[laughs]

... 'cause I said, we're gonna be...

Bill and I have been, been leading the charge.

Listen, now's the opportunity.

Now's the opportunity when you have these guys.

If y- if you go into to Lambeau and you come out of there four and one with, you know, putting your foot on their neck and not only, you know, pushing it down, but hearing the bone break- ...

in their neck, that's what you wanna do.

So I guess I'm gonna take that as a win, but what have you seen, Phil?

Yeah.

Dennis Allen is doing that.

Ben Johnson is doing that.

Caleb Williams is doing that.

It's all about accountability, and if you're not trying to improve, you're not getting better.

So listen, we, at the end of the day, if you strip away all these intricate layers of being a Chicago Bears fan, our core is we live and die with this team.

So of course we want positivity and w- we're gonna love when they win.

Yeah

But are they a pushover? Uh, not by any stretch of the imagination, and Caleb Williams did a lot of things yesterday- That we know what he can do, and a lot of things that we've seen massive improvement on just in one week from last year.

Yeah, I think we just need to make a checklist of all the negative things that were said about Caleb, all the things that, you know, people...

There was a point in time where people said this kid could not play under center because it didn't happen at USC, which it did, and we showed you at TTNL that it did, and we took our patrons behind the curtain and showed them that he can play under center.

Did he play under center a lot? No.

But listen, this kid is that special.

I...

Would I ever go up to Caleb Williams and say, "Oh, he can't do this"? No, because he would feed off of that.

Go ahead, Shane.

... you're looking at a guy like Loving or, or some of these other back end decisions, where's your mind space on some of those tough decisions that have to be made?

Mine's gonna be a lot different probably than what Ryan Poles is, for sure, because I am not under any circumstance moving off of a young defensive lineman to open him up to waivers for a guy that I made a mistake and overpaid for.

You know what I mean? I just...

The, the Bears defense, I- what are they, third or fourth overall in the NFL i- in money, money paid? And you, like you said, you bring up Vandenberg, you bring up Loving, some guys with some upside.

And listen, they, they thought enough of Vandenberg to, to draft or to trade two picks for him.

They thought enough of Loving to give him, you know, one of the highest amounts of a UDFA guy.

And the Bears are barren on def- on the defensive line.

... that one of them where-

... help.

You know, just going back and watching the game and, and, uh, peeking at the tape and, and looking at, you know, everybody knows who motivated Dayo is at this point, and if that's motivated Dayo, we're, we're in trouble, you know, 'cause he had some, he had some reps where, quite honestly, to me, he looked disinterested.

So you bring in another veteran here that's gonna, you know, maybe come in and who knows, maybe the light finally goes off for Marcus Davenport and like I said, they add another body.

I've never looked at Austin Booker as being a guy that can come in and just take over.

I look at h- I think he's a better player overall, but I look at the situation much like when Mark Anderson came in as a rookie and, and Lovey tried to replace Alex Brown the next year and put too much on Mark Anderson's plate.

I look at that a little bit with Austin Booker here, too, and I mean Mar- that's something that Marcus Davenport can, that he can contribute to, you know, helping out with that.

But Greg, I talked about it before, I just, I have a, a sneaky suspicion maybe nothing will get done.

What was your thoughts when you saw that?

Now can he take that physical prowess and, and elevate to a level that is of NFL standard?

Yeah, I just think the, I think the hype with Dylan Thieneman during the draft, I mean, there was a point right, you know, like a week or 10 days pre-draft where people had him creeping up towards the top 10, which, um, you remember talking to Phil, I'm like, "What is going, what is going on here?" I mean, this, this ain't Sean Taylor.

You know what I mean? Uh, a, a top-flight safety prospect like that.

But I mean, on tape, Phil can speak to it better than anybody.

Some of his angles that he took, you know, is, can, can he run with the best of them? Exactly.

But is he a, is he a, a, an elite level tackler? No, he's not.

I just, I think Bears fans fall into a trap of, of much like when Kevin White was brought here, like, "All right, we got wide receiver covered for the next 10 years." It doesn't work that way.

He wants everything to be perfect, so I think he's cut from the cloth that Ben wants, but as you guys said, a long way to go to elevate to, you know, being what I think a lot of Bears fans are hoping and expecting out of a first round pick safety.

Yeah.

Kiran Amegadzie has had his issues staying healthy, but there's, there is talent there, and Phil can speak on that too, but Braxton knows you miss a day, you miss two days, three days, four days, however it, it adds up for him, that puts him behind the, the eight ball even more.

And he knows that there's pieces there that can step up and that are talented enough to keep him off the field, no matter if he's healthy or not.

I think it's what he'd prefer.

I think the biggest thing that people need to take away, I mean, I know there's, there's geniuses in the chat that think that they know football and don't, but it's not about injuries with Braxton Jones.

That was last year.

This is year five for Braxton.

When he came out in the draft, guess what Braxton's number one issue was? Was anchoring.

[laughs]

And here we are with Ben and [laughs] you know, it's a, a, a guy that's bought in.

And it's, it's what we've preached at TTNL for years, and Phil has led the charge with you need somebody that's maniacal.

It matters.

Every single rep matters.

And y- y- listen, you can throttle back and, uh, give some guys, you know, a little bit easier of a practice, but this is a long season.

This division is not a pushover.

Now can he take that physical prowess and, and elevate to a level that is of NFL standard?

... hanging on by a thread.

And, you know, you and I were, were chatting about it.

So over Cairo's career, just from 50, he's 33 out of 50, and that's, to put that into context, you go to, to Robbie Gold's career, who's...

Robbie Gold's been in the league since 2005.

Uh, Cairo's been in the league since 2014.

He came in with Kansas City.

So Cairo has three less 50 yard field goal makes than Robbie Gold did in his career.

I think he certainly is somebody who we don't know who he is yet, but he needs to fill that role to be a key glue guy here on this team in 2026.

Right.

And this isn't saying that Jared Goff is a, a bad football player.

He's not.

He's, he's exceeded a lot of people's expectations, and that's fine.

But why is Caleb being set up on this perch by the media in terms of completion percentage and saying that he, he's gotta be there through year two after the disaster of year one with that coaching staff? It- none of it makes sense.

It's, like I said, I know I'm, I was freezing up there in my, in the, when I was talking there initially, but practice is...

You can go back and watch 1920 football drive.

Right

[laughs]

... working out together, 'cause I mean, that'll be a, that'll be a problem.

But yeah, no, it's... listen, if y- if you wanna take a step with your defense and, you know, only in Chicago do you build your defense through the secondary, unfortunately.

But part of it is you gotta have these guys healthy and, and Jaylon's a big part of, of what they wanna do.

And, you know, Greg, w- we're not stupid.

When we go back and watch it, and you watch Kyler Gordon in the playoffs, and you watch Jaylon Johnson in the playoffs, they were a shell of what we've-

A-

Uh, and nor should he, Greg, nor should he.

Is that a positive sign, or am I reaching because we really need him to work out this season?

It's, it's never a negative for him to be, you know, speaking with confidence and, and being positive.

I understand that.

I happen to think that's more so because he's healthy.

Um, we'll see how Braxton Jones is when he gets out in camp with the pads on when it's live, because Braxton Jones' issue on the football field in 2026 is the same exact issue that Braxton Jones had when he came into the league, and he has thin pins.

And what that means is he's got...

He's, he's thin in the legs and in the calves, and that is a Braxton Jones issue, and I don't think you change that.

And so to me, if Braxton Jones can stay healthy and, and meet that level of serviceable that everyone has always kind of sold him as, that's maybe a different level of serviceable with this coaching staff than maybe what we saw in years past.

Is that a positive sign, or am I reaching because we really need him to work out this season?

It's, it's never a negative for him to be, you know, speaking with confidence and, and being positive.

I understand that.

I happen to think that's more so because he's healthy.

Um, we'll see how Braxton Jones is when he gets out in camp with the pads on when it's live.

Because Braxton Jones' issue on the football field in 2026 is the same exact issue that Braxton Jones had when he came into the league, and he has thin pins.

And what that means is he's got...

Right.

It's mandatory and, you know, I'm just curious from your perspective, obviously you're not gonna have, you know, too many roster deciding things happening over the next three days, but what are you, what do you most wanna see or hear over the next three days as, as they go through these practices and what you hear from these players?

Uh, really I, I wanna hear that, uh, Jalen Johnson is ready to go and locked in and healthy, and I wanna hear the same thing for Kyler Gordon, because it's...

My confidence level with both of those guys is very, very low, and even more so with, with Kyler Gordon who, when he plays and is on the field, you know, obviously he was, what would you say, 60% in the, you know, at the end of the year when he came back last year? But these, these continued injuries over and over and over again, it's just hard to, uh, it, it, it's hard to have any faith that these guys are gonna be here when the rubber meets the road when you need them the most, and that's kinda what I wanna, that's kinda what I wanna see.

Beyond that, l- listen, you're not gonna, you're not gonna be able to tell anything from your offensive line.

You're not gonna be able to tell anything from your, your pass rush.

At this point last year, all we were hearing about was Dominique Robinson's having the best camp of his life.

Well, now maybe he has that opportunity in Houston, you know, for a team that needs defensive lineman.

And so it's a lot of pressure on those guys, especially when you consider the pass rush issues that this team still continues to have.

So what was your biggest takeaway from, uh, seeing that schedule put out there?

When, when the schedule drops, I immediately go to the last four games.

That's what I do to see, you know, kind of where, you know, what direction the, the league is thinking.

And once again, I think that they, they're looking at it like this is gonna come down to these divisional games, and closing it out, you know, much like the Bears did last year.

And you know, I think Phil brought up a great point with these prime time games, and I think it's important, and I understand the thought process of saying that players are sitting around.

I just, I, I look at the Bears a little bit different because they're, it's, it's Caleb Williams, it's Luther Burden, it's Rome Odunze.

It's these young guys, and they're different.

It, it's, it's a hard sell, man.

So I still have some trust issues in terms of how they're identifying the, the talent they need to get to the quarterback and stop the run.

I think, I don't wanna say that I cracked the code on this, but I think knowing Ben, as maniacal as he is, I'm gonna say these two things.

I'm gonna give Ben all the trust in the world on his offensive play calls, his offensive selections.

He hasn't earned the benefit of the doubt for defensive selections to this point.

So I think it's more than healthy to question if he's involved in those picks on defense and just, or if he's just defaulting to DA or whomever, because there's issues there.

But knowing Ben, the head coach, and a- as maniacal as he is, what makes sense to me is DA pounded the table for Dió last year, DA pounded the table for Grady Jarrett, DA pounded the table for Ruben Hippolyte, his defensive picks.

We've heard Ben say, "Our coaching has to be better.

No.

How you guys doing today here, fellas?

We're good.

Doing good now that we can talk, didn't get put to the background, and-

Just beautiful...

Millions of finds, each with a story.

eBay, things people love.

This is the tough time of year for the Bears coaching staff because you wanna keep as many guys as you have because they did such a fantastic job.

100%, and what you have to do, you just have to, you have to just pump the brakes a little bit and realize how all of this works, and you have to realize if you back up to last year, at this time it was around, what, the 20th or 25th when we signed Ben Johnson to be our, you know, new head coach.

Ben Johnson didn't get all of the guys that he initially wanted on his staff.

That's just the way that the NFL cycle works, you know.

Guys get hired before Ben was the head coach, or they don't become available.

And now there's guys that are gonna be available that Ben was very likely connected to last year, and that's...

I think you'll see some turnover.

And, and as you said, Shane, while that's good for stability, Ben is gonna be looking in the mirror on how he was scripting that run game here in the second half of the season.

They're going to be a lot tougher to beat here, moving forward.

1 0% and what it all starts with.

It starts with the two most important people that we've been banging the drum for, for decades as bears fans, you got to bring in the correct leader, at head coach and you got to find a quarterback.

And after those two, everything else seems to fall in place.

And that's where we are.

But, and I know this is kind of off topic a little bit, but I've, I've maintained this the entire time and I'm a huge believer in Ben Johnson, but I think Ben's going to have his coming to Jesus moment when he gets to the off season and he's going back through this season, he's going to see a shift in this Chicago bears football team that I've maintained since Thanksgiving.

the Chicago bears went on the road in Philadelphia and they out physical, the bullies in Philadelphia, like we haven't seen in a long, long time.

bounced out

shane

answer this well i would my initial reaction is no but Ben is a 4D chess guy.

I think he does crazy things like that.

You know what I mean? I don't think it's out of the ordinary.

I mean, Phil, do you think that...

They played a lot of man.

That's... throughout the game where it just, it just didn't make sense.

And the Rams have only played in four games in their franchise history where the temperature was under 20 and it and so they've never played in a game that would be as cold as this one potentially so i i know that's going to be a big talking factor but where's your mind space at on this game

You were saying Shane about Tyree.

He's one of your most, he's one of your most physical football players on your entire team.

Zero snaps yesterday.

That's a problem.

And is as fun as the nation, right? Story is, Oh, he's been awful.

He was terrible yesterday.

Speaker 0 7th, just as bad as Jalen Johnson.

It felt like, so I'll let you get the final words on Caleb Williams, Ben Johnson, the Chicago bears, and one of the biggest games of our lives coming up on Saturday.