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Let me see I shouldn’t I shouldn’t have anything that’s going to get me dinged uh at all like man all right all right so wait a minute hang on yeah are we live now good good we should be live Nick oh my gosh oh my gosh like this is
This is one of those games I don’t know if you feel the way I do but like consider this The Green Room right Nick where you always knew these Bears had it in them but you didn’t actually think after what happened in Cleveland that they were going to show this off you
Know what I mean like this was awesome this was an awesome game I mean Christmas already came and gone but this is definitely well because you had you had the Bears performance right but then Robert like I I assume you have some kind of drink I only have water today
But I feel like we need to give a little cheers because we both just got the the number one pick as well we have the number one pick and I want to just quickly say like there there are plenty of times Nick there are plenty of times
Where if I think that the Bears Community as don’t call me a hero I’m more trying to make a big deal out of this because I think it’s funny right but if you know me at all Nick you know that if I think there’s a conversation
That needs to be had especially a hard conversation I will push into borderline Devil’s Advocate territory but today man this is the Justin fields we thought we were going to get I sit here like where’s this been if you gave me this like three more times this season I
Wouldn’t have had to say half the stuff I’ve said like this was awesome this was so great and and even the ones that he missed on there were two touchdowns dropped there was a third down that was like potential could have been caught too so like he was on and then the
Misses were like it was people Miss can we can we just say that like Elite quarterbacks don’t end with a 95% completion percentage like you you miss sometimes whatever like and the runs and get out of sack like getting out of the sacks I mean the dime to
Tyler Scott that he doesn’t come down with the other dime to Tyler Scott that he doesn’t come down with DJ Mo once the one on the Seline on third down there’s no way there’s no way a sane person hey I’ll talk about the hard part here in a
Second right but there’s no way a sane person doesn’t walk out of that game Thinking H dang you get Justin Fields one more sick weapon minimum but God forbid you get him two and like what’s he gonna do about it and now Nick here’s the hard part that we’ll talk about in
The Green Room I’ll bring it back up on the podcast um Ryan poles is really funky decision to make because there’s no way if you and I are saying this that other GMS aren’t also saying this right like in the words of the wire the price of the brick just went up whichever
Direction you’re looking at like now getting the Bears to give up the number one overall pick well I mean that it’s Caleb Williams like what are you really you’re really gonna make us do that well you’re gonna have to pay through the nose but you want to take Justin Fields
Off the Bears like you make it two you make it two teams that actually get into bidding war with a first round pick involved and oh my gosh oh my God and we might have played one of them today hey I gotta address one thing though even though we’re in the
Green Room Robert I see some people talking about the I have I’m sporting a stash you know for the people that are watching the video here um I so here here’s why one I wanted to shave and two in you know kind of honor of Arthur Smith our opposing coach today he rocked
The stash for a big part of the year I thought it’d be funny to do it and maybe I got Arthur Smith’s head he he felt the stash power you know and he couldn’t he couldn’t overcome today no no chance I mean gosh the Falcons got outclassed on
Both sides of the ball left and right I mean I understand that you can’t really do this uh but the Bears are basically one blown screen pass away from an even more convincing defensive Victory like it’s easy to look at 1737 and feel like wow the Bears pounded him they ripped
Off 75 yards off of one screen play that went against the Bears like this oh my gosh Nick this was unbelievable you want to record a podcast yeah I mean I mean there’s so many parts to it I think that make it unbelievable yeah let’s let’s
Rip and go because then we can chat with a lot of people that are going to be here let’s do it let’s do it all right so for for those of you who know the drill uh hi nice to meet you I’m Robert schmidtz this is Nick whan we record a
Bears podcast it’s called bear with us you should give it a look if you haven’t already but we’re going to go ahead and record the podcast if you type something in the Stream chat we’re going to uh try to work it into the podcast the show you muted yourself Robert well not on
Purpose it says on on on Google how did I do gotcha yep yep see now it’s your other mic I think it’s come on it it’s because I touched it and then it unplugged itself all right so let’s Go Yeti classic there there go perfect all right so you sound beautiful that’s all
I’m looking for but so at this point let me see I gotta bring you down to the usual mic stuff I am I’m ready you’re ready let’s talk about some bears and then after that everybody can go celebrate the New Year in style all right ready the Chicago Bears send off 2023
The only way they know how with a crushing victory at home over the the Atlanta Falcons in the snow that had Chicago rocking everything went well today which is why Nick and I are basically going to raise a glass to the number one overall pick to a phenomenall
Looking roster to one of the greatest trades in NFL history more than likely and a bevy of offseason options none of which are unexciting but we’ll talk about all that and more on this episode of bear with us what’s what’s going on everybody and I’m GNA do that one more time what’s
Going on everybody and welcome back to bear with us a Chicago Bears podcast hosted by Yours Truly Robert schmidtz editor-in chief of De Bear’s blog right here with Nick whan my co-host of football guys and Nick gosh I was just talking about this with my brother this
Might be one of the greatest Bears afternoons of my life I mean you just see those two things happening at the same time the Bears are cruising Arrow looks way up Justin field who I know of the two of us I’ve been the one that’s been Harding harder on him Justin fields
Looked like everything we ever dreamed he would be all offseason long clear Arrow going up I mean gosh Nick I don’t know if the Bears could have put a foot wrong today the only sour note if there is a sour note about this game is that it just makes the Cleveland one the
Denver one the Detroit one look that little bit grosser because this team looks like they could make this team looks like a team that could Raise Hell in the playoffs but what are you seeing what are you feeling how are you feeling I mean to to correct correct what you
Said there you mean when they get in the playoffs because it’s still a possibility um and it could be fun I mean five of the last seven games have been wins the other two have been those you know disaster you know they they let Cleveland and Detroit come back really
It could almost be a seven game winning streak here which is insane to think about but to answer your question Robert I feel fantastic um this feels like an extra Christmas present I wasn’t expecting on New Year’s Eve um and I I talked about this off air
But for people that are watching the live stream I’m I’m rocking the stash um and I feel like that had a little bit of power because Arthur Smith Atlanta’s head coach rocked the stash this year so I thought I could combat him a little bit with that but like you’re talking
About I mean this was it wasn’t even close and it that was from the start to finish and everywhere in between there was like a couple plays that I feel like Chicago allowed to have happen that let Atlanta closer into the game but there’s also a couple plays where it could have
Been even more of a blowout which you know is something I thought of Atlanta warm dorm or Dome team coming to Chicago in December it’s not a really good recipe for them no not a good recipe at all but even Wilder is I I don’t know
How you felt Nick but okay so look let’s just address the elephant of the room right if you’re not a MD bfo fan I don’t have any idea whether you were actually cheering for the Bears to win or not I definitely flipped in the middle of the
Game because it was too much fun watching the guys play well how do you not love that like they win you over so quickly not to mention I mean they flat out dominated with the capital D Nick like there was there wasn’t any sense in cheering for Taylor hinei to luck his
Way down the field a second or third time but I don’t remember Atlanta ever getting within a a one-score game after the Bears got up by two like I think they closed it from a three-score game to a two-score game but if that’s if that’s what it takes to make something
Close or to make people tense like we got to look ourselves in the mirror and admit that like you just mentioned from earlier the Bears are too historic 90 plus percent win percentage losses away from a seven game win streak like the Bears are making a habit of getting into
The fourth quarter up quite a bit it’s just whether or not they hang on to the lead and man if that’s really what we’re worried about with with a center that seemingly can’t play like with one receiver that was healthy on a day like today and with an inside middle
Linebacker in Chaine Edmonds that drops what would have been the champagne popping third pick of the game like what are we worried about I know yeah I mean it’s and again like we talked about this and it’s again let us dream here a little bit y’all okay right you flipped
You flipped the the two games you talked about around and made this a seven game win streak Chicago is nine and seven right now and they are one game back from Detroit for the division you you flip back all three 90 percentile ones they should have won adding in Denver
They are tied for the division lead right now and they’ve locked up a playoff spot so that’s the tough part with the whole flu thing is like I know we saw the article right or report from Rapaport that came out yesterday but it that had the caveat of he needs to
Finish the season well and oh boy did he so that leaves you next week Robert with what has to happen next week for Chicago to not even think about moving on from flu or Fields well I mean gosh gosh if you don’t get undressed by the Packers I
I would struggle to imagine the vibes from this game getting tamped down that hard like you would have needed to have a win where you squeezed it out against Atlanta in the worst case scenario in my opinion to really make next week a coin flip I mean you got to remember the
Bears if if memory is serving me well the Bears are now like 24 and 28 in their last like 30 meetups with the Packers Sorry by that I mean they have lost 24 of their last 28 meetings with the Packers I should have clarified that I don’t think they’ve won in their last
Eight meetings and so if they do March into Lambo and lose pardon me as much as everybody says that oh well George mcass is gonna care about that one he will but he’s also probably realistic enough to know that the Bears have done so much losing in Lambo that I bet you he’d
Write it off so long as it’s not a complete embarrassment you know what I’m saying like you lose that game 20 to 23 and I bet the vibes from a 17 to 37 win at home where I mean you had fans chanting to keep Fields you fans chanting anything like it it sounded
Looked and sounded like a uh European soccer stadium in terms of the fans just inventing new chance left right it was awesome it was awesome they’re not booing they’re not booing that’s the other thing is like we had some of that early in the year um so there’s a few
Things from the game I I want to talk about so well I guess the other part of this we got to celebrate today is getting the number one pick so like not only not only is the team just you know rising and it’s everyone it’s not just
Like offense like defense young kids are like thriving I mean dvon Dexter we’ll have to talk about him later but then you have the number one pick which honestly the hilarious part was not only did Carolina lose but the Cardinals beat the Eagles is awesome to be honest with
You like the funniest part about it is so you had this Panthers game that wasn’t tense for any other reason than Bears fan anxiety you had a Bears game that wasn’t tense for any other reason than Bears fan anxiety and then you had this Banger of a football game going on
In Philadelphia as the Cardinals brought it back I mean it’s so funny the way the the NFL works man Nick because when we are Bears fans it can be easy for us especially guys like you and me where we re I mean flu is still going to have to
Work I I don’t know I don’t want to make flu out to be more or less than he is this been a hell of a turnaround right the Bears are two historic losses away from leading the division and being frankly a better story than the lions were last year so worst case scenario
You could argue that they’re kind of in the same boat and if they don’t draft a running back and if they don’t draft a linebacker they’re going to very quickly be in a better boat I think than the Detroit Lions which is wild but all this
To say that like it’s so easy for us to go oh they beat the Cardinals who cares this is the NFL buddy like I’m guilty of this more than nearly anybody the Bears could add stick with Justin Fields next year very feasibly win 12 games would
They go to a Super Bowl man I don’t know would they win a Super Bowl man I don’t know out of the last like decade of quarterbacks to win a Super Bowl it’s been all Hall of Famers assuming you count Matthew Stafford as a Hall of
Famer you may not right but so it’s like all Hall of Famers and then Matthew Stafford whatever you want to do with with him and Nick Foles so the recipe to win a Super Bowl man that is a tough rubric and everybody keeps trying to bring it up and there’s just not enough
Data you know what I mean but a very a very good team that’s on the table nearly no matter what you do right well like okay so diving deep into that part of it I have some other thoughts like the obviously Brady and Payton and whomever like they carry the torch for
So long that I think muddies it so much you have the goat like you’re not going to have and again I’m not one that uses that term I don’t use generational Loosely or Elite Loosely but he was the goat so you you look in this like modern era of
Football right now with the two high safeties Robert and quarterbacking I mean momes and Allen and Herbert and some of these guys have been struggling so much that you need The Supporting Cast it almost makes me wonder if it’s a new era because you at Jaylen Herz made
It to the Super Bowl last year was very close you know wherever you are on the pi call but I mean that was all They Carried more of him I think to the Super Bowl than him taking everyone on his back and carrying like some of the other
Ones have so like there’s a whole debate with that and I think you can you can go either way and I think it’s G to be very interesting now with Fields playing better it makes it more of a conversation because he’s not like the 20th the 25th best quarterback now he’s
Working his way towards 15th maybe 12th you know he could be in that range and so if you keep playing like that it’s going to make everything more more debatable on Twitter so again also people be more nice on Twitter and I mean God knows that the fields is like
EPA statistics cpoe statistics look we’re a film-based channel here but we like to look we like to look the numbers in the eyes and speak to them because we believe that if you can’t speak to them then you have a bigger problem right Nick like that’s how that’s how you can
Miss things at least in our opinion but that said fields’s statistics are going to be a mess because the first part of the season the later part of the season and everything in between are are kind of just all over the place like as much
As Nick I wanted to because I I want to admit something I caught myself being I think I think looking for fields to have an explicit answer in the Arizona game like I think I watched the Arizona film just looking myself for the mirror man like trying to find the reasons why I
Shouldn’t buy back in because at the end of the game we’ve got a hobbled DJ Moore and a hobbled Cole K and really what is the rest of the team and would I be holding Joe burrow to X standard would I be holding like Justin Herbert to Y
Standard if he had nobody around him right Arizona or not it’s easy to say oh well this person would do this uh mahomes’s receivers have been negative receivers cadarius Tony has played for other teams but still happened you know what I mean like it’s well I mean I I
Would say even I mean with as HBL as they were and with Kevin Jenkins out I mean I would rather have what’s around momes than what was on around fields to the last what half of that game gosh I mean first of all that’s a big thing to
Say because what’s been around Mahomes has been despicable yeah but you still have Kelsey versus tonion you have Rashid Rice versus veis so you got the Kay or you got the tanion part I I agree with you with where Kelsey but then you get to like Marquez valder scantling
Versus amoney that I man I don’t want to go full tin foil hat this early in the podcast this is ridiculous do you think once per pod though do you think that they benched Mooney and called it an injury or do you think that they or or
Do you think that Mooney’s hurt because it I’m surprised they called it a concussion right I’m surprised that he finished the game normally concussions don’t do that can’t doesn’t mean it didn’t happen but him being inactive after last week’s game I’m just saying for a hit spaced organization it would
Kind of make sense because last week’s game was loafy man well well okay to take that further I have somebody that should be inactive for next week and his name is Justin Jones so we’ll get on we’ll get on that at some point we’ll get there because we do have to work
Back to the game I do want to say this though you because you mentioned the two high thing and what that’s done for quarterbacking you know it’s funny because this is where I feel like we’ve seen a Resurgence in let’s call them backup quarterbacks right guys like
Garner minu guys like Jake Browning guys that just get the ball out to their Playmakers have been making hay in the new NFL but you could argue Nick that more than ever boxes being lighter and DBS sitting in zones down field means that Fields is running does do a lot of
Damage and when you’re using it correctly or at least when it pops Fields is running tilts games that shouldn’t tilt it otherwise and I mean I know it sounds hokey I know it’s what everybody has said but yeah actually there’s a path to success here if Fields does hit a couple anticipatory shots
Over the middle he dumped one to DJ Mo the DJ turned up field picked up a first down on Third and seven earlier in the game it was like first and uh what was it first and 10 and he hits a big dagger shot but moreover it looked on time like
Very well on time missed he overshot Tyler Scott but it was the right read and it was an over route the sure but then you’ve got tons of these other over routes where it’s like you got crossers against man coverage it’s easy pickings for Justin fields and then he Nets your
Offense a free three first downs that are just break the glass this this is nonsense first downs from work in the pocket that should not be and when you start adding the value of what those plays give you on offense you get a 30-point performance against a defense
That hasn’t allowed 30 points in I mean I’ll have to look it up but it’s been a hot minute like I’m I’m proud of you Robert because you’re coming back towards my area where we’re talking about Justin Fields running the ball and you’re okay with it
Because look at that Red Zone run draw play which you know they’re going to be in man A lot of times near the goal line and it was so wide open a few of these other ones that were getting first downs on I mean they’re even throwing away
Runs there’s times where he gets negative one negative -2 it doesn’t matter on those because you’re going to get the 12 12 20 yard runs even another 30 yard run got called back today but again with those two high safeties there’s less guys in there and that
Isolates again we talked about this in the preow the slow into your linebackers against Justin Fields it’s a mismatch and it proved it today right and I mean I’ll tell you right now that what do you do with fields in the future bro I don’t
Know because not only do we get one game it is so easy for us to do this isn’t it in in all walks of life where if your brother makes nine mistakes but then he does one thing right you go man you rule you know what I’m saying like this is
Fields’s best game if we were smart we and this this hey hey good news Bears fans this is gonna get the Washington game back in the conversation because if you’re smart you push the best game out you push the worst game out so you get
Rid of Tampa you get rid of the like of this one and you evaluate the middle but it’s post game pod we can’t do that we got we got a lot more to talk about about it but more over to like Wonder alloud like okay so we are hitting the
Point Nick where if you asked me to today like okay we are drafting quarterbacks in order to win one football game Justin Fields is starting to rise way way up that ladder how well is he going to survive a full NFL season I don’t know because the longer I keep
Watching him the more damage his rushing is doing the more I want him running the ball the more he takes three to four hits a game that make me go oh we did not block that one well but I guess that’s just how it goes right but or
Flapped in the head he’s he’s never GNA go gonna get a roughing call in his life he have one all year it’s a you think by accident Taylor hinei got one today exactly eared it because he got smoked in that one the so did so did Fields before the half against Cleveland the
Cleveland one was just ridiculous but those end of half okay so I’m not about to go to bat for officiating the end of half plays are a massive problem in the NFL right now I think you’ve seen it where it’s like piis down the field late hits you can almost feel the referees
Swallow the whistle and say oh whatever right you know who the referee was for that game right was it the bad one it was the one from last night the same one no way yes it was they hopped on a flight and did a second game no no no no
No no I’m saying the one in the Cleveland game oh now now what yeah I gotcha I gotcha and like your and like somebody said in the chat here the the worst uh the worst hits Fields takes are absolutely from whiff blocking assignments I just think that whiff blocking assignments in the Run
Game are kind of a given they’re gonna happen eventually right you nobody can hit all their blocks but man if we could transition a little bit does it am I crazy or is it starting to feel to you like the Bears really are let’s stick to offense like a center probably a swing
Guard and a second I’d love a second and third Dynamic wide receiver but let’s start with the second one like away from being a legit stacked out offense oh yeah well well you could say second receiver and you have Tyler Scott as your third if you improved your backup
Tight end as well so you can go either way on that but yeah is getting better KT’s looking really good didn’t see him today but over the last couple weeks he’s looking really good he is he is and he well I mean give him a little credit
On that uh that quarterback sneak and I’ve been mad at having a wide receiver there but he got it done but no you’re right because well Robert this is the problem is we’ve been judging Fields off of horrendous surroundings we know the o line last year the line this year’s been
Banged up until the second half of the year and now we’ve started to win DJ Moore is a wide receiver that you know a wide receiver one we’ve finally seen we haven’t seen one since I would say Marshall and Jeffrey from back in the day you you know like this is what an
Average surrounding cast is now you could improve it you could try to get to be above average but I think the other receivers besides tanion or I’m sorry besides KT and Moore are well below average the oine is playing average at best right now maybe below average on
The entire year like having just average and judging him like that’s the problem is it’s like well he’s not as good as insert whatever quarterback and you’re like yeah Baker mayfeld has Mike Evans and Chris Godwin we don’t have that here oh sure I mean I think actually that’s
Probably the hardest part about this Nick I saw somebody write this up on Wy City grid iron where they basically made the argument that the Bears were uh just a little below average and this is with the loss of Chase Claypool who it’s easy to forget he was ever on the Bears
Roster but the Bears did have a legitimate three wide receiver plan going into the season one of their Ro receivers just you know combusted right he I was cheering for him too man I was cheering for him so bad the way that that all worked out but but more to say
That the Bears tried to build something that was fail proof and hey the fail scenario brought them down to below average you you could do worse than that at no point did we ever get all the way to 2022 bad but it is easy isn’t it Nick
That when the pressure starts to turn up on a bear’s quarterback and we start to over critique everything I’m sure there’s somebody out there that wants to move on and hey Val option right now I’m going to try to straddle the fence because I don’t know but this is the
Wrong game to talk about you know who so we’re not going to but moreover Nick like it’s so easy for somebody who wants to move on at quarterback to look and be like yeah but that Tyler Scott over route you can’t miss that and I’m like
Shut up like Tyler Scott takes two plays off the board from Justin Fields you can miss one or two I I feel like people think that every quarterback or or Elite you know again Elite Elite I call three top 10 quarterbacks they feel like top 10 quarterbacks never miss throws go
Watch Mahomes go watch everyone misses throws one now and again like it’s not so so one thing I’d like to kind of transition to would be I I was underestimating What DJ Moore could mean to Chicago coming here but on top of that like how much respect do we have to
Give him because I talked about this in the pregame pod playing today after looking like he could have torn up his MCL high ankle spring whatever it was last week and he has 159 yards on nine receptions and a touchdown and he could have had two more
Like what what and again like pros Pro in like everything I mean he had I remember we were mad at him early in the year he had some bad body language but like he’s been carrying and then on top of that he put that day up when you knew
Mooney wasn’t there you Comm like barely played if anything what was Atlanta doing in the secondary like dude just bracket him and then make anyone else beat you look I first of all like I I’m trying to think of some snarky way to say like to to just say DJ Moore is out
There playing is like not even fair dude has another 150 yards dude is carrying and the only reason he didn’t look like he was carrying today this to me Nick this is where football gets so complicated because you have a game like Washington where I think Moore did the
Yman share of the work on offense and that’s a good thing it’s a good thing to have weapons that can do that today I thought Fields was just threaten it like it’s good on more that he kept getting open right but I thought Fields carried the load today and got more the majority
Of his production as well as hey little hat tip to a guy that I know a lot of Chicago doesn’t like I thought Luke get’s game plan was was good today I mean they came out with the plan of basically running a bunch of crossers and pick routes against man coverage in
Atlanta never adjusted I don’t know what they were thinking I don’t know why they thought this was going to work I don’t know what their plan was we could figure that out on the all 22 but I mean it was really open all that that that’s very
That’s very on Justin Fields very on DJ Moore very un lugy likely using the middle of the field this is kind of interesting too is and I think this is updated I just looked it up as we’re we’re chatting here DJ Moore on the season 1300 receiving yards 92
Receptions eight touchdowns on 130 targets which I know y’all will be like man 130 is a lot it’s not for a wide receiver one I mean back in the day I think Brandon Marshall had like 180 targets that one year in Chicago so like if you gave DG Mo 50 more like you’re
You’re doing something so this guy is efficient he he earns it before I mean he those veter moves like you saw Robert where he leans in to get that separation late on the sideline gets his feet down and sure-handed after the reception still gaining yards and fighting for
Some first downs I mean like that one he was over the middle caught it and just backed up because he knew it was close like those are the veteran moves that you need to convert first downs and win football games let’s go through some plays because they are so much easier
Said than done DJ Moore catching the slap fade over the shoulder that is an absolutely impossible catch I mean if you go back and you watch that cuz Fields leaves it a single yard short meaning that DJ is not going to see the ball like coming over the top of his
Head you know what I mean like it’s just behind him enough to where he’s gonna have a good idea but he has to pull his hands out to the spot and just hope it falls there it did he catches it no Bobble little later in the drive that uh
Those late hands that he displayed in The End Zone on a route where he was able to generate a step in the end zone never easy to do hauls that in a lot of people Bobble those man like it is so easy to get on receivers when they drop
This stuff but a lot of teams will blow this and DJ came right through my favorite play because it’s one of the simplest ones things start things feel like they’re starting to unravel right just a little like you get you get the Bears they take a holding call they’re
On offense trying to respond to an Atlanta touchdown Drive where Taylor heiki just ran for 30 yards on you DJ Moore gets the ball over the middle stiff arms AJ Terell and jogs out a 20 yard first down F what first and 20 it’s first and 10 and these plays were just
So great like pulling Yak out when he needed it making complex catches when he needed it I know the DJ isn’t the world’s most sudden mover like when you compare him to Stefon Diggs Etc but he is such a smooth athlete and it fits so well with What fields does as a passer
Because he’s also an incredibly smooth athlete it’s fun watching the two work together man what you had talked about someone that will Bobble receptions and it won’t come down with them we have that person in Chicago his name is daruni so we’ve seen the other side of
It and it costs touchdowns it costs games it costs drives and it’s nice to have that sure-handed that’s that’s exactly what we’re looking for I think I mean you think opposite of more you know in the dream world you’d want to have Scott be that like speed guy and then
You’d want to have a big guy the jump ball type guy you to to have like that whole mix but honestly I don’t care if it’s neighbors or Harrison or whomever else one other guy to kind of transition other part of the offense we have to
Give credit to and people said they saw it last week and I didn’t with khil Herbert I did not see I didn’t see the same burst or the same cutting ability but he had it today it w it was there was more burst I think today than last
Week there was more cutting ability and this is what happens when he’s healthy like like we talked about this the Bears were beat up y’all early in the year and they’re healthy now it’s like it’s rare to be healthy later in the year and I I can’t believe he didn’t score that
Touchdown late and he got the extra carry then that long run but that is a good we talked about this in the pregame pod that’s a good interior run defense it’s a good run defense overall everyone I think it’s second in the NFL um and he had 18
Carries for 124 yards and a touchdown C Herbert man hats tip to you today hats off to him I how much did he get on the long one because he obviously I think is great most people obviously have a long one so I don’t know I remember I used to
Get into arguments online when it’d be like Jordan Howard had 150 yards and somebody would say yeah but if you take out the 60 yard run he was only this and it was like all right why are we doing this but so for I I love watching
Herbert the guy’s like watching a human pinball I mean he just soaks contact so much better than I think people think he does because he’s not a huge person he doesn’t run with the power that David Montgomery does at least on First Sight but when people hit him the guy doesn’t
Go down and he just CHS his legs for another five or six yards it sure helped that it I don’t know if you saw what I saw Nick but first blush it felt like the Bears leaning on an outside running rushing attack using CRA crack toss using plenty of these other things that
They had going on and fields’s legs unlike quarterback draw that scored where he looks as natural as he’s going to be a couple of the other quarterback runs that they had this stuff lightens the Box opens up seams up the middle and the Bears capitalized with Herbert and it was it
Was awesome I mean he’s just another player that seems like he’s playing well and honestly at times I feel like I’m living in a parallel universe because I’ve watched this jersey play so poorly for so long but right now I can’t help but feel like we haven’t even talked
About the defense yet the offense for multiple weeks outside of the Browns game it’s really the only blemish in this has come out and rocked up two to three touchdowns of the first half and even if there are questions about what they’re doing in the second half of
These games they’re giving the defense quite a lead to defend and hey that’s a winning formula is it going to beat the Chiefs I don’t know but right now man you could tell me that the Bears would pick off the CH or pick off Patrick Mahomes three times I would believe you
They’re they’re canning three interceptions on everybody right now well yeah to well hold on one more point about Herber before I jump to the defense is right because you know we always think long term and we think of the big picture Etc Herbert’s under contract for next year yes he is and you
Have him and you got Roshan and that feels like a really good combo that I don’t think you really got to mess with like you have two cheap guys you have a speed guy you got a more of a power guy who can use his hands more so that
That’s that’s exciting but to your point about the defense I I had this up so I’m ready that you uh you read my mind here the defense had four interception ctions today which we were excited about again some of them were just garbage time but again that that’s how you seal the win
Right they have had multiple so this is three or more turnovers forced in four straight games they had none last week against Arizona then they had four more again today five out of their last six games having three or more turnovers forced is unbelievable I mean Nick let’s use all right so
Picking on one game is never uh a great way to build a like a real case in football but it’s a great way to make a point on a podcast so I’m gonna do it everybody freaked out that Dallas was able to pick off golf how many times
Last night how many times I’ll give you the answer if you don’t know it was two the Bears have picked off Jared G five times in two games and even put him in a head space where he had a one of those Jared goof fumbles from the other day
Joe flacko has played clean ball against everybody you know except for Chicago who he played against like at Soldier Field there’s a point where we’re looking at this muttering to ourselves Nick Taylor hanii did you say he threw four picks today yep it could he threw
Three Ritter threw one he oh gosh and hinei had another in him like Germaine Edmond drops a ball straight through his hands making exactly the coverage play that we’ve been looking for him to make literally all season like shifting to his right planting his foot driving back
Towards his left getting into a passing Lane and basically being the guy the quarterback didn’t see over the middle of the field right like the Shark in the Water this was awesome this was awesome I mean Nick we hit a point where so I B
I put out a tweet which there’s a reason I hate using terms like I put out a tweet to make a point but I was just trying to basically put get some cheap engagement off of the fact that I think Ryan Po’s made one of the greatest
Trades in league history at this point and so originally the Tweet stated something like on a day where DJ Moore had 159 yards receiving and gon Dexter had two sacks until somebody pointed out oh gon Dexter was the roquan trade and I went oh no worries then it’s Tyreek
Stevenson who had two picks like everybody right now is playing well Gordon has a pick brisker looks great gon Dexter two sacks looking like a pass rushing monster Montes sweat looks like one of the best deadline deals in in years like Michael Lombardi mean what’s going wrong here where’s the hole is it
Eddie Jackson like that’s one of my favorite players man the defense is defense is studly and I’m I’m like looking back what was what was Montes sw’s first game with Chicago was it um uh so if memory serves it was the Saint game wasn’t it Saints game okay so I’m
I’m looking back here so the last seven games Chicago has allowed one opponent to score more than 20 points in the last seven that was the collapse to Detroit late um and then then it was 24 to the Saints 30 to the Chargers then it was 12
To the Raiders 19 to the Vikings 20 to the commanders so out of the last I mean whatever since week four they’ve allowed two opponents to have more than 24 points one have 24 and the rest have been 20 or less that’s unbelievable to start the year remember y’all this is
The disaster to start the year 38 to Green Bay 27 to Tampa 41 to the Chiefs and 31 to the Broncos since then they have looked good and then lately they have looked great and it’s so funny because again this is where this is where unless you don’t like the Bears
Defense and unless you’re actively trying to make an argument against Matt eberl you can’t really use full SE season statistics because their EPA numbers and etc etc from early in the season are so bad they keep waiting the Bears into the average like when you look at them across the whole season
They’re not playing average ball like if anything and we are 30 minutes into the podcast I’m g hit you with a take that isn’t even hot it’s just the truth but I think that there are some people honestly myself included that doesn’t want to hear this Atlanta is what a team
With a bad coach looks like and the mat Bears blew them out I mean Matty B may not be the team that we or Matty may not be the coach background that we want him to be Matty bfo may have plenty of things that he has to sort out I mean
Obviously when you lose what might be both your coordinators that you handpicked one of them to an HR issue a second coach on the staff to an HR issue and all the other things that we’ve talked about blah blah blah blah blah over the course of the Season you’ve
Heard it before you get it right Nick but that there’s the problem with offensive coaches being pretty much the only ones who make the playoffs succeed in the playoffs at least over history but this Bears team right now man they are fun and I have no idea how
Sustainable it is I really don’t know but it is disgusting looking at how many options there are at adding a second Edge I mean that’s if you don’t want to go with like a Jared verse Dallas Turner chop Robinson type instead you could add like a denil hunter you could add a
Bryce Huff you could add all kinds of guys in free agency or the draft then and then that could be kind of your one defensive move outside of picking up a safety somewhere you could push the rest in on offense add yourself a legitimate Bonafide Center find some go or find
Some help on offensive line you’re probably going to pick up a free agent receiver like Nick it is hard for me to not start snowballing saying before we even trade the number one overall pick before we even do anything at quarterback you can build a real hell of
A team because so many guys are starting to rise up and play really strong football that you say well I mean if Montes sweats the best Edge rusher on the team that’s probably still a pretty good defense you know what I mean oh yeah I I had fun uh yesterday because
You know we have time off right now with the holidays I did a uh I did a fun mock draft where it was defense-based and I mean again I’m not gonna go deep into the weeds here it’s just kind of funny I traded down twice um from one
And I got um Jon so you have an interior D tackle your three Tech and then and then latu latu at edge with trading back and getting Max Crosby and then in the early second I got and then in the early second I got kitchens I was like build
The elite defense and then just have Justin do whatever he wants to do so anyways it’s just fun but that the fun part is this isn’t like one unit is just carrying the other unit they’re both playing well and if you’re playing this well again with
Not good Edge on the other side and Justin Jones again he’s going to get my Patrick Lucas Patrick comment here he should get punted into the sun like he should not be on this roster I mean if it wouldn’t cost you draft or uh cap space next week
Those two penalties were terrible Robert you had you had Atlanta stopped two yards short of the first down and you want to get into an ego trip on the other guy because he hit your guy which by the way I saw a punch thrown by Atlanta player that didn’t get called
For penalty or a swing anyway and who cares man who cares scoreboard that’s exactly what you should look to all the time and that’s exactly why like getting rid of players again the two Worst Guys in the field that played was Patrick and Justin Jones and like those are like
When we when we’re starting to like take out these pieces and we’re talking about little things that going to help Chicago that’s because Ryan poles has done such a crazy job of flipping this rebuild in such a short period of time but yeah like interior pass rush and Edge on the
Other side like that can get better but if you’re playing this Elite and you can have easy upgrades easy upgrades this defense as young as it is I mean they played well without Jaylen Johnson it’s another thing we need to talk about if you can do easy upgrades they could stay
Good for years it sure feels that way doesn’t it and I mean Justin Jones has played I think better than we just basically Justin Jones played the first four weeks of the Season pretty poorly and we kind of decided who he was given that last year was so bad on defense
That why would you assume that Justin Jones had any gas in him the moment that he got into a medium rotation right he started playing better so I have no idea how he played for me it is hard to pick up how uh I I just watch all the skill
Positions when I’m actually watch the game Watch The quter back in the skill positions and so when it comes to Andrew Billings or Justin Jones like I’ll pick up what they did on all the gritty Downs where they didn’t literally make the tackle on the all 22 rewatch right but
Yeah you can’t really do that penalty can you like that’s the wrong time that’s a game unraveling kind of penalty and so and the late hit right so I from from what I had so he had the unnecessary roughness call when they were short but he also had the roughing
A passer penalty that gave them a field goal like you can you can easily say if we don’t mess up our own selves like Atlanta didn’t might not score right and hey that’s a good thing to be saying though I will tell you you would talk about Atlanta or like us messing
Ourselves up Taylor haniki did not play well either like we did not beat a Hall of Famer right I mean somebody mentioned this in the chat they’re absolutely right the broadcast was pointing out open receivers that he was missing it always gets funny when you’re talking about stuff like that because you hope
As a defense to create an imposing enough environment that the quarterback feels hurried and that is exactly what aneki looked like to me I don’t know what you saw but he was not camped out in the pocket looking for the open guy which is a very different story than
What we saw early on in the season where I know you pointed this out with Baker Mayfield where Baker actually relaxed in the second quarter of the game on and you saw him go oh sheesh it’s like I got a red jersey on thank goodness no Hani played like he knew that the
Offense on the other side was going to snowball him if he didn’t make a play and that if he didn’t get the ball out of his hands he had number 98 coming for him which that’s what you want as a defense I’ll give him a little credit today though he his
Scrambling created I mean obviously the touchdown Which I I was just shocked that that happened but also uh multiple first downs too I mean early on they were cooking because he ran he they had two chunk plays of well actually they had another the next Drive they had
Three plays of over 20 yards which I was like uh is our defense going to show up and then they finally did right it was obviously a weird day to make anything too definitive in terms of claims I mean the footing so bad out there that to say
That I mean somebody mentioned and I hadn’t thought about it at all until they said it on the broadcast that if the ground is icy and especially if it’s snowy that it’s hard to get off of the ball well which is going to kill pass rush and I completely get that and so
It’s nice to see that the Bears were able to make do all the same felt to me by the way we talked about this in our matchup podcast but I thought Tyreek Stevenson did a great job against Drake London all things cons or considered uh when he got his opportunities playing
Great man oh yeah like I’m I’m I know it fits my agenda to say it but it’s why I think it’s good to just live with a DB’s mistakes early in the season because it’s kind of like uh it’s kind of like one of those things you ever been to a
Science museum you push the you put the quarter in the slot and it it like rolls around a big funnel and gets closer and closer and closer to the middle before it drops DBS it’s just like you’re going to fail Every Which Way and the only hope is that you’re getting a little
Closer to that perfect Middle where you’re physical but not so physical that you draw a flag and you’re breaking on balls but you’re not you’re not breaking so early that you’re guessing and you’re getting exposed on the back end of plays and he hit that balance really really
Well today would love to see him get a safety I love Eddie Jackson man but I do wonder if we could get a better impact player at that spot but also it’s not like anybody’s throwing at him so I could understand it both ways where the
Safety you don’t see in the broadcast is easy to complain about but that’s what people did for years uh well I I I think you can cover that if you get another Edge and you generate more of a pass rush then you can have anybody doing
That right but no I mean the interesting part here is I mean not only in the second half basically was Stevenson and Terrell Smith out there who I thought played okay as well um I want to talk about Jaylen Johnson because he made a
Great play he did to to get the the stop and then hurt his shoulder now shoulder issues have been an issue with him that was the thing coming out of college I believe and um not being healthy I want that has to get factored
In man to this deal so it does right the problem is is that when I went through and I looked at the different Corners that you see at the top of the corner market it dawned on me that corner is such an alien position where the athleticism it takes to survive out
There just means that you generally have to be long but not too thick because if you’re too thick you’re too slow so you have to be long you also have to be fast you also have to be this you also have to be that most of those guys miss like
Five games a year that doesn’t mean that this is a good injury it just means like you’re talking about this is something that’s going to factor into negotiations but I would argue Nick it’s another reason that it’s gonna come down to the tag right now Jaylen Johnson has no
Reason to take any deal the Bears offer him the moment that he gets tagged now there’s a good reason to take the deal the Bears are offering him because you get more guaranteed money the moment that you take the extension even if the AP or the aav is less we’ll have to see
What happens but like you’re talking about I if I was jaylen’s agent I would not say ah we got hurt in the last game of the season where we got eliminated to uh from the playoffs based on no fault of our own Ah that’s really gonna kill
Me in negotiations you know what I mean yeah no I I get it but I mean that I mean availability and depth are huge I mean that’s that’s toally so I have uh I have a couple other stats you I want to throw your way the
Game again guys I always look for the small things I think that can matter here so feel position is Big Trent Taylor 19 return yards on punts I think that was that’s a bonus Trent and Gil average 48.8 yards per punt okay we’re banging then all right Trenton I mean I wanted
That in the Cleveland game I mean you did it two games in a row that’s nice time of possession Robert have you looked this up or no no I bet it was 35 minutes or more 3714 oh my gosh that rules and speak speaking of time and possession by the
Way every once in a while you catch this glimpse so I don’t know if you’ve noticed this but when the Bears are running the ball frankly even when they’re passing the ball half the time there was one of those runs in the uh Red Zone where they it’s a screen to Kil
Herbert he gets hit around a one yard gain battles forward anyways and ends up face down on the one yard line uh after like eight yards after contact and then you see number 76 just fly into the picture and like knock two guys out and even better as one one of them’s getting
Or peeling themselves off the the like snow ridden Soldier Field he is on a knee staring at him like you can go back and you can watch the broadcast and you’ll see Tevin Jenkins basically hunt his prey and make it clear that he knew what he did and you see this with
Darnell Wright you see this with Kevin Jenkins I can’t believe that we actually are getting a nasty offensive line in Chicago but we totally are like I know yeah I’m just proud of te so for as far as he’s come I know he just got injured with the concussion but like the
Injuries but also we might trade him we might cut him switching from tackle to guard and like now he’s like one of the best guards in the NFL like that’s yeah that that takes something I mean if you think about playing tackle your whole life and thinking you’re gonna get paid so much
More at tackle and to suck that up and and to do it and transition from left to right to left as we’ve been jostling him around dude you get another hatp it is hard to look at this team right now all right so let’s let’s transition a little
Bit because it’s so funny this game was so open and shut there’s like not that much to get mad about you know what I mean like and sometimes the Mad stuff is what extends discussion but instead you and I are both just citing things the other one goes yep because it was cut
And dry that’s a good thing if there’s one thing that may not be as cut and dry as I think some fans want to make it man there are a lot of football teams that don’t seem like they love football this much like there are a lot of teams in
The NFL that don’t seem like they’ve got the gas that the current Chicago Bears do and if like what Ian raport reported Flo is down to keep calling the defense because I don’t really want him in a CEO role I don’t see the value there right
Like we’ve got a good thing going let’s keep it this way maybe we add some new uh some new stuff on offense I know a lot of people would love that I’m I’m very between because I don’t really want Fields learning a third offense you know
What I mean like extra change is bad as I see it it can get better but couldn’t we also theoretically tune up the offense by bringing in a new receivers coach bringing in a new like QC you get it right there’s a lot more Co or just pure Center and wide receiver too
There’s so many more ways to create offensive change than just firing the offensive coordinator and if you do fire the offensive coordinator you probably should there are too many issues it’s just a weird time to point it out like in this game well well two two two
Positives just more stats I’m G to throw you into this offensive discussion and one negative five Red Zone trips today four touchdowns so that that’s hat tip to to gsy I gotta give him some too and to Fields 432 yards is outstanding one negative though six of 16 on third down
And one of two on fourth down the Justin Fields if we could give him some credit for a specific area of the field that he is winning he is winning in the Red Zone I if for any of the crazy Bears fans and of the of the people that I imagine are
Listening and watching this podcast right now I bet it’s quite a few of you crazy sickos and you know you probably also double boxed and watched the Jaguars game right as they played the Carolina Panthers and their first three Red Zone trips they got down to the 10
Yard line worked their way to the five and failed that Nick is normal and the Bears have not run into that problem in weeks they get down to the five yard line Justin Fields is gonna tote the pill and he is going to score like Justin Fields converts trips to the red
Zone at what feels like an insane rate that I cannot imagine hasn’t been consistent through his whole career like it’s it’s not just one game or a two game sample it feels as if Nick when the Bears aren’t moving the ball they don’t move it at all right they aren’t the
Offense to get 500 yards and only net 17 points that just the only game that that happened was the Washington game where everything went to hell last year you know what I mean not the not the most recent one the one before that last year normally if the Bears are getting to the
Red Zone they’ll put 30 on you they’ll put 40 on you like they they’ll at least put 27 on you well you T that’s because of the threat of fields running like it changes everything because you have to account for that it gives you better matchups better spacing leverage for
Your receivers play calls that you can do it’s just different it’s it’s so different than if you had Jared Goff which jarro goof has done well most of this year but he can’t run like that like you see running quarterbacks or the threat of running quarterbacks is so
Different once you get inside the 10 specifically the funny part to me Nick is that run as a running quarterback does not need that much the funny part about Fields is that at times I feel like it can be an embarrassment of riches he’s so fast and and accelerates
So quickly that he’s into the end zone before anybody makes it competitive the defense at times will just stop trying the moment that they see he’s about to run into the end zone because there’s no contesting it Drake May to use an example or Caleb Williams could probably
Score a lot of these rushing touchdowns that’s not me trying to draw a direct comparison it’s me pointing out this is why the league is starting to push this way right Josh Allen can take a Frozen play and turn it into a touchdown Patrick Mahomes has done it all the time Jaylen
Herz has done it all the time Lamar Jackson may win MVP partially because of what he’s able to do in these scenarios you get into the Red Zone you need that 11th offensive player you know what I mean like you need that dual threat because it just gives the defense so
Much more that they have to work through it is wild watching Fields because Fields is probably as Avant guard a quarterback as you could see and I really do mean that for those who don’t know what I’m trying to say Fields is very very specific Fields is a deep
Throw machine Fields is one of the best rushers in football and he’s still coming along as let’s call it a normalized quarterback right or right Nick like an NFL passer so to speak but the old way of doing things he was an explosive play in a bottle and you see
That at times even in today’s game and gosh if you can just access a little more of that keep the chains moving this way that way I mean for crying out loud the chemistry he’s developing with DJ Moore the trust dare I say it makes you
Wonder like okay if we do get Malik neighbors if we do get romad dun God forbid we get Marvin Harrison Jr Rock Bowers can you get two of these man the only thing about the Bowers thing is that the the day that a team commits two major resources to tight end for the
Betterment of the team I will believe it I’ll get right there with you I don’t New England did with with grank and Aon Hernandez man and then it did that one failed for reasons completely outside of their control but on the field it worked they were it was nice I mean the benefit
To two tight ends is that you don’t know if it’s run or pass but to your point a couple things one is that fields did today when you get in the 10 and inside the Red Zone and your guy can run and then run to throw which fields did today
To Tyler Scott he did like and we saw last week when Mercedes Lewis was wide open because the guy has to come at Fields he’s like oh yep wide open Boop like that’s such a different thing and the other thing is this I hear this often right well if you get more weapons
It won’t change because you know Fields is so limited can he support weapons did you see him in college he had weapons and he just is like yep you’re open boom boom boom boom boom and he made them all eat he’s like yep I don’t even need to
Run we didn’t know he was this good of a runner because he’s just like Distributing everywhere so I agree with you if he if he can a little bit more on time which he’s getting better at throwing over the middle which he did he’s done better past few games and
Eliminate some of these negative plays that that was one of the things Robert I wanted to dive into was the the sacks that he took so there were three so one was when and again I want to get into this because you can hear on on the
Audible and he’s and he’s there’s a blitz coming and he’s like he says Lucas okay me as an offensive guy there’s there’s there’s lucky there’s Ringo whatever Lucas isn’t a call Lucas is his name Lucas get the linebacker Lucas goes left and doesn’t get the linebacker to
Me that was not a left call to me that was Lucas that’s your guy LC Mike Mike Lucas not shifting left that was I think that was Mi which is Miss assignment by Lucas Patrick that was one sack and Fields could do nothing there the second
One I want to get into this because I want to hear your angle on this Robert so right before the half and Kyro Santos then missed the field goal and they almost returned it and I had I had for for those that’ll remember this Bears fans I had the Devin Hester field goal
Return or further back the Nathan vasher against against the 49ers With the Wind you remember that one and I had that one going through my head I can’t believe that we tackled him but Fields dropped back rolled left and then slid and got a sack of two yards instead of throwing it
Away and then they took the timeout with four seconds left I was that designed I took this that was a designed thing just to drain clock if the guy wasn’t open and then field goal so I took it as just a coaching point which kind of is the
Same thing sort of where I think Fields was legitimately running for yardage but he was going to get down wherever he was going to get down because they were trying to wind the clock where if you didn’t like you’re saying if you didn’t get the open shot you wanted that you
You were going to make sure you went down inbounds so that you did not give uh give Atlanta any chance to really do anything with it now you still did and I can’t and I know that we’ve given him a lot of grief but Lucas Patrick did a
Good job staying competitive in that play like I thought Lucas Patrick wild as it was working all the way back to like the 30 yard line getting in the way forcing a cut and then even getting his left hand on the guy’s shoulder helped do just enough to help somebody else
Catch the guy and I when I watched the replay I’m like oh horse collar and then it wasn’t so he did enough to tackle not the horse collar right which would have been a field goal so yeah I’ll give him that credit and then the last one was
The play action with what just over 201 left on the clock that one was on fields so I would say one sack today was on Justin and I mean I I agree with you like I’m not trying to push for sacks it’s funny you talk about the pocket
Passer thing in college I feel like so there’s a lot of people that want things to be really final right it’s just never this easy you know because you mentioned Fields was a pocket Pastor in College Fields was a pocket Pastor in college he really never had to work to his second
Read though he could be a pocket passer as a one read player because you could identify Chris alive pre- snap and if you didn’t like Chris’s pre-amp match up well here’s Garrett Wilson like if you there was a brief time where could move to Jackson Smith jiga his tight end was
Jeremy Rucker like he had NFL dudes across Willam yeah I mean no that was that was Alabama um no no he he had him at he was at Ohio State was that back or then he transferred to Alabama there you go and and Nigo barely played with
Fields it was mainly it was mainly olve wil wison and then and then um I’m pretty sure there was a third one I just always throw jsn in there for fun well he he red shirt he was a red shirt freshman he had like 15 catches it was
James Williams caught he caught one of the touchdowns in that uh that big game against Clemson but uh but I’m I’m with you but Chicago can create that you could have Harrison and more that’s what I’m trying to get to right is it’s like there’s there’s going to be we have to I
Think this is important to talk about like there are going to be parts of fields’s game that I really don’t know how much let’s call it classically better they’re really going to get right but you could run a oneandone matchup based offense feasibly if you had two to
Three matchups that you really really liked or two to three weapons that you liked using where you could say okay all we really need you to do Fields is go one maybe one to two at times and just if you don’t like it get off it because
The other gu’s probably going to get better and then if you don’t like either of those go ahead and run like you could probably imitate a lot of this now would you end up with a 5,000 yard passer I don’t know right but you definitely are
Going to get more value out of a Marvin Harrison Jr than you’re going to get out of a Darnell money now is would you get more out of Marvin Harrison Jr if he was somebody else or if he was somewhere else Nick who cares that’s the hard part
About this right it’s like we can try to take Justin fields and say oh what if he was Josh Allen he’s not literally Josh Allen like he’s Justin Fields there’s a point where these players are their own guy and For Better or For Worse at times
They are who they are Justin Fields is going to get you in his best games three to five first downs that you shouldn’t get with anybody else like Tyler Taylor haniki ran the ball and reminded everybody of what a normal NFL quarterback looks like and he’s considered athletic like that’s that’s
An athletic quarterback in in a lot of cases and so when Justin Fields is able to get out of these sacks that should not be the one where he broke two tackles I mean come on like that is that is alien stuff that’s super stuff it is
And you know the other part too is is once they fix Center which again almost anybody could fix Center in this offseason because it it doesn’t take much to go up from 32 or 31 um once they fix that Robert you see this with defensive with the edges is they’re like
Hey let’s just contain this crazy superhero whatever right there’s GNA be less pass rush because a lot of the pass rush comes from the interior from the middle from Lucas Patrick going the wrong way if you can just have average play I think it changes a big dynamic
Because Fields does like to hold on to the ball he does hate interior pressure if you can change that he hated that in college too if you can change that I think it’s going to change a lot here here’s a couple things and we hear this debate often and then we can probably
Get off the fields thing if you want but between Caleb or or Drake May which I’m open to either at this point or Fields is is the differential between them and and and what could be at that quarterback right worth because people talk about money and I don’t think the
Money matters because it’s a three-year gap between paying someone an extension and in that three years let’s say you get roughly three first round picks let’s just say three first round picks okay they’re going to be cheaper than signing DN safety receiver whatever right so the money you save there kind
Of already equates to that in my opinion and they’ll be on those cheap fiveyear deals so is the differential in the quarterback worth the three upgrades that you could have otherwise plus you have to talk about hit rates right the hit rate of quarterback right for a hit
Rate of three other players so like you already know Fields is not bust is he going to be 5,000 yard passer I don’t know but if he’s quarterback 12 and you upgraded three other spots is that worth it to you plus the locker room and that’s the debate the
Locker room is a big one I mean like you mentioned this I this play plays perfectly into where I was going to go with this which is like in Madden I think this makes a lot more sense than in real life where it’s way muddier on
Both sides of this like in the Pro Justin field side the locker room thing matters you can say it doesn’t matter it matters a lot uh on the other side of things Nick I don’t think there’s a world where Justin Fields you pick up his fifth year option he’s gonna Amic
Play through amicably play through the tag right like the three years of control without an extension that people have talked about I don’t think that’s going to happen he’s got David Metta representing him like he’s gonna get his money especially because if you traded the first overall pick twice you
Obviously committed to him and he’s gonna have all kinds of Leverage are these bad it’s not it’s not explicitly bad right like it’s does this mean that it can’t work absolutely not the other thing like everybody talks about how you need to just keep taking swings at
Quarterback nobody does let me use an example if the Bears traded back in the first round and then they picked up Bo nicks’s Insurance well now Bo Knicks is kind of the guy I mean the Packers didn’t take anybody other than Shawn Clifford during the Jordan love like
Aaron roders tenure and even the Jordan love pick was criticized to no end because you basically wasted a pick for three years like Nick there’s no world where you take Caleb Williams and you don’t give him a four to five year run but at the same time if you took a JJ
McCarthy or you took a Shader Sanders or you took a Quinn UR should he declare like later in the draft they get the same run like there’s there’s not really a world where you get a quicker hook on somebody who’s taken in the second round
Or higher and I say all this to just basically say this thing is going to be complicated as hell like there there are so many hooks in this do you think what Justin Fields is doing is replicable what is he saying in the meetings what’s he doing on the practice field do you
Think that this can be sustained or do you think that he just played a hell of a game at the right time time in the middle of adverse weather conditions who’s to say his ball cut through the snow that sticks out because a lot of guys don’t right but what’s gonna happen
Next week I bet that weighs pretty heavily on George MC’s mind but man Nick we’ve been talking about how positive things are and I’m they still are positive but for the first time in weeks I’m really gonna say like actually I don’t envy ps’s decision at this point
Because it feels like it feels like there’s five to seven ways to be wrong at least in the eyes of the media right you may make the objective let me use one more example and then I’ll hand it back off to you right Ryan poles if he
Cares about Twitter took a beating from Twitter for about 27 games over the George Pickins thing right and then George Pickins becomes a George Pickins becomes a problem in the locker room and he also catches for 200 yards a couple weeks later so it’s still kind of back
And forth with Jaylen Carter you end up with very similar stories where people are saying oh well they should have drafted this but actually there are these problems that nobody would ever know about they would never know about these problems but this is something the GM had to consider with the quarterback
With all of this I have a feeling it’s going to come down to all kinds of intangibles I also think it’s going to come down in part not that anybody wants to admit it to the bidding war that happens for Justin Field Services if the
Best offer you get is a third round pick but you can get two or you can get three first Terry McLaren to move down like two slots when all is said and done well that’s awfully tempting on the other side if the best you get is two firsts
Coming down from and and that’s just to first like this year’s first and next year’s first to move down a couple slots for number one I don’t know why you would you shouldn’t but if that was the case and on the other side you get a first and a second for Justin Fields
Then that changes the math it’s it’s all gonna be messy and at the best the best part about it all Nick is that you and I and any other van we are just never going to get enough information to accurately say whether it’s a smart move until like three to four years after
Have played out but it should result in more bears wins and that’s all I’m looking for well Well here here’s here’s the good news y’all one is and I think Robert’s on the same page that I am I trust Ryan PSE he he has he early on Byron Pringle Lucas Patrick Justin Jones
The signings to Larry Oak Joby disaster this this year you’re seeing those guys the the draft picks develop the signings the tra all of it come together I mean clay poool you could add into the negative all that coming together you can see the plan I trust
Him I I would be okay with Fields I’ll be okay with Caleb I’ll be okay with may I haven’t looked enough at Jaden Daniels at this point but the point is it’s a good problem to have because if you do trade fields in you reset then it it
There’s enough belief from Ryan polls that this is the next whatever it could be right and you get some good capital from fields or if you move on then they have enough from in the locker room being with fields for two years this staff this GM Kevin Warren for one year
That they believe in Justin fields and so either way it’s good the Bears should have nine or 10 wins right now with the current roster then they may may not we’ll see I think they’re at 10 right now let me check tathan they are they’re the 10th
Pick but to backup they could have two top 10 picks or all of the draft Capital that goes with get trained down from one or getting Justin field you’re G to add so much more to this roster things are looking up in Chicago a few weeks ago
With how Fields was playing it didn’t look like it was as much of a conversation Robert we’ve kind of talked about that right now it does like this is good no matter what it UPS his draft capital or if he stays you want me to be
You want me to be like really really shrewd Nick I could make an argument all right so using two football games that are happening right now because they’re like still happening right is not great analysis but I want to make my point so I’m gonna go ahead and do this right uh
The Gino Smith Seahawks are now down at home to the Mason Rudolph Steelers just tied it uh well there you go but either way it’s a split game uh I still get to make my point because people would say that there’s an obvious quarterback drop
Off and yet the game’s tied weird on the other side uh a little further away in the country you’ve got the Kansas City Chiefs who you could say easily have the best quarterback in football right you could even say their whole offense is supported by the best quarterback in
Football they are losing to a backup quarterback that has granted I think Jake Browning has been playing really really well but that’s a wellb built team and they’re losing in Arrowhead like you could if if I was going to be very shrewd but also make your point
Nick there could be a real conversation where just for all the people that are terrified about what Justin Fields may be or not be because you know he gets hurt you bring in a premium backup quarterback to run in the future with a team that you feel like if you end up
With a jake Browning scenario where you need to play I don’t know let’s just use Garner mchu as just a silly placeholder right Nick that you’re sitting there thinking okay with DJ Moore with Marvin Harrison Jr with Brock Bowers and with Cole KT and also with Chris Jones on our
Defensive line like I’m not worried should Justin Fields get hurt about us continuing to win and if you wanted to build that team I totally get it because it does kind of feel like I I don’t know it’s there are so many ways to be wrong
The this this latter one like the build the better team one feels so comforting but it has not gotten the 49ers into the Super Bowl since Jimmy Garoppolo made it what was that like four years ago they keep finding ways to lose in the AFC Championship game I think it’s the AFC I
Get AFC NFC your UCL really hurts as of course it does bad stuff happens right I mean to to me like I think people winning a playoff game would be a great turn for Chicago and I have to keep reminding myself that and I think people
Like always think of like okay who won the Super Bowl and this this this to win a playoff game to win the Super Bowl lots of luck has to happen Eli Manning has two and they had no business winning two Nick folos won one they had no
Business winning one and they beat the Bears in 28 on the road in the wild card game they had no business doing that or the divisional game like there to me I think part of it is let’s build this team whichever way I’m okay with either way I
Trust plls to get into the dance which is the playoffs and then you never know what happens I mean Chicago with a really good defense back in the day and a run game and Rex grman beat the highflying Saints offense in the NF Championship com in and they smacked
Them you don’t know what it’s gonna take honestly okay okay I’m gonna present you a choice I’m gonna present you a choice that I think is very on the nose Okay option A you trade back number one and I guarantee you that you’re going to have
At least two playoff wins over the next four years right and you have a 75% shot at a very good football team whatever you decide that to be right you can pick your own representative you are risking that fields may never be that guy right but you you
Are going to win a lot of games on the other hand you have a 5050 shot this is going to be a very very high odds which I’m making on purpose right so maybe we’ll go 40 60 shot you have a 4060 shot to make the Super Bowl with the other
Option maybe the first option it’s only 15 20% ride with me for the sake of comparison but you have a much higher chance of the whole thing failing and the team never even being like medium good right the being like kind of fun but ultimately not good whatever you
Think the current Jags are but that’s like the peak and then it falls off from there yep would you take the one that gets you more wins even if it gimps your chance at a Super Bowl a little bit just because of how bad the last 10 years of
Bears football have been and how frankly comforting it would be to have maybe four to five seasons where who knows if your quarterback’s the best why does that matter like your team is dominant you feel like you can root for things that aren’t tanking like as early as
October wouldn’t that be great to like still think about the division race and all the other things that go into that you get what I’m saying like would you take the first option even if maybe in theory it lowers your chance at a Super Bowl and it doesn’t
Necessarily my my decision and again that’s without knowing all of the trade parameters whatever right my decision would be the first one be and this is this is partly because I haven’t been like Blown Away on the film that I’ve seen of the quarterback prospects to think that the differential is Hall of
Famer to quarterback 15 to 20 in the NFL like I don’t think that’s the differential I’ll say that right now I need to watch more sure so so so in my mind let’s make the team better and if the Super Bowl chance is a little bit less it’s sure enough better than being
A bust and the whole team falls apart that’s the thing right because I don’t blame anybody for saying because that here’s the other thing that I I almost feel like we can add to this right if you’re the biggest field supporter out there you probably admit that while
Field seems to be getting better we’ve been through this before we thought he was getting better at the end of 2022 we seemed like we felt like we took some steps backwards in 2023 for good reasons I’m not trying to pile on I’m more trying to point out that there’s risk of
What does any of the or what do any of these quarterbacks look like in 2024 and Beyond but if you told me Nick that you were definitely much sure of what Fields wasn’t going to be like in terms of how bad it could get and that that was a
Comfort I I do get that I mean and that’s the tough part because we don’t know we don’t know how Justin Fields is in the NFL with an average offs of line right or average weapons we don’t even know that yet we pretty sure that this offensive line is average you think do
You think it’s below average I would right now average but you would take this whole season when you didn’t have Pat um Braxton Jones for a long portion Kevin Jenkins for a long portion you’d have let’s go back and remember the Lucas Patrick Cody white hair days
That’s where I would argue that this this is where like the conversation just comes down to what are we saying to each other and Davis because if I applied the same injuries the Bears took to any offensive line in football I think we’re going to mangle them too right right
We’re going to be down our left tackle immediately we’re going to be down our left guard immediately our Right Guard is going to be down also and like we have issues at Center so we got two guys playing hurt we’ve got three guys that
Are out like if I if I smacked that on the Chiefs if I popped that on the Eagles if I put that on the Niners they’re gonna have issues too so is it an average offensive line room I think it kind of always was but to your point
Like you had offensive line issu isues that the Bears offensive staff was certainly not sorting out and I don’t want to hold that against Fields one way or another especially coming off of the best game of his life I mean I think so I mean it’s up there I mean you go back
To last year you think of like the Lions game you think of the Miami game you think of Washington and um Denver this year like he’s putting together some stuff man it I again and I don’t know right now that with a better line and a wide receiver two with a pulse it
Feels like at some point that he couldn’t be top 10 what bugs me about what you just said is that you don’t need to trade the number one overall pick to get that right there there’s a just the littlest false equivalency that we see in the conversation where people
Say yeah but I want to get a second wide receiver I’m like you can at this point you should be able I mean worst case scenario you end up with romad dun who could absolutely toet tap in the end zone for that ball that Tyler Scott
Didn’t haul in I don’t know if he’s separating all the way down but he’ll open up other options for you I like Tes Walker quite a bit you could go Vlad M tons of ways you could go the trading down is to give you an embarrassment of resources right you stilled you still
Get and this is the part that I think gets really screwy Nick you still get one shot at the new quarterback like you you’re not going to take with you’re not going to get six first round picks over the next three years and use one on B
Nick and then one on another Prospect two years later unless B is just terrible and I’m using b as just a name to bring up that’s not my guy right get um instead you’re gonna get Jared verse when he does the thing that Miles Murphy did and drops a little bit further than
People expect him to right the whole Edge two run Defender I’m just saying this sounds like the ideal pair for montz sweat if that’s where you wanted to go uh I like Dallas Turner man I like Dallas Turner a lot too and latou latu is the better Edge rusher but I’m
Thinking out loud about like which one could be an edge to day one that then grows into a really dangerous edge to and I think or I think verse makes a lot of sense there but that’s me trying to think out what the Bears need and what
They want from flu but it’s all to say that like you’re going to get a gross supplement of receivers you’re going to get chances are like a premium offensive lineman probably next year if you don’t add a couple premium defensive Lem like and then you could add a corner you
Could add this you could add that it’s I’m excited to be honest with you because at the end of the day Nick we could take a step back take a deep breath and say whatever Ryan plls decides right now he’s cooking with gas so imagine if Carolina was pick six
Right now you’d be like oh thank goodness fields looked good today right if if if honestly just let’s be so real Fields has done enough to be relatively inspiring it is easy to oversell how bad the season has been it hasn’t been that bad it’s just been worryingly similar in
Certain ways to the to things that were in 2022 but worrying not like clear [ __ ] you know what I mean Nick because the offensive scheme decayed there are all kinds of injuries DJ Moore is on Pace for the best like the best season of his career a quarterback’s supposed to spike
A wide receiver one’s production isn’t he so you start looking through Cole KT having the best season of his life at the same time I mean these Arguments for isn’t field showing you something yeah he’s been showing us something the question was always is it enough
Compared to number one if we had picked number six we’d be saying heck yeah like we’re gonna get Malik neighbors it’s a done deal and then with a second pick we’re gonna get this that or the other where we would still be talking about pretty much building the same team that
We’ve been talking about but the ceiling would be just a smid lower right we’d be basically trying to build a better version of the current Browns is that even bad like that that’s kind of fun see so like the thing is is you take that Browns team they thought Deshawn
Watson would be the Patrick Mahomes on top of that team like that’s that’s the whole thing is like right because there is this chance that it doesn’t really work out but we’re getting so far into the weeds Robert I’m happy are Carolina lost I’m happy Arizona won that just
Makes it even more sealed because with with Arizona winning Robert that pushes back the Marvin Harrison conversation you can move back to two and get him or three and potentially still get him and the Bears crushed today like the other thing that’s impressive about Chicago today Robert is they they had the hot
Start which they’ve had often but then they closed it they scored in the second they scored 16 points in the second half on top of the turnovers like they clo it was like the most well-rounded win that they’ve had and instead of us hanging on because for a second Robert it creeped
Into everyone’s mind of yeah oh no here it goes again and then they slam the door shut like a good team does I can’t help but think I can’t help but think that the hardest part about coaching is how do you maintain the lead like the Bears are not so good at
Running the ball that they can just run their normal offense and I mean if anything Nick You could argue that that’s been part of the whole shift in current football right like in 2015 you need to plan around being down in the fourth quarter so you built your
Whole offense on throwing the ball and a lot of those teams struggle to maintain leads now you’ve got the ners that team is built to maintain a lead like it when they’ve got a lead they’re going to run their normal offense because that’s just what they do how are they going to come
Back in the fourth uh trick question they don’t like they showed Kyle Shanahan and his record when he’s down what was it multiple scores of the fourth quarter and it was like oh we just don’t win these games we’re like 0 and 40 when we get into that situation
But everything comes at a cost right and so the neat part to me when I look at the Bears going forward is that there’s so many different ways that they could go with this thing but I do think Fields is always GNA give them a box Edge if
They do stick with Justin I think that the talent they can add to this team man Nick this could just get really fun in our hurry they’ve got good DB Terrell Smith like I give him a hard time because everybody likes to make the comparison no I mean he can he can play
Like it’s not kindall vildor situation right who who made it play today by the way or yesterday it’s well look at him look at it look at him all growing up right it’s I’m so proud of him making it play I mean and like and and here’s the
The fear I think that people have is you stay with Fields he doesn’t improve and the team around him doesn’t make it work like for example right now y’all quietly the Philadelphia Eagles have lost four of their last five games and part of that is Jaylen herdz got paid and then
They lost Javon Hargrave then they lost TJ Edwards then they lost some of that Supporting Cast around them but I don’t think Chicago can do that because they have the draft picks right now and I don’t think Justin Fields is going to command the contract hurt is did I kind
Of think that’s the only contract that’s not me trying to dunk on Justin like I promise I’m not boxing anything into some corner it’s more like I think you got the Jones extension as a floor if you’re extending him I do think chances are Nick best case scenario you’re
Sticking with Fields you’re picking up his fifth year option and you’re saying we’ll figure it out at the end of the season and and that’s that right and and then at the end of year four you’re either extending him or you’re trading him for markedly less than you would get this
Off season well part of it is they could okay like if let’s say Daniel Jones extension Plus whatever 5 10% is what is offered this offseason because of the growth right and and he’s like I want more than that he could want to play on the fourth year and fifth year
Option to increase his price tag too like that’s a whole part of this conversation he could be like I don’t want to play it because I know I’m worth more than 45 a year he totally might I mean I I would be shocked if I was him
And I I don’t know this is where us and relating with athletes gets so funny right because if I got offered 45 million a year given the or given the career that he’s had and especially because like you gotta know that there’s this nagging voice in fields’s head
Thinking well I could turn my ACL at any point like I mean what happened with Kyler like Kyler got paid let’s say a season too early good for Kyler bad for the Cardinals right and so e either way I’m not I’m not worried like I I think
The the Bears will handle this I’m games like today are just so much fun to get to talk through because at the end of the day Nick if you told me that I’m cheering for a team built very similarly to the Cleveland Browns uh but you know not with somebody like Watson at
Quarterback H explicitly like not the off field questions that’s kind of what I’m getting at right okay I’ll rock with it right I actually think that maybe it is me having spent so long with the Bears being so bad where I’ve been waiting for the star quarterback that
Was going to turn this team around and make it a consistent winner and you probably do I mean in many ways a Hall of Fame quarterback is going to do a lot for your team like let’s not downplay the significance of the position but a Hall of Fame quarterback might mean
You’re the Chargers if things go really wrong right a Hall of Fame quarterback might leave you scrapping to get into the playoffs which the bills have pulled off good for Josh Allen right but you could build a good team that’s going to win a lot more games than the Bears have
And it may not be let’s say the preferred preferred option but I can absolutely see the like chicken noodle soup like when you’re sick comfort of next year we are going to beat the Packers we are going to beat the Lions we are going to beat the Vikings and we
Are going to see what happens in the playoffs and speaking of the Bears get the opportunity has it connected to you that the Bears can kick off 2024 with the only win that matters what’s that beating the Packers oh 2020 well and I know this isn’t the preview
Show and and I’m I’m sure we’re g to end this soon but I mentioned this before Robert the Bears played the Lions and fell apart the second time they play the Lions they won the Bears almost bent threw that bomb to to DJ Mo and under thre it remember right Soldier Field
Lost to the Vikings second time they played him beat the Vikings lost to Lost to Green Bay first game of the year terrible let’s not think about too much second time they play Green Bay is next week and the Bears are going like this
Right now and Green Bay is I I have a weird question for you Nick I thought Bryce young was playing well he hung 30 points on the Packers defense how did uh how’ that how did Bryce young in that offense look against Jacksonville dude dude the Packers defense looks like
Trash so bad and J Alexander like we talked about this I don’t know what’s happening with him whether he’s going like Antonio Brown status with I don’t know what’s going on but if he doesn’t play next week too that was with him playing some of the games too right him not
Playing this could be fun this could be really fun and we’ll see I mean far be it from me to gas a bunch of Bears fans up about the Bears playing in Lambo to end the season this has gone well never but if we take from history Nick and we think about this
What does it what does it seem awfully similar to that happened last year you get what I’m you get what I’m saying oh Detroit for sure doesn’t it doesn’t it so one thing to keep in mind too though I mean what if that game ended up being
Who wins gets in the playoffs because Tampa lost today MH Seattle who has the other wild card oh I’m sorry the Rams one Seattle it again score update live for y’all that are here people that are listening to this later on to be like ah different score 24 to 17 Pittsburgh is
Up with the ball and they’re driving so things could align where it’s like that week 17 game in Chicago where Chris kte you know didn’t convert well sorry Julius Peppers missed Rogers and then Chris kte didn’t you know play the ball well that would be that could be fun
Next week it’s it’s so funny looking at this Bears season because we’ve gotten cameos from everybody right Chris tabber takes over the Carolina Panthers and does not markedly change anything thank you Chris right we had Andy dton who apparently psyched Bryce young up that when Bryce young seemed as if he hurt
His back there in the early part of the game I’m gonna attribute it to Andy that he got Bryce back into the game instead of finishing out the game himself thank you Andy right Mitch trabis got uh New England and Arizona key dubs that kick started what ended up becoming four- win
Campaigns thank you Mitch it’s only fitting that Mason Crosby if that’s who was doing the kicking Shanks a 54 y to keep the Giants from beating the Rams and all but officially eliminate the bears from the playoffs but I will live with it because the season that the
Lions are watching I know just enough Lions fans personally to see what this has meant to them and my hope would be the Bears could have a very similar season next year now we’ve been through this before we had the Bears 100 season and I don’t really want to talk about it
To be honest with you well I mean also just talking about Detroit moving forward who would be you’d think the the biggest you know opponent or toughest person in the division we’ve seen the Eagles struggle without their coordinators losing Ben Johnson in that offense could be a lot
Bigger than people want to talk about I still think that that uh Detroit built for now as opposed to the Future and I think that that roster is going to Decay I mean that’s not me being a Bears fan either I think that this draft was their
Opportunity to add some guys that would can’t go linebacker running back in round one linebacker running back they took a 25-year-old quarterback with an ACL problem and they took Brian branch and Sam lorta and shocker those two have been awesome like imagine three more of them but they don’t have that do they
Instead they’ve got Elan Ros prow they’ve got Sam lorta they’ve got a dropof and then Jameson Williams fits in that other category oh and they have a quarterback problem that they don’t seem like they’ve got answers for the three trade down thing Nick I don’t want to
Think this far into the future I’m about to make somebody roll their eyes into the back of their head but if you told me that the Bears were going to do a triple tradeback or the three tradeback thing wouldn’t it stand to reason that the team that they took three first from
Would potentially be at its worst in that 2026 season because then they just went two more off Seasons without first round picks so maybe we all chuckle and say to ourselves well every year going forward we’ll have two first round picks to scrub together and potentially move
On like no no no every year polls is gonna find the number one pick somehow this is man that would be sick this is just gonna be the way I mean I mean I I play a lot of fantasy Robert and I always try to figure out who’s going to be the worst
The next year and get there first a year early sometimes it works out and you feel like a genius sometimes you know you don’t but it could be a lot of fun do you want to um do you want to close out so we can get to some of the
Questions in our chat here we got a lot of people here yeah I think that sounds good I mean more than anything closing this thing out like y’all this has this has turned into a really fun bear season this it’s not the bear season that I
Expected it’s not the fun I expected to be having to be honest with you nick uh you we we were there when we were predicting the Bears record we said seven bars was the win here they are For Better or For Worse it does feel like
That was the bar and now matlu is staying regardless of our feelings about the matter right but the arrow feels definitively pointing up thank God like I mean this this rules it’s so much fun watching a Bears team that doesn’t feel like it’s getting outclassed every Sunday the Bears gave the Browns a
Better game than the Jets did like I know that that’s a low bar to plenty but there are plenty of these teams that the the transitive property is working real well for the Bears let me put it that way right where it’s like the Bears smoked the Lions arguably twice and then
They give the Dallas Cowboys a game that makes you wonder okay what would these bears look like against Dallas because the latest time the Bears have gotten blown out was Los Angeles like there’s there is a point we’re quickly reaching it where we can say the Bears right now
Are just playing really well probably as good as I’ve seen them play collectively since 2018 and now is that sustainable good question but instead of being at the top of the hill they’re still on the way up which is really exciting and even if they spend their res sources badly
They should at least be better throughout the next 365 days of your life Bears fan and I see that as a big positive easily easily what about you final thoughts um okay first off I don’t know when this is going to get released but uh Happy
New Year y’all today I mean it’s gonna be live and I’m gonna have it posted by uh the evening so that I can leave all right so happy New Year everyone um be safe okay make smart decisions call Ubers Etc if you’re going to be out and partying um but celebrate celebrate
Chicago having seven wins y’all even if they don’t win next week they have more than doubled their win total they are close to average in the NFL Justin Fields played well a lot of the young guys played well the secondary Dexter um lots of guys have played well which only
Gives us a lot of Hope and hope is so much more fun in the offseason yes than do and Gloom but we get the first pick and we get the rising roster so everything is is fun be nice on Twitter man there are way too many battles on
There right now man like everything is a good choice just trust Ryan PS oh yeah cannot wait cannot wait I want to read one quote for you because I think it’s hilarious right and I’m just gonna give everybody a warning uh I’m not going to Mark the podcast explicit
But this quote from DJ Moore involves an exp explicit word and I am not taking it out because it’s hilarious but so somebody asked DJ Moore about the Bears getting the number one overall pick and he said I mean [ __ ] I was the number one
Pick when they traded for me but I mean thanks to Carolina it’s all I can say to that and DJ we agree but so yeah I I I have one other thing sorry go for it that okay that is awesome and and true yep right like you like if you knew you
Had a 1300 yard receiver at the age of 26 and you could have him yeah that’s that’s worth easily a top 10 pick yes or no do you think he goes and asks for a raise I think the answer is yes he deserves he deserves a raise it just
Makes the cap question weirder but so overall man I’ll close up by just we already did closings but gosh okay so for anybody listening uh first of all thank you for listening uh get your Q&A in for our Thursday show uh when we do when we preview the final game of the
Season which could be a very rockus Packers week that brings the Bears to eight wins for the first time since 2020 was it um but anyways so second of all rate US like the show like it on YouTube tell your friends tell us where we could get better tell us where we could
Improve but moreover a festar rating on Apple podcast and Spotify goes further than you realize because it basically tricks their algorithms into serving more Bears fans our show so that we can get this thing off the ground the better ratings we get the more shows you get
The moment this show puts a little money in me and Nick’s pocket is the moment we get to do three shows and so that’s that’s always been the goal but we got to be or we got to get enough listens so that we can sell it to sponsors and put
A little ad break in the middle that everybody can work out with you get it this is how content is but third of all thank you so much to everybody who listens you guys have made this season fun for the both of of us and we have
Had so much fun putting this thing together and Happ a have a wonderful and happy New Year just like Nick said be safe out there go Bears and until next time bear down and thank you so much for bearing with us boom and we are clear there okay so
Nick uh let me hit you with the hottest question that I see in here what percentage chance do you think Caleb Williams is better than Fields what do you what percentage chance do you think he’s roughly the same and what percentage chance do you think he’s
Worse to me I don’t think that’s fair I mean put Caleb Williams in the same situation Fields had with naggie year one last year the complete you don’t get to though that’s that sucks that’s how you have to judge things in my opinion you they have to be exactly the
Same I do I I think that’s the way you judge things because like let’s let’s let’s say they do trade fields and they draft Caleb yes Caleb walks in with DJ Moore right and probably another receiver like what do we you know um I think that Caleb well I will Caleb does throw
On time and I think reads better than Fields does um but there are other things I think that I I’m a little concerned about Caleb’s size and people think that’s not a thing look at Russ and Kyler and anyone short throwing over the middle of the field Bryce young it’s a
Thing um holding up in the NFL I mean he holds the ball out pretty loose when he’s running around so that that’s that could be a negative um could be worse I don’t think that Caleb Williams could be a Flatout bust based on how he plays on the field I
Just don’t know in terms of all the off the field stuff which we won’t know that’s the thing like the the part that I lean on Nick for this so on the field like if if we were going to build a little fence around the film as I have
Seen it right uh to answer your question directly new poster I personally think that there’s about a 35% chance that Caleb is better a 50% chance he’s at least as good and a 15% chance he’s worse but now let’s get out of that box right because Kaleb has a lot of
Questions right now around his character and it is character questioning season let’s not forget Dan orlovski stating that Justin Fields was a last in first out guy this happens right we literally don’t know who to trust at this point but as stupid as it sounds Nick like
This Caleb Williams Bo Callahan all the jokes you want to make about draft day like that’s the stupid stuff that you’re asking about Caleb right now because the tape is really great like that that’s at least what I see right is it’s great tape what about the person when you go
Out to dinner with him does does he make you want to put your steak knife in your in your stomach by 45 minutes through like is is he too much to deal with blah blah blah blah blah right and it’s such a funny conversation Nick because you
And I are not gonna know we’re not going to get we heard the we heard the rumors you want the stake percentage in ownership of a team you know but never confirmed ever it was said once right but but what does that mean it wasn’t said right like was Florio the only one
Gutsy enough to report it or we just never got it corroborated it’s it’s baloney so so nothing Bears okay I have to talk about one other thing now that we’re off air I can do I can do this on the thing I gotta show off Robert yes fantas football this is the championship
Week for anyone playing fantasy right so whether you play redraft you draft your team every year Dynasty you keep the guys every year to year so um I’m in two I would say just big money leagues Robert my most expensive League I had my first undef undefeated
Season ever last year yes you did I went every game closed it out and I got rewarded handsomely yeah you did this year Robert this year Robert that team is undefeated in the championship game right now and has a 99 perenti chance of winning the championship so I will just
Crown myself right now two years in a row of not losing in my most expensive league and my second most expensive League I’m gonna I have a 99% chance of winning that one as well so pretty pretty pumped about that um y’all if you’re in the chat you know maybe throw
Out some of your fantasy stuff too because it’s the championship game I wish you guys luck you do a really really good job with this I mean your track record obviously speaks for itself not to mention it sounds like you were really bullish on Christian mcaffrey and
What I heard from all my fantasy guys this year is that basically if you were bullish on anybody else that person snake bit you whereas it if you drafted McCaffrey and rode mcaffrey based on what I have been told you tell me if I’m right or not like Justin Jefferson you
Missed a ton of the Season like plenty of other options bejan it just didn’t materialize the way I think a lot of people wanted it too mcaffrey though steady tons of points the whole season long he was unbelievable I mean in the I don’t know if you have you heard of the
Scott fish bowl Robert or no I have heard of Scott fish okay so Scott Scott’s a good friend by the way y’all but that’s like an industry and fan the biggest tournament in the world it’s all for good cause y’all so if you guys ever want to there’s you can donate I think
They they raised over $100,000 for Toys for Tots and for good causes this year which is cool anyway there’s like I don’t know I think it was 5,000 some people in it this year um I finished the top 500 mainly because I picked mcaffrey but also I lost um
Rogers and a few people so it was it was a it was a good season overall but I hope you all had uh um Good Seasons too so um one one one question I have that’s non Fields based because we’re so focused on fields we are disgustingly
Focused on fields so focused on fields and quarterback man like with how Dexter’s playing Robert give it to me and how Stephenson’s playing MH do you even add like like a starting D I mean you could add like a day a later day two DET
Tackle but you add an early or sign a Chris Jones D tackle or and or a starting level corner or are you like Hey we’re going to ride with these two kids Corners I think you’re good not and that I hope that’s not me trying to be
Ridiculous here I think as long as you still have Jaylen Johnson on the roster you’re pretty square like you’ve got four DBS you like use it right at some point you have to play into the value of your roster would you agree and right now the fact that the secondary is
Relatively under control is a real positive but dline I think Dexter looks awesome he’s not consistent enough against the run for me to say he’s the only DT this isn’t Madden I am still comfortable with him as a reserve DT if that means we got somebody legit better than him and so
For me I can’t help but think Nick that this defense still needs one more field tilter I don’t really care whether that’s an edge rusher or whether that’s a three technique or whether that’s Dexter Lawrence and a tradeback with the Giants you know what I mean but you need
Probably one more and then you need some Reserve guys from there and so the Chris Jones thing is a fun idea we’ll see if it happens but that could be a move that you may feel like gets you over the edge maybe you do go for Christian Wilkins
Since he’s a little younger maybe you go for denal Hunter because he’s a little cheaper and kind of gives you the best of both worlds but me personally Nick I am fine letting Dexter and Pickins find their way into a rotation because I think the best defenses in the league
Have a rotation and maybe more importantly um all right so it’s week 17 we’re on the same page with that by the way bet rotation is what you need y’all like we like at the end of the game here I think sweat tackles um HEI but he got
Tired on that on his touchdown run like if you get more of a rotation they stay fresher they’re better when they’re out there like I am all for more Talent on the D line the another thing I’m about to knock on wood because now that I’ve mentioned it it’s gonna happen bro we
Went the entire season Andrew Billings um Demarcus Walker like even at his time Yanik and gak like nobody got hurt I mean it’s actually pretty unbelievable that the Bears went with a whole season with no defensive line issues and if they had any defensive line issues problems would have popped up a lot
Faster like they they didn’t have the depth to deal with any of the problems that they didn’t encounter lucky for them they didn’t encounter them and the the moment that they did deal with their season beginning Edge one getting hurt L they had traded for another one and they
Just moved on without worrying about it at all and so there’s to me you need more guys for depth because if you sign a Chris Jones you may still only get 12 maybe maybe even as few as eight games out of him and Dexter may be your
Starting three tech for eight of those games you need a decent three tech for those eight games and Dexter may be that guy but when you’re at your best you want to try to be suffocating in my opinion especially if it only costs you another $30 million
But it’s not my money I mean that’s like what the Eagles have designed you know is when they can have they drafted to Georgia D Lyman right banley just to rotate because that’s how it works so just a few things in the chat here um I think it’s brano sorry man you drafted
Justin Jefferson he got hurt over mcaffrey um yeah you have to hit us up uh maybe I can we can have a power I can help people on their fantasy teams next year Matthew Brown here yeah go ahead Matthew Brown asks you do you trade I was gon I
Was gonna ask you that one trade Jaylen Johnson for a late first my my answer is yes I would trade him for a late first for a couple reasons this is just like the ran thing right you get the pick and you get the money to sign
Guys to fill in for that void um I like a Jaylen Johnson don’t get me wrong I would pay him but if I can save 20 what’s he going to want 22 23 maybe more if I can get that money save it get a first then I can use that money on whatever
Positions draft whatever I think it’s GNA turn out better in the long run when you add in Johnson’s also injury history now that we’re talking about it I think it all depends on what you think that the team’s timeline is because if you draft a new rookie quarterback quarterback I’m comfortable trading
Jaylen Johnson to also draft a new rookie cornerback I have no problem with this I love Jaylen to me it’s harder to find good DBS than people want to think it is but at the same time I can’t really say that when Ryan P has drafted Kyler Gordon Ryan PES has drafted Tyreek
Stevenson Ryan PES has drafted a solid looking depth guy in Terrell Smith so maybe it’s not as hard as I’m making it maybe the Bears were just bad at it earlier right but at least looking at it Nick I think it’s something you got to consider I also wouldn’t be surprised if
Jaylen Johnson’s going to really struggle to get a late first that the bigger issue you come with with is that you’re going to get a late second best case scenario so you shrug your shoulders you keep him because it’s just not worth it to let a guy like that go
But and and I I think part of it too is when you see some of these guys that um hang on at corner to stay at that top level there’s not many like JC Jackson was awesome for New England signs a big money deal goes to the Chargers and is
Terrible I mean Jr Alexander besides jer’s um off the field or coin toss stuff his play dropped a lot this year and so and we always have the threat of guys here’s the other part you always have the threat of guys retiring Robert they just I’m just gonna retire so anytime I
Can get the assets and again again probabilities right dividing a vast portfolio for the financial people like when I can diversify I’m going to do it I get a pick I get money yep I’m going to keep doing that as many times because it’s going to increase my odds brano
Asks uh on the Justin topic they mentioned the possibility of trading two to three first rounders and Scary Terry uh for number one that would be a trade with Washington under that scenario would I be happy retaining fields and taking that trade so BR one thing that
I’ve tried to avoid talking about for as long as I could is that from a value perspective I I’ve even brought it up in plenty of cases there is a point where you’re making a trade so enticing that it is simply better than any one football player under any circumstance
Could ever be and a trade package like that yeah pretty much like especially For Crying Out Loud bro I don’t know if you thought about this but Washington is number two right now so if you somehow got offered two to three first round picks Scary Terry and you still had the
Opportunity to trade with another team to get another two or three first run picks to offer up Drake may it would be disgusting and realistically I almost think you’d have to what do I think of fields that doesn’t matter like I’d be happy with the situation and I’d figure
It out but I’ll tell you br right now I am just generally Nick I think you’ve picked up on this this season I am generally terrified of the Bears getting quarterback wrong the Bears have been getting quarterback wrong my whole life and I am generally terrified of the
Bears getting quarterback wrong but also Robert okay we’ve talked about this earlier your your bear’s life is way less than mine okay you didn’t have to go through the Kade mcnown I didn’t have to go through it but you look in the history book and you realize it’s still
Been that bad like it it falls on you at some point you know what I’m saying Nick I’m I’m just saying I’ve been through more of it and I’m still and at least I would do that I mean that let’s not forget man I I mean like the story coming out
Later after that Ryan poles was almost almost just like I don’t know Shen enough to go with the double trade down last year that he tried like if if if if he’s that like maddened up like you know Madden ever was like or PFF mock draft simul like I’m gonna trade
Down here then I’m gonna do this I’m gonna do this like I’m gonna be so he’s that sneaky has that in his mind like oh yeah I am all for it and I trust him and at least when I look at this the main thing that I’m thinking about with
Quarterback and at the end of the day I trust Ryan poles with whatever with whatever he wants to do I really do I really do but at at least when I am thinking about this thing going forward Nick the scariest part is that Bears fans have always taken the sure thing
Over the potential great thing uh for as long as I’ve seen it like why move on from Jay we like Jay Why move on from Mitch we like Mitch Why move on from Justin we like Justin Justin’s different Justin’s different wasn’t wasn’t Kyler Kyle Orton the safe thing and they like
Kyler KY tried to go with Jay then that’s kind of shooting for it and people still think it was the wrong call like and so the only thing I’m looking at Rex at this point just speaking to you Rex Smith and plenty of others is I
Am I am more scared about both than anything like right now Rex I have gotten so neurotic that I I can’t reasonably tell you Nick like I can’t look you in the eyes and be like I want to draft Caleb Williams and bang the
Table I don’t have the guts to do it I don’t have the guts to bang the table for either option I’m so scared of holding the bag and watching Justin be a superstar somewhere else or Worse the Bears not have a good enough team to support what might be a special rookie
And we end up being the Chargers right I don’t know how that would happen just given their current construction that’s scary too like the team isn’t good enough but when is it ever going to be good enough was Buffalo good enough when they took Josh Allen not a chance was
Like Houston good enough when they took deshun Watson no way like before other stuff happened the Chiefs are kind of it and they didn’t take Mahomes at one and I think all the stuff about what like quarterbacks at w and the record blah blah blah it it’s I think it it’s kind
Of silly just because like if you if you think he’s the best Prospect you think he’s the best Prospect but at the same time I’m just gonna let Ryan poles do it for once I’m glad he gets the million dollars and I don’t because I actually don’t think there’s an easy answer here
There I think a lot of ways Nick that in two years we could say hey we’re happy with what we got but man wouldn’t it have been sweet if we did this instead that’s all I’m saying like that we can end up content with this like 10 to 11
Win team for like three to five years maybe we don’t win a Super Bowl maybe we don’t win the NFC North like maybe maybe we don’t but we win a bunch of games and maybe all the people on Twitter everybody gets tired of hearing the name Caleb Williams the same way that Bears
Fans got tired of hearing the name Mahomes I don’t know doesn’t mean we can’t be content with whatever we do but Nick I’ll tell you that’s all I’m scared of at this point is it’s like oh my gosh the Bears are on the precipice of winning a Super Bowl that’s it is that’s
The best way to put it it’s like yeah the Bears can win a Super Bowl with this with this stuff it’s the first time in 25 years they could actually win a Super Bowl will they they need a lot to go right I I just I just think it’s exciting that PS
Is that dude right like like that’s the best part that’s why like I don’t have the the worry I I had that with Pace I had that with Jerry Angelo like people can go back to all these GMS but dude um Ryan PS dude is like he doesn’t bat a
Thousand or 100% like no one does no but he’s doing really really really well I mean Chase Claypool trade was good process made the same trade with montz sweat and look at what good process will do for you like the the other thing is trading down is kind of the
Trading trading the first run overall picnic is trading not to lose and you probably won’t lose like it’ll be hard to lose a trade with that many resources right right but but it’s it’s still different because it’s not like it’s like well we have Jimmy Garoppolo you
Know like you still have a dude that could be really good we excited about Jimmy Garoppolo once well I I remember he was the highest paid quarterback in the NFL by Kyle Shanahan who also did the Tre lance thing like again they don’t no one’s perfect but it can happen
Any any other questions guys let’s see here oh I I wanted to to put this on you Nick so every I people have mentioned Scary Terry if you’re trading with Washington call me nuts but you’re taking a receiver when you get down there so which of the dment do you
Want well here’s the take okay give it to me I’m a big Terry mclen fan I’m gonna state that in fact going back to Fantasy Robert I was on a podcast where before the combine someone’s like hey give me a way out there sleeper that you
Like I’m like well I like ter mcen he was I think it was Mr Ohio from what I remember off top of my head or Mr Indiana wherever he’s from um you know did okay at Ohio State nothing great just a great athlete and then he did what he
Did he’s 28 he’ll be 29 next year for the NFL season okay carries a little bit of a price tag does I would rather have Jan doson Oh see you mixed up my order I was saying which of I know you said dline I’m just telling you that part of
It because because when you’re talking about this window that’s some sweet this window age matters age does matter which is why I think I’d want 26 six-year-old totally tradeable Don pay I looked at the contract if they process this trade after June 1st Washington actually saves
$15 million in cap space if they don’t they just eat dead cap of his CIT and there’s no negative in there which I sit here and look at and I’m like oh oh oh like that works if we’re doing the same trade as last year like a an established
Superstar and donon Payne man can you imagine what he’d do as your three Tech he’d be a monster like if you had pain rotating with uh with gon Dexter and you had Andrew Billings next to him with montz sweat on the end gez man I’m curious on that contract right now you
Got me look it up now here here’s here’s one thing that is not great about Don Payne right now being less than good not less than good but he the 45th PFD tackle this year and he had a spike year last year which got him paid
But he didn’t always play up to that U okay so his deal they would have to take the let’s see they would have to take the dead cap so the cap hits it we’d pay him what 20 21.6 26.1 28 I I wonder what we would have to
Pay out of all that you got to take the dead cap out of it you should go uh all right so I want you Nick and everybody in here I want you to go to x right now go to Twitter okay do you do this on your
Desktop yeah I want you to go to Marvin Harrison’s Twitter right now right now we’re all gonna do this together Marvin Harrison Jr or Marvin Harrison Marvin Harrison Jr okay I want you to click over to his likes oh my man that’s good would you would you like to tell the
Class what you see yeah so PFF fantasy football put out a tweet says have a have a day DJ Moore and it’s puts all of his stats and his PPR points and then I I’ll be honest it has it has a picture of DJ Moore where he looks like a bad
Man looking cold he’s got that visor his hands are in there and he’s just like I’m a I’m that dude and Marvin Harrison Jr liked it so Marvin Harrison Jr liking Pro Bears tweets I mean I would do the same if I was him like uh if I was in Marin Harrison’s
Situation like I want what is this I I want the Bears to consider taking me at one duh right chance oful should do it just because of the value you can get in the trade back we’ve talked about this enough right but uh if I was Marvin
Harrison I would be doing whatever I had to do to make an impression with the guy sitting up at number one anything you want to do before we close this thing up um um speaking of a receiver well this this will be my last question I guess to
You if the Bears don’t draft a wide receiver in round one are you disappointed so initially yes and then I’ll get over it because for all I know poles doesn’t value the position like that now I imagine he does because he traded for DJ Moore who was a number one
Who was a first round wide receiver but I’m not going to twist myself into knots if the Bears get a really sweet player that doesn’t happen to play receiver given that right now I mean we’ll see what happens but for all we know Nick you’re going to end up like I’m already
Seeing draft sites that are starting to push Keon Coleman down the board because I am too he’s a big dude that while he does separate he’s got attitude concerns he’s got a motor concern all kinds of things that I will happily Embrace if the Bears end up taking give him the
Highest second round like I’ll be like I don’t care you know what I mean AJ Brown if memory serves was second rounder DK MF was a second rounder if that’s the direction they go with this that’s the direction they go with this but it’s more to say that I will process it and
Then I will get over it because I turned around and loved the Kyler Gordon pick eventually but I do think they know that they need more weapons at wide receiver they made the chase clay pool trade on purpose right right right I mean to me like if they do something like that and
I mean again like this is with a bunch of Trades y’all but if they don’t pick a receiver in round one then they have to get multiple on day two for me to be okay because again my biggest thing no matter what this entire offseason Robert whether it’s Caleb
Whether it’s Fields the endless debate or may whoever is your quarterback support him with an embarrassment of riches at weapons and protect him because that is the formula in the NFL now I don’t I’m sick of like man if we had this if we had that like
Just give them to him I don’t care if it’s like man our wide receiver three is better than most wide receiver twos and we’re wasting Talent out there I don’t care because it’s gonna equal W’s like support our quarterback support the quarterback like the quarterback spot I mean this the
League has moved on probably for the better from the quarterback needs to be the only piece of the team that matters a lot of teams are building this which is great but we’ll see we’ll see either way Nick I gotta get this thing edited and then I gotta get out to a couple
Different New Year’s things so everybody you guys have a great time this evening even if it’s just watching the Bears highlights over and over again I will see you Tuesday night as we get to go through a fun football game top to bottom no nothing depressing about this
One this one was just through and through y’all it is Packers week like we’re ready to roll marshan thank you so much uh let me see I had Cody Owen you mentioned the slower playing surface at Soldier Field helping Jaylen as a corner without Elite Speed how do you think
That transl to a dome team do you have an answer about that Nick Um I don’t actually I would argue they’re faster he’s faster on the Dome if anything in my opinion having bad footing makes it harder to land your jam it totally just me guessing off the top of my head but I imagine that part of the reason that jaylen’s been able to
Play like he has don’t forget his game in mtown where he looked great right yeah like that he’s able to better break out or on dome surfaces and it all basically evens out I I just think that the game is slowed down for him and that’s made him play faster he’s play
He’s playing like a veteran now which honestly that’s about the time when you really should in here someone said Coleman just just isn’t that good I to me I think Coleman doesn’t separate as well Robert I know you said that like he he does certain things really well which
Reminds you of like a DK MF type like a size freak um so I think as long as you don’t put the huge um expectations on his shoulders he could still Thrive right that’s the thing everybody comparing him to Marvin I think was going a little off but I don’t know I
See I see a guy with Good Feet but anyways there’s more tape for that later for now you guys enjoy it I got to get this thing edited I will talk to you soon bear down thanks so much
9 Comments
As much as I dislike Luke Getsy, the idea of keeping him is starting to grow on me. Our defense looked putrid and we add just a little personnel and hire Frank Snow and we turn into a top ten unit. Lets not act like the injuries and shortcomings haven't had an impact on Getsy's ability to call games. Improve the team and bring some veteran coaching voice on and I believe we can fix this offense.
Justin Fields has 1 good game against a competent defense this year. Every good game he's had has been against the worst defenses in the league. Let's sign him to 500 million guaranteed. Hopefully Ryan poles is a moron so we can keep him. Let's go!
Oh and happy new year 🎉 Thanks for the great year of podcasts 😊 best bears analysis around
By far the best bears content out there, only been listening a few weeks but know for sure I’ll be listening every week next year and excited to see what offseason content you guys cook up!
you need to put the champain glasses down a bit its great and all, but you had 6 game s with 3 to5 pick, and this is what you got, 1 win withs was convincing rest was close games, some lost and even other close to loosing with all those turnoversm we have had from defence and you had all those 150 ish yards games also. , the staff is porblery happy but they are not gonna cheear for that.,
Keep Fields, Poles gets his double trade down first with Washington and or Patriots. If you have to trade back up to draft MHJ you have picks(Arizona did it last year) and pick up Johnny Wilson, now you have 3 wrs that can play outside and inside and now two with height for FIELDS.
I'm a Giants fan of more than 5 decades, but more importantly I'm a NFL fan.
Justin looked better without Kmet and Mooney because they are not consistent with their route running, especially Mooney.
Moore is the only receiver that Justin can trust, especially on timing throws to a particular spot.
What that game proved to me is they need a another receiver who is consistent with there routes, regardless of which option you are in the progression.
Lets give credit to phil snow. Once he came in, the defense just seemed to click. He might be the DC next season
I do want to tempter expectations a bit. Don’t forget we literally have one of the easiest schedules this season in the league, playing a last place schedule. We beat up on a lot of bottom feeders and backup qb level guys. We beat NO top QBs this season. I like Flus, I think he develops talent well, which is why Poles wanted him. But the in game strategy is still not convincing to me