The Chicago Bears Podcast

Hard Knocks Ep. 5: Ryan Poles' True Colors Revealed w/Jason McKie

The Chicago Bears Podcast with Pat The Designer and Jason McKie presents a special reaction show for HBO's Hard Knocks Episode 3, brought to you by ComEd!

ComEd Electric Moment: Pat and J Mack kick off the show by sharing their favorite electrifying moments from the episode.

Episode Breakdown: Pat and J Mack go through the episode highlighting the highs and lows.

ComEd Moment of Light: Pat and J Mack discuss what they learned from the episode.

Looking Ahead: They wrap up by sharing what they hope to see in the next episode of Hard Knocks.

#ChicagoBears #HardKnocks #NFL #TrainingCamp #ComEd #PatTheDesigner #JasonMcKie #CalebWilliams #JaylonJohnson #KeenanAllen #VelusJonesJr #HBO

Broadcast on:: 04 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

bet on bears fans another edition of the Chicago Bears podcast coming your way this is the ESPN Chicago hard knocks recap brought to you by comment electric and JMac we got episode five tough moments in that episode some some some some tear jerking moment shall we say yeah we saw Ryan polls have to pull away a little bit even some moments where listen like you've said some guys saw their last time on a professional football field and then other guys will get an opportunity to come back and still continue to live their dream I thought that there was some really good moments in this episode we got to break them all down as always rocking with me on the hard knocks recap Jason McKee and the builder J Mac was going on my guy man it's good everything's good man enjoy the last episode of hard knocks I'm excited about the regular season officially kicking off at soldier field on Sunday against the Tennessee Titans so a lot of the things in store you know I think hard knocks I'm glad the Bears got it this year we talked about it week after week a lot of good a lot of bad we gave her insight every week and we'll give our insight this week yeah 100% I do want to address the elephant in the room here I'm not wearing the coach prime glasses to look cool because I know people are sitting there like I think it's bad I don't have shades right now I'm not wearing the coach prime glass to look cool issues going I'm like he's lying when I leave before he came on I said man you got the coach prom glass and I see I just got these man coach prom sending me breakfast I was going by the coach prime glasses I was like oh them kind of hard and then I saw the price tag on the month and I was like I seen that same pair of target for $22.95 wait a minute I got some wisdom teeth issues going on the lights affected me so I will survive I got the one injury for somebody that talks for a living that actually can affect you so yeah I mean I'm playing through the injury that's how we got to do out here in this place that the glasses look good your background looks good man we're gonna do it and I know you're gonna push through because you're awarded oh that's all we that's how we got to do it hey let's get to our comment electric moment of the episode brought to you by comment let's start it off with a word from our sponsors at comment though yeah more business across northern Illinois are partnering with the comment energy efficiency program to save on energy costs get started with a free comment facility assessment to find new ways to control your bottom line learn more at comment.com/poweringbiz got to get that slash in there Jay Mac what was your comment electric moment of the episode there was so much good in this episode yeah this was the best episode out of the five yeah I think man there there was you know a lot of the one that I looked at right and I'm not gonna say it's electric but you know it kind of reminded me of the days when I was a rookie and the vets would ask me to stab the practice and give them a look or stab the practice and you know give them a past protection look or give them you know a route or something like that and we saw that with Rome and Jalen Jalen's constant you know I mean they're standing up to practice and Jalen wants to work on the receivers running the option route so option route is exactly what it is right receivers it's usually in man coverage the corner adds a receiver you know so it gives the receiver three way go you can go depending on if Jalen's playing inside man he may break out Jalen's playing outside man to receive or break in the Jalen's playing tight and the receiver can can stutter him stack him which means get behind him he can run a go route you know what I'm saying so it depended on how you know coastal waters calling that option route but obviously some of that Jalen Johnson wants to work on because he doesn't feel comfortable with it and he called on Rome to hey Rook how do your legs feel my legs are fine Rome says I'm not old you know he's like you can just not hold your legs can still hurt his training camp but Rome stayed out there gave him some work they chopped it up and those moments are huge because when you're a veteran it gives you time to help develop a rookie but it also gives Rome an opportunity to kind of see what how corners are going to play him get some insight from one of the best corners in the game so those are the moments that are invaluable those are the moments that you know the reason why Ryan polls is trying to get good guys in the locker room to help build each other to help develop each other because it's not always just about your own development as an individual you're going to need not only the coaches to help you in that process but also the players the veteran players at that so I think that was one of the moments I really liked in this episode. No that was phenomenal I thought that it was interesting too because like as I'm watching I'm like is he is he trying to figure out you know how to spot it is he trying to figure out how to see it he's trying to figure out how to attack it but you see right he kind of he's like I just you know I feel like I'm playing too far back on that option I need to play up like hearing him I think people view how these guys get better as like it's a rocket ship up and then they plateau off but seeing that it is I mean Jaylen Johnson in my mind is one of the top five DB's in the NFL I think what you throw his numbers up there they would say that as well but he's still got things that he's like I don't like how I'm playing that I need to like almost not that I don't know how to play it but I need to change how my brain is seeing it so I know how to attack it and I know how to adjust my game when I see that come up you think that's a fair assessment of kind of what we saw to that yeah I mean it's a matter of you know you as a pro and if you want to be one of the best in the game at your position you're always going to work on your craft you're never going to feel complacent regardless of if you got paid or not you know he got paid a king's ransom and he deserved it right because he went out there and produced but at the same time you know like like Jaylen Johnson sell a week and he said it you know in the past and his press conference is like I'm tired of the hype I'm tired of buying in the hype you know what I mean we've been hyped up every single season and we go out here and we get our butch kit we don't make the playoffs like it's about making the playoffs okay I got paid and I can go out there and play free but the end of the day right all the money that I receive yeah it's good because my family's taken care of forever but at the same time now this is about wins this is about going on you know going getting into the playoffs chasing a Super Bowl you know what I'm saying so that's where he's at in the career right now and he's getting older man so in the day you're going to be paid but what are you going to be remembered for you're going to remember for going to playoffs winning Super Bowls and stuff like that no a hundred percent my comment electric moment of the episode it showed that this is a business but when you do it the right way it's not just a business and it was the emotion that Ryan polls showed when he had to cut Adrian Cobra now from a player standpoint from the from the business standpoint from the logical standpoint Adrian Cobourt if you're on Madden is an easy player to go try and go release because you don't see the things from him that you would see from a Jalen Johnson or a Jaquan Brisker right like from a business standpoint you understand it but it goes deeper than that and I thought that that was really good to show that because usually you don't see that on hard nights usually you see guys like yeah you know we're gonna be releasing you here it just it didn't work out we feel like you got some talent but at the end of the day yeah I mean it's not gonna work out here what you have a great life thank you for playing the work version of our game Adrian Cobour with somebody that Ryan polls not only believes in still believes in right but that he felt had more potential has more talent has has more ability to continue to grow in this league but it's not at the point where the team is at right now and because of that he had to make the tough business decision but you saw the emotion that he was going through because he's like I know what this dude can be I know the kind of player that he is I know the energy you heard him and Ian Cunningham talk about it right now I asked you about it I think when we're doing a podcast right I then are there personality hires right just the energy that he's able to bring into the building Ian Cunningham was like he's just got a great spirit you heard Ryan polls got said the same thing it's exactly what I told him like when you have those guys it's not just the that's my guy I want him here that's not my guy I don't want him here all the time sometimes it is the I've got the emotional side of it but I have to do what's best for the team and I thought that that was something we rarely get to see out of the NFL usually it is I mean as people talk about it and as it is it's a cutthroat business it is you're good enough or you're not good enough but there is that emotional side to it yeah and it's a matter of like you can also you know looking at your encobers situation and you have a guy who's an extremely good fit in that locker room who showed the ability to play in this league who made a lot of plays in preseason right but it comes down to a numbers game you know what I'm saying when you don't have room and there's a guy that you want to keep it hurts that hurts that much more because you know any other year this guy could have made the 53 but this year in particular we brought in so much competition you know what I'm saying it's just no room you know you're the odd man out you know you're the you're the the you're the you're the you're the you're on the bubble you're on the fringe of making it we just didn't have room and you know I think the good thing is when like we're Ryan Poe's like and I tweeted this out last week during you know knowing that cut down day was coming up you know like I said this GM Ryan Poe's has been in the same seat that those guys were in you know I was there with Ryan Poe's in 2008 when he was there he was undrafted for ages from Boston College you know I had been on the bares for a while I remember Ryan Poe's in our building and you know he understands the emotion the emotional you know every you put everything into it right you try to develop these guys mind body and soul and as a GM you got to sit there and say oh okay goodbye we're gonna release you know what I'm saying so I'm glad that Ryan Poe's throughout his experiences and him having to go through that same situation dogs barking but he actually you know he's telling he gives the guy's feedback of the why this is why he didn't make it this is what you need to work on and that's huge you know that's you've given the guys that feedback because they put their blood sway the tears into making his roster they've given you their all and it's good to give them feedback of why they didn't make it so that way they can take that feedback go back work on the crap and have an opportunity to make another team or to come back next year if they're inviting back to camp and possibly make the 53 for the bears. No 100% I think that's that's the part about it too right Ryan's like listen we want to hear it's a numbers thing at the end of the day right like but if we could put you on this team we'd have you on this team yeah work on these things and let's get back to it right like it doesn't mean that it's the end of the road I think that's always you know that that's the part where people don't see right you're not going to see the part where Adrian is still working you're not going to see the part where he's still trying to make a team right because the bears may pick up the phone and go a listen we lost a couple of guys here we need you back in the building can you be here tomorrow yep I'm ready to go let's get after it so I think that those things too like when you when you look at the there's so much of the the football side that you don't see in these it's so good when you actually get to see that glimpse but seeing you know the the time that Ryan took with every single guy to basically say that there were some guys that he's like like a Theo Benedict right we want to put you on practice while we want to do this we want to keep working with you we saw in the in the previous episode with Ian Wheeler right you're basically going to have a red shirt year but you're going to be around the team right like those things to and I think that's just logical from a GM standpoint right we talk about the emotional side of it but from the business standpoint we've gotten these dudes in here we've developed these dudes we built up things in their game that is impressive about their game and we want to be able to utilize that we just can't do it right now but that doesn't mean just let that guy go like I they're pro shame all just probably a little upset that Brett Ripon got signed by the Vikings yeah right like seeing that yeah and and you go up to your point and not to talk about Brett Ripon like everything you said like that's a perfect example of why Bayless made this roster when you look at when they were talking about Bayless as a player right they got all the coordinators in the room and you've got no coach high tire we're talking about the value yeah Bayless brings on special teams he can be a kick returner he can cover on kick off he can be a gunner on punt you know what I'm saying like that's versatility that's value because you have one guy on a roster that can do all of those things so I don't have to have a guy that can just play gunner I don't have the guy that's just good on kick off I don't have a guy that just don't only do kick officers I got a guy that can do all those things now add an effect that you know we're moving to running back and you heard coach even who's talking about him right here's a guy who can dent the pile which means right you get those tough yards inside between the tackles here's another guy that has a speed burst and play making ability to get out on the perimeter and maybe take it the distance something we saw in preseason even though it was against the tools but we saw that ability and here's a guy that can do some things out of the backfield so you know when they talk about the versatility they talk about development you know Ryan pose was saying he even said he's alive he's alive like he came to life when it mattered most yeah he came to life when he was in jeopardy of not making this roster right to animate the change to running back he didn't complain we even heard coach Morton talking about how well valus handled the transition to running back and how quickly he adapted to it and then coach either flus even reemphasized that and said you know what there's a lot of guys in this league that have been playing running back for a long time that don't have the skill set that a valus Jones has so when you look at that value that's why valus Jones made the roster and I'm glad they showed that interaction in the evaluation of valus Jones because that's when we've talked about for years like it's valus gonna make the team man doesn't deserve to be on this roster he does deserve to be on this roster or valus is that running back and trying to find his platform valus is the odd man out where they showed you how they diagnosed valus Jones making the 53rd I still want to see how how he's gonna be used I'll be intrigued to see how he's going to be used they talked about him as a four phase special teamer I don't know if we really saw a ton of that yeah in in preseason that fourth game a little bit more that fourth game of preseason we saw a little bit more but we didn't see a ton of valus being a fourth phase special team or throughout the preseason but hey he's on the team he's on the 53 now find a way to utilize him that's what it comes down to if he wants to be active he's gonna have to be on kickoff you know he's gonna have to be either the kick off returner and he's gonna have to go out there and you know be on punt return and not necessarily the returner but he's gonna have to be out there as a corner or something like that on punt return yeah a hundred percent a hundred percent let's get into our comment moment of light j mac your company can save money by becoming more energy efficient in fact the comment energy efficiency program can help your business find up 35% and energy savings resulting in lower energy costs for its facilities at comment we're not just moving toward clean energy at moving towards a clean energy future we're powering the future of your business sign up for your free facility assessment at comment.com forward slash powering bids what was the moment of light for you in this episode j mac what was the what was that moment that stood out to you above all else my comment moment of light was the coach eber flus mentioned the spread he has like i mean a lot of light bulbs in that mansion baby powered by comment like i mean it was just awesome like just to you know just i just love coach flus's interaction with Caleb so let me get serious let me stop talking about his mansion but you know the interaction with Caleb and him actually breaking down to Caleb showing him the practice schedule and showing him how many reps you're actually going to get in practice and why but also showing him why we're giving you all these reps because it's gonna it's gonna help aid in that development even though it's not a game setting you're getting opportunity to go against our defense so you know this period this practice you're getting 41 reps against our defense you're getting another 10 reps right here on seven on seven you know Thursday you're gonna get another 50 reps right here against our defense like really breaking down showing him the why and showing showing him how they plan on developing him i think it's very important to have that type of communication which your head coach was also the defensive coordinator so those interactions right there you know Caleb learning things from from a defensive standpoint and how the defense may attack him and you know learning different nuances of coverages from the head coach who was also the DC is invaluable and it's going to accelerate his development as a quarterback tremendously in this league yeah no i i think that just seeing that the listen my moment of light or my portion of it it does have to do with Caleb Williams yeah it was that moment at the end of the episode where the music cuts out and it's just Caleb talking to himself and he's just like focus locking you let's go yeah like it is it's so much of the preparedness but then it's that at the end of the day it comes down to this guy it comes down to him being able to prepare as much as you can but can you handle what's going to be thrown at you prepare everything because here's the thing you don't talk about mr. Bisky or Justin feels like they didn't prepare you don't talk about right like when you look at Jay Cutler's when you look at the Rex Grossman's the guy's in the past everyone prepares now maybe everybody doesn't prepare the same but everyone prepares but when the lights come on when the moment of is brightest when there's that moment of light right are you going to be able to go out there lock in focus and use what you've prepared and actually be able to implement that on the field and i think that's the biggest thing that we have coming up with Caleb Williams i love the fact of how flus is prepared him i think that this this coaching staff i guess i can't say they've all learned from their mistakes because most of these guys weren't here right but i think when you lock in on coach flus how he's been different in training camp how he's it seems like he's taking a different approach having his quarterback in the building how he's he's gotten this team as a whole ready for not only just the preseason games but preparing them for the regular season it just feels like the the preparation and level that this team is at is completely different than what we've seen dare i say over the past ten years hey maybe going back to maybe going all the way back to you guys but like yeah it does feel like they're just approaching this in a different manner and it's actually paying off at least through the preseason now you got to do it in the regular season and you bring up a good point like when you look at the the temperature of this team right and you look at the temperature of coach flus's job like realistically let's be real you know and almost wasn't here this year right and get a new quarterback in and now it just seems like he hasn't been a guy that seems stressed he seems more relaxed he seems more confident he's got the beard yeah he seems more confident in his appearance but he feels more confident in his team you know what i'm saying and that's because you know they feel like they have a quarterback that can really change the tie to the team and you know despite all the pressure like there's pressure like they got to win this first game they got to have a winning season you know what i'm saying like otherwise his job is going to be in jeopardy again he almost didn't he was almost wasn't the best head coach this year but every time you see him he comes to the podium when you're seeing him around his guy you're seeing him at practice you don't see a head coach that's stressed right you don't see a head coach that has the world weighted the world on his shoulders because he has to go out here and make sure he gets this team to the playoffs but the end of the day if this team doesn't win if this team doesn't get to the playoffs this season is a failure but you don't see a coach displaying that type of of emotion you don't see him wearing that on the sleeve each and every day you know it's a complete opposite which is which is shocking you know i mean but throughout it is like let's keep it real you don't go out there when this first game in Tennessee you know that's it's not good it's gonna be some uh there's gonna be some eyeballs on you it it depends on how you lose two though right i think if you if you definitely need to win it right but if you're if you're in a in a hard fought game and in Tennessee comes out on top i think that's a big difference then like okay we're hype here we go up against the Packers we're ready to go and then all of a sudden we're like hey that don't look like football that look like preseason football which if you have played your players in the preseason we might not be looking at preseason football the Bears fans ain't having it you know what's gonna happen so we got Caleb Williams and we can speak at Tennessee times they freaking stink this coach Hebrew flows i don't know what he's doing with Caleb they look when the Heisman and USC oh my gosh like come on man it's a pretty good south side uh it's pretty good south side of the shotgun man dude that was pretty good that was impressive actually you know for a new Florida you got that there's a bear count oh man i love it well listen at the end of the day this is it that was it for hard knocks so we don't have a segment to preview but what was your overall takeaway from the Chicago Bears training camp hard knocks yeah how how would you how would you rate this hard knocks on a scale of one to ten yeah and i've been thinking about that as well and how i would how i would rate the overall experience experience with the Bears on hard knocks and it's tough man there's a lot of things that i that i really wanted to see there's some players that i wanted to see you know i felt like we kept seeing the same players over and over again we didn't really get to see DeAndre Swift we didn't really get to see you know Keenan Allen that much um you know there was a lot of guys on test sweat we didn't really get to see him a lot we saw in this episode working with Austin Booker but we didn't get to see him away from the facility um comparing it to some of the hard knocks in the past you know it's it's tough because there was a lot of good ones that showed a lot more insight than i think the Bears allowed hard knocks to show so i would give this uh at a ten i'd give it a five you know it's like there was some highs and lows you know i mean do i think the Bears should do i think should have the Bears on it again i'm a Bears fan obviously former players so i'm gonna say yes but if there's gonna if there's another team i'd probably be like man give it to the other team because yeah that wasn't like yeah you know it wasn't must see tv for me like i thought it would be that was and that that was my takeaway from it i'm i'm kind of round i i said a six on a scale of one to ten because like my takeaway from it was and i don't care about the cursing part like i ain't gonna lie to you i like the fact that i could sit down and watch something Bears with my daughter and she don't got to hear a bunch of i don't have to watch the edited version that half of the words are getting cut out right like um so i i didn't care about the cursing aspect of it i know people were like oh they're not swearing this year that's a problem for me i was like that's a weird thing to like need in your life like you can't hold a regular conversation without that but i think for me and maybe it maybe it was this for a lot of Bears fans as well there was that it made you feel like the McCaskys were too involved it reminded me of football past it reminded me of like a lot of hands in that yeah right there's a lot of cooks in this kitchen like HBO clearly this is i don't think that this is the product HBO wanted to put out i don't think that this is the product that NFL films wanted to put out i think that this is the product that the Chicago Bears wanted to put out and why do i know that because it looked like 1920 uh football drive that we get on youtube right it looks just like that product and that's great for a youtube video i love it for a youtube video i don't know if i need 40 minutes of that yeah there was a lot of things that didn't show and you were at practice more than i was mad but even like you know the fight i get it you know what i mean but at the same time it didn't even show the fight yeah it's like you're you're showing the fight because it's natural it's what happens in training camp like it's it's real it's a real thing like you know we've got i've gotten in fights with my teammates at training camp because you're out there you're playing fast and physical they're playing fast and physical right some's gonna happen a little extra push after play and then you know both sides offensive fighting defense right like that it happens but you know you i think those are things you got to show if you're really giving a deep inside look of this team then you know you got to show it all you know give the real insight of what goes on you know we fight next day we come out we're brothers it happens you know what i'm saying you're like i don't know you know i mean i agree with you though like if you're gonna it's hard knocks you know it's not uh you know if you want to do other stuff put it on youtube but it's hard knocks yeah no no it was it it felt a little and listen i'm not a hard knocks advocate i'm not sitting here telling you that i watch every single hard knocks yeah i tuned in for the jets one when rogers went there just because erin rogers was there see kind of what he was building up over there i tuned in for the giants one because of the saquon barkley story but it just it didn't i don't know it didn't grab me it was one of those where i love the fact that the bears are on it i'm going to watch it because the bears are on it we all have problems we're all addicts to this team which is which is probably we all need to go to aa for it but i i could have show show me more keena now yeah right show me more i'm not show me more co-commat show me more yeah i mean like i'm not asking for i need to see the the behind the scenes stuff on these guys show me these guys on the football field doing the football thing right that's what i wanted to say yeah i agree and and you know off the field things you know cold it's from here you know tj edwards is from here yeah you know i mean it's you know it is what it is man i'm glad the bears got on hard knocks i'm glad the fans got you know more insight as opposed to what they would have gotten there's a lot of fans that that weren't able to make it out the training camp so they did you know get an inside look at this team you know despite not being at training camp every day or being able to attend one of the practices but at the end of the day you know it's not the best hard knocks it isn't the worst but you know i felt like the overall product could have been a lot better if they gave us a true organic look of what of what inside look of what this team is and who this team is uh who they are you know what i mean and miss a lot of players like you said so i was a little bit disappointed in that but hey we'll see what who gets it next year we'll see who gets it next year and uh we'll keep you guys tuned in with everything chicago bears because we got football this sunday jac and so make sure that you guys tap in on the next episode which we'll also be dropping today because we're going to be giving our biggest things that we need to see from the chicago bear as soon as they hit the ground burst the tennessee titans got to hit the ground running because as jac said in his uh south side voice uh uh you got can of Williams in there we're not and i come with what's your mind you can't be cubby bears that can of Williams you know you gotta make a play come on let's get out of here no more new york we're duff bears not teddy bears bears y'all stay safe out there chicago bear that one love