Bears Minicamp RECAP: Offense Benefitting from Ben Johnson’s “Relentless” Details | CHGO Bears
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Welcome into the CHGO Bears podcast. It is Tuesday, June 3rd. We are in mini camp season. The Bears are

Knocked out their first practice of three from their mandatory veteran mini camp today at house hall. We were there as CTO always is Adam Hogue alongside Mark Carmen today. We're going to break this thing down, talk about everything we saw, everything we heard today.

and have some fun along the way as well. Hello, Mark. Hello, Adam. Good to see you. I do have the benefit today because nobody can see this, but I can't see myself, which I normally can. So I think the show could actually hit levels that it's never hit before. Very excited for today. I really love the press conferences today. And just a quick shout out to the CHGO softball team last night that I play on. Uh,

And so does Crystal. Crystal was unbelievable yesterday, getting on base, running the base paths, not touching all the bases, but somehow not getting caught. And we're three and out. So I know that every shout out to Kevin and the store for supporting us as we move towards our three. Pete, I thought that was important that we get to that early. Well, since you cannot see yourself, I'm going to look it out for you as a friend right now and tell you that your glasses are slightly crooked and you should straighten those out for the rest of the show.

Yeah. There we go. You're looking beautiful. Thank you. I'm not a glasses guy. I'm just, you know, it's, it's not my thing. Yeah. Well, I wish I wasn't, but I have to be these days as I get older. Um, welcome in everybody. Appreciate everybody watching the show. Do you want to point out, um, since we did have a later, we are live at 4. P.M. Today doing a practice recap show. That'll be the same thing tomorrow and Thursday as well. So a little bit of a different schedule for us this week. Um,

but because we are later, we did have a mini pod go out earlier today on the stadium situation. It was big news this morning with the Chicago fire and how that all impacts the Chicago white Sox, Chicago bears, uh,

And there was obviously some news in Springfield over the weekend that I had some insight on. So that was all shared on a mini pod earlier today. If you want to check that out in your feeds when this one is over, it is there for you. This is this show is going to be about practice today, though, and the press conferences and everything we saw and heard. And as we like to do.

our best and worst from the day everything we saw at practice and i will tee us up on this one with a very simple um attendance observation everybody in the building according to ben johnson that's always good that's what you want at minicamp

It's mandatory. No drama. Tire team there. All 91 guys. Now, that doesn't mean everybody was practicing. Of course, there are guys that are dealing with some ongoing injuries. That includes Luther Burden, Colson Loveland, your top two draft picks. That's not ideal. TJ Edwards, Kyler Gordon also dealing with soft tissue deals. So not everybody practicing, but everybody's

Everybody there, that is very good. So that was my best of the day. My worst of the day, you know, actually this is sort of good because it comes off a good. A good thing is that I don't want you karma. I see this offense starting to operate like a little bit cleaner, a little bit more efficient. We're not seeing Ben Johnson having to,

stop and re-huddle everybody as much as we did a couple weeks ago. It seems like they're catching on to the details and everything's sort of getting smoother. I thought Caleb...

Was also operating smoother today. He had a couple of nice throws. A good one over the middle to a Lameda Zaccheaus on a throw that had a little bit of wrist to it up the middle. And then we got in the two minute and it was quick throw to Cole commit quick throw to Zaccheaus quick throw to Cole commit. It was all looking good. And then it ended with an interception. So on a ball downfield to DJ Moore, that was tipped.

And I think it was, was it Nashawn Wright? Who? 25. Yeah, Nashawn Wright was a defensive back in coverage who ended up intercepting the pass off of the tip pass. So again, like a lot of good. It was just like...

not used to seeing these two minute drills run efficiently all the way down the field when it's ones versus ones. And that goes for many, many years of me covering these practices. And I'm like, Oh, I finally get that. And then it ended up with an interception. So I think it was a mostly good day from an offensive perspective, but that quite literally was the worst thing I saw in practice today. So I'm sharing it with you.

Yeah. And I was next to you, Hogue, when that happened. And you were like, this is looking good. This is looking good. And there it is, the old interception. But hey, I'm a pro interception guy, especially in OTAs. Throw the ball downfield. Let's not run out of bounds. Let's see if we can connect. It didn't work out that time. But yeah,

No harm, no foul. That's totally fine. Way to go, Caleb. Let's push the limits here. For me, Hogue, best and worst today. One, I mean, I got to go to the press conferences because it was just, you know, we didn't really see a whole lot on the field today, not to capsize what's coming up on the show here, but it was just, it was a pretty standard day out there. However, press conference wise, there's just a lot of buy-in for Ben Johnson in ways that, you know,

Just seem bigger than you would normally hear for a first year head coach. I thought Cole Comet sharing that Ben called him after the Loveland draft and shared their vision for it. And I thought Cole was very honest and, you know, Hey, you know, I'm starting, I'm starting, I'm getting to know him. He's getting to know me, but there's a lot of positive talk on the head coach Deandre Swift.

talking about the attention to details cole mentioned the attention to details over and over again dj moore talks about it's challenging but if you're doing your homework you can stay on top of you know everything that's being asked of you so you can hear them talk about how they're being pushed how uh there's a higher level of accountability just a lot of good things um

Just, you know, let's remember Ben Johnson is a first-time head coach. You know, is it going to work out? We all think it will, but...

it's good for me. Uh, and I'm sure for all bears fans, just hearing the positivity that's coming out in regards to the coaching staff. Now on the negative side for me, I was, you know, walking around telling everybody, you know, I haven't seen Tyler Scott drop ball all year. That's my, one of my money guys. And then five seconds later, he dropped one. I think it was wind aided. It was tough. It was whatever, but it was on a little out from Beijing that he dropped. Um, so shout outs, but my guys, uh,

battling for a roster spot. The other part though, is as I'm just looking at the wide receivers, it sucks that Luther Burns not out there. I don't, you know, it's, it's obviously it's way early and, um,

You know, it's June the 3rd. We don't need to have any. I'm not trying to raise any anything more than it's just I just would enjoy seeing him out there and letting the rookie get some reps because I am excited about what he's going to be able to do. So the beast of burden having the soft tissue injury not out there on a fairly quiet day where there was a lot of positivity. I'm going to race that to the top of my worst list, if you will.

Speaker 0 : I think that's a fair point. Like I, I, again, I I'm with you. I don't want to cause any like alarm or, but it's your top two draft picks. Yeah. And practice with the team. The only practice Luther burdens had has been with, it was a rookie mini camp for two days, like a day and a half before he got banged up there. So it's not ideal. It's not the end of the world, but it's not ideal. As rookies come in the league, you want them to, especially when,

The good news is there's all these details and they're working really hard on those details. The bad news is when you're not practicing those details,

It's going to be harder to catch up. That's just the reality of it. So like, that's a real thing here. Yeah. And it's a great point on Loveland too, because tight end in particular toughest position to learn coming in wide receivers, no joke either. 7,000 things going on as far as understanding the play call, where you're lining up. And now, you know, Hey, go beat an NFL guy and catch the ball. It's it ain't easy. So yeah,

You want them getting reps, period, end of story. And, you know, the Bears obviously drafted Colston knowing that he wasn't going to be out there right now. Luther's a little bit of, that's a bummer because he gets hurt at the rookie minicamp and still not back. I'm kind of surprised by it. But, you know, but of course they're not giving any updates on what's exactly going on with Luther.

Yeah. By the way, seeing some questions about that left tackle battle that was continues to go on Karan Amagaji getting the reps today. I am curious to find out as this week goes along if they switch because remember, you know,

Our frame of reference that we can report to you guys is that two weeks ago. So we've had, we had one OTA that we watched two weeks ago. We had another OTA last week that we watched, and now we're getting three straight days in a row this week. So we saw Karan out there two weeks ago. Then it was Ozzie Trapillo last week today.

It's Quran. We'll see if tomorrow is Ozzie and they've been kind of flip-flopping it. That's what it seems like to me. Today, Ben Johnson was asked about that. He says it's an ongoing process, hard to jump to any conclusions, especially at that position. Cannot be judged until the pads go on. So those guys are taking turns. They're making the most of their opportunities.

He said, I think their head's still spinning for almost everybody on offense, but it's certainly in the O-line room because they got a lot of new things we're throwing at them. Let's see here.

The cool thing to see is Ozzy for a guy that's a young player. He's really polished in terms of the mental aspect of the game. We're looking to key up some things, quicken up his steps, his identification process, and Karan's done a nice job just for the little bit that we've had him as well as just the growth prospects so far. So good.

And then I like this quote to this follow up. The question was, Carm, is there anything specific you're looking for to say that? I think it was about Ozzie. They've taken a hold of the job. It says it always goes back to me. Number one job of an offensive tackle. It doesn't matter if it's right or left is to pass protect. So you need to be able to block their best pass rusher one on one. To me, that's the number one job and everything we can get out of them in the run game will be a gravy on top of it.

We got to find out who the best pass protector is, the most consistent pass protector. And really that's for all five guys up front, but obviously most importantly for left tackle, that is a key. I think as we, as we continue to watch these practices and special in the pads go on in, in July and August, when we're watching training camp or watching the preseason games, um,

The best pass protector is going to end up being the guy that's out there starting week one against the Vikings. It was a super interesting share right there from, from Ben. I'm like, wait a second. Aren't we? This is the Chicago bears. Aren't we getting off the bus? We're going to be running the football and, and,

You know, this is going to be DeAndre Swift's going to have a huge year and Kyle Manunga is going to burst on the scene as a seventh round rookie running back. But and not saying that won't happen, but it was interesting. Yeah. Pass protection is the most. Oh, yeah. That's why we went out and brought in Ben Johnson. Right. Because we're going to have a super creative offense that can put up 30 plus. That is that's the goal here. So a little I thought let's call it a moment of transparency, if you will, on what they're looking for.

Yeah. Um, let's see here. We got, uh, we got time here to share one quick sound because we've looked, we've talked a lot about the culture change. Um, I, we got a chance to talk to Deandre Swift today, which to me is one of the more intriguing players in the Ben Johnson, um,

introduction, should we say to Chicago, because the Andre Swift was with Ben Johnson in Detroit was traded away from Detroit while he was the OC, just an interest. I use this interesting sort of knowledge point, um,

for how this thing all comes together. So DeAndre Swift talked a lot, a lot of different questions today. Some very interesting things we're going to touch on throughout this podcast. But the one thing I want to start with here, I know we have the audio to share with you, is his perspective on the culture change that is going on right now under Ben Johnson. With everybody new to coaching staff, the culture that's changing, you could tell.

been done a hell of a job so far day in and day out just everything he's doing is going to be the better for the better for this organization and for this city and there was some more in there too you know just in terms of his perspective you know the elephant in the room is I think man to man every single one of those players is going to tell you that this is

very different from last year, very different from the last coaching staff. And they also want to be respectful professionals and not throw anybody under the bus from the last coaching staff at the same time. So it is somewhat of an awkward position they're in.

Yeah. I mean, I can try to do it for him. Look, last year was a complete disaster. We didn't know how to cover the sidelines before the Hail Mary. We didn't know how to call timeout when, when our guys were in trouble. We didn't know how to address the team at any point. We had a group that was screaming for accountability, but somehow got none. And right now this feels like a fresh new start. And in the history of teams that needed a fresh new start, we lost 10 games in a row last year. So thankfully we,

upper management realized that and fired a head coach for the first time uh in in season in this franchise's history not that it was all his fault but he was a part of it and we're glad to move on good job how's that i think i thought yeah i think that was one well said um all right we're gonna take our first time out here on the show we got a lot more coming up including more sound some cole commit deandre swift ben johnson a lot of good stuff on today's mini camp recap show but first

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As we recap the first day of Bears minicamp. All right. So we discuss some of the good and bad from practice. Talked about the left tackle battle. And let's see. Should we go to let's just we just played some beyond our swift. Let's stay on that topic here. Carm. First thing that I want to point out, that's a funny thing. It's not that important, but I find it funny.

Remember how Caleb Williams in that big Esquire piece forgot how many games the Bears actually won last year? I think he technically forgot how many they lost, which is a bigger number. I do remember this. Yes. Yeah. And so DeAndre Swift is the latest Bears player to actually forget what the Bears record was last year. And I think that that's great. Yeah.

Speaker 0 : Everybody wants to forget it anyway. To me though, in all seriousness, I think it's like a real human, like it may like humanize as these guys a little bit like last year sucked. I don't know if we won four games. It's cause he said, he said we won four games last year and even he forgot, apparently they beat the Packers and in week eight, I don't think he forgot that part, but that was when number five for the record green Bay week 18. Yeah. Look,

if I could go back in time and take a you know different points and different breakups in my life I could take a pill at those moments of pain so I would forget the entire experience I probably would have signed up to do that and I think Bears players might want to have taken you know some magical potion to forget what happened last year at least the middle of the 10 in a row but

You also do hope, Adam, that they learned from it, that they built better habits from it, that they increased their accountability from it, that they used all the negativity and turned that into a positive. That's what the great gurus out there tell you to do, right? You're right where you need to be, and these are learning lessons and all the things.

But it was at least slightly comical to hear Smith say we won, Swift say we won four games last year. Hey, dude, you won five. Don't show yourself that victory, buddy. You got that fifth win. Yeah. Swift also did not really enjoy the questioning from Herb Howard about...

I guess what you could, you would just refer to as his weaknesses. I mean, we've talked about DeAndre Swift a lot, tends to bounce things outside, not the most reliable, maybe vision in between the tackles. And he didn't really like that stuff coming up. And poor Herb was like, trying to be like, I don't even agree with the haters, but you know, because he's like, what can't I do? You know, he kind of pushed,

herb on that a little bit. I get it though. Car like like these guys, they they're their level of self-belief should be high and they don't want to hear about the things they can't do. They're they're ultra competitive. You don't get to this level in life unless you believe that even if you're the Andre Swift and you're five foot eight, you're

Now he's built like a truck, man. I mean, he is absolutely jacked, but even if you're, even, even if you are five, eight and you, you don't exactly look like, uh, um, I don't know, uh,

who the biggest running back out there who's somehow my in my old age my names are dropping on my head who's the two's the titans running back that ran everybody over for 28 years eric henry thank you very much you're not you're now on baltimore you're not derrick henry dude but he thinks he can do that too which is i appreciate that um but look

Yeah. I mean, if you ask Michael Jordan back in the day, Hey dude, was it good that you didn't have to play 40 minutes tonight? Cause you guys, you know, blew out the Oklahoma city thunder who didn't exist back then by, by 30. No, I didn't need the rest. It's, it's, it's sort of the same thing, dude. What can't I do? I'm sweet out of the backfield. I'm sweet in space. And I think I can run between the tackles too. Yeah. Um,

The, yeah, I totally understand all that. And you know, that being said, I, in most cases, I think the criticism's fair too. I mean, there's a, there's a reason why the bears were interested in running backs. They did draft one. It might not have been in the seventh round, but well-documented at this point, they were interested in Ashton Gentry well-documented that they almost traded up in the second round for Travion Henderson. So there's, there's a,

Now go out and prove it because you are still the guy, DeAndre Swift. And I think that is the right mindset to have. And then getting back to what I teed up before, his perspective of Ben Johnson, where he was with him in Detroit. That was when Ben was an OC. Now he's head coach. He was asked, what's the difference between Ben as a head coach and an OC? He said...

he's more serious because he has to be. He's done a hell of a job. Just seeing him transition, even from where I was before, just seeing his growth as a coach and as a, as a man excited to play for him. Karma, with everything you've observed with Ben Johnson, with Deandre Swift, with the draft process, how everything unfolded and how they are here with Deandre Swift is RB one. Are you buying that?

The idea that DeAndre Swift, Ben Johnson, that this could work this year and DeAndre Swift could actually have a really good year under Ben Johnson, despite kind of what's perceived as the history here. I'm going to go with, I'm extremely buying that. And I'll tell you why. Look, Ben Johnson wanted another tight end. They, the bears had plenty of needs, but he wanted a tight end and they went and drafted Colston Loveland 10th overall. If he really wanted a running back,

They even not getting Travion Henderson, they would have moved on to the next running back. They, they might've taken them over burden or they wouldn't have traded out a 41 or they would have taken them at 56 or they would have taken them where they took Shamar 62. So,

I think the way they went about it shows you that he believes that he can be effective with, with Swift. And, you know, maybe they'll add in another veteran here, but I do think that I do think just judging by what they did in the draft, I think Ben thinks it can work. Yeah. And the interesting thing about that comp, that conversation is it's, it's probably extremely important that it does. I mean, it could be, it could very well determine, um,

of the what the range of outcomes is for the Bears this season because you know I think a very likely plausible scenario that plays out is the Bears have a much better team that's competitive in the NFC North that the ceiling might be you know you hope to win one playoff game like that would still be considered a very successful season and a good step in the right direction but

But if we were to play that out and say maybe why the ceiling was capped there, we're probably talking about things like, oh, well, Caleb took a huge step, but the running game didn't quite get there. Or maybe the offense exploded and the defense took a huge step back just because of all those changes, like whatever it is. But

The point is like, they're going to need a good running game. If they're going to really, you know, we're going to talk about big ceilings and that's where I think the fact that they're running this thing with Deandre Swift and company, because we'll see how the rest of it plays out with the rest of these running backs. Like it kind of has to work. You have to find a way to make it work. If you're Ben Johnson with what you have. Yeah. And to be honest, I'm a little bit surprised by some of the things that came out today that we just talked about. He needs to be better at, at,

pass blocking versus run blocking um the best way in my mind for this offense to get going is to take pressure off of the quarterback and have a consistent ground game that you can rely on that should open things up for literally everyone versus we're just going to come in there and sling it 40 times that does not seem like a great formula for success i'm not saying they're going to do that but yeah

uh you need a run game look around we've done the math on this the philadelphia eagles i believe you know do they win the super bowl do they not have uh is saquon barkley an mvp i mean that that's just one example but but even if you look at the chiefs uh you know isaiah pacheco got huge yards for them when they needed it most in super bowls you're you're you're gonna have to have both this isn't a

you know, you're not going to throw it 50 times to win a ton of games in the NFL, even if Caleb hits, you know, gets close to the ceiling that, that a lot of people think he can still hit. Yeah. Um,

All right. One more quick thing before I think we'll break and then we'll talk about some of the cold combat stuff on the other side. So we'll fill this with a, with another little quick fun thing. I think we need an investigation though. Um, car, have you noticed how Caleb Williams shorts are, uh, seemingly getting longer while, uh,

Bajent's shorts seem to be getting shorter. Like, I don't know if he's donating part of his shorts to Caleb, but we've gone from like the last couple of weeks with Caleb. And I think some people saw this on the clips that were being put out. You know, he's wearing like the old school and one type shorts. I'm pretty sure they're just like pants that are cut, but that's kind of what they look like. And then today they were like more like Caprice. Like I don't know. This is interesting to me. Well, yeah,

Listen, as the mayor of the Tyson Bajet fan club, the fact that his shorts are going like 1980s NBA John Stockton, but hugger shorts is it's, it's, it's a little surprising. I might've take a picture of these tomorrow. Cause you know, not to get too, you know, weird about things, but, but, but they are pretty damn they're tight and they're, and they're not long. It's aggressive. Caleb more so than his capris is,

What I'm honing in on, Hogue, is he's got this little Caleb waddle after he throws the football. He has this little leg shake. He's got a whole little rhythm to his walk that is unique to the Caleb. It's not quite Hogue walk. He doesn't have the bounce that you do, but he's got like a little Caleb shake.

And yeah, he just likes the long pant over the short. Just below the knee. Well, those other practices were colder. Today was actually hot out. Yeah, but maybe this is comfort zone. Maybe it feels like an actual NFL pant to him in some way. I don't know. It's an interesting look. I...

Not going to be. I got to be honest. I don't love the look, but it but I you know, I do think he pulls it off in his own way. Well, and our producer Steven pointing out that Caleb had the caption ball in like Adam Sandler on his his Instagram, which is good. I mean, Adam Sandler, he's still to wear those long basketball shorts to like weddings at this point in his life. Good for him.

Things that I did not expect to be talked about in the first 30 minutes of this show. Good job, Ho. You're keeping me on my toes. Did you see, and this is where Caleb, you know, you could tell Caleb's the guy, because did you see on a Sunday what he was putting on his Instagram, like Sunday morning?

I saw like my most recent Caleb Insta. He had like 15 cuts of him playing football and living life and being in the middle of the ocean and just being. Yeah, go ahead. What you kind of missed that was most important was Sunday morning. Shout out to Scott Daly and Tori Taylor who are out there grinding on the practice field on their off day. And Caleb was also there taking video of them and he called them legends. That's the respect for special teams that we need in this world.

I love that. Let's go.

Respect your teammates. Dan Evans is wondering about Case Keenum shorts. I have not observed those. I'm assuming they're just dad shorts. Probably essentially what I was wearing today. That's a great question, Dan, because today Bajan was the two and Keenum was the three as far as I could tell. So they continue to rotate the backup quarterback spot. So tomorrow I'll close my eyes when Keenum's the two. Don't close your eyes. We need you on tomorrow's show with actual insight.

I'll be paying attention. Let's go enough with this kingdom two thing. It's nauseating, but it's, it's, it's fine. They're, they're all there. They're, they're, they're moving around. All right. We also heard from Cole commit today. We'll get to some of that audio coming up next, but first summer, you can feel it. It's here. My AC turned on today.

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All right. Keeping things rolling here on the CSU bears podcast. Let's talk about Cole commit. We heard from Cole today, who I don't think has had a press conference since the bears drafted Colston Loveland.

um so there was uh some conversation about that but i know we also loved just what he had to say about ben johnson who called him when the draft pick was made and about getting to know ben johnson and trying to understand where he fits so here's what cole come ahead to say about all that i think just reassuring me of you know where i stood in in their eyes and things like that and um

you know we kind of had talked talked at length more about it later and kind of keep those things private but um i felt good about leaving the conversation and you know i think whenever you meet somebody for the first time you don't

you know, still getting to know Ben. And, you know, I don't know where he stands on me. And quite frankly, I don't know where I stand with him, like at that point, because you're just meeting somebody. And I think those are healthy conversations to have. And so you just kind of understand their vision and their expectations for you as a player. And because it's hard to come into work every day when you don't know your set expectations. And I think, you know, having those conversations kind of clear the air a little bit.

I know you like that clip. What'd you like about it? I didn't like it. I loved it. Well, cause look, Cole is an established player in the NFL. Cole doesn't,

at least I, I would, what I would want for Cole is that he, that he would deeply know that he doesn't need the bears. The bears need him, that he can go and be successful elsewhere. So not just bowing down to the head coach, but the part of it where he says like, you know, I, he doesn't know me and I don't know him. Like he's, it should be, you know, a dual vetting situation here. Uh,

you know, he obviously Cole is signing. He's got to play here and all those things. And I'm, and I'm sure he deeply wants to and wants to win here. Like he always has, but the way he advocated for himself in that moment and his entire press conference today. So, you know, ask about mentoring Colston love. He's like, I ain't no old player. That's not how he said it, but like, I'm not, I'm not a mentor. I'm in the prime of my career. I'm out of here with that mentor. It's nonsense. I'm not Jimmy Graham at 32. I'm Cole committed my prime. So I just, I just thought that Cole had his own back, uh,

incredibly well and he's being a great team as he always has been. So I appreciate an 85 today. And yes, I'm biased. I'm a fan of Cole Komet. Yeah. We'll get to more of the Loveland stuff here. I thought it was. So when he was talking about getting no Ben, that's why I followed up a little bit later and asked about the specific moment that we discussed on this show a couple times, but especially on the OTA recap a few weeks ago.

where Cole was one of the players that was kind of singled out by Ben Johnson at practice for being lined up wrong. And then he immediately caught the pass after they got lined up right. But in that moment, he got an earful from Ben Johnson and had a re-huddle and then do it correctly. So it's been one of the many moments we've seen of

honing in on the details. So I asked Cole about what happened that was a couple weeks ago at the Walter Payton Center and kind of how he took all that in. That moment we saw a couple weeks ago at the Walter Payton Center when Ben kind of singled you out and made you guys read all. I think that was only like the first or second team practice at that point. Do you remember what that was about? It's probably an alignment thing or something. Like, that's probably like a yard off. No, but like all of it, all of it goes with one another and these alignments and

where your keys are and all those things, they all matter. So I think that's just an example of Ben not letting up on those things and making sure everybody's on the details. And, you know, it's funny on that play, like with the alignment, I'm kind of cheating myself out of getting the ball the way I was aligned. So, you know, afterwards he was kind of joking. He was like, I was trying to get you the damn football. No, it all comes from a good place. And I think when guys can recognize that and understand that, I mean,

I mean, he's not just yelling at you because he doesn't like you. He wants things right, and he wants to win, and he knows that's what you have to do. And I think guys have been really receptive to that so far.

Yeah, you know, the play was like a quick throw out in the flat. And so he was lined up to condense to the inside. And that kind of screws, you know, it takes him longer to get to the spot he needs to be, but where the ball's headed. So yeah, that's, that's a good example. I think even just for the common fan, I kind of understand why that matters so much. So he gets lined up a little bit better, farther outside.

Ball was on the money. He caught it. That's in. So I think that was good context for what we saw with our own eyes in that practice. Details, details, details and call me crazy. But it sounds to me that if that moment in time happened last year on a similar play that Matt Eberfluss and company was running,

I don't think you stop in practice. I don't think it's getting called out. This is, I mean, this is, you know, a real-time example that we saw of how things are different right now. And look, the margins in the NFL are super thin. You got to be on your P's and Q's. P's and Q's was mentioned again today. Love when a good P's and Q's gets in there. And the Bears are trying to be better on their P's and Q's. And Cole took it in stride. It's not that he doesn't like you. I enjoyed that.

Why is it the P's and the Q's that are so important? Like, why does that get singled out? You know, the A's and B's, like, you know, it could have been at the front of the alphabet, P's and Q's. I don't know. You got to be on your P's and Q's. I bet you, I bet you, uh,

A guy like Brett Jackson, who I believe is watching the show today, one of our great, you know, producers out there, engineers, he would know what the P's and Q's is all about. But I don't I don't know why I became P's and Q's. It's above my pay grade. You know, the English language is very tricky. Well, I have to ask Braggs. Oh, he knows. Up until today, did not know it was wayside. He was he thought it was waste side.

Now, Bragg is having a rough day today, so I don't want to say anything bad about the guy that literally took himself off the show by his activities. But we miss you, Gregory, if you're watching somewhere. And we love you. I'll come for all your maintenance needs in the future. I'll come right out. And or apparently Greg cut his Internet.

Yeah, I don't know how. Yeah, Greg, I mean, we might as well share why we're missing our MVP, our commercial leader, our everything. He weed whacked his internet off, apparently. I didn't even know you could do that. I didn't know either. Guy's building a fire pit and a pool, and he's floating around. He just whacks his own internet. I mean, with all due respect, I mean, that's kind of sad, but we miss you, and I hope it never happens again, I think. Yeah.

He'll be back tomorrow. That's terrible. Something tells me. Drive over to Stevens, do the show from there or something. Why didn't you just drive over to Mubz's house? Mubz would have had him. Isn't he over there? Gone right to Mubz. Couldn't he have gone to, doesn't Taco Bell have an internet up there? I mean, Chubbs. Mubz. I'm sorry, Chubbs. You can go to Mubz or Chubbs. They're both from Northwest Indiana. Go to Chubbs' house.

If Carb Sweet Bippy, you know, he'd be over there. He'd help you out. And by the way, I'm getting weird texts from some number that doesn't know who I am. They're saying, pass this along to Braggs. I'm deleting and blocking this person. It's the only one they keep getting at me. So, like, one of Bragg's friends has my phone. Okay. Hopefully not the phone, just the number. Bad development for me. Yes, just the number. Yeah. In terms of what Cole had to say about Colson Loveland, you know, he admitted he was...

taken aback by the pick at first, but you know, credited Ben Johnson for calling him right away. They talked about how they fit. And honestly, I think Cole understands that they had a need for another tight end in that room. Not even forget the room.

on the field to run the 12 personnel that Ben Johnson really wants to run. And so Cole said today on the, on acquiring Colson Loveland quote, the goal is to be the best 12 tandem in the league referring to 12 personnel, two tight ends on the field. Of course, that'd be great. If that happens, obviously. Yeah. I, I enjoyed that. Like, like, look, I ain't going to be no mentor.

We are going to compete against each other. By the way, he didn't say he wouldn't be a mentor. I want to be very clear. He just said this is not the same situation as when he was drafted and Jimmy Graham was there on the back end of his career. The situation here is that they can both thrive. Oh, hold on. It's not just I'm coaching this dude up. Steven, can you play the audio that I clipped? Commit not asked to be a mentor.

I, if that's a, if that's a possible and now Siri's talking to me, Siri, be quiet. Like I still got things that I got to work on and I got to achieve. You know, I think like when I was, when I was a rookie, we had, we had Jimmy here and Jimmy was, I think Jim was like 32 or 33 at the time. And,

I don't know if I should say this publicly, but he probably wouldn't have said it then, but probably on the back end of his career at that point. And I don't necessarily feel like I'm at that stage of my career yet. So maybe a little different in that regard. But that being said, yeah,

You know, getting to know Colson's been great so far, and I want to give him as much knowledge as I can and, you know, give him all the things that I've learned and get him up to pace as soon as soon and as quickly as possible so that he can go out there and be the best football player that he can be this year and going forward. And, yeah, so I'm excited about that. And it's been awesome to get to know him here in these past few weeks since he's been drafted. And I think he's going to fit just fine in our in our room and in the offense as well.

Okay. So I think I clipped my own cut wrong and didn't, didn't get the mentor thing out of the beginning, which is a bad job by me, but that's, that's the, he wasn't being asked to be the mentor, but he did. That's he look, the reason why I'm clarifying on this is because we have literally had wide receivers, for example, come and be like, I ain't got a mentor. This guy, what's the example? There was a quarterback example recently too, where that happened.

And I just I think it's clear to point out Cole's not saying that he's just he's very fairly pointed out. This is not a situation where you have like Mercedes Lewis mentoring him. Right. And that's correct. That's what it's exactly what he said. They're not asking me to be a mentor, but I but he was irritated. And even the concept that a bit of reporter would think that he'd be in mentor land, dude.

I'm in my prime. That's not what I'm looking to do. So it was more of a just sort of, you know, flex on where he's at in his career. No problem. Jimmy Graham. I'm sure Jimmy heard that and chuckled at what Kemet was saying today. Those two had a great relationship. Steven pointing out it was Joe Flacco. I think that's right. Yeah. So that must have been with Lamar Jackson, didn't it?

None of these guys, nobody wants to be a mentor. Even if you're 46 years old, you still think you can play. But maybe the one exception, that being of course the bears, third string quarterback, he's happy to be a mentor. That's our mentor. I'm glad you caught that already. Cause like I could have brought up like eight examples for you where that's, he's a, that's a good mentor. Sometimes being a mentor actually gives you a paycheck for another year. Yeah, no, great.

I mean, Austin Reed can be a mentor to let him get paid as a mentor. You can be a mentor on how to get onto the roster. Cole comments that a mentor don't ask about being no mentor. How's that? I'll go with the media. Enough with the mentor stuff. Mentor. You need a mentor. I'm actually in the mentor land. So if anybody would like to reach out to me on how to.

play tennis I'll mentor you or the harmonica thank you very much when you get back out on the tennis court anyway it's it's coming it's coming it's coming okay um anyway shout out commit good job today yeah one more item uh from the sound video library from today we heard from DJ Moore um there's a lot of talk about body language last week and obviously that

Relevant to DJ Moore last season and when he walked off the field in Arizona mid play. So he was asked about that today.

Just don't do it. Just keep it inside. We'll talk about it later. And just don't put it on film. Don't put it on TV so you guys can't run with it. So that's how it is. How does that show up during the spring, though, when there are games and there aren't cameras and all of that? Like, how is body language being emphasized in practice?

Be honest right now and then we're gonna talk about it I did it once and then we nipped it in the butt and it's never happened. So he Apparently got called out for his body language and practice and that was that yeah, that wasn't DJ's best moment You know to not do that to not put it on tape so you guys can't come at me dude It's it's not about the media or

showing a video of you walking off the field. It's about you being the best teammate for your teammates. It's really got nothing to do with you ending up on ESPN, which I don't even think he did for that moment in time. It wasn't really blown up that much, but the Bears coaching stick. Was it? Yeah, I think it was. Okay. Well, he was. I mean, if it was, it was the point. That's not the point, though. It's not about being whether it's making its way around the Internet or any of that. It's about being your best teammate.

He should have said, I mean, it would have been better if DJ had said they're like, look, that was a bad moment for me. I need to be better for my teammates. And I honestly, it bothers me and I'll I'm planning to never do it again. That's that's what I would have. Yeah. Come on. Don't don't don't make it about the media. That's or whatever you. That's the way I heard that was he was talking about something that happened in practice recently where I did it once. We nipped it in the bud. It never happened again.

I thought we're talking about last year. Is it? No, because the question was, how does that show up during the spring with no games, cameras and all that? And he said, to be honest right now, and then we ain't going to talk about it. I did it once. We nipped it in the bud. It never happened again. Steven, let's play that again. If we can, let's re-rack that, that entire exchange. Cause I don't think he was talking about last year. I think he was talking about his body language issues.

being a factor this spring, which wouldn't be a surprise. Ben Johnson's talked about it. And then he just said, I ain't going to do it again. That was the follow-up question. A few questions later, but here's that exchange again.

Just don't do it. Just keep it inside. We'll talk about it later. And just don't put it on film. Don't put it on TV so you guys can't run with it. So that's how it is. How does that show up during the spring, though, when there aren't games and there aren't cameras and all of that? Like, how is body language between the exercise and the practice?

Be honest right now and then we're gonna talk about it I did it once and then we nipped it in the butt and it's never happened. Okay Well, well, that's why that's that's another Ben Johnson on the ground situation here where they nipped it in the butt I believe he knew the mud the bud But though he definitely said but he said but we have a but I

I mean, P's and Q's wouldn't it be better if it was a nipped it in the butt versus in the bud. I mean, smacked it in the butt would be a better saying than nipped it in the bud. Speaker 0 : I mean, I kind of like Bragg's waist side, you know, go way side. Speaker 3 : Yeah. Hey man, accountability for everybody, including DJ 28 million coming in hot, most accomplished offensive player we have.

Ben Johnson's paying attention to you and everything you're doing. So we're not going to talk about that anymore. DJ is tired of that narrative. He does not want to be looked at as a dude that's not giving his best.

That's fine. By the way, he was also asked about his quarterback, DJ Moore saying a lot of growth from Caleb Williams. You can tell he's on his a game every day because I know he probably gets it the most out of everybody because he's the quarterback. He wants to be perfect in himself and the staff wants him to be perfect to lead.

This offense, he was asked more about the details of that. Just taking control of the huddle, knowing his playbook and just being a leader that he is at the quarterback spot. You make anything of that? I just heard that it's just throwing flowers. Caleb's way. I didn't really go any further than I didn't put a whole lot of substance into that situation. What's he going to say?

if I'm being honest. That's fair. I mean, yeah, I think, I think it is interesting though, him saying, taking control of the huddle and knowing his playbook. I did like ask for specifics in a follow-up question. He lists those things. I think that goes beyond, you know, just throwing flowers in June, which is certainly a thing that happens a lot. Yeah. No, the, the,

Him being able to get up to the line and run plays. We saw in motion earlier in, in mini camp that he was now, he was struggling with it. It was getting called out by the head coach. We didn't see it today. What are you laughing at? The brag saying, Oh, but if he said it about Tyson and I was having, I I'm going to be honest, I had the same exact thought and I was just trying to, to let calm. Just, just, just go.

Go make it so you can't take a shower in your own house. Why don't you do that? No, we don't want that. No, don't. No. We want Greg to shower. We got Mando head to toe. He'll be fine. Mando him up in the schnitzel. It's fine. Whatever. It's the greatest comment ever, Gregory. It means that Caleb's going to the Pro Bowl. How's that? All right. If you want to go down that road. I do. I...

I hope, I hope what he's saying is, is, is truthful, but I also, I've heard DJ say a lot of nice things a lot of times and it's not necessarily what's going on. We'll see. I think that that's everything I had in my list. By the way, it was windy today. I should have mentioned that earlier when I was actually talking about Caleb, they were, the offense was going into the wind the entire practice. And that was definitely having an impact.

uh, Juan Brisker had a forced fumble on Roma dunes. They, after a catch now, he sorta hit them as Jaquan Brisker likes to do. And there were no pads. I think Rome was kind of caught off guard by that. So probably in a game, you'd hope the balls tucked away a little bit more, but that was a, it was good to see Juwan Brisker out there being Juwan Brisker. And, um, otherwise I think we can get to super chats. I have a couple off topic things for the very end of the show to save, but, um, I think we should get the super chats, uh,

Do you right now? That's that's lovely. I do have extensive car notes on the press conference that we I think we probably covered most of it, which I were my friend. I think the only thing that we didn't talk about is he called he called Ozzy Trapillo a polished Ozzy, which we touched on. But that that polished thing just just stood out to me. And one other thing that we didn't talk about, as far as.

you know, game one, we're going to be far from a finished product after the bi-week we should gel. He lowered, he lowered expectations right out of the gate as far as just really hitting the ground running. You're saying that was Ben Johnson. That was Ben Johnson. Yeah. He said that, you know, game one, we're going to be far from a finished product after the bi-week we'll gel bi-week comes after week four. So, um, week five, either way, it doesn't matter. It's early, but that was interesting. Uh,

Anyway, we can move on. Yeah, I think that that's realistic, though. I mean, really, you want to be gelling in November and December. That's when, I mean, that's what Bill Belichick would say. There's one, right? December. Win game in September, too. Where's my girlfriend? Okay. Let's get to a super from the three pepperonis.

which I think is new. $20 on the plane to Vegas for the world series of poker. Can't spend a day without our guys at CHCO. Thank you for always being there and let's freaking go. Wish me luck in the tournaments this week and weekend. All right. Three pepperonis. Good luck at the world series of poker. Is Nick Wright competing in that? I don't know if he's in this one, but he very well might be. And three pepperonis. You know what I like about you?

You're going for everything you can possibly do in life. Not one pepperoni, two pepperoni. Let's go three pepperonis. Guy's a leader. Thanks, three pepperonis. Don't be a stranger. Carm, do you want... Yeah, I think we skip Sang Ray's super chat. Yeah, you can't see it anyway. Let's just be nice. Can we?

We don't want to skip Philip Abril. My wife is giving birth to our third child late tonight or early tomorrow. Can I get a song, please? We don't want to skip that. Let's see. A song for your third child. A lot of pressure on the move here, Philip. I might have to think this one through. First of all, congrats. Yeah. Could be a congratulations song. Congratulations.

Let me explain what's really going on here. Karm is...

Carmen is like, are you did you go press box or office? Are there people around you? I am in the nutrition kitchen at Dominican University. Thank you to everybody here at Dominican. Outstanding hospitality. The super sectionals are going on right now. Lane Tech and York are around the corner. So, you know, after I run out the door, I'll be doing a live video at some point of hopefully a win. It's nothing, nothing at the half.

So there's all that. Phillip, I hope that your third child is birthed as beautifully as a lame tech goal later in the second half here. But I was going to go into I was going to do a little traveling Wilburys. Congratulations. You're having third child. Congratulations. I hope it's an athlete. Congratulations.

I'll teach her tennis. Congratulations for being a great dad. There you go, Phillip. I got you. What'd you think, Hogue? I like Carmen's or Stephen suggested go sweet child of mine. And I think that that would have been a better way to go. But, you know, that's just me. This is a terrible way to welcome a child to the world. Yeah.

I thought it was fantastic. Anybody knows congratulations. It's a little more sure. Everybody knows sweet child of mine, but you know, I went a little off the board, Hogue. Yeah. All right. A couple more minutes here on the show. First of all, the New York Knicks firing Tom Thibodeau. What are you doing in like, I think.

I think I speak for all Bulls fans everywhere. Maybe not all Bulls fans, but a lot of Bulls fans. And Carmen and I were doing a show back in the day for WGN radio when the Bulls fired Tibbs and I was effing live it. I thought it was ridiculous. I thought it was stupid. And they've never been the same since. So,

Good for you, Nick's. You finally got back to relevancy more than relevancy. And I get that you weren't all the way there, but one more off season of maybe finding the missing pieces and seeing if, you know, it can all come together. I just found that to be ridiculous. Beyond ridiculous and shout out Tibbs. And I put on Twitter Tibbs for life is a response to the Shams tweet about it.

But, you know, this is a point in time where I can remind everybody the Chicago Bulls, since Michael Jordan retired in 1998, have made it to the conference finals once and they won one game. That's pathetic. And that's about, you know, upper management more than anything else. But the one time they got there was with Tom Thibodeau. And if Derek hadn't gotten hurt and all those things. But yeah, Tibbs, Tibbs, man, you know, he rubbed some people the wrong way, but the dude wins. And that's what it's all about. Is it not? That's a guarantee you the Knicks don't go as far next year.

Yeah. Also, I'm in an argument with a White Sox fan on Twitter about the Scott Pitsednik-Carlos Lee trade. And that's fun. What's the argument about? Well, he thinks the White Sox still would have won though. Real quickly, let me pause. Become a diehard CHGO fan.

It, it's just the way to go become a diehard scan that QR code on screen, you'll get 20% off all merch events and all that stuff. But quickly here. The argument is this. I don't even, I don't have it in front of me otherwise I'd say who it is I don't, I don't really have no problem.

Cause it's another white Sox blogger or something. Anyway, he says that the car, the white Sox still would have won the world series with Carlos Lee and not Scott. That's one of the worst comments in the history of white Sox baseball. Scott, but setting was huge in that he won. He had a walk-off Homer in the world series. He set the table. He, he stole a zillion bases. That's that's preposterous. Yeah. Cool. Yeah.

Well, and they're citing the fact that they basically had the same war. And I'm like, well, that's everything that's wrong with just basing everything on war. Oh, they have the same war. They have the same war. They should have gone full car model. That's ridiculous. Equal war doesn't matter if the war was what the White Sox needed, which was speed and base running to complement everything else they had. It's just it's idiotic.

All right. We need to go. You need to go watch your knees. Thank you. I appreciate it. The extra help out at Hal's today with you and Patrick Norton dominating the press conference situation. I look forward to contributing tomorrow and yeah, go, go grace. Let's get a win here. And you know, we're going to have a whole CHGO party at the state semifinals Friday night in Naperville. Come on out. If we can somehow get it done today.

That sounds awesome. All right. Good luck to grace. Good luck to the entire team. Thanks for everybody watching, listening, say, please hit that like button rate and review the pod hit subscribe. And we'll be back tomorrow. Again, same time, 4. P.M. Central as we recap day two, a bears mini camp. That's coming your way tomorrow. We'll talk to you then.