Full Transcript for Bears Dominate Seahawks: Jeffrey Simmons' Game-Wrecking Debut

you could see your face light up talking about 01:56.409 --> 01:59.484 this game. Swifty's face absolutely lit up when he talked about this game. 01:59.533 --> 02:03.146 And you know what? It's hard not to talk about it. You dominate the Super 02:03.646 --> 02:07.338 Bowl champions by double their score and you did it back 02:07.838 --> 02:11.336 to back against both Super Bowl opponents. First time in NFL history that a 02:11.417 --> 02:15.094 team has beat both Super Bowl opponents from the previous season in 02:15.594 --> 02:19.286 back-to-back weeks. And the Bears, you know, this is— I mean, 02:19.366 --> 02:21.615 first game with Jeffrey Simmons looking great. We'll talk about it in a sec. 02:21.679 --> 02:23.702 But Swifty, I'm going to go over to you real quick. And, you know, 02:24.168 --> 02:26.979 all 15 people that are here right now, I want to hear your thoughts of 02:27.479 --> 02:29.563 the game. We'll throw it up on the screen. But Swifty, you feeling after this 02:30.063 --> 02:33.168 one, man? That was— it was an electric feeling. 02:33.312 --> 02:36.260 I, I don't know how you livestreamed that one, Nick. I was, 02:37.013 --> 02:40.602 I was not able to sit down for one time for the 02:41.102 --> 02:44.191 entire first half. I was pacing around, I was like up and down, 02:44.287 --> 02:47.828 I was giddy. It was just— it felt electric throughout that game. 02:48.068 --> 02:51.289 Like, probably the most excited I've been to watch 02:51.789 --> 02:55.166 a Bears game since the Super Bowl in 2006. 02:55.262 --> 02:58.486 I honestly, that's how I felt. I was just amped up. 02:59.113 --> 03:02.585 I was ready to go and I was just so excited to see 03:03.085 --> 03:06.768 this team. And then they come out, defense looks awesome right away. 03:07.350 --> 03:10.938 It wasn't just Jeffrey Simmons, Kyler Gordon, Cam Lewis laying 03:10.971 --> 03:14.608 the wood, got that wood meter going right away. 03:15.567 --> 03:18.549 And then offense comes out, 03:18.630 --> 03:22.014 puts together that huge drive, drive down, drives down the 03:22.514 --> 03:25.746 field, scores a touchdown. And it was just electricity 03:26.212 --> 03:29.023 from that moment on. And it felt great, man. It feels a great, 03:29.585 --> 03:32.863 great time to be a Bears fan right now. What just makes it even better 03:33.363 --> 03:35.835 is that there was so much history last night. I mean, I just hit out 03:36.335 --> 03:40.157 that one nugget, but, you know, Caleb Williams, you know, breaking the Bears 03:40.671 --> 03:44.238 franchise record for fastest person to get over 8,700 passing yards in 03:44.738 --> 03:48.078 the first 3 seasons. Also along with that, too, DeAndre Swift, 03:48.206 --> 03:51.515 10 rushing touchdowns in 8 games. I want to talk about 03:52.015 --> 03:55.190 that. I think that everyone looks at DeAndre Swift the wrong way. They're like, 03:55.286 --> 03:58.368 oh, he's averaging like 2.93 yards per carry over the last 03:58.400 --> 04:01.754 couple of games. He has been practically by himself 2 04:01.786 --> 04:05.718 of those 4 games. He's been playing hurt even though it's not on the injury 04:06.218 --> 04:10.067 report, and he's scoring. I mean, he's averaging over a touchdown 04:10.567 --> 04:14.224 a game. He's on pace for 21 at the moment. I don't care that he's 04:14.724 --> 04:18.426 not getting the big gains, but he's getting the, the big runs when it 04:18.474 --> 04:21.824 matters. Swifty, did you want to say something right there? Sorry, I didn't mean to 04:22.324 --> 04:24.886 interrupt you. Oh, no, I was saying— I was saying— I was talking. I had 04:25.386 --> 04:29.295 my mic muted, but he gets the tough yards. I think that's the— that's 04:29.795 --> 04:33.495 the key there. He gets the tough yards and Ben Johnson doesn't shy away from 04:33.528 --> 04:37.039 him when the game's on the line. DeAndre Swift is right there helping, 04:37.071 --> 04:40.293 picking up those first downs, getting those big touchdowns. We know how 04:40.793 --> 04:44.269 it is, dude. I mean, I got to ask Trendsetter right here. You know, 04:44.365 --> 04:48.151 I was at the game. Bears fans everywhere. It was great. I— when I 04:48.651 --> 04:52.166 saw that sea of orange at the end of the game when Caleb 04:52.666 --> 04:56.325 Williams was getting interviewed, that's just— it's incredible. It's incredible. Going back to 04:56.825 --> 05:00.066 DeAndre Swift real quick, I'm going to ask you about it. DeAndre Swift, again, 05:00.098 --> 05:03.711 not getting the big yardage. I don't care, though. He already has a career high 05:04.211 --> 05:07.051 in rushing touchdowns with 10, on pace for 21 on the season. 05:07.404 --> 05:10.712 And like Swiftie was saying, getting those tough yards. I don't think enough folks 05:11.212 --> 05:14.534 are talking about how impactful DeAndre Swift has been for this offense so far this 05:15.034 --> 05:18.401 year. Are your thoughts after that big game with another— his second 3-touchdown game of 05:18.901 --> 05:22.171 the season so far? Yeah, 4 away from the franchise record, 05:22.733 --> 05:26.648 right? Exactly. DeAndre Swift, man, um, kudos to him, 05:26.680 --> 05:30.225 especially with Kyle Minungai being out. Um, you know, the sole focus 05:30.725 --> 05:33.947 is on him and it hasn't mattered, right? He has been, uh, really, really the 05:34.447 --> 05:37.862 heartbeat to the Chicago Bears offense. Kudos to, to, uh, Ben Johnson 05:37.894 --> 05:40.156 for not shying away from him when things are tough. But this is the type 05:40.656 --> 05:42.403 of matchup that we knew it was going to be. We got the— speaking of 05:42.451 --> 05:45.880 wood, you know, you had to chop down the tree. All night long, slowly but 05:46.380 --> 05:50.560 surely. This is a very aggressive and tough defense. Once again, he averaged 2.6 05:51.060 --> 05:53.540 yards per carry. It was tough sledding in terms of the yards per carry, 05:54.040 --> 05:57.220 but when

push comes to shove, DeAndre Swift knows the end zone. And speaking about 05:57.720 --> 05:59.780 the Wood Meter, I know people in the chat are waiting. I didn't go live 06:00.280 --> 06:02.380 yesterday because I'm still a little bit under the weather. I didn't go live, 06:02.520 --> 06:05.760 but my Wood Meter's at a 10 right now. You know, I don't— 06:06.260 --> 06:08.440 we need, we need to extend this Wood Meter right here, right? 3 is just 06:08.940 --> 06:12.200 not enough with how— not enough for Jeffrey Simmons, bro. All your blood 06:12.700 --> 06:14.280 was in one place, brother. Your body couldn't heal. Brain wasn't working. 06:17.058 --> 06:20.797 Did you hear the announcer? I— did you hear Joe Buck say something 06:21.297 --> 06:24.492 about, uh, chopping wood? He made that statement. He was like, Seahawks, 06:24.508 --> 06:27.078 the Bears have been chopping wood all night. And I was like, 06:28.749 --> 06:32.106 they can't. We got so much wood, they could keep chopping and 06:32.606 --> 06:35.804 they're listening. You know, there might be only 25 people, 2 of them are Joe 06:35.820 --> 06:39.325 Buck and Troy Aikman. They're like, how can we be like these bananas? I mean, 06:39.341 --> 06:43.039 like, seriously, they— I mean, shoot, that we It, 06:43.183 --> 06:46.489 it was electric last night from start to finish. And to answer your 06:46.554 --> 06:49.779 question, Swifty, I don't know how I— to be honest, I almost didn't 06:50.279 --> 06:53.615 stream last night because I was so nervous. But I was like, you know what, 06:54.402 --> 06:58.542 this could go either very wrong or very right, and it went very right 06:58.671 --> 07:01.287 in all the right ways. So I'm, I'm happy I did it. It was, 07:01.543 --> 07:04.384 it was awesome. And Keek, sorry you're not feeling well. Hope you're feeling better, 07:04.400 --> 07:08.605 my man. I'm sure you are now with that awesome Bears domination. But also 07:08.750 --> 07:12.990 It wasn't just DeAndre Swift. I mean, Luther Burden over almost 07:13.490 --> 07:17.290 already beating last year's yardage number at 07:17.790 --> 07:21.730 like what, 5— what did I post, 592 or something? He had 672 07:22.230 --> 07:25.590 last season. So he's almost pacing for that, though he's not getting the big 07:26.090 --> 07:30.130 scores. He's doing a great job too, and he's really expanding this offense in 07:30.630 --> 07:33.550 a lot of ways. What are your thoughts? Yeah, he's special, man. There's a reason 07:34.050 --> 07:36.590 why they call him the problem child, you know? And I just love the dynamics 07:37.090 --> 07:38.870 between him and even Roma Dunze, right? They're all doing their things, even Colson Loveland. 07:40.906 --> 07:43.491 They do a very good job, and I mean Caleb Williams does a really good 07:43.991 --> 07:47.263 job of spreading the football around. There's probably only one play where on a 07:47.763 --> 07:50.394 crosser, a deep post, I believe that Luther Burden was kind of open. I don't 07:50.894 --> 07:54.086 think Caleb had enough time to really get the ball to him, but Luther Burden, 07:54.150 --> 07:57.842 every single time the ball touches his hands, he makes a 07:58.342 --> 08:00.925 play for his guys. And just the confidence and the aura that he brings to 08:01.425 --> 08:04.504 the football field as well, um, everyone's just doing their job, right? 08:04.681 --> 08:07.683 And, and that is the most important thing. The Bears are playing their game. 08:07.860 --> 08:11.346 And as long as they play their game and their brand of football, I believe 08:11.410 --> 08:13.836 in their hearts that they feel that they're the best team in the league. 08:14.960 --> 08:19.234 Yeah, I, I think that— I mean, this comment right here alone from 08:19.734 --> 08:23.314 Shady Acacia: I honestly can't see us losing another game this year. My confidence in 08:23.814 --> 08:26.736 this team has never been higher in my 32 years of being a fan. 08:26.832 --> 08:29.917 You know, I honestly— I've been on this planet for 29 08:30.417 --> 08:33.981 years, and I'm more confident than I was in 2018. I'm more confident 08:34.481 --> 08:37.113 than I was last year. And someone tweeted it, but it was— I think it 08:37.613 --> 08:40.549 was Brett, uh, Collin or something like that. But he tweeted, he goes, 08:40.983 --> 08:44.178 for the first time in my life, I'm not panicking when the 08:44.678 --> 08:48.449 Bears offense is on the field. Full motion. Swifty, what are your 08:48.949 --> 08:52.110 thoughts of the offense as a whole? Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing here, 08:52.222 --> 08:55.546 man. It's— we've always had— we've had good defenses a 08:55.658 --> 08:59.897 lot, right? But we've never had an offense like this. The young core of offensive 08:59.929 --> 09:03.430 players that Ryan Poles put together. Shout out to Ryan Poles. 09:03.927 --> 09:06.400 The haters are in shambles right now. Listen, 09:06.898 --> 09:10.784 this team not only can be special, but I also believe what's 09:10.848 --> 09:16.002 really special about it is we can keep this entire core together 09:16.468 --> 09:19.920 for the next 3 to 5 years and continue getting better. 09:20.385 --> 09:24.127 There isn't a single player that's a major starter 09:24.191 --> 09:27.948 or player that I really like that isn't under contract for the next 09:28.448 --> 09:32.025 3 years minimum. So you look at that and then you say, okay, 09:32.106 --> 09:36.023 the guys we don't like— the Grady Jarretts, the Jalen Johnsons— those 09:36.039 --> 09:39.956 guys can get cut, right? And we can spend that money to improve 09:39.988 --> 09:43.761 the team elsewhere. So I think this team is not only special, 09:44.306 --> 09:47.694 but they can continue adding on and getting better. And if 09:48.194 --> 09:51.482 they can hit on a couple mid-round picks over the next couple years, because we 09:51.982 --> 09:55.863 don't have first-rounders now the team could be even better.

We're in a special position 09:55.879 --> 09:59.040 right now, and I know a lot of people want to talk about Caleb Williams 09:59.088 --> 10:02.986 getting paid and stuff. His contract's not going up till 2029. 10:03.403 --> 10:07.029 That's when his cap hit is going to skyrocket. So we got like a 3-year 10:07.529 --> 10:10.831 window here where we can just take over the NFL. 10:10.960 --> 10:14.794 And it's— I've never felt that way about a Bears team. I've always hoped 10:15.294 --> 10:18.564 we could be good. This team is special. So now it's just knock on the 10:18.580 --> 10:22.238 wood keep this team healthy and they can do special 10:22.350 --> 10:26.217 things. And I'm just so excited about it, man. It's honestly— 10:26.717 --> 10:29.778 I'm still, still taking it in even a little bit, man. It's crazy. 10:30.292 --> 10:33.195 Yeah, I gotta say, I'm at 3 Wood Meter right now after this one. 10:33.404 --> 10:37.254 And also, I think that we've said this, all 3 of 10:37.754 --> 10:41.602 us, in our own respective ways, but my goodness, Ryan Poles 10:42.102 --> 10:45.720 is a great general manager. You know, he, he had a vision He 10:46.220 --> 10:49.560 walked into Howes Hall and said, this is going to take a minute. 10:49.860 --> 10:52.500 This is not going to be a, I'm going to fix this team in one 10:53.000 --> 10:56.500 offseason. I'm going to go out and get Dante Pettis as our wide receiver 1. 10:57.000 --> 11:00.320 I'm going to go out and trade arguably the best off-ball linebacker in 11:00.820 --> 11:03.260 the NFL. I'm going to trade the guy that made you tens of millions of 11:03.760 --> 11:06.740 dollars in jersey sales and is an electric name just to come out and see 11:07.240 --> 11:10.780 whether the team is good or not. And Khalil Mack, he said that to George 11:11.280 --> 11:14.820 McCaskey, probably. I'm just assuming. But that's what he did. So actions, 11:15.320 --> 11:18.163 you know, he definitely spoke it into existence. He told him his plan. Yeah, 11:18.870 --> 11:22.482 he was— he walked in with a plan. We haven't had a general manager walk 11:22.982 --> 11:24.554 in with a plan. I thought Phil Emery was going to be that guy, 11:24.730 --> 11:26.978 wasn't. I thought Ryan Pace was going to be that guy, 11:27.219 --> 11:30.430 wasn't. And now— what'd you say? 11:30.735 --> 11:33.770 He had us fooled. I, I think Pace had us fooled. I thought he was 11:33.866 --> 11:36.917 gonna be that guy too, man. Well, Pace came in from a good background, 11:36.933 --> 11:40.305 you know, a lot of people coming in there going, oh man, like, I'm— I, 11:40.450 --> 11:43.902 I think that we got to go on. But anyway, The Bears had 11:44.402 --> 11:48.221 teams, but I always talked about it. You ever see, uh, the movie 11:48.317 --> 11:52.042 The End Is Near? It's with like all those comedians 11:52.187 --> 11:55.253 and they put that piece of duct tape over the big crack. That's why I 11:55.753 --> 11:58.593 started Just Another Year, and that's why I call it Just Another Year, because it's 11:59.093 --> 12:01.355 like every year we just put a big Band-Aid or a piece of duct tape 12:01.483 --> 12:04.759 on the big problems we have— cap, age, and just too much 12:04.855 --> 12:08.210 of one position, none of another. Ryan Poles said I 12:08.242 --> 12:11.914 just won a couple Super Bowls in Kansas City. I'm gonna come here and get 12:12.414 --> 12:16.003 the job done. And that's sure, sure enough, he did. Yeah, that's crazy. I, 12:16.164 --> 12:19.900 I actually, I started my channel a week after Ryan 12:20.012 --> 12:23.717 Poles was hired, a couple weeks after. My first video I've ever 12:24.217 --> 12:28.575 made on Swift Sports Network was after Khalil Mack got traded because 12:29.153 --> 12:31.542 I was like, look, I know fans are gonna hate this. 12:32.376 --> 12:35.230 No one's— I, I have Khalil Mack jersey and I'm one of the guys, 12:35.326 --> 12:38.213 and we, we all know we want Mack back, but when we got Mack, 12:38.229 --> 12:41.580 or when we traded him I knew fans weren't gonna like 12:42.080 --> 12:45.685 it, but I felt deep down like this is what the Bears need to 12:46.185 --> 12:50.415 do to build an actual Super Bowl caliber 12:50.915 --> 12:54.680 team and have sustained success. And 5 years later, 12:54.729 --> 12:58.128 man, here we are. And 4 years— what was this year, 12:58.192 --> 13:01.431 5? This is gonna be the 5th year. But it's, 13:02.762 --> 13:06.755 it's crazy to see how much this team has changed. 13:07.332 --> 13:11.343 And how bad of a position this roster was in, our salary cap 13:11.843 --> 13:15.434 was in. We didn't have any young draft picks. All we had is old 13:15.934 --> 13:19.252 overpaid free agents. We never had a franchise 13:19.284 --> 13:22.172 quarterback. From all that to this, 13:22.573 --> 13:27.242 it's just surreal, man. And I, I give credit to Ryan Poles. And I 13:27.742 --> 13:30.178 know a lot of people have been talking about firing him for the last 3 13:30.678 --> 13:33.772 years. I feel like those guys should just 13:34.272 --> 13:36.930 stop tweeting about football now. Yeah, 13:37.430 --> 13:40.650 well, it does— go ahead, Keith. Yeah, sorry, and I just wanted 13:41.150 --> 13:43.330 to add, I think the best part about last night's win was like after the 13:43.830 --> 13:47.550 game, the clips you were seeing of like Ryan Poles in the tunnel shaking 13:48.050 --> 13:50.550 the guy's hand, just the biggest smile on his face. Yeah, you could just tell 13:51.050 --> 13:54.070 that he's like just a proud like older brother at this point, right? Like, 13:54.570 --> 13:57.210 man, like I did it. Like we have a team that can win the Super 13:57.710 --> 14:00.130 Bowl, right? So I, I think that's— that was like the best part of the 14:00.630 --> 14:04.290 night to me. Agreed. I, I love seeing— just except he missed Tyson Bate. 14:04.371 --> 14:07.646 I'm just kidding, I, I'm just kidding. And maybe he did, I don't

14:08.146 --> 14:11.531 know. Um, but you know, guys, we got some questions that are 14:11.580 --> 14:14.807 coming in. We'll get to these questions in a little bit, so make sure you 14:15.307 --> 14:18.211 stay tuned with us. Uh, but we're gonna get back to this one. It's regards 14:18.227 --> 14:22.096 to Caleb Williams contract negotiations. One thing I do want to say is I 14:22.596 --> 14:25.147 find it really funny that all 3 of us started our channels all around the 14:25.647 --> 14:28.824 same time, and it was, you know, shout out to Ryan Poles, the man's 14:28.840 --> 14:31.746 cooking. If I ever saw Ryan Poles in public, I'd be like, 14:31.890 --> 14:35.021 whatever you need, pal, it's on me tonight. Like, I know you, I know you 14:35.521 --> 14:38.072 got unlimited pockets, but you know, we're good to go. 14:39.260 --> 14:42.713 Um, I got you, I got you. Yeah, overall though, man, you don't 14:43.213 --> 14:45.811 have a game like that last night without Ryan Poles doing what he's done. 14:46.165 --> 14:49.521 I, and I think that if Ryan Pace would have stayed one more season, 14:49.713 --> 14:53.262 this Bears team would have needed an 8-year rebuild. That's how bad things were getting. 14:53.422 --> 14:56.440 So the Bears made the right decision there. George is a fan like us. 14:57.001 --> 15:00.611 He knows you got to give George McCaskey some credit because 100% 15:01.111 --> 15:04.012 where this team was, a lot of people are like, oh, McCaskey sucks too. 15:04.092 --> 15:08.054 It's like he listened to Ryan Poles say, I'm gonna tear this team 15:08.086 --> 15:11.632 down and we're gonna lose for years, and McCaskey 15:11.696 --> 15:15.017 was all in on that, man. And I, I'm a big fan 15:15.161 --> 15:18.786 of him now, and I think without George McCaskey, if we would have had another 15:19.059 --> 15:22.590 owner that wanted to take shortcuts and was like, this franchise 15:23.090 --> 15:26.570 is too good to go through a 5-year rebuild. But McCaskey bought 15:27.070 --> 15:30.850 in fully, signed off on him trading Mack and Roquan away, 15:31.350 --> 15:34.950 and here we are, guys. Here we are, Super Bowl caliber team. 15:35.450 --> 15:37.779 You get rid of Ted Phillips, a lot of good things happen in that situation. 15:37.850 --> 15:41.350 You don't put an accountant in a president or CEO role. Sorry, just gonna say 15:41.850 --> 15:44.770 it. Just gonna say it. Is he in the NFL anymore? No. Anyway, let's, 15:45.270 --> 15:48.090 let's move on to the Jeffrey— let's move into the Jeffrey Simmons effect. But what 15:48.590 --> 15:50.790 a game last night. I thought the guys played really well, a lot of fun 15:51.290 --> 15:53.494 to watch. But we got to talk about Jeffrey Simmons and the overall impact impact 15:53.994 --> 15:57.438 that he had on this Bears team as a whole. And I'm reading comments from 15:57.470 --> 16:00.773 my video last night. I'm reading comments from today. Some people are saying that this 16:01.273 --> 16:05.151 is arguably the greatest Chicago Bear trade we've ever made, better than Mack. The impact 16:05.651 --> 16:08.502 is way different. I was like, whoa. But let's talk about it. Jeffrey Simmons, 16:08.598 --> 16:12.463 1 sack, 6 tackles, 1 pass deflection. And Jameson 16:12.963 --> 16:15.541 seemed to have forgotten the fact that he had 4 tackles for loss. 16:16.567 --> 16:19.855 So some networks are saying 4, some are saying 3. I'm going with the higher 16:20.355 --> 16:24.761 number because it just felt that way. But man, Jeffrey Simmons, an absolute game 16:24.793 --> 16:28.305 wrecker, worth every single pick already. I mean, 16:28.642 --> 16:31.961 alone last night, he was worth it. And this is the kind of move that 16:32.009 --> 16:36.002 you make in order for those first-rounders to become practically second-rounders. 16:36.082 --> 16:39.305 This is the move that you make that you took him away from Tennessee and 16:39.805 --> 16:42.528 that 5th-rounder in 2 years that we got out of it is going to actually 16:42.592 --> 16:46.088 be a pretty high 5th-round pick. Not saying— not getting excited about that, 16:46.136 --> 16:49.103 but Ryan Poles might hit on a gem, might hit on a gem. But The 16:49.603 --> 16:53.006 Jeffrey Simmons effect was real last night. You know, let's start off with just him 16:53.038 --> 16:55.768 as a person before what he did to his teammates. Keek, I'm going to kick 16:56.268 --> 16:59.863 it over to you real quick to start off this one. Your overall thoughts 16:59.943 --> 17:03.974 of Jeffrey Simmons' game last night? Just, just absolutely 17:04.520 --> 17:07.860 amazed about the impact that he made, you know, just as a person and his 17:07.892 --> 17:11.088 leadership that he brings. You already saw the leadership qualities that he has, you know, 17:11.570 --> 17:14.477 um, being in the league for a long time and, uh, just the, 17:14.621 --> 17:17.817 the way that he was smack talking the other team, you know, motivating his guys 17:17.913 --> 17:21.183 as well. Um, you could tell he was happy to be back with Montez Sweat. 17:21.600 --> 17:25.397 Uh, like, once again, we keep using the word multiplier, and that's exactly what it— 17:25.445 --> 17:29.211 what he was. You know, this was the first time this season where we're 17:29.291 --> 17:32.512 able to get home with only 4 guys, right? 17:32.592 --> 17:35.716 Dennis Allen did not send a lot of pressure like he was doing in the 17:36.216 --> 17:39.305 first, what, 7, 8 weeks, right? So it was beautiful, 17:39.466 --> 17:43.055 beautiful, beautiful, beautiful to really see the impact he's making on the 17:43.071 --> 17:46.275 interior and see Montez Sweat and Austin Booker be able to do what they do. 17:46.532 --> 17:48.920 And I'm gonna be honest, it may be a bold take. For the first time 17:49.356 --> 17:52.728 during this whole trade deadline nonsense and talking about Khalil Mack, 17:53.067 --> 17:56.020 last night was the first time where I wasn't

thinking about Khalil Mack on this 17:56.520 --> 17:59.880 team and was thinking that we may be okay with just Jeffrey Simmons because of 17:59.962 --> 18:02.128 what he's able to do for the guys on the outside. 18:03.454 --> 18:06.836 Yeah, shoot, I, I can 18:06.852 --> 18:09.542 agree that I wasn't thinking about Mack for about 2 minutes, 18:10.203 --> 18:13.623 and then I was like, wait, Imagine if we had Mack on 18:14.123 --> 18:17.286 this defensive line. Like, that's what I'm trying— we'll get into 18:17.786 --> 18:20.048 that in a little bit because we have a whole trade target segment that we're 18:20.548 --> 18:24.016 saving. Uh, but you know what, you're right. Like, Jeffrey Simmons, 18:24.048 --> 18:27.887 I'm just like, this defense was truly missing. And we've all 18:28.387 --> 18:32.144 pounded the table that they're missing a defensive tackle, that they're missing somebody to 18:32.644 --> 18:36.770 get pressure on the quarterback. You give that, our defensive back room played quote-unquote 18:37.219 --> 18:40.666 better. I would still say Jalen Johnson and Tyreek Stevenson 18:41.166 --> 18:43.471 struggled at points, but they were going against the best wide receiver in the NFL 18:43.971 --> 18:47.045 at the moment. But man, Sam Darnold couldn't do a thing. 18:47.382 --> 18:51.405 Our run defense is 4th in the NFL right now. We're currently 7th 18:51.905 --> 18:55.347 in points allowed. We're— I believe we're— excuse me, we're 8th in points 18:55.847 --> 18:59.194 allowed, 7th in yards, and we're 14th against the pass. I mean, we jumped 18:59.322 --> 19:03.008 8 spots against the pass, if you guys didn't know that. That is just 19:03.088 --> 19:06.582 absolutely insane how much better this Bears defense got with one 19:06.695 --> 19:10.623 player. And he hasn't even gotten to know the whole playbook 19:11.123 --> 19:14.792 yet. Pretty much Dennis Allen just said, okay, I'm gonna tell you to just run 19:15.292 --> 19:17.823 up the middle. But you saw Jeffrey Simmons drop back a little bit. There was 19:17.839 --> 19:21.463 one play where Jeffrey Simmons read that it was going to be a screen pass 19:21.963 --> 19:25.279 to the running back, and he instantly stopped pursuing, backed up, and who's 19:25.376 --> 19:28.134 there right to take him down at the line? Jeffrey Simmons. Yeah, 19:28.583 --> 19:32.303 just a beautiful— just a strong football mindset. 19:32.351 --> 19:35.544 I also love the guy because he's a leader. He was one of 2 Bears, 19:35.657 --> 19:39.079 him and Jade Walker, cleaning up the locker room after when everybody 19:39.095 --> 19:42.470 left trash everywhere, which I'm sure that's a conversation Ben's going to have with the 19:42.970 --> 19:46.631 guys after seeing that publicly posted, because that's just not a classy 19:46.728 --> 19:48.672 move. Swift, I'm going to go over to you because I can talk about Jeffrey 19:49.172 --> 19:52.223 Simmons all day. Your thoughts after Jeffrey Simmons' effect last night,

man? 19:52.287 --> 19:56.031 We've heard the term force multiplier, and there 19:56.047 --> 19:59.213 was talked about when we got Khalil Mack, it was talked about when we got 19:59.713 --> 20:03.546 Montez Sweat. There isn't a bigger force multiplier than 20:03.610 --> 20:07.733 Jeffrey Simmons, who just instantly makes everyone around him 20:07.845 --> 20:10.942 better. Montez Sweat, a guy that even we 20:10.974 --> 20:14.279 were probably getting a little sick of because he hasn't produced like we 20:14.779 --> 20:17.968 thought, still had 10 sacks last year. And I've said all along, I think 20:18.468 --> 20:22.268 we need more talent around Montez Sweat. But you 20:22.557 --> 20:25.653 suddenly put Jeffrey Simmons in the middle of the defense and Sweat 20:26.153 --> 20:29.341 gets 3 sacks. Now, 2 of them were nullified by penalty, 20:29.406 --> 20:33.281 but the man had 3 sacks. 3 Wood Meter, 3 sacks. 20:34.460 --> 20:36.999 But bang! Yeah, boom! 20:37.851 --> 20:41.435 Just like that. That's— that was Montez Sweat last night. That's— and now 20:41.483 --> 20:44.861 he doesn't need to take any more of those pills he was taking. No joke. 20:45.345 --> 20:49.131 Oh man, he's got like 5 Wood Meters. 20:50.742 --> 20:53.697 Gas station pills. Had to throw it out there. No, 20:54.003 --> 20:57.602 um, but he made everyone around him better, man. I mean, look at 20:58.035 --> 21:01.442 even a guy like Devin Bush, who Dennis Allen 21:01.942 --> 21:05.715 didn't have to send blitzes, but when he did, it was so effective 21:05.747 --> 21:09.459 because he sent a blitzer right up the gap where Jeffrey 21:09.959 --> 21:13.717 Simmons is. 2 offensive linemen there on Simmons, they don't break 21:13.765 --> 21:17.059 off to touch Devin Bush. They're too worried about 21:17.559 --> 21:20.716 Jeffrey Simmons, and Bush just It's escorted to the quarterback. 21:20.989 --> 21:24.274 Free run, free sack. Kyler Gordon's gonna 21:24.774 --> 21:27.703 get some more sacks. Austin Booker is gonna make more big plays. 21:27.815 --> 21:31.389 Crazy, bro. Smack. And then Cam Lewis on 21:31.405 --> 21:35.026 the next play. Bang. Smack, bro. And that's— this 21:35.526 --> 21:38.808 defense came out and really set the tone for that game. 21:39.272 --> 21:42.365 And Ben Johnson is— he's taken his 21:42.413 --> 21:46.053 game to another level. I mean, a lot of people talked about things. 21:46.567 --> 21:48.879 They were down on him a little bit when we lost that game to the 21:48.895 --> 21:52.381 Packers, but we'll talk about that later. But man, oh man, 21:53.087 --> 21:56.396 Jeffrey Simmons, it was a bigger impact 21:56.428 --> 21:59.705 than Khalil Mack or Montez Sweat, and he helped the guys 21:59.753 --> 22:02.869 around him. It wasn't just him making plays. You know what, 22:03.174 --> 22:05.599 I'm gonna tell that— I'm gonna say this to everybody right now. I think, 22:05.663 --> 22:09.213 uh, Swifty's got a juice box meter. Like, that guy's been— I 22:09.713 -->

22:13.084 saw that juice box come out every time. Hey, hey, is that 22:13.584 --> 22:16.569 strawberry juice? Berry, berry, baby. Berry, 22:16.601 --> 22:19.653 berry. Oh, okay, okay, okay. Watch out. 22:19.959 --> 22:22.946 How many berries can— how many single berries? Whoa, 22:23.251 --> 22:26.223 whoa, whoa, back it up, 22:26.239 --> 22:28.584 back it up, back it up. You want to go with the juice box? 22:30.078 --> 22:33.789 Mike Ditka, you're the juice box guy. I'm just kidding. You're the juice box 22:34.289 --> 22:37.322 guy. No, I mean seriously, man, you kind of hit on it in 22:37.822 --> 22:41.033 a couple of ways. I mean, the Kyler Gordon hit was phenomenal. Cam Lewis, 22:41.097 --> 22:44.921 I think, was great too. But Devin Bush was 22:45.098 --> 22:48.922 that blitzing running back— or excuse me, linebacker— that 22:48.954 --> 22:52.504 we wanted Tremaine Edmonds to be. But man, did he look 22:52.585 --> 22:56.023 phenomenal just getting so much pressure in the backfield. 22:56.296 --> 23:00.297 Sam Darnold was like, what do I do here? Like, he literally looks so 23:00.797 --> 23:03.992 confused at one point when the camera panned over to him. It looked like he 23:04.492 --> 23:07.913 just got smacked upside the head, concussed— not which he wasn't, 23:08.009 --> 23:11.720 fortunately. And then he's just like, bruh, what? Like, 23:12.220 --> 23:15.320 we're supposed to be really good. We just won a Super Bowl. Yeah. And it's 23:15.820 --> 23:19.390 like, he was looking around like, somebody help me. 23:19.460 --> 23:23.120 He's like, we just got Quentin Nelson and we still can't stop him? The monsters 23:23.620 --> 23:27.940 of the Midway are back, baby. Like, that just— the effect right there was so 23:28.440 --> 23:31.540 real. And, um, I do want to say one more thing is that 23:32.040 --> 23:35.340 I think it unlocked another gear in Caleb Williams, which that's our next topic. 23:35.840 --> 23:38.849 But I do want to talk about Jeffrey Simmons. You saw the leadership walking into 23:39.349 --> 23:42.663 Halas Hall. You also couldn't miss the guy. He's absolutely massive. He literally is a 23:42.711 --> 23:46.156 Chicago— he is a bear. That's monster, like fresh 23:46.300 --> 23:49.441 out of hibernation, just all muscle bear. No, no fat on him. 23:50.066 --> 23:53.047 And when Caleb Williams on that sideline, 23:53.367 --> 23:56.716 you saw him jawing at Antoine Randall-Elle. I'm not sure if you guys saw that 23:57.216 --> 24:01.043 either, but Khalif Raymond. Yeah, and Khalif, he was just fired up. 24:01.139 --> 24:04.155 But then he's going up to He has the cojones. 24:04.331 --> 24:07.701 6 foot, they claim, 6'1. I think Caleb's 24:08.201 --> 24:11.553 more of like a 6-foot kind of guy with cleats on. Nothing against that though, 24:11.569 --> 24:14.778 guy flat out rocks, and not making fun of him by any means. But he 24:15.278 --> 24:18.437 goes up to Jeffrey Simmons in his face. It was like a little kid looking 24:18.454 --> 24:21.984 up at his dad and was just like going, come on, let's go! 24:22.064 --> 24:25.691 Like he's firing him up. Jeffrey's like, all right kid, like relax, relax. 24:25.755 --> 24:29.527 Like, but that's leadership right there. You Caleb 24:30.027 --> 24:33.493 got inspired by it. He loves it. They're having so much fun. He's getting fired 24:33.993 --> 24:37.363 up because the defense— because Jeffrey Simmons is getting fired up. Like, guys, I think 24:37.411 --> 24:41.200 that Jeffrey Simmons has just changed this entire Bears culture even more 24:41.700 --> 24:43.641 than what we're used to. Keek, want to hear your thoughts on that? Yeah, 24:43.657 --> 24:45.841 yeah, I was gonna say, you know, because you made a good point about like 24:46.341 --> 24:49.052 the secondary looking, looking a little bit better. I think the reason is because when 24:49.552 --> 24:52.536 you're only sending 4 guys, that's what DA wants to do. He wants his 4 24:52.665 --> 24:56.165 front 4 to get to the quarterback, which they were with Jeffrey Simmons, Montez Sweat, 24:56.278 --> 25:00.194 Austin Booker, and so forth. That means you're able to actually drop Kyler Gordon back 25:00.210 --> 25:03.950 and help in coverage, right? And I think that was a huge benefit. 25:04.062 --> 25:07.464 I, I, I don't really know the exact stats, but when he was on JSN, 25:07.577 --> 25:10.787 he actually did a very, very nice job last night, right? And they 25:11.287 --> 25:14.157 had to move JSN around to, you know, obviously get his catches. And JSN's one 25:14.657 --> 25:16.885 of those guys gonna get his catches. But when Kyler Gordon's able to drop back 25:16.901 --> 25:20.496 in coverage, that is very good news for the Chicago Bears defense. I also 25:20.576 --> 25:23.257 want to bring up a quick stat. You know, I'm a big stats guy. 25:23.722 --> 25:26.980 And this was actually posted by Ian Rapoport, um, as of this morning. 25:27.028 --> 25:29.805 Since the Seahawks were held to 3 yards per play, 25:30.142 --> 25:33.159 3 sacks, interception, and 48 plays where Simmons was on the field. 25:33.432 --> 25:37.188 In the 8 plays where he was off the field, Seattle averaged 13.3 25:37.204 --> 25:40.574 yards per play. You talk about an impact, right? Every single time 25:40.815 --> 25:43.993 that Jeffrey Simmons was off the field, they resorted back to the 25:44.089 --> 25:46.496 old defense that we were used to seeing, right? So you just talk about the 25:46.577 --> 25:49.321 impact and the plays that he was in. It was tremendous. 25:49.947 --> 25:52.581 You know, I— first of all, it's an incredible stat. 25:52.854 --> 25:56.548 Second of all, I wanna— I'm gonna ask you guys a double-up question and see 25:57.048 --> 25:58.909 both your thoughts because I do want to get to the next subject of Caleb 25:59.022 --> 26:02.298 Williams. Kentavious Streete goes down with an 26:02.314 --> 26:05.430 injury, wishing him a speedy recovery. Then also Grady 26:05.462 --> 26:09.525

Jarrett leaves the game, who had the 6th best pass rush win 26:09.637 --> 26:13.363 rate in the NFL entering that game. He's consistently owned that. 26:13.733 --> 26:16.527 He's been pretty solid. The face mask thing, I get it, he was jaw with 26:17.027 --> 26:18.950 a Seahawks guy, whatever, we'll forget about it. We won the game. 26:20.217 --> 26:23.811 I don't— losing both those guys potentially this upcoming Sunday due to injury, 26:24.646 --> 26:28.705 is it weird that I still am not worried? Because Jeffrey Simmons practically has 26:28.737 --> 26:32.444 the talent of 2— both those guys put together, and it allowed 26:32.492 --> 26:35.958 Jordan Vandenberg and Jaden Loving to both maybe get some experience 26:36.458 --> 26:39.071 with the best guy in the NFL at it. Swift, I'm going to kick it 26:39.571 --> 26:43.002 over to you. Your thoughts on that one? I, I think we're fine when you 26:43.502 --> 26:46.769 have Jeffrey Simmons and you have Montez Sweat 26:46.785 --> 26:50.150 and Austin Booker, I think this defensive line is fine. Uh, we're not 26:50.650 --> 26:53.499 even— we didn't even really miss Dayo, and I think that's something that when Dayo 26:53.515 --> 26:56.239 gets back, we're gonna be— this week? Yeah, 26:56.383 --> 27:00.020 hopefully. I believe— I don't think they— they haven't activated his practice 27:00.084 --> 27:02.456 window yet. No, no, no, they can, 27:03.209 --> 27:06.718 but I don't know if he's ready yet. But I'd like to see— right, 27:06.798 --> 27:10.628 right now, Grady Jarrett, I think he has a lot more potential playing 27:10.660 --> 27:14.057 next to Simmons, but I also think this is the perfect time for 27:14.185 --> 27:17.774 us to take 2 and a half weeks here or longer 27:18.270 --> 27:21.635 and get healthy because we got a bye week coming up after this. We're not 27:22.135 --> 27:25.480 gonna play football for 2 more weeks after that. So you got 27:25.980 --> 27:30.142 3 weeks right now where guys like Dayo, Ozzie Trepillo, 27:30.271 --> 27:33.299 Kyle Minungi, and they can all get healthy. 27:33.731 --> 27:37.512 Let them get healthy. Let Grady Jarrett get healthy. The Bucs didn't complete 27:38.012 --> 27:41.727 a single pass last week. I'm not that worried about him. Not to 27:42.227 --> 27:46.079 say the Bucs are bad, but we're playing at home. We have 27:46.579 --> 27:49.691 a legit Super Bowl contending team here. 27:50.398 --> 27:53.593 Go into— go home, Chicago. Take care of 27:53.625 --> 27:56.885 business against the Bucs and let's get healthy coming 27:56.917 --> 28:00.112 out of the bye week. I want to save that thought for the outlook of 28:00.128 --> 28:03.789 2026, Swifty. I think that's a great, great thought. But man, that's going to 28:04.289 --> 28:07.723 be a long 2 weeks without Bears football. Let's go into Caleb Williams, 28:07.820 --> 28:10.968 though, his game versus the Seattle Seahawks. 28:11.033 --> 28:14.486 First of all, like I said earlier, fastest Bears quarterback to

ever get 28:14.986 --> 28:17.779 to over 8,700 yards passing. Along with that, 28:17.795 --> 28:21.378 too, he still only has one interception this year. He's on pace for 30— 28:21.811 --> 28:25.394 I think it was like 3,500 yards, 18 touchdowns and 28:25.426 --> 28:29.249 3 interceptions. And oh yeah, he's the only quarterback this year through 8 games 28:29.586 --> 28:32.863 to have more than 200 total passing yards versus 28:33.040 --> 28:36.734 the Seattle Seahawks defense. In Seattle in primetime. Guy flat 28:37.234 --> 28:39.320 out rocks. You know, I'm going to kick it over to you real quick. 28:39.561 --> 28:42.613 He didn't get that 300-yard passing game we were hoping for. Would have been the 28:43.113 --> 28:46.098 first quarterback since 2014 Brian Hoyer to do that. But, 28:46.307 --> 28:49.294 you know, Caleb Williams' game, I thought he was locked in all night long, 28:49.423 --> 28:52.587 really had one of his better performances under the lights. And your thoughts on it? 28:53.358 --> 28:56.907 Yeah, just, just excellent showing of quarterback play for Caleb Williams. And we've 28:56.987 --> 29:00.087 talked about time and time again, guys, about like him getting 29:00.199 --> 29:03.631 injured was obviously brutal in the moment, but I think he came back 29:03.727 --> 29:07.141 a completely different quarterback with just, just a mission, 29:07.173 --> 29:10.859 right? And he just was so calm under pressure. There's even some clips prior to 29:11.359 --> 29:13.792 the game when, you know, they were doing the national anthem and warming up, 29:13.808 --> 29:16.773 and, you know, that the atmosphere of Lumen Field and, and why it makes it 29:17.273 --> 29:19.915 such a tough place to play. He was calm, 29:20.075 --> 29:23.377 collected, and he knew, um, what he had in himself and what he 29:23.877 --> 29:26.614 had in his guys and just the confidence and to go in there and win 29:26.647 --> 29:30.020 the football game. Um, just, just the decision-making has been excellent. 29:30.520 --> 29:34.360 His, his presence and in the pocket, keeping his eyes downfield, uh, was excellent. 29:34.860 --> 29:37.740 And this is a very tough defense to play. And I do want to say, 29:37.820 --> 29:41.040 you know, ever since he's returned from injury, been absolutely excellent. Once again, he's played 29:41.540 --> 29:43.970 2 top 10 defenses back to back. But ever since he's returned, 29:44.470 --> 29:49.380 286.7 pass yards per game, 4 touchdowns with 0 interceptions, a 73.8% 29:49.880 --> 29:53.830 completion percentage, and 109.7 passer rating as well. 29:54.640 --> 29:57.860 Um, any questions that you had about Caleb Williams I think have been answered at 29:58.360 --> 30:01.705 this point, right? Chicago has a legit top 5 bona fide MVP 30:02.205 --> 30:06.450 type of candidate quarterback. And I feel like, you know, some Bears fans 30:06.995 --> 30:09.800 don't know how to act, and I'm still trying to get used to having a 30:10.300 --> 30:12.846 good quarterback like Caleb Williams. But I think the rest of the league has definitely 30:13.346 --> 30:16.212 been put on notice about Caleb Williams and the Bears. Yeah, uh, 30:16.292 --> 30:19.659 shoot, last night, and I tweeted this out, I was like, 30:20.444 --> 30:23.089 I actually feel like we have— this is, this is a feeling I've never felt 30:23.589 --> 30:26.712 before, having a real franchise quarterback. It was— I know 30:26.856 --> 30:30.575 all 3 of us might have talked about it in the past, potentially trading back 30:30.623 --> 30:34.190 that number 1 pick back in 2024, get in a hall, 30:34.690 --> 30:37.770 hopefully. Maybe, you know, Drake Maye or someone along those lines. Drake Maye is a 30:38.270 --> 30:39.830 good quarterback. Maybe it could have worked out and we could have had a little 30:40.330 --> 30:43.630 bit extra. But Caleb and Roman, they're connecting really well 30:44.130 --> 30:47.510 and Caleb's doing a phenomenal job. We'll talk about those 2 in just a sec. 30:48.010 --> 30:50.590 But Swifty, your thoughts of Caleb Williams' game versus the Seattle Seahawks? 30:51.090 --> 30:54.690 Man, Caleb just keeps taking his game to a new level 30:55.190 --> 30:59.070 and he's not even— think about this— he's not even using his legs right now. 30:59.326 --> 31:03.502 He's still recovering from that hamstring. Yeah, he didn't even run. 31:03.599 --> 31:07.341 He ran for like 2 yards yesterday. This is a guy who had 31:07.759 --> 31:11.180 more 21-plus mile per hour runs than Lamar 31:11.373 --> 31:14.794 Jackson last year. That's how fast this dude is and how 31:14.922 --> 31:17.300 good of a runner he is. His legs are a weapon, 31:18.055 --> 31:21.861 and he just went against the Super Bowl champions in 31:21.990 --> 31:25.763 their house and picked them apart by 31:26.263 --> 31:30.217 throwing the ball. And that, that's just so special. He's just scratching 31:30.249 --> 31:33.902 the surface of not how good he can be— this is 31:33.934 --> 31:37.187 something Bears fans got to wrap their minds around because we haven't had this, 31:37.283 --> 31:40.920 right? We haven't even had a good quarterback in a long time. He can be 31:41.529 --> 31:43.676 great, and I think he's already, 31:44.669 --> 31:48.002 he's already there, but he's just scratching the surface. 31:48.338 --> 31:51.383 He's going to keep getting better and better. And if Jeffrey Simmons and 31:51.883 --> 31:55.168 his defense can keep doing what they're doing giving him the ball back and giving 31:55.668 --> 31:58.637 him more opportunities. This team is just so special, 31:59.102 --> 32:02.442 and Caleb is that guy. If there's anybody out there that's still doubting him, 32:03.663 --> 32:07.469 what are you doing? You're not watching the tape. You're just worried about his fingernails 32:07.969 --> 32:10.231 or something. Might just go home, paint your fingernails, 32:11.130 --> 32:14.920 realize it's not a big deal, and realize the Chicago

Bears have 32:15.420 --> 32:19.256 a franchise quarterback. And not just any franchise quarterback, one that's going 32:19.756 --> 32:23.155 to be in the elite tier. With the Josh Allens and the Patrick Mahomes. 32:23.508 --> 32:27.518 I see Caleb taking that step very soon, and it's 32:28.018 --> 32:31.094 a scary feeling as a Bears fan because we've never felt that. We've watched it 32:31.431 --> 32:34.735 in Green Bay, but we've never had one ourselves. You know, I'll say 32:35.235 --> 32:38.697 this, I think he's already like subtly become an honorable mention in that tier. 32:39.130 --> 32:42.562 You know, I, I think that the NFL's— you don't, 32:42.578 --> 32:46.251 you don't see as many 400-yard passing games anymore. You don't see as many 32:46.443 --> 32:49.378 5, 6 touchdown games. Joe Burrow, on the other hand, that guy just keeps doing 32:49.410 --> 32:51.897 it, but It's what happens when you have the best wide receiver room in the 32:52.397 --> 32:55.716 NFL. I cannot believe 32:56.053 --> 33:00.128 how the progression he has had also while missing 3 games 33:00.144 --> 33:02.840 this year, which is crazy to think. 33:03.530 --> 33:06.851 And he's still going to put up numbers we used to pray for 33:06.899 --> 33:10.734 out of a Bears quarterback. And he's still got some rust on him. I mean, 33:10.814 --> 33:14.633 think about it. The guy has only played in, what, 5 games 33:14.665 --> 33:18.227 this year? 4.5 games technically this year. Or is it 5.5? Whatever you want to 33:18.275 --> 33:21.575 put. Yeah, it'd be 4.5 games, right? Because he won game number 33:22.075 --> 33:26.029 1, got hurt game number 2, and then he's what, 2 and— he's 33:26.606 --> 33:29.954 3-0 since coming back. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, 33:30.627 --> 33:34.760 you look at that and you're like, he's doing this. He's had 33:34.873 --> 33:38.221 3 games less than everybody else who's really shaken off the 33:38.237 --> 33:42.018 rust and done a good job. But it's also how he's connecting. And Swifty, 33:42.066 --> 33:45.622 you talked about this earlier, like how this team is set up for the future. 33:45.686 --> 33:49.515 So many guys under contract. He's got Colson Loveland this season with 3 more after. 33:49.917 --> 33:53.097 He's got Luther Burden for at least 2 more after this one. 33:53.467 --> 33:57.289 He's got Rome Odunze for at least 2 more after this one. I mean, 33:57.322 --> 34:00.791 shoot, you got everybody, all of his targets, 34:00.839 --> 34:04.550 Kyle Minungu on this roster for 2 years after this year. You got DeAndre 34:05.050 --> 34:09.159 Swift, who's got 3 years after this year. I mean, these guys are all together. 34:09.449 --> 34:12.806 This offensive line has the future on it, the present, 34:12.822 --> 34:16.034 the future, and soon to be the past because we got some veterans 34:16.098 --> 34:19.774 on it. But they're doing a really good job. And they, they built this thing, 34:19.806 --> 34:22.934 and that's what's going to make Caleb

great. You look at Tom Brady, he had 34:23.434 --> 34:26.994 what, Wes Welker for 12 seasons? He had Gronk for 12 seasons. 34:27.491 --> 34:29.866 You keep a core together, 34:30.700 --> 34:33.909 and that's what's so special. So Swifty, I'm really happy that you brought that up 34:33.925 --> 34:37.294 earlier. And also, this is what it takes to be elite, and Ryan Poles saw 34:37.794 --> 34:40.728 that too, because now that you have your offense kind of set up, 34:41.386 --> 34:44.627 you can just pile drive bringing in great defenders year in 34:44.675 --> 34:48.230 and year out. And that's what the Patriots did. That's what the the Chiefs did, 34:48.730 --> 34:52.230 and that's what winning organizations do. So I'm really excited about Keke. 34:52.730 --> 34:54.550 I'm gonna go back to you real quick. I know I threw a lot out 34:55.050 --> 34:56.870 there, but is there anything else that you want to add in regards to Caleb 34:57.370 --> 35:00.050 Williams' gameplay? You know, got a couple more minutes here. We want to talk about 35:00.550 --> 35:03.750 him before we get into our sponsor in the final 2, uh, episodes— 2 segments. 35:04.250 --> 35:06.850 Yeah, and I, and I think to Swift's point, just saying that, that he still 35:07.350 --> 35:10.470 hasn't reached his ceiling, right? And there's just so many layers to the Chicago 35:10.970 --> 35:13.410 Bears offense. I think you, you think you have this Bears offense figured out, 35:13.910 --> 35:16.950 and then you don't. Right? I think Seattle had a game plan, and I, 35:17.450 --> 35:19.530 I think, I think someone said it best. I think it was an analyst, 35:20.030 --> 35:22.770 um, on a show. They're like, you know, you can call the perfect defense and 35:23.270 --> 35:26.110 Caleb still beats you, right? He's, he's on that type of tier. Only, only a 35:26.610 --> 35:29.910 certain number of quarterbacks are able to dissect defenses the way that Caleb Williams 35:30.410 --> 35:33.270 does, right? So, um, I just want to let Bears fans know, enjoy it. 35:33.770 --> 35:36.230 And I actually want to say a public apology to myself as well. I was 35:36.730 --> 35:39.690 actually in my house today saying I'm an idiot forever not wanting this kid. 35:39.902 --> 35:42.854 Right? Yeah, I know, I know I'm just being a loyal Bears fan at the 35:43.354 --> 35:45.517 time, but, but there was a time where I was like, oh, I don't want 35:46.017 --> 35:49.127 this kid, right? I believed all the narratives about him, and I feel terrible about 35:49.627 --> 35:53.234 it now because he has been— he, he has changed everything about 35:53.734 --> 35:56.587 this organization. And even him last night in his press conference, it was just like, 35:56.892 --> 36:00.438 you know, I want to make Bears fans proud to support this 36:00.938 --> 36:03.695 team. And it literally made me a little bit emotional when he said that because 36:03.727 --> 36:07.225 we've been through everything, right? Through many different quarterbacks and many 36:07.418 --> 36:11.030 trials and tribulations, and, and he has changed everything and the belief, 36:11.255 --> 36:15.044 uh, in this city. By far the most mature 24-year-old 36:15.544 --> 36:18.544 you'll ever meet in your entire life at this point, at least. You know, 36:18.560 --> 36:22.284 when I'm— you know, I was out Halloween weekend running around the city of 36:22.784 --> 36:26.009 Chicago, and you could tell who's, you know, around my age, 36:26.057 --> 36:29.734 29, 30, and then you got the kids out on the block, 36:29.975 --> 36:33.648 first big paychecks party, and it's like Oh, and then 36:34.148 --> 36:37.317 you're like, dang, you're the same age as Caleb Williams. Like, it's, it's crazy. 36:37.830 --> 36:41.195 So, you know, he's truly become a leader of men, and he's 36:41.695 --> 36:44.031 just such a young guy still. And it's crazy that we could have 16 more 36:44.159 --> 36:47.412 years of him with how quarterback longevity is going. I mean, 36:47.828 --> 36:51.289 you're gonna have people, kids that are— and Keek, 36:51.353 --> 36:53.693 also, I agree with you. I admit I was wrong on Caleb Williams too. 36:54.398 --> 36:58.067 Um, you have people that are going to be born this year, and when 36:58.083 --> 37:01.110 Caleb Williams retired, they're gonna be driving cars. Cars, or if they're flying cars at 37:01.610 --> 37:05.210 that point. But it's just crazy how bright this future 37:05.710 --> 37:08.650 looks for this Bears team and how exciting it is. 37:09.150 --> 37:12.990 And there's so much change happening right now. Like, this franchise has 37:13.490 --> 37:15.690 moved in a much better direction, so I'm really, really excited about it. I know 37:16.190 --> 37:19.090 Swift is too. Uh, guys, before we get more into today's show, because we're gonna 37:19.590 --> 37:21.590 look at that 2026 outlook, we don't want to get too ahead of ourselves. 37:21.730 --> 37:25.490 I would like to thank today's sponsor, Kalshi. All right, Bears fans, before we 37:25.990 --> 37:29.448 get back into it, I gotta talk to you about Kalshi. 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All right, well, thank you to 39:00.409 --> 39:03.458 today's sponsor. And you know, we were just talking about Caleb, so highly 39:03.522 --> 39:07.616 of him and how excited we are. Let's get into a 39:08.116 --> 39:11.999 little bit more about yesterday's game and what it meant for this impact 39:12.352 --> 39:15.848 for the rest of the season. I mean, Bears shot up to number 5 on 39:15.864 --> 39:18.943 Fox Sports power rankings. I think they should be number 1, 39:18.991 --> 39:22.503 in my opinion. But, you know, can't win it all. And also, 39:22.856 --> 39:26.448 the Bears are now nearly top 10 in every single major category on both 39:26.948 --> 39:30.136 offense, defense, and special teams. Like we talked about, the progression of 39:30.152 --> 39:33.264 Caleb Williams, defense playing a lot better. And you 39:33.280 --> 39:36.792 got through arguably the thickest part of your schedule that isn't 39:36.888 --> 39:39.985 in regards to the NFC North. At 6-2, 39:40.322 --> 39:43.854 you're in second place half a game out. You really could be in first if 39:44.354 --> 39:49.073 that game didn't go the way it did against Minnesota. I mean, this season the 39:49.573 --> 39:51.963 Bears control their own destiny. I know it's a little bit early to say that, 39:51.979 --> 39:55.640 but they really, really do. And looking at the schedule, 39:55.656 --> 39:59.060 you have the Bucs coming up this Sunday night, another primetime game, 39:59.124 --> 40:02.737 3 primetime games in a row for this team, by the way. And then finally 40:03.237 --> 40:06.812 it chills out with the Saints Following that there in Chicago after the 40:06.828 --> 40:09.522 bye week. Then you have Detroit on Thanksgiving, 40:09.634 --> 40:12.408 Jacksonville back at home, Miami, 40:12.681 --> 40:16.626 Buffalo, and then you end off with 3 games in a row against the NFC 40:17.126 --> 40:20.186 North. And shoot, with how the North is going, with how this team is playing, 40:20.234 --> 40:23.586 anything's possible. And we saw the comment earlier saying that people might not think 40:24.086 --> 40:26.488 the Bears could lose anymore. Keith, I'm going to start with you on this one. 40:26.552 --> 40:29.888 We got a couple of interesting games in the Bucs and Saints coming 40:29.904 --> 40:33.210 up here. How are you feeling for not only the 40:33.710 --> 40:37.130 short-term but the long-term future of this season? Yeah, I think this team's focus is 40:37.630 --> 40:41.150 just going 1-0 every single week. You know, even when they asked Caleb last night, 40:41.650 --> 40:44.270 was like, hey, what is the outlook for the rest of the season? He's like, 40:44.770 --> 40:47.490 just getting 1% better every day. He would not say that they are a Super 40:47.990 --> 40:50.910 Bowl contender, and that's the mindset. They're not looking ahead on Tampa Bay, they're not 40:51.410 --> 40:53.930 looking ahead on the Saints. They believe that any given Sunday that you can be 40:54.430 --> 40:56.450 beat, so they have to put their best foot forward every week. And I'm trying 40:56.950 --> 41:00.440 to keep that same mentality, right? I think it's It's, it's easy for Bears fans. 41:00.940 --> 41:04.360 We haven't experienced this, experienced this in a long time, um, to instantly say we're 41:04.860 --> 41:07.620 Super Bowl contenders, and it's okay to have that feeling. But when you're looking at 41:08.120 --> 41:10.800 this football team, they just want to be 1-0 every single week. And you know, 41:11.300 --> 41:13.860 when you're looking at the schedule, I actually love how it's set up, right, 41:14.360 --> 41:17.580 with these tough matchups, because these last couple of weeks have been 41:18.080 --> 41:21.460 playoff atmosphere type of games. So not only in 41:21.960 --> 41:24.640 our own division are we beating each other up, talking about the Vikings, Packers, 41:25.140 --> 41:28.586 Lions, right? We're playing these tough games against top defenses, right? So this team if 41:29.086 --> 41:32.212 they can get into the playoffs, which that's the expectation, they will be battle-tested and 41:32.712 --> 41:35.437 ready for anything when we get into those later months and trying to make that 41:35.485 --> 41:39.191 run for the Super Bowl. Yeah, and you know, injuries are 41:39.691 --> 41:41.950 going to happen, so there's going to be impacts to this team as well, 41:41.998 --> 41:45.015 but other teams too. We haven't even gone through the trade deadline, 41:45.047 --> 41:49.186 but with how this team has progressed— I mean, you have beaten the Carolina Panthers, 41:49.362 --> 41:52.747 you crushed them, put a 59-burger on them. You almost beat the Minnesota Vikings, 41:52.795 --> 41:56.295 who are first in the division. The Eagles and the Jets at the time were 41:56.584 --> 41:59.876 looking promising. We're not going to talk about the Green Bay game, 42:00.294 --> 42:03.426 but you go to Atlanta, you do a good job there, you beat the Patriots 42:03.570 --> 42:06.766 and the Seahawks, both back-to-back Super Bowl

opponents. I mean, 42:06.798 --> 42:10.284 this team is doing great things. But you know what? You have the 42:10.412 --> 42:14.315 right mentality. And that's what I think is totally 42:14.347 --> 42:18.041 true, is that just win every week and 42:18.541 --> 42:21.332 worry about the next following game. Treat every game the same. That you want to 42:21.832 --> 42:24.474 go out there and win. And I think that's what's really important. Swifty, I'm going 42:24.974 --> 42:27.184 to kick it over to you real quick in regards to, you know, kind of 42:27.684 --> 42:30.245 what we were reviewing in the 2026 season. How are you feeling so far, 42:31.175 --> 42:34.333 man? We're set up perfectly right now. We're a little bit banged up. 42:34.397 --> 42:37.924 It's only a couple of guys. And headed into this bye week, 42:38.020 --> 42:41.787 if we can get through the Buccaneers game, stay relatively healthy, 42:42.413 --> 42:45.683 get even healthier over that bye, this team is in a perfect 42:46.183 --> 42:50.042 position to go on a run. And fortunately or unfortunately, 42:50.090 --> 42:53.520 however you look at it, they got to keep winning because the NFC North 42:53.696 --> 42:57.141 is on a historic run here. I, I remember people 42:57.641 --> 43:00.410 were laughing at me when I said this the best division in football in the 43:00.506 --> 43:04.432 offseason. Now here they are, the only team in NFL 43:04.609 --> 43:07.942 history 8 weeks into the season to have 43:08.198 --> 43:11.804 every single team at least 2 games over .500. 43:11.900 --> 43:15.715 This division is stacked, and the only teams they're losing 43:15.811 --> 43:19.402 to are their division opponents. Vikings' only 43:19.434 --> 43:22.704 loss is the Lions. Bears' only loss— they've 43:23.204 --> 43:27.064 lost to the Vikings and the Packers. It's, it's similar. The Packers the 43:27.564 --> 43:31.103 same way. And it's crazy, we are dominating 43:31.680 --> 43:34.870 every other team we play that's not in our division. 43:35.303 --> 43:38.829 This division is a gauntlet, and we got to keep winning to keep 43:39.329 --> 43:42.408 up pace because even with this record and how we're playing, 43:42.922 --> 43:46.534 we're still not in first place because the Vikings— who I'm not 43:47.034 --> 43:49.311 that scared of the Vikings right now, I think they have a lot of holes 43:49.408 --> 43:52.651 on that roster, but if they keep winning, 43:52.715 --> 43:55.926 they can, they can take the North. Now they got to come through Chicago though 43:56.426 --> 43:59.683 at some point. So yeah, but let you know what, I want to talk 44:00.183 --> 44:03.873 about that real quick, the Vikings schedule, because they just lost 44:04.373 --> 44:07.774 to Detroit. Yeah, they're, I mean, they're a good ball club, but They got a 44:08.031 --> 44:10.968 really tough schedule coming up here. At least the Bears have a little bit of 44:11.000 --> 44:14.659 breathing room, to say the least. But they got the

Bills 44:14.772 --> 44:19.185 on Monday Night Football, they got the Packers after, which that's 44:19.685 --> 44:22.026 a toss-up right there. Last place in the NFC North, by the way. Love to 44:22.526 --> 44:25.974 say that. Um, you got the 49ers who are leading the NFC 44:26.183 --> 44:29.875 West at the moment. Keith's dying right now. I love it. 44:30.420 --> 44:33.085 Uh, you got the— I love how you could just poke fun at the, 44:33.165 --> 44:35.540 the Packers. Any chance we get, we like to poke fun at the backers. 44:35.588 --> 44:39.612 I love it. Yeah, just beat Green Bay sucks chants in 44:39.740 --> 44:42.962 Seattle. Can you believe that? I'm happy we 44:43.026 --> 44:46.521 did it also at a more appropriate moment versus 44:46.617 --> 44:49.438 when a guy was down in Atlanta. I know we took a little bit of 44:49.938 --> 44:52.372 a break after that. We're like, did you, did you hear the story? I did 44:52.404 --> 44:55.466 see there were— it was on social media. I just, I happened to run and 44:55.690 --> 44:59.537 find it randomly. There was some guy on Instagram who was at that game 45:00.037 --> 45:03.096 and he showed pictures. Apparently the chants didn't 45:03.289 --> 45:06.912 have to do— it had nothing to do with the injury. What happened 45:07.412 --> 45:11.256 was there was a random Packers fan at that game 45:11.304 --> 45:14.719 who was holding up a sign that said Bears sucks 45:14.927 --> 45:18.117 and pointing it towards the fans. And this was in the break, 45:18.213 --> 45:21.676 a break of the game. So they saw this guy standing up 45:21.885 --> 45:25.828 waving a sign and they just started— it was just a small section that 45:26.328 --> 45:30.158 started chanting Green Bay sucks. And then there were so many Bears fans that 45:30.658 --> 45:34.055 it just grew throughout the stadium, but it was really pointed at one 45:34.151 --> 45:37.696 Packer fan. And I think people kind of ran with that a little bit 45:38.196 --> 45:41.385 out of context and took it wrong. But what would be— what would be 45:41.885 --> 45:45.410 content creation without, you know, doing that, right? Like, yeah, that's how it is. 45:45.859 --> 45:49.420 It is how it is. But yeah, I— that's 45:49.920 --> 45:52.948 a good story, to say the least, first of all. Um, but yeah, Green Bay's 45:53.448 --> 45:55.835 in last place, but they're a toss-up there. But you still got the Niners, 45:55.867 --> 45:59.077 you got the Falcons. Then you got the Panthers, then you got the Patriots, 46:00.230 --> 46:04.054 and then you got the Lions, the Commanders. So like 46:04.359 --> 46:07.556 Minnesota is— so we play 46:08.056 --> 46:11.432 Minnesota January 10th for the last game of the season, but their 2 games before 46:11.932 --> 46:14.878 look like they're winnable. But they have a tough, you know, 6-game, 46:15.216 --> 46:18.243 7-game stretch right here. Minnesota, I mean, 46:18.436 --> 46:21.545 shoot, you lose even half of those, you're in 46:22.045 -->

46:25.652 trouble. You know, like, and the Bears, the way they're progressing, 46:25.749 --> 46:29.732 are looking really good. This— you can't stop, though. You have to be playing this 46:29.764 --> 46:33.121 dominating football week in and week out. If the Bears 46:33.169 --> 46:37.088 can walk into Thanksgiving at 8-2, 46:37.104 --> 46:40.879 so winning 2 more, and that means that they would be on a 5-game winning 46:40.943 --> 46:44.477 streak. I think that gives you enough confidence. You walk into Detroit 46:44.977 --> 46:47.432 and that's going to be a juggernaut showdown. And I think it's going to be 46:47.932 --> 46:50.287 a lot of fun, too. Um, Keek, I want to go over to you real 46:50.335 --> 46:53.589 quick. Thoughts a little bit deeper into anything 46:53.621 --> 46:56.554 you're worried about for the rest of this season in regards to opponents? I mean, 46:56.570 --> 46:59.728 I'm very confident in this team, but you can't win them all. So I really 47:00.228 --> 47:02.934 want to hear your thoughts on the rest of the season. Yeah, I just want 47:03.434 --> 47:06.508 them to find a way to at least split their division games, right? I think 47:06.524 --> 47:09.778 last year we were able to win the division with a record of 2 and— 47:10.612 --> 47:13.609 was it only 2 wins in the division last year? I think it was like 47:13.818 --> 47:16.530 2 and— I don't know, it's 2 and 6 or something like that. Uh, 47:17.030 --> 47:21.090 2-4. You play 6 divisions. Sick brain 47:21.590 --> 47:25.160 right now, my apologies. But yeah, all this wood is still there, 47:25.290 --> 47:28.330 folks, right? It's still here, it's still here, it's still here. But 2-4 in the 47:28.830 --> 47:30.850 division, I would love to see them split their games, which, which I think they 47:31.350 --> 47:33.520 will, right? I, I think, you know, you look at the Green Bay Packers, 47:33.630 --> 47:37.110 they still come through Chicago with, with Caleb, with Minungai, and now 47:37.610 --> 47:40.230 Jeffrey Simmons in the fold. Um, I think you can, you know, make some arguments 47:40.730 --> 47:43.730 that in Minnesota it's gonna be a great game. And I know Ben Johnson has 47:44.230 --> 47:47.390 Detroit circled on his calendar, you know, being swept last year. He wants one of 47:47.890 --> 47:50.990 those games as well. So I think if you can split those division games, 47:51.170 --> 47:54.930 I think the Bears will be fine. And I, and I say that because you're, 47:55.430 --> 47:58.210 you're being battle-tested. Every game that you play within the NFC North is like playing 47:58.710 --> 48:01.070 a playoff game at that point. And I think that's why the NFC North's having 48:01.570 --> 48:04.470 so much success outside of the division, because we're sitting here beating each other up, 48:04.970 --> 48:07.970 right? So when you would go out there and play the Seattle Seahawks, all respect 48:08.470 --> 48:11.130 given, or, or even when the Minnesota Vikings played the 49ers, they're going to play 48:11.630 --> 48:14.174 them tough. Because of who they have to play week in and week out within 48:14.190 --> 48:17.460 this NFC North. Oh yeah. I mean, it's no 48:17.492 --> 48:20.474 easy task for the Bears at the end facing all 3 NFC North opponents. 48:20.522 --> 48:23.375 Swifty, anything else you want to say on the 2026 outlook before we get into 48:23.423 --> 48:26.469 the final topic of trade and free agent targets? Yeah, 48:26.485 --> 48:29.835 that Bills game is the one I would have circled on there. I think that's 48:30.335 --> 48:34.002 going to be the next huge test. What does Josh Allen do 48:34.502 --> 48:37.080 against this defense? How does Caleb look in the primetime? 48:37.272 --> 48:40.690 DJ Moore making his return. That's, that's going to be a big one 48:40.738 --> 48:44.433 in that Thanksgiving game as well. But I would love to see Caleb against 48:44.933 --> 48:48.675 Mahomes. I'm ready for that too, but it's not on the schedule, guys. Oh, 48:48.755 --> 48:52.145 it could be, could be on Valentine's Day. Just putting that 48:52.209 --> 48:55.342 out there, just putting that out there. I hope no one has plans because we 48:55.358 --> 48:59.342 all might be busy that day. Everyone tell your ladies, oh sorry, 48:59.840 --> 49:03.181 you want to go out for dinner? Uh, you gotta do it the day before 49:03.230 --> 49:06.025 or the day after. I wouldn't even do it the day before. I'd be like 49:06.170 --> 49:09.735 Shoot, we'll give it a try next 49:10.235 --> 49:13.767 week. Uh, but anyway, yeah, let's get into that last topic— trade 49:13.815 --> 49:17.364 targets. Trade deadline's coming up here next week. I believe it's 49:17.864 --> 49:21.203 the 12th, uh, or right, the— I think the 49:21.219 --> 49:24.592 NFL trade deadline, the 10th. It's a 10th. Oh, it's a week from today. 49:25.235 --> 49:28.399 Yes. Okay, so, you know, Bears will be on a bye week at that point, 49:29.073 --> 49:33.233 um, after this week. So that's pretty intense right there. But yeah, 49:33.249 --> 49:36.525 you know, the NFL trade deadline ends at 1 PM Swifty— 49:36.573 --> 49:40.266 or excuse me, Keeks time, 4 PM Swifty time, 3 PM Central 49:40.330 --> 49:43.782 for the Bears. Look at that, give me all the different— we're across 3 49:44.282 --> 49:47.732 time zones, by the way, guys. Organizing this show, a lot of fun. Um, 49:47.877 --> 49:51.826 but we got a lot of trade targets. You know, we, we could 49:52.326 --> 49:55.134 talk about Khalil Mack. We can talk about that one. That's an easy one. 49:55.198 --> 49:58.425 Everyone wants that to happen. I feel, I feel like tomorrow the fatigue's gonna start 49:58.474 --> 50:01.956 kicking in. Like, is it happening? Is it not? Kind of deal. Unless we hear 50:02.085 --> 50:05.905 like Schefter be like, deep talks, it's like, oh shit, here we go again. 50:06.017 --> 50:09.644 Like, come on baby, uh, just fire Harbaugh if they— if 50:09.693 --> 50:12.806 they're not willing

to do it, just fire him. We need Mac back, baby. 50:13.320 --> 50:17.140 Yeah, stop holding them hostage, please. Okay, so free Mac. Um, 50:17.252 --> 50:20.767 not— well, free Big Macs would be good too, but let's, let's, let's talk 50:21.267 --> 50:24.411 about some of these targets. So I'm gonna name a few guys Let's start off 50:24.460 --> 50:28.332 with Nashon Wright. Brendan Shugrue tweeted out that he knows someone 50:28.832 --> 50:32.317 close to the situation. Wright hasn't asked for a trade, but he would— he does 50:32.429 --> 50:34.904 want to leave, or he want to come back to the Bears if that's a 50:35.404 --> 50:38.519 possibility. Keith, thoughts on Nashon Wright maybe 50:39.019 --> 50:41.588 coming back? Yeah, I think it'll be cheap. I think you can get away maybe 50:42.088 --> 50:45.284 getting like a 7th round pick, maybe like a pick swap situation. Um, you know, 50:45.525 --> 50:49.188 you think about what he was able to do last year, uh, 5 interceptions, 50:49.221 --> 50:52.574 2 force fumbles all around the football. I always call Nashon Wright like kind 50:53.074 --> 50:55.558 of like a boom-or-bust corner, like it's either getting a turnover or he's getting burnt 50:56.058 --> 50:59.183 downfield, right? But I do think like if you're able to win with 4, 50:59.312 --> 51:03.001 like getting consistent pressure on the quarterback, maybe Nashon Wright with 51:03.501 --> 51:06.851 his measurables and ball hawk abilities would fit fine here. And you know, 51:07.413 --> 51:10.044 as I look at it, it couldn't be any worse than Tyreek Stevenson and Jaylen 51:10.076 --> 51:13.621 Johnson at this point, bringing in some competition and kind of putting pressure 51:13.990 --> 51:17.442 on guys like JJ and Tyreek well to perform at a high level. 51:19.120 --> 51:22.517 Well, okay, I like that one. I agree, I agree with all your points. 51:22.871 --> 51:25.898 My, my thing is, Swifty, I'm gonna go over to you real quick because I'm 51:26.398 --> 51:30.089 sure it might complete my entire thought. Half my thought is there with Keek right 51:30.589 --> 51:32.968 now. Want to hear your thoughts on potentially N'Shawn Wright coming back. 51:33.889 --> 51:36.299 Um, I'd be okay with it, but I don't want to give up anything. 51:36.932 --> 51:40.505 Keek said pick swap, and there was one I saw that was floated out there 51:41.117 --> 51:44.545 that, hey, we'll give you guys a 6th round pick Jets, 51:44.658 --> 51:47.737 you give us a 7th back. And then honestly, that could 51:48.237 --> 51:51.040 turn out to be pretty much nothing because we could be picking at the bottom 51:51.088 --> 51:54.312 of the 6th and they're at the top of the 7th. That's only a 51:54.812 --> 51:58.802 5-6 pick difference there depending on where they land. So other 51:59.302 --> 52:02.122 than that, I don't want to give up much for Nayshawn Wright. We let him 52:02.218 --> 52:05.730 go for a reason. Dennis Allen and Ryan 52:05.762 --> 52:08.873 Poles and company, they

didn't— and Al Harris as well— didn't 52:08.889 --> 52:11.940 think he was worth $5 million. Obviously, 52:11.956 --> 52:15.250 if we would have matched what he signed for in New York, he would have 52:15.314 --> 52:18.286 rather played here, but we, we didn't offer that. 52:18.431 --> 52:22.046 We didn't want him back. Now things have changed a little bit. JJ hasn't 52:22.546 --> 52:26.079 got back to form, Tyreek's not having a big year, and we, 52:26.159 --> 52:30.482 we got some injuries in the secondary as well. If Al Harris 52:30.982 --> 52:34.354 and Dennis Allen want him back, I'm fine, but don't give 52:34.854 --> 52:37.902 up hardly anything for that guy because It's not worth 52:38.402 --> 52:40.854 it. So, so let me cook real quick right here. Let me, let me put 52:41.354 --> 52:45.121 my Ryan Poles hat on. All right, in regards to Wright, 52:46.052 --> 52:49.854 I think last year the numbers are undeniable. 80 tackles, 5 interceptions, 52:49.918 --> 52:53.239 11 pass deflections, 2 forced fumbles, and 3 fumble recoveries. 52:53.287 --> 52:57.137 I mean, the guy was a stat sheet stuffer. Do I agree that 52:57.637 --> 53:00.570 he was burned? Yes. But also you got to remember it was a much different 53:01.070 --> 53:04.520 linebacker room and a different safety room. You didn't have Dylan Thieneman back there. 53:04.700 --> 53:08.180 You didn't have Cam Lewis back there. You, you know, we'll talk about another potential 53:08.680 --> 53:12.040 safety in a second, or Jeffrey Simmons. Like, you have 53:12.540 --> 53:16.240 a completely different team that's going to get more pressure and less throws. And also, 53:16.740 --> 53:20.020 he knows this scheme because that was his first year in Dennis Allen's scheme as 53:20.520 --> 53:23.280 well. Now that he knows it, he knows the little details. They bring him back 53:23.780 --> 53:26.020 and shoot, bam, plug in right there. I thought he got better as the season 53:26.520 --> 53:29.480 went on. And a Pro Bowler, you can't deny. So I think that, you know, 53:29.980 --> 53:32.217 getting him for a 7th would be a steal. And we owe him I think, 53:32.233 --> 53:36.199 Swifty, you're gonna like this— only $1.51 million for 53:36.699 --> 53:40.470 the rest of the season. So that's my take right there. Then you also have 53:40.887 --> 53:44.596 Alonte Taylor, who, former New Orleans Saint, 53:45.463 --> 53:49.124 is down in Tennessee. Maybe was involved in the conversations as well 53:49.253 --> 53:52.705 when we were talking to Jeffrey for Jeffrey Simmons. Bears were 53:53.205 --> 53:55.611 in deep talks with the Saints last year. A lot of people don't remember. 53:55.675 --> 53:58.324 Ian Rapoport tweeted it out. For Taylor, 53:58.709 --> 54:02.128 for Dennis Allen, which the last season together in 2024, 54:02.417 --> 54:06.236 6 sacks, multiple interceptions, over 15 54:06.333 --> 54:10.248 pass deflections. I mean, that's a guy that you bring in and his contract is 54:10.281 --> 54:13.891 nearly the exact same as Jaylon Johnson. You could do a straight-up swap right there 54:14.391 --> 54:17.839 because Tennessee's scheme is a lot better for Jaylon Johnson's playing type because 54:18.339 --> 54:21.948 it's similar to Matt Eberflus's defense versus what they have here. 54:22.397 --> 54:25.303 It could work out for both parties. So that's an option right there. 54:25.367 --> 54:28.867 Swift, I'm gonna go to you because you're thinking about it, man. I, I really 54:28.883 --> 54:32.255 like Alontae Taylor. I think he knows Dennis Allen's 54:32.755 --> 54:36.013 system well. You knocked that one on the head. And Dennis Allen knows him very 54:36.125 --> 54:39.465 well. He was the guy who drafted him and brought him to New Orleans, 54:39.513 --> 54:42.740 and he had his best success of his career there. So if DA 54:43.013 --> 54:47.011 is in, I do think you might have hit, hit on 54:47.043 --> 54:51.249 that a little bit, that we can't afford to just trade for Alontae 54:51.281 --> 54:55.339 Taylor because he did just sign that big free agent contract 54:55.387 --> 54:59.238 with the Titans, right? And if you, if you send JJ 54:59.738 --> 55:02.927 their way though, suddenly we can afford it. So yeah, you do have to 55:03.427 --> 55:07.419 clear some space up there by either restructuring Montez Sweat or trading away 55:07.919 --> 55:11.077 JJ. But I, I think he's a good player. I, 55:11.189 --> 55:15.103 I think he's, especially with this defense and the talent 55:15.603 --> 55:18.441 we have on it, I think Taylor would fit pretty well, and I'm, I'm all 55:18.569 --> 55:21.923 for Taylor if, if you can get him for a late-round pick. Or maybe 55:22.423 --> 55:26.480 throw JJ in there, a guy who I love, JJ, but I think the odds 55:26.576 --> 55:30.812 right now of him being back next year, they're getting lower every 55:30.941 --> 55:34.262 single time he gets burnt like a piece of 55:34.294 --> 55:37.905 toast. And JSN made him look like 55:38.405 --> 55:42.141 a practice squad player last night. I was embarrassed by 55:42.641 --> 55:45.848 JJ trying to cover him, and then Tyreek looked even worse, and I was like, 55:46.329 --> 55:49.715 what are we doing out here, man? Yeah, I mean, shoot, both their stocks are 55:50.215 --> 55:53.519 going down more than my 401k around the midterms, which everybody go out and vote. 55:53.775 --> 55:56.841 Anyway, Keek, let's go over to you real quick. Alontae Taylor, thoughts on him 55:57.341 --> 56:00.371 potentially coming to Chicago? Yeah, I'm right on with Swift as well. I think if 56:00.871 --> 56:03.629 you're gonna bring in Alontae Taylor, you got to give a player up like Jaylen 56:03.741 --> 56:06.357 Johnson because of the fact of his big contract— 3 years, 56:06.469 --> 56:09.919 $60 million, $20 million annually. It just wouldn't work in our cap 56:10.419 --> 56:12.970 space right now. But But in terms of scheme fit and familiarity with, 56:13.470 --> 56:16.790 uh, D.A., he had some of

his best years in, in that stretch from 2022 56:17.290 --> 56:20.210 to 2024, um, with the Saints. I guess my only concern is because I was 56:20.710 --> 56:22.730 actually kind of reading on it a little bit about Alontae Taylor, and I know 56:23.230 --> 56:25.670 the Bears were interested in him last year as well at the trade deadline. 56:25.810 --> 56:29.310 The problem is that D.A. also primarily played him in New Orleans as 56:29.810 --> 56:33.130 a nickel. I know he's kind of been struggling on the outside, um, so that, 56:33.630 --> 56:36.090 that would be really intriguing to me to see like if they would move him 56:36.590 --> 56:39.610 outside or how they would kind of navigate that because we all know that Kyler 56:40.110 --> 56:43.603 is our nickel. Um, so that would be my only question 56:43.715 --> 56:46.526 on how they would use him if they were able to get Taylor here to 56:47.026 --> 56:50.669 Chicago. Sure. Oh yeah, no, I mean, like, he definitely is more of a blitzing 56:50.701 --> 56:54.171 defensive back. That's why you have quarterback hit sacks and all those type of stats. 56:54.235 --> 56:57.688 But his coverage game isn't terrible. I think that it would be better than what 56:58.188 --> 57:01.671 we have right now, and it would allow Malik Muhammad and maybe even 57:01.719 --> 57:05.300 some other changes too. I, I do want to say this. I saw some people 57:05.316 --> 57:08.703 talk about Budda Baker And that contract is just not worth it. 57:08.832 --> 57:12.153 And with Kobe Bryant too, I just kind of want to shut that one down. 57:12.202 --> 57:14.641 Do you guys have any thoughts on maybe— do you guys think differently? Are you 57:15.141 --> 57:18.765 guys same page? Not those 2, but I do think you could maybe bring 57:18.861 --> 57:23.001 in a safety because I'm not, I'm not sure that Kobe Bryant's 57:23.113 --> 57:26.018 going to be healthy that soon. A lot of people are like, he's going to 57:26.518 --> 57:29.997 be ready in December. It's like Ben Johnson was just asked about it 57:30.414 --> 57:33.736 and he didn't even say for sure that Kobe's going to be back this 57:33.945 --> 57:37.974 year. I know he's walking, but look, Ozzy Trepillo 57:38.474 --> 57:42.871 was walking without a knee brace in April. We're 7 months 57:43.371 --> 57:46.964 past that and he's still not fully game ready. 57:47.430 --> 57:50.978 So I don't want to rush Kobe Bryant back. I think 57:51.478 --> 57:55.393 this defense would be even better and different with Kobe Bryant out there, but the 57:55.893 --> 57:58.732 Bears know more about it. And if they don't think Kobe's going to be ready 57:59.310 --> 58:02.907 before the regular season, Because you don't want him coming out there getting 58:02.923 --> 58:06.313 his first action in a playoff game where it's lose or 58:06.813 --> 58:09.928 go home and he can cost you the season. That's the last thing I want 58:10.428 --> 58:14.538 to hear is fans bashing Kobe Bryant all year. So the names

you mentioned, 58:14.651 --> 58:18.298 no, but maybe a guy like Amani Hooker on the Titans or 58:18.587 --> 58:22.314 Jesse Bates, who is a stud, but I also believe he's 58:22.814 --> 58:26.170 in the last year of his contract with the Falcons. Good rental if 58:26.218 --> 58:29.844 you can get a rental at safety. To come in and fill that void 58:30.344 --> 58:33.641 until Kobe gets back. And even if it's someone who can play 58:33.690 --> 58:37.551 with Kobe, because we know DA is not afraid to use 3 58:38.051 --> 58:41.493 safeties. We haven't really had 3 quality safeties since he's been here, 58:42.022 --> 58:46.075 but DA is capable of doing that. He's ran a lot of 3-safety 58:46.091 --> 58:49.633 looks in the past. So depending on who it is, I'm not against 58:50.133 --> 58:52.757 it. All right, this is a bit— this is a million-dollar question because, you know, 58:52.901 --> 58:57.030 Twitter and a lot of folks went up in flames about this one. CJ Gardner-Johnson 58:57.530 --> 59:01.050 just became a free agent. And you know what, Swifty, I saw that look, 59:01.550 --> 59:03.870 but let me, let me talk to you real quick. Let me, let's hear it. 59:04.370 --> 59:07.610 Let me paint a picture for you, a beautiful picture, okay? Like CJ 59:08.110 --> 59:11.310 Gardner-Johnson— yeah, I'm not gonna do my Trump impression, I promise. 59:11.810 --> 59:14.130 I'm not gonna do it tonight. I'm not gonna do it tonight. But Woodmutter might 59:14.630 --> 59:18.590 go through, okay? Let's do it, bro. Don't do it. It's very ugly 59:19.090 --> 59:22.870 and nasty. Okay, here we go. So CJ Gardner-Johnson— you 59:23.370 --> 59:27.191 guys have to laugh at that. Okay, so anyway, CJ Gardner-Johnson was 59:27.303 --> 59:30.732 released by the Bills after even serving his 1-game 59:31.232 --> 59:34.834 suspension. So he's good to go. All good. CJ Garner-Johnson 59:35.334 --> 59:38.776 this year with the Buffalo Bills has 26 tackles, 2 pass deflections, 59:38.824 --> 59:42.254 an interception. All right. Not great stats. In 10 59:42.350 --> 59:46.148 games last year with the Chicago Bears in the regular 59:46.648 --> 59:50.442 season, he had 51 total tackles, 5 tackles for loss, 5 quarterback 59:50.942 --> 59:54.356 hits, 4 pass deflections, 3 sacks, and 2 interceptions 59:55.015 --> 59:58.533 as a safety/nickel. Now, you would— this is 59:58.645 --> 01:00:01.906 kind of where it can break down. Cam Lewis, who's been playing really 01:00:01.938 --> 01:00:05.054 good ball, has to play that safety position because we got rid of Xavier 01:00:05.554 --> 01:00:09.134 Woods and Elijah Hicks doesn't have that starting or doesn't have that starting style that 01:00:09.199 --> 01:00:12.781 Dennis Allen's looking for. You can move Cam Lewis over to the cornerback 01:00:13.281 --> 01:00:16.845 position for Tyreek Stevenson or Jaylen Johnson. CJ Gardner-Johnson, 01:00:16.957 --> 01:00:20.459 who knows this defense, knows this locker room, can come in and play safety. 01:00:20.796 --> 01:00:23.907 While Kobe Bryant's out. And like you said, 01:00:25.206 --> 01:00:29.039 um, it's just overall very, very— there's a lot of 01:00:29.857 --> 01:00:33.305 possibilities there because he knows the scheme. So Swifty, I painted 01:00:33.805 --> 01:00:37.330 you that picture, but I want to start with Keek real quick. Keek, thoughts on 01:00:37.830 --> 01:00:41.468 CJ Garner-Johnson coming back potentially? No capital, 01:00:41.645 --> 01:00:45.317 nothing. What are your thoughts? I don't actually hate the move. 01:00:45.493 --> 01:00:48.637 I think with CJ Garner-Johnson, he's just sometimes a knucklehead. I'm just gonna 01:00:49.137 --> 01:00:52.534 put it softly. Sometimes he just does stuff that can kill his team. 01:00:53.191 --> 01:00:56.495 It comes maybe from passion as well. But I do, I do feel like he 01:00:56.995 --> 01:00:58.900 played really well last year. You kind of make the same argument when you're talking 01:00:59.400 --> 01:01:02.525 about, uh, Nashon Wright, right? It's a different defense, right? We have different safeties, 01:01:02.589 --> 01:01:06.005 we have different linebackers, we now have Jeffrey Simmons. So maybe that would, 01:01:06.037 --> 01:01:09.549 would help his production as well here in Chicago. So I think, I think 01:01:10.049 --> 01:01:12.596 if the money is right, um, and I think if he wants to come back 01:01:12.612 --> 01:01:15.980 to Chicago now that they're officially Super Bowl contenders, which I believe he would have 01:01:16.480 --> 01:01:19.667 some interest I, I wouldn't hate the move. Is it, is it my top 01:01:19.731 --> 01:01:23.242 option right now? Absolutely not. But I don't think it's the worst option 01:01:23.742 --> 01:01:26.625 you can think of as well when you're looking at options out there. So just 01:01:27.125 --> 01:01:30.104 to answer your question, this year the Bears would only owe him $2.3 million more. 01:01:30.408 --> 01:01:33.663 Next year they would only owe him $1 million. He was cut, so his 01:01:33.695 --> 01:01:37.222 contract is, is ripped up, so you could sign him to a veteran minimum. 01:01:37.526 --> 01:01:40.460 Sorry, excuse me, that is dead cap. You are correct. 01:01:40.668 --> 01:01:44.419 Yeah, you are correct. Hands up. Hand up on me. Yeah, since he's cut, 01:01:44.499 --> 01:01:48.457 you could sign him for less than a million dollars for the rest 01:01:48.957 --> 01:01:52.046 of the year. So I don't mind it if we're going into what we were 01:01:52.546 --> 01:01:55.460 just talking about, to bring him in for safety depth, 01:01:55.956 --> 01:01:59.225 especially if, if you're not sure Kobe's going to be ready. 01:01:59.738 --> 01:02:02.638 I don't know about Cam Lewis playing outside corner. 01:02:03.103 --> 01:02:06.404 I don't think I've seen any tape of him doing that. He's decent in the 01:02:06.904 --> 01:02:10.638 nickel, and I think he's a good safety. But I, I think Gardner— CJ 01:02:11.138 --> 01:02:14.795 Gardner-Johnson,

if you can bring him in as your 3rd safety and have 01:02:15.295 --> 01:02:18.566 him as an emergency in case Thenaman or Cam Lewis get 01:02:19.066 --> 01:02:22.210 hurt, I'm fine with it. Okay, all right. 01:02:22.258 --> 01:02:26.013 So the other thing too I do want to hit on real quick is, 01:02:26.350 --> 01:02:30.443 Keek, you were saying it— you're over here— you were saying it in 01:02:30.943 --> 01:02:33.878 regards to him being a little bit of a knucklehead. I felt like he was 01:02:33.990 --> 01:02:38.224 most well-behaved with the Bears. I don't remember any knucklehead moments 01:02:38.724 --> 01:02:41.030 last year. Dennis Allen and Ben Johnson looked at him and said, okay, 01:02:41.351 --> 01:02:45.136 we're gonna give you an opportunity. One mess up, you're gone. 01:02:45.601 --> 01:02:48.952 That, that had to be the conversation. Keek, does that change 01:02:48.968 --> 01:02:52.127 your mindset a little bit on it? Do you agree, disagree? Yeah, yeah, 01:02:52.176 --> 01:02:54.918 yeah, I'm totally fine with it coming back, right? I think you have leaders in 01:02:55.418 --> 01:02:58.061 this locker room now, Jeffrey Simmons, that can, you know, put him in his place 01:02:58.561 --> 01:03:00.530 if he gets out of line. I don't think he's gonna, you know, try to 01:03:00.611 --> 01:03:03.116 go after Jeffrey Simmons. I think that'd be the wrong move there. 01:03:03.534 --> 01:03:06.989 Don't mess with Big Jeff. Yeah, and you have to understand that he also has 01:03:07.358 --> 01:03:10.218 a Super Bowl background, right? He's, he's been a part of Super Bowl champion teams, 01:03:10.331 --> 01:03:14.261 right? So I think it would be a good move in terms of making 01:03:14.294 --> 01:03:18.032 a push for the big dance. But Swift makes a, a great 01:03:18.096 --> 01:03:22.167 point. You only make a move if you're 100% sure that Kobe Bryant 01:03:22.184 --> 01:03:25.625 is not returning this season. Yeah, because I don't want him 01:03:26.125 --> 01:03:29.742 at nickel. He got cooked Like KO said, man, he got straight 01:03:29.822 --> 01:03:33.275 toasted at nickel. So I'd rather have— we got Kyler 01:03:33.775 --> 01:03:37.693 Gordon, we got Malik Muhammad, Clark Phillips, and Cam Lewis— 01:03:38.193 --> 01:03:41.869 4 guys who could play nickel. So the only reason I'm even thinking about CJ 01:03:42.369 --> 01:03:45.628 Gardner-Johnson is at safety, where he's a little bit better and 01:03:46.128 --> 01:03:49.467 he doesn't have to guard guys one-on-one. I'd look at him at safety 01:03:49.499 --> 01:03:52.679 for sure, especially if you don't want to rush Kobe back. 01:03:53.016 --> 01:03:56.465 And we're just unsure where he is right now. But yeah, I wouldn't be 01:03:56.965 --> 01:04:00.974 against it. All right. All right. Well, we got all— we got way 01:04:01.474 --> 01:04:05.321 more news coming next week. In fact, Monday night when we're back 01:04:05.369 --> 01:04:08.995 on our regular scheduled programming, we'll be back right 01:04:09.495 --> 01:04:12.781 before the trade deadline. We'll be back after Sunday Night Football. We'll have a ton 01:04:13.281 --> 01:04:17.594 to talk about that. But we also will be back this Friday for preview 01:04:17.803 --> 01:04:20.868 of Bears versus Bucs. But guys, before we close out, 01:04:20.948 --> 01:04:24.575 Keek, anything you want to say before we close out today's show? No, just enjoy 01:04:24.639 --> 01:04:27.785 the moment, you know, just enjoy being a Bears fan right now. I, I will 01:04:28.285 --> 01:04:31.958 say that we deserve this. My Wood Meter is at a 3 times 12 right 01:04:32.022 --> 01:04:34.782 now. I don't, I don't even know. I don't, I don't, I'm not good at 01:04:35.282 --> 01:04:38.506 math. I think that's— you can't do math right now. I think it's 36 01:04:39.006 --> 01:04:41.138 woods. And I do want to make a big announcement that I will be in 01:04:41.170 --> 01:04:44.990 Chi-Town this weekend for the Bears versus Bucs matchup, so I'm definitely looking 01:04:45.490 --> 01:04:48.890 forward to it. Yes. All right. All right. Well, we'll try to get together, 01:04:49.390 --> 01:04:52.950 Keek. I know I get back from Atlanta from a wedding at like noon on 01:04:53.450 --> 01:04:56.810 Saturday, so I'll keep you in mind when it comes to that. So can't wait 01:04:57.310 --> 01:05:00.230 to see you in Chicago. Swift, anything you want to say to the folks before 01:05:00.730 --> 01:05:04.570 we close out? Special time to be a Bears fan, guys. Hit that like button. 01:05:04.750 --> 01:05:08.030 Join the ride with us. It's going to be fun. This team is special. 01:05:08.290 --> 01:05:11.750 Bear down, man. Keep that wood up. And thank you guys for tuning in to 01:05:12.250 --> 01:05:15.090 this episode of Bears Roundtable presented by Roundtable Sports. My name is Nick Rodi along 01:05:15.590 --> 01:05:19.005 with Keek. And Swift. We'll see you guys soon, 01:05:19.038 --> 01:05:21.773 and as always, we want to hear it loud and proud. Bear down,