Dillon Thieneman is a Chicago Bear - was it the best use of the first-round pick?

Summary

Dan Bernstein Unfiltered – "Dillon Thieneman is a Chicago Bear: Was it the Best Use of the First-Round Pick?"

Date: April 24, 2026
Host: Dan Bernstein (with executive producer/co-host Matt Abbatacola)
Podcast: 312 Sports

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Overview

In this episode, Dan Bernstein and co-host Matt Abbatacola react to the Chicago Bears selecting Purdue safety Dillon Thieneman with the 25th overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. The show offers an unfiltered breakdown on whether drafting Thieneman was the right move, explores the nuances of positional value, addresses fan reactions, and places the pick in the context of broader Bears history and NFL draft philosophy. The hosts also tackle NFL draft spectacle culture, media ethics, topical controversies, and wrap up with a deep dive into the best Bears draft picks of the “Dan Bernstein era” (since 1969).

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Bears Select Dillon Thieneman – Initial Reaction

• Bernstein’s Take: The pick is solid but unspectacular, and “not my ideal use of a first-round pick on a safety” (03:59).
• Emphasizes how Bears fans’ attitudes have shifted (“fanboys are out” and optimistic) due to excitement around Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams.
• Reminds listeners that expectations and hit rates are different for late first-round picks compared to top-10 selections.

“It used to be that everybody presumed the Bears first-round pick sucked no matter who it was… It’s so different now… you can’t even say that Dillon Thieneman is probably good. I thought I was being very nice!”
— Dan Bernstein (03:09)

• Bernstein contrasts his own preference for team-building (“pass rush first”) versus building from the secondary:

“I like my defenses built with pass rush first… but all that said, [Thieneman is] a perfectly reasonable 25th overall pick.”
— Dan Bernstein (04:50)

• Points out the dilemma with drafting a safety so high when Jaquan Brisker (previous draft investment) is gone (“You were supposed to have one of your safeties locked down…”).

2. Thieneman’s Fit and Draft Philosophy

• Both hosts acknowledge Thieneman’s versatility and speed – key traits for the Bears’ defense.
• Thieneman can play nickel, strong, or free safety spots, offering valuable flexibility.
• The Bears philosophy (“best available vs. need”) is debated, with the conclusion that the team stuck to their board:

“When it came down to it, to pick at 25, he was the best guy on their board at that moment… And they took the best guy available who also happens to fill a need, just not one of their two greatest needs.”
— Co-host (07:58)

• Dan’s Philosophical Stance:
  • “I like to build my defense front to back rather than back to front.” (08:31)
  • “Make the secondary’s job easier by having large, fast, angry men harass the quarterback… That’s my choice.” (08:45)

3. On Fan Reaction and the Modern NFL Draft

• Bernstein notes surprise at the intensity of fan positivity: “I’m not used to the fanboying… How dare you say the Bears pick sucks? That’s awesome.” (08:45)
• Both hosts urge fans to keep perspective and “relax a little bit” about the stakes of the pick:

“If you’re bothered by the fact that we have a little fun with the pick last night… just relax a little bit and… touch grass.”
— Co-host (09:59)

4. Media Critique: NFL Draft Coverage & League Culture

• Extended segment skewering the NFL Draft as a made-for-TV spectacle, including awkward interview moments and performative rituals (e.g., player hugs with the Commissioner):

“Can we stop hugging the commissioner? ...It’s getting creepy because it’s not genuine. They don’t like you that much. You don’t need to hug the guy… He’s not your son.”
— Co-host (14:15)

• ESPN’s Laura Rutledge’s job covering draft night is described as “the worst assignment of the night… She has to know every possibility.” (11:08)
• Bernstein connects fans’ frustration with the "league’s brand of ethics" and hypocrisy, particularly regarding off-field scandals and the league’s inconsistent standards (15:19–16:26).

5. Evaluating the Bears' Choice and Safety Value

• Bernstein reiterates that while Thieneman is a good, smart, fast player, safety isn’t a premier position:
  • “Safeties are the last line of defense… But you’re not necessarily fearing for your life like you are from the big guys” (17:18).
• If Thieneman replaces Kevin Byard’s role, he’s younger, faster, and cheaper—which is a win from a management perspective (17:59).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Bears fan optimism:

  “Fly that freak flag, Bears fanboy. I’m just trying to be realistic here.”
  — Dan Bernstein (04:13)

• On positional value:

  “Doubling down on that position with your top pick because you let your other guy go… that should be a piece that was a success.”
  — Dan Bernstein (05:30)

• On the spectacle of the draft:

  “This is the craziest night of their lives to this point… They don’t know what to say, their heads are completely spinning.”
  — Dan Bernstein (11:23)

• On exasperation with NFL leadership:

  “If you’re booing the commissioner… maybe because the league is turning a blind eye to the owner of the Giants being best buds with Jeffrey Epstein…”
  — Dan Bernstein (15:19)

• Comic relief:

  “I really like the Philly Fanatic. He’s really cool, and his breath smells really good, and his lips are soft…”
  — Co-host (13:51)

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Segment Timestamps

• [01:31] - Opening & Listener contest for predicting Thieneman pick
• [03:09] - Bears fan culture shift & first reaction to Thieneman selection
• [04:50] - Why safety at #25 isn’t “ideal”
• [05:30] - Positional allocation & the Brisker dilemma
• [07:22] - Thieneman’s versatility & “best available vs. needs” debate
• [08:31] - Dan’s philosophy: build defense “front to back”
• [09:42] - Fan expectation, sports importance (“it’s just football”)
• [11:08] - Behind the scenes of draft coverage, Laura Rutledge segment
• [13:51] - “Philly Fanatic” and commissioner hugging riffs
• [15:19] - Critique of NFL league ethics, ownership scandals
• [17:18] - Practical discussion on safety value
• [17:59] - Thieneman as Byard replacement

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Additional Segments

“Friday Feedback Friday”

• Listener emails on a range of topics, including statistical analysis of Bulls’ and Sox’s irrelevance (“The Reinsdorfs are very unlucky, which is hard to reconcile with them being owners…” — Spencer, 33:25), and digital marketing "psyops" influencing music trends.
• Humorous back-and-forth about “top fictional vampires” and Chicago culture.

Bears Draft History: Best Picks Since 1969

[41:51] - Detailed top-10 list of the best Bears draft picks by value, impact, and winning association.

• Notable entries:
  • #1 — Walter Payton (1975, 1st round, 4th overall): “Best player in Bears history, possibly NFL history.”
  • #2 — Richard Dent (1983, 8th round): Iconic pass rusher, Super Bowl XX MVP.
  • Discussion includes players like Devin Hester, Brian Urlacher, Mike Singletary, and more.

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Tone & Style

• Blunt, irreverent, occasionally sarcastic and self-deprecating; a mix of serious sports commentary and comedic relief.
• Willingness to go off-script and challenge prevailing fan/media narratives.
• Intense focus on keeping things in perspective and not taking sports too seriously.

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Conclusion

This episode exemplifies Dan Bernstein’s trademark “no-filter” approach—thoughtfully analyzing the Bears’ draft process, poking fun at fan overreactions, challenging the exaltation of the NFL spectacle, and putting the Dillon Thieneman pick in both immediate and long-term context. The wide-ranging session transitions smoothly from hard football insights into deeply Chicago-centric humor, broader sports ethics debates, as well as a look back at Bears history, offering both die-hard and casual fans a valuable, unvarnished take.

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For More:

• Forward Progress (for deeper Bears/NFL talk)
• Off The Ivy (Cubs coverage)
• Full podcast archives: 312sports.com

Transcript

[Dan Bernstein]

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[Co-host]

Dan Bernstein Unfiltered Unfiltered on 312Sports DBU

[Dan Bernstein]

on 312 and we are brought to you in partnership with my bookie and by Chicago Window Guys. Russ Armstrong is at 847-302-9171. You can check out all of his five star reviews at ChicagoNowdownGuys.com so draft round one is in the books. What may end up being the more consequential rounds considering where the the bulge of Bears picks happens to be could be in rounds two and three tonight. But I promised that we would find how many of you selected Dylan Thieman as the Chicago Bears first selection? There were six of you and I told you that we were going to give you a $100 gift card to RPM Steak here in Chicago. And we're following through on steak dinner. Boom. We've picked the winner. Congratulations, Nick Shields. Nick Shields was one of six listeners to properly identify Dylan Thienaman as the Chicago Bears first selection and he is the winner of that terrific steak dinner. So congrats. And if you want some stuff as well, we still have the April rewards up there for you. And that's the keyword, the promo code April on any Reward on the 3 1, 2 sports app 312sports.com RPM Steak Il Portulino, RJ Grunts and Wu Tang tickets with Bone Thugs and Harmony. All of that is there for you. So God, the reaction to Thienamon has been wild and the reaction to the reaction has been wild. The Bears fanboys are out. My goodness, how far we've come. And I look at this as a sign of a real sea change in Bears fandom thanks to Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams. And like it used to be that everybody presumed the Bears first round pick sucked no matter who it was that we would get. I hate it. No matter who, no matter what position, wrong position, wrong guy, wrong school, that it was always the default spot. They're wrong, they suck. And even to the point was like, well why do you want them to trade for draft picks? They're only going to screw it up anyway. And it's so different now that even though it's been 15 years since the Bears have made a pick this late and that I think many have forgotten the difference between a high first round pick and a late first round pick as far as hit rate, as far as what the expectations of success should be, it is, it's apparently now you can't even say that Dylan Thienaman is probably good. I thought I was being very nice about somebody coming from college directly into the NFL. And sure we look at all the combine numbers and we know that he can, he can play pro football and I think he's probably good. I also said it's not the my ideal use of a first round pick on a safety. It's just not. I think you can find safeties. I like my defenses built with pass rush first and then you handle everything behind and but all that said, he's a perfectly reasonable 25th overall pick. And of course they say he wasn't supposed to fall this far. Well, everybody says that. I don't care where you pick. Our board had him way higher. Of course I understand that, but it's okay. And if you want to be that excited about it and think this is it now, we're going to win the super bowl, feel free. Live your life. Fly that freak flag. Bears fanboy. I'm just trying to be realistic here. The other thing and I and I noticed there was a thought today posted by a guy potsy who said another thing that makes it less than ideal is you just drafted Jaquan Brisker. You were supposed to have one of your safeties locked down. This was supposed to be that that other pick when you were, you didn't have a first round pick and you had those two second round picks and that was supposed to be, you weren't supposed to be letting that guy go. That ideally when his contract is up, you're like, hey, okay, we made the, we used our second round pick on somebody who can do. But this is not the right fit for the defense that this defensive coordinator wants to run. They need the versatility, they need the speed and they got it. It's fine. But it's not usually something you want to be doing is doubling down on that position with your top pick because you let your other guy go. Usually you want to do that. That should be a piece that was a success. Jaquan Brisker should have been somebody who had earned that commitment for the next phase of his career and you decided that he didn't earn it here and somebody else would pay him the one year deal elsewhere. Okay, that fine. But if this were going better from the previous regime, coaches development, all of it, that would have been a piece on which you relied. And now you bring in a new guy. The good news is if you, if you were listening to forward progress when we had Clay harbor on and I asked him about the teams that do pro stuff defensively because we always hear about teams that do pro stuff offensively and say, well, now you can really project because what they're doing is NFL stuff. And he said if you remember Ohio State and Oregon, that they use disguised coverages, that some of those calls on the back end are NFL type calls and he will have an awareness of both safety positions and where to play. Great, good. And I expect he's going to be good.

[Co-host]

I think he's going to be good. And if someone doesn't feel similar to the way you feel about the pick, that's okay. You don't need to be angry about it. Some people are very excited. Some people like us. Dan, it was just, it's fine. It was a pick. He's a piece of the puzzle. It's like you're making a jigsaw puzzle and he's one of the border pieces. He didn't address what they're. What I thought their two biggest needs were after last season. But he's a good player and he's going to walk in. He's going to start. We heard this going into this offseason. There were two key characteristics they wanted for the defense, versatility and speed. And he matches both of those. That's what he meets. He can play nickel, he can play Strong, he can play free. That's what Ryan Pulls told us last night. So they get a lot of versatility from a guy in one pick. When it came down to it, to pick at 25, he was the best guy on their board at that moment. There were two other guys that were close. We don't know who they were, but he was the best guy they took. And we asked what their philosophy was going to be. Are you going to meet a need or are you going to take the best guy available? And they took the best guy available who also happens to fill a need, just not one of their two greatest needs they have right now.

[Dan Bernstein]

I like to build my defense front to back rather than back to front.

[Co-host]

I agree with that. Yes.

[Dan Bernstein]

That is. That is my. That's just how I feel. If you disagree and you want to go, that's fine. You can do all you want.

[Co-host]

Yes.

[Dan Bernstein]

Your secondary forever in a day. I like to make the secondary's job easier by having large, fast, angry men harass the quarterback and hurt the quarterback and make him miserable and put him in pain. That's my choice. And if it's not yours, all good, man. But this. The. I'm not used to the fanboying. I'm not used to, like. How dare you say the Bears pick sucks? That's awesome. He was high on their board. All right. Okay. We're good. Everything's going to be fine.

[Co-host]

Yeah. He was the highest guy on their board when they picked.

[Dan Bernstein]

It's the 25th pick. This is what I most. 25. Most. Most of those picks aren't that great. If you look at the history of the. Of the number 25 pick, most of them end up. If you get a guy who's good enough and fine, cool. Then everybody, we're all happy.

[Co-host]

There's another point to it, too, Dan, that it's. It's just football. And you. You may be. You may be new to 312Sports. You may be new to us. We don't take things as serious as other areas of life, which are really important and valuable and meaningful. This is just not one of them. So if you're bothered by the fact that we have a little fun with the pick last night. Yeah.

[Dan Bernstein]

Then that's.

[Co-host]

Then maybe this isn't for you, but. Or just relax a little bit and

[Dan Bernstein]

have a little grass. Yeah. Go. Take a.

[Co-host]

Go.

[Dan Bernstein]

Take a go.

[Co-host]

Kick rocks or touch grass. One of the. One of the two.

[Dan Bernstein]

Walk around.

[Co-host]

You know, we'll. We'll talk more about this in forward progress as well. This is our, Our daily Bears podcast, NFL podcast. Because there's. There's some. There's a comment that Ryan pulls made last night that stayed in my brain, and it hasn't gone away yet.

[Dan Bernstein]

And it bothered me last night.

[Co-host]

Yes. Bothered me last night. And we'll. We'll get deeper into this pick on forward progress.

[Dan Bernstein]

And I have some other observations as well, just from last night and from a life lived watching the draft from when it was initially televised. We've seen this thing evolve into this giant, monstrous television experience now. And I will just say if Poor Laura Rutledge, that job sucks.

[Co-host]

That's the worst assignment. That's the worst assignment of the night.

[Dan Bernstein]

Sucks. And it's also because it's hard. Like, that's. She. She has to know every possibility, has to have biographical information ready at her fingertips about everybody ready to go. I, you know, observing the, the group of people, you know, who's the mom, who's the aunt, who's the girlfriend? Who are you with? What does your jacket mean? What. What statements are you making? And then they got to deal with these, these young men who are completely overwhelmed for the most part in the moment, even if they are a lot more polished than they used to be. And they are, because they're pros and they've got media training, but they don't. They don't know what to say. Their heads are completely spinning. This is the craziest night of their lives to this point. And there are just a couple of moments where the guy the Giants drafted, the lineman, was it Francis Maui mauigoa? Yes. And he said, well, what. What would you say to Jackson Darth? And I'm expecting something like, can't wait to work with you. Really looking forward to it. I can't wait to keep. And he's like, I would die for you. And she was like, okay, great. He's like, no, I'm serious. I want to die for him. I will die for him. Now chill out.

[Co-host]

Yeah, it's a tough. I don't know her at all. Don't know anything about her, but give her full license if she wanted to last night just to go buy the biggest bottle of bourbon possible and just drink it in your car, in your driveway when you got home or back to the hotel, whatever it was, man.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, that. She, she. She's in Pittsburgh, like, headed back to the hotel. She's like, hold on a second. And runs in and comes out with, like, a handle, a Cuervo Gold or two.

[Co-host]

Handles. Yes. And just drinking out of both at once.

[Dan Bernstein]

I'll see you guys later.

[Co-host]

Yeah. What a tough job. Like, one of the questions was, how do your. How does your skill set translate to the NFL? And he just stared at her for several seconds. It was uncomfortable. And then he was like, it's a blessing.

[Dan Bernstein]

It's a blessing. I'm really happy to be.

[Co-host]

It wasn't him. Taylor McGregor got the assignments. She was there at his house.

[Dan Bernstein]

I. I didn't see that because I was. Again, I was watching NFL Network.

[Co-host]

Yeah, she was. Yeah, she was there at Mendoza's house. Yeah. So she got to. She got to do the number one pick overall and do the family and. And. And, you know, the Fernando experience.

[Dan Bernstein]

And then did the Philly fanatic show up and assault her?

[Co-host]

Okay. No, he assaulted Fernando.

[Dan Bernstein]

Okay. So he just started humping Fernando instead.

[Co-host]

I really like the Philly fanatic. He's really cool, and he's. His breast smells really good, and his lips are soft, and it's really. It's really fun.

[Dan Bernstein]

And he comes over and kisses me, and then. I really just want to thank everybody for having that happen. And I can't wait to work with Kirk Cousins. Also. Also, look, let's. Let's. Can we stop hugging the commissioner?

[Co-host]

Yes. I've been saying this for years.

[Dan Bernstein]

I know the bits.

[Co-host]

I mean, I've been saying this since.

[Dan Bernstein]

It's getting creepy.

[Co-host]

Score.

[Dan Bernstein]

Still.

[Co-host]

It's getting creepy because it's not real. It's not genuine. It's all phony. That with the hugs, they don't. They don't like you that much. You don't need to hug the guy, give him a handshake. He's not your son. You didn't help him get to this point. You're the commissioner. You work for the owners. One guy you're protecting right now for the Giants as well. Shake their hand, say congratulations, take your picture, and let them enjoy it with the people that actually care about them. Yeah. And not you.

[Dan Bernstein]

And my guess. My guess is he smells like Aqua Velva that you. And you can't quite get it off.

[Co-host]

Get it off of you. Yeah. Or like.

[Dan Bernstein]

Like your collar and your cheek.

[Co-host]

Walgreens brand musk. No, no, no, no.

[Dan Bernstein]

I was thinking, you know, more of like that. Like that bracing, cold blue, aqua velvet scent. And what does the commissioner smell like? Light them up.

[Co-host]

Not only. Not only the hugging, but the whole. This adversarial relationship with the fans. It's like, oh, is that the best you can do? Is that. Is that all you got in yet? Like, dude, no one's there for you. Shut the up and do your job.

[Dan Bernstein]

And it's also the guys, let me say this, too, that when you start talking about the things that matter and the things that don't, if, if I'm being serious, if you are booing the commissioner of football, you're already there for the draft, so they already won. But if, if you're booing the commissioner, maybe because the league is turning a blind eye to the owner of the Giants being best buds with Jeffrey Epstein and having girls pimped out for him, that he's the owner, owner of the Giants and the league is like, we don't really. He didn't do anything wrong. You know, by far as we're concerned, it's fine to be had to have girls sent to you by Jeffrey Epstein from his island and nobody cares and, and talking about them as professionals or underage or whatever it is, and, you know, no big doing nothing to see here. And if that's a reason why you're booing and he. He would be joking about that, bring it on. Yeah, sure, I'm. I'm able to protect an owner who was involved with the most infamous child molester and trafficker. Boo me more. If you're really, like, a lot of things with football, don't overthink it because you're going to start to feel gross.

[Co-host]

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And maybe, you know, especially with the, the current situation with the Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, maybe, maybe take the slogans off your helmets. Maybe take the, you know, the catchy sayings out of the end zone. You know, it's. It's just, it's, it's very. It's really garbage. And outside of, of doing forward progress and being involved with a Bears NFL podcast, I wouldn't watch last night because it's really gross. It really is. It's stupid and annoying, you know, and also it doesn't need to take three hours. It really doesn't.

[Dan Bernstein]

They know that. And I know.

[Co-host]

I get it. I get. It's ad and revenue and all the money they earn.

[Dan Bernstein]

It was whatever.

[Co-host]

But it's really bad.

[Dan Bernstein]

It's. It's not good.

[Co-host]

Like, hire somebody who's better at that

[Dan Bernstein]

job than the commissioner, but it's junk food, and we like junk food. It makes us feel better. It's. It's comfort food to watch.

[Co-host]

It doesn't make. That doesn't make you feel better.

[Dan Bernstein]

And we presume that everybody's great and some are going to be good and some might be great and a lot of them are going to be bad, and that's okay. But in if you, whatever you think about the Bears selection, yeah, he's fast, he's versatile, he's, he's smart, but he's a safety. Safeties are the last line of defense rather than the first line of defense, which are the big angry guys who the. Who they. And you want to know where the safeties are positioned. But you're not necessarily fearing for your life because the guy is drooling and he's holding a knife and fork and wearing a lobster bib because he's going to take bites out of you.

[Co-host]

Yeah. And if he's replaying, if he's replacing the role that Kevin Byard filled for the Bears last year, great. He's younger, he's faster, and he's cheaper. So awesome.

[Dan Bernstein]

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[Co-host]

It feels good to Geico.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, perfect. You know, whenever the stakes are high, my bookie is where you turn bets into bankroll. There's Always a big matchup on the schedule. Everybody's watching, everybody has a take. No matter the sport, the props are as much fun as the final score. So when we do our DB picks, I got some of those for you. And that's why I use my bookie, because my bookie's prop board is deep. It's fun to play. You got player performances, game milestones, all the stuff in between that provides you the kind of action that keeps things interesting all game long. If you wanted to get in, get in now. One account, one wallet. You register, you deposit. And when you go to MyBookie AG and use the code DBU, your first bet is covered up to 500 bucks. And then if it doesn't hit, you have a bet back bonus token, and you can run it back, whatever you like doing. You like parlays, you like Moneyline, the spread, live betting. During the action. There's even a casino you can jump into during halftime or between games. Everything is at MyBookie AG, and you have that code DBU for that bet back bonus token. Don't just watch the action, make it pay with my bookie. Are you ready for Friday Feedback Friday? Are you prepared?

[Co-host]

I think so. I think. I think I'm ready.

[Dan Bernstein]

I've been curating these things. I save your emails. I have a special FFF folder where I put Friday Feedback Friday submissions, and we thank you for it. Also, by the way, if you say, why aren't you talking about the Cubs? They won nine in a row. Yeah, Cubs have won nine in a row. And all of that was recorded on off the Ivy. So make sure if you are a Cubs fan every single weekday. And for special occasions, we have off the Ivy for you on three. One, two sports with all things Cubs, because these are really, really exciting times for the Cubs. I'm going to start with Greg, or is it Greg from Union? And I'm getting this out of the way because I am getting clobbered for something I said yesterday on dbu and it's completely deserved.

[Co-host]

Was it about the count?

[Dan Bernstein]

Yes. Yes. I'm getting absolutely. My. My ass is getting torched for this. The torch. Even in text messages to everywhere, everywhere. So this. Yeah, that's great. Yes. And, yeah, that was. That was well done. Greg says Matty brought up the count along with Count Chocula. And while this story was hysterical about trying to embarrass his son, I couldn't help but take notice the next few sentences Matty said. I'm going to make a note to provide our top 10 fake vampires. And Dan, you said top 10 fictional vampires. We got two boys. I have some breaking news for you. All vampires are fictional. It's not as though Kiefer Sutherland's a real vampire, though some may argue he is because he played one in Lost Boys or Michael B. Jordan is an in the flesh living vampire. Because Smoke and Stack. Or actually was smoke. That was. And it was Smoke or Stack. I think it was. It was. I think it was Stack that ended up. I think it was Stick.

[Co-host]

Sticks and bricks.

[Dan Bernstein]

No, those. They're running the jets. He said we may actually have a few in charge of the country currently, but that's another topic. He says, love the shows and Dylan Theeneman is going to be fine. Keep up the great work.

[Co-host]

Thank you.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yes, I know all vampires are fictional, but I don't know it for sure. And I've been replying to a lot of these emails saying maybe the time is not upon us for me to reveal my actual vampires. I don't know that I can do that quite yet because I haven't been given permission by the Lord vampire, but just hang in there. Yeah.

[Co-host]

And I don't think people then maybe you missed that part of history where Abraham Lincoln, he was a vampire slayer.

[Dan Bernstein]

He was. See, so they just, they just retconned that we were asking. Now that we found out that Pope Bob actually attended Bozo's Circus when he was a kid, we kept thinking, how could we make. What else could go on with Pope Bob to make him even more essentially Chicago? Well, Glenn said, in addition to working as a bagger at Dominic's, Robert Prevost's summer jobs during high school included working as a busboy at Shea Paul, selling the Sun Times final market afternoon edition, and running the Little Dipper ride at Kiddieland. Zach said, I can't help but imagine the Pope waking up on a cold, snowy January morning. He walks out to his Popemobile to find it buried in two feet of snow. And after hours of shoveling it out, he places his miter or his giant crucifix as dibs, only to come back later to see them tossed to the curb in a car taking his spot. And of course, the car would have a Cubs bumper sticker, which would enrage him even more. It's the Pope. So he can't retaliate, but he just ventures down to the local neighborhood tavern for a tavern style pizza and a non alcoholic beverage and ask the big guy upstairs to have the car towed. This seemed to be a theme of much of what was coming in yesterday and late yesterday regarding the Pope, and this may have been the most difficult day I've had just because of the amount of feedback that was coming in because so much was going on with the draft and all of it and everything else. But I will say great job with a quick turnaround on some of that stuff. Several Loved my description of the Virginia Tech parachute mishap, and John points out that it's unfortunate that the Parachuter is hit the scoreboard, but it's a little disappointing that it wasn't a full Wile E. Coyote splat and slow slide down scoreboard. Which which would have been great. Yes, and Drew in Appleton said, Somehow Dan, you managed to miss discussing the best part of that whole Parachuter video. Pumping out from the speakers as the unfortunate parachutists hang from the scoreboard was Legends Are Made by Sam Tinnis. There could not have been a funnier song playing at that exact moment. Go back, watch and listen. See, as I told the guy, I would never have known what that song was. And that is why we rely on you to do such things for us. Here is oh lovey Pittsburgh. Ha. He said when you guys discussed Juan Soto, I'm glad you didn't fall for the Juan Soto rage bait topic. And you can easily tell Juan Soto's quote about not following the team or not being in touch with the team while he's hurt is being used to sell a story and stir drama. What do you expect Juan Soto to do when he's not with the team? Hey guys, gather around. Soto has a video message that should help everyone. Is anyone asking if all other injured players are in constant contact with their team? It is only an issue because of the losing streak and the fact that Soto is one of the highest paid players. As Matty pointed out, just because you have a big contract, it doesn't make you a leader. If you're not in the dugout and you're playing, your teammates likely don't give a damn about your words of encouragement. There are plenty of veterans on that team making good money. People are just looking for reasons for all this mess and they're overreaching with the Soto stuff. Hallelujah. Absolutely agreed on that one, Spencer says. Admittedly, I'm a nerd. I possess an aptitude for cynicism and the unfortunate intersection of these will compel me to meet this sucks with Can I prove it? One of my favorite methods is to assume a league has perfect parity and determine how improbable it is that a given team would experience as little or less success than the team I root for over a period of time. So I invite Jerry and Michael Reinsdorf down to spin the wheel of success and see if the way we do things is indeed the pejorative we claim it to be. So the question is what have the Reinsdorf organizations been over a generation? So Dan, you mused on the definition of that and I'll use a similar tactic. I'm going to look at 25 seasons. You Bernstein might recall a study I did during the dregs of 2024 bears trying to determine the right kind of coach saying first time head coach OC was the way to go. We defined success as playoff wins during a coach's tenure. For cross sport analysis it doesn't work. I categorized into individual seasons into relevant or irrelevant. Was a team top eight of their league's playoff tournament. It means a team has a non zero chance of winning a championship. NBA, MLB, 30 teams. They said the probability of having four or fewer relevant seasons out of 25 is 16.4. That puts them in the bottom five. And both of these would indicate generational irrelevance in their own rights. And how unlikely would it be to have two independent franchises with sustained irrelevance if it were bad luck? There aren't a lot of people who own multiple sports franchises. It's hard for a sample set, but we're using binomial probabilities. We can answer if both leagues had ownership groups that had one team in each. You can ask how unlikely it is to have seven relevant seasons across 50 league season combos. The likelihood of Bulls socks pooled irrelevance is only 2.57%. The other way Ask how unlikely you run an organization as irrelevant as the Bulls and an organization as irrelevant of the Sox. The union of those probabilities is 1.13%. My conclusion? The Reinsdorfs are very unlucky, which is hard to reconcile with them being owners of pro sports franchises. Or they're so bad at running the sports end of these organizations they find a way to sustain irrelevance at a statistically significant clip in leagues engineered to manufacture parody. Wow. Wow. That was I appreciate the legwork as always. We we thank you. And I I also love it when somebody actually digs in to something small that I said and remember I was talking about the bands Goose and Geese and I said that I like Goose because their music's good and I remember it because Goose starts with G O o and the word good starts with G o O so I don't get to confuse with Geese, whose music I found weird and occasionally off putting and certainly not anything I'm going to go out of my way to spend a lot of time listening to. There was an article in Wired magazine and I'm so glad that Cam in Bridgeport saw this because he said I gave Geese a fair shot. I listened to their stuff, didn't click for me. The music wasn't good in my opinion. I'm sure plenty of people genuinely love it. Music is subjective. Well, Wired dropped an article titled the fanfare around the band Geese was actually a psyop and it will take the skepticism to a whole new level. It turns out the Brooklyn indie rock band Geese didn't just organically explode with their late 2025 album. They or their team hired a digital marketing marketing firm called Chaotic Good Projects to engineer a push. Chaotic Good specializes in trend simulation and narrative user generated content campaigns. They built networks of TikTok and other social pages, used burner accounts or managed ecosystems to drop gaming Geese songs and clips into viral videos to game the algorithm. So the music showed up more in people's for you pages. Comment sections lit up and it created the illusion of organic grassroots hype. The firm's co founders straight up bragged in an interview on Billboard, we can drive impressions on anything at this point. We know how to go viral. We have thousands of pages. They ran campaigns for Geese and frontman Cameron Winters solo stuff. They later scrubbed artist names from their site after backlash. This is the modern version of payola. Instead of slipping DJs, cash or Coke for radio spins, you seed these fake organic TikTok discourses. So the algorithm does the heavy lifting. The firm insists it's not bots or fake streams, just genuine music fans on their team, helping aid the connection between artist and audience. But as one critic put it bluntly, if 100 people think your song sucks, chaotic good will create 200 who think it's awesome. And everything on the Internet's fake anyway, right? So that's the bigger philosophical angle, which is free will. In an algorithm driven world, our tastes are our own. Scrolling, stumbling on a song in the background, deciding this slaps and sharing it. But when marketing firms are quietly stuck simulating trends, fabricating comment section ecosystems, nudging what hits our feed? How free are these choices? Are we in a digital version of Plato's Cave, the for you page being the shadows on the wall that feel real and personal, but curated by unseen hands for profit? We think we're making independent decisions about what's good, but we're reacting to what's placed in front of us strategically. Yeah. It was a scary article, Cam.

[Co-host]

Very interesting.

[Dan Bernstein]

It was scary.

[Co-host]

Very, very interesting.

[Dan Bernstein]

And I urge people to read it, but I feel better. I feel sort of like the kid in the emperor wears no clothes or the emperor's new clothes. And noticing, like, wait a second. I'm reading all this. I'm seeing all this. I don't think it's that good. And when everybody else shouts you down, well, it's got to be good. This says it's okay. Stick to your guns is the conclusion there. It's okay to feel how you feel. Even if it swims against the mainstream, Everybody else is swimming the other direction. You're wondering, am I doing this right? It's okay. I would say be confident in something like music that let your tastes be real, and you don't have to move them around to meet the trends.

[Co-host]

And a quick follow up on the emperor who didn't wear clothes that didn't end well for his reign.

[Dan Bernstein]

No. Because they realized that he was full of. And naked. And. Yeah. And. And, well, yeah, I don't know. Maybe he. He kind of wanted to be naked. That was a different issue. I don't know. Naked emperor. Very different. Russ Armstrong. He tells us he will be. Promises to be fully clothed when he shows up at your house to measure for your windows and talk to you about windows or though maybe you could work once.

[Co-host]

You ask nicely. Yes.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, that's nicely. You know, maybe. You never know. He's. He's a good dude and accommodating, and that's really great customer service. And that's what Russ provides. And I say this as a satisfied customer of Chicago window guys. More than satisfied. Satisfied to the point where I proselytize about Russ and the work that he's done. And people have asked. They say, oh, these are. These. These are not. Where'd you get these windows? Here you go. Call Russ. They're like, okay, I got it. I got it. No, no, no. I'll call him right now. I'll text him. We'll set you up. We'll send him a meeting. So I go that far for people because the windows are that good. The prices are amazing. And it's about the process and the confidence that you have and the peace of mind that you have with Russ, because he isn't some giant, faceless corporation, some national big window that offers things that they can't deliver on. He's a Chicago guy with a factory here. In Chicago and he'll explain it all to you about how he can provide his price match guarantee, how he can offer the best product with the best price guaranteed. And it's all his people doing all the work in and around your house. No subcontracted labor. Don't wait. Call him. Call Russ Armstrong and Chicago Window Guys at 847-302-9171 and check out his five star reviews at ChicagoNowdownGuys.com here's the last submission that I want to read for Friday Feedback Friday and this is from Jeff I've been following your coverage of the Mike Vrabel and Diana Rossini fallout. I love that you keep bringing up Amy Jacobson because it highlights the exact double standard we're seeing here. Diana Rossini had to walk away from the Athletic because she lost the veneer of being an objective reporter. Whether she actually traded info for intimacy doesn't even matter to the public eye. But meanwhile, Mike Vrabel is still walking the halls in Foxborough like he's a beacon of virtue. The hypocrisy is what gets me. Vrabel has spent his whole career branding himself as the ultimate football guy. Toughness, discipline, do your job. Most importantly, integrity. And yet, with those 2020 photos surfacing, we now know he's likely had a national insider in his pocket for six years. This is also a gross conflict of interest that goes way beyond what's considered a private matter. If we look at Rossini's reporting through that lens, it looks less like journalism and more like Vrabel's personal scouting and PR department. Here are a few examples that smell straight up like collusion. 1. The Julio Jones Heist In 2021, it was Rossini who reported the Falcons had a first round offer for Julio and called the Titans a long shot. That report cleared the field of other bidders. It let Vrabel swoop in and get a Hall of Famer for a second and a fourth. Was she reporting the news or was she acting as Vrabel's broker? 2. The AJ Brown saga Her recent non stop reports about Brown being miserable in Philly and needing to go to New England looked like a textbook move to tank a player's value so Vrabel could land him at a discount. It just makes us wonder what other things might they have colluded on that we don't even realize yet? How many draft boards, how many injury reports, how many trade negotiations did she have access to that were fed directly to him before the rest of the league? If a Coach used a reporter to leak fake offers, suppress rival interest or scout other teams. Internal drama that isn't just a PR mess. That is cheating the system. That is an abuse of the league's media ecosystem for professional gain. And Mike Vrabel needs to be held accountable for it as much as she was. It's crazy that she's the one who's radioactive while he gets to stay. But I guess it fits the NFL's brand of ethics. Between Robert Kraft spa visits and Giants owner Steve Tisch being linked to Jeffrey Epstein and the DOJ files over 400 times, the league office doesn't care about character as long as you might win 10 games. Vrabel is ducking press conferences. He's hiding behind this counseling pivot while his partner in this mess loses her career. If he really cared about the integrity he preaches, he'd step down. That is from Jeff. And that is great. Absolutely outstanding. And it's, it adds an angle to some of this now that it's six years and we're going to talk about this on Forward Progress today in detail. But I would say the difference between, oh, it was, it was a little fling, a one time dalliance. When you start talking about a minimum of a six year ongoing relationship, this stuff becomes a whole lot more valid. And it completely changes the context of what we're discussing here. It may be eight years.

[Co-host]

That's just what's been surfaced now, these photos from six years ago. But we know that he started in 2018. That's where she started covering him.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yep.

[Co-host]

So, I mean, you know, two weeks ago, you know, it would have been unfair to connect the dots, but now you can connect all the dots you want to.

[Dan Bernstein]

I think it's perfectly fair. And I do think that these more difficult, more nuanced questions need to be asked. And I'm glad that was sent.

[Co-host]

Good. Email, Jeff.

[Dan Bernstein]

And said the way that it was said.

[Co-host]

Yep.

[Dan Bernstein]

Which leads us to our weekly top 10 list. And I always take like, you know, I take these seriously. And when you got back from New York, you sent me a text and you said, here's your top 10 list. It's the, the top 10 best Bears draft picks, right?

[Co-host]

Yep.

[Dan Bernstein]

The best Bears draft picks. So as the arbitrary line, I used my lifetime. So I have to describe my criteria here because it's not a perfect system. I couldn't create a rubric that allowed me to use metrics, really. And I didn't want to do that. But I will say that the way I gauge these draft picks since 1969 were obviously the overall career value of the player. How good was the player? Because sometimes it doesn't matter where you take somebody if that person is great. But then I also added in the perception of value that did you find the spread between a great player, an all time great and how much of a diamond in the rough might this player have been? So I did add in an element of that to try to balance out what it means to have a great draft pick. And I tried to keep that standard when I finally ranked everybody. And I guess my. It took me a while to make some of these decisions. And I will say Caleb Williams is not on the list. But when all is said and done because he's a quarterback and we know the way quarterbacks matter now more than they ever did because he was one of one because he was a quarterback, he's going to. Ideally he's going to end up on this list if they've done right and if we're right. I do think it has to be Caleb Williams will have to be one of the best Bears draft picks of my lifetime if this is going to go where we hope it's going to go. And that was the last part that I used. You have to be associated with winning to be a draft pick. That matters at some point, over some period of time. I used those things. I used the overall career value of you individually. I used. Were you associated, were you a reason for the team winning and where were you picked? All right, all good. Makes sense.

[Co-host]

I'm just jotting down my list of what I think you've.

[Dan Bernstein]

All right, you've shared that. And it. This starts in 1969 because that was the year I was born. And boy, there's a lot of. Because remember the draft was a zillion rounds for a long time before they cut it down. And there are. There were a couple of years here. Well, one year specifically there was like the best draft I think the NFL ever had in general. But there is one. And I know that you know which year this was. Yeah. And it may not be the picks that you think, but there was one year that had four picks that made this list. Four. And I think. I think all deserved. So I noticed you're still writing. So I'm going to wait for you to, to tell me you. Because I know you. I went and I wrote everything down. Then I started crossing off. Okay. Because there were a couple that didn't quite make it. And then I have some honorable mentions that just, you know, by the time I got done with. With my 10. I'm like, well, I guess that's honorable

[Co-host]

mention, but all right, go ahead and start your list.

[Dan Bernstein]

All right, honorable mention. 1972, seventh round, 182nd pick overall was Jim Osborne. Okay, Jim Osborne is a criminally underappreciated Chicago Bear who played through 1984. So he just missed getting a ring. Just missed getting a ring because he was at the end there. But he was a terrific defensive tackle. Reliable, relentless, strong as an ox. And drafted in the seventh round. He played his entire career for the Bears. Drafted out of Southern University, he played 186 games for the Bears over 13 years. How many sacks do you think Jim Osborne had from the defensive tackle position?

[Co-host]

Oh, boy, I would have no idea where to start. 25, 81. Oh, shit.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. Yeah. Jim Osborne, a tackle, had 81 sacks. He's an honorable mention all time best draft pick. I had to do this just because a sixth round pick, 189th overall, 1998 out of Duke. Patrick Mantle.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Dan Bernstein]

They used a draft pick for a spot that you don't think is important until you realize it's important. Long snappers get taken for granted. That's why he's an honorable mention. Debate the significance of that all you want, but that's a heck of a pick. He's played. He played more Bear games than anybody else in the history of the franchise, and that's meaningful. And he was the long snapper for a team in the NFC Championship and also for a Super bowl team. So they did have some success. That. That's a win right there with a sick. If you told most teams you can have your long snapper for a generation, is that worth a six round pick? Yes, I think.

[Co-host]

Answer is 100. All right, I have 10. I have 10 names here that I jotted down.

[Dan Bernstein]

You put.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Dan Bernstein]

All right, let me get through my honorable mention.

[Co-host]

Okay. More.

[Dan Bernstein]

Sorry, I have two more honorable mentions. Two more. All right. And they both came in the 2003 draft. Charles Tillman, second round, 35th overall out of Louisiana Lafayette. And I remember asking the then defensive coordinator, Greg Blosch about. I'm like, you know, he's kind of big for a corner. And they, they said it, they said that this is a guy who fits this defense and he. We need big corners who can drop to a landmark, who can rally up and make plays on the ball. And Charles Tillman is Hall of the very Good for a long time. Arguably a should be a Hall of Fame candidate for being maybe after Ronde Barber, the best cover two corner who's played. If you look at his combination of interceptions and forced fumbles in that same draft in the third round, 33 picks later, number 68 overall, Lance Briggs. And I think Lance Briggs is overshadowed because he was next to her lacquer for so long, but that's another hall of the Very Good for a long time. Lance Briggs, a terrific football player, and he's a third round pick, so honorable mention goes to that as well. Briggs, Tillman, Manily, and Jim Osborne. Number 10 on my list of the best Bears draft picks of my lifetime is Olin Kreutz.

[Co-host]

Okay.

[Dan Bernstein]

Olin Crutz was taken in the third round, 64th overall in 1998 out of Washington. And the questions were, was he big enough? And he had a bit of a temper. And we learned that that was something the Bears did have to deal with. But as a hardworking, intelligent team leader and somebody who had a great career on a team that has had its share of great centers, olin Crutz, the 10th best Bears draft pick of my lifetime. Had him. Okay, good. Number nine is Mark Bortz. Mark Bortz is the first of four players in the 1983 draft who are on this list. Mark Bortz was taken in the eighth round draft pick 219 out of Iowa. He played 171 games in the NFL, started 155. He made two Pro Bowls as a Bears guard. He was drafted from Iowa as a defensive lineman. He was a defensive tackle at Iowa. The Bears made him into an offensive lineman. That is a hell of a draft pick. The vision it takes to take a guy in the eighth round and then be like, well, all right, we're gonna. We're gonna move him here. I know he hasn't played there. We're gonna make him a guard, and you turn him into a stalwart guard on a champion.

[Co-host]

That was number. Number nine.

[Dan Bernstein]

That was number nine. Number eight. Also an offensive lineman, also a 1983 pick. This one in the first round. It is the first of the hall of Famers on this list. Jimbo Covert.

[Co-host]

Yep.

[Dan Bernstein]

Jimbo Covert, sixth overall in 1983 out of Pittsburgh. And was. That was your. Your plug and play prototype who played like he was 35 years old when he was in college and is in the hall of Fame for a reason. There's. There's not a lot of nuance in that. They picked him. He was great, and he mattered. And he's number eight on the list. Number seven, Devin Hester, another Hall of Famer a second round pick at number 57 in 2006 out of Miami. And much like Olin Crutz, a lot of what was said in his draft scouting report was true. And they, they had to come up with places to play him because the knock on him coming out of college was he doesn't really have a position. We don't know where to play. We've tried him everywhere. He's been a running back, he's been a wide receiver, he's been a defensive back. All we know is when it comes to kick and punt returns, he scores every time he's or it looks like he can score every time when he doesn't score every time. That's what was said. And everything was right bang on from that scout his through his entire career. They tried him at defensive back, nothing. They tried him at wide receiver, they called him a number one wide receiver and that never really translated. It didn't matter. He ended up being the best return man in the history of the league and in the hall of Fame. And they took that chance and they dealt with all of the negatives on that scouting report and said we don't care. And from. And he gave us one of the great sports, great Chicago sports moments ever. That return to start the super bowl is an all time great Chicago sports moment. Devin Hester, number seven. Number six is Brian Erlacher, ninth pick of the first round in 2000 out of New Mexico hall of Famer. And it's similarly to Charles Tillman, maybe the best. He and Derek Brooks was more of a weak side backer. I think Brian Erlacher, probably the best Tampa 2 coverage Mike linebacker that we've ever seen. His ability to backpedal to a landmark, instantly diagnose the play and then fire himself out of a cannon at the ball carrier or where the ball carrier is going to be or to disrupt a pass that he sees in front of him. No one in the NFL has ever been better at that. And it took the Bears a while to figure it out because they knew all of the athletic traits because you remember first they tried him at weak sidebacker, then they tried him at strong sidebacker and they realized, boy, he's a, he's a bad blitzer. Here's, here's Warwick Dunn, all five, seven of them and £170 blocking him, stoning him, well, how else can we use him? And they figured it out and they moved him to Mike and the rest was quite literally history. Number five on my list was the fourth overall pick in 1979 out of Arkansas. Another eventual hall of Famer, Dan Hampton, the probably the best individual player on the Bears. Great defenses, played tackle, played end, simply destroyed whoever was in front of him, whatever they asked him to do, just in a. Just a powerful, powerful football player. Relentless, powerful football player. Dan Hampton is number five. Number four is Dave Duerson, third round pick, 1983 draft, 64th overall out of Notre Dame. And there are some who may remember Dave Duerson because of the devastating and gruesome way that he took his own life with a shotgun to the chest. Because he wanted his brain to be preserved for science. And in fact it was determined that he was suffering from cte. But Dave Duerson made four Pro Bowls and was. Especially with the, with the holdout of Todd Bell that forced Dave Duerson into action, who ended up being a critical part of a Super bowl champion and some other great Bears teams. He's the fourth best draft pick. Finding him in the third round in that incredible 1983 draft. Number three, Mike Singletary, a second round pick in 1981 out of Baylor, 38th overall. Somebody else who they drafted because of how seriously he took the game and how hard he worked. He was not the best athlete. He was not a guy whose traits, his speed, length, none of that was going to wow you. But was the. Was, I believe, not as important as Dan Hampton, but pretty damn important. And you can ask Eric Dickerson how that felt with that upright running style getting met on the third and short in the hole on that NFC championship. Finally snowy Sunday. That is my number three best Bears draft pick, Mike Singletary, number two, and would be number one without an extraordinary circumstance. Number two is Richard Dent, 1983 draft, 8th round, 203rd overall from Tennessee State and became a prototype pass rusher, an iconic prototype end bending pass rusher who was the MVP of Super Bowl 20. The sackman, Richard Dent, the second best draft pick in Chicago Bears history. And this is one where you don't have to overthink it. Obviously the number one pick all time or in my lifetime and maybe all time also is Walter Payton, the fourth overall pick in 1975 from Jackson State. And while in retrospect you may think, well, yeah, obviously Walter Payton, well, it wasn't obvious then, it wasn't obvious in 1975 because there was a belief that some of these small school players, well, you know, what kind of competition is he faced at Jackson State, really? Who is he playing against all the time? How is he gonna be against these guys from these big schools and big Conferences on the professional level when he's proving it against these little rinky dink schools. Well, he showed you. And he ended up being not only the best player in Bears history at the time he retired, probably the best player in NFL history. And he is the, the statue and the namesake for the NFL's man of the year award. The best draft pick in Chicago Bears history is fourth overall, first round, 1975, Walter Payton. All right.

[Co-host]

I got, and I jotted it down immediately when we started. I got seven out of your ten.

[Dan Bernstein]

Right. Okay.

[Co-host]

I had Cruz and Doerson and Covert, Erlacher, Dent, Peyton, Hampton. So I didn't have Singletary, Hester or Boards. And Hester was a, a bad admission on my part. I had McMichael, Forte and Fencic as

[Dan Bernstein]

my other three that I wrote down. Yeah, I probably, I probably should have included McMichael. Yeah, that, that's, that's an oversight on my part. But I just, I had, I just had a. Had a tough time.

[Co-host]

Yeah, no, it's a lot. It's hard to do.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, yeah, that's an over. I actually wrote, I wrote down that McMichael was an HM. Yeah. I got so many scribbles all over this piece of paper that it's just, it's. It's crazy. But yeah, thank you for pointing that out. That is absolutely fair. There were a couple others that were interesting too. I didn't realize how good Nathan Vasher was. He was, he was way better than we remember the guy had. The kid played 73 games. He had. You had 19 picks in six years. That's pretty good.

[Co-host]

I had to double check this to make sure that my memory, my memory was correct. But Jay Hilgenberg was not drafted.

[Dan Bernstein]

Right.

[Co-host]

Which is insane to think.

[Dan Bernstein]

Well, I didn't do undrafted.

[Co-host]

Yeah, I know, I know. But I'm just, I just, I double checked it as I was going through here. As you're going through your list. I thought I'd remember that correctly, which is why I didn't put him on. But thinking back to that championship offensive line, I thought I'd remembered that he was not drafted. And then I did, you know, confirmed the double check. Yeah. Undrafted out of Iowa, working his way into a starter role in his third season. Seven time Pro Bowler, two first teams, two second teams.

[Dan Bernstein]

Well, and remember, the reason why McMichael isn't on there is he was drafted by the Patriots. I mean, deserves a, deserves a mention. But he was cut by the Patriots. He was, he was an unrestricted street Free agent.

[Co-host]

Yeah, I totally forgot that.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah, So I wrote. Yeah, I did write down. I knew it. I had his name on here. But as an acquisition. Yes, but he was not a draft pick.

[Co-host]

No, you're right. No, good call. Because we said drafted. We said draft pick. So he was third. Third round, 73rd overall. The 1980 draft. Right.

[Dan Bernstein]

Which is a. Forgot about. That is a great draft pick. It just wasn't a Bears draft.

[Co-host]

The Bears. Yeah, you're right. Right.

[Dan Bernstein]

And I. And Gary Fencick would be another one of those. Wasn't he also a Patriots pick?

[Co-host]

Was he really? Did I have that Incorrect. Who?

[Dan Bernstein]

Fencic?

[Co-host]

Yeah, I thought. I. I confused because I know Plank

[Dan Bernstein]

was drafted by the Bears. Correct?

[Co-host]

Oh, yeah. No, you're right. He was a Dolphins pick.

[Dan Bernstein]

Dolphins.

[Co-host]

It was not a Bears pick.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. 10th round pick. Think about that. 10th round pick by the end of all time. Great Bear. But he was not selected by the Bears.

[Co-host]

Yeah, no good.

[Dan Bernstein]

I feel better now because I was worried about the rules because I looked. I looked. I did this last night, and then I went back extremely late last night and I wrote down McMichael, and I underlined it, but I don't. But. But he wasn't a draft pick.

[Co-host]

Yeah. And when was Doug Plank? 75 draft. Yeah. Bears.

[Dan Bernstein]

Yeah. And he was. He wasn't.

[Co-host]

He was 12th round pick. Yeah, but.

[Dan Bernstein]

And he was also. He was fun and good and violent, but he was not a great player. Yeah. And also, again, like, if we start talking about even going back to, like, Butkus and Sayers, they didn't win anything.

[Co-host]

Yeah, No, I mean, you have to. You have to have some kind of criteria and. And filter with which to put this through.

[Dan Bernstein]

So that's. I tried. Yeah, I tried. Good stuff. The NBA playoffs are easy money right now at my bookie if you stop overthinking it. You don't need a crazy parlay. You don't need spreadsheets. You just need a team you can trust. And playoff basketball hits just right at my bookie right now. The board's clean. You can keep it simple if you want. Find a team, back them. You like the Thunder. You like the Celtics. You think Wemby's coming back? You want to go with those Spurs? You got teams built to win. Just let the playoffs do the rest. Boy, how about C.J. mcCollum? Man, how you talking about finding the fountain of youth? Good Lord. If you're new to my bookie and you haven't made your deposit yet, you got to register, make the deposit, and Then you don't sit this one out. You shouldn't. And with the code DBU, any bet you choose up to $500 is fully covered. So make your play. If it doesn't hit, you get it right back when you opt in using the bet back bonus token. So that's it. Pick your squad, take your shot. Don't just watch the playoffs, cash in on them. Only at my bookie. Now it is time for DBU picks presented by my bookie and I'm going to do exactly what I just advised. And I'm presuming, and I'm going to say this conditionally, presuming Victor Wembanyama does not play tonight. I think it would be reckless for him to be on the court this soon after that bad of concussion. He's not just in the protocol, diagnosed with a concussion. So presuming he does not play, and I hope he does not play because that would be the right thing to do. I'm going to take Robert Williams iii, AKA Time Lord for seven plus rebounds. And also because I think clearing out the inside is going to force defenders to come down. That may open up some threes. I'm going to take Denny Avdia for three or more threes. Those are my two on the prop board here. Robert Williams iii, seven plus rebounds. Denny Abdia, three or more threes. That's if Wemby hopefully does not play.

[Co-host]

Yeah, I'm going to go with the assumption he's not playing. I know he did a little bit of a light workout yesterday, but I don't. I'm assuming he's not playing tonight. So I have taken a week off of doing anything, is still sitting at 53, 31 and 1. So I'm going to look at all three games tonight. I'm taking all the points that are given. So Portland plus two and a half hosting the Spurs. I'm taking the 76ers plus seven hosting Boston and then the Lakers getting eight and a half hosting Houston. So Houston at the Lakers, Lakers getting eight and a half, taking all the points. Lakers plus eight and a half. Boston plus 76ers plus seven and then Portland plus two and a half with Wembayama out of the game tonight is what I'm assuming.

[Dan Bernstein]

That's DBU picks presented by my bookie. Lock in your picks now with my bookie bet on anything, anywhere, anytime. Make sure you listen to forward progress today because I think we're going to do actually we're going to. We're going to break up our episodes so you know exactly where all of your draft stuff is coming, and the elsewhere stuff will be set up for you as well. You'll know what it is when you see it, trust me. And that is Dan Bernstein, Unfiltered, brought to you by Russ Armstrong and Chicago window guys. Call 847-302-9171 and in partnership with my book

[Co-host]

Dan Bernstein unfiltered unfiltered on 312 sports.

[Dan Bernstein]

Everybody talked about it since I first moved to Oregon. The big one, the earthquake that trashed the whole West Coast. Total destruction. Officially calling it the largest natural disaster in American history. I just didn't know what would help me next. So I took at all, even the gun. It was time Cello see why American Afterlife is the number one fiction and drama podcast in America. Presented by pair of thieves. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Available now.