Lance Briggs & Jerry Azumah talk Caleb Williams and OTAs | CHGO Bears Podcast
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Welcome back to another edition of CHGO Bears After Dark presented by Empire Today and of course Circa Sports. We appreciate both of them for their loyalty and sponsorship to the program. I am Greg Braggs, your host here as always. And alongside me is Jerry Azuma here in studio and from his palatial estates,

The one, the only, El Boogie, Lance Briggs. How we doing today, fellas? Doing well. Doing well. Thank you. Top of the morning, man. Top of the morning, indeed. What kind of hat you got rocking there? What is that? This right here is Basha High School Bears, all right? So it was only natural that my boys go to this high school because obviously their mascot is a bear. It seemed only right.

I like it. I like it. Now, are you a linebacker coach? Yeah. Yeah. Coach linebackers. Coach linebackers because obviously I'm a linebacker X guy. That makes sense. You are? That makes sense. You a tough coach or you soft on the kids here? You tough on them? That's a great question.

It depends on the era. If you are a guy that comes from my era, you would think I was a pushover. From this younger era, they'd probably say I'm a tougher, I'm a mean cusp. So you're not the type of guy that goes around and screams at people, are you? Only if they need to be screamed at. Only screaming at people that deserve to be screamed at. Now, your son is on this team as well, right?

Yeah. Now, do you scream at him? Yes, I scream at him. Oh, okay. Yes, I scream at him. Yeah. I actually, honestly, he just walked into the cabinet. I told him that I'd get him a toothbrush and

And he came in like this right here. And I said, dog on it. I forgot. So I said, do this today and I'll get you a toothbrush later. Let's get into it. Oh, my God. We got a lot to hear from OTAs yesterday. Minicamp comes up next week.

The story that fans just want to have go away. They're tired of talking about it. But you guys have been in the locker room, so I definitely wanted you guys to have your say and get your perspective on, you know, what came out in terms of Caleb Williams addressing the media yesterday, talking about, you know,

what came out in this book where he gave different quotes to Seth Wickersham. His dad gave different quotes to Seth Wickersham for a book that will be coming out. Apparently the day after the bears Vikings game all the way in September. So still a long way to go to get there, but we had some different quotes come out here early on, you know, obviously to get publicity on some pre-sales or whatever.

So Lance, I'll start with you. You know, when you hear, you know, a guy talk about,

you know, the different things that come out in here and the way he addressed yesterday, I'm assuming both of you watched his statement, you know, how big of an impact for you as a teammate in the locker room when there's something like this that comes out, you know, last week, Kevin Byard and Tremaine Edmonds had to talk about it. So I'm just curious your perspective on like how this would affect you guys in the locker room and how you would handle it as a leader in that locker room. Yeah.

Well, you know, number one, it's a distraction. You know, it's a distraction to what we're trying to do because we have to answer questions about something that we have nothing to do with. You know, it has nothing to do really with us playing football.

it's um it's one of those things that you know i think most teams go through it you know you whether you want to or not it's a distraction but i think at the end of the day um i want to be sure that you're locked in and that um you want to be a part of this team and you are passionate about about playing football as a bear because um if there's any if i have any doubt that

that you don't want to be here or that you're not passionate about competing, you know, or you're not somebody that I believe has the want to take us to the championship, then that's going to affect my tenure and I'm going to be looking for an exit at some point here in the near future and some way to get out of here and go somewhere where I feel like everybody feels the same way I do. I mean, I kind of feel like this was going to happen. I mean, the book came out and the quotes were made and

And, you know, now it's time to come to the podium and talk about what has been said. So I feel like for Williams to come out and be ahead of this, I think that was excellent. I mean, he got on the podium in front of the podium and he spoke like

you know, about the situation and we're trying to put it past us. You know what I'm saying? So like, yes, Lance, I understand it is a distraction and people don't necessarily really want to talk about it that are on the team, but they're faced with it and you might as well get in front of it now to get it quickly in the past. And I think that they're doing that. And I really liked the fact that Caleb came out,

And he said what he said. You know, there are the question marks and people want to know about, you know, his desire and his want to be here as a Chicago bear. But I think that he addressed it and,

And if you take a real strong look at it in totality, you know, his father was instrumental in his life, you know, and they're raising questions that anyone would do. Anyone would raise these questions if you're the number one pick and that people want you, you know. So they're just doing the normal things. They're doing the normal things, though. You're the number one pick.

You're the number one pick. You're telling me that the number one pick doesn't have or doesn't have access to the best help. Or maybe there's too many yes men that are in his camp, you know, because again, as a grown man, as a grown man, you are responsible for your choices, your decisions, and all of those have consequences.

So it's weird to me. It's weird to me that anybody says, okay, hey, listen, I'm glad you're addressing this and you're getting ahead of it. And no, the fans just want to get past this. You brought this up. You chose to bring out a book in which there are references to you not wanting to be a Chicago Bear.

And I don't know how you clear that up, except, you know what? Listen, I said some things I shouldn't have said. I'm here. I'm a part of this, and I want to be here, and I want to help us win a championship. I mean, I understand where you're coming from, Lance, but at the same time, I mean, you have to look at it as, okay, you are a type of person that everybody wants, and you're going to these places like the Minnesota Vikings or whoever wants you, and you're interviewing basically for a job. So, I mean...

If those things come out or whatever, like he just addressed it and he's asking the questions that that to me, I feel are just normal questions. Like the father was asking normal questions, you know, and he's looking for the well-being of his son. So this is just normal stuff to me. I mean, when you got to the Chicago Bears, I mean, before you got drafted to the Chicago Bears, I'm sure that you had a lot of question marks as well.

You know what I'm saying? So I think that this is all normal. That's why I was drafted in the third round, 68th overall. Jerry certainly had questions because he thought he was going to run it. I had a lot of questions because I thought I was going to be a running back. And then they were like, run backwards. Well,

To that point though, Lance is certainly as a quarterback, you know, it sounded like some of the concerns that him and his dad expressed were the success or lack thereof with quarterbacks here in Chicago. And then the last year was Shane Waldron and Matt Eberflus, you know, guys that got fired halfway through the year. It seems like some of those concerns were proven to be correct and

So can you blame a guy that is a quarterback and sees the history here, you know, for, you know, having some trepidation about, you know, coming here and not being another victim of, of the failures that, that Chicago has kind of seen.

Yeah, I mean, listen, those aren't the only things, you know, they were trying to get stock in the Bears. They were trying. There were a bunch of things that were going on that we're not talking about. All right. And there's a lot of things that went on with with with Caleb. Well, and you know, to me.

Whoever is helping him in making his decisions, whether it's his dad, whether it's his agent, whoever it is, it comes down to Caleb because he's the one that has to live with it. You know, I mean, he's the one that's going to get credit for it. You know, nobody else is going to get credit for it. Not at the age that you are. You're leaving college. You're a grown man. So, you know, with that being said, you know, just to me,

at this point, you're going to have to stand on it. And yeah, he went through a tough year, you know, with the Bears. There are a lot of players that come out of the draft that's not named Peyton Manning and come from a Manning family. And the dad says, hey, listen, we don't want him going there. We don't want Eli going to this team and we want him going there. A lot of these kids come up, you know, I'm sure very similar to Caleb that are given an opportunity to play a sport that that that that

It's life-changing. You know, I mean, it's absolutely life-changing. So the opportunity to come out and showcase what you're able to do is, to me, more important than, oh, I have to land in the perfect situation. I don't want to land in a bad situation. You're the number one pick. Typically, they land in the bad situation in the NFL.

But, Lance, I mean, I totally understand what you're saying, but if you put yourself in Caleb's shoes, if you put yourself in Caleb's father's shoes, wouldn't you be asking the same questions too, especially if you're looking at this organization and all the things that they've been through, especially with quarterbacks? Like, I think that these are reasonable questions to ask.

I'm not a numbers guy. You know what I mean? So I didn't run a fast 40. You know, I'm not the tallest linebacker. You know, I didn't put up the most, you know what I mean? Right. You know, it's one of those deals. But it didn't stop me from going out and doing what I had to do and play better, get to the ball faster than the faster guys. You know, so it's to me, I needed to change those minds. I had to define.

what people said I was because I didn't fit the numbers or the category. So I don't relate very well to a dad and his son trying to find the right situation or trying to say, listen, I want to keep you away from this organization because they're not

very good. You know, there's a lot of not very good organizations in the NFL, you know? And so if you're trying to avoid a bunch of them, you know, outside of whatever, you know what I mean? And, and trying to, to manipulate the process, um,

I think it hurts you more than it does anybody else. And now it's coming to bite them in the ass because now you've got to get a whole year where everybody's like, listen, I believe Caleb is fully in. He's fully in. And you did this before you came here, you know, and now it's coming in. Now we have to address this. Now you have to address it. And you knew you were going to have to address it this whole past year that you went out and you busted your ass. But at the very end, he did say that he wants to be a Chicago bear. He wants to turn it around. He wants to be that, that number one, you know, quarterback that the bears have never had.

So, I mean, ultimately, like, to me, that's the last thing that I need to hear from him is that he wants to be a Chicago Bear. Well, he bought a house for $8 million. You better say I want to be a Chicago Bear. Let me ask you guys this, and I'll start with you, Jerry. How much do you trust the media? Like, when you guys were playing, I mean, obviously you guys are a part of the media now, but, you know, when you guys were playing,

playing, you know, from Chicago media or a guy like this that writes the book, you know, Caleb's, you know, like Lance said, he's a grown man, but he also said, Hey, this is a learning experience for me. You know, he wasn't expecting when this was going to get released. Then the Chicago media takes the report and for the last week and a half kind of run with it. And so I'm curious. It was going to come out in three years.

Yeah, I don't know the answer to that. Maybe he thought that because a lot of the stuff was pre-draft that it was going to come out pre-draft. Yeah. And then it comes out a year and a half later. But, you know, obviously he talked to him again. To me, it doesn't really matter. I mean, he's here now and he already addressed it. Like, even if he said those things in the past about, you know,

kicking the tire and stuff like that and wanting to know more about the organization and what he can actually get. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think anybody would kind of go through that. But, I mean, the very last thing that he said was that he wants to be a Chicago Bear. He wants to turn this thing around, and he believes in the people that are basically around him. So he still feels that way, and I understand the media. The media is going to run with certain things. They're going to create their stories and their narratives, and they're going to sell papers and things like that. Did you trust them?

when they were in the locker room talking to you or were you always kind of I was always apprehensive you know and worried about their angles absolutely um

But, you know, my main thing was just trying to get in front of any type of negative situation or negative stories that were told. So I think that what Caleb is doing now is perfectly okay. I think that him getting in front of all of this stuff and just being transparent about it is a step in the right direction to put it in the past. And, yeah, we're going to address it now, but I don't think that this is something that's going to linger on and on and on. I think it's going to be over after this. How many quarterbacks write a book –

or get involved in writing a book before they get drafted and say that this is a team that I hope I don't go to. Like, it's not. I just, it's out of me. I think you're focusing on too many of the negatives.

Well, I'm just saying, like, we had a first-round pick quarterback a couple years ago. He didn't say any of that stuff. He came in. He tried to work. It didn't work out for him. That's fine. If it doesn't work out for you, it doesn't work out for you. You know? And I'm not saying I'm not behind Caleb because he is here. And we are going to end up moving on. And I hope we are successful behind him. However, like, who does that? Like, don't do that. Do you feel like Caleb wants to be here? What's that? Do you feel like Caleb definitely wants to be here?

Based off of the way he played last year, absolutely. But that's still, but he made a dumb decision. That was still a dumb decision. So when we at least call that out,

You know, like, don't be a dummy anymore. Let's be smart. Let's move forward. Shoot. And I think he acknowledged that yesterday, like I said, where he said this is a learning experience. You know, Lance, just to kind of put a bow on this, I asked Jerry, and I'm curious your perspective, dealing with the media here in Chicago, you know, and the way they'd write articles or cover you guys or cover yourself personally, you know,

did you ever have any issues with the way you were covered here in Chicago or with the way you were asked questions in the locker room at the podium? You know, I just curious your perspective on that. Yeah. I mean, there's, there's always been some issues. There's always been some issues, you know, but you also have to know what media market you're in.

This is an aggressive media market. They're listening to everything that you're saying. I was real loose, I think, with the mood media and how I handled the media. I handled them with a lot of humor most of the time.

So there were times where I would say something, you know, they would ask me a question like, hey, Lance, why did you miss so many tackles today? And I'd say, you know, it's because my gloves were slippery, you know. And if you wanted to make a story out of that, you can make a story out of that. You know, most times they didn't. They said he was comical about it. I have to do a better job, period. That's all. I have to do a better job. You know, there were some things that were said in my personal life that –

that were references about my mother, that was the one time where I was really upset with the media. Outside of that, I expected what, I knew what to expect. And I knew if I said something in the media, I knew what was going to, I knew the reaction, I knew what the consequence of it was.

You know, you're at the point now and Caleb, he went to USC. So the L.A. is an aggressive, just as aggressive as Chicago is as far as the media market. So it's not like it's a surprise that you're coming here and you're sitting down with a beat writer and you're creating a book and something that you're going to get pushback from.

But like you just said, I mean, there's things that you had to learn, too, with the media when you got here. And that's the same thing with Caleb. I mean, he's a rookie. This is his first. Yes, last year was his first year. So he had to go through that wave and go through that learning experience. And I think that he's done that. I actually think that he does a really good job at the podium.

When he's presenting himself. I really do think that. I think that he's learned a lot. And I think that over time, the short period of time, he's gotten better and better at the podium. Would you have felt, because I thought it was pretty condescending yesterday when he was asked, does your dad speak for you?

When you heard that... What's that, Lance? It's a great question. It's a great question. I mean, I think his father is instrumental in his life. You can't divert Blaine. Absolutely, but you can't divert Blaine.

You can't divert blame for something you're going to be blamed for. Well, you can, but you're still going to get credit for it. So at some point when you say, I'm learning, I'm learning, I'm learning. Okay, well, are you going to do what's best for your father or your mother or your cousin or your brother or your sister? Or are you going to do what you believe is best for you?

But, I mean, like I said, it's all a learning process. It's all brand new to them. And I think that they kind of got together and did things together. But now I think in his second year, we'll start to see a little bit of a change. I think that his father will probably fall back a little bit. I think that he'll come forward and start to, you know, do the things that he necessarily has to do to move forward. And I think we'll see something like that. Zoom, did his father play in the league?

I don't believe so. I don't think so. No. Okay. He didn't play. Okay. All right. Cause, cause this is, this is part of, this is part of that process. This is all part of that process. Even me. So when I was getting, uh, when I was choosing what college I was going to go to, you know, my mom was a heavy influence on, on where I was going to go, you know? And so, um,

My mom, she had only played as high as junior college. And so she went through a process with my older sister and my older sister, well, both of my older sisters going to college and playing volleyball. And they went on to great colleges at Arizona, Fresno, and South Florida. But when it comes to some of these processes, parents that have not been there, they're going through it just like you're going through it.

and they're experiencing it just as you're experiencing it. So when he says, like, "Listen, my father taught me this," or, "My father said that, my father, you know, this and that," or whomever, "My uncle, my uncle told me this." Your uncle never, ever played in the NFL. How does he know this process and how this thing works?

Yeah, I mean, I don't think that they know the process. I think they're just trying to figure it out. But I think that collectively they're trying to get through it together. And I don't see anything wrong with that. But like I said, it was all brand new to them last year. You know, he was a rookie. You know what I'm saying? They had no idea. So they were just throwing things, you know, at a wall pretty much. And they were kicking tires as well with this organization that has been known to not have really good quarterbacks and has had a lot of dysfunction. So they're raising these questions. And I think that they're okay and right to raise those questions. Yeah.

But like now they got a year under their belt. And I feel like Caleb, yes, the stuff that he said in the book is definitely going to come out and people are going to write about that and make stories about that. But getting in front of it and telling your perspective and then moving on, more importantly, moving on is what they're doing. I think that he's doing a good job with moving on from that. Yeah.

I didn't hear Trevor Lawrence one time say, listen, I don't want to go to Jacksonville. I'm just saying, I don't want to go to Jacksonville. I don't want to go to Jacksonville because they are not known for having great quarterbacks. That's where quarterbacks go to their grave. The players that go there, they go there. Did Jalen really say all of that bad stuff about the Chicago Bears? All I'm saying is this. Jalen Ramsey got drafted to the Jacksonville Jaguars and

You know what he did? He went up there. He was part of a great defense, defensive unit. Then they took Jacksonville to the AFC championship. That's what you're supposed to, when you're the number one pick, you're going to the worst teams. Typically, you know, it just so happened that, that the bear situation, he wasn't in the worst personnel situation with the bears. And yes, their history says what it is, but that's what happens when you're the number one pick. You typically go to the worst teams, not the best. Well, I,

I know fans want to move on from it, but I certainly wanted to give you guys the avenue to talk about this. Certainly from a perspective of guys that have been in that locker room and have, you know, gone through some different controversies and have dealt with the Chicago media and national media at that as well. So,

you know, I think this is something that now, you know, we can close the book on, you know, no pun intended and start winning and start to look forward and, and get it getting closer and closer under a hundred days to the NFL season. That's right. So excited to get there. We're going to take a quick time out and we're going to talk about some, some other things that I wanted to get into that actually were football related in terms of some of the stuff that Caleb talked about yesterday. But first,

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All right. Rolling things along here on CHCO bears after dark with Lance breaks and Jerry Azuma, please hit that like button while you're hanging out. One of the big things that I wanted to get into, that was one of the things that Caleb Williams talked about. That was something that actually had to do with the play on the field and the success of the bears moving forward. And the success of Caleb Williams moving forward was watching film. I'm curious about,

Because it came out like, did the coaches help enough to watch film? How much does Caleb need to learn to get better at watching film? And so there, and he answered some of those questions and said, you know, he's learned a lot more with, you know, pre-snap protections or as he called them PSPs and some of the different, you know, responsibilities you have at the line of scrimmage. So I'm curious and I'll start with you, Jerry, just,

How hard, like, when did you start to figure out how to watch film and apply it to what you were doing on the field? For me, it's, it was very, very difficult. And it was very different too, because like I said, I was a running back and I was on the offensive side of the ball. And then being able to switch that view and look at it from a defensive perspective, you

you know, at the highest level possible was difficult at first. So obviously we watched film as a defensive unit and then we break down and we watch film as, you know, a defensive back unit. And I thought that was really important. What was harder, watching film on offense or watching film on defense? I guess for you, just because you were so green. Well, defense was harder because I've never done that before.

You know, so just the fact that I've just had no experience watching film on the defensive aspect of it was difficult. So I had to learn. And the way that I learned was through obviously the coaches. So I went to the coach and I said, coach,

And he knew too, he was Vance Bedford. He coached me extremely hard, but he knew that he had to, to get me up to speed. And I knew that I would have to get coached hard as well. And I'd go through the drag, get dragged through the mud in order to get caught up to speed. So, um, he was very instrumental. Obviously the guys that were on the team, um, that were in my position room were very instrumental in me, uh, watching film. And then, um,

people like Lance, like we will watch a film together as a defensive unit as well. So we were always watching film, you know what I'm saying? So you always knew exactly, I guess what to look for, but in terms of like the specifics, you would go to the position coach, you would go to your unit. And, you know, I watched film with Lance because I was a Nickelback, which is essentially a linebacker. So I need to know exactly what he's doing and he needs to know what I'm doing. We could be on the same page, but yeah,

For me, people like Lance made it easy for me. You know what I'm saying? Because I could look at Lance and we've watched enough film together where we just had that rapport where I could look at him and we could instantly be on the same page. We could identify what was happening in front of us and then look at each other and we would know instantly our responsibilities. And

the positives and strengths and weaknesses of the coverages that we were in. So it was easy for me to pick up because of people like Lance, people like Vance Bedford, other guys that I played with as well. So for me, at first it was difficult because I've never done it before, but I was just a blank canvas.

You know, I didn't really know, but I had really strong teachers, including the guys that I played with that actually taught me. And then I could just kind of run from there. And then throughout, throughout time, I started to realize like, okay,

certain situations are going to happen in the NFL. So I need to kind of break this film down into like situational football. So with situational football, you start to, you know, figure things out with the guys that are on that football field at that particular time. So watching film with the other corner or watching film with lads or watching film with even the defensive linemen, like you get a better understanding of how everything fits and how everything is supposed to work as a unit, especially in those special situations. Right.

Zoom, what round, what number were you drafted? I was fifth round, 147.

147. Okay. When, when, and you know, and I mean, no disrespect when I say this, but when you're drafted at 157, there are some things that they're expecting you to work on. You know what I mean? So, so when you say, man, I'm going from playing offense, only playing offense to defense, you know, had you been playing defense for four years in college, you'd have been drafted a lot higher.

A lot higher. But because of your transition, you know, you had to learn not only how to play defense, but also how to watch field as a defender. Okay. Absolutely. Part of the evaluation process for a number one

All right. And part of the reason why I was drafted 68th overall and not higher, I remember scouts coming into Arizona every week asking, breaking down, asking our academic counselors, asking different things. Hey, coaches, how is he in the film room? They ask you, how is he in the film room? They break down everything. How is it that you don't know that this kid doesn't know how to read film?

He doesn't understand how to read film. That's a reflection of USC staff. That's a reflection of Oklahoma staff. But regardless, that's even a reflection of the high school staff.

So there's a lot of stuff to break down. I can go a lot of different directions because when I looked at, I watched Aaron Rodgers on Netflix and I looked at his high school and he was making checks at high school because he was reading defenses. I guarantee you he was watching film and knowing how to break down opponents. So when you get into the NFL is the number one pick. Okay. And there's a lot of stuff. You got a book coming out. You got all this stuff. And then you say, they didn't teach me how to watch film. Did he say that though? Did he actually say that?

No. Well, they didn't help. Go ahead. And also the coaching staff, to be fair, the coaching staff that he was with is no longer with him as well, to be fair. To be fair, you're the number one pick.

At quarterback, you're the number one pick. How the hell do you not know how to watch film? In what capacity? I really refuse to believe that he came to the Chicago Bears not knowing how to read and watch film. Yeah, I don't think you can say it. Then don't say it. I don't think he said that. Don't say anything to the capacity of, hey, our coaches didn't help me watch film. You know, our coaches didn't help let me watch film.

There's been people that have responded to this all over all media outlets.

You know, it goes back and forth. Whoa, that organization didn't help him. Oh, you don't need. I wasn't I wasn't told how to watch film. I learned how to watch film. You don't need to. That's not something that's not something that the coaches have to show you how to do or teach you how to do when you're the number one pick coming out of college. And I totally understand where you're coming from. I mean, you're a professional now and professionals got to take take an extra step forward to be like, I need to get my ass in a film room and break to the

break some film down and watch it on my own. And if I don't understand it, I'm going to ask questions because that's what professional professionals do. Like I was a professional and I've never done it before, but I asked a gazillion questions. And I also was watching a lot of film on my own. And if I had those questions, I would come to a Lance. I would come to a peanut. I come to a advanced Bedford. That's a, you know what? I need help, especially breaking this part down because I'm looking at certain things, but I don't, I don't know how it applies, but,

but you have to go and get that information yourself. So the onus has to be on you as well.

Zoom, the quarterback in all the levels that I've been, any good quality quarterback knows what everybody is doing. They know what everybody's doing. Even when we have our conversations, they're talking about, hey, I saw you guys were in a two-shield and you guys were showing. You guys came down with one guy coming down and I read this. I read what you guys are doing. I read your blitz. I read this. Oh, what are you guys doing when you do this and that? Good quarterbacks that I've been around.

Okay, the good ones that I've been around at every level whether it's high school whether it's college or the NFL They're asking questions about what they're seeing and with wrestling when they make those mistakes. Oh, okay, man I gotta go review that I saw this on film yesterday Lance. I saw this on you guys on film. What were you guys doing with this play? Okay, so I'm just saying there's no excuse when it comes in again I keep saying number one pick a number one pick you're supposed to have broken him down from top to doggone bottom now

Now, we got who we got, you know, and again, I like his passion. He plays with it, but there's no excuse for that. You made the decision to make those comments, and now we're talking about it. Well, let's let Caleb speak on it here. He addressed it to the media yesterday on how this part of the book came out. So let's hear what Caleb had to say, and then I'll let you react to it after it. Here's Caleb Williams at House Hall yesterday after OTAs.

That was a funny one that came out. It wasn't that I didn't know how to watch film. It was more or less the sense of learning shortcuts in the sense of, or not learning shortcuts, but learning ways to watch film and be more efficient, learning ways to pick up things better. And so that was a funny one that came out that...

you know, in context and how I was trying to, you know, portray it didn't get portrayed that way. So it wasn't that I didn't know how to watch it. I was trying to figure out the best ways and more efficient ways so I can watch more film. I can gather more information so that when I do go out there on game day, that it's, you know, I'm, you know, that information I gathered gathered through Monday when we got back, you know, all the way up to, you know, whatever day the game day is.

So when I get out there, I can gather it. You know, I see it. I can react. And it's not me sitting there thinking so much about, you know, the rules and these different things. It's more of a reaction game at that point in muscle memory.

Go ahead, Lance. Go ahead, Lance. Well, now that you've had so much time to think about your answer, probably be prepped and everybody tell you, Harry, listen, this is how we're going to clean this up. All right? You give this answer. I mean, listen, he said what he said. All right? You said what he said. And you're not going to get a second chance to say that first, for a first time. And that's what he said. All right?

So I'm glad that at least he says he knows how to watch film. But I just want to know how to do some shortcuts. Every word that he says will get critiqued in Chicago and in NFL media. Like, that's just what it is. I think that he's learning a very valuable lesson that everything that he says will get critiqued. Everything. So I think he's going to tread a little lighter, you know, not say too much. All right.

And try to give the right answers. All right, Lance. As his... Be his teammate in the locker room. You should be in the Hall of Fame. You hear your rookie, now second-year quarterback, the number one pick, talking about...

about how he needed to figure out how to be more efficient watching film starting on Monday and leading the game day. What are you telling Caleb Williams to help elevate your teammates to be the best he can be?

Well, probably the first thing I'm going to say is, you don't know how to watch film, man? You don't know how to watch film? He's talking about he don't know how to watch film. Yeah, come on. I'll show you how to watch film. From a linebacker standpoint, I'm going to show you how to watch film, all right? Listen, you know what you have to do. You know what you have to do. You know what I mean? You need to be careful of what you say on TV, all right? Because now you're going to have to answer for the stuff that you said.

You know, I've seen you out on the field. I've seen you in the video room. I've seen you watching film. You know, your gripes or whatever it is, you know what I mean? Listen, we're going through it too. We're going through it with the staff and stuff like that that is probably not going to be here next year.

But we have to take care of ourselves and make sure that we don't go out there and say something to the media that's going to further set us back. So you are the pivotal point of this team. You're the quarterback. You're the captain. You're the person that everybody's turning to. You need to be a little more mindful about what you put out there.

I think Ben Johnson also has gotten to his ear, too. I think that they've sat down and had a little meeting about, like, some media training, so to speak, about what needs to be said and what doesn't need to be said. You know what I'm saying? So hopefully Ben has kind of addressed that, not only to him, but to the team as well moving forward so that we don't have to listen to the media bring up any type of, you know, negative situations for the Chicago Bears, that they can just kind of go right through it. Absolutely. All right.

Real quick, want to take another quick time out. Take a breath, Mitch. I can't breathe. I have allergies. I can't breathe out of my nose. Golly. How much pollen can you possibly have in Arizona? I mean, what the hell? You're allergic to cactus? How about you move back to Chicago?

I'm in Heber, Arizona. The pollens are up like 60%. So I'm sorry, guys. I'm trying to fight you. You need like a daily or something, like a daily pump in the nose or something. He's allergic to the desert. I'm going to see a doctor. They're going to remove my entire nose. Thanks. All right.

You got to watch film on that. Yeah. Yeah. Watch some film on it. All right. Quick time out. And then I got a question about one more thing that came out from the press conference, but, but first wanted to give a shout out to our golf event here coming out next Friday, a week from tomorrow, Friday, June 6th, our cookout classic,

An 8 a.m. shotgun started the village links of Glen Allen. Oh, my gosh. My goodness. Cut it out. Will you shut up? Cut his nose off.

My gosh. But if you go to allchdo.com slash events, you can still sign up for this event. All the CHGO Bears crew will be there. CHGO sports crew. You get giveaways, some drinks, some food afterwards. Lance will be there sneezing. Lance might be there sneezing. But...

like McLovin, but you could also go for one of our, if you go to all chco.com slash events, you can also sign up for our trip to Vegas, which we are taking here. June 4th compliments of true fan travel.

Head to truefantravel.com, search CHGO Bears, or go to allchgo.com slash events, and you can sign up for this trip, get your deposit down. Different add-ons, different options for you guys if you want to add your flight to

all true fan travel puts it all in one encompassing trip for you. They're going to have the tickets included. They're going to have events in tailgates and different things when we're in Vegas. And you can even add on your flight as well. Uh, so some different things at your disposal to have the most fun you can possibly have. And we're going to have some updates here coming up on our tailgates here coming up this season for every home game here in Chicago. So excited for all of that. Um,

know my my final thing that i wanted to talk about in terms of all of the melee at the otas talking about not even talking about practice alan iverson we're talking about we're talking about podiums podiums uh but the other thing that did come out was you know ben johnson addressed this and and uh caleb williams addressed this and it came out in a report from albert breer that they wanted

Caleb and the rest of the team to be better with their body language. Oh, body language. Yeah, body language. How important is that to you as a teammate, you know, for a guy like, you know, if they're flopping around on the ground like a fish or pouting on the sidelines? Definitely not good. Especially like with the quarterbacks. I think body language is important for a quarterback.

you know, you're at the helm. Everybody is looking towards you. If you look at some of the greats like Tom Brady, for example, his body language was always on point, right? He took that leadership role and he wanted to make sure that everybody looked at him as a leader and respected him and that was going to put everybody on the right path. You know what I'm saying? So Patrick Mahomes is another one. You know what I'm saying? Where his body language is like, let's go. Like, let's get this thing going and let's be positive. Another person that has really good body language, I think too, that

doesn't get a lot of credit is Baker Mayfield. Like, Baker Mayfield has really turned himself around, and he goes out there, and he is really pumped up with his teammates, and his body language says, I want to win. I am a winner. So I think body language has a lot to do with it. Now, if you get sacked 60-something times...

That body language might start to suck a little bit. And I think that's what we saw. And I think that's what we saw. I mean, you keep on getting sacked like that, or if the plays aren't getting called fast enough and you're running out of time and things and, and melee is happening behind the scenes. I think your body language will start to, you know, take a dip, lose 10 straight games. Your body language will start to take a dip as well. But yeah,

This is all learning experiences for Caleb. This is that last year was his first year. He's with his new coaching staff for his second year. I think that he's already learning some positive things and he's growing from it. I think that Ben also had a strong conversation with him as well in the team about the body language. So things like this are getting addressed, which is good. And I think moving forward, we should see a different presence.

Yeah. Lance, your perspective, I guess I just flat out ask you, like, cause you weren't you with different quarterbacks, you know, it, I'm just curious, did you, what did you think of Jay Cutler's body language? That's a great question.

Well, body language, everybody knows body language matters in Chicago, right? The biggest thing about Cutler isn't about the numbers that he put up for the Bears. You know, it's, they talk about his body language, you know, his body language in the NFC Championship game, his body language throughout his career. You know, the biggest, one of the biggest memes for him is having a cigarette, you know, hanging out inside of his mouth. You know what I mean? I don't care. They don't care.

So yeah, body language counts or it matters. And there are a lot of games where Caleb was sitting back with his head tilted back or here or and all of that stuff. And more so for the team, how are you gonna motivate anybody next to you if you're in a whiny or pouty mode or your mannerisms say, I'm defeated.

A lot of times when we're talking about football, you know, the positivity or you talk about a playmaker. Listen, we might be playing for pride in this year, but we're also starting to begin the march for next year. You know, I remember in 2004, shoot, what did we win? Five? I think we won five games, though. We won five games in 2004, maybe. Yeah, we won five games. And, yeah, but defensively, we knew we were humming.

Like we, we didn't, we knew we weren't going to, we were playing for pride, but we knew that next year we're going to take that thing and we're going to fight and we're going to continue to get better and, and, and sharpen our tool tool belt, you know, while, while we were in a losing season, our mannerisms were right. I mean, how did you deal with teammates on the sideline? If you saw that, were you letting the coaches handle it or was it something that you'd step in and talk to, talk to your teammates, you know, while the bullets were flying?

I mean, we all have we all have our position groups, you know, we see we go and we sit within our position groups, you know, defensively, but you know, we all have there's core and there's leaders. So there's no way like I can tell you a number of times that I left my feet, Mr. Tackle, and Mike Brown came up to me and said, Stop leaving your feet.

You know, without hesitation, he was like, listen, you can tackle. But when you leave your feet like that, he was like, that's when guys break tackles on you. Stop leaving your feet. We need you. We need you to make those tackles. So, you know, I mean, and of course, you know, he's over with the DBs. I'm over with the linebackers. Of course, Erlacher is going to tell me the same thing. You know, the D line, they're going to come up. They're going to say the same thing. So different players from each group.

So it's, you know, it's collective because we were in this together. Yeah, it was player driven. I would say the leadership was player driven and the players checked the other players, especially on game day. You know what I'm saying? Like it was a big responsibility to go out there on the football field and represent. But at the same time, you knew that you had to be on point. And if you weren't, it's not the coaches that are going to get after you. It's going to be the players that are going to get after you.

to you. You know, people like Lance, people like Erlacher, people like Mike Brown, you know, Peanut. Those guys are going to get after you. So you don't want to let those guys down. So we had a really close-knit defense.

Go ahead. And you never want to be – see, the problem with being a linebacker is you're part of the back seven and you're part of the front seven. So, you know, if something happens, like if they get a deep pass, the D linemen, they attack the linebackers and tell us to tell the DBs that they need to cover better. And then when we turn to the DBs, they turn to us and they tell us to tell the D line they need to get to the quarterback faster. That's right. So we're always caught in between. Yeah.

Wipe the tear. Well, I know I'm going to have good body language at the golf outing next week, you know, because we all understand the pro here. The gravity of the situation, right? You realize I'm going for the reef. Well, I mean, if you get out of the sand bunker.

Well, I got three other people to do it for me. But honestly, on the defensive side, I don't feel like we had any guys that had bad body language. Like, bad things would happen, and that's just a part of just the NFL, and that's a part of just playing defense. But at the same time, we were more about making the next play. That's what our defense was all about. Our defense was all about, okay, who has next?

Who's going to be the next person? Yeah, some bad stuff happened, but that's all right. It's all about the next place. So we had we had fast, like quick memory and we did not dwell on the past. And we always focused on the future and the things that we could control and the things that we can impact immediately. And that's probably why we were so good is because, one, we had we had veteran leadership that checked us. You know, sometimes we tell the coaches, coaches, we got this.

You know what I'm saying? We got this. I'll talk to him. I got this. So we had that, and at the same time, we want to be the next person to go out there and make a big-time play. Woo! Well said. Shoot. Do you think DBs celebrate their tackles more than anyone on the field? I mean, we celebrate everything. We celebrate everything. You drop a ball, we will celebrate. Okay? Yeah.

Because our presence was around and you dropped that ball in our presence. We're going to celebrate that. That's just what it is. You'll see this team, you know, they do the no-fly zone. And they get a drop. They let the guy wide open. He drops it. No-fly zone. There's been times where I've kind of made the tackle but kind of missed it. And then Lance comes and cleans it up. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, like, yeah. You saw that tackle, Lance? And Lance is like, I got half of that. I got half of that tackle.

Linebackers celebrate in a different way. You know what I mean? Ours is from the hit. We know when you felt the hit. So for us, when we pop somebody and we hear that, you know what I mean? And they fall. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You felt that, huh? Oh, man. That's funny. Oh, all right. Wow.

yeah, always. There's good pot. There's good body language is bad. Let's hope we see some of the better body language here this year. Not from just Caleb Williams, but DJ Moore and, and the rest of the guys on the bears need to show, you know, a little more, you know, uh, leadership and,

you know, stand up tall and be proud of what you're doing here in Chicago. So want to get into our award winning segment, of course, here as we start to round third on CSU bears after dark and make sure you hit the like button and we'll move over to the bets, the bets, the bets presented by, of course, that's right. Presented by our friends,

over at circus sports book. This is dub beds. We're breaking down our picks from around the NFL and we're getting our lines from circus sports, Illinois. Download your new bookie [email protected] must be 21 or older gambling problem call 1 800 gambler. And as we always do, we kind of look around the NFL and see what the divisional landscapes are. We talked about the NFC north last time we were here

And this time we are going to talk about the NFC East. As we look through the different odds here, the commanders have the odds on favorite at plus 205, the Cowboys at plus 70.

740 the eagles i should say are the odds on favorite at minus 150 i apologize there and then the giants at plus 3400 uh you know i think most people are aren't putting their money on the giants nope so jerry where are you sitting at with this the commanders you know at plus 205 with jayden daniels in his second year yes you got the defending champs

I mean, it's hard not to go with the defending champs, obviously. The commanders, they're going to be really good. It's going to be interesting to see what J.D. does because it's his second year, and he might take a dip. He might take a little dip, but we don't know. But the Eagles, I really like their chances. Now the Cowboys. Oh, God, the Cowboys. Yeah.

They're just all over the place. I think that they're going to improve. I'm taking a look at their schedule, and I don't really know what's on their schedule right now, but they should be a little better than last year because they've got some significant upgrades, I think. How do you think George Pickens will fare down in Dallas? Oh, man. I hope that he meshes well with the team, with the wide receiving core and the quarterback. That's the only question mark.

physically he's talented. You know what I'm saying? Like he is a great wide receiver and he adjusts well on, on the balls, especially down on the, on the D passes, but his head, his head has to stay into the game at all times. And I don't know if, if that is going to happen. There's a lot of question marks when it comes to that particular standpoint, but physically he's gifted, but mentally he just has to stay on board.

Well, you got Lance. You taking the underdogs here? You taking Jane Daniels or you sticking with the champs? I like what Zoom said. For a lot of these quarterbacks that come out hot that first year,

You know, that second year tends to be the dip, you know, and you have to make that adjustment. You look at the Texans, you know, C.J. Stroud and after his first year. And listen, I thought he finished a lot stronger. There were a lot of things that went into play with him, you know, offensive line, him getting hit a lot more in year two. You know, his receivers, you know,

were hurt, you know, his best receivers, top receivers were hurt most of the year. So you never know what's going to come into play. But the averages say year two is typically the dip year. The Eagles have a, they have a system that's in place that they're, they transition guys out, other guys transition in and they just fit that mode. They know which guys they need to bring in. So it's hard to bet against them because they know, they know exactly what they're doing. They know exactly what they need in order to do it.

Yeah, I mean, they're champions all across the board. I mean, with their players and their coaching staff. But the one thing that I like that the Eagles do extremely well is they run the football.

Run the football. It's the basics of football right there. The basic fundamentals. If you can run the football, you have a great chance at success. And Saquon Barkley, if he stays healthy with that offensive line, I think that they can get rolling again. Especially with the little tush push. I was going to say, they didn't ban the tush push. Hopefully they officiate it right. That's all I'm worried about. Like, get these guys out of the neutral zone.

Like they need to officiate it right. If they officiate it right, then I feel like the defense will have a little bit of a better chance to actually stop in the play. But get these guys out of the neutral zone. Officiate it better. Yeah, absolutely. I don't know if you had anything to add there, Lance. I had a final topic that I wanted to bring to you. Let the defense push back.

Yeah. That evens it up. Final topic that I wanted to bring up to you as we wrap things up here on CHGO Bears After Dark. Once again, hit that like button and a shout out to DaBets once again and our friends over at Circus Sports. Once again, make sure you're always using Circus Sportsbook Illinois for all your betting needs here in Illinois. But

Final topic of discussion for me is the NFL has approved flag football. You guys were talking about flag football before we got on the air with youth football, but NFL players now have the opportunity to play in the Olympics with flag football. Is this something that you guys would have been interested in doing if it was an option for you?

Would I be interested in it? I probably would not be interested in it. I like the game of football with pads and hitting people. But I think there is a professional flag football league that's out there already, right? And they're kind of getting mad at professionals that are, you know, professional football players that are transitioning over to flag for Olympics or whatever. I don't really care. I mean, too much for it. I think that it should be exciting either way. I mean, it'd be nice to...

you know, see what these guys can do on a big stage, you know, on the flag football aspect of it. But,

I'm more of like, let's just play regular football. But injuries and things like that happen, so I understand why that's not going to be available. Lance, you getting in on flag football in the Olympics? Absolutely not. No, no, no, no, no. Especially not after playing real football for as long as we play it. And they've added weeks on to our season.

When the season's over, it's time to take care of the body. Great for flag football, great for all of that, you know, and all of that movement and all that good stuff. Like Zoom said, you guys both said, there's a professional flag football league going

You know, and they've been doing that a long time. And so without being, without trying to be disrespectful to that league, you know what I mean? I, you know, more power to them while they're in and win a goal for the, for the, for the country. Well, that was my thing. It's like, I get where you guys come from. You want to play real football, but you also have a chance to win a real gold medal for your country. I mean, that'd be pretty cool to put on your mantle at home though, too. Yeah.

Yeah, I'd rather have a Lombardi trophy, though. Can I get one of those? No doubt. That's funny. That's what you want. Put that around my neck. That'd be a big change. Big change only. How was the Beyonce concert? It was good. It was good. She's a great performer. Yeah? Yeah. What's your favorite Beyonce songs? My favorite Beyonce song...

Yeah, what's your favorite Beyonce song? I don't know. I don't know. I'm going to keep it safe. I don't know. You go to the left, to the left. The one that go, uh-oh, uh-oh, that one. The one where she going like this. That one. Oh, put a ring on it. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, I mean, she was a good performer. But I actually ended up at ACDC last year. Oh, that's awesome. And they're like 77 years old or whatever they are. But they filled up that whole stadium and they played for like two hours. When they played Thunderstruck, what was it like? Oh, it was crazy. It was insane. That song is in every stadium around the country. Every stadium will always play that song. That was like the kickoff song. Yeah. It was awesome.

Oh, Lance, I think you're muted now. Yep. What was your favorite Beyonce song again? You were muted. I don't think I have one. I don't think I have one. No, but she had one...

share one with Jay-Z. What's better than number one? Something number one. You know what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about. No, I don't. No, I don't. We had some other topics that we didn't get to today, but we'll push some of those. We'll kick that can down the road for the next

show but before we go want to give a quick reminder to all of you for the start of your summer we have a limited time offer it ends today so if you're watching the show here tonight here at 6 p.m. Central here in Chicago you have for the rest of the day to sign up to become a diehard intro offer at 36 bucks if you go to allchco.com slash diehard you can

hurry in and sign up and you get a free shirt right out the gate. You can get all the discounts for upcoming events. Like we just talked about golf outings and everything in between tailgates. So there's a lot at your disposal, exclusive written content from Adam Hogue and Mark Harmon over here, you know, hanging out around our, our,

awesome studio here in Chicago. So make sure you sign up for 36 bucks to become a diehard. Thank you once again to Steven Nicholas, as always for producing, working hard here at the CHL sports studios. Thank you to Jerry. And of course, Lance, who's going to get back to coaching here and helping out the kids. So we appreciate all you guys. Do you guys got anything left before we call it a day? Go bears.

All right. Yep. Let's go see Dubb.

You know what? You're going to cover it. Don't say it like that, Lance, all right? We're not doing this this year. He's going to be good for us. I can promise you. I've never been wrong before. It's going to be a great year for the Bears. So that wraps things up. Thanks again to everybody for tuning in. Please hit that like button while you're hanging out. So for Lance Briggs and Jerry Azuma, make sure you keep your head up.

And always, Bear Down.