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Making Monsters: Getting to Know Bears Rookie Sam Roush · 2nd City Gridiron

• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Alright, welcome back to another episode of Making Monsters.
• 0:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Taylor Doll.
• 0:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Joining me today as we continue on getting to know some of these draft picks that the bear selected.
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now almost a month ago, I would just got back from vacation.
• 0:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm catching up on some things getting ready to head to OTAs now at this point, but Troy Clarity, join me with a play by play voice force Stanford.
• 0:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for hopping on it and talking a little draft with me.
• 0:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: I guess draft picks with me.
• 0:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: You bet, thanks a bunch, hope your vacation was great.
• 0:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: And hey, off we go, it's gonna be football season for real before we all know it.
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: It is.
• 0:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Every time it ends, we're like, oh, no, we have so long.
• 0:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then next thing you know, we're hitting OTAs and camps and all of that happens, but yeah, bears obviously select a little bit of a surprise a lot of bears fans shocked at At the selection just because they used to high pit last year, obviously, on course in loveland in the first round of the draft, you already have cool commit on the roster.
• 1:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so there was a little bit of questions, but they select tight in Sam Raussian around three.
• 1:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: with that pick 69 of the 2026 draft and so I want to start a little bit just about Stanford in general and that offense and I know there's a there's a few different in his time at Stanford.
• 1:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's been several a few different quarterbacks, a few different play colors, different things have changed but overall just try a little bit about that offense and what it looked like and how those tight ends were used there.
• 1:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and look, Stanford is his fashion itself as Tidend U over the years.
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's been great to see Sam Raocia continue that tradition, stretching back to guys like Zach Erts, Kobe Flaner, Levine Toilolo, all sorts of guys who have come from Stanford as Tidend.
• 1:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you want stretch it back even a little bit further to Alex Smith back in the mid 2000s and such.
• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: So Stanford is long-priced itself.
• 1:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: on being able to use tie-dens as key cogs in the passing game and Roush kind of came along as kind of an emergency option of sorts in the middle of the 2023 season, Ben Erosick at that point was already pretty much entrenched as a Stanford's tie-dend one and was pretty much the security blanket for Stanford's offense at that time.
• 2:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: He gets hurt.
• 2:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sam Roush comes
• 2:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: and really plays extremely well and played maybe in some respects better than your roscic did for off the road from what he had shown in the first half of the 2023 season.
• 2:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: So look, Sam soft hands can get open and traffic, can make him just to catch his, can find soft spots and zones find the spots where defenders are not be a nice big target for his quarterback to go to.
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: And every once in a while showed a little bit of speed.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: He had a 69-yard catch and run against Boston College for a score this past September.
• 2:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: That was fun to watch, but Sam is known or blocking.
• 3:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he also, he always says himself, no block, no rock.
• 3:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he's taken pride in that.
• 3:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: So look,
• 3:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: lot of folks focus on the the receptions that he made at Stanford but but also more than proved his worth being an effective liner of being a feck of blocker rather at the line of scrimmage so a bit of a bit of a nice school of mishmosh of all skills you need to be a good tie end on any level of football.
• 3:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's exactly what you like to hear, especially in a Ben Johnson offense.
• 3:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's been very vocal about that similar terms of doing the extra stuff when the ball's not in your hand.
• 3:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's very important to him when it comes to even the wider seabers, too.
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: You saw a lot of the Luther Burton and Roman Dunesay and all of them blocking this last season because it's really important.
• 3:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we talk about this trend that we've seen in the offense in Ben Johnson being kind of part of the group that's leading the way of 12 and 13 personnel.
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: So,
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: When you have that, you probably have several tight ends that you can trust in a two-year point doing different things, too.
• 4:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Being able to block, being able to catch, being able to kind of play all parts of the field, and so it will be interesting.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to chat a little bit about, so during, you know, in his time at Stanford, there's four different quarterbacks that he played for during that time, two of which, two of the years, Ashud Daniels was there.
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, if people aren't familiar, he went on to Auburn and then now,
• 4:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: is outfloor to state.
• 4:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so a little bit of different types of quarterbacks too, which I think can be beneficial when you go to the NFL level on your playing in front of someone that like a Caleb Williams who moves around and leads the pockets and does a lot of things out of structure, but also has become and developed the trait of being able to, you already knew he could extend plays, but now with a playing infrastructure with something they worked on last year.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: So chat a little bit about that, just the experience of playing in front of different quarterbacks
• 4:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and even though Caleb Williams went to that directional school in Los Angeles, he can still see the rock, right?
• 4:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: He can still get the ball to where it needs to go, and as you mentioned, those are terrific job of extending plays and just trying to do
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: and there's nuts with his ability to still be able to find guys after scrambling around for what seems like two or three minutes of game time.
• 5:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And certainly, you know, Ashden Daniels may be kind of fits that mold closest to what he might be
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: might be a scene when he's catching passes from Caleb Williams.
• 5:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: The two quarterbacks that he was catching passes from last year in Ben Goldbrandson, bit more of a straight drop back type of guy could also roll out and make plays on the move on bootlegs and things like that, but you were never really going to mistake him for Russell Wilson.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: for a story to speak, and Elijah Brown pretty much the same thing, maybe it's such mobile, really not that much more.
• 5:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: So really, another pocket quarterback, hey, Sam's got experience playing with a quarter, like with Ashton Daniel.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: So look, and it's, it's
• 6:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can't necessarily expect everyone to have cameras come braided off the bat, right?
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Especially when, you know, you're trying to figure out okay, if my quarterback does this, you know, that means I need to go here, and I've got to, you know, most you know, defenders and all those sorts of things.
• 6:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, could it be a process?
• 6:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sure, but STEM does have experience in playing with quarterback to the other pocket and scramble to throw instead of scrambling.
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: run now and Daniel's not on the same level as care boys was but still good to have that skill set in his past definitely and I think that when you talk about a blocking tight end being able to block and help the run game is a big thing too the bears went from one of the worst run offenses in 2024 to a top three in 2025 and so that's obviously a focal point for Ben
• 6:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Johnson and his offences is having guys out there that can help in that aspect of the game and I definitely think Sam Rauch is someone who fits that I wanted to talk about his his increase in production over the time at Stanford because just numbers alone when you look at it 34 yards to 288 to 34 34 34 obviously the 545 last year.
• 7:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: So chat a little bit about that.
• 7:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: You said a little bit of an accident of him coming in and being a part of this offense, but obviously
• 7:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: and show them enough to be able to stick and say, hey, you have a place here to be a starting tyrant.
• 7:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he made a 40 catches in 2020 for a finish with a 43 plus last year to finish out the season and, you know, he had some career games last year in a large those basic it all safe.
• 7:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, you're my outlet underneath 5 yard 10 yards down field catch it at a few see who can do from there and, you know, I had a particularly big day against a pit last year with a catches for 104 yards.
• 7:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: So,
• 7:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: So certainly he's becoming more and more of a focal point of the passing offense.
• 8:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, look, let's be fair.
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Stanford passing game, you're not going to mistake it.
• 8:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, you're not going to mistake it for some of the more high profile pass attacks out there.
• 8:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And Stanford really prefer to, you know, be more of a power type team.
• 8:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: They could get it done.
• 8:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, CJ Williams, you know, in Jacksonville ended up being a draft picker for the jab.
• 8:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: down way.
• 8:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: He certainly helped pace of the Stanford passing attack, but when it wasn't CJ, it was Sam Roush, proved himself as a security blank of sort.
• 8:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: As I mentioned a couple of years ago, maybe too much of a security blank, because I think the quote of I expect that for looking for him, maybe a bit too much bank then, but...
• 8:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: steady solid made hands grabs did what he needed to do to move chains and though by the way, on a couple of occasions, be able to get into the inzone uh, four six points.
• 8:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it was neat to see him and get to know him a little bit uh, grow within the program grows a person grows a human being and really represent the university uh, extremely well and looking forward to that continuing now that he's in Chicago.
• 9:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: So you just mentioned that the end zone part of it for touchdowns in his time at Stanford.
• 9:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Could you see him being a bigger part of red zone in the next level and be able to score a little bit more?
• 9:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: My knee jerk says maybe he's more of a blocker in that, and that, and that, then once you get down inside the, inside the 10, you know, goal to goal situations, short yardage and things like that, my sense is that maybe he's more suited for the blocking side of things, but look, he can catch the rock, right?
• 9:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Certainly he has that threat, and he can be.
• 9:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was certainly a big red zone target if that's what the offense calls for, if that's what his role calls for is it's something that I'm looking forward to him do right off the bat straight out of the gate not necessarily, but I wouldn't put it past it for him to for that to be in his future.
• 10:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: But one of the concerns coming into the draft with Sam Raosh if you go back and you read some of the draft profiles where the drops, there was a bit of a drop issue at his time in Stanford, is that something that was talked about addressed, worked on, you know, any of that side when it comes to those drops.
• 10:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, look, you can find anything in those draft profiles, right?
• 10:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, look, I get it.
• 10:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's part of it.
• 10:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Scouts are there to nitpick, you know, and you get to, you get the measuring hand size season, which I always laugh at.
• 10:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so yeah, you're going to find some things, you know, no, no prospect 100% perfect, no prospect is 100% a total and complete guarantee to do big things on the pro level because let's face it so many things have to happen.
• 10:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: You have to be in the right organization.
• 10:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: You have to be in the right fit.
• 10:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Probably some personnel things have to happen to fall your way to there might need to be an injury or maybe someone gets traded or there might have to be some other things in order for the path to be heard for you to send up the depth charts.
• 11:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: So there are a lot of things.
• 11:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: that potentially have to go into it.
• 11:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm wrecked by brains saying all of this trying to buy some time to think of some instances where Sam made a key dropper, a crucial dropper, or anything like that.
• 11:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: And quite honestly, I can't think of anything outstanding, or at least certainly not with the game on the line, not like he was wide.
• 11:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Opener anything, you know, had the ball on both hands and just clanged off his chest and all of a sudden the game was over and Stanford lost.
• 11:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: I can't, I'm struggling and trying to remember institutions like that were the ball went Sam Roush's way and where the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the chance didn't get moved because of, though, just great drop or anything like that.
• 11:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the defensive back, great cover.
• 11:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you guys get him some credit to, maybe the throw wasn't 100%.
• 11:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, so I don't, I have a sense that maybe that's just a touch overblown that being said if that's what folks, you know, really want to see say walk on as he has he has to be NFL.
• 12:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully he's done that and hopefully it's not something that kind of lurks behind him and around him, he's in lead.
• 12:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, I think that's a positive thing coming from somebody who, uh, I was calling his games and watching every single second of the game to not remember, like a moment where you really feel like his drop affected the game.
• 12:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's the ones that that really hurt.
• 12:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: If it's an end zone drop or a first-down drop and things like that.
• 12:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so we're kind of here that doesn't stick out.
• 12:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: His combine testing was something that did stick out in a positive way when you go back and look at some of the numbers for that 267 pounds.
• 12:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he had a 38 and a half vertical.
• 12:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think it was the best for tied out of tight ends in a tip point six, ten foot six broad jump.
• 12:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so when you look at some of those things, his size, you talk about the blocking ability, and then now you're fitting in this athleticism, this natural athleticism, into a tied end.
• 13:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it does feel to your point at the top of this kind of full package tied in that Ben Johnson gets to kind of work with and develop in this offense.
• 13:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: $6.67 looks a lot different now than it did a few years ago.
• 13:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't have any years ago, right?
• 13:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, my goodness, I think it came in the 1967 that the combine, he was listed at $2.60 during a senior year and Stanford.
• 13:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, packing on the pounds, I'm sure they're pretty good pounds.
• 13:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've packed on the pounds myself.
• 13:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's probably not the same seven pounds.
• 13:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: that's been Sam has since the end of last football season.
• 13:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, look, I'm intrigued to see him try to put it all together, the physicality, the blocking ability, you know, the ability to make contested characters.
• 13:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, if he's running away from defensive backs,
• 13:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: on the NFL level, like he was against Boston College and like he showed a little speed on some other occasions on the collegiate level.
• 13:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, that'd be awesome too.
• 13:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Looking forward to seeing them all put it together and we'll certainly be keeping the
• 14:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: We love that one final one for you Troy because a big thing that the whole coaching staff but Ryan Paul is a general manager at the top has been very vocal about since he took over the bears has been the personality, the human and he wants good humans in the building.
• 14:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: He, you know, football winning football is important but having good people in the locker room is even more important for him.
• 14:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Would you put Sam Rosh in that category of the good guys that you want in your huddle?
• 14:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, a good dude by all accounts, including my own during the Stanford football awards bank, with after the season last year, I actually sat at his table with his family and you know, his family had come in there, they're, they're from Nashville.
• 14:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sam Roush is a great uncle.
• 14:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: profile Hall of Famer and all-time Great Merlin Olsen of the fearsome force and bring back into their course Merlin into a broadcast and career for NBC.
• 15:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, by all accounts, he was a pretty good, pretty good, too.
• 15:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: So the late Great Merlin Olsen in San O'Sha's lineage.
• 15:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, having a chance to interview him on a couple of occasions and get to know him and get to be around him just a little bit.
• 15:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: you know, both from the microphone is on and when it's off and also in team settings as well.
• 15:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's good to be human being by all accounts again, including my own as there seems to be.
• 15:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's important, right?
• 15:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, and again, at the same time, don't get twisted, right?
• 15:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because when he hits on it, when he hits field, when it's time to practice, when it's game day, when it's time to try to get it done in those contexts,
• 15:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's not going to get it done.
• 15:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's going to have talent.
• 15:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: He is not going to be maybe as nice as he might be to the folks at the media and to folks who might be following the program and to all those sorts of things.
• 15:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, he's going to take care of business and he's going to make sure that the job gets done on the field and practice and on game days as well.
• 16:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it is possible to have both those dynamites there.
• 16:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right.
• 16:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, and you have to be able to know when to flip the switch.
• 16:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can't act on the football field.
• 16:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: The same way you do in the real life.
• 16:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: I see me do explain why, but Sam is able to separate those things, be a pretty good human being off the field and do whatever it takes to get the job done on field.
• 16:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I always kind of make a joke where I love the guys and I've been kind of drawn to the players that are kind of Teddy bears off the field and grizzly bears on the field.
• 16:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's just that that switch that flips and it works because it's the Chicago Bears.
• 16:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I feel like if it's perfectly with what this this regime is going it obviously right now the bears feel like they're in a really good place where they can win football games they have.
• 16:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: one of the best playcolors in the NFL right now and so he's coming to an offense that is still learning and developing it with a lot of young guys on it that are kind of working together but a coach that is probably one of the better not everyone's he's a little rough he's not he doesn't take it easy on the guy so the practices are going to be difficult and Sam is going to have to work really hard to earn his spot but
• 17:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: he's gonna learn a ton for Ben Johnson.
• 17:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm really excited to see him apart of this offense.
• 17:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, the bears with the legit and functional and dangerous passing game.
• 17:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: What is going on here?
• 17:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's wild.
• 17:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know we still can't believe it either.
• 17:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, Troy.
• 17:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, thank you so much for hopping on and talking Sam with me.
• 17:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: I really appreciate it and good luck to you guys this season.
• 17:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: I hope you have fun.
• 17:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
• 17:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Much appreciated.
• 17:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stay safe.
• 17:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stay healthy.
• 17:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stay sane.