Latest / 2nd City Gridiron / Bear & Balanced: Khari Thompson joins to break down the NFL Combine!

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Bear & Balanced: Khari Thompson joins to break down the NFL Combine! · 2nd City Gridiron

0:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to bear balance.
0:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm Jeff Berkis, other side of the screen, Lester A, Willfong, Jr. Lester.
0:14
[SPEAKER_02]: We got through February.
0:16
[SPEAKER_02]: We're into March.
0:17
[SPEAKER_02]: March is a good month.
0:18
[SPEAKER_02]: It is a month of hope.
0:20
[SPEAKER_02]: It is a month of renewal.
0:22
[SPEAKER_02]: It is a month where the new league years starts.
0:26
[SPEAKER_02]: How you doing?
0:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Good man.
0:27
[SPEAKER_01]: We're we're exactly one week from the
0:30
[SPEAKER_01]: the early negotiation period of free agency.
0:34
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's this week should be fun and busy for the NFL.
0:38
[SPEAKER_02]: I like to call it the legal tampering period just because our friend can Mitchell really irritate, it's irritated by it and I love the poke to bear every once in a while, but we've got a special guest.
0:47
[SPEAKER_02]: We don't do a ton of guests, but in the off season we like to bring on some guys if we can and we've got our guy, Kyrie Thompson on
0:57
[SPEAKER_02]: from Indianapolis, you can see the cocktail sauce still in his beard from from from the shrimp cocktails.
1:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Kyrie, my man, what do you got drinking tonight?
1:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Got my own recording and coke.
1:10
[SPEAKER_00]: That is my, that is my drink of choice.
1:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody that hangs out with me down at the combine of Brad's feel burger thing, one of them he wasn't here this year, but I've seen a bunch of dogs.
1:24
[SPEAKER_00]: that this is my drink of choice of being half Puerto Rican.
1:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I grew up with the Cardi and Cokes, then listen, when I need to take the edge off, or I need a little hair of the dog, which is actually more of what I need right now because Lord, I stayed out too much at the company this year, this is what I turned to.
1:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Little Cooper Libre.
1:47
[SPEAKER_02]: So, can we, let me, let me start here.
1:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Every time I hear anybody going into Indianapolis, they talk about the shrimp cocktails, and they talk about the late nights where they're talking to and fraternizing with other writers, with other content creators, with people that work for organizations.
2:08
[SPEAKER_02]: And so,
2:08
[SPEAKER_02]: I got to start off asking you about the rumor mill.
2:11
[SPEAKER_02]: What did you hear?
2:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Ben Johnson stuff, Caleb Williams stuff, any sort of trade talk, any league, dirt, gossip, whatever you want to share with us.
2:20
[SPEAKER_02]: We'd love to hear some gossip.
2:22
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would say this year, unlike other years, I kind of branched out a little bit, and I was hanging with a little bit of a different crowd.
2:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Not as many beatwriters this time.
2:33
[SPEAKER_00]: However,
2:35
[SPEAKER_00]: The thing, the person I got asked about the most when it came to the Chicago Bears was not Caleb Williams.
2:42
[SPEAKER_00]: It was actually DJ Moore because I think a lot of people around the league are like, hey, is your boy available?
2:50
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've heard from a couple of different people that they think they DJed more is all but gone.
2:57
[SPEAKER_00]: They do not expect him to be playing with the Chicago Bears in 2026.
3:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Now obviously listen.
3:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I think a lot of that can sometimes be, you know, people have been reading the headlines, right?
3:10
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Bears fans aren't happy with DJ more after what happened on that last player.
3:14
[SPEAKER_00]: A couple of people bring that up.
3:15
[SPEAKER_00]: when they were talking about Caleb Williams and talking about the season he had and being like, well, if it wasn't for that, you know, that last play people would be thinking about him differently, and then immediately being like, it's because the receiver didn't give any effort.
3:29
[SPEAKER_00]: So there are a lot of people that are kind of looking at DJ Moore and being like,
3:33
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a trade chip that I think people ought to be using.
3:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, I think that it's interesting that this came out today, that, hey, a bunch of people might be interested in in trimming Edmunds and trading for him, because what I heard around town was people were kind of almost laughing at the idea that someone would actually want to trade for trimming Edmunds.
3:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I think most of them think that he's going to hit the open market.
4:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously had himself a good year when he was healthy, but I think there are a lot of people aren't bullish aren't as bullish on the Tramade Edmunds market.
4:09
[SPEAKER_00]: You wonder if some of that's like, oh yeah, people really interested in Tramade Memons.
4:12
[SPEAKER_00]: might be a, you know, a certain team, a gas it trying to gas it up, you know what I mean?
4:19
[SPEAKER_00]: So I heard a little bit of that.
4:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I even heard a little bit of stadium talk and I can't remember who exactly said it, but it was somebody that I follow and and trust.
4:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember in the moment being like, really, man.
4:30
[SPEAKER_00]: saying like, oh yeah, the bears are going to heaven.
4:33
[SPEAKER_00]: It's over.
4:34
[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to Indiana.
4:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, hold up.
4:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that might be conjecture because to me, listen, I'm a resident of North, or I was an, I'm a native of North West Indiana, which honestly, I forgot because I feel like I'm an Indiana soonerally now.
4:55
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so forgettable.
4:57
[SPEAKER_00]: that people know where Hobart Indiana is when you're in Indianapolis to like, I know where that is.
5:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm here in Boston to like, what is that?
5:06
[SPEAKER_00]: What's that by?
5:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm just like, that's by Chicago.
5:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, so you're from Chicago, like, not really, but I did go to school there.
5:13
[SPEAKER_00]: So I claim it.
5:13
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, like people around there are thing and like, yo, I think the bears might actually be doing this Indiana thing and I keep trying to be like They want to be in Chicago.
5:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm pretty sure or rather they want to be in Arlington Heights.
5:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So what we'll see out that goes, but those are those are some of the things
5:29
[SPEAKER_00]: that I heard around town.
5:32
[SPEAKER_00]: In particular, I think the DJ more thing is very interesting when you look at the movement that's starting to happen around the league.
5:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I was in the interview room when the Tavondre sweat news, when Tavondre sweat got traded from, you know, the Titans to the jets.
5:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I was there as that started circulating.
5:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know what?
5:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh!
5:53
[SPEAKER_00]: versus domino falls, kind of like that.
5:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And then obviously Titus Howard gets traded from the Texans to the Browns today.
5:59
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think people are starting to look around like, yeah, I think some trades are going to are going to be going down here soon as that legal tampering period begins.
6:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And in particular, you know, he's not a bear, but the one guy I think that everybody expects to switch teams is Max Crosby.
6:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just saying.
6:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Good happen.
6:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Good happen.
6:20
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, personally, Kairi, my philosophy about saying that you're from Chicago, it's the further out, the further away you are from Chicago, the less likely people understand the Midwest, exactly as an ION, I would never say to any other American that I'm from Chicago, but when I was in New Zealand, when I was in Kenya in my life and people say where you're from.
6:42
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, the US, what part of go near Chicago?
6:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Because at least I'm like, kind of near the map in that way, right?
6:49
[SPEAKER_02]: So up out in Boston, yeah, you can say you're from near Chicago because that's about as close as they can understand it.
6:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's a nice thing about being a Boston is that people know what Boston is, right?
7:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you don't have to say I'm by New York when you say you're from Boston.
7:07
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's like, you know, if you're, yeah, just a middle of nowhere, like Indiana, everybody's just like, what, what is that?
7:17
[SPEAKER_01]: There's around, just say the region.
7:19
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah, yeah.
7:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, see, see, and that's interesting because some people actually do like far and wide do know what the region is.
7:28
[SPEAKER_01]: It's one of those crazy things where if you're from Chicago,
7:32
[SPEAKER_01]: you don't want to hear someone claim in Chicago.
7:34
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, you know, they, they pride in that city.
7:37
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's okay to pull it off when you're in New Zealand.
7:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't try and pull that stuff off, you know, somewhere in the States, because people never say I'm from Chicago.
7:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, near around Chicago.
7:48
[SPEAKER_00]: see how I'm actually like I grew up 35 minutes outside of Chicago spend a lot of time and to and from my family up there and then you know obviously like I went to university at Chicago I was going to say go maroons except that most people don't know that they even have athletics there.
8:04
[SPEAKER_02]: They haven't had football in a very long time, but they used to and they have a He used to do a good.
8:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And they actually have a football team now.
8:10
[SPEAKER_00]: It's division three.
8:11
[SPEAKER_00]: So you used to be division one, they used to have powerhouse in the beginning.
8:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they decided they wanted to be straight nerds, which I respect.
8:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a nerd.
8:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, that's why I went there.
8:21
[SPEAKER_00]: But my brother went there and he actually played.
8:23
[SPEAKER_00]: For the football team so he was he was an interior offensive lineman kind of swing offensive lineman got got some run at like right guard and stuff like that So yeah can confirm I went to the games there is a football team
8:36
[SPEAKER_02]: there wasn't when I was going to college, you're a little younger than me because I remember going on a visit and they did not have a football team.
8:42
[SPEAKER_02]: So interesting that you mentioned DJ, I think, you know, we've talked about on this show quite a bit and, you know, lester, I think as we ended the season, cathart, then I think he's going to come back and I think he's gone.
8:55
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think there's still, you know, some disagreement, you know, on where a lot
9:02
[SPEAKER_02]: bears brass would prefer it if the narrative was it's just a really competitive room and we need to rejigger the roster and not get into maybe why the bears might not not want DJ more on the squad but i think we've really come down to like it's a really good football player and it just may not be the right fit for what
9:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Ben Johnson's offense needs in terms of that constant and total focus, that's required every player on the field because sometimes I think he might just lose that focus.
9:32
[SPEAKER_02]: So interesting that his name was brought up more than anything.
9:35
[SPEAKER_02]: But let's move on to this draft.
9:37
[SPEAKER_02]: So obviously, the combine kind of kicks off in a lot of ways, the robust discussions about a lot of these prospects.
9:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And one of the things that I liked to try to understand about every draft,
9:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Which then immediately gets forgotten right after the draft then everybody just talks about it like every draft is the exact same always right, but you and I know and lesser we all know that sometimes you know the 25th pick in the draft is guaranteed to get you like a really good solid player that can come in and you know contribute right away and sometimes it's like
10:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, it's a little bit of a more shallow draft, right?
10:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Like a fourth round pick and one draft may be much more likely to contribute early than a fourth round pick and just in a different draft, right?
10:22
[SPEAKER_02]: So the shape of a draft can be very different in terms of number of blue ship prospects, you know, the number of, you know, good contributing prospects and number of projects that you might have, right?
10:33
[SPEAKER_02]: So as you see this class as of right now, how is you describe the shape of the 2026 NFL draft?
10:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say this class is light on true blue chip prospects and the ones that there are are not playing at premium positions.
10:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I would not claim to know what Francisco Mendoza is going to be.
10:58
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to be the number one overall pick.
11:00
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
11:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I would not claim to know what he's going to do at the next level.
11:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that a lot of people are trying to put his career arc in the same red as like Joe Burrow, like I who transferred to a school that the Burrow had more than one year at LSU, that he transfers to a school and magically blows up and wins a national championship and becomes number one overall pick and then
11:30
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't view Mendoza on that level of player and I'll have other notes on that.
11:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I got a guy I want to bring on to talk about them, so I'm going to allude to some of the things that I heard from him as an evaluator in terms of his draft evaluations.
11:48
[SPEAKER_00]: In particular, Joe Burrow, I think he's a unique case.
11:53
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of people were talking about him as easy a one-hit wonder.
11:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
12:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this guy's pretty good and he's turned out to be pretty good at the NFL level So I don't know what I see men does on that same level.
12:09
[SPEAKER_00]: However The guys that you do see so sunny styles goes out and has an absolute mutant combine like He's he's basically like Calvin Johnson if you made him a linebacker
12:25
[SPEAKER_00]: which is hilarious to think about.
12:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he might be the quote unquote worst player of the three Ohio State guys that are going to go dot 10.
12:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
12:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Our Ville Reese and Caleb.
12:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Caleb Downs.
12:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jeremiah love, to me, they're the best two players in this draft, neither one of them plays safety and one of them plays running back.
12:49
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's how I think a lot of this draft is going to shape up.
12:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the off ball linebackers that we saw at the combine, they, they absolutely annihilated their workouts.
13:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you're watching these guys, you're like, no way, man.
13:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Like,
13:09
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I can't even remember what they ran as an average and some people point out that the averages of the 40 times are dropping because the slow people aren't running they're running at their pro-nays, which is true, but I mean, again, just like the dudes that are out here running like, you know, people have been like, Jacob Martinez got to run a good time and he runs a four or five and you're like, buddy, like he's out here, dip it.
13:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And so,
13:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, the linebackers and safeties were the best two position groups that I saw out there, and they're not premium positions.
13:45
[SPEAKER_00]: The running backs I thought overall had a pretty good day.
13:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen a bunch of people being like, I had not a good running back class.
13:53
[SPEAKER_00]: They sure tested well.
13:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna say that.
13:55
[SPEAKER_00]: They were out there doing their thing.
13:57
[SPEAKER_00]: So I feel like
14:01
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not a great year to need the premium positions, because I don't feel great about many of the quarterbacks.
14:11
[SPEAKER_00]: if any of them.
14:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't feel great about a lot of the edge guys.
14:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, our velverease, you know, yeah, he's explosive, he's a good athlete.
14:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if he's actually an edge in the NFL.
14:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Ruben Bane comes in and has ridiculously short arms.
14:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Is he gonna be good at the next love?
14:29
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a dominated college.
14:31
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll tell you that.
14:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Like he's a good player, but is he gonna be a dominant outside past Russia?
14:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, I don't know about that in the NFL.
14:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And then people talk about defensive tackles, which is becoming more of an important position.
14:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I got to be honest, man.
14:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not feeling this tackle class.
14:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm really not.
14:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Aside from the guys that are going to be at the very top, like I have a mock draft that I'm working on right now for PFF and listen, you got to take PFF mock drafts with a grain of salt because they're not going to catch up to where guys are actually going to go until we get about to the draft.
15:10
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm like, dog, if Peter Woods from Clemson actually fell to number 25, I'll sprint the card up for that one.
15:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Cool.
15:19
[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't think that's going to happen.
15:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And if it doesn't, I got it.
15:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I got to be straight with you.
15:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Any, any mock draft that puts Kate and McDonald in at number 25.
15:31
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to be looking at him sideways from here on after what I saw.
15:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just saying.
15:36
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the main pick.
15:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if you look at a lot of the mocks, most of those mocks lately, like the last few weeks, this is all pre-combined, right?
15:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Most of those mocks pre-combined, it's all Cade McDonald, Ohio State, number 25.
15:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that is firmly a second round grade for me.
15:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not touching that one.
15:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, first round.
15:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Based off of what I've seen, listen, here's the thing, we gotta keep a mocks.
15:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I've watched, you know, some Cade McDonald's tape.
16:02
[SPEAKER_00]: He's more nose tackle, right?
16:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and he said it.
16:05
[SPEAKER_00]: interviews.
16:07
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, I'm a nose.
16:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he didn't say exactly like that, but he's like, listen, if a team wants a nose like I'm your guy, you know, that's not to say that he wouldn't play a one technique or if you would play all of these guys would play wherever you ask them to play.
16:20
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm watching him move around.
16:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, again, this is big 300 plus pound guys out here trying to, they got to do back pedaling and side to side and what I think I'm going to do that.
16:33
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's just an interesting, you know, drill, interesting situation to put these guys in.
16:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Kate McDonald, you can't move.
16:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, to be fair, Kyrie, you mentioned the guy that was testing really well, and he called, you said he was dipping.
16:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And this large gentleman is also dipping, but in a very different way, he's dipping on the snack table with chips and dip, right?
17:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, that's this kind of dip.
17:01
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's more or less for an eye, you know, are able to, to, you know, really relate to.
17:06
[SPEAKER_00]: his, his dip is you line up in front of the center every single play and you run straight into that dude.
17:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's your job, which again, I think it's important to know that Chicago bears do need guys who can do that.
17:25
[SPEAKER_00]: They do need guys who can just take up space.
17:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Or I, you know, one gaping or whatever it is, they need guys who can stop the run, they really do, I'm just looking at myself, am I taking a one dimensional nose tackle at number 25 and having mentioned the fact that the linebackers and safeties were the best position groups that I saw, would you not rather just take the better player.
17:55
[SPEAKER_00]: of in in those positions, but before we get there, see, we got the we got the tab there.
18:01
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, let me send it to you up here.
18:02
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, you're, you're, you're, you're bleeding us into this.
18:07
[SPEAKER_02]: So let's talk about what the bear's need.
18:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
18:10
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, the the the shape of the draft, I think does fit a little bit with what the bears need here obviously there's going to be a lot of work to be done in terms of maybe some trades off the roster maybe some trades on to the roster and then certainly looking at the free agent pool that first and second wave before we get to the draft so a lot of the the needs are going to be addressed through those things before you get to the draft that's what every GM has hope and help and for us like.
18:34
[SPEAKER_02]: I can go into the season with this roster that I have and then we're going to add to that with our draft fix and hope that we can add some competition and hopefully get a couple starters.
18:44
[SPEAKER_02]: But as you see the roster and heading into this free agency period leading up to the draft, what do you see are the biggest needs for the bears right now?
18:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the biggest needs are listen.
18:56
[SPEAKER_00]: All that being said, what I just said, the biggest needs are unquestionably on the defense of front.
19:01
[SPEAKER_00]: They just are, right?
19:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they didn't get any, they were, they were among the like three or four worst run defenses in the league last year and one of like the two worst pass rushing teams in the league.
19:14
[SPEAKER_00]: So listen, we got to be straight up about it.
19:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Defense of front, whether you're talking about tackle or edge,
19:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are the most glaring needs that you have to address.
19:26
[SPEAKER_00]: The question is, how do you address them maximally, right?
19:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe that is a couple of good players.
19:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's one great slash elite player.
19:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, for example, I've used the New England Patriots as an example quite a lot.
19:51
[SPEAKER_00]: What they ended up doing was they signed Milton Williams, who is an absolute destroyer.
19:58
[SPEAKER_00]: They got him off the Philadelphia Eagles for agency.
20:03
[SPEAKER_00]: They sign up to $100 million contract when he's in the game.
20:06
[SPEAKER_00]: He's destroying everything, right?
20:07
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't run on the Patriots and he's also influencing.
20:11
[SPEAKER_00]: He's pushing the pocket, right?
20:12
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a guy who does it all.
20:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And then aside from that, you have Christian Marmoire, who is a really good player, a win-healthy, that you have under contract.
20:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you've got Harold Landry on like a cheaper deal because he's dealt with some injury issues.
20:32
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like your edges weren't that amazing, but they ate off of all the pressure that the interior guys were causing.
20:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I feel like the bears in a way have a little bit of that structure already in place where you've got Jervon Dexter, and you also have Montes wet.
20:52
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's be real.
20:53
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got a couple of guys on one side that can do some things.
20:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it's kind of the other side you're going to worry about who's playing opposite them.
21:00
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's where the idea of if I got an edge you can do both, right, if I were able to swing that trade for Max Crosby.
21:09
[SPEAKER_00]: or I was able to sign Trey Hendrickson or even Jalen Phillips.
21:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like if you were gonna go for a slightly maybe cheaper option, you know, if you wanted to go with Jalen Phillips, and then you were able to fill in the other defensive tackle position with, you know, maybe a cheap veteran, or you know, maybe a day two day three pick, right?
21:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that's one thing that I heard from a lot of guys is that this might not be a great tackle for elite talent,
21:38
[SPEAKER_00]: at the defensive tackle spot and it's not great for three texts.
21:42
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got a lot of one texts in this draft, but you have a lot of one techniques who are all right.
21:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's that idea of maybe I could get me a guy on day two that can slot right in the way Dexter did and make an impact for you, plus a veteran signing because you're going to have to have that.
22:02
[SPEAKER_00]: So clearly it's up front on defense.
22:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I also think because I had a couple different discussions about this.
22:09
[SPEAKER_00]: You also have needs pretty badly at left tackle because I don't care what nobody says.
22:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I had a fan come up to me in a bar, actually, and a bear's fan, and it was talking about, what are the bears going to do in the draft, I mean, like, oh, we only need a left tackle.
22:26
[SPEAKER_00]: We got like the Obenedet, and I'm like, listen, you can't be in one breath, you can't be like, oh, Caleb Williams is the truth, and he's the best thing that's ever happened to the bears, and then in the same breath, we're going to trust his protection to the Obenedet.
22:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not with that, so you gotta find some way to get at least average tackle play at left tackle, whether it's a rookie, whether it's a cheat veteran, I don't know, but you gotta find some way to get confident tackle play over there.
23:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't have to be great, but it doesn't need to be decent.
23:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Then you've got lineback ratios real bad because right now, I mean, what linebackers are you counting on?
23:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Tremaine Edmonds is gonna be gone.
23:14
[SPEAKER_00]: He's gonna get traded or he's gonna get cut.
23:17
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you got TJ Edwards who's hurt and you don't know what he's gonna be like.
23:24
[SPEAKER_00]: You have no a soul who's gonna be coming off a torn Achilles.
23:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even know he's gonna play next year at all.
23:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And you might be able to bring back to Marco Jackson
23:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he's a free agent, but do you want to be starting tomorrow, Jackson?
23:38
[SPEAKER_00]: So you've got issues there.
23:40
[SPEAKER_00]: You have no safeties on your contract either.
23:43
[SPEAKER_00]: So really, the only position that you feel moderately good about on this roster is corner.
23:50
[SPEAKER_00]: And even that has questions.
23:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you've got one really good corner when he's healthy, and then whatever is going on over there, Nishon, right, it's probably not going to be here.
24:04
[SPEAKER_00]: and you probably shouldn't be the team to do it, because you don't got the money for that.
24:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Tyrex Stevenson, which you could rock with that, but I mean, it's pretty inconsistent.
24:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Kyler Gordon, again, really good when he's healthy, not healthy enough.
24:18
[SPEAKER_00]: So you could make an argument for any one of these positions on defense, you need somebody.
24:24
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's why I'm kind of of the opinion that best player available really works.
24:31
[SPEAKER_00]: for the Chicago Bears in the draft.
24:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's without knowing what they do in pre-agency.
24:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And also, real quick, one last one before I go, I'm assuming they're gonna cut the Andre Swift, so you might need to running back too.
24:45
[SPEAKER_01]: That was a prize, man.
24:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I think Swift may be pretty good.
24:47
[SPEAKER_01]: They're just cause like, it's 7-ish million.
24:51
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, they're going to save there.
24:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I think if they come down to the cap, that's something they're going to look at for sure, but I don't think they're going to try and create a holder unless they have to.
24:58
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, I think to your point that the knee to the bear is line up good with the draft.
25:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you said, safety is really deep.
25:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Linebackers pretty deep, mentioned Rodriguez ran that ridiculous speed and his film was pretty good.
25:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I watched a little bit of him over the weekend.
25:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Then he's what a later day three guy, maybe third round.
25:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Because what I'm kind of here on him.
25:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's probably a date too.
25:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I don't think you'll go day one because there's just enough good players.
25:23
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, he's probably a second round.
25:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I know.
25:27
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like a shift though and like the NFL now, like now we're starting to see some safety linebackers kind of get pushed up the board.
25:33
[SPEAKER_01]: And we kind of see and team kind of want to have that happening even with running backs running backs we saw David Montgomery get treated today for a for a ridiculous round pick, but teams want running backs it's like an old school throwback you know a lot of like a lot of defense plan to high so let's let's pound the rock right so I think we're kind of starting to see a shift here and the way the bears need to line up I think it lined it well with this drafts.
25:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree because no matter which direction you go, if you go defense at all with number 25, you're hitting a position that you need to hit.
26:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know that there are a lot of people who's like, we have to go defensive tack where we have to go edge and like, no, you don't.
26:13
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, we don't know what free agency looks like yet.
26:16
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know what trades there might be pulled off.
26:18
[SPEAKER_00]: But even if that were the case, you could literally throw a dart at the board on defense.
26:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're picking somebody that you need and to that point another thing that I heard from a couple people were kind of scouting things out in terms of the overall trends it's both the too high safety thing, but it's also the fact that for a while here what did you see you saw offenses spreading things out with lots of fast receivers lots of speed right and then.
26:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Defenses match that by going with every personel group.
26:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Your base of your main personel group is Nicolera Done because you're like these teams want to want to throw on us and they want to push it down field and want to do all that.
26:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And so now offense is saying, oh, you want to go like, we're going to go heavy again.
27:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, I actually, I referenced this in an article that I wrote recently for for when you city grid iron, but teams are running the ball.
27:12
[SPEAKER_00]: at a rate that we haven't seen since like the mid 2000s and 1990s, teams are picking up on the and passing yards are down because you're realizing oh well you got to check the ball down more you can be thrown the ball down field because teams are waiting for that and so what are you
27:34
[SPEAKER_00]: teams are running the ball more often.
27:36
[SPEAKER_00]: The yards per carry are about the same, but overall it's looking more efficient because of the light boxes that teams are running into.
27:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So now you're seeing these linebackers start to become more important.
27:50
[SPEAKER_00]: You're starting to see these box safeties become more important whereas before they be like, and we want the range you guy, the guy was gonna stop the past.
27:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Now how you want the guy who's gonna stop the run because for the last,
28:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, four to five years, teams have been starting to maybe not move away from the past, but the past hasn't been what it used to be.
28:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Passing yards have been increasingly, for the last four years.
28:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And our guy Ben Johnson at the forefront of that with with his balance attack and with his his offensive approach, which you know, really marries the run and the past with the play action game really well.
28:27
[SPEAKER_02]: So let's move on to the combine specifically, you know, a couple of names, make sure you give the position because.
28:34
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know all of the guys you're talking about, so I know all of our listeners don't know all of the names that you're talking about, but who are a couple of the guys that really shut up the board for you when you were there just you personally or whoever you were hearing from the cohort that you were sitting with.
28:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I would say that, again, Jacob Rodriguez was probably number one, because in terms of combine winners, because I think here was like, I heard it from a number of different people, he really needs to run a good time, because I don't know what he's going to end up doing if he doesn't, that he's going to be like a late day three or going to be fourth round, pick or something like that.
29:14
[SPEAKER_00]: and he goes and runs, like, I don't know, like a four, five, eight or something like that.
29:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And it really just kind of changed the trajectory because then it gets on the field and you're like, this right here, this is what a linebacker looks like.
29:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Just everything, because again, like Lester, you talked about watching this film.
29:30
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like,
29:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, so much of what he does just looks like what a linebacker is supposed to do on tape.
29:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it's just a matter of athletically where do you see him at?
29:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think he helped himself the most, I'll also say that if you want to get into, you know, the sunny styles of it all.
29:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Styles was a guy that I think everybody was like, look, on film, you're looking at him, RValaries, Caleb Downs,
29:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And they all just look like they're playing at a sped up pace from what everybody else is doing, right?
30:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember watching some of these and I'm like, they look like somebody, you know, put on like tech mobile, but they put bow jacks in it, linebacker.
30:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And there, but it's three of them.
30:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're all just like flowing and blowing things up and it is crazy.
30:24
[SPEAKER_00]: But then Sunny Styles goes out there and tests like the human equivalent of our Utah Raptor.
30:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And just like, just absolutely destroys everything.
30:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And now you got people over here talking about, he should be the number two overall pick off a potential alone.
30:40
[SPEAKER_00]: That's wild.
30:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, can we have to get that kind of some reference in there?
30:45
[SPEAKER_01]: What the heck is our Raptor?
30:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, I'll put it this way.
30:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Utah Raptor is what Velociraptor wants to be when it grows up.
30:55
[SPEAKER_00]: So for those of you all watching this you don't don't know me.
30:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I use the study paleontology So I use to actually like work in a dinosaur lab and everything So if a loss or after like the Jurassic Park or loss or after is basically like the like little brother or like little cousin of Utah Raptor
31:14
[SPEAKER_00]: that that brother was out here like you know 20 feet long jumping out the gym faster than everybody and it's just kind of like yo.
31:25
[SPEAKER_00]: So anyway that's that's that's my guy at Sunny Styles.
31:28
[SPEAKER_00]: That's yes that's Sunny Styles Mike Washington from Arkansas
31:35
[SPEAKER_00]: He busts out of fourth for position position in the 40 as a running back.
31:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so so he's a he runs 433 and a running back.
31:45
[SPEAKER_00]: I even heard of this dude so it was it was great actually to go back and be like, okay, hold on I got a dig into this guy
31:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, is that the real big dude?
31:55
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the.
31:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he's a big guy.
31:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
31:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
31:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
31:57
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a fun part, right?
31:59
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like a six foot plus running back out there doing that.
32:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't say Jeremiah love because everybody knew Jeremiah love was going to go top 10, but then of course he runs up 436 and just like looks like a complete alien compared to the rest of the running backs on the on the art field drills.
32:16
[SPEAKER_00]: But you already knew he was good.
32:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Kenyan Sadik, listen, okay, I actually was watching his 40, watching his workout alongside, you know, a guy who walked on in college and he ran, he ran like a 447 when he was in college and he's watching Kenyan Sadik, run the 40, run the 44 flat and he's like, I hate that guy.
32:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, why, why you gotta be six, six, four, six, five, you know, tie it in, who runs a four, four, come on.
32:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I think there are a bunch of people out here that were like, not Kenyan Sadik.
32:52
[SPEAKER_00]: He's gonna measure it too small.
32:54
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I'm not really feeling, I don't know.
32:58
[SPEAKER_00]: what he's going to do in the NFL is kind of like almost like a pure straight up, pure move tight end and then he was in runs of four or four flat.
33:06
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was one, I think that if you want to talk about a defensive tackle, that I think really made a name for himself, who's probably Caleb things, which doesn't necessarily surprise anyone because he came into this.
33:21
[SPEAKER_00]: You knew he was huge and you knew from the senior bull, you could move.
33:27
[SPEAKER_00]: But then I think that the gap between the combine that he put up and just about any other due to his explosiveness was like you read, you did like a nine six broad jump at a 32 inch vertical at six, six like 320 pounds or some crazy like that through the 27,000 pounds.
33:48
[SPEAKER_00]: This brother's unreal.
33:50
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think that's what I would look at
33:57
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of, okay, those are first routers, you know, except for Mike Washington, he'll go later.
34:04
[SPEAKER_00]: But the other guys I mentioned, their first routers, and they were already first routers, that means they're gonna go like as high as like pot five.
34:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I think,
34:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Just generally, though, if we want to talk about position groups again, so I'm going to mention the linebackers.
34:22
[SPEAKER_00]: They were incredible all the way around, which tells me, again, even if you don't take one in the first round, you're going to feel real good if you take one on day two or early.
34:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if you want to take one on day three, you're probably going to find a guy that could start for you.
34:44
[SPEAKER_00]: In underrated one, while we're talking about running Max, I think Jadari and Price from Notre Dame has kind of been this name that's been talked about on the fringes of this whole thing.
34:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Where, you know, he's, Jeremiah love is something else.
35:02
[SPEAKER_00]: But Jadari and Price is your RB2.
35:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And I felt like he ran a 449, they look easy.
35:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, it looked really easy doing it, which tells me again, I'm somebody who likes to study how people runs.
35:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be all run.
35:17
[SPEAKER_00]: He has always been a guy who's like, okay, yeah, he's got a little twitch when you first get to him, but it's the long speed.
35:23
[SPEAKER_00]: He runs away from people at the end, right?
35:26
[SPEAKER_00]: You let him build it up and he'll take it.
35:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And he caught the ball really well.
35:31
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like that was one thing that I liked was that him and Jeremiah love both did receiver drills after the main workout ended.
35:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Jadari and Price is gonna be a first round pick.
35:45
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know who to, I'm gonna say and I got a little conspiracy idea when it comes to the bears.
35:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I've written about a little bit, I'm not going to try and piss everybody off by dropping it on here.
35:57
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm just saying, I think Jadari and Price is going to be a first round pick based off what he did.
36:02
[SPEAKER_02]: I know any of this fan base.
36:03
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think you're going to upset people by saying that the bears would take a Notre Dame player, like that they generally align pretty well.
36:10
[SPEAKER_00]: But do you want to take a running back in the first round?
36:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just saying.
36:13
[SPEAKER_02]: me personally I love running back so like I'm but you know I'm whatever man like to me this feels like a spine of the defense draft uh but yeah like you know it's been man you know bit then thinks he needs a an all-star back and he sees a vision I'm not gonna be mad
36:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think that in that regard, you know, and again, because I have my thoughts on Deondre Swift, what it would save you to, you know, whether you cut em or what have you.
36:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, I too, Lester, you know, I think, you know, Deondre Swift had himself a real good year last year.
36:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I was not a fan of him in 2024, and I was not a fan in the first few weeks at 2025, but clearly he came on and I think really was an asset to this team.
36:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
37:00
[SPEAKER_00]: No questions about that.
37:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think there's also something to be said for the fact that even if the bears wanted to upgrade at running back who your upgrade is going to be.
37:10
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?
37:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I think I can't get this image out of my head of common unguiding your knuckles, who's your sonic?
37:25
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?
37:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel, I just, I have this feeling like Ben Johnson wants his sonic.
37:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've heard little things about,
37:36
[SPEAKER_00]: pursuit of breeze haul, which doesn't look like that's going to do anything, because it sounds like whether they get breeze haul signed to an extension or whether they franchise tag them, it doesn't look like he's leaving New York.
37:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And I wouldn't try to, you know, do the tag and trade situation on the bears.
37:52
[SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't do that.
37:55
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, if there's a sonic in this draft, I mean, there are a couple of fast guys, but if you want the fast guy who also has, upside is a past catcher, I'm just saying, like there might be something to say there.
38:08
[SPEAKER_00]: That said, I think if you were to ask me, if you were, if you were my draft pick, what would I do if it were, you know, number 25, all things kind of being as they are right now, I'm looking at one of these safety's,
38:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep, got a follow-up, plus her.
38:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, yeah, like I said, safety is right there.
38:32
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the bears have no under contract.
38:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Kevin Bayard is the guy they've talked about bringing back, but he has a market now, right?
38:39
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think the bear thought he'd have a bonus from market, but we've heard some stuff about some other contenders, possibly interested in him.
38:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And look, he's a family guy first.
38:49
[SPEAKER_01]: He's talked about it.
38:49
[SPEAKER_01]: He'll do what's best for his family.
38:51
[SPEAKER_01]: So all things equal, yeah, I think he comes back to the bears, but I think of another team.
38:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe the Patriots, another contending team that's really good, off from a little more money.
39:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he's going to take the money and still have a chance to win with another team.
39:07
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so interesting because I feel like, and again, I'm out here in Boston, and I feel like there are so many parallels between the bears and Patriots over the last couple of years, like literally since they drafted Caleb Williams and Drake May.
39:22
[SPEAKER_00]: and a lot of the things that they want are like kind of directly competing.
39:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So we saw it in the report by Bert Rear from Sports Illustrated that the Patriots and Bears are among the couple of teams that are checking in on Max Crosby, right?
39:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't, the Bears aren't necessarily going to be in a market for like an AJ Brown whereas the Patriots are.
39:46
[SPEAKER_00]: But
39:46
[SPEAKER_00]: The Patriots might lose Jalen Hawkins to a free agency, and then they might need a safety.
39:53
[SPEAKER_00]: So then you got some, you know, some overlap there with a bunch of these different things.
39:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, yeah, the Kevin Byrd won't necessarily cost an extreme amount of money, but he even cost something because he, yeah, he might be 32, but he never leaves the field.
40:11
[SPEAKER_00]: He stays durable and then you know eventually right now that am I catch up to you because some of that is love-based But listen he's been on the field you have no reason to think he's not gonna be on the field Given the way that he's been durable and He continues to be an asset to your defense and take the ball away So you you're if you want to keep him you've got to pay for him But then you're looking at that and saying
40:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, if that's going to be the case, you know, I think Kevin buyer and more more often than not, he's more of your more true free at this point in his career, where you want him kind of managing the back end of things, who's going to go up there and do the dirty work.
40:52
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, obviously, you want your safety to be interchangeable right and be able to do whatever.
40:56
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, if I want to talk about a guy who's going to come up and smack you in mouth, Eric couple dies, they could do that in this draft.
41:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, well, like the couple notes, one, I don't know what you could do better for your family than keep a Michigan go.
41:09
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, I mean, there is that.
41:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And then, I'm looking up this- Oh, my wife.
41:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not getting in the middle of that.
41:18
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
41:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, I'm looking up quickly the Utah Raptor.
41:22
[SPEAKER_02]: And listen, I feel like the people of Jurassic Park really made a mistake by not just leaning full into the Utah Raptor because the front arms are like wings, they're feathered.
41:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And the whole Jurassic Park thing was like dinosaur turned into birds like that whole theory, the Sam Neal character's theory, and you would have had that with the with the Utah Raptor right there.
41:48
[SPEAKER_02]: This is a critical mistake in a classic movie.
41:51
[SPEAKER_00]: So so here's why I'm going to say in defense of the people who created Jurassic Park, Utah Raptor was only newly discovered.
42:00
[SPEAKER_00]: As a matter of fact, I think
42:06
[SPEAKER_00]: So, so, and for those people who kind of don't know how it works, it takes a long time before you could really piece together the shape of what a dinosaur is.
42:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So, they might have found that, and find those bones, and not even know what that was, until they started finding more really piecing it together.
42:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Paleontology in dinosaur like fossils can take a really long time.
42:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So if they're interested them, they probably didn't know.
42:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Now they based it on the design of another bigger raptor called dinanicus.
42:39
[SPEAKER_00]: But if they had known about Utah raptor back then, they would have been like,
42:44
[SPEAKER_00]: No, we got to have a Utah Raptor for a little bit of a link to it.
42:48
[SPEAKER_02]: It would have been perfect.
42:49
[SPEAKER_02]: It would have been absolutely worth it.
42:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to have a little bit of an idea of dinosaurs being like birds was more of a theory than anything.
42:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Like they had guys who got a saw and be like, no, I think this is more bird.
43:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, but you still have people kind of being like, what do you mean?
43:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Like dinosaur in birds?
43:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And now we just kind of generally accept it because dinosaurs like birds literally came from
43:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Like quite literally, I'm telling you, it's, I mean, it doesn't look like my blown for this poor movie, that's been the seminal piece of, but hey, listen, that's how science is you move it forward right you learn you learn to gather new data with time, which is exactly why, you know, you gather new data with time and you evolve.
43:33
[SPEAKER_00]: which is why a lot of the, this year's class and the way that the NFL is moving is a little different than it was back then.
43:41
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not out here from for 240 passing yards again.
43:44
[SPEAKER_00]: This year, like, that actually bugged me out when I was doing research that like, the average passing yards per game for a team was literally like 209 yards.
43:57
[SPEAKER_00]: That's crazy.
44:00
[SPEAKER_00]: That's nuts.
44:01
[SPEAKER_00]: You call this a passing league, and you go barely throw for just in feels yardage?
44:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I'm not going to hate on this today.
44:09
[SPEAKER_02]: There was a stretch where fields would have loved to a throne for two hundred and nine yards.
44:14
[SPEAKER_02]: So, all right, we're going to take a quick break on the side of it.
44:16
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to talk about the guys that maybe didn't fare so well in the combine and then some free agency and trade talk.
44:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Stick with us.
44:27
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, Kyrie, let's flip it around and let's talk about combine, no one's a loser here necessarily because, you know, you're going to go to the NFL and things are good, but maybe guys that free workout look like they were in a certain position and post when you get some of those workout numbers maybe dropped a little bit the shine might be off somewhat on some of these guys.
44:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a jug right into it, because I mentioned it briefly.
44:52
[SPEAKER_00]: The guy that everybody was like, oh yeah, he's totally gonna be a Chicago bear.
44:58
[SPEAKER_00]: He's locked it in, because they need defensive tackle help.
45:02
[SPEAKER_00]: My guy, Kaden McDonald, listen, with him, again, we've gotta talk about this.
45:09
[SPEAKER_00]: You gotta take it in context, because he's what three or 18 pounds.
45:18
[SPEAKER_00]: or, you know, there are 320 about it.
45:20
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a nose, but I talk to a bunch of people after watching his workout.
45:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And noting the fact that I listen, a lot of people talk about, you're gonna go to the Bears and they're like,
45:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you can't do that at 2020, you know, I picked number 25.
45:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Because ultimately, here's a thing that you know about him on field, in addition to, you know, his grades and all as to, he's incredible against the run.
45:50
[SPEAKER_00]: He is by far the best run stuffing defense of tackle in this draft.
45:57
[SPEAKER_00]: He does not give you a whole lot as a past Russia.
46:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, yeah, we knew that about him, right?
46:05
[SPEAKER_00]: What you can sometimes, what I sometimes like to see is what I watch a guy move.
46:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And then that's a big deal for me.
46:13
[SPEAKER_00]: When you watch a guy move, do you see potential for growth there?
46:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you do a potential for him to do something else and expand his game?
46:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that I see a whole lot of expansion that is gonna happen in Kaden McDonald's game
46:30
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't, he's just not a foot quick guy.
46:34
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not ever gonna be somebody who's gonna, you know, a thrash you off a first step quickness.
46:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's not that he has no, no quickness at all, especially for his size.
46:44
[SPEAKER_00]: But he feels like a guy who's gonna stay blocked on passing downs.
46:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just gonna, it's what it is.
46:52
[SPEAKER_00]: You gotta deal with that.
46:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and and again, he's he's a guy who's his province is just here.
47:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, and in college, he won on strength.
47:06
[SPEAKER_01]: He won on the bull rush.
47:07
[SPEAKER_01]: That was how he mostly won most of his reps, you know, the past rush.
47:11
[SPEAKER_01]: The toolbox, they say it's still still working progress.
47:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And is that a guy you want to draft at 25 over all.
47:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he can come in and stop the running.
47:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Give you some some beef there.
47:21
[SPEAKER_01]: But at the first round, you need someone that's more of an impact.
47:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Or even though you are for the down to board, you need a guy that kind of come in and give your defense a little bit of juice.
47:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I think one thing that you know people afforded me some stuff, you know, some info on what Dennis Allen tends to like in his defense of tackles.
47:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And he tends to like tackles that are more athletic
47:51
[SPEAKER_00]: that are more explosive because they're the ones that he wants to eat it up on the inside and use our giant ends, our immovable ends to funnel everything into the heart of the defense.
48:04
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't get to go outside.
48:07
[SPEAKER_00]: We're keeping you inside and then your awesome tackles have to eat everything up.
48:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, I feel like, for example, I'm going to bring in a veteran here that
48:20
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I, you know, it's also potentially about to become available, which is Asian Robinson, right?
48:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's at a 10 year NFL career, basically just completely off of stopping the run.
48:30
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got a similar athletic profile to Cain McDonald, which is to say he's not very athletic.
48:36
[SPEAKER_00]: What he does do is stop the run.
48:38
[SPEAKER_00]: What he's always done.
48:39
[SPEAKER_00]: He's done it well.
48:41
[SPEAKER_00]: You can make a 10 year career in the NFL off of that.
48:46
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think what we saw this past year as a guy like Andrew Billings, who is probably a little bit more like a true nose in somebody else's system, he did not perform well in this system that the bear's currently have.
49:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And now he's on the verge of not being here anymore.
49:07
[SPEAKER_00]: So I view Kaden McDonald's kind of like one of those guys.
49:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a nation Robinson or like a souped up Andrew Billings who like in your maybe average 4-3 defense or more ideally in a 3-4 that guy is somebody is like, okay, a plug-and-play, he's a teacher, two-down guy, you take them off the field on third-down and you have somebody rush for him.
49:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that's what the Bears want to do at number 25.
49:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I just don't feel that way.
49:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And another guy who I thought maybe I liked better.
49:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think I still do like better as a more complete player was Lee Hunter, who, again, another big dude, who I feel like is honestly, he is the unstoppable force
49:55
[SPEAKER_00]: which is that, you know, eventually if you single block him, you will not, you can't hold him back forever.
50:02
[SPEAKER_00]: He's gun, he's gunna win.
50:04
[SPEAKER_00]: He destroyed the senior bull.
50:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Like anybody they put in front of him at the senior bull, you're not single blocking that dude.
50:11
[SPEAKER_00]: He tested horribly.
50:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Offly.
50:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Now does that mean he's not gonna be a good player?
50:18
[SPEAKER_00]: No, not at all.
50:21
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, for the auspices of the picket number 25, he probably not going to be there, or he probably shouldn't be.
50:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, but he's like in that situation where he probably shouldn't be your picket number 25, but if you get down to the 50s, he's probably not going to be there anymore.
50:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Because people are going to look at him in the second round and be like, yeah, I could use a space eating nose.
50:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's one of those things, man, where the defense of tackles in this class are not good enough.
50:52
[SPEAKER_00]: by and large, in my opinion, to be the bear's first frown pick.
50:56
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't care what you need, because... Yeah, I think what you're talking about a lot there, Kyrie, is trying to find surplus value.
51:04
[SPEAKER_02]: And when you look at free agent contracts with someone like a nation, Robinson, or an Andrew Billings, generally these guys, they can personally have long careers by doing their thing, their specialty.
51:17
[SPEAKER_02]: eating a lot of dip and getting out there and doing this thing.
51:21
[SPEAKER_02]: But those contracts are usually pretty affordable for teams, right?
51:25
[SPEAKER_02]: They don't generally overpay nose guards that are just nose tackles that are just, you know, eating up space and eating up dip, right?
51:32
[SPEAKER_02]: So, if you're going to use a pick, a premium pick, you know, particularly your first round pick, you want to find surplus value, you want to get a guide that can outperform that contract.
51:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you look at a veteran contract for that skill set, those are pretty affordable, you look at a first round contract, even though it's affordable,
51:52
[SPEAKER_02]: that you're still basically overpaying for that.
51:56
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's still an unknown quantity.
51:58
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't know how these guys will adapt to the NFL, a young player who's, you know, survived off of his strength for years and years in college, may not be able to do that as a translation into the professional game.
52:10
[SPEAKER_02]: and so you are taking a risk with any draft pick.
52:14
[SPEAKER_02]: And when you can easily go out and afford some of these big guys, it may not be worth those premium picks.
52:20
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm right there with you.
52:21
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that that would be a poor use of your draft capital.
52:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, a non-premium position, at least as it's talked about like off-ball linebacker and safety,
52:32
[SPEAKER_02]: That makes more sense to me because it's a position of need and it's a strength of the class.
52:37
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, I think you're you're you're well in line here with with what we're talking about.
52:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to move on to kind of just a couple of names before we get out of here.
52:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And we've already talked about DJ, you know, in your in your gossip column, we talk a little bit about Edmunds.
52:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe the bears are the team out there trying to put out some buzz to try to see, you know,
53:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
53:03
[SPEAKER_02]: He's requested the opportunity to try to go out and find a trade partner.
53:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Why would he do that?
53:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Why would he care?
53:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Why wouldn't he just want to get be a free agent and go out and sign with whoever wants?
53:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, he probably likes his contract and he's probably cool with trying to get somebody to take on that contract and then and then go hit it in the future.
53:22
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's why he's out there, but
53:25
[SPEAKER_02]: If polls can move him for for any kind of value.
53:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Great.
53:29
[SPEAKER_02]: If not, we know that he's not going to be here because it's not much of a capit or any capit for the bears to really talk about.
53:36
[SPEAKER_02]: So I don't know that we need to talk much about Edmunds because I think we've already got that done.
53:40
[SPEAKER_02]: You talk a little bit about Max.
53:41
[SPEAKER_02]: You talk a little bit about tray, but maybe we can go a little bit further on there.
53:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe put a little percentage on what you think the bears chances are of landing one of those two premier edge guys.
53:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And then maybe give us a name or two of who you're excited about the bears maybe going after a creativity.
53:59
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think I'm giving max cross be 20%.
54:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so that's significant.
54:08
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a big piece of the pie.
54:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, because I think you're going to have obviously
54:16
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think, you know, Brear was, you know, I think he had like seven or eight teams on there.
54:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So 20% is pretty good.
54:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm giving that partly because I think he clearly seems to like the bears and like what they got going on.
54:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Then again, I've also heard similar things about the Patriots, right, he would love to play for Mike Rabel.
54:36
[SPEAKER_00]: But ultimately, for a guy who really wants to win, if they want to send him to somewhere who's going to win, I think that the benefit of the bears is that they are not in the AFC.
54:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
54:48
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's that.
54:49
[SPEAKER_00]: and you can also get a wide receiver off of them that you could use.
54:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And it also helps defray some of the cost.
55:01
[SPEAKER_00]: So you're not going to get two first round picks off the bears, but you are going to get DJ Moore.
55:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Who's still young enough to be productive, right?
55:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and you can get a sweetener in there in me personally listen if the trade package looks like if they actually agree to terms of like we're going to send max crop we're going to get my max cross me for DJ more this year's first.
55:26
[SPEAKER_00]: and a 2023, or sorry, 2027, third, and then maybe we get back, you know, a 2026 fifth or something like that, signed me up for that.
55:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Because honestly, like, and this is not even a hate or any of the players that might be available at 25, because there are some ones I really like and I'd be like, okay, we don't get a chance to draft them, you know, it sucks.
55:48
[SPEAKER_00]: But
55:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I would give away this year's first rounder for Max Crosby.
55:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, but what are you talking about?
55:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Say less.
55:57
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think, again, a lot of things have to line up here because you know that the raiders are gonna want more and they're gonna be like they're gonna hang up the phone for as long as they can.
56:07
[SPEAKER_00]: and by all means, they've been really playing up that, you know, hey, Max Crohn's be has a good relationship with John Spytech and Mark Davis.
56:16
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't really want to lead likes to hear, you know, etc, etc.
56:20
[SPEAKER_00]: But look, in the end, homeboy wants to win.
56:22
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think if it looks like he's going to be disgruntled to the point of man like I'm not going to wait around for you know three years worth of rebuild like I'm getting older I've had injuries there's the other thing is injuries are going to stop him from getting that maximum value.
56:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I think an NFC team has a good chance and I feel like the bears probably have the best chance because they can offer the Raiders something they could use in return like come on.
56:50
[SPEAKER_00]: The DJ Moore may not have had the best year here, but you go ahead and you throw him in there as the number one next to Brock Bowers and and Ashden Gentie, you actually got something.
57:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I just got a block so that he can actually like make use of that.
57:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so so I think that I would give that a 20% if you ask me trade Hendrix in, I feel like it's probably about the same amount of a percentage of maybe a little bit less.
57:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, the name that I've heard for trade Hendrix in the most is the cults.
57:25
[SPEAKER_00]: For and maybe that was just because I was in Indy and a lot of people are like, you know, the Indianapolis, but it's actually a name that I've heard a lot more.
57:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, it is is the cults.
57:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, with, with, with, with tray, I would put him, he's, he's, he's less, he's left, less preferable than Max Frosty.
57:43
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not the best trainer to sin as bad.
57:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Just Max Frosty's better.
57:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you want to maximize the hell out of that.
57:50
[SPEAKER_00]: rookie contract for Caleb Williams before you have to pay him $60 million a year because that's what it's going to be getting ready.
57:57
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be $60 million a year.
57:59
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to maximize that window for two years, whatever it is, swing all the way.
58:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Go all the way.
58:09
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what that's spelled with two X's.
58:13
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what you're saying extra.
58:15
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, for me, if you can move that number one, you already said number one, seem like BPA way the board may be looking, maybe defensive tackle, but do you really need a defense tackle, like a Knows Tackle.
58:29
[SPEAKER_01]: So if that's what you're looking at on your board,
58:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're thinking, well, I can take this one, and I can reach for a guy, maybe not at a position, like, safe your linebacker, I can use my one for God like, cross me, come back in the second round, get my safe your linebacker, then I think that's the barbecue the best use of that one this year and look, he said, did you more, he's thought of around the league and a pretty pretty pretty high level.
58:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's.
58:54
[SPEAKER_01]: As bears fans, we all we know is the last play, right?
58:58
[SPEAKER_01]: That's that's still on our brain that last play, that's there, but league wide is a pretty good reputation.
59:03
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I hear you're saying, the value of $100 for the value.
59:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the value is there.
59:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, absolutely.
59:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think the other, another guy that I think of, if he, you know, assuming he comes available, please go after Jonathan Franklin Myers.
59:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's a good player.
59:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, a lot of that is contingent on how much money you have available and what your plans are.
59:29
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, I view it as if you were to get Max Crosby, that immediately elevates everything else you've got going on on your defensive light up.
59:40
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't need a superstar, no, it's at that point.
59:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I think what the model that a lot of scenes have been using is, you get the one elite dude.
59:50
[SPEAKER_00]: that you have to shift everything over to.
59:52
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to focus on blocking that guy.
59:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you can get the average player, right?
59:59
[SPEAKER_00]: The fit guy, just does what you need him to do.
1:00:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the bears are a pretty good defensive line all of a sudden.
1:00:07
[SPEAKER_00]: You're looking at Montess, sweat, you got your Von Dexter's solid player, and then you have Max Crosby, like yes.
1:00:13
[SPEAKER_00]: That right there is immediately better than anything you have.
1:00:17
[SPEAKER_00]: And then of course, like if that doesn't work out, you get Jonathan Franklin Myers, we'll play inside and outside.
1:00:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And then maybe you draft one of these edges, who I think I feel better about the edges than I do the defensive tackles.
1:00:30
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you're gonna get TJ Parker, but man, if you could get TJ Parker to fall the number 25, he's like literally perfect.
1:00:36
[SPEAKER_00]: He's just strong as hell.
1:00:38
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a solid athlete.
1:00:40
[SPEAKER_00]: So that right there feels like the thing that I would do.
1:00:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we'll, uh, we got my girl right here.
1:00:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I was gonna say it looks like, uh, you know, the hey, man, the top of the hour, uh, story time might be coming up.
1:00:56
[SPEAKER_02]: So good, uh, good note for us to maybe close on here.
1:00:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, kind of really appreciate you coming in, dropping the knowledge, sharing that with us, uh, of course you're welcome any time.
1:01:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Where can people find your stuff?
1:01:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know you can find it on Wendy City Gridiron.
1:01:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I write there every week and I'm going to be dropping some podcasts and you have some guests on.
1:01:18
[SPEAKER_00]: You're doing my thing that you can check out some loose ends.
1:01:21
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got a tie from the combine in particularly listening.
1:01:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I got a guy on here who has a really good track record of judging quarterbacks who thinks Caleb Williams was one of the best he ever saw coming into the league and thinks that he is going to be my home's level next year, which
1:01:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a let him explain what I mean, step that right in here, but I'm a let him tell you when I can when I can get him on, but you can also find me at Katie Thompson five, both on Twitter and on blue sky, you can find me around on Instagram and all that stuff as well on Instagram and Matt Kyrie DT.
1:02:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't do as much football posting on there, but I think that might have to change.
1:02:07
[SPEAKER_00]: But anyway, thank you so much for having me on.
1:02:10
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a good fun chatting with y'all.
1:02:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm glad to do this again.
1:02:16
[SPEAKER_02]: 100% out of it.
1:02:17
[SPEAKER_02]: We appreciate it and it's all of you guys.
1:02:19
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll be back probably in a couple weeks after a frasioncy starts and luster now breakdown.
1:02:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Any goings on, you know, look out for emergency pods, of course, if any big trades happen or anything like that.
1:02:29
[SPEAKER_02]: But I know a couple of the other guys are going to be going this week.
1:02:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, you know, stick with us for a good bear's content until next time everybody, bear down.