Herb Howard talks Bears' 'collective approach' to defense

0:00There's beat reporter for the Biggs. Herb Howard is joining us. Herb Howard is here from the Biggs. Herb joins us in studio right now and and Marshall. He smells great. And that to me, that is bonus points. Herb, I immediately showed he was going to be somebody asking meaningful questions. He's going to ask a question that everyone else in the room is going to want to know the answer to. Back to that, we had a fight. And a fight? It's my year of year one. Yes, yes I have. Well, thank you so much, Herb, for joining us. This has been a lot of fun. It's always fun with you guys. You are absolutely amazing. I listen to you guys when you don't invite me so much. It's really with Rahimi and Grote. Get a talk of this guy. He smells great. I'm telling you on 104th, 3 of the score. Well, we love talking bears. We love talking to Herb Howard. We will get it out to the North Shore here in just a second. But let everybody know that we are broadcasting live from Cody's public house in Lakeview right now. That is a great crowd out here. A lot of people coming in and out today in the neighbor. We invite you to if you are in the neighborhood, the power of the score, the power of radio, live radio.

1:04You're listening, come by, stop by, say hello, have a drink, a little pizza. Just enjoy the day out here because it's a perfect Chicago day here on Rahimi and Grote on 104th, 3 of the score. And we are now happy to bring in Herb Howard, bears reporter for the big media. And 104th, 3 of the score. Herb, what's going on, man? How are you? Grote, Leila, what's going on? I'm great. How are you feeling? We are doing great. And her before we really get cooking because I know there's lots going on at Hall of Hall. We got to talk about bears and Carolina. I think people have gotten a pretty good idea. A pretty good taste of what's been going on here. I am now happy and lucky to be hosting this show five days a week now on Rahimi and Grote. On 104th, 3 of the score. So for people who have been wondering, I am officially no longer covering the Chicago bears. I started covering the Chicago bears in 2018. They, they, they long lineage and distinct list of people that have covered the bears and been the bears beat reporter for the score through the years like Zach Zabeman and Dan Bernstein and Dave Kerner and Lawrence Holmes.

2:15And I hope I'm not forgetting anybody through the years of the great job that people have done. I'm officially hanging it up as the bears reporter and I'm happy to report to you. Well, you know this, but to our audience that you herb Howard are officially now the brand new score bears beat reporter. You earned it, man. You're awesome. Congratulations to you, herb Howard. The big big hand out here too. I appreciate it. I mean, the work they've done for so long. I've always appreciated. I followed it for quite some time. You Chris Emma. You guys do such a great job and I'm having a hard time because there's an expectation that hey, you do the thing that Grote did. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I have not my Grote. My Grote is my Grote. And he did that in a very, very high level. And so happy to be here. I think, you know, you guys have phenomenal phenomenal bears covered them. Absolutely honored to be a part of it now. We are thrilled to have you, herb and you've done a great job even talking bears with us riffing on bears with us in the studio doing the workout at Halls Hall.

3:17So I'm happy to hear that the handoff ceremony in the baton has been handed to you and it is complete because we felt that way about you for a long time. I appreciate it. You know, I really, really appreciate it. Thank you guys for the compliments. Thank you guys for welcoming me because everybody from from Mitch to Ryan. Everybody has just been so welcoming working with all the producers, Ray and Alex and David. It's just been really, really cool. And so certainly getting work with you guys on the air has been phenomenal. I just love to talk football and happy to be here. Well, we are happy to have you. And in the meantime, there's a lot of news that's going on out at Hall of Salt today. One of the things that stands out to me, herb is what we heard about Aussie, Trapillo. I can't believe we're still talking about this accelerated timeline that keeps getting faster and faster. What's the latest on Aussie? Yeah, he just keep continuing to defy modern medicine, I suppose. He's kind of like a marble. I was just telling somebody he may actually be a mutant because I don't know how he was able to recover from such a severe catastrophic injury as fast as he has.

4:23He is certainly going to be someone who ultimately has his say in this left tackle conversation, which continues to be a thing up here. I know they wanted to get it settled and solved and they're going to stop the season with Bracken Jones as they did last year. But you better believe that when Aussie, Trapillo is able to physically get out there and show what he can do. He is going to have an opportunity to factor into this left tackle position. Yeah, it looks like he's got the full speed ahead, although he showed up as limited on the injury report. He's going to start to participate soon in 11 on 11. I'm not going to ask you to estimate when he is going to take over, but it does sound like at some point in time. I don't know, man. I don't know what to say about Bracken Jones because Bracken Jones has done nothing wrong. Bracken Jones has been a fifth round pick for relative to what he's done. He's having a nice career, but it's obvious. Aussie, Trapillo is the one they invested a second round pick and at some point in time, he will be your starting left tackle this year unless there is to be a setback.

5:23Yeah, I think Bracken Jones will have a lot to do with how fast that opportunity comes from. I don't think they're going to remove Bracken Jones if he's playing well at that left tackle spot, but if some of those inconsistency is continued to pop up, which they have for him over the past couple of seasons, then certainly they're going to want to find out what they have in their second round pick. In Aussie, Trapillo, the issue is getting those contact fully padded practices and what you know are limited once the regular season starts. It was great. It was able to get back towards the end of training camp start to give themselves settled in and worked up, but not just got to get in there on the 11 on 11. Get them some pads, get them moving around, get the banging with guys, and then we'll see exactly where he is and there will also have the fact that against how Bracken Jones is claimed, but I expect Aussie to come at some point to get his opportunity. No doubt talking to her, but Howard, our Bears beat reporter here on Rahimean Grote on 104, 3, the score. I love that Dennis Allen, the Bears Defense Coordinator out there speaking today just makes the weak feel a little bit regular.

6:25Makes it real that the Bears and Carolina are coming up. That's the one position that everybody points to is like everybody's high on the Bears. Everybody, a lot of people think the Bears are going to go to the playoffs. That they're going to be double digit wins again, but it's the defense man, the defense. That's the part that holds them back. What is Dennis Allen saying ahead of this matchup with the Carolina Panthers going up against that team? Yeah, Dennis Allen saying all the things you would expect a veteran coach to talk about and he's saying, God, just got to be ready. It doesn't matter if they're young guys like Dylan Thineman, Malik Muhammad, Jordan Van Dyburg, they believe in those guys. They also believe in the veteran players that are around them to help those guys get acclimated. He referenced the speed of the game today and says, certainly, once the regular season gets here, that first game is a lot faster than it has been throughout the preseason, even in training camp or the joint practices. It's faster in the regular season. He says it's going to be even faster if they're able to qualify for the playoffs. And so those guys are just going to have to kind of learn as they go. Some of them are going to be playing key positions.

7:27We obviously expected that for Dylan Thineman, maybe not so much for a guy like Malik Muhammad so early, but he's going to factor into what they're doing out there in the secondary at the nickel spot. There's Cam Lewis as well that a factor in, but this guy just got to be ready to go. Jordan Van Dyburg should be a part of that interior defensive line rotation. They're going to need them to be contributors. That's just the nature of the league right now and the regular season football. They don't have time to kind of cuddle guys or bring them along slowly. Those guys have to be ready to go and they should be, but I think this is grody. I think it's more of a collective approach when you talk about this defense. Right? And so this is Chicago. We know the bears have been. It's always been the defense going to do what they're going to do when they need the office to play complimentary football. Well, it's kind of reversed now, right? You expect the offense to do what they're going to do. So you need the defensive play complimentary football. The offense could help them a lot by starting out faster, getting out to lead and then allowing that defense to play from the front. They play from behind too often last year and that's just not going to help you in terms of getting more out of your past rush. And so if they can play with the lead, put the opposing team in some predictable passing situations

8:30where they got to throw the ball all around the yard, that should help that defensive front. We're talking to bears reporter for the score. He's heard powered here on Rahimi and Grote on one four three the score. You can also find them out the big media on YouTube for the latest from her. We also saw some video of Roma Dunesay practicing today. What were your observations after he popped up on the injury report? Yeah, it was interesting to see right after they got done stretching the wide receivers have a pretty long run from across the from the second field over to the first field to get to their individual practice spot. And he's printed across. Don't any walkers going to win that race every time because he just goes full speed all way across but right behind him was Roma Dunesay sprinting across the field and they got into their drills and he was planting and cutting and moving very, very well. At some point that athletic trainer Andre Tucker did come over there and you saw him kind of just looking at Roma Dunesay as he was going through his cuts in his combed drills to kind of make sure he didn't see anything that looked, you know, uncomfortable or, you know,

9:31painful to Roma Dunesay at no point did he stop him and speak to him. And so I think that Roma Dunesay is on track to be able to go out there in Carolina on Sunday and play his game. Herb, I'm thinking about this matchup against the Carolina Panthers this week and specifically the Bears offense against the Carolina defense this week and obviously the Carolina defense has improved itself this year with Jalen Phillips signing of the defensive end of four years $170 million. Devon Lloyd, the linebacker who is really good in coverage. They got a pretty good tandem of corner backs as well. How do you think because we all know that this is the year that the offense and Caleb Williams is expected to go to the next level and know that that's what Ben Johnson expects. We know what he wants to do to teams but what do you expect? Week one against this Carolina Panthers defense.

10:32How do you think Ben Johnson is going to play it? The Bears started out slow last year and understandably so. New system, a lot of new players, everybody trying to get themselves to acclimate it to what was going on. I do not expect them to have a slow start offensive this year. I expect them to hit the ground running in the running game in the passing game. This offense should be certainly a top five. Maybe the very best offense in the national football league. Grody, if they're going to do that, they can go out there and establish that right off the back in week one. I don't expect them to have some of those struggles. I think the Bears have a great opportunity to get out to a four and old star. The offense is going to have to carry the bulk of that load and starting out fast is how they need to do it. I expect them to get out to a very good start running game, passing game, playing that couple of minute rebrand of football, using those tight ends and making a lot of different things, look the same. Caleb playing at the top of his game, coaches off at the top of his. I expect them to start fast. I don't expect it to be a situation where you saw last night where the Seahawks and the Patriots play that ugly brand of football, a little bit sloppy. Obviously, Sam Donnell goes out early in that football game.

11:33I don't expect that type of offense performance from the Bears. I think they'll play well week one. Okay, friends. Mark, for moment of truth here, I think. People listening at colleagues at home. Who do we think is going to be the Bears defensive lineman who's the backup who gets subbed in first? Like who's first off the bench for the defensive line for the Bears out of the backups? Who sees playing time? Well, my assumption is that Austin Booker is going to start. And so if that's the case, then the first guy off the bench would be Dio O'Dangbo, right? And he can come in and he can play on the end. He can also play on the interior of his defensive line. Hopefully he can be the guy that they anticipate at him being when they signed him to a pretty nice contract last season and utilize his versatility. So I think he's the guy who should be that super sub for you. If he is the impact that started in, then Austin Booker will be that guy on the interior. You're going to have great, Jared starred. We'll see who he starts next to probably Neville Gala Moore, maybe Contavia Street.

12:34And then there'll be that rotation. I think more importantly than kind of who started the game or who comes in first. We'll look at the snap totals at the end of the game and see who was playing well, who are those coaches kind of leaning on the most. I'll be interested in the snap totals for the defensive line. I'll get you out the season, but especially in the first quarter of it. Yeah, that's what I was warning about is number one outside. Is it really going to be Booker and then number two inside how that split is going to work out? We might see some pretty even snap counts two out of those two spots. No, I agree with you. I think it could be very, very even. You look at guys like Neville Gala Moore, you look at Jordan Van DeBurg and how that snap count is going to break out. I think ideally, Layla, if it is even, I think that would be great. You're right to see all those guys go that means they're all perfect. They're forming at a pretty good level to where they don't have to be sitting out because the coaches don't feel good about them being in there. You're able to keep guys fresh and rotate the man. And I think that would be ideal, especially in the interior of that line. You start to see numbers that are kind of even across the board. I think that'll blow well for this defensive front.

13:36I think I was given that look, Layla, because I'm very curious to see who starts. Is Neville Gala Moore a starter? Is Tavia Steeves, who supposedly had the best camp of any of these defensive linemen? Is Jaden loving you? Have a part on this? Is he dressing? How many snaps can we really expect Jordan Van DeBurg to get in the game? That's a great question. It really is. I can't at her, unless they've stated or you got some insight, obviously, being there. I don't know who's starting on the defensive line. And maybe it doesn't matter, but I love the question, though. Yeah, I'll go back to what Coach Johnson said earlier this weekend is that they don't know who they are as a football team yet. They won't know. Probably until they get through those first four or five games, they'll start to figure out exactly who they are. And that will also include the rotation up front, the rotation that Y receiver, the rotation all across the board. They got to find out who they are. And so maybe Jordan Van DeBurg, maybe he's 12 to 15 snaps right now, but he had those well. Then maybe you start to see that increase.

14:36And I think the story will kind of write itself as they go through it. I get to the first four or five games or so, they'll have a pretty clear picture of who they have, who's performing at the highest level. And then you'll start to see some of those snap counts kind of stable last for a lot of those guys. Do we know, I don't know if I know what it says on the unofficial depth chart that Cam Lewis is the starting slot corner back. And I think it has Xavier Woods as the starting free safety as well. Has Ben Johnson or Dennis Allen been asked yet directly that you know of her? If that is the case, if that's what we're going to see or is it Maligma Hamid in the slot, Cam Lewis playing safety, do we know that yet? And speaking to D.A. today, it was clear that Xavier Woods is going to be the guy that started to have safety next to Dylan Veneman. He said they value his experience. He talked about him being a 10 year veteran league and they won a guy who has that level of experience back there, especially pairing him with the rookie. So Xavier Woods will be the guy who gets the first look at that other safety spot.

15:36With the Nick Westbyte, I think it's a little bit more fluid. So you'll see Cam Lewis, but I absolutely expect to see Maligma Hamid get his opportunities in there as well. So far, they've been pleased with what they've thrown at him in terms of how he's handled it. They continue to put more things on his plate. He's being cross-trained at times outside as well as inside. He'll get his first opportunities on the inside. But I think that'll be matched up with Cam Lewis as well. And so that's another situation where we'll go through the first few weeks, not necessarily sure what that'll look like. It'll probably be some hybrid of Cam Lewis and Maligma Hamid, but it's safety. It'll be Xavier Woods back there to start. Perb, unless you feel like you need to wait until Friday or you've got some dramatic official releasing of your pick, do you have a pick for Bear's Carolina that you could release to us now? Yeah, absolutely. I've got a pick. I've got the Bears win the game, man. I got to say, I don't expect them to have a slow start like they did last year losing the Jay-Jay McCarty and his first ever NFL game and then going to Detroit and letting them hang 50 on them. I don't expect that to be the case this year. I expect them to get out to a fast start. I think they'll go to Carolina. And obviously, Carolina's an improved team. They were a playoff team last year and an all-beard week NFC South Division.

16:41But I think the Bears go down there. I think they take care of it. It's like I've got the Bears winning. I don't think it'll be extremely close. I'll take the Bears 27-17. Okay. All right. Herb, thank you so much. Congrats on being our new Bears Beat reporter officially and keep up the good work, man. Take care. Appreciate you guys. Thanks for having me. Bears. Bears. There goes Herb Howard. This hour is being brought to you by. We'll do our picks tomorrow. We're going to do a dramatic football Friday show tomorrow on Rahimi and Grody. We will do our picks for this Bears game Sunday against Carolina. We may even expand some of our predictions. It's a fluid situation. We're still working on it. Coming up. There's no way to know. There's no way to know. Yeah, you can't look it up. This hour is being brought to you by Timbertech, Decking and Railing. Number one in premium decking. Order free samples at timbertech.com. Coming up next. Unlocking Jalen Johnson.

17:44Is there a level from Jalen Johnson that we haven't seen yet? Could you imagine? We will discuss that next. Coming up on Rahimi and Grody live from Cody's public house in Lakeview. Hello, everybody. On 1043, the score.