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Just go to indeed.com/bluewire right now and support our show by saying that you heard about Indeed on this podcast, that's indeed.com/bluewire, terms and conditions apply. And this is the Bear Report Podcast with Zach Pearson, Zach Pearson, and Aaron Lemming, providing extensive coverage of the Chicago Bears, presented by Blue Wire Pods. And now, here are your hosts, Zach Pearson and Aaron Lemming. What's up Bears fans, welcome to another edition of the Bear Report Podcast. We've been in a bit of a hiatus here, but we're back. Trading Camp starts next week with players reporting early. Brian Pollers met Ira Fus talking a week from Friday, and you're going to get players on the field, although it's open to media only. That's Saturday. I believe it's the 20th. We're going to break all that stuff down for you, the excitement of training camp for the Chicago Bears, including sold out training camp tickets, hard knocks, Caleb Williams, much, much more on this episode of the Bear Report Podcast. Let's get right into it. Let's welcome in my co-host Aaron Lemming, and as I mentioned, man, it's been a little bit of like a, I think a month since we've done a podcast, some stuff going on for both of us, a little bit of a summer break. But here we are, man, it's July 11th that we're recording this. The Bears officially report next week, and it's going to be an exciting time. Well, I tried to quit, but you just kept bothering me to hear what we are. Yeah, you can't quit, man, no quitting. Yeah, no, I, yeah, it's been a hectic month, month and a half. I think that kind of puts up an ad on Twitter that we basically relocated the states to get out of the heat of Texas, so we're finally, finally settled, good to go. The nice thing is, I don't, I don't know how busy it's been for you, but the nice thing is is, especially after such a hectic off season, it was kind of cool to be able to unplug a little bit and not obsess over, you know, the season to come for, you know, like I said, month, month and a half really haven't thought a ton about football just because I've been so busy. But now we lock back in, and like you said, I mean, we're basically what eight days away because we're recording this on the Thursday, we're eight days away from polls and e-reflues talking, we're nine days away from their first official practice. As we record this today, we're officially three weeks away from the Bears playing in the Hall of Fame game, which is just kind of crazy to think. I mean, football is right around the corner, you know, I, and we've talked about this, I don't think, you know, Super Bowl expectations probably a little too high for this season, but I do think for the first time in quite some time, like we can, you know, Bears fans can dare to dream a little bit, hey, if you think they could win the division, cool, if you think they can make the playoffs, I think that's realistic at this point. I think that considering everything that we've seen, you know, the disaster of 2021 coming off that eight and eight season when they basically backed in the playoffs and shouldn't have been there. And, and just how everything is kind of unfolded and then going into the rebuild, it feels like the Bears are finally on the right track. There's a lot of excitement. There's, you know, a lot of different storylines, like you pointed out hard knocks for the first time ever for the Bears. Like, there's just a lot of excitement around this team moving into the season that should make it a little bit more interesting during training camp in the preseason than it normally would be. You know, it was nice to kind of get away, kind of stay off social media a little bit. You get stuff here and there like, you know, today, Jalen Johnson's making the media rounds. Other than that, it's been pretty quiet with the Bears the last couple of weeks since they kind of broke camp from that final OTA practice. They moved to after any camp and it was essentially just rookies. It's been about a month. It's, it's, it felt good to kind of, you know, it's my job, but also the same time, like to unplug and kind of just take some time, you know, I got a little taste of the Bears. I went to the NASCAR event in Chicago and, and that foretakes a grand marshal. He did a press conference, got to talk to him a little bit about the Bears, his excitement, Spice Adams as well, sauce and Bears players there. It was actually like, it's all, let's see, Tremaine Edmonds, DJ Moore, Cole Kometz. Someone said they saw Keaton out. I didn't, I didn't see him there, but it was kind of cool to like kind of talk to them off the side and have that human relationship with them rather than just like asking them questions nonstop in a media setting. That was kind of nice. It was kind of like a good refresher like, okay, like the players know. We're, we're gearing up a couple of weeks. The media is gearing up in a couple of weeks, but also kind of have that human element of like talking to DJ Moore, seeing more on his family, like just not about football and other stuff. That was kind of neat. Um, but here we are, dude, like it's, it's about to be go time and, you know, this episode we're just going to a lot of time talk about the excitement around this team and rightfully show. It's been an exciting off season since, you know, the day after the loss of Green Bay, you know, whether it was the arguments between people that wanted Justin Fields, the arguments that, you know, between people that want to keep Caleb Williams or draft Caleb Williams. So what we're at now is just kind of been a busy, active off season. Um, and now we're gearing up to get ready to go into this. And I was kind of thinking about this the other day. I think 2019 was a very exciting training camp. That was what the final one in Berbonne before they moved it over to Halis Hall or maybe announcement. Um, Halis Hall, they obviously didn't have fans in 2020 at training camp, but Berbonne was 2019. There was a lot of excitement coming off the playoff run, um, a division title that burnt out. Um, 20 or 2007 was an all exciting one that remember I was not covering the team. I remember going to those practices down in Berbonne coming off that Super Bowl appearance. The excitement on our team, that's back when they, this how long it's back when they did two day practices at times to do one in the morning and one at night or anything lights. Like those had a lot of hype. Um, it's amped up now. I mean, this is a lot of hype for a team that hasn't been to the playoffs since 2019 or 2018. Haven't had a winning season in a few years, like the, the, the addition of Caleb Williams, the addition of Verma Dunes, a, the addition of Keaton Allen, um, bringing back what you have. It is very exciting. And I think a great example, I guess what, let's get off with this, you know, I wouldn't surprise at all that training camp ticket sold out and what like five, 10 minutes to seem like. Um, obviously I didn't really go on and try cause I'm going to be there for the media, but knowing people that did, it seemed like it was absolutely impossible to get in. And I think that just, you know, we should have expected it, uh, but I think that shows like, okay, there's a lot of excitement and also like the bears got to figure out a better system, in my opinion. Well, it's funny that you mentioned 2018 as being the last playoff appearance, cause that kind of feeds into my point about, oh, okay, they were the playoffs a couple years after that. Well, but it was so forget, it was forgettable because they had no business being in the playoff. Like some of their wins that year were so bad. Yeah. So I mean, if you really think about it, the last real time that there was any excitement around this team outside of obviously Justin Fields is rookie year and so on and so forth was back in 2018 going in 2019 when they won 12 games, uh, you know, they had super well aspirations and obviously everything fell apart. And yeah, I think, I think it's a culmination of different things, right? Because again, I mean, this is year three of the rebuild, but I mean, if you really think about it, even 2020, I think everybody knew that Iber Fluz and Nagi, or sorry, uh, that, uh, Nagi and, uh, pole should have been fired. And obviously it drug out here. Pace, right? Pace. Yeah. Pace. Yeah. Pace. Yeah. Yeah. Pace and Nagi. See, we're, we're getting back in the swing of things. Yeah. I was just going to say that. Yeah. Exactly. So, but if you think about it, I mean, it's, it's been a while since you could really, like feel the palpable excitement behind this team. Like, even if, you know, every year you go into the regular season, like, oh, maybe they can surprise some people, you know, it's like in a prime example of that would be baseball with my dad. I remember talking to him back in, uh, back in March about the White Sox, oh, you never know. No, you never know. They, they could be better than people think. It's like, no, they're going to be pretty bad, but everybody's going to have their different feelings. And obviously the White Sox are still far and away the worst team in baseball right now. So it just goes to show you, even when you look at a roster and you say, okay, well, maybe they're going to be better than people think. They're going to surprise some people, you know, Lewis Riddick got jumped all over the year that they got the number one overall pick for saying that they were going to be a contender for the number one overall pick and you're one of the rebuild. It's been a long time since realistically, like even the most die hard and optimistic of fans could really look at this team and say, Hey, this team is moving in the right direction. You could kind of see what the plan was now you can see the talent stacking up on the field. You've got once again, another young, in this case, rookie quarterback, the first time the Bears have ever had a number one overall pick or selected a number one overall pick is or is their quarterback. So yeah, it just, it, this feels different. And again, I'm not, I'm not saying that we should be expecting like this is going to be some Cinderella run. They're going to, you know, get into the Superbowl and they're going to win the Superbowl. I'm not saying that whatsoever. But I think that even a, a team that goes into the playoffs as a wild car team wins, you know, nine, ten games, maybe wins a game in the playoffs and Caleb Williams proves to be the guy and the rest of this young roster develops. I mean, they're in good shape moving for Ryan polls hasn't taken a lot of chances with cap space. He hasn't really taken a lot of chances with moving a ton of draft capital. Like they're in a, they're in a good spot right now. So it's one of those like you can, for the first time in a while, it feels like we're not going into a season where like 50% of your mind is focused on the season, hoping it'll go better and be more pleasant than you think. And the other 50% of your focus is like, all right, well, you know, what's this next draft class looking like? What's the next free agency class looking like? I think it's been a while since Bears fans could actually live in the present and, you know, hopefully enjoy the season. And like I said, even if they don't make the playoffs, if they win nine, ten games, I mean, that's a, that's a, you know, considerable improvement. I mean, if they look like they did in the second half of last year, especially with a better offense, better quarterback play, like they should be right in the mix. So I don't know, I'm, I think, especially with the, with the training camp stuff, I definitely think it speaks to it a little bit. I would guess that the hard knock stuff had a little bit of play in that. I mean, I'm sure, you know, you're kind of thinking, okay, go watch Bears, maybe I can find myself on TV, I would assume that that would be part of the thought process. But again, I mean, when you have the number one overall pick on your roster, a guy that, frankly, you know, depending on who you talk to, a lot of people felt he was on the same level as a Trevor Lawrence, you know, right below like an Andrew Luck, one of those, you know, I know it's overused, but again, all overused at the generational type of quarterback prospect, whatever the case may be, like there's a lot of storylines with this team. They're young, they're improving. This is a pretty big prove it year for, for Matt Eberflues. There's just, there's an abundant of storylines where, I don't know if you agree, but it's made it really easy to kind of start building up towards training camp and the preseason. And it's going to be a lot easier to stay engaged during the preseason with the amount of storylines and things to watch. I would say it's worthy of our receiver for the NFL speeding. It's a rush on the field in the zone where it matters. As an athlete, I push my limits to win. So when I get behind the wheel, I know the importance of slowing down for safety. Because speeding is illegal, it endages you, your loved ones, and everyone else on the road. Did you know, speeding accounts for more than one quarter of all traffic-related fatalities nationwide? Just like we need to focus and score touchdowns and win games, we need to be at the zone to stay safe on the road. Speed limits are in place to protect everyone, no matter what the speed limit is. Everything over is not only illegal, but dangerous. Like athletes, drivers must stay alert and present because there is no reward for speeding. Nothing is safe about it. Driving over to speed limit might seem like the quicker option. Speeding catches up with you. Stay focused. In the split second, everything can change. Paid for by NHTSA. Yeah, I mean that 2020 season when they backed into the playoffs really only scored a touchdown on the playoff game against the Saints on the last second touchdown in the gymagram. That really didn't matter. The excitement just wasn't there in 2021. Like you said, they brought back Matt and Aggie, they brought back Ryan Pace. They had that weird end of season press conference with George McCask and Ted Phillips answering questions. The answers were just same old bear stuff where they probably knew they should have moved down, but they put him in a lame duck situation. Yeah, they've got Justin Field. I think the hype around Justin Fields was there for training camp. Excuse me. But, you know, we've got to remember Matt and Aggie said and Dalton's a starter, they had Nick Foles. I guess, you know, there's a couple of exciting moments in that camp, but nothing like this. And, you know, the selling on tickets, people on social media getting prepared for training camp, hard knocks coming in, the whole fame game, you know, the bears playing in that. The extra week of practice, I think it's just kind of the perfect storm for high expectations. Now, you know, I'm not going to tell anyone they can't dream high or, you know, say the bears are going to be a playoff team, I would just, you know, kind of just want a little bit just temper the expectations just a little bit, but also enjoy it if that kind of makes sense. And, you know, I think it's going to be a great moment because it's going to be a fun training camp, man. There's no quarterback controversy. Carefully into the guy. They've got more weapons on offense. The cameras are going to be on them. They get the extra preseason game. So, yeah, I agree. I think it's a little easier to pay attention to. It's going to be easier to follow, you know, the coverage is going to be great. The coverage is going to be fun. I think you get to those dog days of summer, especially being there constantly every day in the heat and having a right and staying there extra. It wears on you. I'm kind of feeling like it's going to be a little bit of a boost of energy for me. It's going to be fun to cover this team. It's going to be a fun team to cover. Not only talent-wise, not only with all the hype and all that stuff, but just the personalities they have on this team. And a lot of question marks still to be, you know, answered as well. I think that's where kind of the excitement comes from me and kind of use it as a little bit of a boost to get through the summer here. Yeah, well, and I think that that's, you know, for fans who are looking to kind of balance those realistic expectations, I mean, there's a few different ways you can kind of look at this, right? I mean, this is still a team, you know, in every sense of the term rebuild. I mean, that's exactly what this team did over the last three years. And as we know, I mean, that's usually anywhere from a three to five year process, if it's successful and even if it's relatively successful, we saw with the Bears in 2018, like, it doesn't guarantee it's the same success at all. So it's one of those things where you can look at it and you can be kind of more cautious and say, yes, there are some holes on this team. I think the defensive line is obviously a big one. The offensive line to me still has some questions. I don't love the fact that they're, you know, it's like they trade a fifth for iron baits and not, you know, I still don't really understand that whole thing, but whatever it is, what it is, but all of a sudden you've got baits kind of floating around a little bit. You've got Coleman Shelton taking starting snaps at center. There was that weird thing. And again, I've been kind of out of the loop. Maybe you were paying a little bit more attention to me. What is this whole thing I keep seeing about David Bakhtiari being a rumored option for the bear? Like what? What sense is that? Let's address this. It's just us. It was just betting ads. So I saw that and, you know, the sites that the aggregate on God bless them, it's just betting ads. It was just like, they're the favorites, Vegas, what's going on? Why are they the favorites? They just honestly didn't, it wasn't even row money. Well, it wasn't even an on on short, it was an offshore sports book, I believe. So it wasn't even, you know, MGM, Caesars, any of those. I think it was just the thought of like, okay, let's get some content out there. It doesn't make sense to me. I think if he goes anywhere, he's going to go to a place where he has a tie into obviously the Jets make, you know, the sense in that factor. I don't, I don't even know who their left or right tackle is out there. Yeah, I don't think they're going to be going to the Jets. They made, because they signed Tyrant Smith. They did. That's right. They did. They traded for, I'm drawing a blank on who it was, they traded for, it was somebody in Baltimore and then they drafted Olu. Yeah. Yeah, I won't be the Jets then. Yeah. I don't think he's. But it's just. It won't be the better. It's either. So. Exactly. Yeah, I thought that was kind of strange. I figured there was something kind of weird to it, but it is what it is. But again, like you can look at it from those perspectives and say, hey, they've still got a lot to prove. I don't disagree with that. You can also look at it from the perspective of yes, the track record of rookie quarterbacks is not great in terms of first year success. But you can also look at it and say, hey, this isn't a typical, at least on paper, this isn't a typical situation for Caleb Williams, he'd be walking into is the number one overall pick. I mean, you're talking about like, at least in recent memory, if I'm really thinking about it. And again, this is all on paper in recent memory. This is the best supporting cast for an offense. I've seen the Bears having quite some time, and that's not including the offensive line. We're just talking receiver, tight end, running back, running back deep. It's not as good as when Matt Forte was there because Matt Forte was great. But running back is deep receivers as deep as I can ever remember it. Tight ends really good too. This isn't a typical situation for a number one overall pick to be stepping into a quarterback. So I think you can kind of make that argument one way or the other to say, yeah, the chances are the Bears probably won't make the playoffs because they have a rookie quarterback. But you can also say, well, you know, name me the last situation that a rookie quarterback stepped into that had that type of supporting cast. And I would say probably what Patrick Mahomes would be the last guy, and he started one game. That was the last game of the season, and you know, Alex Smith was there. So I, it's, it's a very, and that's, it kind of feeds into, you know, the talking points of training camp and the intrigue of the season and how some people are betting, you know, the Bears to go way over and other people not buying the hype and, you know, maybe being overly negative because of the amount of hype. It's, it's, there's so many different storylines to kind of monitor. And I think we already know it's going to be over reaction central as we get in the training camp and we start seeing these reports. And as we get into the preseason, you know, especially with the four games, I'll be very curious. I mean, obviously Caleb Williams is the unquestioned week one starter, but I'm kind of curious how, how much reps are going to want to get him. I'm hoping that they're going to be smart about this and say, Hey, you know, obviously you don't want to risk injury, but at the same time, you know, getting those extra snaps throughout the preseason, taking advantage of that game, even if he goes out and plays two series in the Hall of Fame game, like I'm, I'm all forward at this point. I think the more reps that you can get this team, especially you talk about the offensive line, they need to figure out what's going on there. They need to figure out what's going on with Nate Davis. They need to figure out who's going to be their starting center. Like this is the time to get things figured out. Yes, it's risky to play guys during the preseason, but how many times have we seen them go conservative during the preseason and guys either still get injured or they're terrible, like just go out, use the extra game to your advantage. You know, you have a rookie quarterback, you've got a, you know, a bunch of receivers that weren't there last year, like it, this is the time to kind of go and figure things out. And I think this is also kind of the time for Bears fans over this next few weeks to kind of keep an eye on the free agent market and see what goes on, because, you know, Ryan Polls has been pretty consistent in his first two years in a league about going out and adding a few names right before training camp or right after training camp. And I think that Ed's rusher defensive line as the whole is still going to make a lot of sense in terms of, you know, maybe somebody that they can add there. There's still a few names that are at least rotational pieces. We're driven by the search for better, but when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search match with Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors, according to Indeed data, and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast. Ditch the busy work, use Indeed for scheduling, screening and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster. Leveraging over 140 million qualifications and preferences every day, Indeed's matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences, so the more you use Indeed, the better it gets. Join more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide that use Indeed to hire great talent fast. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com/bluewire. Just go to indeed.com/bluewire right now and support our show by saying that you heard about Indeed on this podcast. It's indeed.com/bluewire. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. Yeah, and it can go away, so obviously the name that continues to be connected and, you know, I see why it's connected. Yeah, I mean, outside of, well, God, Minnesota probably has a great situation for JJ McCarthy to go into, you know, it kind of goes into a great situation. There's no question about it. He's got DJ Moore, he's got a King and Allen, they draft a rheumatoid and say, I love that they not only, you know, got King and Allen in a trade to go along with more, but they set that nine, they got their guy, they waited, they got the guy that was, you know, in my opinion, top three on their board, no matter what, and paired him with Caleb Williams, they're bringing DeAndre Swift, they signed Gerald Everett, they bring back Mercedes Lewis, and to me, it's, you got to give Ryan Paul's credit. He's putting his rookie quarterback in the best position to succeed that he possibly can. You know, I, I hope Caleb Williams obviously succeeds by the big storyline to watch moving forward. But yeah, you're going to start hearing those names. I believe there's have two roster spots, one, one or two roster spots open. I think they have one right now, I think, because I think after they signed Mercedes Lewis, I think it's turned into one. Okay. Something wrong on that one. Yeah. It's either one. I'm pretty sure it's one though, now that I think of it. Yeah. The way, I mean, dude, they've got their, there's, I mean, with God bless them, but, you know, with the bottom of the roster, there's always some areas to churn if they want to go out and make a move. It just, to me, it feels like we could be looking at more than one move, and I'm not saying anything big, but I'm just saying, like, it wouldn't shock me if they go out and get an edge rusher and then something else. I don't even know what that something else would be. Maybe, maybe they realize like, hey, you know, maybe we, maybe we need a veteran quarterback and they go out and they sign somebody like Ryan Tannehill. But I just, I don't know, like it definitely feels like they're, you know, they're in a good spot. Yeah. I've got 89 unless I miss something, edge rusher and defensive tackle are kind of the big two, but, you know, maybe you feel differently, but looking at the free agent market, a defensive tackle, I mean, there's absolutely nothing out there right now, unless they're going to make some sort of trade. I don't see that as a viable possibility. So I think, you know, probably defensive then makes the most sense, you know, you can go away. I guess I don't know, man. I get it. It's got to be at the right price though. I know, but even that it's like, what, what is the right price for him? Like honestly, like, if you look at his production from last year and you look at the trend over the last few years with him, what's the right price? Because frankly, like, if you're judging off of last year's market, the right price is probably like two or three million dollars. Like he played. Yeah. I would say what slightly above, slightly above minimum league minimum last year. I mean, he was not good. Yeah. What did he get? What? How many games did he play with? Montana Sweat. He got hurt, right? Like, right. He got, he got to hurt a few games after Sweat got there. He was so he played 13 games. Yeah. He was better once, once Sweat got there. But again, I mean, it's kind of one of those thing like, I don't know. I just, if it were me, like if you want to meet in the middle, give him a three million dollar base and incentives to get to like six or seven, knowing damn well, he's probably not going to hit those incentives. Because again, you've got the Marcus Walker, who's okay. He's fine. He is what he is. I think he's going to rotate some inside too. Then he got Austin Booker. So it's like, you know, you're, you're very likely looking at a rotational pass rusher that you want, you know, in a solid scenario to produce five to seven sacks for you. Like that shouldn't cost any more than a three million dollar base to me. Maybe four, Manuel Augba still out there. Carl Lawson is another name that can make some sense. I just don't, I don't see a viable scenario or justification for them going out and giving him seven or eight million dollars, especially after he looked last year. Yeah. I would imagine it's going to be what their price rate is probably four point five, five million on them. I think would be comfortable for them. And that's probably on the higher end that we're saying. I would wouldn't be overly, I would be overly happy if they give him like a guaranteed base of anything over about four. I mean, it's, again, I mean, you're looking at a market and, you know, safety is kind of the same way right now, obviously the bears don't need a safety, but I'm just using as an example around a league, like there's still enough guys out on the market right now where it just, to me, it doesn't make a ton of sense to go out. Like, I, cause I mean, if you're thinking about it from like baseball terms in terms of, you know, wins above replacement, like what is Yannick and Gakwe or even Emmanuel Augba or any of these guys, like how much value are they really going to give you? Yes. It could be a jadei on cloudy situation where he ends up, you know, getting 10 to 12 sacks or more than likely you're talking about a guy that's going to be rotational and that may get you five to seven sacks. There's some value in that, but I don't, I don't know from a, you know, again, wins above replacement, you know, viewpoint, I don't know that that's worth any more than three or four million a year. There's, there's not a needle mover, you know, and, and, and there's not a guy out there that you're going to say, okay, you bring him in and he's going to change the outlook of this defense or change, you know, the neat because I mean, obviously you look at this team, like they need another pass rusher. I don't think you can really rely on Demarcus Walker fully. You probably need another defense tackle. There's just, you know, to me, there's no guy that really moves in me, you know, I'm not saying you don't, you, you can't go out and get someone, but I mean, you got other positions too. Like what guy is going to be worth bringing in spending some money and what's your surprise cut? Anything like that? Like you're, you're not going to get a market for someone like Michael Thomas or anything like that. Yeah. Or maybe it, maybe a surprise trade candidate pops up. Yeah, that too. You do don't or somebody like that, like I don't, I, I just, I think it's one of those, like at this point in time, especially this late in the free agent market and the amount because it's not like it was last year. I don't know if you remember last year, like going in a training candidate, but Jadaevian Clany was out there, Justin Houston, obviously, he didn't really do much, but he was so viewed as one of those guys that could be eight to 10 sacks a year. Janik and Gokwe, like there was Melvin Ingram, there was, there were some pretty viable names when you consider the contacts and because the cap went up so much this last off season and the amount of money that was spent, like the, the free agent market is just not where it was, which is fine. And I think, you know, the, the mindset needs to be like, we're going to get a stop gap guy that can help us for this year because as we've seen with some of these moves that the Bears have made, like a Kevin Bayard, for example, like you don't need to continually add guys that are 25, 26 years old and give them bigger money. Like you can add guys that are, you know, 30, 31, 32 years old that are going to play a role for a year or two. And that's completely fine because really what it comes down to is you have Montez Sweat hopefully Driven Dexter, you know, develops a lot this year and turns into a difference maker on the defensive line. Like, we pretty much know, you know, barring a surprise and Austin Booker turning into a Max Crosby in year one, there's a very good chance that the Bears are going to need to go out and spend a high value, you know, resource next year at edge rush and probably on defensive tackle as well. That's not going to get solved. If anything, another trend that we've seen Ryan Polls do, you know, over the last few trade deadlines as he goes out and he takes a decent swing at the trade deadline and laid October, early November, and that could be another option too because they do have those two second round picks that they could, you know, turn into another Montez Sweat-like guy. But again, I mean, if you're looking at it kind of further on down the line, I don't know how much sense that's going to make is I don't know that you're going to be wanting to pay another deep. If you didn't want to pay one of these defensive ends of free agency, $20 million a year, I don't know that trading for, you know, a guy on an expiring contract and that, you know, for a half a season is going to make a ton of sense either at defensive end. You know, I don't, I don't think we're looking at another Montez Sweat situation, but they're at least going to have some options with that extra second round pick. Yeah. We'll see. I mean, this is, this is a year where, you know, the bears, they start off hot right before the trade deadline can address a need like that. Use that draft capital. Obviously a lot of, a lot of moving pieces between now and, you know, kick off in week one. But before we kind of wrap things up, Aaron, what are you most excited to see in training camp, not named Caleb Williams, could be a player, could be a unit, you know, a position group. I mean, could be anything else. What storyline, what are you most excited to see or are going to keep your eye on that's not named Caleb Williams or has anything to do with Caleb Williams? Well, I'll give you two. I'll give you one. I'm excited to see. And one I'm a little nervous about. So, and I know you said that doesn't involve Caleb Williams. I'm taking kind of a broad spectrum here. I'm going to say the offensive soul, right? Because I mean, like we talked about it, they didn't make a ton of moves on the offensive line. I'm a little curious to see how that's going to end up working out for them. They made obviously Ryan Bates and Coleman Shelton and they made some death moves. But I mean, we just got to talk about the, the, the past catchers, the running backs, like the overall supporting cast. I mean, you're talking about adding two guys in, in Keenan Allen, who still produced at a extremely high level last year, even though we missed a few games. And Roma Dunes, who's probably the highest caliber receiver that the Bears have drafted in the modern era in terms of their, you know, in terms of their franchise. And then obviously, you know, Gerald Everett comes over as kind of that, you know, that, that true you guy. And then, you know, their biggest, really the biggest free agent expenditure, if you're not counting trades, was DeAndre Swift. And that's a guy that they went out and, again, for the second year in a row, the first name to break in terms of signing was DeAndre Swift. So there's a lot of new pieces on offense, Shane Waldron, a brand new coaching staff, you know, in talking about Caleb Williams, obviously, they're taking a different approach just here in a few different ways because, you know, they didn't bring in that veteran quarterback. And most experienced guys, in terms of like years in the league, is Brett Ripon. And I mean, Brett Ripon is not somebody that you want to see playing in an actual football game in the regular season, unless the game doesn't matter. You know, Beijing had a few starts last year, it'll be kind of interesting to see how that goes. But it's just, it's a different approach overall because not only did they not have that veteran quarterback in the quarterback room, but they also have already basically, well, not sounding basically, they've named Caleb Williams a starter. So seeing all of the new pieces for the excitement, seeing how the offensive line is going to kind of meld together, the new coaching staff, I would say that Shane Waldron is a proven offensive mind that frankly, with a productive year is probably going to be in the head coaching talks. And then if you're talking about something that maybe makes me a little bit more nervous, we're talking about the defensive side of the ball, mainly the defensive line, I, you know, we've kind of talked about it. But I think defensive tackles, the one where it kind of surprised me a little bit, like defensive in, I can kind of at least understand you made a big investment with Montez Sweat, the second round pick that ended up being a pretty high second round pick, you gave them a big contract. That all makes sense. Defensive tackle was kind of weird because it's like, yeah, you, you, you drafted Dexter and Pickens last year, I get that. But neither one of those guys played a ton. So it was kind of one of those things where when they let Justin Jones go, and I'm not faulting them for letting Justin Jones go, I still can't believe he got that amount of money. But they didn't bring in anybody. I mean, like the biggest name that they brought in at defensive tackle was Brian Byron Coward. Like the guy is like a rotational back of the, you know, back of the rotation type of defensive lineman or practice squat guys. So to me, that's the defensive line is kind of what makes me a little bit nervous. And again, I'm assuming they're going to go out and sign some sort of veteran edge rusher. They should at least have some viable options at edge rusher. But as a whole, and I know that Matti refluses defenses don't rely as much on pressure is, you know, you're traditional, like a Vic Fangio type of defense and they got a really good secondary. But I do think that this, this ceiling on this defense is going to be highly dictated by how well the defensive line plays. And right now, I don't know that you can make an argument that the defensive line is in any better shape than it was leaving week 18 of last year. I am a co-heart man, a wide receiver for the NFL. Speeding is a rush on the field in the zone where it matters. As an athlete, I push my limits to win. But when I get behind the wheel, I know the importance of slowing down for safety because speeding is illegal, it endages you, your loved ones, and everyone else on the road. Did you know speeding accounts for more than one quarter of all traffic-related fatalities nationwide? Just like we need to focus the score touchdowns and win games, we need to be in the zone to stay safe on the road. Speed limits are in place to protect everyone. No matter what the speed limit is, anything over is not only illegal but dangerous. Like athletes, jobs must stay alert and present because there is no reward for speeding. Everything is safe about it. Driving over the speed limit might seem like the quicker option, but speeding catches up with you. Stay focused and the split-second, everything can change. Pay for by NHTSA. I would agree with that. It's an area concern for me going to training camp. My feeling, I'm really excited to watch the defensive backs, the secondary against the wide receivers tight ends. I think that's going to be fascinating. I've got a little taste of it in OTAs and mini-camp. The defense really likes to talk. Keenan Allen, some defense is annoying, especially on third downs or during practices. It's going to be fun, man. It's going to be fun to watch Jordan Johnson line up against DJ Moore and Roma Dunezay going up against Hirek Stevenson or kind of going against those guys, Keenan Allen, and the battles that they're going to have because I think last year when we saw the defense just pretty much win every day almost of practice. They were giving it to the offense and the offense would occasionally score a touchdown and they wouldn't celebrate. They just walked right back to the huddle. It kind of felt like they knew they were defeated already. The offense this year is going to give it right back to them. There was a tie in the mini-camp or OTAs where the offense scored and they did Joquan Brisker's little hand celebration right back at them, so I think we're going to see a lot of that. I think that's going to be one of the focal points/storylines on hard knocks. If you remember, watch the Jets one. They did a sauce gardener against Garrett Wilson in that relationship. I think the DBs and wide receivers, I think it's going to be a little chippy out there too in the trenches, but those are kind of what I'm looking at and what I'm excited for the most. Both battles every day are going to be fun and hopefully it's split and hopefully the offense wins their fair share, the defense wins their fair share, and they get better. Both sides get better. It's kind of what I'm going to be excited for. I think that's going to be something to watch and look at the practice sports from every day. Yeah, there's not going to be a shortage of storylines and things to watch. Oh, they've got tons of stuff for hard knocks. Yeah, for sure. I think too, it's kind of funny, like Ryan Polls was talking about, this is a more competitive roster. It's going to be harder to make the roster. I do agree with that, but I do think that there are enough spots on this roster that are going to be interesting enough. I mean, you talk about receivers four through six or four through five, however you want to look at it, however many they keep. I think the back end of the offensive line, a guy like Larry Borm, I think is a prime example of somebody who's going to be in that Travis Gibson, Kendall Vildor type of situation where it's like, unless he really comes out and plays well and/or takes a pay cut, I can't see them paying him $3.2 million would be the swing tackle, you know, and then again, defensive line is going to be interesting to kind of watch the secondaries in good shape. I mean, really the only change there is Kevin Byer and they got better, you know, they got better depth there. I guess really the only other thing that's going to be kind of fun to watch is going to be obviously Tori Taylor, you know, obviously you don't want to see a ton of infant regular season for obvious reasons, but that should be interesting just because, you know, it's not every day that you see or every year, every draft cycle that you see a punter being taken with the fourth round pick and having the amount of hype around him. So yeah, there's there is plenty of storylines. I'm definitely interested to see who kind of takes the bull by the horns and becomes that that personality, that likable personality to that memorable personality or two during hard knocks. It's got to be DJ Moore, right? I think it's got to be DJ Moore or Jaylon. My money's on Jekyll and Brisker. Oh, okay. See, I'd go with I'd probably have more Jaylon, Brisker slash Gordon, not counting Kale Williams. Yeah, I think Kale Williams is going to be a feature no matter what. Yeah, I think he will too. And I honestly wouldn't shock me if he's, you know, he kind of talked about like, you know, mouth shut, ears open kind of thing, it honestly wouldn't surprise me if he ends up taking that type of approach, especially with all the cameras around. And I'm sure, especially with all, I mean, all the stuff that was said about him, you know, during last year and leading up to the, I'm sure he's kind of like, you know, he doesn't really want to be in the spotlight, especially as a rookie. So it'll be, it'll definitely be interesting. I mean, you do bring up a good point about Jaylon Johnson. He was doing quite the media tour today, not a bad way, just, just, I mean, that's not something you see. You don't see a lot of bears doing that, especially, you know, bears corner, you don't see them doing a lot of, of media tours this close to training camp. So yeah, plenty of storylines, plenty to look forward to importantly for us, plenty to talk about. So we should be back full time leading into the, you know, the regular season and get back in the swing of things and there's, it should be, should be exciting. Yeah, we'll be back next week as well with a little bit of a preview for training camp as the bears, you know, we'll report next week, we'll get our first media practice, the Saturday, not this Saturday, but, you know, the 20th, we'll get Ryan polls, Matt even if he was talking on Friday, it'll be fun, it'll be football be here before you know it, man. It's going to be awesome. It's going to be a fun training camp to cover. What can I want to follow you on Twitter at Aaron, where can everyone reach work? Yep. You can find me on Twitter at AaronLaming NFL and you can read my work on the bear report dot com. You can follow the bear report on Twitter at just bear report. You can follow me on Twitter at Zack ZACK underscore Pearson. Please rate reviews, subscribe and all major podcasting platforms helps us as well as picks for polls. So next time everyone, please stay safe, please stay healthy. [BLANK_AUDIO]
