Speaker 1: The following is a presentation of the Chicago Bears Network
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Speaker 1: day and now welcome to Bears All Access, your all
Speaker 1: access passing to Chicago Bears football. Bears All Access is
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Speaker 1: Physical Therapy and Art Van Furniture and Mattress. I like it.
Speaker 1: I like it. No some books from Luke Capitol here
Speaker 1: at Nancy Studios at Hattisa And welcome into another edition
Speaker 1: of Bears All Access brought to you by IGS Energy
Speaker 1: with Tom Thare. I'm Jeff Joniac, the rookie Tight and
Speaker 1: Jasper Horse that will be kind enough to join us
Speaker 1: coming up in the program. And I like the feistiness
Speaker 1: of this crowd. It's small but mighty right first time
Speaker 1: you ever interviewed at Jasper, I have to think so,
Speaker 1: I just I'll had a chance say hi to him
Speaker 1: out in the hall and I said, when you come
Speaker 1: in here, I want you to give a lot of
Speaker 1: long Princeton answers. Well, we might get that he's well
Speaker 1: spoken man, that's for sure. And getting an opportunity of
Speaker 1: a lifetime as a rookie and being a prominent fixture
Speaker 1: right now in this final month of the season, and
Speaker 1: it's hard not to look at the whole picture and
Speaker 1: maintain your enthusiasm because you do, no matter what the
Speaker 1: cliches say, have to take it one day at a time.
Speaker 1: And it's not sexy. It doesn't mean a whole lot,
Speaker 1: but it does for this twenty nineteen Chicago Bears team
Speaker 1: that was very happy that the Vikings lost last night.
Speaker 1: That certainly helps a little bit, you know, But a
Speaker 1: guy like Jasper, his enthusiasm is important because he's, you know,
Speaker 1: gain momentum throughout the season. He came here unexpectedly making
Speaker 1: the Bears and then got transferred from the practice squad
Speaker 1: to the active roster and then was able to come
Speaker 1: in and make a touchdown catch on a difficult, difficult
Speaker 1: catch a play design where he was the third receiver.
Speaker 1: And I think when you get a chance to get
Speaker 1: a Keem Hicks back in the mix out there on
Speaker 1: the practice field, and you kind of see a little,
Speaker 1: you know, just a lighten the distance because when he
Speaker 1: gets inserted into the active lineup and stuff. So there
Speaker 1: are elements right now that are really exciting to the
Speaker 1: Bears going through these final four games. And you talk
Speaker 1: about two teams with an arrow pointed up and a
Speaker 1: arrow pointed down at both having the same record at
Speaker 1: six and six. There's a lot of positive things to
Speaker 1: build on with the Bears right now, and you've got
Speaker 1: to capitalize the momentum because I think it's really important
Speaker 1: to take that element and keep building with it and
Speaker 1: from it. And you have to. And you know, Matt
Speaker 1: Nagie today said he definitely learned a lot about what
Speaker 1: he has during the four game losing streak because it
Speaker 1: could have done in any number of ways. He said
Speaker 1: it wouldn't and he was right in the end. Again,
Speaker 1: a lot of things he says turn out to be true.
Speaker 1: It just takes some time to get there sometimes, and
Speaker 1: I think that's a message that locker room takes to
Speaker 1: heart a little bit. Kilil Mac was very very positive today,
Speaker 1: very excited about what this is. He goes, it's almost like,
Speaker 1: in a sense, you're trying to do the impossible and
Speaker 1: that's where the competitive juices flow. And as long as
Speaker 1: you got one of the guys that lead the way
Speaker 1: saying that you're in a good place in terms of
Speaker 1: mentally going into that game against the Cowboys. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's always great to have a depositive attitude
Speaker 1: to Klil Mac. But I think it's even a bigger
Speaker 1: example when those guys go into the meeting rooms and
Speaker 1: they see what he does on tape. And it's not
Speaker 1: only Klil Mack the pass rusher, it's Khalil Mack the
Speaker 1: football player. And when you look at some of the
Speaker 1: dirty work that he's willing to do, it sets an
Speaker 1: example for some of these other guys that need that
Speaker 1: example set before him to see how hard you have
Speaker 1: to work in order to ultimately achieved the success that
Speaker 1: Khalil has. And he's going to going down the road.
Speaker 1: But I also think another important element of success in
Speaker 1: the locker room is the building blocks that Mitch has
Speaker 1: been displaying in the last three or four weeks. He's
Speaker 1: shown the improvement that we've all wanted to see. He's
Speaker 1: getting other plays actively involved in the mix. While he's
Speaker 1: losing players and Trey Burton, Adam Sheheen, he's adding players
Speaker 1: like Anthony Miller, Javon Wimms, and Jessper Horstad who will
Speaker 1: hear from so I think all those elements and how
Speaker 1: they fit in with each other to keep that atmosphere
Speaker 1: in the positive direction. Matt Naggie has always seen it,
Speaker 1: even though they went through that little bit of a slide.
Speaker 1: This is Bears All Access. It's brought to you by
Speaker 1: Igs Energy, Jeff Jonik and Tom there with you. We
Speaker 1: got a four o'clock pregame and a seven twenty two
Speaker 1: kickoff between the Bears and Cowboys on Thursday night. So
Speaker 1: that Cowboys team has been going in the opposite direction,
Speaker 1: not just three of the last four, but six of
Speaker 1: the last nine games that they've lost. Despite that fact,
Speaker 1: they have the number one yardage offense in the league.
Speaker 1: I don't care as much about that. I care about points,
Speaker 1: but they can score points when they're humming. They're getting
Speaker 1: over thirty points a game. They've got the number one
Speaker 1: third down offense in football, they've got the number three
Speaker 1: third down defense in football, and they've got weapons on
Speaker 1: both sides of the ball that you got to account for.
Speaker 1: But for some reason, the mystery isn't working right. They've struggled,
Speaker 1: and now you get the almost on que response from
Speaker 1: the locker room that we're angry, and the whole week talking.
Speaker 1: Now Michael Bennett, one of their new additions, he's speaking up.
Speaker 1: You've got players saying, you know enough of the talk
Speaker 1: and everything that is predictable for a team that frankly
Speaker 1: is still in first place in the NFC East. Well,
Speaker 1: you know what, I don't need to hear anything out
Speaker 1: of Michael Bennett. I'm not going to have a guy
Speaker 1: that's been around the team for two and a half
Speaker 1: week and start giving speeches of inspiration to guys like
Speaker 1: Jason Witton who have been there for fifteen or seventeen years.
Speaker 1: The most destructive message that's filtering in the locker room
Speaker 1: of the Dallas Cowboys is coming from Jerry Jones, because
Speaker 1: I think when you are the general manager, you're the
Speaker 1: tone setter for that team. You're the guy that's out
Speaker 1: in front of all these radio and TV interviews, and
Speaker 1: you're not giving your coach a vote of confidence. That's
Speaker 1: super destructive to the locker room because who is evaluating
Speaker 1: me to tell me that I'm going to have my
Speaker 1: job here next year? If you're a position coach and
Speaker 1: you're gonna be gone with the head coach, and it's
Speaker 1: not guarantee that he's going to be gone. But they're
Speaker 1: setting that message, they're setting that tone that the possibility
Speaker 1: of him being gone now it really changes. It backfires
Speaker 1: in a sense, Yeah, backfires because, Okay, if this head
Speaker 1: coach is going to be gone, I want to make
Speaker 1: sure by the time the season's over, I'm healthy and
Speaker 1: ready to compete in front of my new coach. You know, now,
Speaker 1: do you sit out there and you give you put
Speaker 1: your say, you put yourself in the same position during
Speaker 1: the course of the game that you need to. But
Speaker 1: you're in first place, I know, But you're a You're
Speaker 1: in a crappy division right now. You know. You look
Speaker 1: at Washington, you look at Philly getting beat by the
Speaker 1: you know, the Dolphins last week. So yeah, but in
Speaker 1: the in the big picture, if they win the division
Speaker 1: with an eight and eight record, it doesn't matter, You're
Speaker 1: going to the playoffs. But when I'm saying here, though
Speaker 1: it doesn't, it doesn't feel like that. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, there there are things and elements about that
Speaker 1: game that the Bears better be ready for. One, they
Speaker 1: do have a very aggressive front seven and Jalen Smith
Speaker 1: is playing some really good football middle linebacker. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: have one of the most aggressive front fronts in all
Speaker 1: of defense. They can confuse you. They can overwhelm you
Speaker 1: with speed. They can put more bodies in one area
Speaker 1: that you have the capabilities of blocking. But on the
Speaker 1: same point, sometimes they can use that to their detriment.
Speaker 1: They can be pass rushers and not run stoppers. They
Speaker 1: can run by the running back while he has the
Speaker 1: ball in his hands and he's up to the second
Speaker 1: the last four quarterbacks they played Daniel Jones, Jeff Driscoll,
Speaker 1: who the who. The Bears have played both of these guys,
Speaker 1: and then last week Josh Allen all ran for some
Speaker 1: pretty good yards up against that rush. So Mitch could
Speaker 1: have opportunities to do that, and he's got to take
Speaker 1: advantage of them. I agree. You know, you watch the
Speaker 1: tape and a lot of these guys they pass rush
Speaker 1: with their head down and if they're you know, you know,
Speaker 1: one body out of position, they're not falling through with
Speaker 1: their assignments. They have man to man coverage and all
Speaker 1: the defensive backs are following wide receivers down the field.
Speaker 1: That would be a great opportunity for Mitchell. Trip Whisky,
Speaker 1: you know, probably getting health of her himself, and you know,
Speaker 1: probably feeling another bright spot with him along the way.
Speaker 1: Is that your phone fifty push ups? That's a findable offense,
Speaker 1: don't you think, folks, Because if it were me, I
Speaker 1: tell you what he'd be calling me out. Was that
Speaker 1: your phone? Well, it's a message and that said, Hey,
Speaker 1: this is coach Naggy just listening to you guys, and
Speaker 1: Jeff is doing a great jobs. That's down there. I'm
Speaker 1: Jeff Joni ac End. This is Bears All Access coming up.
Speaker 1: Rookie tight End jessper Horsted will join the program. You're
Speaker 1: on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy the Street and welcome
Speaker 1: back to Bears All Access brought to you by IGS Energy,
Speaker 1: at proud partner of the Chicago Bears, providing electricity, natural gas,
Speaker 1: and home warranty products to over one million customers across
Speaker 1: the country. Learn more about IGS Energy at igs dot com.
Speaker 1: Jeff Joni k Tomp There hear it before live studio
Speaker 1: audience at PNC Studios at Hollis Hall from Loop Capitol,
Speaker 1: A fiery bunch and ready to go. Is we welcome
Speaker 1: in Rookie ten End Jesper Horse did the rookie had
Speaker 1: a Inston and now a converted receiver playing tight end
Speaker 1: with a catch that is still being talked about. Congratulations
Speaker 1: on your success and the first couple of games active
Speaker 1: on the roster and making this roster. But with that catch,
Speaker 1: there's been I've seen pictures all over the internet. You know,
Speaker 1: it's got to be I don't know if you're looking
Speaker 1: at him, but it's it's heavy stuff for a rookie
Speaker 1: to have that kind of play in just your second
Speaker 1: or third NFL game. Yeah, thank you very much, and
Speaker 1: thank you for having me. Guys. It is it's kind
Speaker 1: of surreal, and the pictures are everywhere, and my friends
Speaker 1: are sending me them and parents are tagging him and
Speaker 1: Facebook and whatnot. But uh, you know, at the same time,
Speaker 1: like that's kind of stuff that I've been doing my career,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's just something I hope that I
Speaker 1: can do. If the ball is as close and as
Speaker 1: good of a pass as that one was right in
Speaker 1: front of my face, I should hope I'd be able
Speaker 1: to come down with that. The interesting thing is one
Speaker 1: rookie beat another Will Harris from Boston College. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: here's just you know, a little little tight end from
Speaker 1: Princeton making the big play. I'm sure that didn't go
Speaker 1: unnoticed by you as well. No, um, yeah it did not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean he was a highly drafted player, and you know,
Speaker 1: you had to work your way to get onto a
Speaker 1: roster and undrafted and made this football team. So it's
Speaker 1: interesting Roseville, Minnesota. Were you a Vikings fan growing up?
Speaker 1: It's okay, I knew the answer, well either, you know, so,
Speaker 1: did you gravitate towards the wide receivers of the Vikings
Speaker 1: as a kid, or did you gravitate towards other position players? No,
Speaker 1: certainly the wide receivers. And I was a little bit
Speaker 1: before the Randy Moss era, but there was like, you know,
Speaker 1: the clips are always there, and I grew up watching those.
Speaker 1: And then I as I was getting older and really
Speaker 1: coming into like being a receiver, Delon was developing as well,
Speaker 1: and that was so cool because he was a hometown guy.
Speaker 1: They grew up pretty close to me, and I was
Speaker 1: able to watch him in that first preseason actually when
Speaker 1: he was fighting for US or spots. So I always
Speaker 1: followed his journey very closely and looked up exact of
Speaker 1: a story. Yeah, za, guys, I mean, did you get
Speaker 1: to know him at all? I never did know. Okay,
Speaker 1: so your touchdown catch, Just to revisit that a second,
Speaker 1: first step off the line scrimmage, did you know you
Speaker 1: won the route because you had perfect position already in
Speaker 1: the safety was kind of taking as he's going, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to respect this guy at all. I'm stepping
Speaker 1: away from him. So from the first step, did you
Speaker 1: know you won the route? I had a good feeling
Speaker 1: about it. I wouldn't say I knew I won the route,
Speaker 1: but I had a head start in the race, right.
Speaker 1: And then when you go back and you look at
Speaker 1: it on film, you see that one outside defender to
Speaker 1: your right. He did a really nice job of both
Speaker 1: taking Cordell Patterson out of his route in being able
Speaker 1: to laterally float out there with tere Cohen. And so
Speaker 1: when you get a better chance to look at it
Speaker 1: on tape after the fact, man, you Mitch did a
Speaker 1: great job of going one two back to back to you. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not the first read on that play.
Speaker 1: It just really worked out the coverage that I had,
Speaker 1: the good leverage and the open window. Are you aware
Speaker 1: of that safety moving out of the place that where
Speaker 1: your route's going to take you? I was I mean,
Speaker 1: in the moment, vaguely aware of it, but for the
Speaker 1: most part I was focused on the guy that was
Speaker 1: just inside me and beating him to the spot. But
Speaker 1: I later, as I watched the film, I was like, oh, wow,
Speaker 1: that really worked out even better than I could have
Speaker 1: asked for. So your route to the tight end position.
Speaker 1: I noticed that when you were being you were going
Speaker 1: to go to the East West Shrine game, they had
Speaker 1: a wide receiver. When did you morph into that the
Speaker 1: body of a tight end? When I showed up here,
Speaker 1: I actually came here thinking I was going to be
Speaker 1: a wide receiver. And the first scout I talked to
Speaker 1: you said, you know, actually like we're going to try
Speaker 1: you at tight end. And I was like, I've never
Speaker 1: put my hand in the ground before it like, are
Speaker 1: you sure? Like am I wasting my time here? And
Speaker 1: then you kind of explained that there, you know, it's
Speaker 1: not your classic tight end that you're thinking of, and
Speaker 1: you know, think more of like Trey Burton. He's about
Speaker 1: your size, and we think that we can put some
Speaker 1: weight on you and you know, teach you how to
Speaker 1: do that stuff and you'd be a good fit. And
Speaker 1: you know, I was very open to it. Kind of
Speaker 1: a similar story to Zach Miller because he was a
Speaker 1: quarterback and then they brought him to a workout and
Speaker 1: they said, getting a stance, We're going to look at
Speaker 1: your tight end. He's never been in a stance before.
Speaker 1: So when you did start getting into it, you know,
Speaker 1: you've seen a three point stance your whole football life. Like,
Speaker 1: did you just get into it and go, oh, this
Speaker 1: is the way it's supposed to feel, or because you know,
Speaker 1: as long as I played football, it seemed like it
Speaker 1: took about three days before you really felt comfortable getting
Speaker 1: in an out of your stance. Yeah, it was not
Speaker 1: something that clicked right away. I definitely took practice and
Speaker 1: some help from the older guys. And even today I
Speaker 1: don't always get in the exact same stance, so they'll
Speaker 1: have to correct me here and there. But I'm way
Speaker 1: more comfortable now than I was with it before. And yeah,
Speaker 1: it is something you see often and you just kind
Speaker 1: of pick up on it. So you were undrafted, so
Speaker 1: you had choices, You had other teams no doubt interested.
Speaker 1: So did you start the question after the fact that
Speaker 1: you know initially because obviously you've played one position your
Speaker 1: whole career, but they thought enough of you that you
Speaker 1: have skill set to fit into a different role. Not
Speaker 1: that unusual in terms of the U tight end position,
Speaker 1: which is a move tight end because of your pass
Speaker 1: catching seals, But did you have to catalog it a
Speaker 1: little bit and think about it. So it wasn't quite
Speaker 1: all went down actually. So I kind of came out
Speaker 1: of college just playing four years of receiver and I
Speaker 1: was on the larger side and I knew that, but
Speaker 1: I still was going for receiver in the NFL. When
Speaker 1: I went to the Shrine game, I was a receiver.
Speaker 1: And I got hurt training for my pro day, and
Speaker 1: got hurt again on my pro day, and so I
Speaker 1: did not get drafted, which you know I was hoping
Speaker 1: for but not expecting, and then I also didn't get signed.
Speaker 1: So I got no calls after the draft, no nothing.
Speaker 1: And so my agent, you know, called up a lot
Speaker 1: of teams and said, well, we have this guy at
Speaker 1: your tryout, and some teams said no, and a couple
Speaker 1: said yes. And so we worked out two teams that
Speaker 1: we thought might be a good fit for me, this
Speaker 1: team in the Saints, and this happened to be the
Speaker 1: first weekend, so I was planning to flight in New
Speaker 1: Orleans the next weekend, and yeah, I mean I kind
Speaker 1: of showed up and they said that, and I was like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I've been marketing myself as a receiver,
Speaker 1: but obviously that didn't work too well. Let's try this.
Speaker 1: Maybe this is a better fit for me at this level.
Speaker 1: And so I went through that, went through the rookie minicamp,
Speaker 1: and actually I think that they hadn't made up their
Speaker 1: mind on me yet, and so I they're like, all right,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Like we don't have a spot for you
Speaker 1: right now. So I packed up my lock here and
Speaker 1: flew home. But then when the plane landed and I
Speaker 1: had a call waiting from coaching Aggie and my agent
Speaker 1: saying they changed their mind. They made a spot for you.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of where the last men in canceled
Speaker 1: that trip to New Orleans and been here since. It
Speaker 1: makes your story even more remarkable. Yeah, a lot of us.
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, when you look at it that way,
Speaker 1: this will be a story that we hope we can
Speaker 1: tell ten years from now after a great career. Jesper
Speaker 1: Horsted our guest year on Bears All Access with Tom
Speaker 1: There I'm Jeff Joniak, and we're brought to you by
Speaker 1: IGS Energy. So in your conference that you played in
Speaker 1: a college, your junior year fourteen touchdowns, ninety two catches,
Speaker 1: twelve hundred and twenty six yards, seventy two catches, your
Speaker 1: senior year thirteen touchdowns, a thousand plus yards. Were you
Speaker 1: a big wide receiver or were you that much better
Speaker 1: than the defensive back talent you were playing against, because
Speaker 1: those are impressive numbers for anybody at any college anytime.
Speaker 1: I definitely was a bigger receiver. I had a size
Speaker 1: advantage against most of the cornerbacks I was going up against.
Speaker 1: I was probably, you know, about the same height six
Speaker 1: three six four two twenty to two twenty five most
Speaker 1: of the time. And so I think that when people
Speaker 1: think of IVY League football, they actually think of it
Speaker 1: as a lot worse than it is, because as I've
Speaker 1: gone up the levels of competition, each time I elevate,
Speaker 1: so that East West game was the first experience of that,
Speaker 1: and then here too, it's all the jump is always
Speaker 1: smaller than I expected, and I think that's a tribute
Speaker 1: to the quality of football it's being played in the
Speaker 1: IVY League. But I mean, yeah, I think I had
Speaker 1: really good quarterbacks, both of which are in the NFL
Speaker 1: right now, and really good, you know, surrounding teammates as well,
Speaker 1: whether it's the receivers an alignment. So going back one
Speaker 1: more time to do a high school playoff game, he
Speaker 1: had nineteen catches for two hundred and ninety three yards.
Speaker 1: Now that number one was anybody covering you? And number two,
Speaker 1: did you have an offense that exposed great receivers to
Speaker 1: this style football? Because when I think of Minnesota, I
Speaker 1: think of more of you know, the time, the weather
Speaker 1: conditions and everything you're playing up there. Just back to
Speaker 1: your high school roots. Was at us? You know, did
Speaker 1: you throw it more often than run it? We did
Speaker 1: because I had a very talented quarterback in high school too,
Speaker 1: And I mean we had been throwing it a lot
Speaker 1: that year, but that game was actually in like twenty
Speaker 1: five degree weather outside and like at the University of
Speaker 1: Minnesota college field, so it wasn't really passing conditions. But
Speaker 1: that was our strength that year, and the quarterback was
Speaker 1: looking my way about that game. Yeah, he was the
Speaker 1: coldest game we've ever done at University of Minnesota. When
Speaker 1: the metrodome went belly up and we had to play
Speaker 1: that game. I'll never forget remember we did that TV
Speaker 1: show outside that place. That was the coldest I've ever been,
Speaker 1: so God bless you. That's for sure. Welcome to Chicago.
Speaker 1: It's a little a little bit nicer on a January
Speaker 1: day or a December day. This is Bears All Access.
Speaker 1: We're gonna take a break here on Chicago Sports Radio
Speaker 1: six seventy to score shredded cheese beans, however you make them.
Speaker 1: Share your Bears game day natural recipe at Tostitos Bears
Speaker 1: dot com for a chance to win a Bears VIP
Speaker 1: tailgating experience and tickets at that number twenty second game
Speaker 1: against Kansas City. Maybe the best Nacho's win. You got
Speaker 1: a particular nacho persuasion. You're you're a guy who likes
Speaker 1: to fire things up in the kitchen, as long as
Speaker 1: it doesn't include tomatoes. Yeah, you don't like tomatoes. I
Speaker 1: thought you were going to start talking about your abs
Speaker 1: when you read Dad, I'm gonna started with shredded. I
Speaker 1: was going, all right, here we go. That's tom there.
Speaker 1: I'm Jeff Joniak and jessper Horstead. The Bears tight end
Speaker 1: here joining us on Bears and all access from panc
Speaker 1: Studio here at Hattis Hall along with our friends from
Speaker 1: Loop Capitol. You are all around athlete a man. You
Speaker 1: not only played in Metro Minnesota Metro Minneapolis football, but
Speaker 1: apparently that was your third choice behind baseball and basketball
Speaker 1: is at the order because you also played baseball Princeton
Speaker 1: and tore the cover off the ball too. Is a
Speaker 1: left handed hitting outfielder. Ye all right, yep, so wife
Speaker 1: football third on the list now number one in your heart. Um,
Speaker 1: I think it probably has to do with success. I
Speaker 1: always loved winning, and I was probably on better basketball
Speaker 1: and baseball teams growing up than I ever was football.
Speaker 1: We had a pretty poor historic high school record and
Speaker 1: it still kind of continues, unfortunately, and so we just
Speaker 1: lost a lot of games. That football can be really
Speaker 1: brutal if you're just like losing and that it's not
Speaker 1: clicking for you. And this is not to say I
Speaker 1: ever disliked football or that was ever a runaway between
Speaker 1: any sport, but I had truly loved all three, and
Speaker 1: if I had to rank them in high school, I
Speaker 1: probably would have put football third. But I never went
Speaker 1: looked at pursuing basketball at the next level. So when
Speaker 1: you were a kid, were you thinking big? Were you
Speaker 1: thinking you were going to be, you know, some six
Speaker 1: three shooting guard in the NBA? Were you going to
Speaker 1: be a left handed, power hitting outfielder. What were you?
Speaker 1: What were you thinking? What was your life plan as
Speaker 1: a little kid. To be honest, I dreamed of that stuff,
Speaker 1: especially when I was younger, but I never really it
Speaker 1: was never the plan and I never expected it to happen.
Speaker 1: I kind of just enjoyed each season of sports, and
Speaker 1: my goal was always to continue playing them as long
Speaker 1: as possible. But it was never like I was working towards,
Speaker 1: you know, starting in the NFL one day. It was
Speaker 1: always just, Hey, I really love what I'm doing right now.
Speaker 1: You know, how long can I keep this coming? Are
Speaker 1: you surprised right now? Yeah? I think I'm continuously surprised
Speaker 1: by how far that approach has taken me. But I think,
Speaker 1: but I think it's a really important message for parents
Speaker 1: to hear, because you know, there comes a point in
Speaker 1: time where you're going to make a decision when you
Speaker 1: dedicate yourself to a sport, and I think a lot
Speaker 1: of kids do it too young. You're probably a better
Speaker 1: football player now because of the hand eye coordination that
Speaker 1: you got from baseball, the footwork you get from basketball
Speaker 1: and stuff. So was there someone in your life that said, hey,
Speaker 1: you need to keep playing all three sports. Don't kind
Speaker 1: of dedicate or decided as a ten year old that
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be pro whatever. I would totally agree with you.
Speaker 1: I think the cross training has helped me so much,
Speaker 1: not only from a physical standpoint, from mental standpoint too.
Speaker 1: I would just be so excited to approach each new season.
Speaker 1: And yes, I would say my parents were so supportive
Speaker 1: of constantly playing different sports and continuing them all year round.
Speaker 1: And then I also was very fortunate to have coaches
Speaker 1: that understood that and also supported that because I know
Speaker 1: a lot of youth coaches don't like it. They don't
Speaker 1: like it at all. They want you year round and
Speaker 1: they want kind of that control that comes with that.
Speaker 1: And my coaches were always very understanding, even if that
Speaker 1: meant like I'm absolutely practice a little bit early to
Speaker 1: go to an AAU basketball game that I have, they
Speaker 1: were always like more than willing to let that happen. So,
Speaker 1: you know, I remember reading a comment about you by
Speaker 1: Ryan Pace during training camp. He says, Jasper has a
Speaker 1: really high ceiling. What is that? Is your high ceiling
Speaker 1: going to come because you're going to become a better
Speaker 1: blocker out of a stance as you're ceiling going to
Speaker 1: be exposed, because they're going to find out that you
Speaker 1: are a tight end that has the receivers the hands
Speaker 1: of a wide receiver. Where it is your ceiling when
Speaker 1: you know where you're at now and where you think
Speaker 1: about where you could be in years to come, I
Speaker 1: think you can find my ceiling. I think what's most
Speaker 1: exciting to me is that I have never had an
Speaker 1: off season of football in my life. This is the
Speaker 1: first time I've played football outside of the fall, and
Speaker 1: so with that you get great I think hand eye
Speaker 1: coordination in my opinion from baseball and you know, other
Speaker 1: stuff from basketball. But I think that I'm a little
Speaker 1: bit behind in the strength training and a little behind
Speaker 1: on some of the football techniques that you really get
Speaker 1: when you get to focus on that stuff in the
Speaker 1: off season rather than you know, when you're just playing
Speaker 1: games and it's hard to gain strength during the season
Speaker 1: you're just trying to maintain really, So I think for me,
Speaker 1: like you said, the blocking and kind of catching the
Speaker 1: other stuff that I maybe didn't focus as much on,
Speaker 1: with the stuff that I was able to develop by
Speaker 1: playing other sports, and so then I'll be able to
Speaker 1: be a more better rounded tight end. Essentially, you're a
Speaker 1: piece of clay for Kevin Gilbride. Yeah, pretty much the
Speaker 1: tight ends coach with guys that you're leaning on in
Speaker 1: that room as well. What have those conversations been like
Speaker 1: with those guys. I mean you got a gamut of players,
Speaker 1: guys with experience like Trey Burton, Bradley saw making a
Speaker 1: conversion himself, then young guys. I don't know if he
Speaker 1: talks much. He didn't seem like it as but he's
Speaker 1: sure is the type of player you want on your
Speaker 1: football team. And JP Holts that real seriousness to him,
Speaker 1: ruggedness to him. So collecting all this information and stocking
Speaker 1: it away it's almost like going back to school a
Speaker 1: little bit, getting your doctorate in football. It absolutely is.
Speaker 1: I have many notebooks that have been filled up already,
Speaker 1: and I think I'm able to get something from each
Speaker 1: of the players in that room. They all have unique
Speaker 1: skill sets and different expertises and parts of their game,
Speaker 1: and so I think that you know, if you were
Speaker 1: to trace back what I've become. Since I've become a
Speaker 1: tight end, a few things that might be seeing ture
Speaker 1: to me. I think you would look back and find
Speaker 1: a lot that came from those guys. Are the routes
Speaker 1: completely different at the tight end position than the wide
Speaker 1: receiver position? And can you take things from your experience
Speaker 1: as a wide receiver and incorporate them in tight end routes?
Speaker 1: I think they're really similar, which is very helpful and
Speaker 1: so that I can definitely take stuff that I've learned.
Speaker 1: I've run a lot of routes in my career and
Speaker 1: call a lot of passes, and I can apply that
Speaker 1: stuff in game. Have you always had size advantage? Because
Speaker 1: it seems like as a wide receiver in high school
Speaker 1: and a princeton, you'd have size advantage. And now when
Speaker 1: you think about the different people that are responsible for
Speaker 1: covering a tight end, whether it's a linebacker or a safety,
Speaker 1: you still have an advantage of size, height, range, and stuff.
Speaker 1: You know? Can you transfer that to the Do you
Speaker 1: feel like you're being covered by less of an athlete
Speaker 1: now than you were throughout the early portions of your career?
Speaker 1: Not at all? And I think that the size difference
Speaker 1: is probably smaller as well, So that's when it becomes
Speaker 1: more important to focus on the art of route running
Speaker 1: and releases and like the finer things going to get
Speaker 1: you open rather than just being larger or faster than
Speaker 1: a guy. So certainly it's something I've been struggling with.
Speaker 1: Like I do think IV League corners and people that
Speaker 1: regarding me were good, but the people that are covering me,
Speaker 1: even if they're a linebacker at this level, are better.
Speaker 1: And so there's there's stuff that I need to work.
Speaker 1: Do you have spring ball on the IVY League? They do,
Speaker 1: But I played baseball right lucky dog. I would have
Speaker 1: hated you every day. Walk by the field with bat
Speaker 1: with the bat, ya hit three or four and Princeton
Speaker 1: that's pretty dug on good. We'll talk about his baseball
Speaker 1: career a little bit more and find out a little
Speaker 1: bit of us background. Jesper Horstad one of the newer Bears.
Speaker 1: You're gonna see you here moving forward to the final
Speaker 1: four games of this season and to the future. Our
Speaker 1: guest here on Bears All Access on Chicago Sports Radio
Speaker 1: six seventy. The Score. The Bears All Access is brought
Speaker 1: to you by CDW. People who get it learn more
Speaker 1: at CDW dot com. Jeff Joni, Actim there, Jesper Horse,
Speaker 1: did us our guest the Bears tight end our producers
Speaker 1: in the Score Studios, Sean Anderson and Brendan Orlanski, Dan
Speaker 1: Billy and Paul's Range here at hallis Haw at PNC Studios.
Speaker 1: Before the break, we kind of teased your baseball career,
Speaker 1: and it sounds like you were a heck of a
Speaker 1: player in baseball too. And I could throw a bunch
Speaker 1: of math out there. But your your junior season, you
Speaker 1: get three twenty four Princeton with fourteen RBI. I think
Speaker 1: it was in thirty six games. We have three three
Speaker 1: twelve For your career. You're a lefty bat and a
Speaker 1: highly successful high school player. So was there a possibility
Speaker 1: you're gonna get drafted? Did you get drafted? I don't
Speaker 1: know that. I looked it up, but I couldn't see it.
Speaker 1: I did not, and there was certainly a possibility. Yeah.
Speaker 1: After my junior year is usually when the baseball stuff happens.
Speaker 1: And like I said, my goal was always to continue
Speaker 1: playing sports as long as possible, and so it looked
Speaker 1: like that was gonna be my best option. I was
Speaker 1: getting interest from teams and it looked like it was
Speaker 1: gonna happen. So I did a lot of workouts for
Speaker 1: a lot of teams in the spring after I finished
Speaker 1: up school and they went very well, and I thought
Speaker 1: I was going to get drafted. And the way it
Speaker 1: works is not so much. I mean, there's so many rounds,
Speaker 1: so it's not really about when you get drafted, but
Speaker 1: it's more so about the signing bonus because you can
Speaker 1: have guys that go in the first round to get
Speaker 1: you know, less money than someone who went in the
Speaker 1: fortieth round. It's a very like weird system that I
Speaker 1: kind of had to figure out. But I said a
Speaker 1: number ultimately for what it would take to get me
Speaker 1: to give up my football career because the IVY League
Speaker 1: has some interesting rules where if you get drafted and
Speaker 1: go professional in one sport, you're done with your collegiate career.
Speaker 1: So I would never get to come back to play
Speaker 1: football my senior year. I wouldn't be able to graduate
Speaker 1: that year because you kind of just go um. So
Speaker 1: it had to wait a while for that, and to me,
Speaker 1: you know that that that made me raise my price
Speaker 1: a little bit um and I got offers that were
Speaker 1: just below that, but ultimately, you know, I was kind
Speaker 1: of set on this number, UM, and I didn't really
Speaker 1: want to give up football or graduating, you know, a
Speaker 1: whole everything that comes with that senior year. So it
Speaker 1: didn't work out. The draft came and went, and I
Speaker 1: had offers throughout that summer even afterwards, UM to play
Speaker 1: professional baseball, but UM, then I kind of just focused
Speaker 1: on football after that, UM and that kind of bring me,
Speaker 1: brang me all the way, yeah, all the way through
Speaker 1: um the spring the next spring, and I chose not
Speaker 1: to do baseball in hopes of you know, training for
Speaker 1: football and getting ready for the pro day. And then
Speaker 1: I kind of explained earlier how that didn't go as planned.
Speaker 1: But on draft day, no calls from football teams, three
Speaker 1: calls from baseball teams. Oh that's interesting. So they were like, look,
Speaker 1: we didn't hear your name called. Are you still interested
Speaker 1: in playing? And I'm like, I haven't picked up a
Speaker 1: bat in a year, Like, am I really going to
Speaker 1: go down this road? Like let me see if I
Speaker 1: have any football interest. And there wasn't very much out there,
Speaker 1: so I was like, you know what, I've did so
Speaker 1: much training, I guess I might as well, like see,
Speaker 1: Like those two tryouts were kind of it like basically,
Speaker 1: if it didn't work out either one of those, I
Speaker 1: kind of would have said, Gosh, maybe I picked the
Speaker 1: wrong sport again, maybe I should try baseball. What teams
Speaker 1: were they? The Angels were most interested, but a lot
Speaker 1: of the East Coast teams that were been able to
Speaker 1: go out to my games were also in communication, the Reds, Yankees, Phillies,
Speaker 1: you know. Interesting, So there was something that separated you
Speaker 1: from getting drafted after your senior year at Princeton to
Speaker 1: the point that you made you made a practice squad,
Speaker 1: you're on the active roster. What was the separation between
Speaker 1: you and baseball? What was the one element that your
Speaker 1: game was maybe couldn't survive through had to get used to.
Speaker 1: What was that element? I had? No power? Was the
Speaker 1: real issue? Yeah? I had zero home runs in my
Speaker 1: four years, very few doubles and triples. I was a
Speaker 1: great contact hitter. I got on base, I was the
Speaker 1: leadoff hitter. But people don't really understand that. When you
Speaker 1: have a six three like two twenty five frame, They're like, well,
Speaker 1: where's the power? Like this isn't our prototype for a
Speaker 1: leadoff hitter. This doesn't really add up. So I think
Speaker 1: that threw a lot of people for a loop, which
Speaker 1: is fine. I didn't really fit the mold. Was that
Speaker 1: frustrating for you not to have power? And did you truck?
Speaker 1: I mean, what did you try to create that power?
Speaker 1: It was very frustrating, and I tried to put on
Speaker 1: more strength and work on my swing. But ultimately I
Speaker 1: stand by the fact that baseball is the hardest sport
Speaker 1: and it's not about that. It's about like mobility and
Speaker 1: timing and pitch recognition, and I was okay at that stuff.
Speaker 1: But my swing really just wasn't catered to be a
Speaker 1: power power hitter. It was meant to put balls in play,
Speaker 1: and then I was able to run stuff out with
Speaker 1: my feet. So you imagine, though, the power element that
Speaker 1: you're talking about that is involved in football is something
Speaker 1: that's as needed as it is in baseball. It's a
Speaker 1: kind of a different use of the word power. But
Speaker 1: you know, how did you gain that confidence within yourself
Speaker 1: that you knew that if you had limitations and the
Speaker 1: power that you needed in baseball, you had the ability
Speaker 1: to develop those powers to play football. I think I think,
Speaker 1: actually in football is just a little bit more straightforward
Speaker 1: because it is more strength based. I mean, when you
Speaker 1: look at the MLB, you have guys that have like
Speaker 1: wiry thin arms that are hitting thirty home runs a year,
Speaker 1: and you have guys that are very large in thirty
Speaker 1: home runs a year, whereas like for the most part,
Speaker 1: in football, the guys that are creating power are strong
Speaker 1: and they have good fundamentals and they're low and so
Speaker 1: to me, I believe that really good coaching can get
Speaker 1: me there. And I believe the same with baseball. But
Speaker 1: you know, teams didn't necessarily believe that at the combine?
Speaker 1: Did you do like fifteen reps at two twenty five?
Speaker 1: I didn't go to the Combine? But your pro day? Yeah,
Speaker 1: those are the numbers. So are are you stronger now
Speaker 1: than you were at your pro day? And then as
Speaker 1: you were introduced to the NFL facilities, you have the
Speaker 1: ability to make great strides and you know, in great
Speaker 1: increases for yourself. So is the nutrition, is the technology,
Speaker 1: is the weight room and all those instruments to help
Speaker 1: you are you are they benefiting you throughout the season
Speaker 1: and you know even going into your first off season? Yeah? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: The facility here is incredible. And not only that, but
Speaker 1: the people that are in the facility are so helpful.
Speaker 1: That's the strength coaches, all of them. I've found great
Speaker 1: help from all of them. And the nutritionists. They help
Speaker 1: me put on weight and not feel slower, you know.
Speaker 1: And the strength guys are helping me get power and mobility,
Speaker 1: which is something I really neglected in college. And so
Speaker 1: I think I'm not only stronger, but more agile and
Speaker 1: haven't lost speed. Jesper Horse died our guest here on Paris.
Speaker 1: All access brought to you by IGS Energy here at
Speaker 1: PANC Studios at Hollis saw Jeff Joni Actom there here
Speaker 1: with the rookie tight end out of Princeton. As we
Speaker 1: are cataloging your life right before your eyes in front
Speaker 1: of a live audience here, I bet you haven't talked
Speaker 1: about this much of your life before, although your hometown
Speaker 1: paper did a story on you this week and they
Speaker 1: did a nice job kind of going through your history
Speaker 1: in Minnesota, which, by the way, Tommy was the twenty
Speaker 1: fifteen high school Athlete of the Year in Minneapolis. And
Speaker 1: some of the names are all baseball players. You've got Mauer,
Speaker 1: You've got Paul Mollitter. You've got Dave Winfield, who was
Speaker 1: a two sports star obviously too, So that's some pretty
Speaker 1: impressive company to share that that headline with, don't you think. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was one of the most exciting days in high school.
Speaker 1: I think that was when I was a freshman, someone
Speaker 1: I knew had won that award, and you know, since
Speaker 1: that day it was circled on my account because I
Speaker 1: always valued being a well rounded athlete and there's also
Speaker 1: like an academic and you know, a community service side
Speaker 1: of it as well. And to me, that was the
Speaker 1: award that I was always shooting for, not so much
Speaker 1: like All Conference, all state, but to get it in
Speaker 1: you know, a general recognition for being an athlete was
Speaker 1: the top. You know, you're playing football now. You chose
Speaker 1: Princeton to play football, and had you know, had the
Speaker 1: coach said, hey, you know, I'm not going to let
Speaker 1: you play baseball, don't maybe not would maybe wouldn't have
Speaker 1: gone to Princeton. But how important was it to you
Speaker 1: that an Ivy League school was interested in you beyond
Speaker 1: just football. It's academics to go to Princeton, to have
Speaker 1: it on your resume that I am at Princeton grad
Speaker 1: or was that secondary to football? No, that was certainly
Speaker 1: primary because the goal was to play sports as long
Speaker 1: as possible. But I knew that eventually that day was
Speaker 1: going to come to an end, and academics were very
Speaker 1: value to my household, So you know, I was looking
Speaker 1: at the top academic schools I could possibly get into
Speaker 1: and potentially play sports in. But that was the prior
Speaker 1: as I was looking. Were you looking at anything close
Speaker 1: or was everything certain distances away? Was there any schools
Speaker 1: in Minnesota or the surrounding areas that maybe would have been,
Speaker 1: you know, closer for you that to allow your support
Speaker 1: to stay part of it. Yeah, there were a couple.
Speaker 1: I really wanted to go to Northwestern. They didn't really
Speaker 1: have much interest in me, neither the University of Minnesota.
Speaker 1: And you know, I also was interested in seeing other
Speaker 1: part of the United States as well, So it just
Speaker 1: worked out. The IVY League. I mean, I think that
Speaker 1: the two sport thing played a big partner too, because
Speaker 1: it checked the box for academics, but then they also
Speaker 1: would allow me to play both, which really very few
Speaker 1: schools that I talked to you did. It's it seems
Speaker 1: like you know, I've had the good fortune to be
Speaker 1: recruited because I, you know, we had good success in
Speaker 1: high school. I had an older brother that was a
Speaker 1: great football player. And it seems like the IVY League
Speaker 1: is always a magical land that's almost unattainable because you know,
Speaker 1: it's smarter than everybody else in the world. So you
Speaker 1: mean they weren't coming to your house, No, No, but
Speaker 1: I did get letters. But I think about the guys
Speaker 1: that go there, because I did have a high school classmate,
Speaker 1: two high school classmates that went on to play at Yale.
Speaker 1: So you know, you think about that, you know that
Speaker 1: far distance land of the IVY League, and wasn't intimidating
Speaker 1: going there. Um, you know, you come from Minnesota. Now
Speaker 1: you're you're you're amongst the brightest of the brightest in
Speaker 1: all of college. Yeah. It was on the football field
Speaker 1: and in the classroom as well. Um I got there
Speaker 1: and like I said, I think I kind of I
Speaker 1: thought I would be able to contribute as a freshman
Speaker 1: in the IVY League setting. I think it always just
Speaker 1: gets talked down. And I get there and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh wow, like these guys are really really good. And
Speaker 1: then I get in the classroom and I'm like, Wow,
Speaker 1: these people are really really smart. And I actually like
Speaker 1: had the misfortune of doing well on like my first
Speaker 1: test to be like Okay, I got this, and then
Speaker 1: I took the mid term for that class later on
Speaker 1: and did horribly, and I was like, oh, I don't
Speaker 1: have this, Like I need to completely change how I
Speaker 1: approached school and study and kind of the same with
Speaker 1: football too. So hard to do both IVY League and
Speaker 1: play two sports. That's quite an accomplishment that I definitely
Speaker 1: would not be able to do heads for sure. Many
Speaker 1: of us. What was your major? Sociology? Very good, Jesper Horsted,
Speaker 1: our guest one more segment to go here on Bears
Speaker 1: All Access on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to score
Speaker 1: years from our producer Dan Ver really chewing the audience.
Speaker 1: He does a great job. Nice work along with Pause
Speaker 1: rang Or engineer Sean Anderson and Brandon Orlowski. I think
Speaker 1: that's how we say your name. I was reading Dan's
Speaker 1: handwriting and I don't know if I nailed it, but
Speaker 1: don't be offended if I got it wrong. Tom, I'm
Speaker 1: Jeff Joniac. That's Tom there. I'm battling the cold. I
Speaker 1: know some people my friends say, hey, you need some
Speaker 1: honey and lemon. We'll work through it. That's what you
Speaker 1: do in Chicago, Garling, I get sick every November in
Speaker 1: the early December. I don't know why. We're brought to
Speaker 1: you by Igs Energy. Here on Bears All Access with
Speaker 1: Rookie Type and Jasper Horstead Thursday Night's game against the Cowboys,
Speaker 1: brought to you by Doctor Pepper, the official soft drink
Speaker 1: of the Chicago Bears. YouTube. Guys have something in common,
Speaker 1: but I bet he doesn't know it. So according to
Speaker 1: my research, you've been on a surfboard a time or two,
Speaker 1: so you like surfing. This man lived for it in Maui,
Speaker 1: So you guys can talk shop a little bit. What's
Speaker 1: what's the draw with the surfboard? It looks like you've
Speaker 1: done a lot of traveling in your in your life,
Speaker 1: I have done some traveling yep, um, both in high
Speaker 1: school and in college. I was able to do some
Speaker 1: as well. Um. Yeah, I got to try surfing for
Speaker 1: a summer. Uh and it was extremely hard and I
Speaker 1: did every single day and I still wouldn't say I'm
Speaker 1: good at it. So where was it? Argentina, Nicarago? Okay,
Speaker 1: what brought you there. You guys could talk waves. I'm
Speaker 1: getting out of the conversation. Although I was on a
Speaker 1: board once with he invited me, I got on, I
Speaker 1: got Did I not get on that board? Yes? I
Speaker 1: did catch a wave? Yes, But he also no, I
Speaker 1: almost fractured. Is fine too. I have a picture of
Speaker 1: Jeff being slammed so hard by a wave on the beach.
Speaker 1: That is actually his feet were kicking him in the
Speaker 1: back of the head while his chest was hitting the ground.
Speaker 1: And there's a there's photographic evidence of it. I know
Speaker 1: you laugh if you will, but there is photographic proof.
Speaker 1: But the draw of that is it in your soul?
Speaker 1: Now to surf? Um? I loved it? U, I would
Speaker 1: say yes. And also it was so frustrating. Um Like,
Speaker 1: I devoted so much time to it and it just
Speaker 1: was not easy. So I love it. I'm excited to
Speaker 1: go back. I haven't really done it since that summer,
Speaker 1: but I definitely will at some point, probably post career.
Speaker 1: It gets easier each time you do it, you know.
Speaker 1: I think the hardest thing that anybody can ever do
Speaker 1: is the first time they get on a surfboard and
Speaker 1: paddle out into an ocean and you're facing the waves
Speaker 1: because fatigue sets in immediately, and then you think, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I don't know if I could ever be
Speaker 1: able to do this again. Then the second time you
Speaker 1: do it, it's just a little bit easier and your
Speaker 1: balance is a little bit more efficient, and so each
Speaker 1: and then the first time you surf a wave, the
Speaker 1: first time you surf it, all you want to do
Speaker 1: is surf a bigger wave, and then the bigger wave
Speaker 1: you surf, you want to It just kind of all
Speaker 1: goes hand in hand. I know we're telling football here,
Speaker 1: but it just sparked the thought I never asked you this.
Speaker 1: When was the first time you did it? And why?
Speaker 1: What drew you to it? I mean, what was the
Speaker 1: connection to I knew I wanted to retire from the NFL,
Speaker 1: and I had one more year on my contract and
Speaker 1: I had it with the Dolphins, and I told coach
Speaker 1: true I go, I think I'm going to retire, and
Speaker 1: he goes, well, I never listened to old players. At
Speaker 1: the end of the season, I'll call you in a
Speaker 1: couple of months. And so I packed up everything, I
Speaker 1: went to Hawaii and I stayed there for five months,
Speaker 1: surf every single day of my life went from like
Speaker 1: two ninety to two forty two thirty five or something.
Speaker 1: And when they called me from any camp, I'd tell
Speaker 1: him I don't think he wanted two hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: five pound guard. So that was I mean, I needed
Speaker 1: something that it kind of it puts the same feeling
Speaker 1: in the pit of your stomach that when you're driving
Speaker 1: a soldier field on Thursday night. You got that certain
Speaker 1: amount of nervousness, but it's it's a healthy nervousness that
Speaker 1: it puts in your stomach. I would agree outdoorsman as well,
Speaker 1: being up there for Minnesota, yep, yep. Certainly spend my
Speaker 1: fair share of time outside as a kid. What do
Speaker 1: you love? I love fishing. I grew up on a
Speaker 1: lake and so a lot of times the summer, I
Speaker 1: guess in the winter as well. We had an ice house.
Speaker 1: I would just sit out there and catch fish in
Speaker 1: front of the place. Swim had friends all around the lake,
Speaker 1: kayak to their house. It's beautiful. Yeah, best fish ever caught.
Speaker 1: I caught a huge one this summer actually after OTAs,
Speaker 1: I was up on Lake Superior fishing from shore and
Speaker 1: we caught this like massive northern pike don't have inches
Speaker 1: or weights, but it was massive. It's always those accidental
Speaker 1: catches that you know, you I don't have my camera
Speaker 1: with me or you know, just things aren't in place
Speaker 1: to brag of out right. Yeah, crazy how that happens.
Speaker 1: So what do you what do you talk about this
Speaker 1: as being your first offseason and you can't even be
Speaker 1: thinking about it now because you have the most difficult
Speaker 1: stretch of regular season games left to go here. But
Speaker 1: you know you said that you took a lot of notes.
Speaker 1: Do you ever take notes about what you want to
Speaker 1: accomplish in the future, because you know, you think about
Speaker 1: going to college playing baseball. You just don't have the
Speaker 1: off seasons to do anything, and it's got to be
Speaker 1: quite quite the reward for you. Do you mean on
Speaker 1: the field or no, I mean just any you know anything?
Speaker 1: You know, Okay, this is what I want to do
Speaker 1: in terms of weight and body structure. This is what
Speaker 1: my goal is. This is what I need to watch
Speaker 1: in terms of tape evaluation throughout the offseason, because I
Speaker 1: think it's your the personal investment that you make in
Speaker 1: yourself is that's when you're going to get the biggest results.
Speaker 1: It's not going to be when you're trying to encourage
Speaker 1: to work hard or do something extra, it's what you're
Speaker 1: going to do to yourself. Yeah, I would agree, and
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff is what I'm looking forward to
Speaker 1: this offseason. I mean, I'm guessing the team gives us
Speaker 1: a weight plan to follow, so there's not much need
Speaker 1: on that end. I'm going to just follow that to
Speaker 1: a t and I believe that will take me where
Speaker 1: I need to be for the most part physically. But
Speaker 1: on top of that, I am just seeing so much
Speaker 1: more in terms of like what I can do to
Speaker 1: be a better route runner, and I think that's stuff
Speaker 1: that I can really put to work on in the offseason.
Speaker 1: And that's releases speed, agility. Like I said, mobility and
Speaker 1: flexibility is something I really didn't focus on in college,
Speaker 1: and now I am every single day and I am
Speaker 1: noticing differences in terms of my cuts and stuff as well.
Speaker 1: So that's something I'm going to continue. The thrill that
Speaker 1: you're going to bring back to your hometown when you
Speaker 1: go back, then you start working out in local weight
Speaker 1: rooms and stuff. Do you have that type of infrastructure
Speaker 1: already built in at home where you have a group
Speaker 1: of guys or a group of people that you like
Speaker 1: working out with. It are going to encourage you to
Speaker 1: be a stronger player as much as you're going to
Speaker 1: encourage them. You know, maybe I did in high school
Speaker 1: and everyone is keeping up with that. But I always
Speaker 1: love to work out alone. And so I had like
Speaker 1: a little wait thing in our like garage, and I
Speaker 1: spent most of my time there and i'd say gained
Speaker 1: most of my strength And they're just kind of following
Speaker 1: my own plans, and I do have people that will
Speaker 1: certainly push me, and I think I'm gonna spend some
Speaker 1: time with teammates this summer as well, because there's just
Speaker 1: kind of no better way to train than that. But
Speaker 1: I'm also looking forward to just, you know, really getting
Speaker 1: in a gym, and you know, when you were playing
Speaker 1: multiple sports where you reluctant to get too strong in
Speaker 1: an offseason because you knew you had a transfer your
Speaker 1: you know, just you know, your limberness and everything to baseball. No,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say so. I think that I was always
Speaker 1: trying to gain as much strength as possible without being
Speaker 1: dumb about it and overtraining because I was in season
Speaker 1: year round. I was always trying to make sure I
Speaker 1: wasn't even maintaining but improving, but also not getting injured.
Speaker 1: Jesper Horse did our guest here on Bears All Access.
Speaker 1: A couple of minutes to go before we get you
Speaker 1: set for Bears Cowboys coming up on Thursday night, the
Speaker 1: first of a four pack of interesting games down the schedule,
Speaker 1: as they start with a Cowboy team coming in with
Speaker 1: three losses in four games. We'll have it for you.
Speaker 1: News Radio seven eighty and one h five point nine
Speaker 1: f WBBM starting at four o'clock with a pregame show
Speaker 1: and seven twenty two the kickoff. Ron, Jim and Jay
Speaker 1: will join you on the pregame show as well, and
Speaker 1: of course all the great programming here on Chicago Sports
Speaker 1: Radio six seventy the Score. I had a conversation this
Speaker 1: week at some length with David Montgomery, who played in
Speaker 1: the Big twelve and played at a very high level,
Speaker 1: and that whole speed of the game thing for a rookie.
Speaker 1: You know, I've been doing this a long time. Tom's Bennett.
Speaker 1: You hear it every year. It's almost like the day
Speaker 1: of the first snow. Every TV station sends out their
Speaker 1: crew to check it out. You can guarantee a rookie's
Speaker 1: gonna say speed of the game, You're in a different situation.
Speaker 1: You saw the speed of the game for the greater
Speaker 1: part of the year as a practice player, trying to
Speaker 1: get the defense ready, playing scout team, working off cards
Speaker 1: of another team's offense. How did that help you adjust
Speaker 1: to the speed of the game on Sundays here in
Speaker 1: the brief time you've been on the roster. The speeds
Speaker 1: are different, but the caliber of players are the same.
Speaker 1: And the defense that I'm going up against every day
Speaker 1: when I was in the practice squad was in my opinion,
Speaker 1: second to none. And so to deal with the strength
Speaker 1: of Khalil Mack, even if he's not necessarily one hundred
Speaker 1: percent at practice, is still a massive adjustment from what
Speaker 1: I had to do in the IVY League. So that
Speaker 1: certainly prepared me and was kind of a baptism by
Speaker 1: fire at first. But then you start to learn techniques
Speaker 1: and how to apply him, and you watch the film
Speaker 1: and you know, you start chipping away at that gap
Speaker 1: that was between me and our best tight ends. But
Speaker 1: you know, like I said, when I was out there
Speaker 1: in that first game a couple of weeks ago, it
Speaker 1: was so fast, so fast, faster than we practiced, And
Speaker 1: I think that I tried to speed things up a
Speaker 1: little bit that game, and that's not really how you
Speaker 1: combat that. Instead, you kind of got to slow yourself
Speaker 1: down or remind yourself what your assignment is and what
Speaker 1: your techniques are. And I think I was able to
Speaker 1: do a better job of that last game, and it's
Speaker 1: something I hope to keep building on. Have you ever
Speaker 1: broke the huddle yet and drew a blink? Because you're
Speaker 1: an intelligent guy, I don't really see that happening to you,
Speaker 1: But I think there's a part of everybody's career that
Speaker 1: it'll happen. It won't happen often else you're not gonna play,
Speaker 1: But I mean, you know, maybe you have a chance
Speaker 1: where you're going, oh my gosh, what am I doing
Speaker 1: on this? Yeah, I say no, because you are. I
Speaker 1: think all the bands would feel better. But well, I
Speaker 1: haven't really played that many plays yet. I only really
Speaker 1: played in two preseason games that I've only really played
Speaker 1: what maybe like twenty twenty five offensive snaps and those plays,
Speaker 1: like I had an idea of what plays I was
Speaker 1: gonna be in on, and I could draw them in
Speaker 1: my sleep, so no, but that's not to say I didn't.
Speaker 1: In college and face with the bigger workload than I wouldn't,
Speaker 1: but I wasn't going to mess up the few that
Speaker 1: I had. Well, it's it's been fun watching you in
Speaker 1: the short time you've been here, so keep it going.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Thank you for joining us. Jessper
Speaker 1: Horsted our guest here on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy
Speaker 1: The Score. That's gonna wrap up Bears All Access. Thanks
Speaker 1: again to our producers Dan Barilli, Sean Anderson, Brendan Ar
Speaker 1: last get our engineer paulsi Rang Jess per Ntent. There,
Speaker 1: I'm Jeff Johnny Aco talking on the radio Thursday night.
Speaker 1: Bears gonna beat those cowboys a soldier field. I'm how
Speaker 1: about it. Thanks for the folks from Luke Capitol. This
Speaker 1: is Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to Score. Have a
Speaker 1: great night, everybody. Thanks for listening to this Chicago Bears
Speaker 1: Network presentation of Bears All Access. Podcasts are available on
Speaker 1: Chicago Bear coom and on iTunes, or download the official
Speaker 1: Bears mobile app. Bears All Access has been brought to
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