Bears for Breakfast: Bears-Vikings Week 2 Preview

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1:00What's going on everybody? Welcome to another edition of Bears for Breakfast going into week two of the 2026 regular season. The bears are one and no undefeated, super bear super bowl. Vives are high. Things are exciting. All things considered taking on the Minnesota of items on Sunday. I'm Jacob and Fonte alongside Jacob White. I'm sure feeling pretty good. We'll talk about next week's match up. But all things considered coming off of that week one. That was something man. That was something for sure. I'm trying to remember the last time I had that much fun watching a bears game. I mean probably not. I was talking about brother. In terms of just domination scoring. You have to go back to that Titans game. I mean I remember where like Brian Erlacher had probably the slowest mile per hour on a pick six of all time. Oh yeah. Yeah.

2:01He was. He looked like shoes coming straight out of the nursing home. I'm not run back. But yeah. That was that was I just couldn't believe it. And obviously wild. I mean I'm rewatching to a game like go for two go for two. You know trying to get 60 and then I'm sure everyone saw the Ben Johnson interview where he kind of insinuated. He was thinking the same thing. I mean I'm just. Yeah. It's just crazy that we were dealing with Mac Uber Fluce and his rate of tear just two years ago. And now this like. Bless up. Yeah. Yeah. I mean things of things have changed man. It's it's crazy. Like that's one thing I love about the NFL is you can be just total dog water. One moment and then just completely turn things around like all you need is. Like just a head coach and then competent quarterback play like that's you know. Two major differentiators. I mean there's more that went into it obviously. But. So let's do a quick little week one recap here.

3:01Obviously you know we've talked about it a whole lot here on the second city grid on YouTube channel with you know a variety of different shows throughout the week. So we're not going to say anything that. You know Lester JB Taylor Mac read any of the guys have said you know haven't said already. But. We were talking this is you know you said some of the most fun that you've had watching a Bears game and. Sometime I mean or just fun with being alive the most fun I've had you know you know you know long time. Yeah I mean. I don't know for me that's not a high bar. You know all these considered it's pretty you know it's it was it was so much fun just watching that game. I mean seeing the off the off end was just humming. And I think like I don't know about you but I felt like Caitlin Williams obviously I mean obviously the arm talent was it has been. A parent you know his entire time with the Bears this entire time of college football the you know the elusiveness the creativity outside of structure the athleticism.

4:07He feels like he's playing on time a lot more like he's a lot more decisive. And he's comfortable with the reads and the progressions that go through this offense and you can kind of see that comfort. You know kind of come to life in week one. Comfort was that that's that's perfect comfort is exactly the word that I was thinking of where. Yeah we've seen the elusiveness we've seen the arm talent. And certainly seen bits and pieces of the comfort but for sure the most kind of locked in an in control of the offense and of the game that I I certainly have ever seen him being I know there was the there was another quote from. I don't I don't know if it's excuse me I don't know if it was Ben or Caleb or so something someone saying that. And then he kind of like pull back the offense because Caleb Williams was like just ahead of everyone else I mean he's just completely owned this offense I think this is something maybe one of us touched on last week where. You can really see the difference of like the first off season with Ben Johnson's a lot about resetting the culture establishing the playbook like coaching guys up and now it's like we have the foundation let's build upon it and I think you really saw that come through in week one.

5:15And it's exciting to see where I think you know Caitlin mentioned I don't know if it was training camp or just the off season in general he mentioned along the lines of you know there are times where last year we felt like he was drowning with how much detail there was to consider in that offense. And you know learning the new playbook learning you know the you know the timing the wise behind every single thing you're doing I know you know people get PTSD here and you know the wise because Matt nag you would say that every single press conference when he was head coach but you know it's a real thing you know you want to understand why you're doing something. Like you're not just executing an assignment for the sake of doing it you know if you understand this is why I'm running this route this way this is why I'm getting the ball out of this time so we can exploit certain looks of this defense you know blah blah blah. If you the further deep the more detail you have and the more understanding you have of why you're doing something the more likely it is to stick so it was it was apparent I mean and you know obviously there's a full season to go.

6:23But early returns look really good and I know we talked about last week where it's like all right from your one to your two you can really see the pocket presence rise but you're two to your three now it might be the accuracy it might be playing on time. If that ends up to be the case and we see week one Caleb okay maybe not like to maybe not to rushing touchdowns every week but like similar levels of you know playing on time the efficiency through the air on the ground if we see that like week one Caleb. Like how do you think his stock is going to look as far as other quarterbacks go across the league because I think it's going to end up being really really high. If he plays like this it's going to be it's going to be him Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson like in the MVP like best quarterback in the league discussion no difference from a homes but I think clearly I don't know if it's the offense but it is but we're starting to see maybe a little bit of of he's still good but like it's sad to say we've probably seen the best of my homes yeah I still think he's you know easily top five quarterback but physically the gifts that Caleb has at this point are just I think it's fair to say surpassing.

7:36So yeah like you said probably not going to see like two rushing touchdowns every week but also like he didn't have 300 yards passing he didn't have three touchdowns you know four touchdowns like these are certainly things that just depending on the game script the game environment like you are going to see him yeah maybe pull back statistically in the rushing category but then improve in the passing regardless I know I went on the very first episode saying I like wasn't drafting a lot of killable am that's probably going to come back to bite me especially if he runs. Even close to out around week one I mean he's just going to be a monster yeah and it's it's it's really exciting as as we move into week two here where you know definitely it figures to be a step up in competition from the defensive side of things where you know you're going up against you know Brian Flores one of the best defensive minds in the NFL and we'll get to that real quick I did want to bring up the injury reports for both teams so just so people have an understanding of what we're going to do is we're going to do a lot of things like that. What to look for going into Sunday and obviously we know we record these on Saturday mornings there's no definite like for questionable players you know there's no definitive yes or no they're going to play but you can tell full limited so here's what we're going to do.

8:54We're doing this in real time here folks as I'm getting the the share screen up I swear I know how to work technology here we go. It is oh my god see I know we're in these mid season formal ready we can screen share and tell the Lord this is awesome yeah look at us we're on another level so that's a lot of full that's a lot of full and a lot of key names where I mean I don't count Joe to be again again it's ungrust great Jared ungrust but looking at the key contributors like Kyle Menunguy full participation Malik Muhammad Diode Angbo Diadre Swift I mean never Gallimor will be the rotation as well Xavier Woods Darnell Wright Aussie Trapilo though that's the he's already full participation I agree I will add the caveat I know like people be reporters at practice did know for like a full padded practice it was very very light and some contact and such so you know maybe maybe some more

10:01like aggressive physical practices like that that would be a limited so I do want to add that caveat but I mean regardless like we talk about a guy that we weren't sure when slash if you would be back the season now practicing full and any capacity full practice for him yeah is astounding and just a marvel of a modern medical advancement literally I mean and it's it's going to be I'm curious what like now that he's you know full participation you know granted in a lighter you know padded practice what they're going to do it left tackle because I obviously you know on the depth chart Braxton Jones is still the starter Aussie Trapilo was on the depth chart but he was the backup I'm curious to see what they do because Braxton Jones wasn't bad in week one all things considered he was perfectly acceptable you know he kind of looked like like that 2022 to 2024 play of Braxton Jones where it's like okay you know you're not going to have a chance to do it. I'm not going to have an elite left tackle but he's serviceable and when you have you know the offensive line that the bears have around him that becomes a lot more acceptable now so but obviously you know you use the second round pick on Aussie Trapilo you want to start him you want him to be the long term guy I'm curious what would you like would you start Aussie or do you want you know like not want to you know mess with a good thing coming off a week one or yeah it's interesting I think they're more likely to just

11:29even if Braxton is playing fine to throw him in like you saw on Sunday last Sunday Theo Bennett it was coming in for snaps when Jones was like as far as we know healthy yeah and you didn't really see much of the difference in line play like it seems like Ben is very confident and kind of cycling guys. Good point on the second round pick like I think certainly just in terms of size physicality we know Braxton Jones struggles against kind of the bull rush and I think that's something Aussie is better at so I know long long term they're going to want Aussie in the end. And then they're Braxton Jones's contract is up after this year so I do wonder if you look at it maybe it seemed like the commanders like in a couple of weeks do the bears send Braxton Jones to the commanders for a sixth round pick and just get something for him because like you said he went healthy he is a serviceable to maybe slightly above average starter and there are plenty plenty of teams the NFL that that would that would certainly give up a day three pick for that and so that's something I would keep my eye on.

12:29So I'm going forward when Aussie gets back in Braxton is too good to ride the van and I think polls will want to get something rather than nothing for him if you can. Yeah now I'm with you I think that especially with offensive tackle like play at a premium it's such an important position and there aren't a ton of like elite left tackles in the NFL if you can get even like serviceable starting caliber play. I that's you know might be worth trading for especially for you know I don't know it's too I feel like it's too early for me to try and speculate specific teams but I'm sure down the stretch they're going to be playoff caliber teams or contenders that could use an upgrade at left tackle Braxton Jones would be an upgrade for those teams so. TBD will see and then as I now as I pull up the Vikings injury report it looks a lot different in that they don't actually have a full chart but it's also a lot smaller so as I pull this one up here you can see.

13:33Jawan Jennings was out for personal reasons nothing necessarily injured injury related Kyler Murray out with a concussion I know they mentioned on Fridays Carson Wentz is going to be the starting quarterback the Vikings and then Brian O'Neal is questionable with any injury and I know we're talking a little bit about it before the show but. If Brian O'Neal doesn't end up playing that's that could be massive for a bears pass rush that's so so to say the least for sure yeah looking at their depth chart they'd probably play. Caleb Tiernan a rookie I don't I believe he yeah yeah third round pick maybe I don't know if you have anything on him but I mean certainly if it's. This guy's first NFL snaps like versus a clearly not so motivated day oh slash. I always have last week yet to look at the kind of the pack of the panthers backup tackles verse sweat and I said sweat should look good and he did look good so I am curious to see if that translates like I expect he'll be going up against Daris on the left side quite a bit I wonder if we're going to see some different production but certainly yeah.

14:47I would know Brennan O'Neal what limited the NP limited so I would expect him to play will see but certainly on the bear side you hope he's not able to go. Yeah and Kate look Tiernan was an interesting case you know coming out northwestern being a you know local guy. Yeah there was you know ideal physicality and play strength you can see there's a real tenacity and it was a weird class because there is little to no day to value attack all this year it was all alright these guys are going to go around one and then anybody else you're probably not going to want to consider until day three. Tiernan was one of like a I to me the only guy I know that there are you know Markel Bell went to the Eagles and round three there might have been another one in the mix as well. But as far as date two tackles go Caleb Tiernan was one of the only ones and I definitely think you know pad levels can be an issue for right out of the gate very much a you know a waste vendors they call it whereas you know there's not a lot of knee bends you know you want to get your weight underneath these.

15:57You know establish yourself at the point of attack Tiernan can you know is still working progress there but he's got good physicality you know heavy hands we'll see we'll see but Brian O'Neal definitely you know a top contributor for that bike is offensive line. The bear certainly hope he's not going to be able to play but I'm with you I think you know things look like he probably is going to play. At least as of this recording so we'll see but. I was we look at the game itself now I know you know I mentioned Brian Flora is obviously he's a very aggressive blitzer and that's the big question is how has Ben Johnson going to. How are how are Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams specifically get it counter act the the blitz heavy approach applying Brian Flores because I'm sure obviously he's going to keep that up maybe not to the same rate as green Bay but certainly at a high level.

16:59Yeah I think we're talking before that's really going to be. What like the folks of the match up is it's going to be Flores first Ben Johnson there's obviously like that iconic photo or video of the both of them like calling plays just it's going to be cinema yeah I am curious to see like you said I think 80% is probably a little bit too much I wonder. What was really interesting because green Bay does not have a particularly good offensive line and so usually you see more blitz is coming in when you need extra guys to get pressure so I think that's interesting. One of the ways for sure that they're going to come back the blitz I think you're going to see a ton a ton of deandre swift. He was I think he was was he the FedEx or he's he was the offensive player the week and I've talked about how good he was on the ground but man I mean I think I was more impressed honestly by by his pass pro I mean he had some really really good pass pro reps and I think no shame to calm and I'm guy I think he's fine but if you're coming to this game expecting a ton of blitz I do expect Ben Johnson to bring in as we said tight ends to chip but I do expect to see a lot of sweat.

18:07Not just for his ability to run but certainly for his ability to pick up and pass pro. Yeah and that's a very good point about the past protection that the bears running backs bring in the table specifically swift and week one I feel like you know Devon Lloyd like early on was able to get his licks and you know rush the passer but obviously is things progressed I think that the bears did a good job of neutralizing that and I think that's a good point. And it's it's swift deserves a ton of credit for you know I mean yeah he's a he was a 1000 yard rusher last year but he's going to want to find you know he's going to find ways to contribute and he's going to you know he's clearly a team player obviously as you can see that the fact that they extended him shows they high they hold him in high regard. I'm curious about I mean obviously you know looking at last week the you know the Vikings you know blitz done over 80% of passing plays against Green Bay but also what the bears can do against the blitz because I think I put I posted in a tweet yesterday.

19:17I that Caleb Williams was 8th in the NFL and EPA versus the blitz in 2025 and he was also 8th among quarterbacks in EPA against the blitz and week one against the panthers so he's shown that he's someone I mean he can thrive under duress where you can send multiple rushers he has that pocket presence that quick processing capability to understand all right this is when I got a client the pocket this is when I got a scramble. You know what have you and I feel like if there's any quarterback who's well equipped to handle this from an athletic and from a mental perspective it's Caleb right certainly yeah I think this is a really interesting spot I know for like Colson Loveland I know there was a lot of talk this past week about Colson Loveland not showing up in the box score so I wonder with a lot of these blitzes on these quick you know option routes if you just see a lot of Colson Loveland like over the middle of the day. I think I think it's that's a really nicely for Loveland to kind of feast over the middle maybe some quick like flat routes.

20:26But yeah like I look I think a big bounce back game from both him and Burton but I think particularly in the light of what we think is a super blitz heavy approach should just get a lot of quick stuff out to your big body tight end. He'll get a lot of again when it's the blitz it's a lot of one-on-one reps man coverage I mean no one is better situated to feast upon man on men coverage than you know the six foot five 250 pound level going against 220 pound linebackers or 200 pound corners. Yeah and I mean that's news to Colson Loveland fantasy owners ears I mean after you know that the nothing burger week one and you know I know we've taught we've you know touched on it like over the course of the week it's like Loveland had good tape and he was able to get open vertically it's just you know it was easier for Caleb at the moment to get the check down to get the underneath read out and Loveland was also such a good decoy to you know present opportunities for you know Cleveland. You know Cleveland Luther Burton guys like that underneath was certainly a difference maker in that regard I'm interested to you know obviously you know there's been a lot of talk about Ben Johnson versus Brian Flores but I what about Kevin O'Connell versus Dennis Allen I feel like that's another you know interesting coaching matchup all things considered.

21:49Yeah this is something I highlighted in our show notes because I think both groups are not particularly talented obviously the Vikings offense like no shade to Justin Jefferson that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about is especially if Brian O'Neill can't go the interior of their line is okay and then particularly with Jordan Mason he just went on IR so we're going to have I mean the corpse of Aaron Jones. I know some like analytic skies were really really down on him they thought I people were so you should retire so you know you're going to have him DJ Dallas if you saw the tweet that in front of hold up a second ago Joanne Jennings is not going to go he certainly is good just in terms of the run blocking so I think oh yeah it's yeah it's going to be really interesting to see a little bit of a hobble and then of course bearing the lead with Calamari being out and I think when says like functional but certainly there is there is a really low ceiling on him so yeah you have like a Vikings team that is a little bit banged up already in key areas in week one going against I mean what I'm curious to see your thoughts on this you know even given the war homers but

23:04the bear's defense like could be the worst in NFL like I'm very open to believing that I don't know what say you on that yeah certainly up there I'd say you bottom 10 for sure I'm five for sure yeah probably yeah I'd say probably bottom five what are they good at to be to be it's not it's not tackling it's not coverage it's not past rush I mean and they're paying a lot of these guys a lot of money and this is something I know we talked about in previous weeks where we don't expect to be good but other than like Malik Muhammad and and Dylan team then a little bit with his tackling I mean the early returns on this defense are really really really bad it's rough yeah I mean the past rush couldn't get home on a consistent basis the ability to generate pressure wasn't there the coverage was rough and you know we'll dig into that because we have a couple specific player matchups to to look into but I I'm with you I definitely have major concerns about this defense going forward and I know you know the whole thing is like Ben Johnson said that he wants to have the NFL's most explosive offense he's he's going to need to if the bears are going to you know if this is a super bowl team that offense is going to have to be legendary I mean I don't think they are I think they're certainly a playoff team and a very good one at that but the defense is going to need to turn things around for sure so we're going to take a quick ad read and then dig into some of the specific

24:33player matchups in week two to watch bears versus Vikings here but you know the football is back obviously and the seasons moving fast week one is in the books already week two is right around the corner if you know if you're just betting the spread before kickoff you're leaving most of the game on the table that's why we had second city and I'm going to recommend my bookie and if you're new to the gang you can use promo code second city that's to and D city I use my finger to spell it out because I'm a child and claim your risk free bet up to $500 I mean it's really a no brainer you know we've talked I you know within our little channel group or whatever I we've hit some monster payouts on my bookie by mixing you know player props on one ticket and just trying you know so many different things in that regard so if there's a player match about there that you love you can build around it with the props builder I personally I love you know that my bookie rewards your action with weekly cashback and get offers so if you're consistent in you know like if you are truly like you know active in the you know in the world you know the game is going to be a lot of things like that

25:48you know the realm of player props in the realms of you know you know you know you know betting on the spread and things like that you get rewarded for it so football season again it moves fast so every weekend you wait is another full slate left behind you can sign up today using the promo code second city to and D city all one word and make this weekend count with my bookie you can bet on anything anywhere at any time you have to be over 21 years old you can be 18 or 80 years old 18 plus and select jurisdictions terms and conditions apply if you have a gambling problem call 1 800 gambler or visit 1 800 gambler dot net for free confidential support available to you 24 seven so I'd say now we touched on the secondary being a massive issue and I think my big matchup that I want to look at is how Justin Jefferson does against Jalen Johnson and Tyree Stevenson in particular where I mean Jefferson is so he took seven last week he took 79.4% of his snaps out wide so that's you know he's going to play

26:57on the perimeter that's Jalen Johnson and Tyree Stevenson territory. Now either of them were good in week one and it pains me to say that especially with Jalen where it's like all right we've seen it play at such a high level before but you know week one was very much reminiscent of fresh off the injury Jalen Johnson you know a step slower than usual Jalen Johnson I look at the analytics of it all Jalen so there were 92 qualified cornerbacks who were eligible for P.F.N. cornerback impact scoring in week one Jalen Johnson ranked 83rd and Tyree Stevenson ranked 91st so he was the Stevenson was the second worst corner in the entire NFL he gave up a perfect 158.3 pass rating when he was targeted and coverage last week so you know we talk about that but Jalen Johnson, do we think there's a chance for Jalen Johnson to bounce back I mean Tyree Stevenson it feels like he is what he is at this point you're you know probably not going to get a year for breakout out of him but Jalen Johnson's the big question going into this matchup I feel like.

28:06Yeah he's like not even that old he's 27 you know he should be he should be in his physical prime but he speed was never part of this game you know he's a very sticky man corner so if you but he certainly looks slower and so if you have a guy that already wasn't winning with speed and now he's even slower he's looked lost out there I mean they're paying him you know is it 19 million dollars a year I think yeah I I don't know me here if you look at you know what should be their starting trio of corners in the aforementioned Tyree Stevenson Jalen Johnson and then Kyler Gordon I mean I think all those guys could see him. So I mean this is who they have to work with right now but in terms of can they get better I'm concerned yeah they're not they're not new to the system right this is their second year in the system you can't you can't blame it on like oh they're still trying to like learn learn the defense of calls that the verbiage I mean these are people who I think like you said this is kind of is what it is I mean probably Tyree's not gonna give up like a perfect pass or rating there's going to be some coaching up I trust the

29:06I'm concerned. They're not new to the system. This is their second year in the system. You can't blame it on like, oh, they're still trying to learn the defensive calls, the verbiage. I mean, these are people who, I think, like you said, this is kind of is what it is. I mean, probably Tyreeks not going to give up like a perfect pass or rating. There's going to be some coaching up. I trust Dennis Allen to do that. But again, like you said, these guys kind of are what they are. Maybe you have a different take. But I think, again, they're bad on all three levels of their defense. And certainly you rely on youth usually. These kind of like higher variants. We don't know what they are guys to be better. That's not them. Like, I hate to say it, but like, is this bear's defense like going to really have to rely on like the fourth round of Malibu, Hamid, like being their best corner? Is this what we're at? Because he might be their best corner right now. Ah. I should have to think that might be the case. And I think it's possible.

30:08It's rough. We definitely, Jalen and Jalen Johnson too, like you mentioned, he's 27. He's like Tyler Schucks age. And Tyler Schucks is in Wii 2, year two of his NFL career. And Jalen Johnson's out here. We're already having washed conversations. It's crazy, you know, how relative everything is. But, and it's not like he just got hurt yesterday. Like this was, this was an injury months and months and months ago. Yeah. I mean, one thing if it was like coming back from something in the off season, but like in theory, he should be fully healthy and had a full, as far as I'm wearing full off season of practice. And yeah, so I don't, I don't think it's a matter of like him not being ramped up. I think this, again, I don't think he's like truly a bottom of the barrel in a hook corner, but he's not the proble and even all pro self that he was. And he's certainly not earning anything close to his, you know, 19 million year aboriginal value on his contract. Yeah. And I'll admit, I have some concern about that in particular because I was kind, I mean, I always love looking forward

31:11to, you know, the next off season because I'm just, I don't know, I'm brained. I love free agency. I love the draft. Like that's my jam part of it is because the bears have been so bad for so long, but, you know, even when they're good, I look forward to seeing who they might bring in. I mean, this is probably a sad state of our lives, I don't know about you for me. Like day one NFL draft, day one NFL free agency, those are easily top, top 10, maybe top five days of the year, you know, without a doubt. Yeah. And I remember I have a vivid memory of coming back from school. What was is 2013 maybe the first day of NFL free agency. I hop on NFL.com to see their free agency tracker. Like this was before I knew that you could have notifications on Twitter for people's posts. So I found out everything by just going online. And I saw like, all the bears got, Martellis Bennett and German bush ride. I was so stoked for those.

32:12I'm like, hold the bears are back. And I mean, the offense looked good that year. But anyway, I don't know. It's so much fun. But, you know, looking at it now though, we talk about Kyler Gordon being a potential cut candidate, you know, it feels like that's inevitable. Are we starting to get into that range of Jalen maybe being in that category as well? I don't see how you can say, we're going to pay him $25 million next year. I mean, you'd carry a $9 million dead cap, but you can save $16 million. I mean, you can't tell me that there's a better option in free agency or otherwise at 16 million a year, right? I know it's sad to think, but I just can't see how this team can stomach, hang a guy that is at this point of his career. Again, maybe the last people was a fluke, but is he an average cornerback? If he's an average cornerback, you can't pay him that much money. Yeah, then especially with the needs you have on the defensive line, like you're going to need to spend.

33:14Like Ryan Poles doesn't have a choice. I mean, I know every single year, it's just like, oh, we'll just, you know, go bargain binge shopping. We'll get like a mid-level starter, whatever. It's like that doesn't work out necessarily. Like it's showing that, you know, there needs to be a significant change in Poles approach in attacking the defensive line in free agency and the draft for that matter. So remains to be seen. Dante Purifying the YouTube chat says, Jermon Bushrod reference, I tuned in Justin Time. Yeah, I was, and going into this, I wasn't anticipating we'd shout out Jermon Bushrod, but I like to think it all, you know, it all worked out in serious ways. So shout out Jermon Bushrod, I guess. Shout out Jermon Bushrod, legendary St. Legendary Bear. Did I see, was he coaching up some of the bear's players? This all season or erm, I can be confusing him with the arm stud. Yeah, arm stud. Sorry, excuse me. Yeah, okay.

34:15But, man, dude, my whole childhood, the Saints just always had elite offensive lines. I think they're kind of back to that. Yeah, I mean, they had Bushrod, they had, they had arm stud, they had a, is it Ram, is it Ram Jack, right? Right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, yeah. Yeah, I mean, they just, man, on the end, that team. And that's why they were always good. And that's why I think the bears will be good for quite well because they have a good offensive line. And I know our next match we wanted to highlight was the offensive line, particularly our tackles, Darnel Wright and Braxton Jones, verse, Andrew Van Gingel and Dallas Turner on the other side. I'm curious what you thought of Dallas Turner, both now and coming out of the draft. I mean, he was, it was him and Jared and verse were kind of you guys to really elite talents. How has that kind of played out on Dallas Turner's side in his couple, first couple of years in the NFL? Yeah. And I will say just because I thought about it and I cannot say it for the Saints perspective, I wanted to shout out, Andrew's Pete, Jari Evans, Larry Warford, Carl Nick's,

35:18some dudes, some dudes up front on that offensive line. Max Unger, Max Unger too, even before Eric McCoy, they were just loaded up front. But anyway, to actually answer your question, I liked what I saw from Dallas Turner. I really did. And now I'm frantically going to check what my rankings were because I don't remember if I had Dallas Turner, Jared, verse as the top edge rusher on my board. I remember they were, I mean, they were like top half of the first round talents for you, regardless, right? Yeah. Yeah. So they ended up pretty close, I remember. Okay, so I did have Dallas Turner ahead and then Jared verse and then Lantu Lot too shortly behind. So they were pretty close. Both Turner and verse were top 15 guys on my board. I really liked Turner, though coming out where, and like I've adjusted ever so slightly to prioritize power a little bit more, but Turner has explosiveness, his flexibility,

36:20the finesse he brought to the table and the high motor he had in pursuit at Alabama was really impressive to me. I thought that, you know, it wasn't quite at the level of Will Anderson, because I thought Anderson was, you know, more violent and more physical, but Turner had like a similar level of disruption with just how quick he was. And it was a rough rookie year for him, but last year was, you know, a lot better. And I mean, obviously it was strong enough to the point where the Vikings felt comfortable where they could trade, you know, Jonathan Grenard over to Philadelphia, because Turner had eight sacks, you know, last season. He had one, he had one sack in week one, but perhaps even more impressive than that. Turner had six quarterback hits on Jordan Love. And you say what you want about the Packers' offensive line, again, it's dog water. It's bad. It's bad. They're dealing with bad. I will get this later. I mean, I think the Packers might lose 10 games this year.

37:21Okay, there, I mean, this is to me very clearly the least talented Packers team, maybe of my life. It's a very flawed roster. I mean, and I will say that's it. Like the Packers have had a lot of really good teams over the course of our lives. So, you know, it's not like, oh, we're in, you know, Cleveland Browns or Raiders territory or anything like that. But they're, I'm with you. They're genuine concerns about the trenches, the outline of the secondary in particular, a worrisome, you know, we'll dig into that when the Bears play the Packers obviously, but Minnesota sends the weakness and they pound on it. And Andrew Van Ginkel had one and a half sacks as well. Both of them were top six in the NFL and PFN Edge impact scoring. Turner was fifth, Van Ginkel was sixth in week one. I guess now the question is, you know, obviously the Bears have a bunch better tackle tandem on paper than what the Packers have.

38:23But what's your level of confidence? I guess specifically in Braxton Jones, where, you know, Darnell Wright, we know coming off in all pro year, he was tremendous in week one. I mean, the analytics again, PFN, online impact scoring, he led all offensive tackles at 88.0. But Braxton Jones, I guess, that's going to be the one to watch where, you know, I feel confident in Darnell Wright, but do we feel comfortable in Braxton Jones being able to shut down Van Ginkel or Turner whoever they rotate in off the edge? Yeah, I mean to me, Jones is, he's definitely more of like a matchup dependent guy. He's a lot better against guys that are bendier that are fast because he's quick, right? But it's, he really struggles with the power. So I am curious, like you said, Dallas Turner presents certainly some power in his profile. So yeah, how can how can Braxton Jones find that anchor against a really physical pass rusher? I'm not concerned, as you said, Darnell Wright, as he is, I mean, mental man, as he's just one of the most physical, he's just a baller, he's a bulldozer out there.

39:25But yeah, I am certainly, yeah, I prefer to see Braxton Jones go up against these lighter kind of linkier, more bendy guys, because he can kind of get out there with them quicker. How's that for me kind of knowing a little bit of a little bit of football? But yeah, yeah. Yeah, this is maybe a better question for you to answer in terms of how you think Braxton Jones profiles against them, because yeah, like these guys to me and my knowledge seem to be a little bit more power rusher, so I am a little bit concerned. Yeah, I think that's reasonable, like especially Van Ginkel, I think you can see his ability to convert speed to power, the motor, the tenacity, you know, stands out on tape anytime you watch it, or you're just even watching the games live. It's like, are this guys all over the place? It's going to be a test for Braxton for sure, and he's historically had issues against the bull rush, she gets the long arm. So I wonder if because of that, does Yandre Swift maybe line up

40:25to Caleb's left a little bit more? Right, in order to kind of be there in order to help out, I wonder, you know, I'm not sure if that's, but also this would be in the shotgun, which also makes sense, right, because they're going to want to run to the right a lot. So if I'm curious to see like, I don't know if people track this, but like his alignment in shotgun, more left or right of Caleb, I think being left of Caleb would make a ton of sense to help Jones, and then also getting like an easy start to the right, running behind Jackson and Wright. You know, genuinely, I think that's the first time I've heard that brought up, and that's a, you know, a very good point where, you know, running back alignment in a shotgun formation can be extremely beneficial, whether you have them, running the ball, you have them in past protection, what have you, or you have them do, you know, executing a chip block, and then running them out from there, you could really help out in a variety of ways. And in this case, it definitely makes sense to have Swift on the left side.

41:26Overall though, how are we feeling like, we're making score predictions? What's your, I mean, I mean, I can see it. We wrote it out, but for those who are listening, what's your score prediction for this one? Who do you have winning, and what do you expect this matchup to look like? Yeah, I think somewhere to last week, we're pretty aligned. We both have, not to spoil your prediction, but we both have the bears going over 30. I think it's a little bit more, I actually think Vikings might go under 20. So I have it right now, 31, 17, which is a big gap, but one thing I'm really curious about is, and like, I might change my mind depending on Sunday morning, but as it stands, it's supposed to rain in Chicago, and it's supposed to be quite windy. Last I heard was about 15 mile per hour sustained gusts. So because of that, I wonder, do the Vikings, are the Vikings forced into a more run-centric game plan? I think that's not good for them. Bears were about leg average in terms of EPA per play

42:29against the rush last week, and the Vikings, as we said, might be without Brian Neal, or without John Jennings, who's great run-blocking. And most importantly, the running back room is some combination of DJ Dallas and Aaron Jones. So that's why I have it 31, 17. I think Vikings might struggle to put up points if this turns into a little bit more of a ground heavy game. But because the bears are so prolific running the ball, I think they can still put up 30 or more, even if it's rainy, and they do have to ground and pound a little bit more, because we've seen they have no issues, scoring points through the air, through the ground. I don't think that's the case. I think for the Vikings to be competitive in this one, they're going to have to throw the ball, and the conditions might make that a little bit difficult. What say you? Yeah, I mean, I say similar, honestly. So I mean, I do think that, like, I have the Vikings scoring more points. I have it 34, 23. So obviously, not every single matchup is going to see the bears put up more than 50 points.

43:30Not every single matchup is going to see the bears give up close to 40 points. And we have goggles in the YouTube chat. Goggles with an H. Gahogles, if you will. Bears 40, bears 40 Vikings 27. So the bears picking up the wind. So we tend to all be in agreement here that the bears are going to pick up the victory. Just the big question is, how much are they going to win by? How many points are they going to give up? I think Carson Wentz is going to certainly have his moments against this bears defense. I mean, he certainly did against Green Bay. He threw for three touchdowns and no picks. I don't think that he's going to see that level of consistency against Chicago. But I do think they're going to be some good flashes from them where we're talking, maybe two touchdowns, but I do think an interception is inevitable, especially with Dennis Allen and Al Harris, the Bears defense backs coach, the way

44:31they coach up their corners, pretty aggressive in the grand scheme of things. So I have it 34, 23. I anticipate, again, the bears offense is going to be very tough to stop. Minnesota is going to provide a challenge. But I think this is certainly a winable game. It's certainly being at home. So before we dive into our individual niche segments, I'll be looking into the top five cornerbacks in the 2027 NFL draft, at least off of my board right now. And Jacob's going to look at as week two DFS cash lineup that we got going on. But we're going to take a, you know, for the people who are listening on Spotify or Apple Music or wherever we are. So you get your podcasts. We're going to take a quick ad break, but we'll be right back after this. You're listening to this podcast. So I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact that you may not know yet. Drivers who switch and save with progressive save over $900 on average.

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46:45And we're back. Welcome back to Bears for Breakfast. Jacob and Fonte alongside Jacob White. We're both named Jacob. He's the white one. And I'm grateful to the Italian one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, I mean, I wanted to go out with you tonight. I was going to say we should go out and watch Notre Dame. And this guy's like, I got to go home. I got to, you know, my mom's making a sauce, like kind of kind of thing, right? Yeah. Mama's boy classic Italian move literally. So I will. So next weekend, next weekend, I'll be around though. So I don't know if you'll be around. Yeah, we should we figure out we should. Jacob and Jacob meet up. Go out have some have some Guinness. Watch some football. Yeah. Could be the move. See, I respect that. I I was see I respect Guinness. I know you're a big Guinness guy. You're very good at, you know, his story like from what I've seen on social media, you can. What do they call it where you get it like it right?

47:46It's splitting the G. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you could. This is a classic, it's a classic survivorship by us. You know, I only post the G's I split. I do not post the ones I don't. Exactly. So yeah, to the 20 people on my close friends Instagram story, you all probably think I'm really good at splitting the G. Yeah, but maybe you can come out and see it in person. I yeah, I would love to. I can't I can't do Guinness. I don't know why I'm very much. Cheap light beer, the cheaper the better. Like I, I am like my body is probably 25% combined Miller, lighter, Michelin, Ultra at this point. And granted, that's why I gained like 50 pounds two years ago. And you're down to the people following on Twitter, you're down, what is it, 22 or something? Yeah, I'm down 22, which is pretty sweet. I, I, it's crazy enough when I was in college,

48:49I weighed as little as 150 pounds. I so I'm not going to be that low ever again. I don't necessarily want to be, but I worked, you know, I don't know, have you seen it's always sunny in Philadelphia? I'm trying to remember if you have I have not. I've only seen that one clip where we're Danny Davido, like can't believe that people are drinking orange shoes without liquor in it. Yeah, okay. So there's the character Mac, love Mac, he has an arc in one season where he gets just extremely fat like out of nowhere. Like he's just like a normal looking guy for like the first, you know, seven seasons or whatever. And then in season eight or whatever, he's just a fat guy now. And like he actually gains the weight and his whole thing is, oh, I'm cultivated mass. I'm getting much so much stronger. And like that was genuinely me, that was genuinely me where I'm like, I'm trying to get stronger.

49:50I'm trying to, you know, get more muscles, but I went about it just totally the wrong way. I ate way too much and like I got stronger, but I also got fat. So, so I, I related pretty heavily to that. And now I'm in the, you know, the recurring fallout of that, where I'm trying to, you know, try to meet me halfway where I have a little bit more muscle than I did in college, but it's like, I'm, you know, I'm never gonna be 150 pounds again. I'm never gonna have like 12% body fat ever again. That's the long, I'd kill for that now. Like I'm not a problem. There's a certain level of acceptance when you get to the stage where you're just like, there's a certain, you know, I'm not gonna look like I was when I was 12 or whatever it is. It's just, yeah. You just, you just have to accept that Jets Pizza is just, it's just better than being skinny, I suppose. Exactly. They say, you know, I still have not had Jets Pizza before. I know you're a big fan, but I actually never had Jets Pizza. Yeah, yeah. When I was in St. Louis, and you don't have a million

50:53really good local pizza spots, and you can't do, you can't do St. Louis style all the time. Like I'll say that. I think like E-Mose, shout out E-Mose Pizza. Perfectly fine in a pinch when you're in the mood for St. Louis style pizza, but it's not like, oh, we're gonna go out and get a pizza. Let's go to E-Mose, you know. It's a very different game down there. So I'd get, I'd rely on Jets a lot. And even, you know, even since I moved back to Chicago, I'm like, I kind of want Jets. So I go back, you know, on a day where I allow myself to gorge and I let my, you know, obsessive eating habits go to the wayside. I get a giant, just literally just plain cheese pizza with Cajun crust and a side of ranch. And I just go nuts on it. Especially college football Saturdays with Jets Pizza. Oh, yeah. It's special. Last thing I'll say before we actually get back to what

51:53we're supposed to be talking about is, I'm a big fan of just frozen pizza, like all day, whatever. I can kind of convince myself, like, I can eat a whole whole one if that's like my only thing for lunch, it's fine. So sometimes I'll track calories on like a Chatchee PT. And so I told Chatchee PT, it's like a week ago, I said, you know, I had this thing, how many calories, you know, put it in. And it was like, oh, just to be sure, like, did you mean the whole pizza? It's like, I do. It's like, get out of here, man. Yes, I do mean the whole pizza. Of course, shout out, shout out whole pizzas. Almost real, makes you happy to be alive. Exactly, almost. Almost, almost. Home run-in, home run-in is my favorite for those pizza, for sure. I love the home run. Yeah, I think so. We can do that on, do that, whatever that the saying is, debate that off camera. I'm not a home run pizza person, but we should probably get back to what we're actually here to talk about, which is your top five cornerbacks in the NFL draft. And I believe that you're leaving it off with a shout out

52:56Notre Dame Leonard Moore at your number one spot. Most assuredly. So as much as I could talk pizza for hours, that's not what the people come here to see. Maybe we'll do a special edition episode in the off season where we don't talk about football at all and just talk about pizza and life and being alone. But Leonard Moore. So I have Leonard Moore, not quite to that level of, like, sauce gardener Derek Stingley coming out, but he's quite close. I mean, there's a lot to like with him where he's, he's six foot two, but with taller corners, sometimes you wonder, is he going to have the change of direction ability? But he's incredibly fluid. He's sharp making those sudden movements laterally. Tremendous ball skills, really good ball production last season, as far as the interceptions go. Good body control attack in the ball in the air. He's quick to process route concepts. Reads, you know, it jumps on, it jumps around well and coverage, whatever he's trying to make a play on the ball.

53:58There's legit proble potential with him. And I'll try not to ramble on about each of these guys because I certainly could and definitely as, you know, once the off season comes around, we'll do a much more in depth, but Leonard Moore, I love. Ellis Robinson, the fourth from Georgia, not too far behind. He's a little bit lighter where he's, you know, listed at 180 pounds at six feet, you know, a little skinnier than what you'd want for a, you know, perimeter corner in the NFL. But there's a ton to like with him on tape. He's one of the most natural athletes he'll see in this class, you know, his, how loose his hips are, how quick his feet are, how well he changes direction, how well he accelerates vertically. He might, I think he might have the best ball skills of any corner back in this class. As far as, you know, high pointing the ball, track getting underneath it, track down the ball. He's like genuinely like a wide receiver as far as how good his hands are and how well he tracks the ball. It's really impressive.

54:58And I think that, you know, more, Leonard Moore gets the slight edge because he's more physical and he's better in press. He's more dominant at the catch point than Robinson is. But Robinson's legit too. He's another guy I think definitely at top 20 pick. All things considered, certainly could argue he's top 15. And if you want to argue for top 10, I'm not going to stop you. And there's certainly a drop off, there's a slight drop off after that. But, you know, a handful of guys that I really like in like the second round range, Zabian Brown right now is my corner back three. And honestly, there are a handful of guys in like that, six, seven, ooh, eight, nine range. Where it's like, you know, they're pretty close. All things considered. But Zabian Brown, I have, he was a two year starter at Auburn and he's starting right now at Alabama. So three years starting at the SEC level. I love the physicality he plays with the tenacity, the scrapping SEC shows. Closer to line of scrimmage, you know, at the catch point jamming receivers and press coverage,

55:58using active hands to derail their stems. There's a lot to like there. He's a good tackler. A little bit Boomer bust where, you know, you look at like the Bears cornerbacks last year, like Tyree Stevens and Naishan Wright, where they can make plays on the ball, but sometimes they're gonna give a big place. And Zabian Brown is, you know, kind of fits in that category where, you know, he was dominant in some games, but other games last year, six of his 15 games, he allowed pass ratings over 100. So obviously that's not ideal. To me that comes down to just, you know, his long speed is just all right. I don't know if he's gonna test insanely well, but the scrappiness, the physicality, the stickiness and coverage, there is a lot to like there. Bryce Pollock, number four out of Texas Tech. To me, he's the best tackling corner of the bunch with his combination of his, you know, scrappiness, his physicality, his form as a tackler. He does a good job of consistently breaking down, taking active angles and pursuit and, you know, having his weight underneath

57:00and when he wraps up. Good hit fluidity, good mirroring skills. He's patient in his backpedal and aggressive, you know, with his longitudinal agility, jumping around. I don't know necessarily if he, again, I don't know if he's gonna be another guy who tests insanely well or, you know, jumps out of the gym or what have you, but I do think he's just a good football player. And I probably like a strong cornerback too at the next level. And then the last guy before I stop rambling and, you know, turn it over to you for, you know, any, you know, thoughts or questions on that and then, you know, digging into your DFS lineup for the week. OJ Frederic is my current cornerback five. OJ Frederic Jr. out of Miami. Another, he's another dude who's skinny, you know, listed at six feet and 180 pounds. Something you, you know, you could add weight for sure and that skininess, it can kind of hurt him as a tackler for sure, where, you know, at the wrap up point, he doesn't have the play strength to drag guys down. You know, it can be a little bit more physical

58:01and, you know, in press coverage or, you know, whatever he's, you know, in, you know, playing off man coverage and he squatting and then, you know, like squat press, what have you? He can get better at that, but Frederic is just a really, really fluid mover. Some of the best back pedal technique and some of the most body control you'll see coming out of his brakes of any corner in this class. He understands his assignments well in zone coverage to the point where he can pass off assignments and pick up other receivers in his area. He's sticky in man coverage. He can pick up, you know, really well in round concepts. And in Miami's playoff run, you know, run to the national championship, they lost to Indiana, but he went up against a gauntlet of wide receivers and he performed very well. Like you have legit shut down reps against guys like Jeremiah Smith, Charlie Becker, you know, both first round picks probably in the 2027 draft and then Cornell Tate, the first receiver off the board in 2026, Elijah Serrat, another guy who went, I believe third round in 2026.

59:03So legit NFL prospects that he was able to shut down. So those are my current top five corners in the class. Jacob, I'll turn it to you. If there's any comments you want to add on that front or you know, dig into your DFS line up to close things out, we also have a Q&A as well that we'll dig into. But any thoughts on that before moving over to your DFS line up for the week? Yeah, I mean, I already mentioned, shout out Leonard Moore. I'm excited to watch him shut down Michigan State tonight. The only real comment I have is I do notice toggling over to Prof. of all networks, industry consensus, big board. I am seeing Kelly Jones at a DFS state. He's ranked third there. He was not in your top five. I would note, most of these sources have him as kind of a middle to the middle end of the draft pick. So curious why was he the first man that got cut? You mentioned there was a little bit of a tear break after Ellis Robinson.

1:00:03It seems like maybe some people would put him closer to there. Curious your thoughts on why he was omitted from your top five? Yeah, that is a good question. And I think if we're going purely off of upside, Kelly Jones probably does have more than, say, as David Brown or Bryce Pollock that I mentioned. Kelly Jones is my CB6 right now. The upside is tremendous. He's six foot four for a corner, which is not super long arms. Large tackling radius, reliable tackler. I like the competitiveness. He brings at the catch point the way that he moves for his size is really impressive. I just, you know, the fluidity. I just think the sharpness in his cuts could improve a little bit. So, you know, like you think about routes where you rely more on sudden and meat, like some of those shorter routes, you know, your slants, your zig routes, things like that, where it's like you need to be agile to defend those.

1:01:05He can get beat sometimes. And he's, you know, £195 is in bad for a corner at all. But I want to see him get up to that 200 market just a little bit stronger because when you have such a high center of gravity, it's tougher to get your pads underneath you. It's tougher to win with leverage at, you know, impress coverage or jamming receivers through their stems. So the pad level is an issue. I want to see him get a little bit stronger. And I think I don't know how good his long speed is. But those intermediate routes, he fares extremely well on. He has incredibly long arms, good ball skills, the size you want. Good, you know, brings the effort as a tackler, which is, you know, always beneficial at corner. So I, yeah, I guess a tiny bit lower on him than the consensus, but there's still lots of like there, for sure. Yeah, yeah, no, I think that's fair.

1:02:06Moving into, you know, I'm going to talk about my, my cash line up, very quickly recapping last week. For those on the audio, I will, I will, articulate what is on the bottom ticker. But I put up just shy of 160 points, which is pretty solid, depending on the week. There's not like a fixed number. You want to get at that 160 is going to be really good. I went 25 and eight in my head to head. So it was just shy of a 76% winning percentage and overall across all of my head to heads, 50, 50s, double ups. I was just over a 66% ROI. Obviously, very good. It's a one week sample, you know, not sustainable, but a really good start to the year. So if anyone, you know, kind of played any of the guys I talked about, hopefully you did good as well. So getting into this week, I will note, projections are a little bit down. Like I think my line up last week was projecting around 150. This one is 144. Certainly, as we get closer a lot, I can change it.

1:03:09But right now, again, for those on the screen, you can see I've brought Peri at quarterback. San Francisco is implied for 28 points this week. So I'm kind of just betting on a really good offensive environment against the Miami Dolphins, which are just like a JV team. I mean, they're, yeah, especially defensively. I mean, it's rough. So I think Peri is like a pretty easy play there. Some people will play Dac Press got for $200 more. In this line up, I just didn't have the money for that. And then some people actually in Fonte are playing a 4,600 Carson Wentz in cash. Oh, yeah, yeah, you know, just for me, I don't think it's horrible. Like if you want to play Carson Wentz on your cash team, it's like fine. For me, it's just a weird week where usually you're saying, OK, like where can I, because it's all game theory. It's all opportunity cost. So if you played Carson Wentz down from like Peri, you're saving $1,600. What can you do with that? In some weeks, I think that goes a very long way

1:04:11that is not the case this week, because further down the board, you might note I'm playing three really strong running backs this week, expensive guys being used on Robinson, Javante Williams, and Derek Henry. And because of that, I am not as strong at wide receiver. Pickins, Caleb Douglas, and Metcalf. This is because if you look at a lot of the top guys this week, you can really poke holes in them. Jermar Chase is going up against the Texans. I don't like that matchup. Jackson Smith and Jigba has Drew Locke throwing to him. Justin Jefferson is good. He's at 7,800 this week on Draft Kings. The issue with him, as I said, is a little bit of a Carson Wentz stuff, but I am a little bit concerned about this, the weather. So it's just a spot where, again, the difference between like tournaments and cash is cash you just really want to find some like stability, some floor. And I don't want to spend a bunch of money on a guy that has a back of quarterback throwing to him potentially in the rain. So that's kind of how I landed on this one. I think Dalton Schultz is interesting.

1:05:12A lot of people will play Michael Mayer or Andrews. Michael Mayer is 400 more than Schultz and Andrews is 1200 more than Schultz. The Texans are missing Nico Collins this week. Obviously, Tank Dell is still injured. So I think you can see a lot of pass volume funneled to Dalton Schultz. And he's quite cheap. He kind of lets me do the other things that I want to do. And then the really interesting spot, finally, I'll get to, is the Buckeneers defense at 3,600. You might note, last week I played the Jets at 2,500. Generally, I do not like paying up for defenses because both in DFS, but even in fantasy, I'm sure you've experienced. The defensive performance is just really hard to predict. Because you're not predicting one player, right? You're trying to predict an entire defense against an entire offense. But I mean, as we saw last week, like Cleveland is just hit a full. Just on Watson, it's probably going to throw at least one interception. He'll get sacks. They're aligned's bad. So this is what I'm rolling out this week.

1:06:14Things might change. I don't know if you have any questions in fontanity. The guy is I'm playing. Yeah, so I did have won as far as looking at this broad approach. Definitely more of a spending priority on the running back position as opposed to why the receiver. I mean, you do have George Pickens. That's a nice bounce back candidate there. Obviously looking at what he was able to do last year. Bet on the upside there. Is that typically the case with DFS? Because I'm not incredibly in the weeds in that regard. So it's helpful for me to know, like, do you typically go for more of a running back approach where you have a certain amount of money to go with? You're going to spend a decent amount of that relying on running backs who know we're going to be the bell cow guys and then build out the rest of your roster from there. Or are there exceptions in that regard? That's a really good question. I think the best way to approach it is a week by week basis. And so for those that aren't super into specifically cash, it's very projection reliant.

1:07:15So I'm, like, I think the optimal lineup is projected for like 144.7. So mine's like, it's a half a point off of that. I think it's very important to have strong projections. They're not sponsored affiliated, but I use Establish to run, highly recommend checking out their content. They do great work. So for this week, like I said, I do because draftings is full PPR, I actually do like to play receivers. And for a while, it was like you were always playing four receivers, the three wire receiver spots and the one in your flex. But as it's been talked about a lot, passing is down in the NFL, rushing is up. And so again, in a spot where you just want a little bit more floor, like you know that John T. Williams is just going to dominate the touches. You know, Derek Henry is going to dominate his touches. Beers and Robins is going to dominate his touches. Last week, I played Jamar Chase at like almost 8K. And he did, you know, because there just tends to be a little bit of variability in like what do receivers do are passes catchable to cornerback, shut them down. And it's a good question.

1:08:16And like I said, it really, you have to evaluate it week by week. But because of some really strong running back options, they're projected well. And because a lot of these receive the top receivers, Chase, JSN, Jefferson, all kind of have question marks, I just want to be a little bit careful in this kind of form that. And so that's why I am prioritizing these three really strong running backs this week. Yeah. And I think it's entirely reasonable. And I can't speak so much on the price points. But I can on the players themselves and the roles that they play in their respective offenses. I think that you're going to get consistent touches. Like you said, I mean, each of these running backs that you have play significant roles in their respective offenses. So it absolutely raises your floor when you have, you know, bell cowbacks that running back in every single one of your spots. That's what I've tried to do in fantasy, like just, you know, in redraft leagues where I rely much more on running backs in my flex than I did in years past.

1:09:18And I found that for the most part, it works, like, especially right now, like as the exactly like you said, as the NFL, you know, reverts back to it's not run first, but it's more run heavy than it was say five or so, you know, years ago. It's definitely, you know, there's been a shift for sure. So having a quality running backs, absolutely raises the floor of your fantasy squad for sure. So the last thing I will actually ask you about is, I know I was like on Twitter, like totally like dumping on Xavier Hutchinson. Because that's like another guy. Some people, some people might play Xavier Hutchinson. He's 3500. I'm so like what some people might do is right, they might take this lineup and they could take Xavier Hutchinson, save $200 and go up to Dak Prescott at quarterback. I'm curious what you think about Caleb Douglas. He's a rookie. I'm sure you've probably recently scouted him from what I saw both in the box score. He had nine targets in his debut and just some cut ups on Twitter.

1:10:18He looked really good out there, but I'm curious kind of your take on him just coming out of college. Yeah. So I was honestly, I was intrigued by his, what he brought to the table from a physical perspective. I thought he was a little bit of a reach in the third round admittedly and you know, a week one that certainly didn't age very well. What he brings to the table, size and speed in particular, he can win above the rim. He can stretch the field vertically. He's a tall big wide receiver who can win at the catchpoint. Win above the rim, uh, box out defensive, you know, smaller defensive backs on the 50 50 ball. I thought he was raw as a route runner, but in the grand scheme of things, you're betting on upside. And if you're the Miami dolphins where there's just a total absence of talent at the wider receiver position, you're betting on anti-end, anti-end too. Yeah. So you're you're betting on upside with Caleb Douglas. He was able to, you know, he feared well with the role that he had in week one.

1:11:19So I like this a lot, taking a shot on him as, you know, if he establishes himself to be the wide receiver one for Miami, I think he could end up being one of the bigger seals in fantasy this year. And at DFS, you know, him being the, you know, the cheapest, you know, non tied-end or defensive player or, you know, non tied-end or defensive unit, I should say, I, there's significant upside there. So Douglas was somebody I thought was more of a developmental project. I, it assumes that he's in a great position in Miami to prove me wrong. And week one was certainly a step in the right direction. So that's going to be very encouraging to see how that all plays out for sure. So we're going to wrap things up here. We have a couple of questions from, I, from Twitter or X, depending on, you know, who you are, how you pronounce it, how you say it. I don't know one person in my personal life that like the first of it is X. And if I did, I would X them out of my social circle.

1:12:21Hey, there you go. That was, that was good. That's pretty good. That was, did you just think of that? I did. You know, this, this is what you get when you're 60 or 70, excuse me, minutes into the show is I start reverting to my just like stupid wordplay humor. Shut up my corkers that I have to deal with just me making horrible, horrible wordplay jokes. Because the jokes I want to make would probably not fly in the office. Of course. Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, you don't want HR involved in the grand scheme of things. So I don't, fortunately, I, I found that out the hard way one time. But that's okay. Well, not really, not really. We have a lot to talk about maybe in the off season when we, yeah, we, yeah, we have a lot of stories to tell. We should just fire up like a, could you do like a spaces on Twitter on like Wednesday night or something? Sure. We just like, you know, shoot the crap because, um, yeah. Cause clearly, you know, this is like something that happens with football season where it's like Monday, yeah, you know, Friday, and then it's to like Tuesday and you're just like,

1:13:25what am I supposed to do with myself, you know, like, feel my feelings, like think my thoughts like, no, so yeah, I don't know. Maybe we'll hop on spaces and just talk talk pizza and whatever happens with you at your prior place in employment. Yeah. I mean, we'll see. It's, it's an interesting situation right now. I will, I'll dig into it as this, you know, the year progresses and we'll, we'll spill the tea as the girls say, you know, we'll spill some tea. Sis, I don't know what I mean, the girls, I know, both of us use that phrase all the time. Yeah. Yeah, I do. I'm not going to, you know, I shouldn't pretend that I'm above that. I, I spill the tea sometimes. I say that. That's whatever. Uh, the good question from Ken Mitchell from Winnie City, Grittar and the Bears, dead later, uh, give me three under the radar pass rushers that the Bears could both trade for and afford that would actually make a positive difference in some way. Plus what would it take and draft capital to get them? So if we're talking about right out of the gate, I, you know, there's definitely going

1:14:26to be cap restraints, like the Bears can't necessarily jump in right away and be like, oh, we're going to take on Max Crosby's contract right away. I, you know, just financially, they're not in the space to do so. They can try and restructure some things, but I mean, again, we'll see. I guess cave on Tibido, to me, stands out as maybe not the perfect scheme fit, not, you know, necessarily what Dennis Allen looks for from a physical, you know, from a size perspective of defense event. But there is, you know, a lot to like there from an athleticism perspective. The finesse brings us to pass rusher. If you don't think that Austin Booker is going to take that next step, uh, then, you know, you have Tibido in the rotation as your, you know, reliant speed passing down guy, uh, looking at other guys as well, uh, I shoot. It's tough. There admittedly aren't a ton of guys. I mean, maybe you, you can try for someone like Uchene N'Wosu, uh, where he's in the last year of his deal. Uh, you might walk.

1:15:27I mean, I don't think the Seahawks would trade him because the, the benefits of, uh, you know, the benefits of having him on the roster and having that deep, you know, at group of edge rushers is certainly beneficial. Uh, as you're looking to make another super bowl push, but if they want to get something for a guy, they're probably just going to let walk anyway. I mean, that's certainly a possibility. Uh, I'm trying to think I can't think of a, the third to be honest. Like, yeah, so what thing group what I did is I pulled up, um, on, on my screen. Uh, I'm looking at, uh, spot, spot track, uh, they have looking at free agent edge rushers, uh, from next year. That's, that's usually what you're going to see in these mid season edge rushers or just trades in general, uh, but I'd say, you know, particularly like edge rushers receivers. It's guys that like usually bad teams like teams at a playoff contention, no, we're going to walk and want to get something for. So yeah, like N'Wosu, I give you a saying on him, um, if Seattle looks like really trying to compete for a super bowl again, I think it's like very tough to see them just giving

1:16:31up him for, and then the other, the other piece of this is like, what do the bears have to give up? I don't think it's going to be a thing like sweat or like they want to give up premium draft capital to then like, because then really what you're doing is you then you have to pay them, right? So I'm looking for guys that are like maybe reclamation projects, certainly on bad teams. Like, I throw it, you know, Tyree Wilson, you know, the Saints, you know, a guy like him maybe where you can try and resurrect him, uh, Zaven Collins, you know, maybe of, uh, up the Cardinals, like, do they want to just get back something for him? You know, those are maybe guys I'm looking at, just, Germaine Johnson, even, um, on the, uh, on the Titans, you know, just these kind of guys where maybe they hadn't looked up to their ceiling, they were on expiring deals on bad teams, like, that's kind of who I would be looking at. I do not expect them to give up premium draft capital for someone, um, yeah, for like, N'Wosu, Armstead. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's going to be like these kind of more bargain guys that their teams just

1:17:32like want to get something back for them. I think that's definitely reasonable. And like to that same point, maybe someone like Sam Williams where he ended up getting cut by the Cowboys, he signed with the Browns, he's on their 53 man roster right now, just, you know, 27 years old, the former second round pick in 2022, uh, you know, good length, good athleticism, just hasn't been able to piece it all together. I mean, the Browns aren't competing for anything. You could probably snack him for like a, you know, a late day three swap pick swap or something like that, kind of like what they did with Joe Treyon, Shoyinka last year. Uh, so I don't know. It's, it's certainly possible that they do make a bigger move like that, but, you know, but I do think, you know, probably going to be a little bit more on the bargain side. Uh, and there's another question here as well. Uh, it's a very long one. Uh, from Reggie Dunlop. Uh, just give us a clip notes. Speaking about, uh, Dr. Mo, aka Montel Fleming, Kyler Gordon's primary physical therapist,

1:18:37with no, supposedly no medical history or licensure, and more than a dozen aliases and mentioned criminal entries on a background check. Any, I, I don't know. I don't have any strong thoughts on this because I'm not, I'm not going to sit here and say I've done the investigative research, but if that's true, if all that's true, and he's like, he's working with a non accredited, you know, physical therapist, I'm like, come on. If that, if that is true, I'm not going to say that it is or it isn't, but which would explain, I, like, there's clearly some tension, clearly some tension between like Gordon and, and polls and Johnson, you can hear it in their tones at the press conference. And intention that goes just beyond like, he's hurt, like, there's clearly something there. I, there was like, it really offhand, common by polls. Um, I think I had a week one where he was saying like, oh, you know, there's always this comfort coming back from injuries, you know, you're supposed to push through it. Like, I wonder if there's a little bit of that where maybe Gordon is just not, he got his bag and he's not like rushing to get back out there. Yeah, I don't want to speculate on that.

1:19:37I think it's also telling that this hasn't been picked up by any like, uh, larger or more reputable beat reporters. So that's why I don't want to like go to in on this, but like, it makes sense because like I said, there's like clearly something weird between Gort, like the fact that he's away from the team like it's, it's, there's just something, there's something very, very odd about this situation. Um, it's, it's giving shades of like, uh, who is the main Davis or like, yeah, you know, like, there's just something just weird, you know, yeah, it's an off putting situation for sure. And it's, you know, disappointing from a guy who was very much like, you know, a key part of like bringing energy to the defense, bringing physicality and effort. And now he's just not on the field anymore. Uh, oh yeah. Like the, the spiting celebration was like epic. Yeah. I mean, he's just, and like his contract is like so reasonable. It was a, it was a three year, 40 million dollar deal. Um, 13 million dollars a year for infantes.

1:20:39It's like, over this. He's like, got his cat. Um, but 13 million dollars a year for like what should have been like an elite, uh, nickel corner is steel. So it's, it's, it's really rather unfortunate that this is the way it's turned out. Um, the writings on the wall, I don't really see us, this is the scenario where like he's back in 27. He's going to be a, he's going to be cut. They'll just move on. They'll take the cab savings and go from there. Yeah. I'm with you. And it's like, I mean, maybe he'll return, maybe he'll play again for the bears. I'm not counting on it necessarily. I'm not putting too much stock and too much energy into, okay, I'm expecting color Gordon to come back and be in the nickel. If he is great, if not, then, you know, nothing's really going to change in my opinion. So I mean, the Malik Muhammad performance in week one, I thought was very encouraging. Oh, yeah. Out of this, he was playing some slot. I think he'll play more slot this week because Xavier Woods is back to that should, or excuse me, he might play less, um, because with Cam Lewis, maybe, you know, getting some

1:21:40nickel reps now that Xavier Woods. So I guess I'm just curious to see kind of what his playing time and performance looks like in week two, because I mean, to me, I got unfortunately like, believe me, Muhammad was their best quarterback last week. Yeah. I mean, and there's a very real possibility where, you know, even if Kyler Gordon comes back and he's like, all right, I'm ready to play that Malik Muhammad ends up taking his starting job. This is just better. Yeah. Right? So performing well, you know what you have in him. It's like, sorry, Kyler. Maybe you, maybe you bounce back and you're back to your former self, but we know what Malik is. We're going to go with him. Uh, it's entirely possible. So that remains to be seen, obviously, but time will tell that's going to do it for this episode. Uh, a longer one for sure than what we're usually going to do. But you know, a lot of talk about going off a week one and week two things like that. So appreciate everyone of you for sticking in with us. I thank you to everyone who's watching live on YouTube and everybody who's, you know,

1:22:42watching us on, you know, after the fact on podcasts, if you're watching on YouTube, make sure to like the video, subscribe to the second city gridiron YouTube channel. Uh, if you're listening to the podcast after the fact, make sure also to subscribe and stay tuned because they've got a lot of really great shows here at the second city gridiron podcast network. Definitely recommend checking those out and sticking with us each week as well on Saturdays. I've been Jacob and Fonte alongside Jacob White. That's going to do it bears for breakfast. Uh, we're full. Does that work as an ending? We're no, I'm actually, dude, I'm, I'm starving. I had raising canes at like 11 to 50 last night. I might have to go back there 12 hours later. That's reasonable. Yeah, I didn't need breakfast. I need to go get lunch. I need to figure out what I'm going to do. But yeah, I'm starving too. So from an information sense, we're full, but we're actually starving. So we're going to go and leave and eat and gorge our faces. But thank you guys for tuning in. We'll see you next week. Bear down.

1:23:45Saturday, September 26th, two of combat sports most dangerous strikers collide. Bear knuckle. Liverpool's own down in the gorilla tail goes to war with Cuban powerhouse, yo, L soldier of God Romero. Plus the bear knuckle middleweight championship of the world is on the line when the raining champ Dave Verredneck Mundell defends against undefeated British challenger. Jack Demeek, Cleaver, Colin, BKFC 94, Tillverse Romero. Watch it live only on the zone. Sign up now at thezone.com.