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Ted 219219.
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Forward progress a Chicago Bears podcast with Dan Bernstein and Matt Abeticola on 312 Sports.
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Welcome to forward progress on 312 Sports. It is time to get back to action for the Chicago Bears, literally for them as they return to practice today. A big game. It really is, and I don't, I don't really say that lightly, but I think it is, I think coming off of 2 and 2 and coming off the bye, here is a chance to take on an opponent that embarrassed them last time and you're going to go to Washington and you are going to be in front of a national viewership and you're going to have an opportunity to show that you have advanced, that you have progressed, you have made forward progress, that you are, you are in a position as a team to be something different and better than you were, particularly out of the bye. And too many times we've seen Bears teams stub their toe and Bears teams be be weak and dumb off the by and there's no excuse for it. It is still my hope, as optimistic as I am for Ben Johnson, that that changes now. At the very least they can tighten their stuff up a little bit, stop with the penalties and be, be a tighter operation as a football team. That's not too much to ask.
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B
No, it's, it's absolutely not. And not only from the embarrassment that happened last year at Washington or against the Washington team, but what happened on the collapse in the fourth quarter Monday night. I mean that's, that's the last time that the Monday Night Football viewership got to see the Bears in action against the vikings. They held J.J. mcCarthy down and then he has a fourth quarter and becomes the NFC Player of the week and then the Bears go and get stomped by Detroit and then Jared Goff is the NFC offensive player of the week. So you have a chance here to redeem that from just week one that we are a better team that, that we are not going to collapse again two years in a row to Washington. But Ben Johnson used this this week wisely to fix the things he could fix to use it. As they've said online as an extended preseason, a self scouting ability to take a look at the first four games and say what do we do? Well, what can we improve on? What needs to be fixed? That's broken.
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Forward Progress is brought to you by Beer Church Brewing New Buffaloes Brewery pizzeria in a historic Church wood fired Neapolitan pizza small batch craft beer brunch every day visit beer churchbrewing.com especially this time of year if you are getting ready for fall colors. If you take your weekends to go see some of the gorgeous, changing seasonal foliage in southwest Michigan. Make beer church. Absolutely. Write it down. Make plans to make beer church a stop, whether it's for brunch, whether it's taking a game on your way there, on your way back while you're there, or just stopping in to sample some of the beers and the beer flight. They bring out the giant wooden cross, do that. It's great people, it's great food. It's a great place.
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B
Yeah, I can't wait to get out there and hopefully we can do that this fall. Get out there and take a weekend in a new Buffalo and hit beer church.
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A
Let me build on this, too, talking about this upcoming game, and I know we're going to have time as the week progresses to do more of this looking forward than backward. But last year was the game where Jaden Daniels made it clear he was better than Caleb Williams.
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B
Yeah, for sure.
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Like that happened. And I know we downplay some of these individual matchups and we downplay it's not quarterback against quarterback, even though the tv, the production makes it seem like that sometimes. But it felt like that last time and that was the real downer coming out of it wasn't just, oh my God, how did they lose and what happened? And it was just such a gut punch. The other thing that lingered was that Jaden Daniels said, I'm better than this guy.
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B
Yeah.
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And you should have taken me before this guy.
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B
Yeah, you screwed for sure.
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I'm better.
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B
Yeah. That was. I mean, that was based on their, on their draft order. That and many people. And there were some people out there saying that Jaden Daniels was the guy to take. And I'm sure there were Bear fans that wanted Jaden Daniels taken by the Bears. But that's not how it worked out. But it was a statement game in that regard that I am the better quarterback right now and that you made a mistake not picking me and Washington made the right choice in selecting me and you made a huge mistake.
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So if this is a preseason of four games and if they're looking at this as extended preseason, meaning what do we have and how do we deploy it?
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Yep.
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What do we have and how do we deploy it? Who's coming back, what players are returning, who's coming back from injury? W let's look at the depth chart with fresh eyes and make sure everybody's in the right spot. What do we know about the team. Like, is there anything we can say this, this is true about the 2025 bears and will remain true about this team for better or for worse.
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Well, here's what we know. Looking at the first four games of this season. These are, these are concrete truths and these are, you know, this is evidenced by the games, by the numbers. The Bears are currently 24th in run defense. So we know that right now they can't stop the run.
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It was the first thing I called up here. It's so funny you say that because right before we went on, I wanted to make sure I had this right.
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Yeah.
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Of the 32 teams in the league, not only are the Bears last in opponent's yards per carry at 6.2, they are an outlier last. They're an outlier. The best in the league. The Browns at 3 yards per carry, Seahawks 3.3. Patriots. Look at that at 3.5. And then it works its way through the fours and the decimal points all the way down and down and down and down. At the very end, we start to get to the fives. There's the Titans 5 off the bottom at 5. The Giants 5.3. The Bills and the Dolphins at 5.6.
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And.
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And the Bears at 6.2. More than half a yard.
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Yep.
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More than half a yard separates 31 and 32.
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That's significant. So we know that they can't stop the run right now. 24th and then 32nd in the league at 6.2 yards per carry. We also know that the Bears can't run the ball right now. They're 30th in the league in being able to run the ball, which is.
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A massive disappointment considering the upgrades they made in the middle of their offensive line. More on that later.
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We also know that The Bears are 27th in passing. That's. That's offense. Passing offense is 27th in the league. So we know that they're struggling to move the ball downfield through the air. We also know, though, that the Bears are fourth in passing yards allowed. So they're. They're one of. They are a top five team in passing yards allowed.
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A lot of it on third down. They've been pretty good as a third down defense.
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They sure have. So we know that that's. That's a concrete truth right now about this team. We'll see if that continues on. They do get Edmonds back. They do get Kyler Gordon back. They get Austin Booker back, which should help in the pass rush, which all.
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Those things should be on Austin Booker, I'm not going off preseason.
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No, I know. But maybe, maybe. Yeah, no, that's fair. That's fair. But all of those things again should also help the, the past defense, which currently is a top five pass defense. We also know that the Bears at times can move the ball on blob defenses. We know they can. We saw the best drive of the season against the Cowboys. We saw Caleb Williams lead the game winning drive against the Raiders. That gave them the lead and then the defense kind of gave it back a little bit and then they got a special play on special teams by, by Blackwell to win that game. 25:24. Here's the final thing that I think we know for sure about about this team, that the Bears as constituted are not close to having a playoff roster. They're just not. We're at four games right now and they are not close to having a playoff roster. That's. That's just how it goes. They are a solid blob team and there is a lot of work to do to get them in the top tier in the NFL to compete in the playoffs. One other thing that we do know through four games is that the head coach for whatever reason is having a hard time getting calls in to the huddle. And hopefully he used that time during this bye week to get whatever the problem is.
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It's by his own, his own admission.
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I'm not saying that that's him saying it more than once now after losses.
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It's also you in a way calling his bluff because either it's him having the problem or his taking the blame for it is resulting in us blaming him.
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Yep.
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So it's very possible that he's not the problem. He knows he's not the problem. He's calling it as soon as he sees it. He is the moment that ball spotted and he knows which hash mark and he knows scoring situation, that he's on it and he's covering for all the other problems that they're having, which would be a very wise and mature coaching thing to do. But as long as he's saying it, we've got to hold him to it.
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Yeah, and we're going to hold him to it because if he keeps saying it. Yes, that's exactly the case. I think it's really not the case. At least I hope not, because that shows a level of incompetence from a play caller that he shouldn't have.
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But he hasn't pinned the blame on anybody else.
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He has not. So if he's covering for Caleb Williams then say, hey, yeah, like it wouldn't be that bad to say we need to do a better job in getting the call out of the huddle. And there's not a fan that would say, all right, well, we need to sit this guy and start Tyson Bajan.
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And I don't want to get too wonky about the word usage.
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Okay.
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But when he says there's a difference between getting the play called, which could be him on the microphone into the headset, it could be getting it called in the huddle to the team, different than getting the play in. Because if you say getting a play in, that means into the field, from the sideline, from the booth. Whatever I think of get the play in means get it to the quarterback.
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Get it to the quarterback. Yeah. Because he has said that he needs to do a better job. So, you know, if that's the case, then why. And let's fix it and let's make sure that we took care of it here during the bye week.
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I'll say this to building on what you've said about what are. What are currently truths about this team, I think their clear issues running the ball have made the subtle improvements in the passing game more impressive because I would also say Caleb Williams is better than he was last year. He's not taking the same sacks, at least since the first game, the ball is out faster. What we've seen on in the first quarter, what we've seen in early drives, we have seen him spreading the ball out. His connection with Roma Dunes A has certainly been established. I think the fact that he has been able to make progress with a bad running game is. Is good.
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That's a positive for sure.
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And I think it's fair if you can say, look, he's getting better despite the fact that nobody has to bite on run fakes, that nobody really has to do anything.
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Right.
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And I would also say on the other side of things that the secondary, and this is counterintuitive because they've been so banged up and they have had their problems and there's guys you've never heard of when we're seeing, you know, Nishan Wright and what is it, Nick McClain or McLeod?
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McLeod. Yeah.
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What are we doing? You know, these are. These are just guys who are out there, but the fact that they're doing what they're doing with no pass rush. Yeah, there's no pass rush.
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Yeah.
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And that's why that they're having to cover a longer time. And I think that the Bears, with seven interceptions, Jacksonville leads the league with 10 interceptions now with a game in hand. But the Bears, I think their interception rate, like the percentage of passes against them intercepted. They lead the league.
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B
Yeah.
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Which is pretty good. With no pass rush.
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With no pass rush. Right. And that was another. Another truth that we know is that they, they can't get to the quarterback. And with four. And we know that they blitz the least of any team in the NFL. So again, these aren't opinions. These aren't what we're seeing with our eyes. These are just, these are concrete truths about this team through four games.
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So if they see what we're seeing and for the first time in a long time, I can presume that they are seeing what we're seeing.
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It's fair. It's fair to say that Ben Johnson is watching reality TV when it comes to his own team. Yeah.
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And that he's probably harder on them than we are. For sure. Whether or not they think the answer is personnel or whether they think the answer is scheme, I don't know. But what I do think needs perhaps scheme because they already fixed the personnel, is the run game. You spent a lot of your resources on changing over 3/5 of your line and now you're going to have 80% of your line change coming out of this buy. But with Tuni and Dalman and Jackson to then say we're not running the ball effectively, why they're all healthy, they're all good. That is a, that's a play calling and scheme issue. That's an execution issue. Who isn't in a position to succeed in the run game? It can't all be DeAndre Swift. I know that's part of it. He doesn't have great vision. He spends way too much time in the backfield. Go right, get it and go. And if that's the problem, replace him and try somebody else. I don't think it's Kyle Manon guy.
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Yeah. There's no one on the roster and.
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They'Ve tried DJ Moore. But get out of the backfield, get down the field. And we know that I mentioned this before, Dahlman is a zone blocking specialist, not a ISO specialist, not a duo, not some of this man stuff and gap stuff that they do. I don't care if it is pure old school Shanahan belly stretch outside zone. A lot of teams are doing split zone now, which is where you are all starting in a direction. And then there can be a double team left and a double team right and give some options. The problem I think they're having is you've got a bad marriage of the zone scheme with a guy in Swift who doesn't make quick or good decisions. Sometimes you can be wrong, but be wrong fast. You can hit the wrong hole or the smaller hole or the one you don't see developing. But if you get there quickly, it's the difference between 4 yards instead of 8 yards.
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Right.
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Or 4 yards instead of an explosive. And there's just been no explosives in the run game and just a couple would make a big difference. So this is the kind of thing where I would love to sit down and have Ben Johnson with the remote in his hand and just backing up the tape and showing me which block and when. Why, why can't they just commit to a steady diet of zone and hit it and build off of that? And then you get your waggles. Then you get whether it's that naked spin out or any of the reverse, especially the tight end drag. They love that. They love moving a tight end all the way across the field, getting everything moving in one direction because you, you thin out the defensive personnel over there but commit to it. And that's why you brought Dahlman here, was to get him out on the move doing some of that stuff. So at least find something in the running game that you can hang your hat on.
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Hopefully that's what they spent this week doing. I mean we know that he went over every run play with the offensive unit to talk about what failed, what executed well, who didn't do their job, who did their job, what can we do to get better at it? I think the idea of the, the pre snap penalties are just have to be cleaned up. I mean it has to be cleaned up moving forward. And if that's a matter of swapping guys out at certain positions, well then get that done. Use that week to figure that out. I'm curious to see what the offensive line looks like going into the Washington game. Like what we're going to learn and see and hear this week from, from Ben Johnson. So here's a couple other things I want to look at and we've talked a lot about this, about cap hits for the year. And I'm never ever going to blame a professional athlete for the money someone wants to pay them. If someone wants to pay a person a lot of money, great, take it. God bless you and enjoy that wealth of playing, playing a sport. Montez sweat. Didn't you know? He didn't, he didn't create that number that Ryan pulls. Wanted to pay him. So I'm going to Give you the top 10 cap hits for this year. Okay. And I want you to tell me who's earning their money and who's not right now. Okay. Because this is significant to looking at that playoff roster. How close are they to competing in the playoffs with this roster? I don't think they have a playoff roster, obviously. Currently constructed Montez Sweat is number one at $26 million cap. It. Is he. Is he earning that money this year?
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No.
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No. DJ Moore is number two. No. Tremaine Edmonds, number three.
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He said injured.
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Injured, but yeah. And that's okay.
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And he's. He has had one spectacular game.
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Yeah, he has. And he's underperformed that. But based on injury and that. That happens again, that's. That's not in his control. So. Fine. Jonah Jackson, yes or no. 14. 14,750,000.
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How many times has he been flagged?
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Several. Yeah.
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I would say he hasn't made the difference I thought he would make. When they talked about when they said, well, he's just been hurt. He knows our system. We've had experience with him. He's a Pro bowl level talent. I can't say that I've gone back in the film and watched every play, but they should be a better run team with him at right guard. Drew Dahlman, same thing.
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B
Number five.
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Same thing. And I don't know if it's all his fault or they're not playing to his skills.
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Number six is cold Comet.
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Andrew Dahlman's had one really shitty snap.
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Yes. And one. I mean, was it the. Was it the Minnesota game? He just got. He's got run over multiple times.
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Pushed backwards by a tough interior.
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Oh, yeah, no, of course. Number six is Cole Comet.
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Bad year so far.
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Yep. DeAndre Swift. Seven.
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Just not good enough.
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Eight is Caleb Williams at just under $9 million.
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Cap in on a rookie deal. Yeah.
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Yes. Agreed. Kevin Byard.
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Yeah.
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Having a good year. Yeah. Joe Tooney is number 10.
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Yes. He's been terrific.
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Okay, there you go. So you have one. Good. You have one. Yeah. And one. One Terrific. And that's. That's. That's eight, nine and ten on your cap hits. So one through seven. Tremaine Edmonds with. With the injury. So we'll take him out. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7. Underperforming well.
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And this is going to change, obviously, because everything we thought about when Loveland was brought in here as more of a pass catcher, if he can stay healthy, he'll have an opportunity to supplant Cole Comet.
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And I said TJ It's a Tremaine Edmonds. Yeah, but I meant.
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No, I got you.
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Yeah.
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Because that hasn't been healthy. But the. The opportunities for guys to win jobs on the future Bears is there. On the good Bears is there. And some of these guys aren't here yet.
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No. No.
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And that's why I want to see Shamar Turner too.
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B
Right.
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I fold him in that there should be a commitment here out of this to. To. I'm not saying cashier the season to develop. I'm not. But because we agree and admit the roster's not there yet, you cannot get to the end of this year while trying to win. While trying to win every next game. You also have to have a back channel operation of development.
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B
Yeah. Because, Dan, you. You can't go through the season and still have question marks on the guys currently on your roster and say, we just don't know yet.
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Or as many question marks.
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As many question marks.
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But you definitely have to.
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Right.
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Whether it's can this guy play or not?
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Right. Is this guy a future NFL player for us?
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Right.
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You have to know that at the.
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Bare minimum, I want more Luther Burden.
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B
Yes.
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And if you're gonna ask me, if you're gonna ask me at whose expense, I don't care.
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B
Right.
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I don't care that you need guys that. Who can get explosive plays, who can create explosive plays with the ability to do that. I know he's not 100% on his assignments, on the playbook, but he is a willing blocker. He is athletic as hell. I want more of him.
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B
Yeah, I agree. And we talked about what Ben Johnson said when he was asked by Courtney Cronin about. She asked me specifically about. About Burden and Loveland, and then he gave a big blanketed answer about the team not trying hard and practicing like a champion. So, you know, is Luther Burden one of those guys not putting the week. The work in during the week to get more. Look, as far as the game plans concerned. But I do want to see more Luther Burden. And I agree with you. You can't just cashier the season and say, all right, you know, let's just. Let's see what we have to develop. But it has to be a secondary measure and a close secondary measure to trying to win football games, giving guys opportunities, being strategic about giving a player maybe three or four or five more reps. And if you do that over the course of five, six games, that's a lot of tape to put on a guy and say, what do we have this guy in 30, 40 or 50 plays that maybe, maybe they wouldn't put that much effort to give him that time on the field, but you have to do that this year. This has to be. It's a real struggle because there's a real dichotomy of what Ben Johnson has to do. I've got to win football games now, but I also know that this roster is not there where it needs to be for the future. What do we have of the 53?
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A
It's a huge job, but that's one of the most important aspects of this year. And there's no glory in some of this stuff for Ben Johnson.
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B
No, there isn't.
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A
And this is going to be a difficult year that will pay dividends if it's coached properly. We won't see the fruits of his labor this year.
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B
We know we probably won't see it for a couple of years, but if they're.
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A
If they are making some of these hard decisions about who's here, who's not, who is worth the investment of their time. And this is when. If you're a Bears player and you feel that the coaches are up your ass, that's a good sign. Because they care about you. Yeah, this is one of those times. And it's all. I always would say this to my kid when a coach would be on him or like I said, that's. That's good. Good thing I said. You really got to worry if they're ignoring you.
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B
That's. It's funny. One of. One of the coaches on my. My team, he says that to the kids a lot. You know, if someone, one of the other coaches is giving direction a lot or consistently to a player, he always says, hey, that's a great thing because they care about your. Your progression as a player. If you matter, the time that you worry is when they don't have those conversations with you.
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A
Right. I'm not gonna bother this get lost cause or not a fit, however you want to put it at the professional level. And sometimes you just, you know, or either you're not getting a response or someone is making the same mistake twice and you say, look, after a while, I've got a finite amount of coaching energy and time that I can put in here. And whether it's stopping the film in your positional room, say, hey, you gotta stop doing this or stop holding on punt returns, whatever a guy's problem is, is it worth my time to keep going and keep working? Keep working. And it's at this point when you say self scout, you know, who the stars are, you know, who the material players right now are in for game planning purposes.
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B
Right.
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A
But some of those decisions are just as important for. For third roster guys, for the bottom third of the roster. When you're like, you know, maybe this guy's going to be up for a game and we're going to, we're going to get him in. And we've heard them when they talked about Ozzy Trapillo, like that's one of those guys right now.
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B
Yep.
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A
Ozzy Trappillo is critical. The second round picks are Shamar Turner, these guys who their pedigree said they should be contributing.
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B
And Isaac Chapillo showed enough in the Raiders game to. To merit more look and more time on the field. He really did. Again, not perfect. And I'm sure there's plays he'd want back against Max Crosby, but it's Max Fox, you know, Max Crosby and Max Fox. Yeah. Max. I swore so much in dbu I say, I know.
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A
Yeah, that was. That was so much fun, though.
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B
It really was. So Max fucking Crosby. There you go. But, you know, he. He showed enough in that game to be like, yeah, why isn't he in the game plan more? Why isn't he there? I want to see how this offensive line develops and I want to see what they come out of this week with, you know, one other thing to circle back to talking about the roster is Ben Johnson and. And Ryan polls.
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A
Developing.
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B
Yes.
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A
And keep an eye on that.
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B
Interested to see how that continues to develop and if they are on the same page and as things move forward.
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A
If they're sitting there together at, you know, the sun's down and it's 8 o' clock and they're getting ready and it's where polls might be like, hey, that guy I drafted for you, how's he doing?
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B
Yeah.
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A
How's your guy looking? It's like, I don't know. How's the chump you had in his place that you drafted before I got here?
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B
Right.
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A
I'd love to know what kind of relationship.
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B
Yeah, no, I would love to. I would love to know what that's like.
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A
Why aren't you playing my dude? He sucks.
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B
Yeah. Or are they not having those kind of conversations? Is it more. I'm doing my thing behind the scenes and you're coaching and running the team and trying to get wins on the field. What. What is the collaboration like after the season?
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A
Do they sit down and then have it out?
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B
Yeah.
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A
Is he totally hands off or is there. They always say we talk constantly. We Talk every day. Well, that's fine.
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B
But you could say, and you probably do them Cubbies, but. Right. Are you really talking, Are you talking about the team and what matters, the nuts and bolts of the whole thing, is that what they're doing?
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How honest are you? How open are you? How vulnerable are you?
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B
So I'm really curious to see how that relationship is going and how that plays out and develops, because that, that's a huge part in putting this future roster together.
- [28:25]
A
And also the idea of saying, hey, can you do me a favor? I want to see this guy against this guy, or I want to see this guy in this situation. And sometimes if you are a really good team, you can do it in practice and you can at least get, you know, I want to see if Tropillo on the left can block a nine technique. Can his feet move fast? Can we. So if you're running practices correctly and really, every rep has a purpose. Every rep, every matchup, every one on one, every everything in seven on seven, everything in scout team. Make all of that matter.
- [29:09]
B
Yeah, it's all purposeful to get stuff on tape.
- [29:11]
A
Everything has to have intent to say, yeah, show me if he can. Show me if he can block this guy. Or, or when you're running an opposing play, if you're saying you're going into a game and you're like, okay, well, we know that this is when they pull the guard, but it's eyewash because everything's coming to the other side. I want to see the difference between Dominique Robinson and Austin Booker at that recognition. How quickly do they read that key and move to the, to the play side of the field. Little things like that that go into the management of a practice.
- [29:45]
B
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- [31:14]
A
Let's talk about another absolute truth of a positive on this team this year on the Bears so far and that has been the early season production of Roma Dunes A.
- [31:27]
B
Yes, sir.
- [31:27]
A
Who is doing exactly what we talked about before the season started. We said, hey, if you're the number nine overall pick and you have an opportunity with this coach and this offense to be a number one receiver, show that you can be. And he has answered those questions early.
- [31:44]
B
So if you remember, we had an episode before the season started. We specifically talked about Roma Dunes A and I asked you what are your expectations for Rome for this season? Because I had my level set of expectations for his numbers. So we looked at receptions, yards and touchdowns. Yards and touchdowns. This is what you gave. I don't know if you remember but.
- [32:04]
A
You said, let me see if I can remember. Okay, receptions. Now what did I say? This is my prediction or my hope?
- [32:11]
B
Your expectations for him this year. So I guess your hopes.
- [32:14]
A
I think I said like 75, 906.
- [32:21]
B
You said 85.
- [32:22]
A
Okay.
- [32:23]
B
1100 and seven.
- [32:25]
A
Okay.
- [32:27]
B
My expectations, my hopes and desires for Roma Dunes this year were 100 receptions, 1500 yards and 10 touchdowns.
- [32:39]
A
I think so for touchdowns, he's obviously ahead of both. He's well ahead five.
- [32:42]
B
He's at five. He's actually. I think he's tied for second in the in the league in touchdowns.
- [32:47]
A
So receptions he has.
- [32:49]
B
So he has five touchdowns right now. 20 receptions on 35 targets. So that percentage is not good.
- [32:55]
A
No.
- [32:56]
B
When looking at other receivers in the league.
- [32:59]
A
But he's also as an X receiver. Remember some of those quote unquote targets are also on. Those aren't. They're not necessarily drops. Those are not all non catch targets are drops because some of them are difficult to catch balls, sideline passes where they're jumps where only he can get them. Yes. So there's some leeway between.
- [33:22]
B
No, there's definitely leeway there.
- [33:24]
A
It's not all his fault.
- [33:25]
B
Now that percentage, you want that, that gap to close a little bit between 20 and 35. But I even wrote down completely. Yeah, oh yeah, that would be great. But I said it. It's a, it's just, it's a combo of, of, of Caleb Williams and himself. I mean Caleb's has some. That he skips to him.
- [33:39]
A
How many yards total?
- [33:42]
B
Well, let me look it up here real quick.
- [33:43]
A
All right. Because he's at, he's at 20 receptions through.
- [33:47]
B
Yeah. So here's what his average is. He's averaging five receptions.
- [33:50]
A
That's right. That's 85. Yeah.
- [33:52]
B
75 yards a game and one touchdown, which I don't anticipate the touchdown a game to keep pace.
- [33:58]
A
I think he's going to end up probably pretty close to my.
- [34:01]
B
He's very. So here's where it projects out. If he holds this pace. 85 receptions on the nose like you said, but 1258 yards and then of course 17 touchdowns. But that's, that's not going to, that's not going to hold.
- [34:13]
A
True. I'm also wondering what does that do to the happiness, slash engagement level of DJ Moore?
- [34:22]
B
Probably not much. Probably not much at all. If he were to have an 85 reception season and 1100 yards, do you know where 85 receptions would put him from Bears all time.
- [34:37]
A
85 catches in one year. Well, I know Booker, Marty Booker holds the. Booker and Forte I believe are near the top for total receptions. My guess it would be in the top five.
- [34:55]
B
I, I thought it would be more than that. I thought similarly as you did, but.
- [34:59]
A
I always, when it comes to Bears and receiving records, always think ridiculously low.
- [35:05]
B
So it's actually 85 would put him at 14th all time.
- [35:08]
A
Okay. Because did Conway and Graham.
- [35:11]
B
So here's how it looks. You have Brandon Marshall with 118.
- [35:14]
A
Oh, sure.
- [35:15]
B
Brandon Marshall, Alan Robinson 102. Matt Forte 102 Brandon Marshall 100, Marty Booker 100, Alan Robinson 98 DJ Moore 98 Marty Booker 97 DJ Moore 96. Johnny Morris 93. Martella's Bennett with 90.
- [35:38]
A
Johnny Morris had 93. I never thought he had that many in a season.
- [35:41]
B
1964 at 93 receptions, Martellis at 90, Alshon Jeffrey at 89, Bobby Ingram at 86. And then 85 would put.
- [35:53]
A
Okay, right there. That's a little better number than I thought. And some of that with Alan Robinson and Brandon Marshall just shows you the overall inflation of the passing game.
- [36:01]
B
Yeah. And so if he were to get 100 receptions, it would be only the sixth time in Bears history.
- [36:06]
A
Wow.
- [36:07]
B
For someone to have 100 receptions and you take Matt Forte out of it, it'd be the fifth time that a wide receiver did it.
- [36:13]
A
Okay. Better than I thought.
- [36:14]
B
Yeah, better than you thought.
- [36:15]
A
How long does it take you to get to Johnny Morris?
- [36:18]
B
That's really how the trivia question should start.
- [36:20]
A
Exactly. Where is the benchmark?
- [36:24]
B
So let's, let's look though, at NFL receivers last year. So look at 20, 24, what 100 catches would do. So, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 receivers had 100 or more receptions last year. So that would put him in elite numbers. 100 catches, 85 would put him in the top 20. So if he could, if he could achieve that, and he's on pace right now for that.
- [36:54]
A
I'm trying to figure out how I can get all the things that I want because I can't just say I want more Luther Burden and I want Colston Loveland to stay healthy and be productive. Well, I guess what I want is.
- [37:09]
B
No, Dan, you certainly can because you just. You need, you need your, your main three targets to be the rookie, the rookie tight end, the other rookie wide receiver with Roma. Dunes a being your, your main guy.
- [37:21]
A
With, with Caleb, what it means is more first downs, longer drives.
- [37:27]
B
Yeah.
- [37:28]
A
More plays. Where do you find that? You find that in expecting them to have the ball more.
- [37:34]
B
Right.
- [37:34]
A
And if you would get a new set of downs, you get a new set of opportunities to let everybody eat.
- [37:40]
B
Yeah. No, for sure. So it's, it's not, you know, it's not unreasonable for him to hit those numbers and come somewhere between what we both expected for him.
- [37:49]
A
And as we get closer to the game throughout this week and get more information from the Bears, we'll obviously hear, well after practice, what Ben Johnson has and everybody else has to say about any roster changes and where they're going to be going. And we're going to do that as we make sure we get you ready throughout the week for everything that's coming up on Monday night. And remember, after the game, Monday night, forward progress. Always live with post game.
- [38:15]
B
We'll be live and late.
- [38:16]
A
Live and late right away. The game might not be over yet, but when we declare it's over enough, we flip the switch and we go on Live on YouTube. It's been really fun to get everybody in that little community out there either celebrating or commiserating or somewhere in between, as these things are in this still just the nascency of 312Sports and forward progress and DBU. And we appreciate it. We appreciate everybody who's been with us for a lot of this stuff in, you know, we're all building together. Yeah, it's.
- [38:49]
B
I mean, this Friday will mark our seventh week only.
- [38:54]
A
Isn't that crazy of three one, two sports existing.
- [38:56]
B
Yes. Yes.
- [38:57]
A
It's incredible. Seven weeks and I feel like we've settled into a nice routine.
- [39:00]
B
We're getting there.
- [39:01]
A
I think we're getting comfortable in the way we do things on this end. But the feedback has been great. I've been, you know, Feedback Fridays have been helpful for us, too, believe it or not, because it's not just, hey, this is funny or this is cute or this is smart. It really has been. Is this person right? Can we build on this? Is this something we can do? Can we do more of this or less of this or do this on this show and this on this show. So thanks to everybody for. For doing all of this in good faith so far.
- [39:26]
B
And a couple programming notes along those lines there, too. The. The top 10 list will continue that. That will be the top 10 commanders of all time.
- [39:33]
A
Got to get to work on that.
- [39:34]
B
We will have that moving to dbu. So that will be on DBU on Fridays along with our feedback Friday, whatever else we do on Fridays. But our top 10 list will move to DBU. We'll keep more nuts and bolts and football stuff on. On Forward Progress. Also too, people have asked about release times for podcasts. And so I'm going to tell you this right now. This is the. This is it for you right here. 11 o', clock 11am will be the release time for DBU, and then 1pm will be the release time for forward progress. Okay, Moving forward. So that's. So that. That is so we can be consistent with it. We're shooting for like noon for forward progress, and it's just not always, always possible because sometimes, you know, each morning is different, presents a different amount of challenges for us and new things that pop up. So just to have it guaranteed, you can mark this going forward 11am for DBU, 1pm for forward progress. So get yourself ready for. Plan your day around those releases. So 11 and one moving forward is what it will be.
- [40:35]
A
That is Matt Abaticola, who has only used, what, two F bombs, I think.
- [40:39]
B
Yeah, I know it was. It was a bit much. I know. We're fine doing it. It's just. It was a bit much in dvu. I'm telling you. I'm just.
- [40:47]
A
I'm a. I'm a. I'm sorry. He's. Easy.
- [40:50]
B
Easy. I mean, I'm. I'm a Cubs fan.
- [40:53]
A
I'm in a glass case of emotion.
- [40:56]
B
Yeah.
- [40:56]
A
It's just. It's hard, I know, but you gotta. You have to, you know, switch that channel in your head when it comes time to do forward progress.
- [41:04]
B
The Nacho bowl is so good, though. At American family, you can build your own. They give you a big plate of chips and they're like. You just walk down the line, what do you want? I want some of that. I want some of that. Do you want cheese? Well, do I want cheese? Of course I want cheese.
- [41:15]
A
I'm in Wisconsin. Yeah, come on. It's probably the best cheese.
- [41:19]
B
And then Coors Edge non alcoholic beer. It's so good. I mean, because at Wrigley we get the, like, Michelob. Na. It's just. It's not as good as cors.
- [41:28]
A
We'll let Matty figure out his baseball life conflict and his difficult.
- [41:36]
B
You can be my wingman anytime.
- [41:38]
A
Dissonant feelings that he has and.
- [41:41]
B
Hey, can I share one before you say goodbye? I'm sorry. One real quick thing. You were so into the Chiefs and Jaguars game last night.
- [41:47]
A
I was.
- [41:48]
B
You loved that game.
- [41:49]
A
It also gave me a rage flip.
- [41:52]
B
Oh, really hard on the remote. Did you really?
- [41:54]
A
With like an Ian Hap.
- [41:56]
B
I like when that happens.
- [41:59]
A
It gave me a great rage flip.
- [42:01]
B
Okay.
- [42:01]
A
Because I had the satisfaction of being.
- [42:03]
B
Like, do you hit the back button?
- [42:05]
A
Is that what you do previous?
- [42:06]
B
Okay.
- [42:07]
A
I load it all up and I get it set. And there's the delay because it's DirecTV.
- [42:12]
B
Yeah.
- [42:12]
A
So I get the so. And then there's like this pause.
- [42:15]
B
That is football when I'm really mad.
- [42:17]
A
Cubs, I dislike what you're doing so much. Here's a little football for you.
- [42:22]
B
When I get mad, I actually. I input the channel number. So it's more buttons to push. Oh, no, no. It's my own phone technique of slamming the receiver down so I can push the buttons. In that game last night, Dan, The Chiefs had 157 more yards than the Jaguars. They had five more first downs. Their yards per play was 1.7 yards better. They had. They won the turnover battle and they had more time of possession and they lost. So here's the. I was like, how did this. How did this go? Because I didn't get to watch the game being out at. At American Family. That Minor League Park. Thirteen penalties, 109 yards for the Chiefs. That sounds like an awful. That sounds like a Bears game.
- [43:03]
A
Well, from what I watched, it was. That's how it felt.
- [43:09]
B
What were they doing?
- [43:10]
A
Special teams and they were calling out Dave Tobe.
- [43:14]
B
Oh, really?
- [43:14]
A
Yeah, they kept saying like, it's been a rough night for Dave Tobes unit.
- [43:18]
B
What were they doing?
- [43:20]
A
I hate when it's a rough night for my unit.
- [43:22]
B
What were they doing on special teams?
- [43:24]
A
Just. Just penalties and mistakes. And one of the penalties was Butker kicking the. That late kickoff out of bounds.
- [43:31]
B
Out of bounds. Yeah.
- [43:31]
A
Sort of like my check by Blake Trine and stuff. And watching Butker.
- [43:36]
B
That works, right?
- [43:37]
A
Weirdo. Yeah, it's awesome. I love watching Butker be bad. There's something weird about that dude.
- [43:44]
B
He's a kicker. They're all weird. No, different level weird. Okay.
- [43:49]
A
There's some. There's some over compensation going on. It's just, I. I don't know what's.
- [43:53]
B
Up with that guy. Well, Dave Tobes unit's okay.
- [43:57]
A
Yes. Yes. Thoughts and prayers to Dave Tobes unit.
- [44:03]
B
Could be a good fantasy football team name, I hope.
- [44:05]
A
Dave, if you're listening, I hope your unit's okay.
- [44:08]
B
All right.
- [44:09]
A
Because it was called out multiple times.
- [44:10]
B
You can say goodbye now.
- [44:11]
A
Goodbye now, Ted. 219.
- [44:17]
B
219 forward progress. A Chicago Bears podcast with Dan Bernstein and Matt Abeticola on 312 Sports.