Clay Harbor likes the Bears in the Week 1

0:00What time I actually saw a clock over at the time for play harbor football analyst for Chicago sports network former NFL player not a quarterback I'm a tight end, but I've watched a lot of tape I've been in meeting rooms with Tom Brady been in meeting rooms with Drew breeze I've been in meeting rooms with Michael Vick quarterbacks know what they can do and what they can't do And I know what a quarterback can and can't do and when you're supposed to expect them to be able to be successful Play harbor with haim pain on 1043 their score Welcome back. It's on Peyton Chicago sports radio 1043 the score It's time now to go out to the plumbers 911 hotline plumbing emergency call 1-8-3-3 plum 911 local 130 plumbers get the job done right the first time Join now by my colleague at the Chicago Sports Network Thank you for watching on the Chicago Sports Network's simulcast Clay Harbor from the big pro football show and also pro football weekly good morning clay. How's it going? I'm great man. It's game week. We got some football in yesterday

1:00I know JP stayed up and watched it got some hits going You know Drake may didn't have the best day, but hey it was football and now we got to talk about the bear Let's start there because we have spent all off season Sifting through list after list after list and all of the quarterback lists had Drake may ahead of Caleb Williams Drake may the same guy that threw three-fourth quarter interceptions last night. Drake may the same guy That I think fizzled in the postseason last year Do you rank great Drake may ahead of Caleb Williams after last night and or is that a cautionary tale to no matter how far You think you have come as a young quarterback those nights are still possible You know what David? I always say this it matters what you do It does it matters what you do But you know what matters more when you do it when you do it matters more I want a quarterback that when the chips are down doesn't go Three interceptions have a 36 pass rating and 11 rushing yards in the fourth quarter

2:05You got to go and win a football game the best quarterbacks the best players when the when the pressures on Play the best so for me just going back in my career when I'm in that huddle I want to be able to look over the guy that's throwing in air and passes all night hasn't been on time Nothing's really worked and he says hey Guess what we go down we we put together a couple drives We're gonna win and that's what Kato Williams does so for me that's the type of quarterback I want I think Drake may he's great he'll be fine. He did have a good first half He could be the champion of that But for me I want Caleb Williams a guy that you know had seven fourth quarter comebacks and under two minutes last year When you look at cross from them in the huddle you know that you have a really good chance to win this game And that's when he's gonna play the best Well Clay I mean knowing that you I was watching the game last night excited that football was back But I was also doing my pushups because I knew you were coming on the show today Just to make sure that my my muscles were right before you came up to show

3:07But as you were as you were watching that game Doesn't it just put in perspective of Teams coming into the season excited like everybody is that football is back and for the Seahawks I mean they were excited come back raise their banner You know show off the rings all that stuff But also Sam Darnal goes out and it just shows you how how Critical it is to be able to like get out a week one without any major injuries Oh It's huge it's so finicky and it's something you can't plan for you can have the hardest training camp You can have a softest training camp and injuries. They're really unbiased and It just goes back to me, you know the whole year we're talking about you know Romeo dobs EG brown you plug him into the Patriots it takes me back to when I was with the Eagles and I hope you don't remember this JP I know David does he gives me crap for it sometimes, but So we we have Michael Vicks our quarterback to Sean Jackson's our running back with Sean McCoy We signed namdi awesome. We get Dominic Rogers commodity Jason Bab and Trent Cole

4:09We signed Vince Young he says this thing called he's egos uh-oh dream team for the Eagles and you can't just plug players in and just assume Sometimes that you're going to be a championship team and it all matters how you gel how you play together How everything works and I think that's The beautiful thing about the NFL you know there's going to be some teams that go worse the first that nobody really thinks Have an opportunity to play to be a championship caliber team that put to get come together become a really good team Work well together and their team that makes a playoff So it's just a lesson in a lot of things I think that you can't just plug a certain amount of players together. Oh, we made the soup bowl last year Now we got this pro bowl receiver that means we're gonna win it and then it shows you that these injuries are unbiased You're your quarterback that won the Super Bowl for you First play the game guy works hard go get through all off season You really can't plan for some things in the league Join by Clay Harbor from the Chicago's force network here on Peyton and Haugh on Peyton Chicago's sports radio

5:12103 the score this morning Clay you played nine years in the NFL and I think that when you look back on Season openers is there Was there a time where you didn't feel that early season First first game anxiety and how do you think that it becomes easier to manage? Will we see any of that did you notice any of that last night and will we see any of it on Sunday? Well, I mean, all right firstly there's a couple different things at play here I have played at Lumen Stadium in Seattle and first off going there to play I played a playoff game there with the Troy Lions Matt Stafford was our quarterback And you couldn't hear yourself think now you couldn't hear yourself you couldn't talk you could it was It's a different place and that does matter. They do have some of the best home field advantage in sports And then as far as the first game of the seasons concern Yeah, you always have it. I think it's good to bear as starters David that's why you always hear me preaching

6:13I think that you need to play preseason games the speed It does step up JP can tell you it steps up from preseason to regular season You know you're playing all the starters sometimes in preseason you won't go against the best player And then maybe this guy's playing tense naps. He's just trying to shake off some rust So there is a level of speed that increases from when you go to the regular season when you go to the playoffs It's a little bit different to everything's a little bit more It's more pressure filled and then it's like Anything you get into the routine you you get into This this rhythm of playing these games and it doesn't really get to you as much But the first season after the first game after going that long without playing A lot of it is who handles emotions better who handles the highs and the lows better I think the bears are in a perfect position to do that just because who they got leading them You know Ben Johnson isn't a guy that's gonna get flustered caled Williams isn't a guy's gonna let himself get flustered They got a lot of veteran players from the offensive line to

7:17The receiving core to the defensive part of the ball side of the ball So I think when you have a veteran team that does kind of alleviate some of those first game nerves Clay we were talking earlier in the pick six just about how What a successful season looks like for Caleb Williams completion percentage Yardage and also touchdown to interception ratio if you had to Kind of see what is this successful season your eyes with numbers wise for Caleb As we can see I mean you look at Drake May Guy had a great completion percentage yesterday. He had a you know 69% completion percentage I won't Caleb to improve. I think that does matter to show that he is getting the ball out on time He is working on that footwork the accuracy issues that he has he can win these games in the first three cores instead of waiting to the fourth quarter To be the best offense in the NFL So that matters but what matters more than me Is explosives is down in distance the bears being able to run the football the play action the chunk plays

8:23Being able to move the football holistically as an offense To me is more indicative of How the quarterback is playing than just you know pulling these numbers and saying he's not this He's not that winning games when the chips are down when it's the fourth quarter And you have an opportunity to close out the game if you had a 50% completion percentage all game You come back and you win in the fourth quarter that matters most But if I had to put a number on it I would love to see the guy around 63 64 percent coming up from 58 Obviously 70 percent is what Ben Johnson says is always the the goals standard for quarterback But even going back to my playing career. I look at you go to practices with Michael Vick Michael Vick was never a guy that was going to have the highest completion percentage You know Kevin Cobb is the backup Nick Folls. They were going to complete more passes But guess what when the pads come on Michael Vick was going to do a lot of things that they couldn't do either He was going to do a 360 spin-out make a big play at some point on third and long

9:23Get us a first down to keep a drive going So Caleb Williams might not ever be the 70 plus per completion percentage guy But Caleb Williams is a guy that can get out of a sack make a huge play for you run for two first downs When you really need it and for me that's That's more important than just putting numbers on it is him Learning how to how to utilize everything he's gotten his bag because his bag is a heck of a lot deeper than some He's other quarterbacks that we see in the national football league All right, Clay. I know you've done the homework I know you're aware of how Limited the Panthers were in defending the tight end last year so that may be something that influences your prediction But let's make a prediction when you look ahead at Sunday What's going to happen what do you think the score will be and how will this all unfold? I would say if you had to give me I'd say 27 20 Bears come up with a couple they come up with a couple of a turnover here I think Bryce Young is obviously taking a step and they do got a better team this year

10:26Jay on Phillips is a guy that's a real pass rusher. He's a pro He usually plays on the side of Darnell right So that's a magic by like could they go and say hey? I want to put him against Braxton Jones I think we have a better opportunity today to get some pressure on the quarterback It's possible Colson Loveland I think they weren't very good against the the tight end last year But they did go out and get Devon Lloyd who is one of the top coverage linebackers this guy is a player Your guys at pff day, but I know you research him every day They had him as the third best coverage linebacker in the NFL the guy runs a four six He's a guy that can match up a little bit with the tight end can he match up with Colson Loveland? No, so I still think the way they run their defense It's a lot of single highs safety stuff. It's 50 percent probably the highest in the league Then the other 50s obviously split safety between quarters and between cover two But that single high safety stuff you can put a lot of stress on the seams with two tight ends You keep them in their three four. They don't like being in base. Guess what Ben Johnson's got three tight ends

11:28You can keep them in base. That's why he draft Sam Roud You come out three tight ends. He wants to stay nickel I'm sorry good rinse. They're running the ball down your throat with Kyle Minungai and Deandre Swift So you keep them in that three four where they have to run that three high zone defense You can really threaten the seams with these three tight ends that can all run and block Why do you see tight ends getting blocked getting drafted in the second round and the third round with 20 30 40 catches Because they can block and these teams have to stay in base. So the panthers What are the highest teams in nickel and dime in the entire NFL? They do not want to get in four three three four If you get them there you have an advantage and I think that's one of the things we're gonna see Ben Johnson major in We're gonna see these three tight ends Keep them in that base defense if they do not want to play in and utilize the tight ends Clay great stuff appreciate your time look forward to seeing if your prediction comes true Yes, sir appreciate it guys Clay Harbor from the big profile show and the Chicago Sports Network making his prediction

12:322720 low scoring game I mean, I'll take it though. You would take it. I love listening to Clay though. He's right about that defense. They got opportunities to be able to take advantage