← Forward Progress - A Chicago Bears Podcast
Loading summary
Transcript49 lines
- [00:01]
A
Why choose a sleep number Smart bed?
- [00:02]
B
Can I make my site softer? Can I make my site firmer?
- [00:05]
C
Can we sleep cooler?
- [00:07]
A
Sleep number does that cools up to eight times faster and lets you choose your ideal comfort on either side. Your sleep number setting J.D. power ranks sleep number one in customer satisfaction with mattresses purchased in store and online. And now all mattresses are on sale plus free home delivery during our Cyber week sale limited time. For J.D. power 2025 award information, visit jdpower.com awards check it out at a Sleep Number Store or sleepnumber.com today.
- [00:32]
B
219219.
- [00:38]
Forward Progress Chicago Bears podcast with Dan Bernstein and Matt Abaticola on 312 sports.
- [00:48]
C
And today you just get the former I'm Dan Bernstein. Matabaticola is producing but is fighting the actual flu. So he is going to sit this one out and then you think, oh God, I gotta sit here the whole time with Bernstein's dumb ass. No you don't. Because joining us today on Forward Progress, a Chicago Bears podcast is you know that face and you'll know the voice. It is Matt Miller. You know Matt from his work on ESPN and his Twitter handle at NFL Draft scout. The top 50 big board comes out on Friday, which means Matt, you have been, you've been busy looking this class over. I know we're going to, we're going to talk a lot of current NFL, but just give us your, your bullet points on this year's draft class. What are we talking about?
- [01:38]
B
Yeah, Dan, we're talking about a class that's really good up front on defense. I think defensive end prospects are going to dominate the first 10 or 15 selections and maybe that's, we expect that every year but I think this year is going to be a little different because there is right now a lack of great quarterback play. And the top quarterbacks, Fernando Mendoza in Indiana we've got Dante Moore, Oregon, Ty Simpson at Alabama, they all have eligibility and Simpson and more are essentially one year starters which the NFL really frowns against. So we will see what the quarterback market looks like in about a month. But right now I think this class is going to be dominated defensively. Guys from Ohio State, defensive end from Miami, Ruben Bane, safety from Ohio State, Caleb Downs, running back Jeremiah Love from any of your guys backyard at Notre Dame. This is a draft that has the great prospects aren't at premium positions. So it's going to be a fun kind of philosophical debate between do you draft that premium position, quarterback, left tackle, or do you go with best player available which in this case might be a linebacker or a safety or running back.
- [02:37]
C
I'm in love with Arvell Reese, as many are. What position does he play?
- [02:44]
B
Defense. Do you remember you and I used to talk about this about guys all the time. It's like, what position does. First it was Jalen Smith at Notre Dame, right. It's like, what position does he play in the NFL? Defects. And I think we have moved to in some ways, Derwin James.
- [02:58]
C
There was the Simmons kid out of Clemson. Yeah, they were like, where do they play?
- [03:02]
B
Like a Parsons, Abdul Carter. And so I do think the answer is not to be cheeky, but the answer is defense. Right. You're gonna play in the front seven. I, if I had to pick one position for Arvel Reese, I would say go get the quarterback. That's where the money's at. That's where the impact is at the pay for an outside linebacker, once you get to the franchise tag, it's the same, but traditionally they're going to get paid a little bit more. So I think that's where he can have the biggest impact. It is remarkable the, the impact he has had as a pass rusher, having never done it before. And it does remind me of Micah Parsons, where Micah sat out that last year at Penn State because of COVID and there was all this talk about you should see the practice footage of this guy playing edge rusher because it's unstoppable. Well, now Reese, we've actually been able to see him develop over the year to have eight and a half sacks and the pressures that he has and the tools that he has. He's never been a full time pass rusher and he's probably the best one in the country right now. And this guy didn't even start last year, Week one against Texas. We were talking about Sonny Styles, we were talking about other players on that defense and. And here comes Arville Reese and he hasn't let up since. So I would probably, if, if you had to pick, I would play the edge. But I think some of the beauty is, and this is what Micah Parsons did his rookie year was you play a little bit of both and you get comfortable as a pass rusher, you comfortable with the speed of the NFL and the technique that it takes. So maybe you're a stacked background, first and second down and then you go get the quarterback on third. I think there is a way to get him on the field a ton and let him still grow into that position.
- [04:31]
C
We're going to get back to this year's draft obviously a little bit later on in this episode. But let's talk about your impression at this point of the Bears because they've surprised and there has been perfectly reasonable debate about the quality overall of the quarterbacks that they've beaten, of the opponents that they've beaten when stacked up against some of these other teams. But nine and three is nothing to sniff at. And especially going into Philadelphia and doing what they did to them, manhandling Vic Fangio defense with the play design, with the blocking up front, even despite something less than than high quality in the passing game. How good are they?
- [05:16]
B
They're good. Let's remember it's really hard to win in the NFL. Someone asked me on Saturday at a Thanksgiving lunch who I thought the best team in the NFL was. I said, probably the Rams right now. The next day they lost to the Carolina Panthers. The NFL is unpredictable, right? We so the idea of like let's over evaluate every quarterback that Caleb Williams has gone head to head or every quarterback this defense has stopped, I think that it's kind of a futile exercise because it's hard to win in the NFL every single week. I mean, we can look at, you know, the jets just won on Sunday. It's hard to win. And so I would look at Chicago and say it's almost like just be happy 9 and 3 after last season, after everyone all summer talking about Caleb Williams is a bustle. Ryan Pool should be fired. The Bears made the wrong pick. That was happening in August. So to be nine and three, to be, you know, the team that looks like they're going to win the NFC North, I would say enjoy it. No one expected this team in year one of Ben Johnson and year two of Caleb Williams to be where they are. No one expected this team to be a Super bowl contender. So remind yourselves in August how you would have felt in August if someone said, hey, at Thanksgiving you guys are going to be 9 and 3 in the driver's seat for the North. Caleb has shown promise. The run game is unstoppable at times. Colston Loveland and Luther Burden look like building blocks on an offense that was already loaded. Loma Dunes developing and a defense that still has some holes is getting the job done because of scheme. I think you would be, you'd be very, very happy as a Bears fan if someone had told you that in August. So it's funny how we moved the goalpost of the development of Caleb Williams was what mattered most this season. That is happening, albeit it's a little bit Rocky at times the development's happening and they're winning football games sometimes in spite of him, as Ben Johnson said. But I think you just have to be tickled with the development and the fact that you're winning while your quarterback develops. I promise you There are 25 franchises around the NFL that would love to be in this situation.
- [07:09]
C
Ben Johnson said it on Monday, but he walked it back a little bit on Tuesday. And I'm still trying to figure out why he did that because everything he said on Monday was absolutely correct and honest. And like you say, it's been a non linear development so far for Caleb Williams. And that's okay. We expect that. What is the question I have? How has his play in the NFL deviated from or conformed to your scouting report, for better or for worse?
- [07:44]
B
Well, I think what we're seeing this year is he's more patient and more aware in the pocket. It's not as chaotic as it was. It's a rookie or like it was at usc. You know, at usc, some of the beauty of his game was that he was just agile enough to get away from guys and make plays. And I, you know, we talked about this a lot when he was coming out. It's like it, it was Mahomes like that ability to drift. And while not being the most athletic or not the fastest guy on the field, you might be the most athletic. And so that ability to evade tacklers or your understanding of space and then knowing your own arm strength and your own arm angle and flexibility to really get off some of these wild passes that he made at usc, it was, you know, it's Aaron Rodgers, it's, it's Patrick Mahomes. Like there's very few people who could do that. So I think last year he was still trying to live off that. This year we're seeing him play more on time, we're seeing him take the first option and maybe understanding the first option might be a 7 yard route instead of waiting the extra 2 seconds for that 17 yard route to be become available. So I think he's playing with better timing, better boys and yeah, there's still, there's still times where he makes a play and you're like, okay, there's like there's usc, Caleb. But I think those are becoming much fewer and far in between. And so much of playing quarterback we forget is experience based. Having those reps, having the mental reps, knowing that the game is going to slow down, being able to get under center and say, wait, I've seen this defense Before I know what they're going to do or I've repped this in practice, I know what check I need to make. Just Caleb doing that is a huge part of his development. And now let's add in, this is a new offense and you've got new playmakers around. You've got a rookie tight end, you've got a rookie wide receiver, you've got a rookie running back even at times behind you. So I would again, I would be encouraged about where they're at right now after 13 weeks and seeing that a lot of times teams get hot after Thanksgiving. What was it a couple years ago? The Chiefs looked terrible during the regular season, Rasheed Rice's rookie year. They looked, they were winning games, but it was so boring and it was like, gosh, they're, they're gonna get bounced in the playoffs. But they got hot after Thanksgiving because those young players finally acclimated. They were finally playing and not thinking. And I do, I do believe there's a strong chance we see that from Chicago. Just I'm encouraged by how Lovelands looked, how Burton's looked. I would think this is a team that's going to get hot over the last month.
- [09:57]
C
And yet Caleb Williams accuracy lags and the completion percentage sucks and he is leading the league in, in off target passes that Ben Johnson a couple of days ago was very clear about that they want to fix that. When you see not just accuracy problems in general, but the ones that he is having and I know you're not breaking down a lot of this film because you're watching Ty Simpson and Dante Moore and Fernando Mendoza and these guys, but did you foresee that there would be this kind of issue? And in general are such things fixable?
- [10:39]
B
So I didn't foresee the issue. Like if you go back and read my scouting report, it's not going to say make struggle with on ball accuracy. That's, that's probably not in there. I don't, I don't think it is, but it, it logically makes sense because he is a player that didn't always play with his feet under him at usc and he definitely didn't do that last year either because the offensive line was terrible and the scheme was bad. So I do think it's fixable, Dan, in the sense of if it's a technique thing and, and I would have to do that deep dive and watch every throw this year to, to say, hey, it's a footwork thing, you know, he's just got to set his feet, he's got to get lined up a little better. That's going to help. I think sometimes we also, we forget to look at the wide receivers and say, were you in the right spot? So this ball might be off target. That's not always on the quarterback. It's. Sometimes it is on the route, sometimes it's on the timing. I was meeting with a college quarterback yesterday and we talked about this. If, you know, there were games where his accuracy suffered, and his answer was, you know, we have five guys with over 400 receiving yards. That's five different ways people come out of breaks. That's five different ways guys come off the line of scrimmage, let alone the splits.
- [11:44]
C
Like, even sometimes it's down to a half a yard of are you starting from the right spot?
- [11:49]
B
So I would think. And let's see what happens. Let's see if that tightens up, if some of the accuracy tightens up because of just getting familiar with these guys, you know, and getting to where, okay, I'm throwing to this tight end or this wide receiver. This is how I have to anticipate that. I. I do think it could tighten up with experience. If not, then I. That's when you go to technique and say, okay, is it a footwork issue? Is it a release issue? I think accuracy, accuracy can be fixed if it's one of those two things. I never saw anything at USC or at Oklahoma that that made me think, okay, this guy's like, just going to be inaccurate. Because that does happen. There are guys that just. They're going to get close, but not close enough in the NFL that hasn't cut it. I. I never felt like he was one of those guys.
- [12:32]
C
Good, I'm happy to hear that. Because had you said, yeah, this is a problem that popped up and I'm worried about it, I would get concerned. And I agree with you. And I was reading something. Ted Wynn of the Athletic also said that he believes that Caleb Williams, if you had him throwing into a net, that he would. He is naturally accurate, that he can. The ball leaves his hand fine. And I actually compared his release favorably to that of Rogers when. When he has that. That quick little wristy whip that I like, that little snap like Ty Simpson has that I like and like, you can put him in front of a net and he'd be fine. It just. With a lot of these moving parts in the Ben Johnson offense and seeing it through his eyes, it may be as much a processing speed issue at this point as it is an actual throwing the football issue.
- [13:22]
B
It would be fun to go back and maybe I'll do this today is to go back and look at Jared Goff's first 12 games with Ben Johnson and see and see like did the accuracy tighten up once he got familiar with the splits and all the motion and all the, the moving parts as you said. And that's not to add to the fact that Caleb is a second year starter instead of a seven year veteran at that point. So that, that would kind of be a fun deep dive to take a look at though.
- [13:45]
C
Something we've always talked about and you have in the scouting world is running back value in the NFL where to draft a running back and as we see every year, the number of successful backs who are undrafted, coming off practice squads, who have less tread on the tire and what that all means. It was first we had the Bijan Robinson question. It's like well I know you don't take running backs high but and then we saw with Ashton Genty, I know you don't take running backs high but this guy's special, etc. You made reference to a Bears rookie running back in Kyle Menungi. Kyle Menung. Guys numbers are the same as Ashton Genties and, and, and I watched them both. The best game Genti had happened to be against the Bears. So we got this really good look at some of the things that he can do especially as a pass receiver. And we know the measurables that Manungai doesn't necessarily have the home run speed. But what does that comp and what do their respective performances say, if anything, about this ongoing question about running back value in the draft?
- [14:54]
B
You know, I think running back in every position, Dan, you have to think about it in the context of your roster where you're at. We saw what Saquon Barkley did for the Eagles last year. We've seen what Bijan Robinson has meant for the Atlanta Falcons. Right. So sometimes a running back drafted early or acquired at a heavy cost is worth it. Other times you can piece together a backfield without doing that. If you have a great offensive line, if you have a quarterback who is a threat. And so I would say, you know, if you're the, if you're the Cleveland Browns, which they just drafted to running back somewhat early, Jug because it's doing well. But the Browns are not a team that should take a running back in the top 10 because the infrastructure is not there, they shouldn't do that. So we're going to have that conversation with Jeremiah Love this year and it's something that every time I do a mock draft, even if it's just for fun, just to see where things are at right now, it's very hard to find a spot for him in the top 10. Because running back value, it says you shouldn't draft someone in the top 10. But you look at Bijan, you look at Saquon, Jameer Gibbs, you look at some of the backs who have been drafted in the top 15 the last couple years and they're having franchise changing success. Genti is, you know, is it the chicken or the egg? Is it the running backs are overvalued and he was drafted too high or is it that the Raiders just suck? I think it's probably that the Raiders just are not a good team. You know, they just fired their offensive coordinator and allegedly he wasn't even running his own offense. So I think it's, you know, to draft a running back, it's similar to drafting a quarterback. And I, I said this in the 2024 draft and all those quarterbacks came out, it was like, not all these situations are great for these guys. So if, you know, like the Patriots at the time, you have a defensive minded head coach, you have no left tackle, you have no wide receiver, one, you have no run game, you're going to draft Drake May. Well, you better be patient and next year you better load up and get him those things. Well, they draft Will Campbell, they get Stefan Diggs, they draft Trivian Henderson. Like they very quickly put that infrastructure in place for him while also adding Josh McDaniels. And so I think with, with running backs, it's kind of the same conversation of sure this player is great, but is he going, are we a good enough team that this running back is going to elevate us? Because if you can't throw the ball, it really doesn't matter how good your running back is. And I think that's what we're seeing with Genti right now.
- [17:00]
C
Every once in a while I look at Colston Loveland and I see a star. I see somebody who looks like one of these giant wide receivers who can be that, whatever you want to call it, the joker position, tight end or the, the U tight end who the and Ben Johnson occasionally will move that guy, put his hand on the ground as a fullback if they want to do some isolation blocking. I just don't know if he can stay healthy. And I'm wondering how big a concern and when you do look at health concerns, as you're going through medical records or hearing what is being said about him. Can I trust that the Bears will keep this guy healthy enough to be as good as I think he can be?
- [17:47]
B
I mean, I think, I think, yes, but you're right.
- [17:49]
C
There were.
- [17:49]
B
Those concerns existed at Michigan. You know, he missed a good amount of time his last year. He's not, he's not filled out. He's 66240 and I've, I've met him. I've been, I was at the Michigan pro day when JJ McCarthy threw and he was running routes there and I, I filed A report on SportsCenter that day was like the best receiver here was not Roman Wilson. It was Colston Loveland. And you know, he should be a first round pick next year. He was my number one tight end last year over Tyler Warren, which I really, I took a lot of heat. Yeah. And I even put out the week of the draft that if I were the Bears and both players were on the board, I'd take Austin Loveland and Bears fans were not happy with that at all. It's been, it was an interesting night for me Thursday night of the draft.
- [18:26]
C
It doesn't take much to make Bears fans unhappy.
- [18:29]
B
That's fair. But I feel like, you know, I feel like Bears fans and I have a good history together. You know, I was doing your show weekly for years, so I, I felt like we had a trust built up. But I, I do think with Loveland, it's okay. How do you help him kind of help himself? You know, he's got to continue to fill out his frame while not losing some of that speed and agility that makes him such a mismatch weapon. I think sometimes guys come out of college and they're just beat up and what they really need is that, that first off season after their rookie year. Because you go through college and then you go through the pre draft process and you're, you're training non stop and then you get drafted, you go to rookie minicamp and then training camp and it's like you don't get a break for about 18 months. So let's see, let's see what happens. I, I think that he is someone that is dedicated, like having the ability to talk to him and spend a day with him, being around him. I think he is dedicated to, you know, guys who want to put in that work to take care of their bodies and be great because they're, I mean we all know there are players that they, they just like, hey, this is good enough. What I'm getting is good enough. I don't think he's one of those players. So I. I think they have to help him protect himself a little bit.
- [19:34]
C
And.
- [19:34]
B
And then let's see what happens when he actually has a full offseason to rest and recover.
- [19:40]
C
When looking at this year's quarterback class, and I have been watching them as a Heisman voter, I've been watching some of these guys through that lens, and it's been crazy where we were starting the season, and it's Nussmeier and it's Manning and it's Clubnik, and those guys are afterthoughts at the moment. And even as we look draft, this is sort of what I've told people, that if I had to draft a quarterback in this class right now, had to pick one, I think it would be Dante Moore, if I really trusted my infrastructure. And I just see it on the hoof, like, that's what it looks like. That's. I got. It's hard to pass that up, but there's a lot of work in there in that raw material. I love the way the ball comes out of Ty Simpson's hand. I love the. The guts and the processing speed of Mendoza. But there's nobody individually, if I could put all this, this sort of Voltron together, I could. I could. I could do it. But there isn't one guy in the class that I say, oh, yeah, absolutely. Can't miss. All right, where are you?
- [20:46]
B
I'm with you. And I think it's. It's funny, you know, we get. Whether it be by fans or whomever, we get the rush of July, August. You got to plant your flag on a quarterback. This was not a year where I wanted to do that, you know, because everyone needed work, you know, even you. Look at Lenore Sellers. Yeah, there were some bright moments, but goodness, he needed work. DJ Lagway needed a ton of work. Arch Manning, we hadn't seen. He played two games, you know, and I think if you. We were all being honest, those two games in 2024, the game looked way too fast for him, and he beat a bad Mississippi State team, and people got excited. So Nussmeier gets hurt. Klubnick was always overrated because he had that. That really good game against Texas last year in the college football playoffs. Carson Beckham, you're talking about accuracy and can you fix it? No. Carson Beck is proof that you. Sometimes you just can't fix accuracy. And so it's. This quarterback class is good, but it's just different names than we expected. You know, it's just, you Take out Nuss, Meyer, Sellers, Drew Aller and you replace him with Mendoza, Simpson and more. And it, and it becomes more intriguing but that the question is going to be, and I'm, I'm happy that I have not been contacted by any of those quarterbacks to, to ask about the draft is that 25 starts is like my bottom line for a player to have success in the NFL. Y' all live through the Mitch Trubisky situation of a guy who just didn't play enough in college. Niner fans went through Trey Lance and we've seen this so often, there is no substitute for experience. And so now that college players are making $8 million a year at quarterback, I think you do have to say, all right, my, am I comfortable making $8 million and I'm going to continue to develop at the college level because the NFL is not going to develop you at quarterback. I don't know how many times I can say that they will not. It's you, you get, you come in, you get about two years if you're a high draft pick and if you don't have success, you're probably bounced. So I would say to those guys, it's a, it's a tough decision. But you know, for Ty Simpson, if they make a run, he's going to have what, 15, 16 starts coming out. And I know he's a fourth year player and I love his processing speed, but that is, that is a big question that we're all going to have to talk about if he does decide to jump into this class. Because if he, if he's not in and then Dante Moore, he had five stars at UCLA so he could be at 20 if they make a run, that's still under. And so if he goes back, like we're looking at Mendoza as the only first round quarterback this year and a hell of a lot of teams that need him. And the Titans may be sitting in the number one spot saying, well, you know, hey, the jets, the jets have five first round picks the next two years. How bad do you want a quarterback?
- [23:10]
C
I wonder what that means then for some of these other guys who are already on NFL rosters who we're not talking about, who may be a better bet to be the next Sam Darnold than somebody who is coming right out of college if you're an NFL team. I know there is a certain segment of Bears fans that love Tyson. Ben, why can't we trade Tyson Bajan to a team that wants that guy? And it there, there are guys somewhere there There are going to be successful, well developed second team, third team, prospects who might be languishing. Do you have a short list there? If you had to go pluck somebody off a roster.
- [23:55]
B
Mac Jones and the Niners did a beautiful thing, and I've been a very harsh critic of John lynch at times. Signing Mac Jones to a two year deal was brilliant because now they're going to have the opportunity to trade him this offseason and he's gonna go for a decent amount because he played well when Brock Purdy was out. And if you look at the way Brock has played the last two weeks, you could honestly say Mac Jones outplayed him when he was in there and doing that without Brandon Iuk and without, you know, some of the superstars that that team has. So I would think Mac Jones is gonna, he's gonna go and it's gonna be expensive. Kyler Murray's another one to watch. I mean, he's, you know, I know, injury or no injury, like he was benched in Arizona.
- [24:32]
C
The offense was better with Brissette making decisions.
- [24:36]
B
Absolutely. I mean, he set the NFL record for completions a game two weeks after he became the starter. So I would think those two are the, the ones. And obviously, you know, there's, there's dead cap stuff that gets involved with Kyler Murray, but we've seen that, you know, it's sunk cost. Teams are just going to move on and eat that money. And, you know, 55 million people watch the football game on Thanksgiving. The NFL has money so they can, they can sink that cost in a quarterback and move on and find the.
- [25:01]
C
Next guy before we let you go. And your time is obviously much appreciated. It's great to catch up with you again. Just great to see you. Even though the, the gray and the beard that I'm seeing is making me feel, you know.
- [25:12]
B
Yeah, we getting old, Dan.
- [25:13]
C
We all are. Do you think that there's enough that is still unseen from the Bears that they could win the super bowl this year? Or is that just a bridge too far in Ben Johnson's first year?
- [25:31]
B
I think they could, I mean, honestly, like, you know, we could talk about the Rams. They just beat the Eagles. I just, I don't know that there's any team in the NFC where you can say, you know what? We're not there yet. We're a year away from, from competing with that team. Because I, I, the Rams have weaknesses, the Eagles have weaknesses. There's, I don't think there's anyone in the south that really scares you, you know, and the same with the, you know, the, I don't worry about the wild card teams even, you know, so I, I do think that it is more open than it's ever been and especially with some of the injuries that have happened right now. So I, I, and like, I'm not going to pick the Bears to, to win the super bowl or to make the super bowl out of the nfc. But I, I, I think anyone who says no, they couldn't do it this year is probably actually not looking at the entirety of the, the conference and saying, okay, well, you know, the number one team in the conference right now. So like the Rams are there, the Eagles are there, the Bucks are there. Seattle looks good, but all those teams have weaknesses just like Chicago does. So let's see what happens. You know, like I said, with young teams tend to get hot after Thanksgiving. So I think it's be a lot of fun to watch.
- [26:33]
C
All right. I'd love to do this again sometime soon because I got other questions where I'd love to ask you at some point about the changing world of the timing of the college football calendar, the coaching movement, the player movement, the indecisions and what that does for scouting and the number of guys who go from one system to a completely different system and whether or not all that data is good for you, whether it makes your job easier, easier, harder, or just different. Because it's wild out there now, man. It is, it is, it is wild.
- [27:03]
B
So it is, it is wild. It's made my job easier because I don't watch as much small school college football anymore because those guys who we would have, you know, watched at small schools are mat matriculating up. So it's a lot less time spent watching Division 2 football. And now you watch the Power 4 and some G5s and the job is pretty much done.
- [27:25]
C
I hadn't thought of it that way. Matt Miller, this was great. Thanks for joining us.
- [27:29]
B
Appreciate you guys.
- [27:31]
C
That is Matt Miller at NFLDraft Scout on Twitter of ESPN. His top 50 big board comes out Friday, so I think that's probably my headline there. If he believes that the Bears can win the super bowl this year and he's paid attention to the Bears as he mentioned that he has been part of the, the tangential Chicago media landscape for some time. And we just saw the map that came out for Bears packers this week as the 325 game. It looks like everybody's going to be watching once again. So it's going to be an enormous opportunity for the Bears yet again to prove it. And they've got a lot of prove it games coming up. But that's, that's some heady stuff and some exciting stuff. And I think that it was a, some, some reassurance that we just got from Matt about the likelihood that Caleb Williams is going to settle in to what Ben Johnson is doing. And I'd also say too that the other reassurance we have is that Ben Johnson's influence on certainly the skill position players that have been drafted by this team is a good thing. And we'll credit Ryan Poles with the acquisitions of this interior line that has just been phenomenal so far and finding a guy like Nishan Wright or whoever else you want to plug in, you know, the free agent, signing a Kevin Byard who's having a remarkable, you know, Pro bowl year, even the way they've, they've been found, you know, back end roster guys like DeMarco Jackson and Nick McLeod and everybody who we can see here and there making a play. Amen. Obama guys are having double digit tackles in games that there's, there's a lot of praise to go around and obviously a very encouraging intermediate future regardless of what happens this year. But that is going to do it for Forward Progress. Hope you enjoyed. Matt Miller. We're obviously going to have surprise guests here and there for you, so.
- [29:43]
Always understand that we are going to be looking out for the best and smartest and most interesting people to tell you about your Chicago Bears on this very podcast. Forward Progress, a Chicago Bears Podcast. I'm Dan Bernstein. We say get well soon to our guy Matty, Matt Abaticola, who's off camera coughing and we hope and pray that he will be back tomorrow. We are sending him all of our deepest thoughts and prayers that he can get over this case at a goop. But that's fp, so enjoy it and we'll talk tomorrow.
- [30:21]
B
Forward progress chicago bears podcast with dan bernstein and matt abanicola on 312sports.