NFL and how and
Speaker 3: when to interview people that are involved in the playoffs
Speaker 3: and such. I found nothing wrong with that. It didn't
Speaker 3: signify to me a lack of focus. But when you
Speaker 3: hear after the fact, Tommy just how detailed Ryan Poles
Speaker 3: and his staff and how ready they were, And I
Speaker 3: think the term was used by Kevin Warren or George McCaskey,
Speaker 3: one of the two I can't remember, which was just
Speaker 3: be ready to pounce when we are ready to make
Speaker 3: the decision on who we're going with, and they got
Speaker 3: their number one guy, the guy that they felt was
Speaker 3: going to help this team get going in the right direction.
Speaker 3: And as as the head coach said yesterday, our goal is.
Speaker 2: To win and win now.
Speaker 5: So he's not shy about something that I don't want
Speaker 5: him to be shy about that when you think of
Speaker 5: the interviews from Pete Carroll to Eddie, George and everybody
Speaker 5: in between, and then they were able to get, like
Speaker 5: I said, the most coveted head coach in Canada over
Speaker 5: the last two seasons.
Speaker 2: In Ben Johnson.
Speaker 5: I think he Ben Johnson had to be impressed by
Speaker 5: Ryan Poles as much as Ryan Poles had to be
Speaker 5: impressed by Ben Johnson. And you like to have that
Speaker 5: mutual relationship developed from the infancy stages because there is
Speaker 5: an admiration of the preparedness of each of these guys.
Speaker 5: And you know, Ryan probably learned something about his questioning
Speaker 5: process through some of the other candidates that he went through,
Speaker 5: or answers that maybe alerted him to something that he
Speaker 5: should ask. And with Kevin Warren and George McCaskey and
Speaker 5: Ryan Poles up there and the whole supporting interviewing staff.
Speaker 5: They got their guy, I mean, and I think he
Speaker 5: proved the point yesterday when he was at the podium
Speaker 5: in his interview with you, that he didn't speak in cliches.
Speaker 5: He gave answers that you wanted to, that you wanted
Speaker 5: to hear.
Speaker 3: That's from the heart. There's no script, right, he's speaking,
Speaker 3: and I love that. I think the best community in
Speaker 3: the world, whether it be at a church or a
Speaker 3: public event or public speakers, you know that knowledge is
Speaker 3: power and you speak from the heart.
Speaker 2: Jim.
Speaker 3: The other thing is, as George McCaskey indicated more than
Speaker 3: once I ran into him at the Halsall prior to
Speaker 3: the news conference earlier this week, he said he asked
Speaker 3: for the job. I want the job, and he reminded him,
Speaker 3: if I didn't tell you I want the job, I'm
Speaker 3: telling you again. And oftentimes I don't think people, you know,
Speaker 3: when they interview it could be any walk, they don't
Speaker 3: they don't finish by asking the job. Asking for the job,
Speaker 3: you got to finish. He asked for the job right
Speaker 3: out of the gate. So I I think that's a
Speaker 3: really important part of this.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 7: I agree with that, Jeff, because everybody just thinks, oh, well,
Speaker 7: here's your contract. We'd like you to be in the
Speaker 7: next head coach. No, I want this job. Know that
Speaker 7: you know it's it's equal to this as mutual. You
Speaker 7: know that this is something that I want to challenge.
Speaker 7: And I do think there's something to it, and we
Speaker 7: you know, I go back for previous players. There's something
Speaker 7: to be said about building something when you turn it around.
Speaker 7: I know we've talked about other players that have come
Speaker 7: to Chicago and that's why they committed. They were like, Hey,
Speaker 7: this is a storied franchise. I want to be part
Speaker 7: of building something. And I think that's part of Ben
Speaker 7: Johnson too, with the rich history and tradition.
Speaker 3: And I think and Tom can speak to this. Jim,
Speaker 3: you can speak to this Tom more so because he
Speaker 3: won that Lombardi Trophy with that eighty five Bears team.
Speaker 3: You win here, it's not like any place else when
Speaker 3: you win. We'll dive into that when we come back.
Speaker 3: This is Bears Weekly on THEESBN one thousand and the
Speaker 3: Bears Radio Network.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Bears Weekly on the Bears Radio Network.
Speaker 1: Here's your host, the Voice of the Bears, Jeff Joni.
Speaker 3: This segment of Bears Weekly, brought to you by IGS Energy,
Speaker 3: Jeff Joni Ac tomp There and Jim Miller, former Bears
Speaker 3: quarterback from Serious x MNFL Radio, as we dig into
Speaker 3: the hiring of Ben Johnson. Now for a staff is
Speaker 3: underway up at hallis all. They'll be very active in
Speaker 3: that for the rest of this week and possibly beyond
Speaker 3: as they head towards what will be the scouting circuit
Speaker 3: and the senior ball coming up here about a week
Speaker 3: from now. So a lot to do and a lot
Speaker 3: going on in the National Football League. Jim Miller interviewed,
Speaker 3: as I mentioned in their first segment, if you're just
Speaker 3: joined to ask, interviewed Ben Johnson today. What did you
Speaker 3: guys get into. I only heard a portion of the interview,
Speaker 3: but anything stick out from the interview with Ben that
Speaker 3: Bears fans want to.
Speaker 7: Hear, Yeah, just really you know, his start in offense,
Speaker 7: what he believes in. Certainly, I know we talked about
Speaker 7: the running game, and as Tom has mentioned, you look
Speaker 7: at that offensive lineup there in Detroit pretty darn good.
Speaker 7: So I think they're gonna, you know, trying to overhaul that.
Speaker 7: That's the best way to help out a young quarterback,
Speaker 7: And I just think you know Trees. You know, he's
Speaker 7: been with Dan Campbell and that staff, which is a
Speaker 7: very good staff with the Detroit Lions, and typically you
Speaker 7: know you're going to run into coaches maybe from that tree.
Speaker 7: So like for Dan Campbell, I know people have talked
Speaker 7: about Dennis Allen and I'll be present. There's all these
Speaker 7: names that are out there, and maybe all settle on
Speaker 7: one that's comfortable because typically a lot of those coaches
Speaker 7: that probably Dan Campbell has been with before have been
Speaker 7: in that building quite a bit where he's had some
Speaker 7: conversations with him.
Speaker 2: Tom.
Speaker 3: One of the great things that he is starting from
Speaker 3: scratch on the offense, this is going to be an
Speaker 3: offense tailored around Caleb Williams.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: You know, when we looked at the analytics of Detroit
Speaker 5: offenses past year, we talked about the effectiveness of the
Speaker 5: play action passing game with a guy like Jared Goff.
Speaker 5: But I think when you incorporate the athleticism of a
Speaker 5: guy like Caleb Williams, is it more rpo play action
Speaker 5: or is it more legitimate play action from behind center?
Speaker 5: And I'm interested to see how he sees the difference
Speaker 5: in the talent of you know, the experience in the
Speaker 5: history in the league with Jared Goff in the infancy
Speaker 5: stages of a quarterback like Caleb Williams. And because I
Speaker 5: don't necessarily think that Ben Johnson is just going to
Speaker 5: bring in and plug in his Detroit offense with the
Speaker 5: players he has here, He's gonna get to the drawing board.
Speaker 5: He's gonna work with his offensive coordinators, receivers, coach, his
Speaker 5: offensive line coach and start saying, Okay, what can we
Speaker 5: incorporate that we've had success with in the past, What
Speaker 5: did Caleb Williams do so well this year and the
Speaker 5: reason that he was successful? And then how do we
Speaker 5: turn that fourth quarter into the first quarter? And I
Speaker 5: just think those are a couple of the growing portions
Speaker 5: of this offense that we need to see the Bears
Speaker 5: become a faster starting first quarter team rather than asking
Speaker 5: for superman heroics out of Caleb in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 3: Well, yesterday I had a chance to visit with Ben
Speaker 3: Johnson before his news conference with the media, the introductory
Speaker 3: news conference as the eighteenth head coach nineteenth overall with
Speaker 3: the interim tag for Ben for what we had last
Speaker 3: season that was nineteen, but Ben Johnson with the sit Down,
Speaker 3: A portion of the interview from our bears et Cent
Speaker 3: podcast would drop today wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 8: Every step of my journey, whether it was quality control, position, coach,
Speaker 8: offensive coordinator, I morphed into a world that would make
Speaker 8: me the best at that particular job, and every step
Speaker 8: along the way tight ends coach. Oh see, the last
Speaker 8: few years, it's whatever that job required. And so this
Speaker 8: new job is a completely different skill set and responsibility,
Speaker 8: and so I will find exactly what it takes to
Speaker 8: excel in this new role.
Speaker 3: How excited are you to work with Ryan Poles, his staff,
Speaker 3: Kevin Warren, mccaskey's everybody.
Speaker 8: In the Bild Listen. They blew me away on the interview.
Speaker 8: I spent time just alone with Ryan on that interview
Speaker 8: and then in a group setting with all of them,
Speaker 8: and it's clear their commitment to build a sustained winner
Speaker 8: here in Chicago. I think Ryan's done a phenomenal job
Speaker 8: already accumulating town here in this building. And I can't
Speaker 8: be more excited about George and Kevin and the support
Speaker 8: that they're willing to give us and the resources they're
Speaker 8: willing to give us to get this thing going.
Speaker 3: The familiarity you touched on it within the division?
Speaker 2: Is that a positive?
Speaker 3: Because you faced everybody before for the last many years.
Speaker 8: There's no doubt, And once again I have tremendous amounts
Speaker 8: of respect for all the coaches and players already in
Speaker 8: this division. But really, as a competitor, I didn't want
Speaker 8: to leave.
Speaker 3: As a young kid growing up Asheville, North Carolina, that's right.
Speaker 3: Could you have imagined this day?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 8: No, absolutely not, absolutely not. Like like I said, I
Speaker 8: grew up watching WGN Chicago Cubs with my little brother
Speaker 8: and to see that one day I would land in
Speaker 8: that city as the head coach of the Chicago Bears,
Speaker 8: it just gives me goosebumps.
Speaker 2: What's your message to the fans?
Speaker 8: Message to the fans is, we are completely committed to
Speaker 8: building a sustained winner here. We are going to have
Speaker 8: high standards, but we're also going to have high level
Speaker 8: of support for these players. The bar is gonna be
Speaker 8: every time they step into the building so high, because
Speaker 8: that's the only way we're gonna push. We're gonna challenge
Speaker 8: these players to become the best versions of themselves along
Speaker 8: the way, though, we're going to provide them the necessary
Speaker 8: resources to hit those goals.
Speaker 2: Congratulations, thank you in best of luck, Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 3: Jeff Well, you know that that Cubs angle is significant
Speaker 3: as it turns out, And if you have a chance,
Speaker 3: check out Chicago Bears dot com. Read an article by
Speaker 3: outstanding writer Gabby Hiduke. She penned a piece with Johnson
Speaker 3: and his younger brother Avid Cub fans yes watching the
Speaker 3: games in the nineties. So as the story goes, Tom
Speaker 3: and Jim, the brother put his name on the waiting
Speaker 3: list for Cups tickets after you graduated high school in
Speaker 3: two thousand and seven, and several years later, bam, he's
Speaker 3: got four season tickets.
Speaker 2: So he and the family yearly trip.
Speaker 3: To Chicago for a Cup series Throughout the past decade
Speaker 3: or so, there's photos that you'll see of coach Johnson
Speaker 3: and his wife Jessica with Cub shirts on. I keep saying, guys,
Speaker 3: it was meant to be, so Chicago stirred his soul.
Speaker 3: And if you're sitting and I think oftentimes they were
Speaker 3: sitting in the bleachers, so you get a true sense
Speaker 3: of what the Chicago sports fan, what I truly believe
Speaker 3: is the great and not just saying it it's the
Speaker 3: greatest sports city in America. The passion is unrivaled in
Speaker 3: terms of it being organic and riding through the roller
Speaker 3: coaster of emotions that this city can put you through
Speaker 3: as a sports fan and they stick with you.
Speaker 2: It's unique. I love it.
Speaker 3: I mean, there are other great sports towns, but nothing
Speaker 3: like this. And now he lands here and with the
Speaker 3: team in Chicago where everybody is a Bears fan.
Speaker 5: Well, you know that for Jim and Jeff and I
Speaker 5: all of us, we've been blessed to go to different
Speaker 5: stadiums as players and broadcasters, and sometimes the anticipation of
Speaker 5: being in the stadium is the walk to the stadium,
Speaker 5: and you get to see the energy that the fans
Speaker 5: are showing on the streets, the leading up, waiting in
Speaker 5: line to the stadiums and stuff. And you know, you
Speaker 5: got to imagine him as a younger person waiting in
Speaker 5: line at Wrigley Field or walking through the streets of Chicago.
Speaker 5: And I think that's where you get a real understanding
Speaker 5: of the passion of the sports fan of Chicago.
Speaker 7: Was it that did he go to the opener? I
Speaker 7: want to know that, Jeff, you can get a little
Speaker 7: chilly in the opener.
Speaker 3: Well, tell you Jim right now, he won't be able
Speaker 3: to go there anonymously a more, not a chance.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a great story, Jimmy great story.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 7: And you know, I think when you're not from Chicago,
Speaker 7: like me coming from Detroit and when the Bears sign
Speaker 7: me there is I think when you when you arrive
Speaker 7: there and you participate in iconic things like going to
Speaker 7: Kubby Stadium and all that, and you see all the
Speaker 7: fan fair and I've said it all the time about
Speaker 7: the Chicago Bears. Even I remember when I signed and
Speaker 7: all the Bowls championships, but yet when I turned on
Speaker 7: the radio, it was all Bears talk.
Speaker 6: And I go to the local mall and.
Speaker 7: There's a Bear's hat somebody's wearing, and a Bear's jacket
Speaker 7: and Bears shoes and you name it. And it's just
Speaker 7: in your face every single day of hot what a
Speaker 7: great sports town it is. And it's but it is Bears,
Speaker 7: but you've got all these other great sports as well.
Speaker 7: And it was just very welcoming, is very inviting, is
Speaker 7: very intoxicated, and probably why the Johnson family wanted to
Speaker 7: go down there, because it you know, you enjoy it.
Speaker 7: I mean, it's something fun to do, and it's a
Speaker 7: city that will attract you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I will say this also, it's a city that
Speaker 3: wants to embrace its stars and its coaches. And you
Speaker 3: know you can you can feel it when things are
Speaker 3: going well, you feel it when things are not going well.
Speaker 3: It's a two way street. You know what you're getting
Speaker 3: when you come to Chicago. It's an enormous market for
Speaker 3: you know, what other word can you use other than pressure?
Speaker 2: Right? Tom?
Speaker 3: And you felt it as a player, right, You had
Speaker 3: a lot of success, but you know when it didn't
Speaker 3: finish in a super Bowl with such a great team.
Speaker 3: After you won the Super Bowl, how did you handle that?
Speaker 3: And what advice would you give to a head coach
Speaker 3: or a player coming to the Bears organization in this city.
Speaker 3: Both of you guys can weigh in on, especially Jim
Speaker 3: as a quarterback and you as an eighty five Bear, Well.
Speaker 2: No one thing.
Speaker 5: I don't think that Ben Johnson needs advice because he's
Speaker 5: been in the division and.
Speaker 6: He's seen the highs and the lows.
Speaker 5: He's seen you know, the arrow pointing out for Detroit
Speaker 5: and where it was when he started and where it
Speaker 5: was when he finished. He's been to lambeau Field, He's
Speaker 5: been to Minnesota Stadium, he's been to Soldier Field. So
Speaker 5: he knows the passion inside every building inside this division.
Speaker 5: And sometimes when you bring in coaches from a distance,
Speaker 5: they have to learn that. I think he already knows that,
Speaker 5: and I think that's really important. Uh, a really stage
Speaker 5: of his you know, the newness of him being the
Speaker 5: head coach, that he doesn't have to learn because he's
Speaker 5: already witnessed it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, he's I mean, think about how far ahead he is.
Speaker 7: He knows how to game plan Minnesota. He knows how
Speaker 7: to game plan the Packers. That's why he gave that
Speaker 7: that little you know, jab At coach Lafort And he
Speaker 7: knows how to call plays against the Lives. He called
Speaker 7: him every single day in training camp. So he knows
Speaker 7: the personnel. He knows what this division is all about. Uh,
Speaker 7: he knows the players, he knows the coaches. So it
Speaker 7: should feel comfortable. And like we always say, what's your
Speaker 7: best chance to get to the postseason, You got to
Speaker 7: win your division. He knows the division.
Speaker 2: You know what's interesting about that?
Speaker 3: There were some writers nationally and and maybe even locally
Speaker 3: about Ben Johnson.
Speaker 2: Oh, you know, maybe he won't want to coach in
Speaker 2: the division.
Speaker 7: I didn't think. I mean why, I think at the
Speaker 7: point totals, look at the point total.
Speaker 2: Wait.
Speaker 3: But as a competitor like that sticks out to me
Speaker 3: like he is taking it head on.
Speaker 7: Well, yeah, I think that's that's great because he knows
Speaker 7: the division. But all I'm saying is to last, you know,
Speaker 7: to last. Look at say divisions like the NFC South
Speaker 7: that they've got, that division has gone from worse to first.
Speaker 7: Every single team's done it, you know. So a lot
Speaker 7: of people are thinking that about the AFC South, the Colts,
Speaker 7: the Tennessee and look at Jacksonville Houston obviously we know
Speaker 7: is ascended, but that's not a very competitive division. And
Speaker 7: if I would to bring this style of play down
Speaker 7: to that division, I could take that division too.
Speaker 3: I just love the competitiveness I do. I think, don't
Speaker 3: you think, as players, don't you appreciate that?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Well, you know, I look at some of the pieces.
Speaker 5: You know, when you look at Ben Johnson coming from Detroit,
Speaker 5: they have a thirty six year old quarterback.
Speaker 6: You still have Orton Love in.
Speaker 5: Green Bay, and you have uncertainty in Minnesota, and then
Speaker 5: you have a big sample size to look at what's
Speaker 5: offered to you in Caleb Williams, So I think rather
Speaker 5: than moving to a different division, if you're talking about
Speaker 5: points being scored, he was a leading He was the
Speaker 5: leader of one of the leading scoring offenses in the league.
Speaker 5: So he has to believe that he can take what
Speaker 5: he offers a team and it can transcend to Chicago
Speaker 5: as well as it developed in Detroit, YEP.
Speaker 3: Over each of the last three seasons, coordinating Detroit's offense
Speaker 3: top five in total offense each season. Number two and
Speaker 3: twenty four had a four thousand yard quarterback in each season,
Speaker 3: and of course that's been an elusive goal for the
Speaker 3: Bears in the passing department, and the last two seasons,
Speaker 3: no unit has averaged more points per game thirty point
Speaker 3: one or netyards per game four to two point two.
Speaker 3: Different skills understand, a different team understood. But I'm certainly
Speaker 3: exc it, as is every Bears fan out there. Fellas,
Speaker 3: we're going to take another break and we come back.
Speaker 3: We'll hear from the quarterback a portion of my interview
Speaker 3: Kayleb Williams. It's all coming up here on Bears Weekly
Speaker 3: on ESPN one thousand, and the Bears Radio Network.
Speaker 1: Is Bears Weekly with the Voice of the Bears for
Speaker 1: twenty four years, Chef Jney at.
Speaker 3: Chef on the Bears Radio Network, Tamnu or gently used
Speaker 3: coat land around We'll head of your local chewelasco until
Speaker 3: February tenth and donate one of your new or gently
Speaker 3: used coach to the thirty sixth annual Chicago Bears Coach
Speaker 3: Drive and help keep Chicagoan's warm this winter. Jeff and
Speaker 3: Tom and Jim Miller from Serious XMNFL Radio here on
Speaker 3: Bears Weekly. Opportunity to visit with Caleb Williams, one of
Speaker 3: the four teammates that arrived at hallis haf to be
Speaker 3: there for Ben Johnson, Cole Comet romadoon z a DJ
Speaker 3: Moore as well. Caleb looked good, refreshed, energized and did
Speaker 3: his homework a bit. Diving into some friendships at the
Speaker 3: Detroit Lions to learn more about Ben Johnson.
Speaker 9: I have friends over there at Detroit Amorah, and you
Speaker 9: know a couple other guys, and you know, we we
Speaker 9: obviously get to see what he does and what he
Speaker 9: you know, how he calls things and how he has
Speaker 9: the offense running and and and moving and things like that,
Speaker 9: and playing in this in this sport, you do understand
Speaker 9: that teams don't function that way. Offenses don't function that
Speaker 9: way without a guy, you know, like like Ben and
Speaker 9: so you know, and and what I mean by that is,
Speaker 9: you know, they weren't being penalized. They weren't and they
Speaker 9: weren't doing stupid things that that ended up hurting them.
Speaker 9: And so being able to have the control over, uh,
Speaker 9: the offense and being able to go out there and
Speaker 9: have those guys execute crazy things that uh, people like
Speaker 9: Tom Brady haven't even seen, which you know, tossing it
Speaker 9: to the running back and the running back pitching it
Speaker 9: to Amorah and then you know, he gets a bunch
Speaker 9: of yards and almost scores. And so obviously you have
Speaker 9: to cover all the basics. Obviously, you know, it takes time. Obviously,
Speaker 9: we got to be accountable to each other and.
Speaker 6: And all these different things.
Speaker 9: And I think he'll bring that and and so that
Speaker 9: brings a bunch of excitement and not just talking about
Speaker 9: on the football field, but been able to you know,
Speaker 9: turn this thing around.
Speaker 2: And and he.
Speaker 9: Hasn't been a part of a team at least the
Speaker 9: past six years where they were obviously Detroit. These past
Speaker 9: couple of years have been booming and they've been doing
Speaker 9: their thing over there, and you know, to to you know,
Speaker 9: to his first time actually being there, they actually weren't
Speaker 9: that you know that good. So being able to build it,
Speaker 9: being able to grow, uh him being able to see
Speaker 9: it and watch it and understand uh what it takes is,
Speaker 9: you know, is also where the excitement comes from.
Speaker 3: You are not very subtled about your interest in playing
Speaker 3: for Ben wall On that that podcast that you have
Speaker 3: mentioned with the Saint Brown's what so what makes him stand.
Speaker 2: Out to him?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 9: Obviously as a as a QB, been able to watch somebody,
Speaker 9: somebody like Jared Golf go out there and execute and
Speaker 9: and and play out of this world, you know that
Speaker 9: that brings excitement to to myself because I want to
Speaker 9: be able to go out there and uh light the
Speaker 9: world on fire. And you know, I think I think
Speaker 9: he's gonna help me with that. And I think, you know,
Speaker 9: the growth between him and I, uh through these years
Speaker 9: that you know we're we're both gonna be here for
Speaker 9: a while, you know, brings a complete different kind of
Speaker 9: excitement than I had last year.
Speaker 2: How do you think you and Ben will mesh schematically?
Speaker 2: What about person.
Speaker 9: Yeah, personally, we've we've met, we've talked on the phone.
Speaker 9: Now I think he kind of fits me. He has
Speaker 9: he's he's got a.
Speaker 2: Fire to him.
Speaker 9: He has, uh, you know, like you said before we
Speaker 9: got on this, he's he's a competitor and uh. Being
Speaker 9: able to have that that that same kind of juice
Speaker 9: and and competitiveness is exciting. And I think we'll mesh well,
Speaker 9: you know, I think he's gonna bring the coach part
Speaker 9: to it and hold me accountable because that's what needed,
Speaker 9: that's what's needed, you know, from from us too. And
Speaker 9: and he told me, uh, he told me to do
Speaker 9: the same, is be accountable to him and and and
Speaker 9: hold him accountable. And so I think, you know, you
Speaker 9: have two guys like that holding each other accountable at
Speaker 9: the you know, at the helm of at the helm
Speaker 9: of it. I think I think it brings all of
Speaker 9: that and and and and you know everything more down
Speaker 9: to the rest of the team and and and being
Speaker 9: able to help lead those guys, be accountable to myself
Speaker 9: but also you know the rest of the team and guys.
Speaker 3: Ryan Poles also we'll hear from him as well, but
Speaker 3: alluded to the fact that, yeah, the challenge Caleb will
Speaker 3: be challenging, do the little things the right way. They
Speaker 3: got to get the foundation down, figure it out. They're
Speaker 3: gonna spend a ton of time together Tom and Jim.
Speaker 3: Let's let's start with Tommy about your reactions on on
Speaker 3: what he had to say there and and how this
Speaker 3: thing is gonna grow because to me, at at a
Speaker 3: bare minimum, stability now is what he needs more than anything.
Speaker 5: I'm glad it's not a phone call field of unrealistic promises.
Speaker 5: I'm glad it's an introduction, introductory phone call where they
Speaker 5: get to know a little bit about each other and Caleb,
Speaker 5: you know, kind of talks about what he wants and
Speaker 5: Ben Johnson talks about what he needs and if both
Speaker 5: of those guys meet in the middle, I think Caleb
Speaker 5: is capable of some remarkable quarterback play in the NFL,
Speaker 5: but it's going to be about a work commitment. Again,
Speaker 5: we hear that word accountability, and now we're hearing it
Speaker 5: to the.
Speaker 6: Point where everybody's using it.
Speaker 5: And if that comes to fruition that everybody is accountable
Speaker 5: for their own position through the learning process to what
Speaker 5: Ben Johnson expects out of him. Then, like Ben Johnson said,
Speaker 5: we want to win now, and I think Caleb is
Speaker 5: capable of that. And I think Ben Johnson is the
Speaker 5: type of guy that he has the accountability from the
Speaker 5: players that he needs the most.
Speaker 7: That is all possible, and I just think for Caleb,
Speaker 7: but obviously this is important. This relationship has to be
Speaker 7: right with you know, look what just happened this past
Speaker 7: year when you're firing an offense coordinator after nine weeks,
Speaker 7: so it's time to get to work. You know, there's
Speaker 7: no doubt about it. There's like no time to waste
Speaker 7: for the offseason. The OTAs the meeting, time, the install
Speaker 7: the attention to detail and as time would say, Tom
Speaker 7: would say, and Tom knows it's assignment and alignment. Know
Speaker 7: those two and then you execute your assignment. So alignment
Speaker 7: and assignment you have to know everything for both.
Speaker 3: How about fundamentals and technique? It sounds like they're going
Speaker 3: to start from scratch.
Speaker 7: And they should. You know, whether you know, if he
Speaker 7: wants things to be read, whether it's short to deep
Speaker 7: or deep to short. You know, there's nuances with every
Speaker 7: pass play where maybe, yeah, this is how we're going
Speaker 7: to read it, but this look, here's a different variation
Speaker 7: how we're going to attack this coverage. And so that
Speaker 7: attention to detail, and you know, you got to go
Speaker 7: keep on going over these things because it's not just
Speaker 7: the quarterback. Everybody else has to has to learn it too,
Speaker 7: and everybody's got to be on the same page. So
Speaker 7: it's time to get to work.
Speaker 5: Listen, man, fundamental and technique is something that's gonna be
Speaker 5: taught and brought to practice every single day, no matter
Speaker 5: how long you guys are around, you're in the same system.
Speaker 5: And again, the group of offensive linemen that I played
Speaker 5: with for seven years, every single first practice, Dick Stanfeld
Speaker 5: started with the huddle, to your stance, to your balance,
Speaker 5: to your footwork. So that's something that's never gonna go away,
Speaker 5: and they're always going to try to improve that about
Speaker 5: every player.
Speaker 3: You know, playbooks are huge these days. I don't know
Speaker 3: how complicated and deep that playbook is. For Ben Johnson,
Speaker 3: I certainly know he's creative. He's he's a guy that's
Speaker 3: got a great mind to come up with plays and
Speaker 3: so forth. But in terms of style, if you had
Speaker 3: to guess, Jim, what will the Bear style look like
Speaker 3: based on what you've learned about Caleb, about Rome, about
Speaker 3: DJ about Cole, about DeAndre Swift And while you'll get
Speaker 3: up front.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think they've got the horses to do well,
Speaker 7: but you need some guys in the trenches.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 7: Teams look at it differently. You look at say, look
Speaker 7: at San Francisco. They pay their skilled position players, receivers.
Speaker 7: They're gonna pay Purdy, they paid McCaffrey, they paid Au,
Speaker 7: they paid Deebo Samuel. The only old lineman that's getting
Speaker 7: paid is Trent Williams. So it's the guys with the
Speaker 7: ball in their hands where they want their focus on.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 7: Teams like Detroit Philly they have great offensive lines, right,
Speaker 7: they believe in all those and then Detroit is drafted
Speaker 7: all those others, the Gibbs of the world, the Jamison
Speaker 7: Williams of the world, where they can now develop those
Speaker 7: young players that have explosive ability. So it's just on
Speaker 7: how you look at it. But I would think the
Speaker 7: Bears need to get those assets into the offensive line.
Speaker 5: You know, Jim, Jeff, Jim and I are old enough
Speaker 5: in our career that we actually carried a playbook. And
Speaker 5: when you talk about a binder, a playbook and it's
Speaker 5: four or five hundred pages deep, and you would get
Speaker 5: in the meetings and you're installing different information or a
Speaker 5: training camp and they say, okay, go to page three
Speaker 5: hundred and sixty five, we're going to install strong right
Speaker 5: east protection against every defense. Nowadays, it's kind of deceiving
Speaker 5: because these guys show up with the tablet and they're
Speaker 5: all the same size, and they're all the same thickness,
Speaker 5: and so there is no carrying around this ten pound
Speaker 5: book of plays and defenses, formations, you know, all the
Speaker 5: other different elements that are in installation. So it would
Speaker 5: be funny if these guys showed up to training camp
Speaker 5: and Ben Johnson did deliver them a binder old school
Speaker 5: playbook and said, I want you to carry this to
Speaker 5: every meeting every day to practice, and then when we're done,
Speaker 5: at the end of training camp, we'll collect them.
Speaker 2: But right now, this is what you bring.
Speaker 5: It is a different style of football from tablet gosh.
Speaker 3: I wonder if Jim's been almost every training camp. I
Speaker 3: wonder if any coach does that now or is it
Speaker 3: just all tablets.
Speaker 7: They'll have certain handouts and things like that that they're
Speaker 7: gonna throw up on a on an overhead that they'll
Speaker 7: just have handy that maybe they'll distribute to add But yeah,
Speaker 7: I mean, I'm all for it. I liked having that playbook.
Speaker 7: I like to see it in front of me, right there.
Speaker 7: To me, it wasn't inconvenient at all, and it just
Speaker 7: shows you everything. Not that you can't do it on
Speaker 7: an iPad. But like Tom said, kind of just more
Speaker 7: old school. I've got every playbook that I've ever had state,
Speaker 7: I've got every profession. I've got the Bears play from
Speaker 7: back in the playbook.
Speaker 2: I've got it.
Speaker 7: I've got Wow, it's in my closet.
Speaker 2: Wow, look at you. I'm calling you the professor.
Speaker 5: Once they handed you that playbook at training camp. When
Speaker 5: you have the luxury of being gifted a playbook, you
Speaker 5: never let it out of your sight.
Speaker 6: You ever forgot it. You never you knew where it
Speaker 6: was at all times.
Speaker 5: It was something that you basically had a guard as
Speaker 5: much as your bank book or passport.
Speaker 2: That's how you have any to you? Yes, do you
Speaker 2: have any? You do?
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm coming over. I want to read through those. Hey, oh, Jim,
Speaker 3: I forgot. This is not meant how many teams you
Speaker 3: play for. So you got all those playbooks.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I've got New England's, I've got Tampa's, I've got
Speaker 7: two of John Gruden's, I've got Jacksonville's, I've got the Giants,
Speaker 7: I've got the Bears, obviously got Detroit, got New England.
Speaker 2: So yeah, you can crack me up.
Speaker 3: All right, Well, it's a wing of a house right
Speaker 3: there for Jim Miller. All right, we're gonna take a break.
Speaker 2: We come back.
Speaker 3: We'll hear from Kevin Warren, the Bears President and CEO.
Speaker 3: Here on Bears Weekly on ESPN one thousand of the
Speaker 3: Bears Radio Network.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Bears Weekly, the Bears Wingdio Network. Here's
Speaker 1: your host, the voice of the Bears show.
Speaker 3: This segment of Bears Weekly he brought to you by
Speaker 3: people to get it, Jeff, Jonny k, Tim there and
Speaker 3: Jim Miller from Serrious XM NFL Radio joining us todight
Speaker 3: as we break down the hiring of Ben Johnson.
Speaker 2: Bears President and CEO.
Speaker 3: Kevin Warrent always optimistic and forward thinking on how this
Speaker 3: process worked.
Speaker 4: It was a perfect process. I mean I enjoyed it.
Speaker 4: I think Ryan was very clear when we started this
Speaker 4: journey that wide net would be cast, which it was.
Speaker 4: We would talk to many candidates, and one thing about
Speaker 4: this interview process. You learned so much not only about
Speaker 4: the candidate, but about other coaches, their thought process, other
Speaker 4: people you know, in the industry. And so I thought
Speaker 4: it was a first class process and Ryan should be commended.
Speaker 4: And I'm grateful to George and the entire McCaskey family
Speaker 4: for their support. We want to win, and we want
Speaker 4: to win now. One beautiful thing about the mosaic that
Speaker 4: the National Football League exhibits every single day, This is
Speaker 4: all woven into one beautiful tapestry, and so it's not
Speaker 4: hard to be able to talk with people and get
Speaker 4: a sense about what the man is. Ben. His his
Speaker 4: priorities are his faith, his family, his football, Chicago Bears,
Speaker 4: and as you can see today, uh he's proven in
Speaker 4: his work product, the way he handles his business that
Speaker 4: this is going to be a very special journey as
Speaker 4: we go forward. We didn't need to hire five head coaches.
Speaker 4: We need to hire one and and and Ben is
Speaker 4: one of one. You know, he talks about Dan Campbell
Speaker 4: being a unicorn. He's a unicorn. I mean you just
Speaker 4: look back his his whole career. But also the beautiful
Speaker 4: thing about him is that it hasn't been a smooth road.
Speaker 4: I mean he's gone through different, you know issues to
Speaker 4: go on and walk on in North Carolina and then
Speaker 4: get fired in Miami and then take a quality control
Speaker 4: job and Detroit. His work his way way up and
Speaker 4: so uh. He he has grit, he's smart, he's hard working,
Speaker 4: he's innovative. Uh, he's curious. Uh, he's demanding and uh.
Speaker 4: And then now we need to surround a great staff
Speaker 4: with him. We need to make sure our players are
Speaker 4: surrounded with accountability but given the resources that they need
Speaker 4: to win. And then the thing that I really like
Speaker 4: that I see developing is that relationship between Ryan and Ben,
Speaker 4: because that's where it's one. Is that general manager and
Speaker 4: that head coach need to be lockstep. Ben talked about it,
Speaker 4: and I still feel the same way I felt about Ryan.
Speaker 4: A lot of other people say that my mind has changed,
Speaker 4: has never changed. I have great respect and admiration for Ryan,
Speaker 4: obviously for Ben. I'm thankful to George and his family.
Speaker 4: You can tell that we're all alpha individuals, type A
Speaker 4: individuals We're excited about going to work, and every year
Speaker 4: stands on itself. You've seen it this year. There are
Speaker 4: teams in the playoffs who weren't in the playoffs last year.
Speaker 4: And what we have to do now is come together,
Speaker 4: work hard, keep each other accountable, and make sure that
Speaker 4: we honor the tradition of the Chicago Bears.
Speaker 2: Now that wasn't the answer to one question.
Speaker 3: That was a long interview, but I took some of
Speaker 3: the highlights out for purposes of our time constraints here
Speaker 3: on the show. But it just he feels, I believe
Speaker 3: very strongly about that. I just the buildings empowered and
Speaker 3: they feel that they are better than what they showed.
Speaker 3: They just got to they got to just hit some
Speaker 3: key points here to finish and learn how to win.
Speaker 3: And I'll say this, I just saw this a moment ago.
Speaker 3: The last Lions coordinator to leave Detroit for a head
Speaker 3: coaching job, before Ben Johnson and of course now Aaron, Glenn,
Speaker 3: Tommy and Jim to the Jets, was none other than
Speaker 3: Don Shula. He left in nineteen sixty three for the
Speaker 3: Baltimore Colts become the head coach there after being the
Speaker 3: Lions defensive coordinator for a couple of years, so Tommy's
Speaker 3: old Miami coach for one year. You know what, would
Speaker 3: that be amazing if the success reached that level.
Speaker 5: I find it as amazing in modern day football, going
Speaker 5: from quality control to the head coach of the Chicago
Speaker 5: Bears in a short amount of time after you got fired.
Speaker 6: From another NFL team.
Speaker 2: And one thing about.
Speaker 5: Kevin, He's got a lot of examples of experience throughout
Speaker 5: his football career, both in the college level and in
Speaker 5: the NFL. He's been in the division more than one
Speaker 5: So you had a lot of minds that were working
Speaker 5: together to come to the conclusion that this is the
Speaker 5: best possible decision they can make.
Speaker 6: They made the decision. Now it's about looking forward and winning.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I totally agree with that. It's about looking forward winning.
Speaker 7: How quickly can you get installed? Like you said, how
Speaker 7: quickly did iberflus get the hit system up and running?
Speaker 7: But like you said, the offense was still lagging. So
Speaker 7: that same type of priority detail, like I said, assignment alignment,
Speaker 7: that has to be done very seriously, and the player's
Speaker 7: got to be very dedicated to what you know the
Speaker 7: coach is trying to install. If they want a high
Speaker 7: flying offense, the attention to detail, everybody's got to be
Speaker 7: all in.
Speaker 2: One of the funny stories.
Speaker 3: It's on Fox and Cassie Carlson did a story this
Speaker 3: because Kevin Warren brought it up at dinner last week
Speaker 3: in Lincoln Park. He was there with his wife Greta,
Speaker 3: and somebody sent him a note, please hire Ben Johnson
Speaker 3: and they found the people. So it's a great fun story.
Speaker 3: That is, you know, just Chicago style, right to the core.
Speaker 3: So that was a pretty cool story and check that out.
Speaker 3: Casting did a nice job with that, and these two
Speaker 3: folks are getting a lot of attention because of it.
Speaker 3: And they already have T shirts with the note. How
Speaker 3: about that it doesn't take long to get a T
Speaker 3: shirt Tommy. So Rhianne Braun and Chris Stein they saw
Speaker 3: they bought a drink for Kevin and his wife and
Speaker 3: send him that message.
Speaker 2: So a good story.
Speaker 5: Indeed, Hey, like I said, come to the grocery store
Speaker 5: with me and you'll meet the same type of people
Speaker 5: that are wishing for the success of the Bears. And
Speaker 5: they go there every day and that's what they want
Speaker 5: as well.
Speaker 2: That's pure Chicago right there to the core. All right
Speaker 2: when we come back.
Speaker 3: Our final segment, we'll here from Ryan Pouls here on
Speaker 3: Bears Weekly and ESPN one thousand of the Bears Radio Network.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Bears Weekly on the Bears Radio Network.
Speaker 1: Here's your host, the Voice of the Bears, Jeff Junia.
Speaker 3: This segment of Bears Weekly is brought to you by
Speaker 3: Athletical Physical Therapy. Visit Athletical dot com the request at
Speaker 3: in clinic or virtual the appointment.
Speaker 2: It's start feeling better tomorrow.
Speaker 3: Our final segment, General Manager Ryan Poles, and this is
Speaker 3: from Bear's chairman George McCaskey said, Hey, go get him.
Speaker 3: I loved the process, thought it was a great process
Speaker 3: and a great result. Here's Ryan on some of the
Speaker 3: high points of finding out about Ben Johnson, another Boston
Speaker 3: College coach, a grad assistant back of the day.
Speaker 2: It's kind of crazy.
Speaker 10: There's a lot of crossover with people that were really
Speaker 10: close to Actually even found out that he actually worked
Speaker 10: in the small little cubicle that I did when I
Speaker 10: was at Boston College just a year after, which is
Speaker 10: crazy to think about. But yeah, a lot of a
Speaker 10: lot of our friends, a lot of people that we trust,
Speaker 10: connect both of us and then when we got on
Speaker 10: the call and spent time with it with each other, there's.
Speaker 4: Just a vibe to it that was awesome, right, and
Speaker 4: you were passing a wide net.
Speaker 2: But was was Ben always kind of a top candidate
Speaker 2: for you?
Speaker 11: Yeah, someone that I admired obviously, Like I said, we
Speaker 11: did a lot of research.
Speaker 2: There's Matt Feinstein in.
Speaker 11: Our group, put some data together that he's done some
Speaker 11: things that are like special in terms of getting the
Speaker 11: offense to operate at at a high, high level, and
Speaker 11: that stood out.
Speaker 2: So he was always, you know, the top candidate. But
Speaker 2: you never know.
Speaker 11: It's like the draft, you know, you never know.
Speaker 2: How it's gonna fall. Uh, So you have to be prepared.
Speaker 4: And that's the reason why we did what we did
Speaker 4: on the Zoom call with Ben. What were the things
Speaker 4: that you heard from him that that really sold you
Speaker 4: that your belief in him was.
Speaker 11: Was just like yeah, just a clear vision in terms
Speaker 11: of how to put a winning football team together. Really
Speaker 11: hit on a lot of the accountability, discipline, how we're
Speaker 11: gonna work to get to where we need to get to.
Speaker 11: Some of the things that I think, I know we
Speaker 11: fell short on this past year. I'm confident he's going
Speaker 11: to address those things pretty quickly. And then when you
Speaker 11: add you know, the draft capital, the space that we have,
Speaker 11: you know, the cap, we can do some damage to
Speaker 11: give this team wordy.
Speaker 3: Speaking, all right, So yes, they do. They are poised.
Speaker 3: They're poison to make some more noise. I said that
Speaker 3: last season and the off season. They're poised to make
Speaker 3: some more noise. Tom and Jim.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know the one thing about it, I bet
Speaker 5: you there's a lot of questions that Ryan knew that
Speaker 5: he already knew the answer to before he ever asked it,
Speaker 5: and he just got the He just reconfirmed that it's
Speaker 5: the right decision in his head throughout the process of
Speaker 5: the interview.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think, you know what, it's got to be
Speaker 7: all encompassing. I think they see the growth of a
Speaker 7: young coach and I think you kind of alluded to it, Jeff,
Speaker 7: is where can it grow to? You know, it's all
Speaker 7: got to start somewhere, and he's worked his way to
Speaker 7: this point and now has this this opportunity and look
Speaker 7: at how Dan Campbell has grown. Think about when Dan
Speaker 7: Campbell took over play calling before Ben Johnson, before he
Speaker 7: elected to put Ben Johnson as the OC. Dan Campbell
Speaker 7: said he had to figure it out. He said, I
Speaker 7: was going home at night thinking about I screwed up
Speaker 7: this call. I screwed up this call, and you got
Speaker 7: to figure it out. And I think a lot of
Speaker 7: that's going to be happening to Ben Johnson much like
Speaker 7: it happened to Dan Campbell. But he's got a good
Speaker 7: example of how Dan was able to maintain it all
Speaker 7: and learn along the way.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: Congratulations to Ryan, to George, to Kevin Warren, Jeff King
Speaker 3: from Football Operations, Ted Cruz, the Special Advisor to the
Speaker 3: President and CEO and Chief Administrative Officer Matt Feinstein, and
Speaker 3: also Liz Geist on that committee that helped get the
Speaker 3: next head coach of the Chicago Bears. That's going to
Speaker 3: wrap us up for tonight's show special. Thanks to our
Speaker 3: producers and all of you for listening tonight for Tom Fair.
Speaker 3: I'm Jeff Jonahak and Jim Miller Bears Weekly on the
Speaker 3: new radio home of the Chicago Bears here on ESPN
Speaker 3: Chicago are rapt tonight. Black and Abdonna are coming up next.
Speaker 3: Good night, everybody,