I understand it, but he does seem to have this superstar dazzling quality that not many quarterbacks in the Is that perception fair to say, or do we need to dig a little deeper here?

I think it's fair to say, and it's like the same thing.

The national perception is different depending on who you ask.

You know, if we were doing this three, four years ago, I would say the national perspective is like what we heard.

Like people aren't high on him because of the off the field stuff, the pain in the nails, the crying in the stands, kind of just how he carries himself.

That's the area of what we're in now with NIL and football players, social media.

It's so much different now.

Firstly, who is one or two Bears players that the casual Panthers fan might not be aware of that you think can make and probably will make a significant impact on Sunday?

Yeah.

Um, the next step i- is simple.

Take the easy throws and, and complete them.

And quarterbacks coach JT Barrett told us in the off-season they want to focus on the easy money throws.

And, you know, they set the 70% completion percentage last year.

They'll set it again this year for him to achieve.

It's very tough to achieve in the NFL.

Mm.

Yeah.

Um, the next step i- is simple.

Take the easy throws and, and complete them.

And quarterbacks coach JT Barrett told us in the off-season they want to focus on the easy money throws.

And, you know, they set the 70% completion percentage last year.

They'll set it again this year for him to achieve.

It's very tough to achieve in the NFL.

Mm.

I'm not saying he needs to be the Grady Jarrett of old, but he really needs to be a more of a consistent force that at least is drawing some double teams and, and doing more than he did last season.

Yeah, I mean, that run defense as a whole was, was not very good last year.

[laughs] And, you know, the, the Jarrett signing to me, it was fine at the time.

Um, and again, though, like, bothered by injuries, Father Time always wins too.

It catches up to you.

Um, so I think it was just a little bit of that.

Like, you'd constantly see him in the locker room, you know, not getting treatment, but, you know, you could tell he was probably playing through something tough and, and it w- it just was taking a toll on him.

But is he gonna be on the field? And Zach, beyond that, Ben Johnson's comments, you sit there and go, "I don't know what kind of..." If, if Kyler Gordon has another season like he did last year, I just don't know what kind of job security he has.

So who's on your shortlist for players you're watching in the secondary?

Yeah, number one is, is definitely Stevenson.

Um, you know, number two i- is probably the rookie Dylan Thieneman, uh, just 'cause I wanna see how that works with Kobe Bryant.

I think Kobe Bryant will be fine.

You know, it's, it's a new team but he's, he's got the pedigree.

Um, I think number three is Jalen Johnson and, like, staying healthy and being the guy that we saw prior to his injury.

'Cause, you know, if we did this last year at this time, we, we would've thought going into camp, "Okay, they got Jalen Johnson, they're healthy," and then we get to camp and he's not healthy, and it just kind of goes downhill from there.

So for you, what are you looking at in terms of that?

night or monday night game whatever it was and it was just this the dinkiest dunkiest like just uninspired offense you you've ever seen and every time someone looking at advanced statistics comes out with something about an offense you know ben johnson has the highest pass rate on second downs and the most explosive rates here and and and all these things of what bears fans have just been desperate for for years about just having a a modern day offense that's willing to take chances and try and get explosive plays and ben johnson truly lived up to the hype in that regard in every single department

yeah he um I'll say this in a good way.

He is a psycho in a very good way.

He's very stern.

We saw that with the press conference with the phone going off.

He's direct.

He's going to try and answer every question as best as possible.

Is this just Braxton Jones' job and we'll see who kind of the backup left tackle is or is there a competition over at the left tackle position?

Mm.

Um, but he doesn't need to have that.

He just needs to be able to play, you know, roughly what, 25, 30, 35% of the snaps and, you know, do his job when he's called upon.

But I, I do think, you know, we'll see more of that 13 personnel from the Bears, jump up, that number jump up this o- uh, this regular season.

And I, I'm kind of excited to see what Ben Johnson will do with it, 'cause I feel like he's got that first year under his belt, kind of got, you know, the lay of the land a little bit.

Now it's time to extend out of these formations and then see what else you can do with some of these formations.

'Cause, um, you know, going back last year and watching some of the 13 personnel tape, I mean, some of their best plays came out of that formation.

So what, what jumped out to you when you looked at the Bears schedule, and is it really as daunting as it sounds on paper when you consider some of the turnover this year, and free agency, and, and some of the rookies that have come in?

So number one, the Bears' best off-scene addition, off-season addition is whom?

I like the linebacker Devin Bush, um, from Cleveland.

You know, a former first-round pick out of Michigan.

And it goes with the theme that we heard Ryan Poles say, we've heard, you know, Ben Johnson and, and, uh, Dennis Allen say, speed.

Like, looking back last year, you know, Tremaine Edmunds had, had a heck of a season last year.

Um, got hurt, but how many times did we see Detroit line up Amon-Ra St.

Brown or, or Jameer Gibbs on him, or Green Bay kind of expose that, Minnesota expose that? Um, so yeah, I think getting faster at the linebacker position w- was really important.

So they have a plan in place, and I like that they adapted so quickly after Drew Dalman's retirement, and they did really well with this.