5 On It & sharing our confidence level in Bears' defense (Hour 3)

0:00It's time for five on it. Rahimi. Brody bring you five topics on their minds today on 104 three. The score number one. It's five on it. I want to four three to score with Mark Grote with Layla Rahimi and Clay Harbors in the house. The nine year NFL veteran. You see him all over CHS and on the big pro football show on the Chicago lead in pro football weekly. And he's here for five on it. On the first day of the football season. So let's get right into it. Question number one. Yesterday NFL insider Ian Rapp report posted the following tweet to X. Bear stand out cornerback. Kyler Gordon is away from the team working with his own trainer to accelerate recovery sources. Say the plan is for Gordon to return a few weeks into the season and begin practicing shortly thereafter. Some optimism here. That was those were the words of Ian Rapp report. The NFL insider for ESPN and NFL Network. So here is the question. Will Kyler Gordon return to Halas Hall this season?

1:01If so, what's your best guess at when we will see Kyler Gordon on the field in a Bears uniform? I am the one who believed in the optimism. I might be the only one who believed in that tweet and the optimism of it. Because I've been needing something. Some sort of sign of life. Something like that where he at least gives the appearance that he's interested in rehabbing and returning and playing football in some shape or form for the Chicago Bears. So if I am wrong, I will accept all the the the nighativity in the world. However, yes, I do think he will return to Halas Hall because he has been to Halas Hall. He has been around the team. He is not right now reportedly. So I get that. Yes, I think he will return to the Halas Hall and he will return. You guys ready for this? I think that Kyler Gordon returns to play in week six for the Chicago Bears. Don't give me that look, Layla. Week six. I didn't give it to you. I gave it in the general direction. Oh, was it?

2:01Oh, general direction. My peripheral vision is really good, Layla. Sunday, October 18th at Atlanta, week six, a new game. The Bears will have Kyler Gordon back in action playing real games and contributing like he does. Will he stay healthy? On a scale of one to Matt Spiegel, which he didn't he basically say he's never coming back or something? That's why I'm saying I feel like from listening to everybody at this radio station, I am the one who is in the minority and I am comfortable being there. I'm somewhere in the middle of the party and Spiegel. I'm a little surprised. Okay. Well, some optimism, I keep going from who? Who had this optimism aside from our grody and Ian Rappable? Don't you think that that in some way, shape, or form comes from Kyler Gordon's camp? I think. Like allowing him to put that out there. That doesn't come from Kyler Gordon's camp. That comes straight from Kyler Gordon's Twitter. That sounds like something he said himself. That sounds good.

3:01That's how it makes it even better than that. I think it was some optimism is in some optimism to return to play or some optimism because there's finally a timeline or something, but there wasn't even a timeline, which is why I think this was such a weird, I wouldn't call it a nothing bird because there were significance to it, but I wouldn't call it good either. That said, we tend. There it is. Oh, she's got him coming back a week, Ted. You are absolutely, absolutely right, Liza. That's the by-week, by the way. There is. Why are we at the 10th? And that would just make the process. Actually, that would make sense to activate him for the by-week. You're right. But here's the play against New Orleans. Okay. If you want a guy to be ready to play NFL football, he has to be in the film room. He has to be in the meeting rooms. He has to be learning the system. Everybody season, you might have a defense right now. And guess what? This defense changes over the years and you're doing different things. You guys see all the looks and different checks that go on through the year. So you can plug you into play. If you're away from the team, you're not just going to plug back in. Oh, hey, guys, it was a great five-week vacation. I'm ready to come back and play.

4:02No, you weren't in the, you were looking at the playbook. You're too. I'm looking at the game plans. You're not going to NFL football. I can't go even to tight end. See how I'm going to take a six weeks of radical. I'm going to come back and just let me know what's going on here. No, you need to be in the film room. You need to be with your teammates. You need to be watching. You need to be out there talking to coaches, looking exactly what they expect from you and want you to do to plug you in. When you even are ready, for me, this is a wild scenario, kind of a crazy story. I don't think in my nine years of NFL football, I've ever seen anything like that. I'm going away from the team and then I'm going to come back in a couple weeks and be ready to play. All right, where are we at right now? Is this banana land? Maybe he comes back for the Super Bowl. You're really about to. But I do think that that's the point here is everything we've heard from Ben Johnson and Ryan Polz is talking about building trust and the importance of being in the building and the importance of being with the team. That was what they highlighted to indicate there could be progress. So him being away doesn't speak to that. Polz said, I don't know if he will play for me again.

5:04All right, banana land is so you're saying he's not coming back then. Is that, or do you have a week, do you have a prediction? I have no comment at this point. Wow. That's a lot. I can't even. I can't even. They allowed a note comment these questions. He is the only person with professional experience in the room. He played in the league. I played it when I see him practicing at House Hall for a couple of weeks. I'm like, okay, he's going to be ready to come back. What if he comes back in week 11 with like a lay on and sunglasses like Andy from the office and he's super tan. The alternate universe thing is he can come, you know, he's Spider-Man's his nickname. He's come out in the pregame warmups with the Spider-Man mask. He could always do the thing where he sends somebody else out with the Spider-Man mask. He's like the equivalent of coming to work late and you've got coffee in your hand. It's just a bad luck and you know it, but you still walk in late with coffee in your hand. He's in a sign felt episode like that. They were showed up late and he had to bump cake or something like that. You would do a time to buy cake. This was given to me, sir.

6:05Yeah, thanks, Parth. Ryan Parth. We can get you some coffee. Do you even drink coffee? I drink black coffee and I drink any extra sugar like you guys would ever do that. No, I know I did have to we have to see the sugar in there. I don't think I'm not even ashamed. It doesn't even look like it's. Hey, I looked at the calories. I wanted a banana bread cream latte today. Oh, that's not really good. And I got another so milk thing coffee. I don't want to hear it from you. Here I am saying to everybody that you use optimum nutrition. I did you a solid yesterday. And this is how I'm repaying. I'm sorry. Oh, no. We're two. Go ahead. Yesterday, bear's quarterback Caleb Williams was asked what he's most certain about when it comes to himself. This was his answer just over all myself just no one I can put the ball anywhere. But no, I got special guys out there, you know, on the edges. Why receivers? They're special talent and then no, and I got a awesome head coach and play collar. That that you know supports me and supports us and calls plays to the best of his ability,

7:05but also calls plays to know what we do best. And so when you have that and you have that tandem, you know, you just got to go out there and execute and deliver a good ball and catch the rock and go be explosive. Bear's quarterback Caleb Williams. So when it comes to Caleb Williams abilities, are you in agreement with his self assessment or are you most certain about a different aspect of his game? Oh, no, I actually agree with him. He says he can make any throw. His key and challenge is zero. We'll be timing. We all know Caleb Williams can throw a plus plus fastball. He's the Jacob Mizorowski of speed when it comes to being able to throw with power and nail a target. The key is the moving targets. How are you going to do in the screen game? How are you going to do when it comes to your timing patterns with your receivers? Even your crossing patterns, dare I say. How is that going to go? We know you can make any throw. I don't disagree with that at all. And he's never backed off of it, which I also like because know thyself, but it's going to be the timing aspect of this and the speed. And can you throw the off speed ball, the touch ball, you know, the touch pass that we talk about so many times that we'll get you the yak and rack that will also make your

8:09stats look pretty. Oh, yeah. And here's my thing. I know Caleb Williams can hit that 450 foot home run, but I want him to consistently hit 300 grody. Hit that 300. Get those singles. Get those doubles. That's what matters. And yes, he has the talent to put the ball anywhere. But let's just look at some of these interesting numbers. That 69.8% on target rate, according to pro football reference, ring 34 out of 35 quarterbacks, only above should or Sanders. His 20.7 bad throw rate was among the three worst marks in football. Next gen stats, CPOE, that's basically an accuracy metric. Negative 6.9 was the worst in football among starting quarterbacks with at least 20 attempts. So I just, I've seen him do it this off season. Being out there at training camp, he's improved. The backries improved. The timings improved. The footwork, everything has gotten better. Now you're in between the lines. When the bullets start flying, I want to see you put that to work. We know you can be Superman. Now I want to see you be Clark Kent. Where are those sunglasses?

9:09Where are those glasses? People don't know who you are, but you're still getting the job done. You're still in the mail room. You're delivering the mail. You know, he's still getting stuff done. You don't have to be Superman all the time. You can be Clark Kent. And that's what I want to see from Caleb. I think he can do it. There's obviously ties. We're going to see him outside the pocket at platform doing the 360 spinning backwards, throwing to Colk, meant the cornering the end zone. Hit 300. Hit those singles, hit those doubles. And then that's what I want to see to start the season. I think he could do it as well because it's been drilled into him this entire off season. If there has been one prevailing theme of this entire camp other than injuries, it's been, can Caleb Williams do the simple better? Maybe he, as you said, hit 300. Get those singles, get those bass hits, and then do the special. So I think, and the coach has all the credibility in the world. He's learned to listen to his coach. So I think the buy-in is real. And I think he could figure it out. I thought it was really interesting yesterday when he was talking about taking explosive

10:09shots versus being conservative. And Caleb Williams sort of said, puffed his chest out and said, my whole life, I've been explosive, an explosive play guy. I've always been a shot taker. I think there's still art. This is still a work in progress. There are still going to be times this year where we're all going to be frustrated. Like, what is he doing? Why didn't he go, like, we're going to circle a play and said, you should have gone to that guy instead of trying to throw into the triple covers down the field. I think that that lessons this year. And I actually am okay with that because you don't want to have him start thinking too much about that stuff because he is who he is. He was drafted where he was because of those explosive plays. Five on it. Number three. This is five on it with Layla Rahimi, Mark Grote and Clay Harbour. This is question number three. The NFL season kicks off tonight. So who you got in the Super Bowl 60 rematch between the Seahawks and the Patriots? I don't know how this is even a question right here, boys. I mean, I'm going to take you on a trip back.

11:09Oh, we're going on a trip. We're going on a trip. Jumping the cars is a delorean. You know, a delorean is grote. Oh, yeah, it's a time of the future. Back to the future. We're going back to the Super Bowl. People that know who's going to win. Then after the first half, this was the numbers. New England had 51 yards in the first half, four first downs. Drake May with six of 11, three sacks. Seattle, Kenneth Walker had 94 yards rushing by half time. At the end of the third quarter, New England still had only seven yards. This Seattle defense, I know they lose boy Mafe, Kobe Bryant, Ric Wollen, but they still have nine starters. They still have Mike McDonald, who is one of the best defensive minds. Looking at the stuff he calls, I'm just glad I'm retired. Because this guy can handle everything with what he does. It's confusing, but also he can be simplistic. He can run a cover two and have the safety come and play in the run game. The guy is just is really good. I know New England. You got AJ Brown, Travian Henderson's out. So they're not going to be able to have that little extra juice in the run game.

12:10Drake May, I'm sorry. They had one of the easiest schedules in the history of the NFL last year. And Seattle's been getting disrespected. How much have you heard about Seattle this year? It's been the Rams. It's been it's been other. It's been anybody but them. I think Seattle comes out and they show the NFL why they are still a team to be reckoned with and they want to come back for a repeat, Leyla. Oh, absolutely. They want to come back for a repeat. I think the difficult part is though is they are in the hardest division in football. Everything the Rams did, they knew who their opponent was. Just get beat Seattle. Do everything you possibly can to take down the Seahawks. That didn't stop them from breaking my brain. It didn't. I am obsessed with the Seahawks, Stephen. I'm obsessed with how they constructed it. I'm obsessed with how they use Devon Witherspoon as almost a secret weapon he got paid by the way. Congratulations to him. I'm obsessed with how they they counter program to go after the weakest part of your team. They take your soul.

13:10I love them. Seahawks. I have the Seahawks when he 30 to 27. I'll even get specific. Drake May throws a late interception in the game to set Seattle up for the game when he feel goal and the power rankings begin because I'm always looking at that draft class. Right. The 2024 draft class. Caleb is first opportunity to leapfrog Drake May who may have gotten the better open last year. Not this year, pal. Also, I know we're woefully late but I will not stand for the Jackson Smith and Jigba or racer this year. He's the best receiver in the league until somebody else pulls him off. Christian Gonzalez just got paid a bag of money to be out there and stop him again. That's the one thing they did well. It was Christian Gonzalez did stop Jackson Smith and Jigba. And I think he will again because Christian Gonzalez is just different. Jasmis is amazing. Speed round. Let's go. Sorry. Okay. Number four. Number four. Which loss is more to moralizing last night? The Cubs 4-3 lost to the brews and extra. Innings with the White Sex 93 lost to the pirates. Oh, man. That's a really good question. That is a tough one. I am, you know what? It keeps happening with the Cubs.

14:10So like, there's been a whole pack of demoralization for the Cubs. So I'm going to go with the White Sox because I thought like with the Sean Burke aspect of this, like you're running out of credible starting pictures and to see Sean Burke only lasts in inning a third, allowing seven runs in a game after having, I thought he had righted himself in his previous performance against Houston. Did not appear to be the case. The White Sox may need to skip him next time around. So I'll say the White Sox. I also think it was the White Sox, even though I hated the game last night against the brews. Absolutely hated it. Wanted to throw something on my TV. But I don't have an unlimited TV budget because you also used Jose or Keede. So I don't know what's happening with your pitching situation after this. And I'm worried about Sean Burke and. That's right, sir. Old Tyler Schweitzer. Yeah, Schweitzer was part of the mix, but Jose or Keede is a guy who I also think should start every now and then because you know, you need five guys typically to do that. So that's kind of where I'm at with this is it's a jumbled up pitching situation for the socks now because in the first game of the series, which also makes it so much

15:14harder. And this is when they had their day off on Labor Day. So they go straight into the rest of their schedule after this. Guys, this is the Cubs by far. I'm watching this game. Here one strike away from winning. Okay. So I'm going to go down the Jacob Web gets yellowed down to O2 with two outs. Yelges battles back. He hits the single two pitches later gone game tying home run. That's brutal. You have say I get thrown out on a tag trying to go from second to third. I mean, you're going to get to the Miz. So this is a guy. First of all, it was great. CPCA actually get ahead against this guy. I think it was over 14 or something. But that was that was just painful. Obviously your nine games back in the division now. Now you're starting to look at the wild card and the wild card starting to get interesting because you're behind the Phillies. So now you're traveling the diamond backs or only three games behind you in the lost column. So far the pod raise are out and the only three games behind you in the lost column. Cubs. This was huge. This was massive. This was the brewers. To me, this one was much more devastating because now that wild cards even getting a little

16:15bit messy and the Phillies are ahead of the Cubs. Yeah, that's the Phillies thing is a problem. Yes. Number five. Yesterday Bears caught back Caleb Williams was asked if he's sticking with the new mustache that he showed up with in training camp. And this is what he said. I haven't figured that out yet. I've been trying new looks and things like that. But so far sticking should Caleb Williams stick with the mustache. I mean, you stick with the mustache on mustache guy. I mean, when you lose, you can shave it. You know, maybe it's a little bit of good luck. I love a good. The mustache is coming back. Oh, I know. Have you seen me probably rocking the mustache occasion? I think you could pull it off. Only time I shaved the mustache is when my barber or myself mess it up when I'm trying to trim it. I love a good step. We can get on great. We can get a little gray in there. I've got to get the gray. How did you describe yourself when you didn't have your mustache? Bold. If I just don't have any facial hair, I'm always having some facial hair. When you didn't have any facial hair, what did you say about how you look? I look like an old kid.

17:15That's what I'd always say. Oh, just a me. I miss a word in there. I'd always say. Yeah, I was like a big little kid or something like that. I would say an old donkey kid with a different word for donkey. I look like an old donkey kid. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. What did you do at a few years with the mustache, I think? It doesn't matter because he's in his early 20s. Well, he also lost weight, too. So it's like a totally different. You know who he looks like? Take the jersey out of the mix. He looks like a very respectable news anchor. Does he? Like a lester holt? Yes. Mustache. Mustache. Oh, lester holt from the jury duty video. Oh, man, they changed the jury duty video. I can't believe it. I don't think Caleb Williams looks like lester holt. But I do think if you put it in the... What? Why? He's Caleb's or yours? He's mine. Oh, really? Well, moms always want their kids clean face. I get the same thing from my... I live in a middle eastern family. No, they don't. The joke was if my dad shaved his mustache, he would lose his balance. He did and I did even recognize him.

18:16Is that what your mom says, though? Like, you're such a good looking boy. Why do you need to put the facial hair on there? No, she goes much worse. She says you look like one of those guys from the 70s. Oh, god. Doing one of those shows. Oh, mom, the mustache is a show. What is those shows? What shows are she talking about? What shows are you talking about, mom? Like, shows? They're cops. What are we talking about? Look a little specific. Let's call the white Illinois right now. Get Mama Harbor on the line. The Mama Harbor. We have more with Clay Harbor coming up. That is five on it. We're going to talk more bears and mustaches and whatever we feel like talking about pink patches, maybe. Oh, yeah. We heard about these Bruce patches from Ian Hatt. He may not even know about it. It's a baseball thing. Yeah, I see you intrigued. I see. Yeah, Bruce Pettis. I told you guys, athletes love wellness products. Yeah, so we got more of the Clay Harbor coming up. You're on Reheaming and Grody on 1043. The score are Clay Harbor, former NFL player. Clay Harbor's slot to the left. Here's Nick's pass. And it's caught touchdown by Harbor. That's a touchdown.

19:17Clay Harbor makes that catch and you've got Harbor for the touchdown. Football analyst for Chicago Sports Network. What a mistake I made asking our buddy Clay Harbor for some advice to take the workouts to the next level because my legs were just dead today. He had me turn it up the incline to like, felt like a 45 degree angle as far as I was concerned. And it was just like a battle today. It was a productive workout, man. That Clay Harbor knows what he's talking about and that's why we love him. Play Harbor with Reheaming and Grody on 1043. The score. Yeah, he does. That's why we have him in the studio for the full hour and we'll have him here throughout this NFL season. It's Reheaming and Grody on 1043. The score. All right, getting right to it here, Clay Harbor. The defense is the part of the team that everybody looks to and says, well, the Bears can be good if the defense is better. So I want to ask you specifically about the defensive line. Do you, Clay Harbor, feel better about the defensive line now than you did at the end of last season? I would say yes.

20:18I mean, you got Dio Dingbo back. I'm not saying he's going to give you a ton. I think Austin Booker looks to me like he's healthy. And if you go to the Carolina Panther matchup, he had a bunch of matchups with Reheater Walker and the playoffs and late in the season last year. And if you look at it, he got sacks off of Reheater Walker. I think he can do it again. You see that matchup there? I think that's something he can win. Then the other side, you're going to have Montess White going against Monroe Freelings. How about that? They're without their starting left tackle and right tackle. I know. I know Freelings at first from pick. He's a guy that, you know, it was drafted to be a player, but he's a, he's a lanky athletic player that they wanted to put some meat on. A project. He's a guy that's very athletic, but he is susceptible to these big bull rush type guys. I think Montess White can have a big game there. And then you go down. I think the interior defensive line, obviously, Jervon Dexter, you're not getting the pass first there. Can Tavy Street had a good camp? I know nobody knows who this guy is. His journey men was on the practice squad last year and he's a guy that's going to be your starter.

21:19Van and Berg, I know people are still a little skeptical, but he's a player. I'm sorry. I've seen a lot of defensive tackles. This guy can play. He can be disruptive. He's strong. He can hold the point and keep the most important thing is these guys will keep defensive linemen off the linebackers. Last year, you averaged five yards of carry per game per rush. What's two rushes of five yards, Grody? That's the first down. That's 10. You're giving up five yards of carry defensively. For me, that's something that's really important. These guys are better at stopping the run. You're 27th in yards per game, 134.5, 29th in pass run stop win rate. These guys, even loving, I don't know if he's going to be active, Neville Gowm or James Lynch. These are physical guys that can stop the run. Pressuring the, rushing the passers are privileged. I think this is a privilege that these guys can get to. You look at camp. Get the games. They know how to take on double teams. Obviously, I think Grady Jarrett established three technique.

22:20I think he has a better year. He looked quicker. His knee looked better. I think he will bounce back and be much more productive. I think that's the big part of the defensive line that we are probably not accounting for as much is things look a lot better when one of your starting interiors looks like the guy who they signed him to be. We didn't know how severe it was at the time. Remember a training camp. We didn't realize that he was going to need surgery. Grady Jarrett, if he's healthy, makes this defensive line not only a lot more effective against the run, but look a lot better overall. Yeah, absolutely. Grady Jarrett is a guy that when you looked at him from the beginning of the season last year to the end of the season, say, last five, six games, look like a different player. And now he's going to be even better back because he had an off season off. I think they had a really good plan for him. This training camp, this off season, this preseason, this letting him rest, hit the workouts to make sure he's healthy. He's safe. The knee's feeling good. So now he can hit the ground running. This is when he kind of unleashed the guy. I think Grady Jarrett has a big bounce back year.

23:20I think he gets him sacks and pressure. He looked really quick this preseason, like old school Grady Jarrett. So I'm very intrigued to see what he can bring to the team this year. We also have some really good conversation yesterday with Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson with our Bears media. Just about unscouted looks and I want to start with what Ben Johnson had to say because in asking about that, he ends up giving us answers to a lot of how the Bears offense works. Take a listen. What are the keys to like preparing for the unscouted looks, like the details, the kind of the strategy you've been holding on? Well, I think that's where we just want to be able to have our guys come up here and not thinking so much. So the unscouted looks, you want to have rhyme and reason for what you do. Our center makes a lot of the declarations for us in the run game and past pro. So example for the offense today would have been, hey, if he's got the wrong mic point then we'll all honor it and we can all be right even though we might not have done it

24:21exactly how we want to draw it up in the air condition. That's kind of the name of the game right now. And now the way the technology is on the sidelines these days, you can get things corrected really throughout a game, series to series, whereas in the past it wasn't quite the case. And so I think we're able to correct pretty quickly what we see in the first half versus what adjustments we make maybe a half time going into the second half. I think that's on in all three phases. That'll be kind of a, I think it's the best coaching job of the years early in the season, just making sure you're put out any fires that might occur. What do you think of that when you hear that? So it's interesting. You obviously early in the season, you know, the panther has had the same defensive coordinator for the last few years, but when you're looking at a team like the Chicago Bears, what does every team do? They see what the trends are on the NFL like the trends three, three tight ends. You know, they're going to have a new plan to stop these three tight ends. It's the number one thing. You know, okay, this is what we're going to do against Nickel, this is what we're going to do against these, these playmakers here. They're going to try to come out and make some switches.

25:22So you don't know exactly who they are. And I think offensively this works well for the panthers as well because you got Izzick calling the plays this year. And you don't have Dave Canal is doing it as a first share Izzick is calling the plays. He's the offensive coordinators, but he was always, you know, just the Declan Doyle to Ben Johnson. Now he's actually calling offensive plays. So this guy is going to have different tendencies, even offensively with Dennis Allen. He's going to call different plays at different times because he's a new coach. But every year you come in, you have different things that you're implementing, new plays, you're going to get something. I remember with the Eagles, we shifted our complete run game. One year and we didn't show it at all in the preseason, we went from a, you know, a wide zone scheme to more of a downhill power based team. We didn't show that till early in the season. So when you go in at halftime, halftime adjustments are going to have to be huge. So when you go in at halftime, you're going to go, hey, this is what they're giving us here. This is what they're giving us here. If you're an offense, obviously, an offensive guy, they're going to say they're giving us more cover to than we thought. Caroline is a big zone team.

26:24They ran more zone coverage than any team in the NFL almost. They ran a lot of one high. So for me, what that means is you want to get the tight ends up the seam. I must see some 13 personnel last year. They gave up the ninth most yards to tight ends in the entire NFL. They did get Devon Lloyd, one of the best coverage linebackers in the league, really get a blitzing, really good attacking. I think he's very underrated player. So I can't say that it's going to be the same weakness because he's such a good player with the Jaguars last year. Jalen Phillips, new guy. So I think it's going to be interesting to see two things. They have new players and they're going to utilize them in different ways. Like if you have a great linebacker, they were struggling last year. They're your defense. It's going to change because you're going to put your playmakers in a chance to make plays. So that first two, three, four, one, two, three, four games, you're always trying to figure out how they line up to certain personnel groupings, how they line up to motions, shifts. But this team, big zone team, big distraction team, they like to disguise coverages.

27:26So you're going to see a lot of shifts, a lot of motions attack the seams for the bears. What do you think about their cornerbacks? JC Horn and Mike Jackson, JC Horn, big guy, Mike Jackson had one of his better years last year. Could those guys, could that size, especially from JC Horn wreak some havoc for the bears receivers in this game, you think? I like both these receivers. I have Mike Jackson's getting a little older. He's 29 years old. JC Horn is one of the best, the most underrated receiver cornerbacks in football. I think that's why they were, you know, ninth, bottom 10 teams in the league, you're giving up passing yards to wide receivers. What I think you can do with these guys is get some quick passes out there. So let the cut catch and run. That's the bears guy. You got guys like Xavier and Tom, it's you got Cleafray, I mean, you got Luther Burton, quick passes. I think on the downhill, the downfield stuff, they're really good at that. JC Horn's a big dude. Like if you've seen on, he's like six, two, six, two, six, two, six, three. No, he's a tall dude. And he can cover guy like Rome, maybe not quick enough for a shorter guy like Xavier. That's why he been so good at sending these different players at these guys,

28:29because they're really good against specific type of players. Maybe Rome, big body, big body. But if you get a Xavier on a cleaf, gets a little more difficult. Like I didn't like a guy that was really shifty and big when I was blocking, you know, like I like the guy that was like the, the big strong, like I'm going to try to overpower you. So I could fire out and I can hit him in the face. So different guys have different players that they're better against. And I think the Bears, they have like a NBA team of wide receivers. So Ben is going to find the matchup he likes and he's going to attack it. I also think that when it comes to just the way the offense is constructed, we talked about this a little bit too. Caleb Williams is also asked about the unscattered looks. I think we've got enough time to listen into what he had to say about it. We said that early this season as a coach, something he's had to work through, fighting off more than he can chew at that time. As a quarterback, just knowing that the unscattered looks can see weak one might not be the same on familiarity week five onwards or whatever. Do you feel like that's something you've had to work through too? Just to being unfamiliar with unscattered looks.

29:31So knowing like fighting off more than you can chew. They're not really on. Yeah, I think early on you watch just because there's so many unscattered looks and so many, you're trying to watch as much as you can. You're trying to figure out as much as you can. I think when you get into week five or week four, three, whatever it is, you start getting into a rhythm of watching film, you start getting into a rhythm of the play calls and figuring out what they're going to do and having to get feeling where your guys are supposed to be. And so I think early on it's completions. I think early on it's being able to execute. And then I think having a certain mindset about ourselves and what we're going to do in the football field. I feel like he echoed his head coach there, but gave his own take on how it's going to be played out on the field. So with Caleb Williams, I think the unscattered looks aren't quite as important for other teams. First of all, you're not going to give me something that I've never seen before. There's families of looks, right? If you're giving what they typically do and that's the cover three, you know where to go with the ball.

30:34So here's how it works for a quarterback. And this is very basic, right? So you need to, the first thing you need to do is you need to decipher the coverage, right? You know it's cover three. So now you know there's going to be a buzz crow flat defender. You're going to put him in a bind to say if you have a sale route, you have three levels over on the sideline. Now as soon as you, you see it's cover three, you know, okay, now my read, you go to your read is that crow flat defender. If he drops back, you're going to take the underneath. If he takes the guy closer, the, the flat guy, you're going to go over the top. So it's quickly, you got to, you got to see exactly what the coverage is. And then you know who you're reading. And that's how it kind of works for quarterbacks. It's just a covered recognition. And you're going to get these different families. I mean, it's, it's not like you're giving something that you've never seen before. There's only so many coverages in the history of football. I've learned a lot of offenses. You know, it was the most different thing about them. The names of the plays. You had to learn the different names because a lot of this stuff was similar. Yeah. And they taught different technique, but Caleb also, and something they've been working on a lot.

31:37You guys have seen, even on a training camp, is the off schedule stuff like the scramble drill. If he is confused, he's going to be able to be to by getting off script. And that's not something that we want him into to major in. Right. But that's also going to happen in then tempo. Tempo is something that will always, always make the defense dumb themselves down. I've never seen a defense. If it's two minute, if you go in two minute hurry up, that's going to try to confuse you because they're catching their breath. They're trying to line up. You got a team that motions and shifts. They okay, cover two, cover two, cover three. You know, basic base. So now you're going to be able to beat him that way. And Ben Johnson knows all this. And I think that's why you got to have faith with even these unscripted looks. First week, they're going to throw some curve balls at you. So are we? We got some looks. Dennis, I don't got something up his sleeves. He may not have the dogs in the fight, but he's got some tricks he can throw at you. So I'm confident because of Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson. All right. That is Clay Harbor right there. Nine year NFL veteran co-host of the big profile ball show, the Chicago lead and

32:40profile ball weekly on CHSN. We've got one more segment with him. We want to talk about Jalen Johnson. Some really good audio of a back and forth between Jalen and Ben Johnson. I think it's apropos to talk about that and the season that we might expect from Jalen Johnson. We'll do that next on Rahimi and Grody. I want to for free the score. Rahimi and Grody midday's 10 am to two on Chicago sports radio 104 3 this car. Yeah, Rahimi and Grody right smack dab in the middle of the week. We've got Clay Harbor with us in studio. Let's talk about Jalen Johnson. Um, he was with the media yesterday and shared a conversation he had had with Bears head coach Ben Johnson. Let's all listen to this. We had a talk and I would say of my years being here. I've never had a talk of a co-send. We got a chance to win the Super Bowl. So I think when he said that, it put some things in perspective for me. And I have, we have the opportunity to do something special.

33:41So I think for me, it just sparked a different level of my competitive nature that I haven't had since I've been here. So you're just going out there and competing and then one of the guys would be better, one of myself would be better and then just holding us to a different standard, a higher standard. And then really it's going from there. Music to the years of Jalen Johnson, obviously, who kind of led the revolt, if you will, against Matt Eberfluss and Eberfluss talking about everything's okay. Nothing to see here every single week. And I was in that locker room after the final or the Detroit loss, which was Eberfluss's final game. And you could tell there was smoke coming out of Jalen Johnson's locker. So you could tell the juxtaposition in coaches, but Clay Harbor, I want to ask you about this, like being a veteran in the NFL and getting to that point where, yeah, he's still thinking about another contract, but winning is the most important thing. And moreover, what do you think about Jalen Johnson's chances of returning to form, if you will, this year as a player? I think at this point, Jalen Johnson's career, it's like to the point where you start to

34:44realize that your career is finite. You're not going to be doing this forever. And winning does matter. You want to be able to play in these playoff games. You want to be able to play in the Super Bowl. You want to do all these things. That's what's most important to you. And early in your career, it's like, yeah, I want to just make the team firstly. Make the team. Can I play here? Okay. Then it's like, let me get to the second contract so I can take care of my family. Then it becomes the point where I think Jalen's getting to. It's like, I got a chance to win. Like, this is something I can look back on. It can be remembered for winning. You're a competitor. You want to do that. Obviously, I think it can bounce back, you know, 2024, healthy, pro bowl or last year injured, missed 10 games, not himself. Now he's 100% back. You know, Johnson played all 17 games in 2024, 17 regular season games in 2025. So he just wasn't himself. And you can even look at some of the analytics here, 2024, PFF, overall grade, 76.2, last year, 57, 57.8.

35:44So I think he gets back to being one of the better cornerbacks in football. We've seen him do it. You know, we've seen him do it before. And I think watching him in OTA, he's watching him in training camp. He's not missing days. He's out there working. He's going against some really good receivers too. He's lining up against Luther Bird and he's lining up against Rome. He's lining up against even Colson Loveland. I think that's going to help him. I think this is going to be a big year for him. The Bears needed because the rest of that defense, he needs to be a leader. And he has shown he has become a leader. And I think a lot of this is going to depend on if he can really lock down one area of the field. And then I think going into to Carolina, Teterola McMillan, don't call him Tet. I learned that on Twitter. Really? I learned it on Twitter. I didn't know that some lady got mad at me. Don't call him Tet. He doesn't like that. Call him T Mac or Teterola. But he's a beast. He's a big guy. He can run a thousand yards, seven touchdowns last year.

36:44So Jalen is going to have to show up against him. He's one of the matchups I'm looking forward to the most. I also am optimistic hearing Jalen Johnson say that. He's not out here setting a specific goal he hasn't the past. And I think that's good for players to set lofty goals too. But he sounds like a guy who can unlock an even bigger level of play for him. And then when you hear Ben Johnson say that, I'm so inspired to hear that there's another level to Jalen Johnson that can come from a head coach that can help unlock his talent even further than what we've seen. That is, after all the years he's had the league. That is a really inspirational thing to hear. Yeah. No, it's great. He's still motivated. And for Gaila Kim that's, this had the financial success he's had to see him still that motivated. That's why I love. He's a true competitor. He wants to be the best. I mean, he's got a big challenge this week. And I think he's going to be one of the big reasons. That Roman Millen had a 23.1% target share, 28.5% read share, and 1.94 yards per

37:48out run. So this is, I mean, this is extremely high. They feature him when they throw the football. Obviously, I think the Bears need to stop the run. Chubba Hubbard, obviously last year didn't have a huge year, 500 something yards two years ago, 1,100. The guy can run. The Bears stop throwing it. Make the quarterback beat you. Bryce Young isn't, in my opinion, he's taking some steps. He isn't a quarterback that I'm worried about just going out there and throwing the ball all around and beating me. And I know that the Bears secondary and they have some issues and on defense, but I still think that if Bryce Young has to beat you, you'll be in a really good spot. They also don't like it. There is a big drop off after McMillan to Jalen Coker and Liget. And maybe they, maybe they get better this year, but I feel like if they could take him away, then that's good. All right, Clay, before we go now, if you can't do this, if you're saving it for another one of your jobs. I already know what you're saying. I'm ready. Who you picking?

38:48Do you got a score for Bears? Caroline, did you care to begin our predictions segment, which Laila and I will pull off on Friday, I believe? Yeah, definitely. I'll go 23-20 Bears. Okay. I think my biggest matchups, I mean, you just mentioned it, slot corner. Who's playing slot for the Bears? Jalen Coker, Liget, those guys can play. You gotta be able to start slot. If you're playing Malik Muhammad, then it's like, where's Waldo? They're gonna find the rookie and try to attack him. You gotta stop the run. I think the defense of the Panthers has gotten better with obviously Jalen Phillips. I think he's, he's typically should be going against Darnell Wright. If they think maybe he's good against Braxton, trust completely against Darnell Wright. Devin Lloyd, really good linebacker, Blitz is a lot. Ton of zone coverage is kale. It's gonna have to be zone coverage. I think he can, but I think this is a game that you can really, really affect them. By their young tackles, I think if the Bears, if Montess Wet goes against Monterey, I think he should get some pressure there. Bears win 20 to 23 away in Carolina. Start the season off.

39:49One in O, Mark Grote. Let's go. I love the pick, man. Clay, you are awesome. Thanks for coming on. What's the schedule this week on the Big Pro football show? Big pro. So doing the Chicago leading, Big Pro football show. So I'll be talking to some Cubs and Socks as well. Some football this weekend. Let's go. Thursday, Friday with yours truly, David Hawn, Ruthie Polinsky. And then calling Northern Illinois game this weekend should be a lot of fun. Let's go Huskies. They got blanked out by the Iowa Hawkeyes last week. Maybe they'll bounce back. I love it. Clay, thanks so much, man. We appreciate you. I appreciate you guys. Thanks, Clay. Yeah, our next contestant is here already. Russ Dorsey hanging out in the producer studio right now. He joins us live. We're spoiled today. We got a full hour of baseball talk coming up next. Cubs. Socks. Lee with Russ Dorsey next on说 him a cruelty on bottle for three, the score. Okay.