Bears Over Beers: Is Ryan Poles Setting Up A Big Trade?

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1:02What's going on, Chicago Bears fans? Another edition of Bears Over Bears powered by Second City, Gridiron, Ryan Drossy here with my good friend, Brian Orrenchuck. Brian, how you doing this week? You know, great man, seasons getting closer. It's starting to feel like fall in the mornings where I'm at. Hopefully it's getting nicer and more crisp near you as well. Yeah, man, that means football is soon upon us. We've got a lot to talk about as a season near closer. Beers start to shift a little bit this time of year too. I'm curious to see what you have, but excited to be with you and everybody else. Yeah, talk some shot, man. How are you? You know, I wish the air was crisp here, but we've been having 90 plus degrees in the Midwest. Unfortunately, there's like a heat wave hitting right now. It's been really hot this week.

2:02It was, it was getting kind of cool in the mornings, but hopefully this doesn't last too long because I'm certainly ready for some fall weather. That is for sure. Yeah, but yeah, man, otherwise we're just what, a week and a half away from the first meaningful games we've got preseason in our rearview mirror. It's been a couple of weeks here since we've done an edition of Bears Overbears. So definitely want to get on and talk with all of you here on the second city feed about what's been happening. We got some fun stuff tonight. We've got, I'm going to be giving away one of these stranglehold banners you see right there. I just tweet this out about an hour ago. So if you're watching for that, we're going to be doing that a little bit. We want to give people time to enter the contest, but Rob over a tally brand was kind enough to give us an extra to give out. And I know you got one too, Brian. And these things are gigantic. It's five feet tall. It's the Darthburden. It's pretty awesome. So one of our lucky listeners is going to be winning one of those here in just a little bit. Yes. Yes, it's going to be an exciting show, excited to get this out to somebody and can't wait

3:02to see pictures of it flying proudly in someone's neighborhood. Absolutely. So Brian, what do you got to do today? What are you drinking? All right. So normally I go into my fridge, but this won't fit. I got a bottle for the first time. This is a quadruple Belgian. It's a quad, as you can see. It's a from a brewery called Wirebocker in Pennsylvania. It's 11.8%. And I actually got to try it on tap at my little spot in town. I think I told you guys about. It's called Blue Ridge Beer Hub. It's what I have this sleeve for. And it's delicious. So I made sure I tried it before I bought it. And look, you could tell, nice and cold. Caramelli. It's potent packs of delicious punch. And but it's smooth. So that's what I'm drinking tonight.

4:03Eager to get this summer finished off into fall. And this is kind of a good transition beer. Yeah. You know, I was thinking about that tonight. So I did pick up my first October fest of the year. But it's just almost hot. I didn't. What's that? I almost did also. Yeah. But it's so hot out here right now that I'm like, I just don't feel in the mood tonight. And I was also thinking about getting a coffee stout or something. I love those once it gets a little cooler. And I saw a nice one tonight. But instead, I had to go with the theme of what we've been drinking lately. So I'm going to give another shout out to our friends at Goose Island. And I know you like this line, Brian. So I got this time the hazy beer hug. Delicious. Yeah. This is not the one that's 90.9%. This one is more like seven, I think. 6.8%. And this one's got peaches and guava in it. So it seems like a nice good summary beer. I'm pretty pumped to try this one out. And assuming it's going to be kind of a lighter color.

5:06Now I don't have my bears over beers mug. I drank out of it last night. But I do have a revolution brewing from the great city of Chicago. So I'm going to pour this. Oh yeah, it looks like lemonade. Yeah. There you go. But yeah, man, I am very excited to be drinking one out with you tonight. Talking bears football. Get in hyped for the season, giving away a Luther burden. You can see it nice and big full screen behind me. Luther burden flag tonight to one lucky listener. All kinds of stuff going guys. If you want to help us out, by the way, while you're here, please subscribe to the channel and hit the like button. Cheers, Brian. Cheers. Nice. Oh yeah. Yeah, this is pretty light. I like it. Crisp. Yeah, I've had that one. I think I've had that one on the show. Really, really good beer. Yeah. We got Tally Brand in the chat, Rob saying, good luck, win a stranglehold, rally flag.

6:06You can also get that on a t-shirt. If you go to the product page, you will find a quote for myself there. So shout out Rob for putting me on the stranglehold t-shirt product page tallybrand.com. By the way, also, you can get a discount at tallybrand.com. If you use the code, beer all caps on your orders, free shipping and a free sticker pack, you'd get the Darth Brun sticker. All you got to do is put in the code, beer to get a hold of that. And yeah, we'll be giving it away here in a little bit. Brian, speaking of merch, I think we should start right here. So the bears just dropped a bunch of merch the other day, all themed around their new rival regercies. And we haven't really had a chance to talk about it since it came out. I'm going to try to get a picture of it on the screen. But I mean, all bears fans have seen them by now. So what do you think of those rival regercies that dropped?

7:11So I'll give you my thought progression. First thing I thought, because I saw orange helmets, I was not happy. I'm not a fan of orange helmets. I'm just not. Now, with that said, I think it was more the color combination of the past orange that they've had. It's typically been orange with orange and white. And I think that just looks kind of like my hat right there. It has to be accented with a healthy dose of navy in my opinion. And that's what these are. So I actually don't mind them. I think I might have even liked it better with orange or sorry, with navy pants and the orange being the accent. But I don't mind these. I think the numbers are cool. You know what it reminded me of? And I actually wish they didn't have the white trim. It reminded me of early 2000s when I was in college. And I did create, I didn't mad into franchises. And I made my own uniforms. These kind of reminded me of the uniforms I would make.

8:13So I think fans are going to be happier when they see them on the field. And the guys are moving around and playing in them. But I like them. I think the patch could have been smaller. I actually would have liked the stripes on the side. They're a little bit odd to me. I feel like they could be even smaller or bigger. But they're kind of like in between size, which makes it a little bit different. But overall, I like them. I like also the, they're straight navy and orange stripe socks. I like those. There's no white in them. So the colors jump out. And I think like I said, I think it's going to be really nice when we see them on the field. But I'm liking the orange helmet with the orange pants. Being that there's a navy jersey. I think that's key. Now, some people have pointed out looks like the fighting a lionine. Some people said it looks like Syracuse. I think Juquant Brisk Reven made fun of us for looking like Syracuse. I can see those. But it's an indestakable bear sea on there.

9:17Chicago sea. So I think that's going to be, I think it's going to be nice when we see it. And I know that they look better than the packers in my opinion too. When we play on Christmas day, I think we'll be the sharper looking bunch. But I think you and I might have different on this. I saw some of your tweets to tell us what you think. Well, first of all, let me just say the people that are angry about the fighting a lionine look. I mean, that was the inspiration for the bear sea. You know, in their color way, Papa bears all of the moderns. I have no problem with that. I mean, that's the bears every single week. I'll say it's growing on me a little bit. Not enough to want to purchase one of the jerseys. There are some things that I like. So I like the hallis patch that like throwback to the 1983 trivia they did back in the day. I like that. I do like the orange numbers because it reminds me we've talked about on the show before. The monsters of the midway throwback jerseys they wore and like the early 20 teens. Let me see. I don't know where those are on 2010.

10:17Those to me are my favorite throwback still. And yeah, and this kind of reminds me of those a little bit. So I like that. I really do not like the vertical stripes on the sleeve. It's just like something about it. I don't like it. It's just you're so used to the stripes going the other way and I just can't get used to it. It just looks like a design flaw to me, even though it's purposeful. I don't like that. I think the pants are fine. The socks like you said, I think those look sharp. One thing that I thought was cool and I don't really get the design choice in these is how they got the cursive monsters of the midway. It's like written inside the collar. Why would you not put that on the outside? So at least it's visible to people watching the game. I don't understand the purpose of putting that inside the collar. I think it looked a lot cooler on the outside. Kind of like how on the NBA jerseys they've got like the number of NBA titles, the teams of one on the back of the collar now. Should put that on the outside. What's the purpose of putting that inside? So that I don't really like. Orange helmets. I think it looks sharp.

11:18I'm fine with that. I think my biggest problem is the vertical stripes. I just don't like it. Yeah, like I said, it's kind of in between for me. Like either go all the way to the neck, which could be a neat little thing. I think our, the white alternates we've had with the striped helmets, those have those longer stripes or have it be smaller. But it's kind of like, yeah, it looks kind of like a design flaw, like you said. But who knows? I think or even tied into the helmet somehow. So it looks connected. Or put the stripes vertical on the socks. Make it look something like a transition. But they didn't. So whatever. But I do think once they're all together, they're going to look crisp and clean and fresh. And especially against the packers and their pizzyllo cream yellow uniforms that they came

12:23out with, I think I think it's going to be a nice, a nice mix. Hopefully we have some snow that day too, which would make them even pop more. Yeah. Now I was going to mention that too. I'm glad you brought that up that how you know you say you have the horizontal stripes on the socks. But then the vertical sleeves just doesn't match up. Maybe it's my OCD. I mean, I am very particular. I'm one of those guys who will hang a frame and like get the level out, make sure it's exactly the level. And you know, so like when I see this, it's just throwing me off. And I don't like it at all. So the sleeves are the biggest problem for me. Who knows? For a month or now, maybe I'm ordering a jersey. But right now, not a, not, they're fine, but not enough to order jersey. You know, if they ever bring back the early 20 teens throwbacks, I'll probably order one of those because I never got one. And I'm just kind of waiting on that. I was one of the people that was hoping it would be more of a white color way. Yeah, me too. So that was disappointing. My favorite thing about the whole thing is, is the 1940s throwback logo with Chicago

13:24and the ball and the football. That is sweet. Most of the merch, you know, themed around that is very, very sharp. I did order the Air Max 90s that are Bears theme that got the GSH patch on the back. That goes look really nice. Yeah. Order one of those when they went up. Thinking about one of the hoodies, they're just so high. The prices on these are crazy. I do like the hoodie with that Chicago, with the throwback 40s logo kind of on the upper chest. Yeah, a lot of cool looking merch that came out. I'm with you. I think the Bears logo that the team changed their Twitter Twitter profile picture that the old school bear on the ball. You know, I love that logo too. And if I didn't care about my marriage so much, I would have gotten a few of those things already. What's this $400 bill on your credit card for fanatics? More bears stuff? What the hell?

14:25You already have enough. Yeah. So I don't know. Anyways, we thought it'd be worth throwing out talking about it because a lot of people have been talking about social media lately and we definitely have thought. So we'll be wearing those on Christmas day, the rivalries outfit. We'll see how it looks in the field. Well, maybe you'll have a couple gifts under the Christmas tree brine with some of that throwback merch. We'll see. It has to be from you or our listeners. It's not going to be my wife. I'll say that much. Yeah. All right. So a couple of different ways we could take this next angle because we want to talk about the 53 man roster that was set this week, but also, I mean, the thumbnail for this show on YouTube is about the rumors that are flying around still that the bears could make a possible trade still for an edge rusher. And we know that, you know, the team has done this in the past Ryan Poles trade for Montess sweat. You know, you go back, the bears trading for Julius peppers, you know, just like in our, not Julius peppers, Cleo Mac, right before the season started.

15:28So you know, there's precedent that they can make a big move like this. Do you think it's going to happen, Brian? And who is the guy that you would be targeting? You put me on a spot. I don't think it's going to happen. But if it does, that would be excited. If it were, you know, a difference maker, you know, I'm not, you know, we should bring it in a Mario Edwards type, right? I think Josh sweat is a name that's been floating around. He'd be fun. I don't think it'll be Crosby. I think I think he's going to at least, you know, stick in Vegas until the trade deadline personally. But I wouldn't mind a, you know, a difference maker. I just would like somebody to be somewhat young, you know, young enough to compete with us for the next few years, not someone that has one good year, like a Von Miller. Like I wouldn't really be interested in that. But I don't think it's going to happen. From the way that they, they sounded on the defensive line this week, I think today and

16:30yesterday, I feel like they're set there. I feel like they're expecting big things from Booker. Dio has, has appeared to be making plays and practice throughout camp. And obviously they, they brought in Marcus Davenport. So I don't think they're going to do it. But if they do, I would be excited because I feel like this is, this is a good year to push your chips in, right? I was more excited about going for a guy like Dexter Lawrence. There was another detackle that was available recently. Who was it? Peter Vey. Peter Vey. Peter Vey. Yeah. So I would have liked that. But and then we traded Jervon Dexter. You know, they, they love what they see at Vanderburt. They like Jaden Loving who's a UDFA that we were real high on. So they got some young defensive tackles that I like, not big fan of Greater Jared, but you know, we could use a difference maker up front, you know, Richard Dent coined the,

17:32the rule of three when it comes to pass rushers. And you know, you just got rid of our best interior pass rusher in Geron Dexter. And you know, they say, Dio is a lot more effective on the inside. That doesn't mean he is effective. It just means he's more effective, right? He's not been effective as a pass rusher period. He's been a little bit better, but he's not a difference maker. He's not someone you really have to worry about. Definitely don't have to double team him. So I would have liked that. But you and I have been huge on Booker. You know, I just hope he's healthy to start the year. I think he could be that guy opposite sweat to apply that pressure. And then who knows, man, I mean, maybe Vandenberg or James Lynch, they get enough push up front. Because all that's what it takes is to get some pressure in the face of quarterback. So he's got to run outside the pocket. And that's when a guy like sweat or Booker can just pounds because they have the athletic ability to break off their blocks, especially if he runs outside and get him down.

18:34So I doubt it's going to happen. I wouldn't be upset if it did. But yeah, man, how about you? You know, I think Josh sweat is worth possibly looking at. I mean, there's been rumors about that for a while, but then a lot of people thought it was going to happen with Green Bay. And Green Bay says, oh, no, we weren't considering that. I saw rumors out there that he could maybe have had for like a third round pick, which I think would be worth it for this team if they can make it work. So he's coming off 12 sacks, I think, last year. He's got a couple of years left on his contract. I believe he has an out next year. So I mean, Arizona obviously is not close to competing. So he might just leave and they don't get anything for him. So I think Josh sweat, maybe, maybe if he could pull that off, I'd be excited about it. If you can add him to that rotation with Montez and Dio, hopefully motivated as Dave says here in the chat.

19:35Awesome, Booker, hopefully coming on and being healthy as we've talked about in this show constantly. I mean, then you're talking about a decent pass rush and you know, Vandenberg just making it like you said, all these headlines in the preseason, which is one of the reasons why one of the major reasons why they were comfortable in letting Duran Dexter go. I mean, this guy is taking on two linemen and pushing them on their heels. I mean, he's got us all excited. We just got to see it in a regular season game. So yeah, I mean, I would definitely be making that call. I'm sure that he is. We know polls has been aggressive. Speaking of all that, I mean, we brought up Duran Dexter kind of naturally. We can flow into that conversation. People maybe some people were surprised. I was not really surprised. They made that trade. You know, the rumors had been out there for a few days and some people like, why would the Bears trade a guy with a thin defensive line room, you know, and all of that. But it was just to me, you look at it and Jervon just didn't really fit Dennis Allen's

20:37defense. Never really had not as explosive as they would one out of that position. And they didn't want to pay him next year. I think is what it really comes down to. And so, you know, they figured they'd get what they can right now. And it wasn't a huge return by any means, but it was something. How did you feel about the Jervon Dexter trade? What was your own personal thoughts on that? You know, I would, you'd always love to get more than they got, but, you know, he, the league has the tape, you know, and he struggled against the run inconsistent as a past rusher. And a lot of people talked about it. A lot of his sacks were, they kind of just fell into his lap. They weren't necessarily plays that he made and could do so consistently. So I liked him as a player. I thought he was serviceable, but I'm excited to give these young guys a shot. You know, I, hopefully, Cream sleeve is watching this because I told him when he was letting

21:37out his player rankings, I said, you're going to have Vanneberg. He's going to be the guy that jumps more than any other player on this list in your rankings. And sure enough, it's looking like that. So I would love to get, you know, some more aggression up front, some more three down capability up front, you know, not just a past rusher from our detacles. I think Grady Jarrett is the real albatross in that room. You know, and hopefully he can continue to improve as he appeared at the end of the season. But yeah, no, I'm not too too upset about it. I thought we should have gotten something from him and we did, you know, so he wasn't going to get that fifth year option. He wasn't going to, or you can't get fifth year options, a non-first rounder. But you know what I mean, he wasn't going to get a second contract in Chicago, at least $15 million. Yeah, you're looking at $15 plus million. No way. Just wasn't going to get that here. And like you said, it wasn't a scheme fit.

22:40I think if he was dominant, you know, like he's kind of got that bill like a Chris Jones. If he was dominant like a Chris Jones at three tech, then we have a different conversation. But he wasn't. So I like him. He was a good bear. He was good to the fans. He represented us well on and off the field. But I see why that business decision was made. And I'm looking forward to seeing the young guy step up. And if we can add another pass rusher, even with Booker and even with a dio healthy, you know, more power to them, they're going to have even more opportunities to have some one on one, you know, chances up the middle. Yeah. Dave says in the chat, Josh Sweat and Montess Sweat. Defense would be the sweatshop. So what? Yes, it would. Yeah, I don't think the Max Crosby thing's going to happen. Look, I'd be overjoyed if they figured out a way to make it happen. The name keeps getting floated out there. But like once he got sent back to Vegas, it just seems like he's all in on staying there. Yeah. It's not impossible. I just don't see it happening. I just don't see the capital from the bears and making that work.

23:44But it seems like the Josh Sweat thing could be doable. So we'll see what happens. We'll obviously be following it. You want to stay tuned to windycitygridiron.com. All the updates over there from the talented staff here at Second City Gridiron and more covering the bears every single day. Brian, before we go any further, we've got to throw it to a special note from one of our new sponsors, you guys. And that new sponsor are the good folks over at MyBookie. That's MyBookie.ag. So Brian, I know, you know, I dabble a little bit in sports betting. I'm not quite sure about you. I know we talk about the odds sometimes here and there. But with the NFL season starting, I would definitely say that pro football and college football is what I put money on more than anything else because I feel like, you know, it's so hard to bet on baseball for me. Is it games every single day. You know, random stuff happens. Football, I feel like there's more. You can study for the bets a little bit more.

24:45You know, it's one big game a week. So I tend to put most of my money towards that. With football season starting, you want to start with a bet that feels like it's going to hit and you can't miss on that bet. Right? Yeah. Yeah. So the MyBookie lock of the season is back. And the first one, it's just a total no brainer. So with the Patriots in Seattle for the NFL kickoff game next week, MyBookie is asking a simple question. Will the Seahawks raise their championship banner that night? And of course they will. You know, they're celebrating the Super Bowl win. They're the defending champions. It's their home opener and raising the banner before kickoff. It's going to be part of the celebration that night. And you're getting that bet at plus money odds. You're getting paid to say, yes, the Seahawks will do the thing. The entire night is built around raising the Super Bowl championship banner. Like I said, that's the first MyBookie lock of the season.

25:48There will be more coming all season long. I got to say, Brian, I still don't know what the NFL was thinking, sending New England to Seattle for the kickoff game. One of the most boring Super Bowls in recent history. And that's what you kickoff the season with. We could have had Chicago and Seattle. I don't know. We're going to get New England and Seattle again. Yeah. Well, yeah. So first of all, that's easy money. Right? Yeah. Easy money that they're going to raise the banner. And honestly, man, I don't hate it. There was so much hype over Drake May in the Patriots last year. Mike Frable. And it came to a crashing screeching halt when they finally played someone that didn't injure their quarterback or was actually a good team. And so I wouldn't mind getting a little slice of humble pie to start the year again, especially with all the crap and scandal that Rable went through. I feel like that was in the off season after the Super Bowl.

26:49So I don't know if you'd call it a hate watch, but I'll call it a hate watch. It might be for me a little bit. I do fully expect the Seahawks to stomp them. And I'm really excited to see Rookie Dairy in Price run the ball for the Seahawks. I think he's going to surprise some people opening night for sure. So anyways, our friends of my bookie, you can get in before kick off. Go ahead and go to sign up at my bookie with the promo code. The promo code for our listeners is second city, right? That's the number two ND CITY. Second city is our promo offer. Go ahead and do that. Start your season off with a win. You can bet on anything anytime, anywhere. Let's be 21 plus 18 plus and select jurisdictions terms and conditions apply gambling problem call 1 800 gambler or visit 1 800 gambler dot net for free confidential support available 24 seven.

27:51That's my bookie. And you heard it here. Take the over on Dairy in Price. Yeah, there you go. There you go. I mean, yeah, I'll be I'll be hammering Seattle to win that game for sure. This podcast episode is brought to you by progressive insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash progressive makes it easy? Just drop in some details about yourself and see if you're eligible to save money when you bundle your home and auto policies. The process only takes minutes and it could mean hundreds more in your pocket. Visit progressive.com after this episode to see if you could save progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates. All savings will vary, not available in all states. And guys, as you get set for the NFL season, I want to just throw a shout out to that. I'm doing a bunch of content right now. So of course, continuing bears over beers with my good friend Brian here for the third year in a row. And just this week I launched another podcast with a good friend of mine.

28:54You may know him, Kevin Cata. He in the past was the creator big league stew over at Yahoo's author of the book, Riggly World. He was the director at CHGO for the first several years that they were on the air and kind of in charge of helping that thing grow. Super talented sports media guy in the Chicago area and Kevin and myself launched the Bears by Seven podcast. You can find it on YouTube if you search Bears by seven. We appreciate you guys subscribing to the channel. You can hear more from me over there if you like bears over beers. And also we have a podcast channel for that show as well. So just search Bears by seven on your favorite podcasting platform. Kevin and I are planning on doing our shows on Monday evenings, keeping Wednesday free for bears over beers here on Second City Gridiron. And then we are also going to be doing some bears by seven post game shows this year. So again, help me out. If you want more content from myself, it's Bears by seven YouTube and your favorite podcasting platform. Hey, we'll have to have Kevin on this show have a beer with him, talk some ball on

29:55the Wednesday. Absolutely. And I know for sure he would be down. He likes the show. So we will get that schedule. We got actually we got a few people that I think we're lining up for guests this year. We've talked off air a little bit. We should have some fun guests. So stay tuned for all of that. Yeah. You know what's funny? This is going to be a little bit of transparency vulnerability. I had a dream and many of you know that I played at UCF. You see my UCF Garb strewn about. I had a dream I ran into my old teammate Brandon Marshall. And I was like, bro. I'm doing a podcast that you got to come on my podcast. So maybe I'll be running into B marsh at some point this season. We'll have him on the show. Yeah, definitely. That would be awesome. A funny dream where he was in it and he was like, all right, man, what's up? Yeah. But yeah, that'd be cool too. But it'll take some more connections. I've not been able to reach him since, but we do have some cool guest lined up and some more ideas that we're discussing. So yeah, see who like it. Shout us a shoot us a message.

30:56Who would you like to see us have a beer with? Mm hmm. Yeah. Tag him on Twitter. Yeah. Yeah, you got to have some common friends still, Brandon Marshall. You got to get that cell phone number. Get him on the show. That would be incredible. It would be a lot of fun. Yeah. All right. So, you know, the 53 man roster dropped Brian this week. And a few surprises here and there. Maybe with how many, you know, tight ends were kept. The wide receiver number. We got some undrated free agent sticking around any big thoughts that you have, anything that stood out for you on that? The two surprises to me that I expected to make the roster based on what I saw on training camp because I got to go. We talked about that. And then what I heard from the rest of training camp, we're running back Salvin Ahmed and receiver Caden Davis. I expected them to make the team.

31:56I thought for sure Ahmed was going to make it over Rochon, which brings me to some thoughts that I want to get into, but not in this exact moment. Just he seemed more explosive, more dynamic, more suited for the big play offense that Ben wants. And then Caden, same thing. You know, he was doing, he was making more plays than anyone in camp. He was, I think we talked about. He was clocked fast, man. Anyone else regularly in camp, speed wise. And you see him blocking down field. He's a special team's guy too. So not surprise that they both made it back to practice squad, but I did expect them to make the 53 and they did not. Other than that, no real surprises for me. How about you? I was, I was a little bit surprised that they only kept five wide receivers. I think that was, that was the biggest one right away. I wasn't that surprised on Rochon just because he's such a contributor on special teams. I did, I thought that when he got out there, he looked good, getting the ball in the preseason.

33:02I especially think the second game, he played pretty well. You know, he, we talked on the show before that Rochon was always a guy who he wanted to see get more carries in those short yardage situations. And he seemed to be just a pretty good downhill runner for him. And then, you know, obviously last year Kyle Menungai came on and kind of took that away where it was like, well, you know, those are kind of the situations he want Rochon in there. And then Menungai was just crushing dudes. So I think if anything, yeah, that just kind of came down to he could contribute on special teams. We know that Ben really values that. So you know, I think that's why he made the team. Other than that, you know, those guys that flash and they brought it back for the practice squad. And then, you know, he's played a lot in the NFL in the past. He looked pretty good, especially in that, I think that first preseason game, he was looking pretty solid. Same thing with Ahmed, fast dude, Cade Davis, they had a lot of talent that they had to make some decisions on. Four tight ends probably surprised me a little bit. But no, otherwise, I mean, there's some good stories like January, Kermah, getting out there

34:06and making it. Obviously hanging around for a little while, getting his shot. James Lynch had a good preseason as well. And we already mentioned Vandenberg. I mean, he's a draft pick. You expect him to make the team. But I mean, he was one of the, I think big surprises in the preseason for just how much that he flashed for us. Yeah. So, yeah. And then you heard Dennis Allen come out this week, talk about Contavia Street having the best camp of any defensive tackle. That was no word. But I want to backtrack to what you said about Rochon. And this is what I was thinking. I was with you. I talked about Ahmed and we talked about on this show over the years, especially last year we expected Rochon to have that more prominent David Montgomery role from his Detroit days. Remember? But then Menongai filled that void admirably. More so. He exceeded expectation. Well, then what happened? Menongai got hurt. Remember, he was not even fully practicing today. He was running around and Swift mentioned how he looked good, but he's not 100%.

35:09You have to imagine that a coach like Ben who wants to pound the rock and instill inflict his will upon the defense, that having someone that can do that matters, right? Extreme matters. More so. Maybe at least as much as a guy like Swift, who's healthy. And Swift is looking amazing by all accounts. This camp. Now, I was, I was, I don't know if we didn't even talk about it. You might have seen my tweet. I was upset that we didn't get Jayden Blue, who is dropped by the Cowboys. I was very high on blue coming out. Obviously, he's got some maturity issues, which is apparently why he was cut by Dallas. But he is a guy that I think Ben would have just, oh man, he would have had fits. Given the defense fits with as a running back in weapon with his speed in this offense and his ability in the passing game.

36:10And he didn't do that. He pivoted and he went with Roshan. And then they got a guy, Xavier Scott, who is over 220 pounds as well. So obviously, there's some special teams versatility there where you kind of want more linebacker types, bigger safety types to do that special teams role. But he wants that that that Punisher style, which kind of has me now thinking, okay, next year in the draft, there's a number of guys. A mod hearty is one who is maybe dropping down draft boards because he got shot. He's not all the way healthy yet. I mean, he's breaking tackles close to what Gentie did in college. So I'm getting ahead of myself now, but the point is it looks like Ben wants more of that knuckles or that David Montgomery type secure in this offense. And that's why they kept Roshan to me and not going after the guys like a Jaden blue or

37:13a film Mafa, who's another guy who's one of that bruiser types, but Roshan is a pro player. He knows the offense. He, you know, he's the guy that kind of does everything. He was like that in college. I don't know if you heard he played with all those those stud running backs in college. And he was fine to kind of do the dirty work there. He's kind of been the same way here. And so I think that that carries value on a team with Ben Johnson at the helm. And that can transition us to the next topic, you know, guys who are doing things the right way on and off the field that the coaches want. And then you have those that aren't. And there aren't many. In fact, there might only be one on this team right now that isn't. And we know that's one of your favorite guys, Brian. Yeah, it's one of my favorites. And so I'm kind of having a hard time on this one because I've been eager to have him back. But our one of our buddies that's on this channel Ross Reed pointed out today.

38:16You know that the footage came out of collar Gordon doing some more training. Looks good. Any any any scenes serious. He's putting in the work and there was a foot doctor he's working with who apparently worked with Jaylen Johnson and and some other guys. I think Swift and maybe some other guys on the team and and throughout the league. And when I pointed out this. Even in college, you know, UCF was division one, but we UCF was not a powerhouse program like the SEC teams or big 10 teams. And even at UCF. The doctors were in cooots with the coaches. The doctors and the coaching staff were were in one accord as far as what their priorities and the goals were. You know the doctors and I'm not saying all doctors are like this, but but I absolutely from my experience in a division one program and I was just a walk on, but I saw it all the time. You know, they they would rather shoot you up and and and mask the pain and risk that

39:19long term injury if it may get you back on the field. And I've heard stories about some of these SEC programs doing the same type of thing. My point is is that these teams and these programs, they don't care as much as for the long term players help. They might give you lip service. That's what a good coach or GM should do. But you have to wonder if some of that's going on right now with Kyler. You know, Kyler seems to the type that's that's confident in himself who he is. Right. He's been a dancer his whole life. He's going to make sure his body. He's been through his injury stuff before. No, he doesn't want to come back and then have to miss games again. Hopefully he wants to make sure that he's fully back. He strikes me as a guy that wants to establish himself Spider-Man as a dominant force in this lead, but he can't do it if he's not 100%. He doesn't want a risk getting re-injured. And so he might get that medical clearance from some of the higher ups in the medical staff. And they might say you're not going to further risk injury. You're not going to make it worse, right?

40:20Let's get you back on the field. But and the coaches are going to say we want to back. We want to back. They trust the medical staff, but you have to have Kyler on the other end of the spectrum here and trust what he's saying. And so I don't really like the honestly, if there's one issue I have with Ben Johnson, it's kind of how he's throwing Kyler under the bus a little bit. Now he's not doing it in tension. He's getting asked questions, but the way he's handling it is not very diplomatic. You know, it's kind of like that that that dad who gets asked a question by his daughter for the hundredth time at dinner and is is not really graceful. I know I've been there and and I'm not being the most diplomatic or gracious to my children at that point. And and that's not how I should be. And you know, I feel like Ben could be a little bit, but they want to put pressure on the player. Yeah. So it's a tricky situation and I get I get, you know, because there's a question marks. So I get putting them on the pup to start the year. If he's not back after that fourth game, then I'm going to be a little bit worried. But I expect him to be to play the rest of the season, you know, barring another unforeseen

41:24type of injury, but I'm still side with Spidey, man. I don't know about you. It's just been really weird. Like you mentioned Ben, but then even Ryan Poles this week when he had that press conference and he was asked about he was even going to play again. And he said, I don't know. That's pretty startling when your GM is like, I don't know if this guy's going to play for us again. You know, and he was also asked about if there was if Kyler was working with outside medical counsel and there was like some miscommunication there. And I think that kind of leads in nicely to what you were saying, where, you know, the medical staff might be in cooots with the coaches and they're pushing and getting them out there. But then Kyler is talking to his outside staff who you don't have that same kind of pressure from the organization on them. And they're like, not yet because these calf injuries can lead to like an ACL injury. And we don't want you want that to happen. You know, so a lot of money at stake. So we need you to be sure that we're healthy here. And so I think that's probably what's happening. But I think the communication piece between all sides has not been handled properly.

42:29And you should never have a situation where the head coach and the GM are going in front of the media. They just don't know what's going on with one of your top tier players, you know, and maybe that's not their fault either. I mean, I don't know who is to blame. It's just a weird, weird situation, really weird. Obviously the Bears are a lot better when he's out there and healthy. And hopefully starting week five, we can get him out there. Yeah. No, for sure. It's definitely frustrating. And, you know, I get it, you know, and a lot of people are saying, oh, he got the bag and then he bailed. I just don't, I don't think that's the case. But again, I'm kind of a glass half full type of guy. You know, I don't, I don't typically think those sort of things. But, you know, we know who we play week five. Green Bay. Green Bay, yeah. Green Bay, yeah. Now might be a good time to do the old stranglehold. Ah, nice. Nice segue.

43:29Let me get the, the Twitter pick her up and we'll do the drawing. I just put out a tweet probably about 10 minutes ago saying that I was going to do this in 10 minutes. Nice timing on your part, Brian. Let me just check the timestamp on that. Eight minutes ago, pretty dang close, pretty dang close. All right. I'm going to share my screen and get this up. Yeah, I got to share the screen. Hopefully this works. I don't know if you guys remember when we did the training camp giveaway. The first time I did it, I thought the website was going to work totally fine. And then I get on there and you had to pay to use it. And I actually paid to do a drawing because that was like streaming into my Twitter page and embarrass the buy. Oh my God, I got to pay. Well, I don't even have another site lined up. So I guess I'm going to pay two bucks to do this drawing. This one was free. I did this for the next training camp giveaway. So hopefully this will work. All right. I'm going to share my screen so you guys know this is totally legit here on bears over beers. And we will pick the, I don't want to share the audio here. We'll pick the winner of the stranglehold, Darth Burton flag.

44:36You ready? So I got on here. You got to follow me. You got to follow Brian. You got to follow Tally brand. It's based on the retweets. You tell me when Brian. Yeah, this is easy. Let's do a countdown. Let's see. Burton's number is 10. Let's do 10 second countdown. 10. And nine. I'm eight. Seven. Seven. Six. Six. Five. Four. Three. Three. Two. One. And hopefully get those last minute entries in because here we go. Pick a winner processing your giveaway. You got a one in 20 chance of winning only 20 participants. Yeah. We put it up kind of late. So big Todd at bluegrass kings. Nice big Todd. Big Todd is the winner. Look at that profile picture. Love it. No punty. Hey, listen, you might not know about me. Drossie is I love me some bluegrass, bro. I am a big grass man.

45:37So happy for you big Todd. Congrats man. Can't wait to see a pick. We should have had that in the in the in the rules. You got to show us a picture of where you end up hanging it. Yeah. Congratulations. Very nice. So big Todd is the winner. Talking with Tally Brand Rob, I think we're going to be doing more of these giveaways. So stay tuned to our Twitter feeds. Make sure you're following me at Ryan Drossie. That's DRLSTE or at Brian Orrenchuck. And we'll have more. I think the idea is we want to give away some almost every week leading up to Packer Week and week five to get people primed and frothing at the mouth to go into Lambo Field Brian and get that victory. Yeah. I mean, I've got a banner myself. And I mean, that might have to get given away next week to open the season. What better surprise. Speaking of which, we're going to be on a show next week. And that's when the NFL starts. That'll be tricky.

46:38So watch the game with us. It's on the background. We'll be watching with you. Maybe it'll be like a live show. We'll just be talking about the game and any other bare stuff that comes up. You know, just hanging out. You're going to be watching the game with us. Yeah. So it's good to me. Sounds very good. Anything we didn't hit that you wanted to talk about or we could take it home here. I mean, there's been a lot of criticism of Ryan Poles as a GM and his draft picks on the defense. Yeah. Everyone's been talking about. I don't know if you had anything you wanted to state on that. We talked about it. I'm a seven the other night a little bit. Yeah. And so yeah, I'd say go check out that show. You guys did a good job. I turned in for a good little bit. Yeah. I think he I think he's none of us are immune to criticism. And I just don't think he gets credit where it's due. I think he gets plenty of criticism but not enough credit. And I think he's I think he's closer to a mid GM than he's great.

47:41But but the thing I like about Poles is he's young and he's growing and he's learning and he's got Ben now. So I'm more confident in his in his future than I am prior to Ben and the mishaps that he's thankfully learned from. So yeah. You know, but you got to give him credit too. Not just not just put him down. Yeah. Most of the criticism has been about the defensive draft picks, you know, rightfully so and the ongoing thing is that he hasn't been able to hit really in round three with the picks he's had like Amagaji and Zach Pickens and valus Jones Jr. But this year, you know, we got Xavier on Thomas and Sam Rauschut in the third round. So I think those guys hopefully will will pan out a little bit for him. Obviously, Xavier on looked pretty dang good in the in the preseason. So we shall see. But you know, you look at the you look at the defensive side. I said this on Bears by seven.

48:42You know, he has had some decent finds late like Elijah Hicks was a seventh round pick. And he's played some decent minutes. He's not like a pro bowl level player or anything, but it was for a seventh round pick at safety. He's been a he's been a decent player. And if Austin Booker comes on like we think he can. I mean, that's a fifth round pick right there. Obviously, Monanga was a seventh round pick, but keeping it defense, you know, Booker in round five. I mean, that that could end up being a heck of a pick. If the season goes the way we think it can. And then he got Jordan Van den Berg as a sixth round pick this year. Right. You know, so I don't I think the history is not fully written on him as a defensive drafter. Right. Right. And you have also Malik Muhammad this year that they got. You know, so I think the jury's still out. And you have a different coaching staff. Well, from last year and this year, you got the same, but his first couple drafts,

49:44obviously, were with with flusing co. But Malik Muhammad was a fourth round pick. And, you know, and we obviously first round pick for the guy who fell in our last Dylan Thinamann, you know, and he's healthy. And obviously huge bummer Kobe Bryant's not healthy, but Thinamann is healthy. And he appears to be coming along nicely in camp, really excited to see him. That's a polls pick too. We could have gone defensive line, which maybe we should have. We could have gone offensive. But Thinamann was the right pick at the time of my opinion. And that's a polls. You know, he didn't have to trade up for him, which a lot of people thought he might have. And he played it smart without his boy, Ian Cunningham holding them back. So, you know, he gets credit for that too. But, but yeah, I mean, I think, like I said, if you're going to criticize me, you got to give him his flowers too. And he's got plenty of those. Yeah. One last note here on Kyler, because Rob checked in with Telebrany says, Spider-Man's whole thing is getting knocked down by the same villain and still climbing back up.

50:48Soft tissue has been Kyler's green goblin. He's still in the suit. Yeah, he's not tired. Yeah. All right, guys, this has been fun. It's been another edition of Bears over beers. We got the Stranglehold banner given away. So congrats again on that. We'll come down in the days to the start of the NFL season. We'll be here next Wednesday night live with you as the NFL season kicks off. So make sure you're subscribed here on Second City Gridiron. Like the video. Follow all of the great shows here on the channel. And of course, windy city gridiron.com for your Bears news every single day. And please give us a follow on the podcast feeds for Bears by seven as well. If you want to hear a little more out of me throughout the week. Ryan has cashed his beer. Look at that. How much you got left, bro? Ah, it's two a third of it. Two sips, yeah. Maybe fourth even. Good for you, bud. That's one. Hold on.

51:48There he is. Yes, they're right on time. Right on time. Thanks for joining us. Everybody we appreciate you guys before to see you next week. Yeah, we'll see you next time everybody. Bear down.