Speaker 1: Welcome in to Bears Weekly, powered by IGS Energy, a
Speaker 1: Chicago Bears Network production. Bears Weekly is brought to you
Speaker 1: by Advocate Healthcare, Athletico Physical Therapy, CD Kellaghy, Connie's.
Speaker 2: Pizza, IGS Energy, and Meta Lived. Here are your hosts,
Speaker 2: Jeff chiliact aka the Mayor of Bearsville and his sidekick,
Speaker 2: Tom the Surfmaster.
Speaker 3: Thayer training camp starts in just over a month, and
Speaker 3: to tell you the truth, we can't wait. This is
Speaker 3: Bears Weekly at ESPN one thousand on the Chicago Bears
Speaker 3: Radio Network with Super Bowl winning Bears guard Tom Thayer.
Speaker 3: We're joined by the former Bears quarterback Jim Miller from
Speaker 3: sirius XM NFL Radio.
Speaker 4: I'm Jeff Joniac. Coming off of the program.
Speaker 3: We visit with second year offensive lineman Karanamagaji, Dan Berrilli,
Speaker 3: Jordan tread Up and Katie Fox are producers and the
Speaker 3: executive producer of the Bears Radio Network, Eric Ostrowski. Fellas
Speaker 3: they tell you not to peak too soon, right, That's
Speaker 3: always the thing.
Speaker 4: I'm peaking. I'm jacked so much.
Speaker 3: We don't know about what it would look like, but
Speaker 3: so much that we hope it is what we think
Speaker 3: it might look like. And I know it's a long
Speaker 3: way to go, and it's a long, preseason long training camp,
Speaker 3: but do you share in my genuine organic excitement about
Speaker 3: the twenty twenty five Bears?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 5: For me, I think if you make a checklist of
Speaker 5: what you want to see out of training camp, it
Speaker 5: goes from coaching staff to players to assistant coaches. And
Speaker 5: I don't think that we've been in this excited to
Speaker 5: go through that checklist throughout the process of training camp. Now,
Speaker 5: once the schedule is out, you kind of get a
Speaker 5: feel of how they're going to go about their business,
Speaker 5: the days that you have to prioritize your effort when
Speaker 5: you look at the full pads, and then some of
Speaker 5: the meaningful practices behind the mental side of it.
Speaker 4: When you look at shells or helmet.
Speaker 5: So there's a big checklist here of people, coaches and
Speaker 5: different scenarios that you want to see unfold with hope.
Speaker 6: Yeah, there's a lot on that list.
Speaker 7: Is I'm just said, But I think when you're trying
Speaker 7: to reach your final destination or reach your goal, there's
Speaker 7: a lot of things that have to happen, a lot
Speaker 7: of things have to be in place, and all those
Speaker 7: check marks have to be fulfilled, you know, So whether
Speaker 7: it's coaches, it's the players execution, you know, and for
Speaker 7: the fans to fans for Like you said, Jeff, everybody
Speaker 7: has this vision of what it can be and what
Speaker 7: they believe it will be. But in order to make
Speaker 7: that happen, a lot of things have to come together
Speaker 7: and everybody as a whole has to be doing the
Speaker 7: work involved to reach that goal.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you got to be healthy, right.
Speaker 3: I just saw a big study done by I think
Speaker 3: it's the doctor that's on with you guys on serious.
Speaker 4: XM, David Chow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he did a whole analysis of everybody's injuries last season.
Speaker 3: It just came out here earlier today. And of course
Speaker 3: Baltimore with they over the years have had a lot
Speaker 3: of injury issues that may have hurt them in the
Speaker 3: run game or whatever the position may be. They were
Speaker 3: the healthiest team by far in the NFL last season
Speaker 3: and they're a complete football team and he feels they
Speaker 3: will be a super Bowl contender and they should be
Speaker 3: with Lamar Jackson and that defense. Just the opposite you
Speaker 3: got San Francisco just riddled with injuries. Carolina had a
Speaker 3: lot of injuries. So he's if these teams X, Y,
Speaker 3: and Z stay healthy, they should be a better team.
Speaker 4: And that would go for the Bears as well.
Speaker 3: Obviously, the offensive line experienced a lot of injuries last season. Tom,
Speaker 3: they got to stay healthy this year. We need as
Speaker 3: much continuity up front as possible.
Speaker 5: But if there was a perfect plan in place of
Speaker 5: how to keep a team healthy, every single team would
Speaker 5: be doing that.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 5: Because you had a healthy year, do you think that's
Speaker 5: the template of success and that's the way you're going
Speaker 5: to go about business until further notice? Or if you
Speaker 5: had a lot of injuries, are you going to kind
Speaker 5: of change the process and the tempo that you practice
Speaker 5: at to maybe try to save some guys. You got
Speaker 5: to look at the guys that have been injured. Have
Speaker 5: they been injured before? There's a couple guys on my
Speaker 5: checklists that gets seem to get injured each and every
Speaker 5: year from other teams around the league in it no
Speaker 5: matter what you do, something happens to them. And then
Speaker 5: you have to start looking at the bodies. Okay, do
Speaker 5: I have a guy that's weighing in at two sixty,
Speaker 5: But really, if he was a normal walking human being,
Speaker 5: on the streets that he would be two twenty five,
Speaker 5: and then he's got his body wound so tightly that
Speaker 5: you can't have the fatigue and the physicality of the
Speaker 5: game and everything that you need in order to be
Speaker 5: that guy that's relied upon for sixty to seventy five
Speaker 5: reps a game. Can they take it? So there's a
Speaker 5: lot of different factors that come into play when you
Speaker 5: look at some of these guys, some of their injuries,
Speaker 5: and the teams, the way they go about business.
Speaker 3: Jim Can I ask you a question real quick, Jimmy,
Speaker 3: because you always embrace. You go to Latrobe, you watch
Speaker 3: the Steelers practice, and those are those are very physical practices.
Speaker 3: They're tackling to the ground. You know, they can only
Speaker 3: up be in so many days of pads. That's the
Speaker 3: league rule, of the Union rule.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Is there any criticism that though, as you get to
Speaker 3: at the end of a seventeen game season, because if
Speaker 3: you guys, remember they had physical practices by the end
Speaker 3: of the season, I always recall the conversation, well, maybe
Speaker 3: they overdid it early in the season and it wore
Speaker 3: them down. They didn't have enough legs to finish a season.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you guys buy into that. Jimmy,
Speaker 3: what do you think about especially with the Pittsburgh thing.
Speaker 6: I think there's a balance.
Speaker 7: I think Pittsburgh uses it as a competitive advantage. I
Speaker 7: do they are much more physical than teams other teams
Speaker 7: that start the season.
Speaker 6: But there's a balance. There's always a balance in it.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 6: A coach has got to know.
Speaker 7: Hey, got a lot of guys are banged up right now,
Speaker 7: we got some bumps and bruises. Let's back off a
Speaker 7: little bit. But to Tom's point, there are things you
Speaker 7: can do as a team that can collectively help or
Speaker 7: hurt the team. Say you're doing an exercise in the
Speaker 7: weight room where maybe you get a lot of hamstring issues.
Speaker 7: You know, so the team has to look at how
Speaker 7: they're working out players, and then the player has to
Speaker 7: look at himself and say, hey, I need to do
Speaker 7: this to keep myself on the field. I'll give you
Speaker 7: a case in point and give the example to a
Speaker 7: tongue of Iola two years ago said all right, I'm
Speaker 7: going to run less with the ball and took jiu
Speaker 7: jitsu and did all these things to defend himself. Last year,
Speaker 7: Pat and I do the training companies, he got leaner,
Speaker 7: he lost weight. Oh, I'm going to run with the
Speaker 7: ball more. That's a bad idea for to think that. Okay,
Speaker 7: he ran literally eleven times, he fumbled seven of them.
Speaker 7: Number one and two. He missed the season because of concussions.
Speaker 7: He's got to know what he can and cannot do
Speaker 7: to protect himself as a player and not put himself
Speaker 7: in harm's way. And then, like Tom said, certainly there's
Speaker 7: going to be ebbs and flows to the season. Injuries
Speaker 7: are going to happen, and the ball has to bounce
Speaker 7: your ways, so to speak, in certain things.
Speaker 6: But you need to do.
Speaker 7: Not only collectively as a team, but individually as a
Speaker 7: player everything you can to be available on Sunday for
Speaker 7: your team to win.
Speaker 5: So when I went to the USFL, we had no
Speaker 5: preseason games, we had eighteen regular season game games, and
Speaker 5: I was playing for George Allen. The same conversation infiltrated
Speaker 5: our locker room. Because we never hit, we rarely had contact,
Speaker 5: but we were on the practice field for a minimum
Speaker 5: of three hours. And so now the conversation at the
Speaker 5: end of the year, when we made it to the
Speaker 5: USFL championship game, we made it to the playoffs, and
Speaker 5: it was about fatigue, too much time on our feet.
Speaker 5: Yeah we're not physical, but we're tired from standing out
Speaker 5: there so long. So if you win the Super Bowl, man,
Speaker 5: you're doing everything right.
Speaker 4: And this is the way to do everything. This is
Speaker 4: the blueprint of success.
Speaker 5: If you get beaten the Super Bowl or you don't
Speaker 5: make the playoffs because you're a little tired at the
Speaker 5: end of the year, that's the wrong way to do it. Listen,
Speaker 5: football is a sport that demands allowed a lot out
Speaker 5: of every person, from coaches to players. There is no perfect,
Speaker 5: perfect formula of success. It's about if you're lucky enough
Speaker 5: to have a season that you're rosters healthy, or you're
Speaker 5: unfortunate where you have a season where you have a
Speaker 5: lot of injuries. That's the great game of football.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and it's all delegated.
Speaker 7: Now. You only have like fifteen practices in pads during
Speaker 7: the year, so you better get your physicality, your foundation,
Speaker 7: that base. Like what Mike Tomlin does for the Steelers,
Speaker 7: he sets the tone early for them. Football players play
Speaker 7: football on Sunday. That's what they're paid to do in
Speaker 7: order to get better at playing football. It's played in pads.
Speaker 7: It's played in pads, okay, and so you better delegate
Speaker 7: those fifteen practices that you do get. If your team's
Speaker 7: not physical enough, you better utilize them early. If you're
Speaker 7: too physical and guys are banged up, then you back
Speaker 7: off of it. But you need to utilize them when necessary.
Speaker 7: It is football at the end of the day.
Speaker 3: Coming up, we visit with second year offensive lineman Kuran
Speaker 3: I'm a Gaji. That's next on Bears Weekly on ESPN
Speaker 3: one thousand of the Bears Radio Network.
Speaker 1: You were tuned into a Bears Week with Jeff Joniac
Speaker 1: on the Bears Radio Network. Well, welcome back to Bears
Speaker 1: Weekly on the Bears Radio Network. Here's your host, the
Speaker 1: voice of the Bears, Chef Jonact.
Speaker 3: This segment of Bears Weekly has brought to you by
Speaker 3: Athletical Physical Therapy. Visit Athletico dot com, the request at
Speaker 3: in clinic or virtual deppointment at start feeling better tomorrow. Jeff,
Speaker 3: Tom and Jim here on Bears Weekly on your Thursday night. So,
Speaker 3: coming out of the break, I mentioned the running back
Speaker 3: groom and let's dive in. So DeAndre Swift average fifty
Speaker 3: six point four yards per game last season and just
Speaker 3: three seven nine to carry with six touchdowns. Roshan missed
Speaker 3: three games, just fifty five carries. He had six rushing
Speaker 3: touchdowns under three yards per average. Obviously, the running game
Speaker 3: wasn't what the Bears had hoped it was.
Speaker 4: DeAndre got close to one thousand yards rushing.
Speaker 3: He's had twenty nine rushing touchdowns in his career, scoring
Speaker 3: at least five every seasons.
Speaker 4: And so let's just begin with those two.
Speaker 3: When he can think about the one to two punch
Speaker 3: that Detroit had Tommy up there in Detroit with Ben Johnson,
Speaker 3: I hate to keep alluding to it, but we're going
Speaker 3: to use it as reference. What can they expect out
Speaker 3: of this running scheme? What we know at this early
Speaker 3: age without seeing training camp with Dan Rochhar on the
Speaker 3: running game.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, I always think of running backs as
Speaker 5: a three down running back. What can they do on first, second,
Speaker 5: third down? But Ben Johnson said something really early in
Speaker 5: his time here with the Bears. He said, he's got
Speaker 5: to find a running back that's willing to get the
Speaker 5: dirty yards. And I think that you can't overemphasize that
Speaker 5: because there's a lot more dirty yards to be had
Speaker 5: in the NFL. Than there are those fifty and sixty
Speaker 5: yard explosive plays. So if you're willing to take your
Speaker 5: body size, your structure, lower your shoulder pads, hit into
Speaker 5: the line of scrimmage with a two yard running start,
Speaker 5: you'll probably get an extra two and a half yards
Speaker 5: after contact. And so I'm not looking for unrealistic stats
Speaker 5: out of this running back group. I need four yards
Speaker 5: to carry out of the offensive running game. So when
Speaker 5: you look at these guys, they all have what it's
Speaker 5: going to take, but it's going to be about their
Speaker 5: evaluation of what's required of them on the down and
Speaker 5: distance that they're specifically in the huddle for. And that's
Speaker 5: what you're going to an indicator of who is going
Speaker 5: to be at the top of the list and how
Speaker 5: you filter it down.
Speaker 7: I don't want him dancing. I don't want to wasting time.
Speaker 7: Like Tom said, get what you can get, go north
Speaker 7: and south. Some guys try to manufacture and do too much,
Speaker 7: follow and trust the blocks in front of you.
Speaker 6: It should be improved with.
Speaker 7: The offensive line that the Bears have put together this offseason,
Speaker 7: and those guys got to get yardage. It's going to
Speaker 7: help other areas of your offense.
Speaker 4: For play action outstanding in the screen game.
Speaker 3: I think you'll hit the rails and it rip uffs
Speaker 3: some big runs in this offense as well. His first
Speaker 3: three seasons complimentary back, I think he had four starts
Speaker 3: in the first couple of years. Now in his last
Speaker 3: thirty two games where he was more of the ball
Speaker 3: carry number one ball carrier, four hundred and eighty two carries,
Speaker 3: eleven touchdowns plus eighty one catches. Remember he was the
Speaker 3: thirty fifth pick in the twenty draft DeAndre Swift.
Speaker 4: Now let's talk about Roshan.
Speaker 3: I love how he was a battering ram Tommy in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three, six feet two twenty five. I'm sure
Speaker 3: he's even worked on his body even more here in
Speaker 3: the last couple of years and every his third year.
Speaker 3: Five hundred and sixty one total yards as a complimentary
Speaker 3: back in that twenty three season, and he led the
Speaker 3: Bear running backs in offensive snaps with three hundred and
Speaker 3: ninety five, adding another one hundred and fifty two special
Speaker 3: team snaps overall, and impressive two point fifty four after
Speaker 3: the catch in his rookie season.
Speaker 4: That's seven and a half yards per catch per route.
Speaker 5: You know one thing about rochan Johnson is the most
Speaker 5: difficult thing for a running back is to learn how
Speaker 5: to block, and he doesn't really need to be taught
Speaker 5: that because he's probably one of the best blockers the
Speaker 5: Bears have on the roster right now. But we'll see
Speaker 5: from some of the young guys they brought aboard. And
Speaker 5: one thing about that I always like about Rochan Johnson.
Speaker 5: You talked about DeAndre swifty and great in the screen game,
Speaker 5: Rochean Johnson is more of a quarterback protector on the
Speaker 5: interior of the line of scrimmage, and he's really got
Speaker 5: good outlet instincts, so he can catch the ball in
Speaker 5: between the tackles and then get something out of that.
Speaker 5: And so Rochan is a different type of a back
Speaker 5: than you're going to get out of DeAndre Swift. But
Speaker 5: he does some of the more difficult things really well.
Speaker 5: And he kind of started to develop a relationship with
Speaker 5: Caleb Williams of understanding he could be a late outlet
Speaker 5: option in this offense. And I think that's going to
Speaker 5: be interesting for a coach the enemy to take a
Speaker 5: look at what Rochan offers this offense that may be
Speaker 5: different than DeAndre and.
Speaker 4: The rest of the guys yeah, I agree.
Speaker 7: DeAndre does do more in space, but I think Rochan
Speaker 7: is a little bit more specific specifically, go line. I
Speaker 7: don't want the ball handed to Doug Kramer. Give it
Speaker 7: to Roshan Johnson, all right, he's the bigger back who
Speaker 7: can pound it in there. Short guardage situations. Give it
Speaker 7: to Rochan. I don't care. I don't think Tom cares.
Speaker 7: If everybody in the stadium knows that Roshan's getting the ball,
Speaker 7: if everybody does their job, he should be able to
Speaker 7: get one yard. Okay, slow middle screens like what Tom said,
Speaker 7: those plays are ideal for Rochan. It's still a passing play.
Speaker 7: It's a screen, but you can muscle it up in
Speaker 7: the offensive line and get Donald field and Roachan is.
Speaker 6: Very good in that area picking up blitzes. Rochean.
Speaker 7: He can be a bowling ball with a nickelback coming
Speaker 7: off the edge. Cut Rochan on him. Hey man, that
Speaker 7: guy will stonewall anybody coming off the edge. There are
Speaker 7: things that he can do well and how he needs
Speaker 7: to be utilized and like and I like his juice
Speaker 7: when he's in a game, he kind of I don't
Speaker 7: want to say it's his attitude, but with his energy
Speaker 7: with his physicality, it raises the level of play everybody.
Speaker 7: In my opinion, it inspires guys. I like that about Roachon.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, they were a couple couple of games where
Speaker 3: he put guys on their back and he is fiery
Speaker 3: and very much that way. Ian Wheeler in college obviously
Speaker 3: was the hammer and never really the nail. In college,
Speaker 3: he ran with attitude and violence, and we saw what
Speaker 3: he could bring to the table in the preseason last
Speaker 3: year with speed as well. Tom I know he suffered
Speaker 3: the ACL injury. It tore him up big time, but
Speaker 3: he's back. We interviewed him, we'll hear from him in
Speaker 3: a couple of weeks on this show. But he's got
Speaker 3: a great attitude, another pickback and just untap potential.
Speaker 4: What do you think about Ian?
Speaker 5: One thing I like about Ian has got innate ability
Speaker 5: to see and visualize how the hole is going to
Speaker 5: open up. And he's the type of guy that he
Speaker 5: can make interior moves inside the line of scrimmage to
Speaker 5: make a linebacker miss or get that important extra two
Speaker 5: to four yards after contact. I like Ian Wheeler. I
Speaker 5: like the you know, his excitement, that his ability to
Speaker 5: go out there and compete and I don't think there's
Speaker 5: you can't you put him in a running back room
Speaker 5: and you make the running back room more competitive. You
Speaker 5: don't ever put him in a room in a position
Speaker 5: room and think, oh, my position room didn't get any better.
Speaker 5: I think if you increase the competition, it means a
Speaker 5: lot for every one of those guys. But I still
Speaker 5: like what I've seen out of Ian Wheeler in training
Speaker 5: camp last year.
Speaker 7: This guy's a jitterbug. He obviously has a ton of speed.
Speaker 7: You know, you can utilize him in certain situations sprint draws,
Speaker 7: space plays, wide receiver screens when you split him out
Speaker 7: motion them out of the backfield.
Speaker 6: I think those are the.
Speaker 7: Best assets of Ian Wheeler because his speed is second
Speaker 7: to none, where he kind of just destroys angles of defenders,
Speaker 7: and so he's a different rink. He's a different wrinkle
Speaker 7: that they can use out of the backfield.
Speaker 3: And so is Kyle Manungai can't wait to watch him
Speaker 3: in preseason. Here, seventh round pick out of Rutgers five
Speaker 3: nine to two oh nine, led the Big Ten and
Speaker 3: rushing in twenty three. Second behind I I was Caleb
Speaker 3: Johnson in twenty twenty four and led the conference in
Speaker 3: rushing attempts with two fifty six, also was on punt block,
Speaker 3: he was on kick coverage.
Speaker 4: He was on punt coverage. And this quote I found
Speaker 4: in a story. I don't know who.
Speaker 3: Wrote it, but I had copied the quote. Be competitive
Speaker 3: around the guys around me in the room. That's what
Speaker 3: I like to show them. There's no chill chill way,
Speaker 3: no cool chill way.
Speaker 4: To go about it.
Speaker 3: You just got to be on the edge of your
Speaker 3: seat at all times and to show them, not that
Speaker 3: I've done everything that I want to do, but if
Speaker 3: you want to get to where you want to get to,
Speaker 3: that's the type of urgency and the type of mentality.
Speaker 4: Have to take to do things.
Speaker 3: And I think Tom that underscore is the competitive aspect
Speaker 3: that you just said about, you know, Wheeler. I think
Speaker 3: we're going to see it firsthand from Kyle Manungai, who
Speaker 3: also is a stellar pass protector at least he was
Speaker 3: in the Big ten.
Speaker 5: Well, Manungue, how long does it take you to make
Speaker 5: to tell yourself that you belong? I can remember in
Speaker 5: going up against the eighty five defense in nine on
Speaker 5: seven in practice, in the first couple plays, Jeff I
Speaker 5: thought there's no way I can do this. I can't
Speaker 5: even catch these guys. Singletary is five steps laterally before
Speaker 5: I can even get to the thing, and then all
Speaker 5: of a sudden the process starts slowing down. Then all
Speaker 5: of a sudden, you do one thing well and you
Speaker 5: kind of make yourself believe I can do this, And
Speaker 5: then you got to make sure that that infiltrates your mind.
Speaker 5: And Manunguy, once he sits out there and he sees TJ.
Speaker 5: Edwards across from him, he sees Tremaine Edmunds across from
Speaker 5: He's got to make sure that he doesn't get intimidated
Speaker 5: that he doesn't know if he can block these guys,
Speaker 5: because you're going to have those guys facing you every
Speaker 5: team across the NFL board. But as soon as you
Speaker 5: feel that you belong, then you're starting to make that
Speaker 5: most important first step to allow him to believe everything
Speaker 5: he's done he can compete.
Speaker 7: Jim.
Speaker 4: He's a Jersey kid. Man, He's a Jersey kid. He
Speaker 4: comes in building up, built for that.
Speaker 7: Yeah, well, manung guy should believe. Because the running back
Speaker 7: who got drafted ahead of him, it's Isaiah Pachecko, also
Speaker 7: from Rutgers.
Speaker 6: He was a seventh rounder.
Speaker 7: That's seventh rounder Isaiah pacheckll He unseated Clyde Edwards Lair,
Speaker 7: who's the first rounder. Pachecko runs angry. Yeah, you know
Speaker 7: when I look at who the Bears drafted and there's
Speaker 7: seventh rounder out of Rutgers, he's an angry dude and
Speaker 7: he plays angry and everything that he does, he's got
Speaker 7: a shot.
Speaker 3: Don Bosco prep a powerhouse over there in New Jersey.
Speaker 3: Excellent vision and patients running the ball.
Speaker 4: All right, we come back.
Speaker 3: We dig in Bears by the Numbers and it's all
Speaker 3: about Caleb Williams and what to look forward to as
Speaker 3: it somewhat compares to what happened in Detroit. Jared Goff,
Speaker 3: It's Bears Weekly on the SPN one thousand of the
Speaker 3: Bears Radio Net.
Speaker 1: You were listening to Bears Weekly. I'm a Bears Radio Network. Well,
Speaker 1: welcome back to Bears Weekly. Com a Bears Radio Network.
Speaker 2: Here's your host, the voice of the Bears, Jeff Jody.
Speaker 3: This segment of Bears Weekly has brought to you by
Speaker 3: Igs Energy. Jeff, Tom and Jim with you as we
Speaker 3: dig into the Bears by the Numbers. Here, so much
Speaker 3: to look forward to for Caleb Williams, it was a
Speaker 3: baptism by fire for him as well. Last year the
Speaker 3: week to week uncertainty and while they did have the
Speaker 3: unthinkable skid, they did start four and two.
Speaker 4: And things were looking promising.
Speaker 3: But I want to dig into the finale, the twenty
Speaker 3: four to twenty two win over Green Bay a stat
Speaker 3: line of twenty one of twenty nine only one hundred
Speaker 3: and forty eight yards passing, one touchdown, no interceptions, and
Speaker 3: one sack. All right, Tom, in this offense, that yardage
Speaker 3: is going to elevate with the simple fact that we
Speaker 3: have talked about several times and Bears etc. Bears weekly,
Speaker 3: We're gonna have yard after the catch, big plays.
Speaker 4: Really that that's what Ben Johnson. And now open up
Speaker 4: the middle of the field.
Speaker 3: It'll open up the deep passing game as well, that
Speaker 3: kind of production.
Speaker 5: You know one thing about the quarterbacks job, it's never
Speaker 5: a one man job. It's how are you being complimented
Speaker 5: by the segments that you're playing with. Is there consistency
Speaker 5: on the offensive line and is that group in front
Speaker 5: of you from the start of padded practices until you
Speaker 5: get into the regular season, how do you start developing
Speaker 5: that relationship with Luther Burden and how it does his
Speaker 5: development compliment Dj Moore and Roma Doonse. Then how does
Speaker 5: Colston Lovelin come in here and compliment the tight end
Speaker 5: room When you have multiple tight ends that can play
Speaker 5: at a high NFL level.
Speaker 4: And that's the one thing about Caleb.
Speaker 5: You put them in the most difficult working atmosphere that
Speaker 5: last game of the year against Green Bay and he's
Speaker 5: able to have some control at the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 5: That is one of the biggest obstacles that he overcame
Speaker 5: last year. And he's going to understand how to maneuver
Speaker 5: that crowd noise in those difficult working atmospheres. And then
Speaker 5: when you get I'm at home and he has more
Speaker 5: volume control of his offense, and you've got play action,
Speaker 5: you got under center, and you got all these things
Speaker 5: that can help a young quarterback develop. I expect his
Speaker 5: numbers and the positive direction to go up tremendously.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I do too.
Speaker 7: I think Ben is going to give him a checklist
Speaker 7: at the line of scrimmage for every play that he
Speaker 7: needs to understand. If he goes through his checklist and
Speaker 7: follows that, you know, follows the instruction of what the
Speaker 7: coach is looking for. I'll I think he'll have great success.
Speaker 7: He can't worry about anybody else. He has to trust
Speaker 7: what his old line is doing. Trust that everybody else
Speaker 7: is understands their job, and if they don't, that's his
Speaker 7: job to tell them what to do what their job is.
Speaker 7: He's got to have the inner working knowledge of everything.
Speaker 7: But if he does that, he'll know that checklist inside
Speaker 7: and out and what he's able to do, what he's
Speaker 7: not able to do to get the Bears in the
Speaker 7: best play to take advanceage of what they're being presented.
Speaker 7: I really think Ben Johnson is very disciplined and he
Speaker 7: is very thorough of what he is going to ask
Speaker 7: him to do.
Speaker 4: All right, So let's take under center.
Speaker 3: Jared Goff led the NFL in passing from under center,
Speaker 3: with three hundred and twenty five attempts, completing seventy six
Speaker 3: percent of his passes twenty three hundred and forty four yards,
Speaker 3: far and away number one in the NFL, seventeen touchdowns,
Speaker 3: just four picks and sacks seven times one twenty three point.
Speaker 4: Eight quarterback rating.
Speaker 3: Only nine quarterbacks in the league threw for over one
Speaker 3: thousand yards for under center, but six of them made
Speaker 3: the playoffs. Caleb only had eighty nine passing attempts from
Speaker 3: under a non shotgun throw six hundred and fifty five yards,
Speaker 3: three touchdowns, two interceptions, eight sacks. So with the desire
Speaker 3: to have more of a play action passing game and
Speaker 3: working from under center, I would be very excited if
Speaker 3: I were Caleb.
Speaker 5: Williams, I would too, because there's a lot more deception
Speaker 5: that you can use from under center than in a shotgun.
Speaker 5: When you go a shotgun with that many pass attempts,
Speaker 5: you're giving kind of a little bit of an indicator
Speaker 5: to the defense, and then that defensive coordinator knows how
Speaker 5: to match up personnel against what he's seeing out of
Speaker 5: the offensive formation. So the first thing, Caleb gets comfortable
Speaker 5: and under center play action, and now you're creating deception
Speaker 5: and maybe some hesitation in the front of that defense
Speaker 5: to put the receivers in a more positive position when
Speaker 5: Caleb wants to throw the ball.
Speaker 4: So that's what I'm excited to see.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think it just creates more conflict of interest,
Speaker 7: like Tom is referring to, for a defense, if you're
Speaker 7: running outside zone, outside zone, outside zone, then you come
Speaker 7: with a boot leg. You cannot do that from shotgun. Yeah,
Speaker 7: you can run outside zone, but there's no play action
Speaker 7: fake off of that. Same with inside zone and other
Speaker 7: run plays, dual plays, gap plays that you call. You
Speaker 7: can create a lot of conflict of interest for those
Speaker 7: defensive players and it just opens up so much more
Speaker 7: of your offense that you'll be able to do that,
Speaker 7: You'll be able to marry up off of your traditional
Speaker 7: run game from underneath center.
Speaker 6: It all works hand in hand.
Speaker 3: Those stats, by the way, from Stats Inc. All right, Tommy,
Speaker 3: tight end attempts, you're big on this. We talked about
Speaker 3: it the other day. We're trying to forecast how many
Speaker 3: kicks for cole Comet and Colston level at the tight
Speaker 3: end position. Last season, the Bears were twenty ninth in
Speaker 3: total tight end attempts, just twelve percent of the throws.
Speaker 3: Jared Goff was at ninety nine tight end attempts, so
Speaker 3: it's only thirty more at eighteen point four percent. So
Speaker 3: they did throw the ball to the backs and to
Speaker 3: the wide receivers. And obviously I'm on ross Saint Brown
Speaker 3: had a lot of targets, so I know.
Speaker 4: You want that number way up.
Speaker 3: I think by virtue of this offense, it will automatically
Speaker 3: go way up.
Speaker 5: Well, I think it will just because you look at
Speaker 5: the talent that they have in the tight end room,
Speaker 5: but you also look at I'm going to keep referring
Speaker 5: to play action because play action you have the ability
Speaker 5: to have your tight end being able to help the
Speaker 5: tackle and then get out on the media and be
Speaker 5: one of the first or second options in that pass route.
Speaker 5: So it's not that you can't ask these guys to
Speaker 5: have double duty on a passing play. You encourage double duty.
Speaker 5: You give a more secure block to the offensive tackle,
Speaker 5: and then you still get him out in a route
Speaker 5: and you get get the ball into the hands of
Speaker 5: one of these tight ends at four to seven yards
Speaker 5: and expect another three out of them. You talk about
Speaker 5: a first down. So I just I want more. I
Speaker 5: want more tight end.
Speaker 3: And Jimmy one point one percent interception percentage for the
Speaker 3: year as a rookie, I thought that was fantastic.
Speaker 4: Here's another you only had six picks. But here's another one.
Speaker 3: Forty eight passes were considered passes defense or eight point
Speaker 3: five percent.
Speaker 4: And that was in five hundred and sixty two throws.
Speaker 3: Anthony Richardson for example, and we know how much difficulty
Speaker 3: he had. He only threw two hundred and sixty four passes.
Speaker 3: He had won more passes defense than Caleb did in
Speaker 3: half of them out of throws at eighteen point six percent,
Speaker 3: with forty nine on two hundred and sixty four throws.
Speaker 7: Anthony Richardson, he can't identify coverage, you know, and I
Speaker 7: think teams they can script where you throw the ball.
Speaker 7: So Anthony Richardson was is a very inaccurate quarterback. So
Speaker 7: when you're an inaccurate quarterback, what did the defensive coordinators
Speaker 7: want you to do? They want you to throw the
Speaker 7: ball down the field because that makes you a more
Speaker 7: inaccurate passer, and they already know he's inaccurate.
Speaker 4: All right, one more segment to go.
Speaker 3: We get Tom Stotts in segment number five here on
Speaker 3: Bears Weekly and asked Ben one thousand of the Bears
Speaker 3: Radio Network.
Speaker 1: You were tuned into Bears Weekly with Jeff Jony Act
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Speaker 3: This segment of Bears Weekly brought to you by I've
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Speaker 3: Jeff Joning Act Tom there, Jim Miller our wrap up segment.
Speaker 3: Tom gets those Tom Stotts going. Jim, you can't stop him.
Speaker 3: You just can't stop him.
Speaker 4: You hope to contain them as his good friends. Chris Berman,
Speaker 4: what always say? Tom?
Speaker 3: You have the floor, buddy? What are your What are
Speaker 3: Tom's thoughts today? If it start in the secondary, You're
Speaker 3: big on this. You keep talking about YOUA Kwon brisk
Speaker 3: You keep talking about Tyrek Stevenson.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because they they both have two different obstacles to overcome,
Speaker 5: and you can't minimize the importance and the overall success
Speaker 5: of a defense when you look at you Kwon Brisker.
Speaker 5: Here's a guy that's recovering from a health issue, and
Speaker 5: he's badly needed in the secondary because he has the
Speaker 5: ability to be a great player. And I think if
Speaker 5: you have consistency in the defensive backfield, you give a
Speaker 5: lot more opportunity in understanding what your defensive coordinator can
Speaker 5: do to a football team. And then I look at
Speaker 5: Tyreek Stevenson. I think the conversation of the Hail Mary
Speaker 5: and Washington is over, but it's still not a non
Speaker 5: topic of discussion around the football landscape. And Tyreek Stevenson,
Speaker 5: to me, he's got really I think he's got great ability.
Speaker 5: I think he's the most physical defensive back the Bears have,
Speaker 5: but he plays one of the most fragile positions that
Speaker 5: you can have on a football team. So to me,
Speaker 5: as we talk about consistency in the offensive line, let's
Speaker 5: talk about consistency in the defensive.
Speaker 4: Backfield in two of those guys.
Speaker 5: Is the play of Tyreek Stevenson and the on the
Speaker 5: field opportunity for Jakwan Brisker.
Speaker 3: Now at Jim the top four safeties the Bear on
Speaker 3: their final year of their contract, so it's going to
Speaker 3: be an internal competitive thing going on to try and
Speaker 3: get that next deal either with the team or somebody else.
Speaker 3: In addition to so that's another important year for your
Speaker 3: go on Brisker, for sure.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think for for I think for every player.
Speaker 7: You're right, not only the contract your players, but this
Speaker 7: is a new coach, all.
Speaker 3: Right, we got joint practices against Buffalo and Miami. How
Speaker 3: important will that be for Caleb Williams, Tommy and his growth.
Speaker 3: By the way, last preseason forty two preseason snaps. I'm
Speaker 3: wondering also from both of you as a question, b
Speaker 3: how many snap should he get in the preseason. But Tom,
Speaker 3: those two practices are vital, aren't they right, Well.
Speaker 5: That's my point of emphasis, and the most important practices
Speaker 5: in training camp for Caleb is going to be the
Speaker 5: joint practices against the preseason opponents because you don't know
Speaker 5: how many game snaps are going to get and you're
Speaker 5: able to script different scenarios that you want to see Caleb.
Speaker 5: But also the talent that he's going to be playing
Speaker 5: against is not as predictable as the thousand reps that
Speaker 5: you get against the talent that you see every day
Speaker 5: in OTAs in training camp. So I think it's a
Speaker 5: super important practices. I hope the conditions aren't rainy like
Speaker 5: they were last year against Cincinnati. I hope they're dry,
Speaker 5: perfect conditions because you're bringing two teams and you have
Speaker 5: that working atmosphere that kind of is more of a
Speaker 5: challenge to every one of these guys. And I'm just
Speaker 5: singling out Caleb because it's a little bit different when
Speaker 5: you're scripting seven on sevens and TeamWorks against an opponent
Speaker 5: and they are trying to to show things of their
Speaker 5: own development of their team. So I just think they're
Speaker 5: two important practices that we need to focus on this
Speaker 5: training camp.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that'll be a great opportunity for a team who
Speaker 7: has earned it. So Buffalo has been to the playoffs
Speaker 7: six out of whatever the last seven years. This will
Speaker 7: be an opportunity to get the good work in all
Speaker 7: the areas that Tom's talking about. The starters should get
Speaker 7: all the reps during the week, I mean, because that's
Speaker 7: where they get to gel play together against some of
Speaker 7: the top, top, top competition in the NFL. Then come
Speaker 7: the game time on Saturday, that's fine, all the backups
Speaker 7: can get the work then, But that's how you really
Speaker 7: get all the scripted work that Tom's talking about and
Speaker 7: all the good situations against an opponent who is worthy
Speaker 7: and definitely will be a good test for the Bears
Speaker 7: to see where they're at.
Speaker 3: Ah Jim, you make a great point, as memory serves,
Speaker 3: because this is the first time the Bears have practiced
Speaker 3: against two teams. Usually starters don't play in the preseason game.
Speaker 5: Lo Jim said, I would rather have all my starters
Speaker 5: take all the reps in the joint practices.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, let.
Speaker 5: The backups play in the game, because then you kind
Speaker 5: of get a two tier Austin evalue, honest evaluation of
Speaker 5: a practice that means a lot to a game, that
Speaker 5: means a lot to some of the guys that are
Speaker 5: fighting for opportunities.
Speaker 4: And you can.
Speaker 7: Script those starters, like like Tom said, in any situation,
Speaker 7: you want those starters in key situations. You may not
Speaker 7: see during that game. You may not get a two
Speaker 7: minute drive, you may not see that, you may not
Speaker 7: get a goal line period. Well guess what, boys, you're
Speaker 7: going against the playoff team and goal line period. We
Speaker 7: need to see it.
Speaker 4: Hey, I don't know if this is the first gym.
Speaker 3: You would know better than Tom and I because you
Speaker 3: scan the globe in the NFL every day on serious XM.
Speaker 4: But I did.
Speaker 3: All thirty two teams will be practicing against somebody else
Speaker 3: in this preseason the NFL. Actually, I announced it yesterday,
Speaker 3: all the different I think that's fantastic.
Speaker 6: I think it is too.
Speaker 7: I think you get great work and it's actually more
Speaker 7: productive than the preseason games and better yet, I do
Speaker 7: believe this Tom and Jeff. I think that should be
Speaker 7: monetized by the NFL. They should have Tom Thayer and
Speaker 7: Jeff Joniac actually broadcasting that joint scrimmage and they should
Speaker 7: televise it. Honestly, it's another way it could be in
Speaker 7: a revenue stream for teams. They could advertise it. Granted,
Speaker 7: you're still going to go to commercial breaks, but that
Speaker 7: practice should just roll and you guys are going through
Speaker 7: every period, whether it's one on one's goal line, period
Speaker 7: four or two minute drill, four minute drive, and you're
Speaker 7: just breaking it down for all the fans that are
Speaker 7: out there, and I think fans would be interested. It'd
Speaker 7: be more to me, it would be more interesting doing
Speaker 7: a joint practice and even a preseason game in what
Speaker 7: they are the areas of focus that teams are like.
Speaker 3: Honestly, we did that against the Rams in Western Illinois.
Speaker 4: We did that. We did that, We did that very thing.
Speaker 5: Let me give you one more USFL example. That's why
Speaker 5: I think there should be no preason games. We practice
Speaker 5: against the Oakland Invaders in the morning, packed up the
Speaker 5: bus and we drove to the Denver Gold practice facility
Speaker 5: and practice against them in the afternoon. Come on, similar
Speaker 5: to what twa days were, but we had two practices,
Speaker 5: two scrimmages in one day against two different teams.
Speaker 4: So it's been done before. That's hilarious and we're gonna
Speaker 4: end right there. Tom.
Speaker 3: We got to save one of your Tom's thoughts for
Speaker 3: next week. We got to run. Thank you very much, fellas.
Speaker 3: That's going to do it for us. The executive producer
Speaker 3: of the Bears Radio Network is Eric Ostrowski. Thanks to
Speaker 3: Dan b Really, Jordan Treadab, and Katie Fox for Tom There,
Speaker 3: Jim Meta, I'm Jeff Joniac. This has been Bears Weekly
Speaker 3: on the radio home of the Chicago Bears, ESPM Chicago.
Speaker 3: Have a good night, everybody. Game six of the NBA
Speaker 3: Finals is coming up next.
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