Speaker 1: The following is a presentation of the Chicago Bears Network
Speaker 1: and Chicago Bears dot Com. Download the Chicago Bears Official
Speaker 1: mobile app for up to the minute Bears content every
Speaker 1: day and now welcome to Bears All Access, your all
Speaker 1: access pass into Chicago Bears football. Bears All Access is
Speaker 1: brought to you by IGS Energy and sponsored by Miller, Litte,
Speaker 1: CDW and Forward. Hey everybody, Jeff joniak with you with
Speaker 1: my broadcast partner from news Radio seven eighty one to
Speaker 1: five point FMWBBM, the eighty five Bear, Tom Fair in
Speaker 1: the Score studio, and former Bears quarterback Jim Miller joining
Speaker 1: us as always Welcome into the program. Bears All Access
Speaker 1: presented by IGS Energy. Fellows, how we all do on? What?
Speaker 1: Where is your heads at right now? Where we got
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks to go? I don't you know,
Speaker 1: Jim may feel the same way I do. The last
Speaker 1: month before training camp always started as a player. It
Speaker 1: was the worst mood of my month, and I didn't
Speaker 1: want to talk to people. I didn't want to see anybody.
Speaker 1: Just wanted to sit in a room by myself and
Speaker 1: wait for that to begin. Now it's different because just
Speaker 1: they take a little bit better care of you. But
Speaker 1: I don't know how Jim, as a player, you live
Speaker 1: that last month before training camp, because that's that's the
Speaker 1: real stuff, that's when it really starts. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: I don't want to get what I want to say, dark,
Speaker 1: But I like being in a prison. It was a
Speaker 1: prison sentence, like top saying, because you're doing the countdown
Speaker 1: of the days until your freedom is finally there. You
Speaker 1: this unleash yourself on a football field. But I felt
Speaker 1: the same way. It was always on my mind. I
Speaker 1: was always anxious. You're always questioning yourself, have I done
Speaker 1: enough to prepare and knowing that I did, knowing that
Speaker 1: I did, but you always have those questions and hey,
Speaker 1: and you know, finally it's there and it's upon you.
Speaker 1: But you know, it was constantly twenty four to seven
Speaker 1: that you were thinking about it. Things you wanted to do,
Speaker 1: things you wanted to accomplish, and if you did enough
Speaker 1: to really raise your level of play every offseason. Honestly,
Speaker 1: the average person would say, now, wait a minute, this
Speaker 1: is a game that you know, you're playing a kid's
Speaker 1: game at a man's level, and you're getting paid very
Speaker 1: nicely for it. You should be excited to get, but
Speaker 1: no one really knows the inner workings of the day
Speaker 1: to day grind, especially when you guys played in time.
Speaker 1: But it it was, it was difficult. It's your living,
Speaker 1: it's your life, it's your livelihood, it's your financial stabiling.
Speaker 1: What your your opportunity to gain some ground on your
Speaker 1: finances as you get older, because it's not gonna get
Speaker 1: You're not gonna solve your finance situation. When you played
Speaker 1: football back in our era, you had to play as
Speaker 1: long as you can to earn the opportunities you earn,
Speaker 1: So you know, just the everyday competitiveness of it and
Speaker 1: that thought that is in your mind. It's just how
Speaker 1: mentally stressed were both of you. Seriously, if you had
Speaker 1: a bad day at practice in training camp with a
Speaker 1: guy breathing down your well, I'll talk from from my
Speaker 1: personal It's not like you know, I wasn't a first
Speaker 1: round pick. I was a sixth rounder out of Michigan State.
Speaker 1: You know, I believe in myself a new eye talent.
Speaker 1: But literally my rookie year, I broke my hand, broke
Speaker 1: my hand in my livelihood and they said year done.
Speaker 1: I got in one preseason game. How happened. Jason Gilden
Speaker 1: came in, we were doing third down. I got thrown
Speaker 1: in with the first team in Latrobe. Pao was playing
Speaker 1: extremely well. I was I think they were thinking of
Speaker 1: making me the two because I thought at that point
Speaker 1: I was beating out Mike tom Sack me personally, and
Speaker 1: I think that's why they were throwing me in with
Speaker 1: the ones. More because I had come off of really
Speaker 1: two good scrimmages against Washington and Buffalo played well, and
Speaker 1: then we were doing a blitz period and Jason Gilden
Speaker 1: came in and we were I was throwing a pass
Speaker 1: and Gilden swatted at my hand. I broke my thumb
Speaker 1: and tore the ligaments in my thumb, and that shelved
Speaker 1: me for that year. I'm like, man, are they going
Speaker 1: to keep me? Is what's going to happen? So I
Speaker 1: felt I was on the bubble to begin with because
Speaker 1: Andy Kelly, he was a big Arena league star at
Speaker 1: that point, he was the fourth quarterback, He had played
Speaker 1: a lot, he was older than me at that point,
Speaker 1: so I knew there wasn't a given and he was
Speaker 1: having a good camp too, and uh, you know, so
Speaker 1: I didn't even know coming out of that training camp.
Speaker 1: And then the next year they draft Cordell Stewart. I'm
Speaker 1: played into the World League and I break my wrist,
Speaker 1: my livelihood, so I thought that year I was gonna
Speaker 1: get cut. I came back and had the camp of
Speaker 1: my life and they kept four quarterbacks. And that was
Speaker 1: back when you know, very rare. Did that happen that
Speaker 1: they keep four quarterbacks? And they did that year too.
Speaker 1: It's but two years I came, I made the team
Speaker 1: with injuries. Believe it or not. You gotta drink more milk.
Speaker 1: See now you know you sixth round picked Tom. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and but he's a quarterback. Now that that that that's
Speaker 1: like being a fourth rounder because everybody wants to find
Speaker 1: the quarterback. And Dick Duron used to tell me all
Speaker 1: the time, if Jim could have stayed out, the kid
Speaker 1: had been a Pro Bowl quarterback. But did you ever
Speaker 1: hear or read and don't tell me you didn't read.
Speaker 1: Did you ever hear the term? Well, he's never gonna
Speaker 1: make it, or God forbid, he's a bust forget about it.
Speaker 1: For me, personally, I knew I could play, you know,
Speaker 1: I knew when I stacked up in that first camp
Speaker 1: gave me a lot of conference confidence where I said
Speaker 1: I belong here. I knew that, But sometimes in the NFL,
Speaker 1: it's things are happenstance. You get labeled, you know early,
Speaker 1: you know, I had injuries early in my career. Is
Speaker 1: the injury prone. I had, you know, to two separated
Speaker 1: shoulders in college, you know, so you know, so you
Speaker 1: had got to overcome all those things and then you know,
Speaker 1: work yourself and kind of shed those labels. And I
Speaker 1: had been bounced around the league. And when I arrived
Speaker 1: to Chicago, I knew from my standpoint, I was mentally
Speaker 1: and physically ready. I was, you know, even though they
Speaker 1: had drafted Kate mcdown and Shane Matthews was there. I
Speaker 1: was ready and I knew I could I could do well.
Speaker 1: But you know, unfortunately for me, that injury bug returned.
Speaker 1: You know, torn achilles, tenants, shoulder injuries, you know, you
Speaker 1: name it, you kind of go through. But you know, mentally,
Speaker 1: at that point, I knew I could play, and I
Speaker 1: knew I belonged to start in the NFL. I knew
Speaker 1: that personally, and I knew I could do it. Tom,
Speaker 1: you were a warrior out there to say the least,
Speaker 1: were you ever in a position in a game or
Speaker 1: a practice when you thought there is not a chance
Speaker 1: I can play through this pain I'm in at the
Speaker 1: moment and still was able to do it because you
Speaker 1: didn't miss anything. No, but you know, it's funny that
Speaker 1: we were playing the Pittsburgh Steelers once and the second play,
Speaker 1: the second to last play of the first half, we
Speaker 1: were running a screen and I went to stop my
Speaker 1: guy and then release him and go out on the screen.
Speaker 1: And when I stopped and planted my foot, I snapped
Speaker 1: my plan or fashion, and it hurts so bad I
Speaker 1: couldn't believe. So I made it through the next play,
Speaker 1: and then I ran into the locker room and took
Speaker 1: all my foot off, my shoe off and everything, and
Speaker 1: then I got my foot injected. Right now, I think
Speaker 1: you've told me this story on Team Plane one time,
Speaker 1: that the needle was the whole experience is brutal because
Speaker 1: they shot all around your foot on top of it,
Speaker 1: and you don't want to get into that story. But anyways,
Speaker 1: that was one of the challenges because the instance of discomfort,
Speaker 1: it hurts you. And he said, okay, I got twelve
Speaker 1: minutes at halftime. Let's get this taken care of, and
Speaker 1: now the next six or seven weeks were awful. But
Speaker 1: you know, aside from and is going to put you
Speaker 1: in a position where you're talking about yourself. And I
Speaker 1: know you don't like this, but you're you're you're physically gifted.
Speaker 1: You worked your tail off in the weight room. You
Speaker 1: made yourself strong and ready to play snap after snap
Speaker 1: after snap for a long period of time. But there's
Speaker 1: a mental component. Were you mentally stronger than you were
Speaker 1: physically strong? Yes, but that came from my mom and dad.
Speaker 1: It did, and it is you know, give it Where
Speaker 1: do you give credit? Where credit to due? You know,
Speaker 1: my dad worked outdoors every day. It was life for
Speaker 1: forty three years. My mom's eighty six and she still
Speaker 1: goes to work every day. So you do develop it,
Speaker 1: but you're also given the good genes and in the
Speaker 1: good you know, upbringing to challenge yourself like that. We're
Speaker 1: gonna take a break. The interesting aspect of asking two
Speaker 1: former NFL players who played long careers is that you're
Speaker 1: getting ready for training camp here in a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks and all these same topics who will be discussed
Speaker 1: with the current ninety man edition of the twenty eighteen
Speaker 1: Chicago Bears. You're finding out who's physically who's mentally strong
Speaker 1: and ready to You're listening to Bears All Access on
Speaker 1: Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to score and welcome back
Speaker 1: to Bears All Access everybody. This is brought to you
Speaker 1: by IGS Energy, a proud partner of the Chicago Bears,
Speaker 1: providing electricity, natural gas, and home warranty products to over
Speaker 1: one million customers across the country. Learn more about IGS
Speaker 1: Energy at IGS dot com. Jeff, Jony Act, Tom there,
Speaker 1: Jim Miller with you on another edition of Bears All Access.
Speaker 1: Counting it down really the training camp. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you guys had a chance to check out Chicago
Speaker 1: Bears dot com. It's been all over Twitter and all
Speaker 1: the different platforms. The Bears put out information and features.
Speaker 1: The Meet the Rookie series. It kicked off last week
Speaker 1: and it features Roquan Smith, the linebacker, Anthony Miller, James Daniels,
Speaker 1: and Joel Eway. But James, I just messed it up.
Speaker 1: But anyway, James is an honor yet, is he? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I just saw it, yeah, because I saw
Speaker 1: the first three. Yeah, So and Jim. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've had time to to see those, but they're
Speaker 1: really revealing about the roots of what they're all about,
Speaker 1: where they came from and the coaching they got no
Speaker 1: different than the two of you. How you guys were
Speaker 1: raised from the great school level all the way through
Speaker 1: high school, college and into the NFL. But I love
Speaker 1: the journeys, man. They tell a story and all their
Speaker 1: different people who touched their lives in the way of
Speaker 1: football or their parents. It's really interesting to see the
Speaker 1: journey of where and these guys appear to me to
Speaker 1: be very mental. Well you know, it's funny is we're
Speaker 1: all slapped with a little bit of reality early in
Speaker 1: our sports life in some way, shape or form. Because
Speaker 1: the two linebackers of the Bear drafted were first interested
Speaker 1: in basketball and then something introduced some of the sport
Speaker 1: of football and that's where mentally physically in with the enthusiasm.
Speaker 1: That's when they really flourished into what they became, which
Speaker 1: is really interesting. And then when you watch Anthony Miller,
Speaker 1: this guy about those routes he's running. But right this
Speaker 1: this guy is straight up self made. There is there
Speaker 1: is there is no boutique of about him and this guy.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see what becomes of his career
Speaker 1: because what he's invested in and Jim's talked about trusting
Speaker 1: himself as a quarterback when he knew he could play.
Speaker 1: This is Anthony is always I'm all in on myself
Speaker 1: and I'd tell you and that piece was really interesting
Speaker 1: to see. To give even more of a presence of it, well,
Speaker 1: I think you do see teams paying attention more to
Speaker 1: you know, the just the character of a young because
Speaker 1: I do think the Bears drafted all character guys, you know,
Speaker 1: from Roquan even to Iggy who you're referring to. If
Speaker 1: you read that guy's background, he's got an interesting background.
Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting. His coach and if you
Speaker 1: go to Chicago Bears dot com and read the Rookie series,
Speaker 1: Mike Sandford, who was his coach in college, just said, Hey,
Speaker 1: this guy is a number one character guy off the field.
Speaker 1: Just he goes, I want my kids around him all day.
Speaker 1: So these are solid citizens number one, because I think
Speaker 1: sometimes we get caught up in not realizing that there's
Speaker 1: a human being underneath that helmet. Granted you see the
Speaker 1: player in the game with the with the helmet on.
Speaker 1: But there is a human element side of this and
Speaker 1: what these these players not only are going to be
Speaker 1: as football players, but as citizens in general, because we
Speaker 1: should all care about that at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: And I think they drafted a lot of solid character
Speaker 1: guys who won't care about football tremendously because they're they're
Speaker 1: they are driven by the sport that they love to
Speaker 1: be successful. But even if they weren't played football, they'd
Speaker 1: be successful as well. Joel Ea booney way is the
Speaker 1: proper pronunciation, and that's a part of the piece as well.
Speaker 1: But whenever I hear student of the game from a
Speaker 1: coach at any level, my ears perk up. I'm a
Speaker 1: I'm all about that, because that's kind of the plan.
Speaker 1: Ryan Pace wants smart football players, right if you don't,
Speaker 1: I mean, we've seen many in You have to be
Speaker 1: smart in order to play the sport at this level
Speaker 1: because you see the complexity of what the coaches requirements.
Speaker 1: But there are guys that are not, then they don't play.
Speaker 1: But hold on, now, so the guys that don't have
Speaker 1: the FBI the football intelligence that Scout's always attached and
Speaker 1: Jim you you talked to head coaches more than Tom
Speaker 1: and I do you talk to them all. There are
Speaker 1: not many things you can do with a guy that
Speaker 1: doesn't have football intelligence. Unless they're athletically gifted, they get
Speaker 1: a chance, and they're usually in many cases well if
Speaker 1: they're not football smart, they are first round picks with
Speaker 1: a lot of talent that they never realized that. All. Right,
Speaker 1: say you take a guy like JJ Watt, so jj
Speaker 1: Watt and say he didn't know a lot about scheme
Speaker 1: defensive football, but he uses explosiveness to be so disruptive
Speaker 1: that that's what he did. If you take a guy
Speaker 1: on offense and you think he's just going to freelance, no,
Speaker 1: your whole offense is going to be disrupted. So there
Speaker 1: may be certain superior skilled positions that you could take
Speaker 1: and put a guy out. If you put Reggi White
Speaker 1: anywhere on the defensive line and didn't even tell him
Speaker 1: the defense, just tell him to do what he wanted
Speaker 1: to do at the snap of the ball, that was junior.
Speaker 1: Say he did what he had lived his whole career,
Speaker 1: but he was Hall of Fame caliber, right, I mean
Speaker 1: guys like that, you know there are there's a difference
Speaker 1: between instincts and football intelligence. Would you agree, Fellows? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll agree with that. Why I remember when I was
Speaker 1: in Pittsburgh, we played San Diego and I remember Ron
Speaker 1: Erhart was our offensive coording. He said, guys, junior sale,
Speaker 1: this guy guesses a lot. He'll attack the wrong gap,
Speaker 1: you know, because he would he would look at our formation.
Speaker 1: He just kind of you know, using FBI and guess
Speaker 1: wrong sometimes and we gashed him for big plays. But
Speaker 1: he was a tremendous player and when he was right,
Speaker 1: of course he was right and could could stuff the play.
Speaker 1: But early in his career he was out there like
Speaker 1: any other rookie with a chicken with a head cut
Speaker 1: off in his younger years and a lot of times
Speaker 1: just relying on his athleticism and he could recover and
Speaker 1: still make plays and things like that. What you you know,
Speaker 1: much like the discussions we've had about Brian Urlacher, who
Speaker 1: was another Hall of Fame player, you know, and good
Speaker 1: for Brian going in this year, but you know, I
Speaker 1: bring up that that training camp story all the time
Speaker 1: where he guessed wrong, attacked the lead and was a
Speaker 1: good play fake, but yet had the ability to recover.
Speaker 1: But later in Brian's career because he did have football
Speaker 1: intelligence and instinctive and all those things that he was
Speaker 1: dealing with the knee injury, Brian was still out there
Speaker 1: play and making plays because his football awareness, his knowledge
Speaker 1: of the game had had grown to a level that
Speaker 1: he may have been slower in terms of the athletic ability,
Speaker 1: but was still able to make plays just due to
Speaker 1: his intelligence and knowledge of the game and love of
Speaker 1: the game, like so many players are able to do
Speaker 1: over the NFL quickly. You know, look at a guy
Speaker 1: in this generation that plays on instincts. You know he
Speaker 1: doesn't look the part, but he plays the part. When
Speaker 1: you played offensive line and you knew a guy across
Speaker 1: from your guest a lot, did it make it more
Speaker 1: difficult for you to defend or to block him and
Speaker 1: execute your game plans or not. Yeah, a guy that
Speaker 1: really guessed and you didn't couldn't predict what direction he
Speaker 1: was going to go, And all you had to do
Speaker 1: is you had to trust your fundamentals because that's the
Speaker 1: one thing with footwork, and coach Stanfeld he always built in, Look,
Speaker 1: this guy's going to go one of three ways. Your
Speaker 1: footwork if you stay fundal and a mentally sound is
Speaker 1: always going to be your savior, and that's you know,
Speaker 1: that's something y'all. Anybody that goes out there, no matter
Speaker 1: what position they have they play, they have to go
Speaker 1: out there and rely on what they've been taught all
Speaker 1: week and all their life. Meet the Rookies, by the way.
Speaker 1: It can be found on Chicago bears dot com, the
Speaker 1: Free Chicago Bears Official app, brought to you by Verizon
Speaker 1: and Bears social media channels including Facebook Watch. So a
Speaker 1: couple of things. James Daniel, he's twenty, so it was
Speaker 1: brought up in the piece that is a seemingly okay,
Speaker 1: the twenty year old James Daniel. He dismisses that because
Speaker 1: he says, hey, I'll be going up against thirty five
Speaker 1: year old guys as well. He says, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Does the age matter? No, you know, when I first
Speaker 1: got out of college, I went right into the USFL
Speaker 1: and I was like twenty years old or something, and
Speaker 1: I think one of the first guys I played against
Speaker 1: was a defensive lineman they named Koy Bacon. And I
Speaker 1: think it was forty when I was twenty. Koy Bacon. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's so kidding me. No, man. Listen, I could throw
Speaker 1: out a lot of USFL names that I played against
Speaker 1: that were vintage, But again, I had so much confidence
Speaker 1: in myself that it didn't matter the experience of the guys.
Speaker 1: Here's the question for both of you. So you go
Speaker 1: up against a forty year old man or a thirty
Speaker 1: five year old man when you're twenty twenty one, do
Speaker 1: you feel their strength or do they feel your strength
Speaker 1: as a young man who was dedicated to the weight room,
Speaker 1: Because they always say when you get to the league,
Speaker 1: you feel that the maturity of them physically, not just mentally.
Speaker 1: I mean no, no, strength with strength. Strength was always
Speaker 1: my confidence from college through pros. But you always had
Speaker 1: to be aware of guys that had great experience and
Speaker 1: instincts Keith Millard when he won defensive MVP of the
Speaker 1: League with the Minnesota Vikings, he had such superior quickness
Speaker 1: and strength and such great inatability to understand the snap
Speaker 1: count that sometimes he was untouchable. You know. So there
Speaker 1: are guys that you know played with played with greatness
Speaker 1: that yeah, you're scared the entire week of preparing for him,
Speaker 1: and then the whole time you were playing against him.
Speaker 1: Jim did anybody ever force you to drop your when
Speaker 1: you went back to throw because you were worried about
Speaker 1: them coming to get you. Um No, I was broken
Speaker 1: in pretty good early with Greg Woyd and Kevin Green
Speaker 1: on the other side. I mean, I mean literally that
Speaker 1: if they would come in and punch me in the gut,
Speaker 1: you know you're not a supposed to hit the quarterback.
Speaker 1: They just wore a test to me to see how
Speaker 1: tough I was. But so I didn't have to deal
Speaker 1: with the strength part of it, but the mental part
Speaker 1: of it I did. Because one we had a lot
Speaker 1: of veteran players obviously Rod Woodson's a pro bowler. Had
Speaker 1: to go against him and Carnel Lake and the great
Speaker 1: defensive players that we had, which tested me early, and
Speaker 1: we'd scrimmage like I remember, we went and scrimmage to
Speaker 1: Washington Redskins and Darryl Green. They threw me in with
Speaker 1: the first team against the Washington Redskins first team defense.
Speaker 1: And I remember, you know veterans who were savvy as
Speaker 1: Darryl Green. I mean, the guy played forever, what was
Speaker 1: it seventeen years the guy played or twenty years. He
Speaker 1: could mess with you. You know. It looked like it
Speaker 1: was going to be pressed at the snap of the ball,
Speaker 1: he'd do a press bail. He'd manipually and try to
Speaker 1: get in your head from a veteran standpoint, and just
Speaker 1: things that you had to to learn and overcome as
Speaker 1: a rookie. So you know that those were great experiences
Speaker 1: for me growing up. But you know that the physical
Speaker 1: aspect of it never really was there where you know,
Speaker 1: you know you're gonna get hit. You know, you just
Speaker 1: you absorb it and you take it. And you got
Speaker 1: to be able to look down the barrel of a
Speaker 1: gun sometimes you know it's coming, and so you just,
Speaker 1: you know, you got to learn to take And I
Speaker 1: think it, you know, it shows your toughness to other
Speaker 1: players in your locker room that you know on your
Speaker 1: team that you're willing to take the punishment just like
Speaker 1: they do. And uh, but you know, in terms of
Speaker 1: experience and younger players going against old and and uh,
Speaker 1: you'll you'll know this name when I say it, Tom
Speaker 1: Carlton Hasslerig. You remember, yeah, of course, Carlton. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: year before, no, the two years before I got to
Speaker 1: the Bear or to the Steelers. He basically this guy
Speaker 1: won like a Championship in wrestling. The guy was basically
Speaker 1: a back up his rookie year. His second year, he's
Speaker 1: inserted as a starter, goes to a Pro Bowl. Wow,
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl, and that would have been my third year.
Speaker 1: So I arrived, get drafted. He got hurt the same
Speaker 1: day I got hurt breaking my thumb that I mentioned earlier.
Speaker 1: And Carlton had a lot of off the field issues,
Speaker 1: drug problems, all those type of things in the day
Speaker 1: that car Or Carlton and I went to the hospital
Speaker 1: to get checked. That's when he left camp. But in
Speaker 1: one year's time, that guy went from no playing time
Speaker 1: to a Pro Bowl because he was that good in
Speaker 1: that talented of a player extrever played football extremely rare.
Speaker 1: We're gonna take a break time there and Jim Miller
Speaker 1: gracing us with their stories from days gone by. We
Speaker 1: come back, let's take a real quick look at the
Speaker 1: Bears as they had to training camp, and we'll be
Speaker 1: looking for get some thoughts on that. This is Bears
Speaker 1: All Access hon Chicago Sports Radio six seventy The Square.
Speaker 1: You got the latest Bears news, photos and videos delivered
Speaker 1: straight to your mobile device. Download the Chicago Bears Official
Speaker 1: mobile app. Presented by Verizon, Jeff Jony Act, Tom There,
Speaker 1: Jim Miller here on another edition of Bears All Access
Speaker 1: counting Get Down to Training Camp. I mentioned you can
Speaker 1: get some of these Bears rookie features that were done,
Speaker 1: meet the rookies, four players on these sites and so forth.
Speaker 1: And I want to go back to Anthony Miller because
Speaker 1: we had him out a couple of weeks ago. He
Speaker 1: is obviously brimming with confidence. He wants to be one
Speaker 1: of the best receivers in football history. He's not shy
Speaker 1: about saying it. But I want to go back to
Speaker 1: some of the highlights and stuff that I've watched, and
Speaker 1: you guys watched the piece. The quickness of his footwork
Speaker 1: and his cuts are so sharp. You don't often see
Speaker 1: route runners coming into the league that precise and quick
Speaker 1: and really sharp, running guys off out of the slot,
Speaker 1: beating guys with a burst to get to the football.
Speaker 1: Is you have top end speed, He's got enough speed,
Speaker 1: but that route running it makes him fat. I'm excited
Speaker 1: to see him in this offense and just when he
Speaker 1: doesn't have to think about it, let it rip, because
Speaker 1: his route running to me is special. You know, I
Speaker 1: think Jerry Rice's career became about route running because he
Speaker 1: wasn't blessed with Blazer speed, but he was blessed with
Speaker 1: great out running and he paid attention to it. So
Speaker 1: you think of the two backgrounds of the two players list,
Speaker 1: I'm not comparing him to Jerry Rice. He hasn't caught
Speaker 1: one pass yet in the NFL hallover. When I watched
Speaker 1: the piece, and I look on the determination of a player,
Speaker 1: his desire to be great, That's as important to me
Speaker 1: as any of the highlights I've seen up into this point,
Speaker 1: because this kid only wants to get better, and I
Speaker 1: just I'm really excited to watch the develop and I
Speaker 1: really pull for him because he's you know, he's that
Speaker 1: type of guy that he's never get first round credentials,
Speaker 1: but man, he could be a Hall of Famer at
Speaker 1: the end of it all. Yeah, I'm excited about him.
Speaker 1: I think he's tough, not only mentally but physically, Jeff,
Speaker 1: As you said, his feet are like pistons. They are
Speaker 1: just a rapid fire. The way he sets people up.
Speaker 1: He's got head fakes, he can close on defensive backs
Speaker 1: really quick. He's got the quickness at the top of
Speaker 1: the stem of his route, And like you said, some
Speaker 1: may question his long ball speed. All you do is
Speaker 1: see him make a big playoff and nobody's catching him right,
Speaker 1: And that's another thing. His ability to track the ball
Speaker 1: is another thing. But all three levels of the defense
Speaker 1: is not safe with this young man. Here's what I
Speaker 1: got to say about it too, When I if I
Speaker 1: have to slow down the tape just to figure out
Speaker 1: how he managed with his feet to get by his defender,
Speaker 1: I had to keep slowing it down. How did he
Speaker 1: do that? He sinks? Well, as you said that, those
Speaker 1: feet are like pistons. They are running NonStop at the
Speaker 1: line of scrimmage, not even getting touched in press coverage.
Speaker 1: I mean, granted, you're going to change in the NFL level.
Speaker 1: He had a whow our Taylor, Gabriel and m Are
Speaker 1: they on the field at the same time? Heck, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be right. Well, I mean, where are what
Speaker 1: position will they be follow? Are they going to play
Speaker 1: all the receiver positions across the border? Is Anthony Miller
Speaker 1: going to be starting at one position specifically at the
Speaker 1: start of training camp just to get introduced to the system,
Speaker 1: or are has this offense big enough for he and
Speaker 1: Taylor Gabriel on the line of scrimmage at the same
Speaker 1: time double slots Jim, Yeah, well, yeah, I can see
Speaker 1: that happened. Or say, bunch sets, you know, think about
Speaker 1: you know how teams subdefense. Let's say, I mean, you
Speaker 1: know the defense that the Bears are playing, maybe two
Speaker 1: dbs go down and you know the secondary defensive backs
Speaker 1: that are coming in maybe are slower a foot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you'd want to attack their weaknesses. Nothing better than getting
Speaker 1: two speedy guys out there. So bunch sets where it
Speaker 1: maybe causes the defense to contract a little bit, and
Speaker 1: now you got these two little speed demons coming out
Speaker 1: of those bunch sets. We used to have a big
Speaker 1: bunch set with obviously David Terrell and Marty Booker and
Speaker 1: Dez White, but we had smaller guys too. When we
Speaker 1: want to get more speed out of it, and we
Speaker 1: just explode out of these bunch sets and just beyond
Speaker 1: those defensive backs so quickly that they'd be behind them
Speaker 1: before you could, as quick as a hiccup. So I
Speaker 1: think they will have opportunities for that where they'll probably
Speaker 1: put out, you know, have a speed package that they'll
Speaker 1: they'll put out there on offense where maybe they want
Speaker 1: to take a shot play or something like that if
Speaker 1: the situation calls for it, or you know, again, you know,
Speaker 1: just mismatches that we talk about. If maybe a you know,
Speaker 1: a defensive back goes down in a team that likes
Speaker 1: to play their base defense and keep their their regular
Speaker 1: d out there, and you've got some opportunities to maybe
Speaker 1: getting a foot race with your opponent just because their
Speaker 1: personnel isn't going to match up with the speed the
Speaker 1: Bears now present. They didn't have that a year ago. Bears,
Speaker 1: that's the legitimate package in their offense. Now, red zone
Speaker 1: I think is going to be extremely different. I mean,
Speaker 1: the Bears have struggled in the red zone scoring no
Speaker 1: no doubt about it. They have now a wide variety
Speaker 1: of red zone options, from big guys catching fade routes
Speaker 1: to tight ends all capable of being a red zone weapon,
Speaker 1: to the running backs out of the backfield, to guys
Speaker 1: like Taylor Gabriel and a guy like Anthony Miller and
Speaker 1: hopefully Kevin White stays healthy. I mean there, I am
Speaker 1: very high on what the red zone package might look
Speaker 1: like for the Chicago You know, would you guys agree, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, the athleticism of the cornerback position and then
Speaker 1: Trey Burton. I think right there, those are kind of
Speaker 1: two matchups that's gonna hard to deal with in that
Speaker 1: short zone. But then you add all the other pieces
Speaker 1: in plays, I think it's gonna be you know, to me,
Speaker 1: the biggest the guy that overwhelmed me the most throughout
Speaker 1: all the OTAs was Trey Burton. I just think that
Speaker 1: he's a matchup nightmare, no matter that much opportunity because
Speaker 1: of what he had. So this is going to be interesting.
Speaker 1: It's like Jim talking about Rigg not playing that coming
Speaker 1: in and being a pro bowler. You know, Trey Burton
Speaker 1: gets an opportunity to have more exposure. Just hope the
Speaker 1: best happens. Yeah, I mean for him, you know, with
Speaker 1: Selik and obviously ERT's there in Philadelphia and the heat here.
Speaker 1: He is just marinating and behind the scenes doing his thing,
Speaker 1: getting better every year, and then you know they use
Speaker 1: him in key moments for big plays, almost like a
Speaker 1: secret weapon. He's not a secret weapon anymore. He's going
Speaker 1: to be a premier part. I think of the beer offense,
Speaker 1: like what Tom talked about, and then other guys that
Speaker 1: need to be a red zone presence. I mean, Allen
Speaker 1: Robinson is a big, physical receiver. He's got to be
Speaker 1: a red zone presence. I think Adam Sheheen he's got
Speaker 1: to take the next step. He's got basketball skills that
Speaker 1: what he can play above the rim, and you know,
Speaker 1: he needs to be a red zone present. He had
Speaker 1: three red zone touchdowns last year and there were eight
Speaker 1: games we didn't even get tired. I got a realistic
Speaker 1: question that we got to talk when we talk about
Speaker 1: Alan Robinson from from the very first regular season game?
Speaker 1: Is he I mean, are you do we have expectations
Speaker 1: that he's going to be the number one receiver for
Speaker 1: the Bears or I mean, are we expecting too much
Speaker 1: from him too early? And the injury revery, Yes, we
Speaker 1: are talking about numbers. How about if you recover from
Speaker 1: an injury. In the last eight games, he had sixty catches.
Speaker 1: You know, go ahead, Jim, I'm sorry, I hear you.
Speaker 1: I you know they're going to monitor his workload and
Speaker 1: obviously where he's at and all the sidebecks testing in
Speaker 1: the of course, they're gonna talk to the player. Just
Speaker 1: you and I've been through that, Tim, and I think
Speaker 1: they're gonna be very cognizant to not overwork that knee early.
Speaker 1: I do, And it may it may limit his touches
Speaker 1: in his reps early in games, And I'm okay with that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and yeah, maybe the first game he's in there thirty
Speaker 1: snaps instead of sixty five. And I think you're right.
Speaker 1: It's again not how you start, it's how you finish.
Speaker 1: And I think they want him to finish strong. But
Speaker 1: and you're hoping, I'm with you, like by week you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know when it's gonna be, whether it's week four,
Speaker 1: week five, week six, maybe it's week eight that finally, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm ready to go, give me more. It'll be interesting.
Speaker 1: It'll be a challenge for him because he was on
Speaker 1: the field for ninety seven percent of the snaps. Jackson, right,
Speaker 1: But you know, when you when you look at Trabisky
Speaker 1: and you look at um Tree Collin, and you look
Speaker 1: at Taylor Gabriel and you look at Anthony Miller, there's
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of big guys right there. But
Speaker 1: you look at Trey Burton and then you bringing Alan
Speaker 1: Robinson and you're bringing Kevin White, and then you add
Speaker 1: you know, then you have a the contribution of size,
Speaker 1: but we don't know what we're gonna get out Kevin,
Speaker 1: you know, and so it's just it's just weird to
Speaker 1: think of the pieces that they're ultimately going to have.
Speaker 1: It's just that I hope that people don't have unrealistic
Speaker 1: Let me let me, did you say this real quick?
Speaker 1: Because we're talking about and everybody does right now. You
Speaker 1: talk about the glowing aspects of what could be, and
Speaker 1: we're we're all realistic here too. I don't mean to
Speaker 1: make this seem like the Bears are gonna be powing ups,
Speaker 1: you know, six hundred points. I'm just saying that the
Speaker 1: potential for it to develop over the course of the year.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's going to be that way day one,
Speaker 1: but it could. You never know, and we are I mean,
Speaker 1: I think we are realistic. Offenses take time to marinate
Speaker 1: and this is going to take time. Yeah. I think
Speaker 1: the defense is going to have to be strong early
Speaker 1: to keep Bears in games until the Bears kind of ignite,
Speaker 1: and I do I think there'll be a touchdown better
Speaker 1: than what they I mean, sixteen points is nothing in
Speaker 1: the end. That's what they average for an entire year.
Speaker 1: They are just much more prepared to explode at an offense.
Speaker 1: Now again, will that catch fire a week four, week five,
Speaker 1: maybe when Alan Robinson's is one hundred percent healthy and
Speaker 1: they can finally come together as an offense. But even early,
Speaker 1: if that is the case where they're managing Alan Robinson's
Speaker 1: you know, reps and how many snaps that he gets,
Speaker 1: I still think they have the ability to do it.
Speaker 1: If Kevin White is then moved to X for the
Speaker 1: other thirty plays, or say they do personnel sets, who knows,
Speaker 1: maybe Trey Burton will be out there as an X
Speaker 1: and you've got a three by one set with Trey Burton.
Speaker 1: Is the defense going to put a safety out there?
Speaker 1: Because that's what Kansas City did with Travis Kelsey. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm not calling Trey Burton Travis Kelsey or Zach Ertz
Speaker 1: or anybody. He's his own guy, but they know enough
Speaker 1: about him that I think they signed him for a reason.
Speaker 1: Where you can do some things offensively and you're still
Speaker 1: much better and can present more as an offense, that's
Speaker 1: going to create a lot of problems for those guys
Speaker 1: on defense, where I think the Bears are going to
Speaker 1: be about a touchdown better than what they were a
Speaker 1: year ago. All right, we're gonna step away take break.
Speaker 1: Coming up next, we're going to be joined by new
Speaker 1: Bears outside linebacker Aaron Lynch, Jeff Jony, Act town Fair,
Speaker 1: Jim Miller on Bears All Access brought to you by
Speaker 1: IGS Energy. Will continue the conversation after this on Chicago
Speaker 1: Sports Radio six seventy the Score. Sign your child up
Speaker 1: for a fun, non contact Chicago Bears You Football camp
Speaker 1: brought to you by Gatorade and Athletical Physical Therapy. Visit
Speaker 1: www dot bearscamps dot com to say fifty dollars Today
Speaker 1: Jeff joni Ac, along with Tom Thayer and Jim Miller
Speaker 1: pleased to be joined by one of the newer Chicago
Speaker 1: Bears outside linebacker and the veteran Aaron Lynch. Good evening, Aaron,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining us, hopeball, your summer is going well,
Speaker 1: and that summer is starting to shrink. But for a
Speaker 1: guy like yourself coming to a new team after several
Speaker 1: years in San Francisco and reconnecting with your old defensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: Vic Fangio, your excitement level got to be well off
Speaker 1: the charts right now. Where's your mind at and where's
Speaker 1: your expectation level at for this role you're gonna play
Speaker 1: with the Chicago Bears. Oh guys, thank you for having
Speaker 1: me on the show. Yeah, my excitement has been shoot
Speaker 1: off the roof right now. You know, you know, freshly
Speaker 1: start over here, reconnected with Fangio, you know, coming into
Speaker 1: the system that I know already, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I've been able just to focus this summer on just
Speaker 1: my body and my mind and getting in physical h
Speaker 1: shape to come to camp and show my talents. Hey, Aaron,
Speaker 1: you know I went to know Ames. So I've been
Speaker 1: following you for quite a long time. And you know,
Speaker 1: you had a hiccup in your college career, you had
Speaker 1: a hiccup in your pro career. Why is Aaron Lynch
Speaker 1: gonna be here in four years? What is it gonna
Speaker 1: take for you to be here, be a part of
Speaker 1: the Bears in four years, for to have that type
Speaker 1: of tenure, you know? I mean, like you said, I've
Speaker 1: had these hiccups, and um, I feel like everybody has
Speaker 1: some type of hiccups, you know, in their career, in
Speaker 1: any in any business. So I mean I feel like
Speaker 1: I've had my hiccups, and uh, I've learned from my hiccups,
Speaker 1: and um, I just have a different mentality now and
Speaker 1: my mind is on the right place. You know, outside
Speaker 1: of football, everything is just going great and it is
Speaker 1: just an amazing feeling right now, and I just have
Speaker 1: an amazing how my future is going to go. And
Speaker 1: that's basically what it is. You know, outside of football,
Speaker 1: everything is going amazingly great. So that's why I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, I will have a pretty good and great
Speaker 1: career here where the struggle is well, Aaron, Jim Miller here,
Speaker 1: welcome to Chicago. And you know, from from that standpoint
Speaker 1: when you talk about here, you're a more mature guy.
Speaker 1: You're you're ready to be a pros pro. And then
Speaker 1: just getting reacclimated to Vic Fangioe in his defense that
Speaker 1: you were introduced early in your NFL career, How quickly
Speaker 1: has that been for you? And you know, is it
Speaker 1: like riding a bike? Did you pick it up quick
Speaker 1: again where you feel you can excel moving forward? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It was almost, Yeah, it was almost like you know,
Speaker 1: you haven't ridden a bike for a while. You know
Speaker 1: exactly how to ride the bike, but it's just a
Speaker 1: different feeling, you know, just being out of it for
Speaker 1: a few years and whatnot. You know, I said, catch
Speaker 1: upon a lot of these things that he's put into
Speaker 1: the system. But it was a it was an easy
Speaker 1: catch on. You know, I came in, I knew it.
Speaker 1: A lot of the plays were already Kevin, some of
Speaker 1: the new ones, but I mean, nothing shaves me. Took
Speaker 1: a full on it. It's just great. Aaron Lynch our
Speaker 1: guest Bears outside linebacker Jeff Jony Act, Tom there j
Speaker 1: Miller here on Bears All Access brought to you by
Speaker 1: IGS Energy. If I may just go back to what
Speaker 1: you were talking with Tom about there. You said, you
Speaker 1: have an amazing feeling. You're feeling great, everything off the
Speaker 1: fields great. What got you there? Was there a Was
Speaker 1: there a seminal moment for you that got yourself thinking, okay,
Speaker 1: the change of scenery, everything going well in my life.
Speaker 1: Was there a singular moment that you feel is going
Speaker 1: to be your benchmark momentum? You know, like I said,
Speaker 1: it was my outside life that really changed everything for me.
Speaker 1: You know, I have three kids, two of my own,
Speaker 1: and with the last one, it's just been you know,
Speaker 1: it's helped me find it's made me more religious and
Speaker 1: so there I've just been spiritually free, free minded, free
Speaker 1: of just you know, all the things that I've had
Speaker 1: in my past that kind of kept me from getting
Speaker 1: to where I got. I feel like my family has
Speaker 1: been a huge reason why I feel like everything is
Speaker 1: just amazing right now. You know, I think that's really
Speaker 1: what it was, was my family, having these having my
Speaker 1: boys and science. Sam said it just being a father.
Speaker 1: Being a father has really helped. Hey, Aaron, you know
Speaker 1: when you see you guys all together, you're an easy
Speaker 1: guy to pick out of the group and six six
Speaker 1: plus two seventy Why are you a linebacker? And why
Speaker 1: haven't you transferred to a defense even throughout your career?
Speaker 1: Because I know I read about you in high school.
Speaker 1: You came out of a three point stance a defensive end.
Speaker 1: And then when I started watching you Notre Dame and stuff,
Speaker 1: I'm going, Wow, this guy is one of the biggest
Speaker 1: outside linebackers I've ever seen. What in your athletic background
Speaker 1: or what in your traits has kept you at that
Speaker 1: linebacker position. I mean, I guess just I can move,
Speaker 1: I can move there, and I move well. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know, coming into the league, I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I want to be in a three point stands, you know,
Speaker 1: and playing in Vic's defense as standing up, being able
Speaker 1: to see the whole offense, see what's going on before
Speaker 1: the ball is snack and then when he left, and
Speaker 1: then I had to go put my hand in the
Speaker 1: dirt a couple of years after, which was I mean
Speaker 1: last year I had put my hand in the dirt
Speaker 1: and it just totally changed the game how I was
Speaker 1: used to. And um, I think just being able to
Speaker 1: I think, just move it. I don't know, do you
Speaker 1: gain a faster advantage. Do you gain a faster advantage
Speaker 1: coming out of a two point stance as opposed to
Speaker 1: you coming out of a three point stance? You know,
Speaker 1: everybody has the different preference, but I do believe that
Speaker 1: like if you're standing up, being able to see the formations,
Speaker 1: being able to see the quarterbacks movements, you know, right,
Speaker 1: the things that he does, even the offensive line, Like
Speaker 1: you can instead of seeing the person in front of
Speaker 1: you while you're standing, you can see the guy on
Speaker 1: the opposite side. And I feel like that gives you
Speaker 1: a major advantage on anybody that can't see those things
Speaker 1: while being a three point stand. Well from your standpoint,
Speaker 1: you know here your years in San Francisco. Now you're
Speaker 1: getting to know a new group. A gentleman, you know,
Speaker 1: a Keem Hicks and all the all the players there
Speaker 1: are young Leonard Floyd and players that have been there. How,
Speaker 1: you know, how do you prove yourself to them because
Speaker 1: they're you know, they want to welcome, welcome you into
Speaker 1: their fold as well in the locker room. But it
Speaker 1: sounds like all the vibes are great, but how do
Speaker 1: you create that that sense of trust with your new teammates.
Speaker 1: You know, these guys have been great to me and
Speaker 1: they have been actually great for me. You know, they
Speaker 1: the way this defense as far as you know, deep
Speaker 1: were talking about defense, as far as the defense goes,
Speaker 1: these guys the way they attack practice, attack the scull room,
Speaker 1: and just how they attack you know, the locker room outside.
Speaker 1: They just they are really keened in. And if you
Speaker 1: don't come in, you know, you're not doing your part,
Speaker 1: or you just come in with a big head and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, just all the things that you shouldn't be doing.
Speaker 1: These guys wouldn't make you feel comfortable because they are
Speaker 1: all about doing all the right things. And I mean
Speaker 1: there you guys, come on, now, you guys watch them.
Speaker 1: They're a bunch of dogs. You gotta be a dog
Speaker 1: to sit in with the dogs. So I guess, you know,
Speaker 1: me coming in and you know, not coming here and
Speaker 1: thinking like I'm just gonna come in here and take
Speaker 1: somebody's spot. You know, I came in here with the
Speaker 1: mindset I'm going to earn everything, show these guys that
Speaker 1: I earned to be in the locker room with them,
Speaker 1: on the shield with them, and uh, it has just
Speaker 1: been I guess they you know, they've been great with me,
Speaker 1: So I guess I'm doing all right. Aaron Lynch our
Speaker 1: guest here Bears All Access brought to you by IGS Energy,
Speaker 1: a couple of more minutes with the Bears outside linebacker
Speaker 1: we mentioned, and the reacquainting with Vic Fangio. His coaching style,
Speaker 1: his mind, how it works, how he looks at defense
Speaker 1: versus other coaches you may have played for. Not to
Speaker 1: demean them or to discount them, but has his impact
Speaker 1: on you been as most significant of any in your
Speaker 1: entire playing life, NFL, college or otherwise. Definitely most Definitely
Speaker 1: he's a genius, and he's you know, he's more a genius.
Speaker 1: How to explain it? Like he knows how to exactly
Speaker 1: work with a guy, you know what I'm saying. So,
Speaker 1: you know, some decordinators not talking down to anybody, but
Speaker 1: just some decordinates they don't necessarily how to work with
Speaker 1: the actual player themselves. Zig knows how to work with
Speaker 1: each and every person, put him in each and every
Speaker 1: position that they're going to excel in, because I mean,
Speaker 1: he's got to excel too. So I feel like he
Speaker 1: just knows about who he's picking, you know, where he's
Speaker 1: putting these guys and how they're gonna sit his scheme
Speaker 1: and do the best day can for him. And um,
Speaker 1: I'm just coming into the league, you know. He he
Speaker 1: you know, he grabbed me out, grabbed me right out
Speaker 1: of South Florida, and uh I did Okay, I didn't.
Speaker 1: I did pretty good, you know, for him as a rookie,
Speaker 1: And um I felt like that let on a little
Speaker 1: bit after because it was the same type of type
Speaker 1: of defense. Didn't have to change anything. And um, I
Speaker 1: guess he just has that type of mojo. He leaves
Speaker 1: with you even if you know you're not with him,
Speaker 1: because you know, he just he's just that type of person.
Speaker 1: In other words, does he know how to press your buttons,
Speaker 1: you get you where you need to be. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: definitely does in the good ways. In the bad ways,
Speaker 1: he sometimes you know, he can make you mad, you know,
Speaker 1: get get getting inside your head. But in that the
Speaker 1: outcome is always going to be greater than what you're feeling.
Speaker 1: And at the time, you know so like sometimes he'll
Speaker 1: get on the meat and make me feel like I'm
Speaker 1: doing more than somebody else's and it you know, you
Speaker 1: just mentally you're like, man, why am I doing so much?
Speaker 1: But at the same time, he knows what he's doing,
Speaker 1: and the outcome always is the greater benefit. Hey aarony,
Speaker 1: come you get a fresh start here at the Bears.
Speaker 1: You got to a big time first rounder in Roquan
Speaker 1: and they got Iggy another inside another inside linebacker. Did
Speaker 1: those guys make you feel older and experience or do
Speaker 1: they make you feel young because you're kind of attracted
Speaker 1: to their excitement and the fun they're having. It's kind
Speaker 1: of both. You know. It's like, even even going into
Speaker 1: my fifth year, I'm still a young guy. I'm still young,
Speaker 1: you know, by age, and a lot younger than a
Speaker 1: lot of dudes on the team. But man, both those dudes,
Speaker 1: is their juice is just out there, and they kind
Speaker 1: of like it, kind of like feeds off into your
Speaker 1: juice too. So they make you feel young because you're like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do a dig onna, dude, I want to
Speaker 1: be like, you know, stuff as different practice and uh yeah.
Speaker 1: But then I feel old because I'm like, God, these
Speaker 1: kids are young that you know, they kind of got
Speaker 1: a not a young man tatty. But you can just
Speaker 1: tell the young kids, you know, prociate out of college,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, that's how they make me feel a
Speaker 1: little older. Aaron lynch Our guests here on Bears All Access,
Speaker 1: we really appreciate the time, you know what. From my
Speaker 1: perspective and not knowing you other than just meeting you
Speaker 1: at mini camp and so forth and up at OTAs.
Speaker 1: You seem very happy and content and ready to roll.
Speaker 1: So we wish you luck and nothing but great success.
Speaker 1: You could play a huge role in this defense here
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen. Good luck to you, Good luck, Aaron,
Speaker 1: Thank you, I appreciated. Aaron lynch Our guest here on
Speaker 1: Bears All Access. Joanniac there and Miller with you when
Speaker 1: we come back on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy. The
Speaker 1: Score This segment of Bears All Access is orchestrated by
Speaker 1: cd CDW people who get at Jeff Jonniac town there
Speaker 1: and Jim Miller. Aaron Bears All Access brought to you
Speaker 1: by IGS Energy our final segment tonight, and enjoyed that
Speaker 1: conversation with Aaron Lynch because frankly fellas, you know, the
Speaker 1: guy's got a load of potential. We know that he has.
Speaker 1: You have to realize that potential when when he does,
Speaker 1: let's let's say the optimism when he does, we're talking
Speaker 1: a double digit sacker, an outside linebacker on a very
Speaker 1: good defense. Closed it by saying he could play a
Speaker 1: huge role in this defense. How you guys optimistic about this?
Speaker 1: I am? I think I am. I mean I think
Speaker 1: a lot of it. For him, it sounds like it's
Speaker 1: where his heart is. Yeah, you know, like like Tom said,
Speaker 1: there's been some hiccups. You know, uh, you know when
Speaker 1: when he transferred out of out of Notre Dame, you
Speaker 1: know how much did he love football? Was his heart
Speaker 1: in it? All those type of things. I think everything is.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows he's talented. I mean, he is physically just
Speaker 1: one of those gifted players. Um that that's how he
Speaker 1: was born. You know, he's been given a gift and
Speaker 1: now if the mind's if the mind's right, the body
Speaker 1: will follow. And I think that's really up to him.
Speaker 1: And it sounds like he's in a good place. Sounds
Speaker 1: like he's in a good locker room and with a
Speaker 1: good organization, with a coach who knows him extremely well.
Speaker 1: And don't forget Vic Fangio did this a year ago
Speaker 1: with Kyle Fuller. I mean, thinking about how he pushed
Speaker 1: his buttons and how well Kyle Fuller played a year ago.
Speaker 1: You know, every one of those specials that we saw
Speaker 1: about the rookies coming into the Bears, they always had
Speaker 1: one guy in their background was an instigator and their success.
Speaker 1: Let's hope at this stage of his life that Vick
Speaker 1: is the instigator of success for Aaron Lynch. Because listen, folks,
Speaker 1: when you see this guy, he's the guy that you
Speaker 1: want getting off the bus first, right after Roy Robertson
Speaker 1: Harris and then you know, I mean, he's got all
Speaker 1: the skills and you ask him, why aren't you a
Speaker 1: three hundred pound defensive end, Because he's got the athletic
Speaker 1: ability to cover guys and you know, and that six
Speaker 1: six two seventy five. Yeah, it would be an awesome
Speaker 1: fine for this particular Bears defense. All right, fellas we're
Speaker 1: doing our position look running out of positions as we
Speaker 1: tick towards and started training camp here and one of
Speaker 1: our last shows before training camp, we're gonna go to
Speaker 1: the secondary which last year and Tom's talked about Jim
Speaker 1: one hundred times, it was. Yes, it was the big
Speaker 1: question what was going to happen? Now we know we
Speaker 1: got some established guys back there, they still have to
Speaker 1: take a step, will they? And we got the starting
Speaker 1: four as of right now entering training camp intact, Kyle Fuller,
Speaker 1: Prince of Mukamara, Adrian Amos, and Eddie Jackson. And now
Speaker 1: they hope to be Bryce Callahan as a nickel and
Speaker 1: be pushed by these other guys. It should be a
Speaker 1: good thing with a better pass rush. What do you think?
Speaker 1: I like it. I think they're like an orchestra, all right,
Speaker 1: they're all in symphony. All right. All these guys have
Speaker 1: played together, and even guys that have stepped in. Bryce Callahan,
Speaker 1: Deon Bush, DeAndre Hall, Marcus Cooper, these guys all should
Speaker 1: be in sync with one other. They know what the
Speaker 1: coach has asked. They've all stepped on the field, even
Speaker 1: Cravon Leblock. You know, so all these guys should know
Speaker 1: exactly everything about each other, what the coach wants to accomplish,
Speaker 1: what he wants to execute, and I think they are
Speaker 1: going to be in say, I expect that turnovers to
Speaker 1: go up even more. It was an uptick last year.
Speaker 1: I expect an uptick this year from this group because
Speaker 1: they've all played together, including Sherick McManus. I mean, let's
Speaker 1: face it, not all all those guys have played that
Speaker 1: I just said, every one of them. So more is expected.
Speaker 1: And this group is intact to start out and we'll
Speaker 1: see if it goes. If one guy drops out, if
Speaker 1: one guy falls out due to injury, another guy should
Speaker 1: be ready to step up and play because they've already
Speaker 1: done it, you know. Marcus, Marcus Cooper, Senior DeAndre Hall,
Speaker 1: those two guys got to come up and play some
Speaker 1: football because you know, we have We had hope for
Speaker 1: Adrian Amos and he fulfilled all of our hope. And
Speaker 1: I think that his arrow is still pointing up and
Speaker 1: he's going to play better. We knew nothing about Eddie Jackson,
Speaker 1: what he was going to do is come in here
Speaker 1: and contribute to this football team. And we got the
Speaker 1: best out of both of them. But now you see
Speaker 1: these guys, Marcus Cooper Senior being a high price free
Speaker 1: agent that was brought in here. He's got to play
Speaker 1: to his size. He's got to play more like a
Speaker 1: Charles Tillman. You got to go out there and use
Speaker 1: your six one and a half as a weapon, and
Speaker 1: we need to see more on that. And then DeAndre
Speaker 1: Hall here's another guy that's been blessed with size, but
Speaker 1: what is he He's never been able to stay at
Speaker 1: one position as a cornerback or a slot corner or
Speaker 1: a safety. So I mean you got to get something
Speaker 1: out of his size and his style or you know.
Speaker 1: So those are going to be the guys that are
Speaker 1: going to have to come in and contribute to make
Speaker 1: this a unit. And the health. The health for a
Speaker 1: guy like Callahan, for example, when he is healthy for
Speaker 1: a consistent period of time, he makes place. He's a blitzer,
Speaker 1: he's physical despite his size. He's very confident young player.
Speaker 1: Craive On le Blanc, they're they're similar in each other.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well, Blank, I mean you talk about the
Speaker 1: word dog that he's got. He's a dog. Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: like that way. I got one for you, Jim from
Speaker 1: your analysis at the draft and so forth. Kevin Tolliver
Speaker 1: an interesting candidate to make some noise if he can
Speaker 1: stay healthy as well. I think he was nicked a
Speaker 1: little bit in OTAs. He's a six two one ninety
Speaker 1: two pound cornerback at LSU with again a five star
Speaker 1: recruit attachment to his name, one of the top young
Speaker 1: corners coming out of high school where he had he
Speaker 1: had he had two. He had some hiccups at LSU.
Speaker 1: But if this guy he's talented, now, well, do you know? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you know. I think for him college free agent,
Speaker 1: like you said, he has the size that you're looking
Speaker 1: for at six two nine two. I think ultimately in
Speaker 1: terms of the techniques and everything he's going to be
Speaker 1: asked to do, I think he's going to be a
Speaker 1: practice squad player that is going to be interesting and
Speaker 1: a guy they're gonna want to develop. You know, Bears
Speaker 1: have drafted other college free agents as well that have
Speaker 1: played significant playing time. Matter of fact, one is now
Speaker 1: a Detroit Lion as a linebacker. I think we know
Speaker 1: who I'm talking about. From that standpoint. So Kevin is
Speaker 1: an interesting guy that I think that they're just gonna
Speaker 1: want to marinate, develop and see where it goes with
Speaker 1: that young player, because he's got the size and the
Speaker 1: athleticism that you mentioned and comes from a good program
Speaker 1: down to the LSU that kicks out a lot of
Speaker 1: top phenomenal athletes and Kevin is one of them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he rises me a less Lee Fraser. He's got a
Speaker 1: bigger body, he's tall, he's got some length to him.
Speaker 1: But the best thing that you just mentioned, Jim, he's
Speaker 1: got some quality college reps. They got athletes down there,
Speaker 1: and they got the best conditions to practice. And so
Speaker 1: if you're in that conference, whether you're playing in a
Speaker 1: game or you're playing against your practice opponents, you're you're
Speaker 1: always getting reps. So who are you referring to the
Speaker 1: big cheese? Oh okay, that's so I thought we were
Speaker 1: talking about the secondary. That's why Christian Jones I was
Speaker 1: gonna say, I didn't want to look dumb. Hey, I
Speaker 1: love think about him. He was he was expected to
Speaker 1: be a fourth round pick, and the Bears got him
Speaker 1: as a free agent lay a lot. But then Christian
Speaker 1: Jones is like the DeAndre Hall of the defensive backfield.
Speaker 1: You're never able to settle into one position your whole
Speaker 1: career to be able to but oftentimes that's not even
Speaker 1: on the player. There's little there. There's a log gym,
Speaker 1: there's no room at the ends, and they have projection.
Speaker 1: If Christian Jones was great at one position, he would
Speaker 1: never leave that position. The thing about it is he
Speaker 1: was never able to capitalize on the athleticism they see
Speaker 1: out of him in practice. You have to everything's gotta connect.
Speaker 1: This week on Inside the Bears, go behind the scenes
Speaker 1: on Draftnet with a Rowe, Kuan Smith, and Spice Adams
Speaker 1: catch us up with his former teammate Matt Forte. Inside
Speaker 1: the Bears as Saturdays at six pm on CW fifty
Speaker 1: Chicago and Sundays at ten thirty five pm on Fox
Speaker 1: thirty two Chicago. You can all watch show segments online
Speaker 1: at Chicago Bears dot com or on the Chicago Bears
Speaker 1: Official app. Anytime, Fellas, we fooled them again. Jim Miller,
Speaker 1: We're done, Tom Bear, Jeff, Joni Yak, We're out of time.
Speaker 1: Thanks as always to our folks out there listening at home,
Speaker 1: and you know we got a lot of things covered
Speaker 1: here today despite not having a lot to talk about
Speaker 1: on the lead up to training camp. Well, let's know
Speaker 1: how it works. If the best thing about this show
Speaker 1: is Aaron Lynch starts sixteen games, then this was one
Speaker 1: darn good show. We appreciate it. As always. We'll talk
Speaker 1: you next time here on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy
Speaker 1: the Score. Thanks for listening to this Chicago Bears Network
Speaker 1: presentation of All Access. Podcasts are available on Chicago Bears
Speaker 1: dot com and on iTunes, or download the official Bears
Speaker 1: mobile app. Bears all Access has been brought to you
Speaker 1: by IGS Energy and sponsored by CDWPNC and Ford