READY TO LEAD: Caleb Williams, Bears Captains Prepare for Week 1 Clash vs Panthers | CHGO Bears

0:00this is the C. H. O. Bears podcast week one is here. We've got captains. We've got locker room access and we got a lot to talk about with you guys on what is kind of a Wednesday for us, even though it's Tuesday and then there was a holiday. So we're all confused on that, but that's normally what this show is confused and speaking of which carbs back. Yeah, you know, it feels like a Monday for me, whole great to see you, great to see Stephen, great to see Greg instantly in the chat. Great to just notice in our new Hogue studios here that there's a mirror right there. I can actually just stare at myself and get all he got perfect for you. Yeah, like that. A lot perfect me guy. I can just look at myself and feel good about it. But yeah, very busy day at Halles Hall. It's kind of I'm still settling into the fact there's a game on Sunday and here we go and then let's

1:00let's let's find out what's going to happen here. So it's exciting. Let's do it. This is going to be our our new show format on Wednesdays during the season. And again, this is a Wednesday on a Tuesday situation for how they did things at Halles Hall. And then Thursday will be similar, but kind of a hybrid. But the main thing you guys need to know as a listener viewer is that the show will be later on those days at 5 p.m. And the whole point of that is so that we can bring you everything you need to know from Halles Hall. We used to do the show kind of right in the middle of the day after Ben talked for locker room. The benefit of us doing that this way is we can bring you we can take you inside the locker room basically and give you some interviews and we got a few today. And you're going to want to hear from Jayla Johnson, a Braxton Jones, I had a chance to talk to John Jackson. We got some other stuff we kind of put in the can for the rest of the week. And and so we're excited about the show format. I'm super excited about us covering the locker room. And you know, we listen, we took many, many surveys that you all filled out and we deeply dove

2:05into the feedback and we realized that you wanted the locker room covered on Wednesdays, even if it's a Tuesday. And that's what we're doing. So we appreciate the flexibility out there. I am particularly looking forward to tomorrow when Hogue maybe did the worst interview ever. Then I think I might have topped it. So we're going to have a battle on the show. But that's that's for tomorrow. So be here tomorrow. But today, I thought a lot of interesting stuff. You know, I'm super optimistic about the way Jayla and Johnson's carrying himself right now. And I'm even Braxton Jones optimistic. So we'll get to that in a minute here. But I know we're starting with captains. Well, we're actually starting with our captain. His name is Adam John. He's captain America, CHGO. And we pay him as such too. Johns, welcome into the show. This is another benefit of us doing these Wednesday shows like this. We can get everything we can basically download Johns's brain from Hall Hall. Everything we need to know from Johnson. This was the number one reason. So Johns, no pressure. You're going to have to carry us on Wednesdays. There are Tuesdays or Wednesdays that are Wednesdays. Good luck.

3:06Whatever, guys, whatever you need to know, I'm here for you. I'm not a Hallis Hall, though, as you could tell. This is the the Hogan John studio at the the John's dome here in Chicago. The John's dome. Yeah, it should be a John's dome. I didn't know that he went home. So that's false Twitter advertising by me. I don't think anyone cares, but that's a bad job by me. I gotta be you knew this. I wasn't in the media room when you're texting me looking for your car keys. I didn't know you weren't in the media room. I maybe missed that communication. As you can tell, the car is back and it's a car. It's ready to go today. Let's let's let's dive in, though. We got a lot to get to some interviews and some sound and news. So let's run through the news here in the Ableock with John Z. First and foremost, we got the captains. The captains are named and they're largely the same as last year with one exception because Kevin Bire is no longer here, but your offensive captains, Per Ben Johnson Caleb Williams and Joe Tuney, your defensive captains, Grady Jarrett, once again, and taking over for Kevin

4:09Bire. Not really a surprise makes sense is TJ Edwards. And then your special teams captain, the most important captain, some might say, is a Cairo Santos. And John's any instant reaction to these five guys. My story and Caleb Williams' leadership looks really good right now. I was a little worried coming into the day and I know he'd be named the captain. It's never surprising when the quarterback is named the captain. I think every team around the league, like the who does captains the quarterback is, but not many of them actually lead. So I feel like the Bears are in a better place with Caleb kind of taking ownership of things, taking leadership a stronger voice behind the scenes at practice in the meeting rooms. That's come into fruition. So that's good to hear. I always have like a problem with the Bears captains for like the past 10 years that a lot of their captains aren't like homegrown guys. I feel like Colcomat could be a good example for a pick, Jaylen Johnson. And maybe that's it. Maybe that's part of the problem. But you know, darn all right. I know Joe Tuney's a better selection, but for the past, I want to say

5:1410 years. The majority of these captains have been like veteran sign of free agency. Now all the like Grady Jarrett, great pick, TJ Edwards, great pick. Joe Tuney, fantastic pick, Cairo Santos, great pick, right Adam, but at the same time, I think one day I think the Bears would hope that they're their own draft picks take leadership of their locker. So let's hear from Caleb. I think it's a great point. Caleb is one of the homegrown. And you know, when he says that he's talking about being drafted by the Bears and being developed by the Bears, technically TJ Edwards is literally homegrown because he's from the area. But he of course was undrafted and originally signed and developed by the Eagles before he signed over. But here's Caleb Williams on being named a captain once again. Yeah, it's it's an honor. I'm very grateful. It's the way we do it is our teammates select me. It's like I said, it's an honor. It's something that I don't take lightly and you know, it's it's something that it's it's really cool to be honest. You know, it's been my third year in

6:18the league and I've been I've been a captain for the, you know, the three years and so, you know, that doesn't happen every year doesn't happen often. And so I just being able to be in this position, you know, bless. I see. Yeah, I think you're I'm going to kind of add on what you were saying earlier, John, and maybe we're thinking along the same wavelength. He's been the captain for three years now. But this feels like the first year where there's where it's maybe a little bit more meaningful. Does that make sense? Like I'm not I don't want to make any type of argument that he didn't deserve it the last two years. That's not what I'm saying. But it almost felt forced. I would say, especially when he was a rookie, but even last year after that camp that was really choppy and up and down, it I think there was I'm not necessarily I don't know. I didn't really doubt that he would be named a captain, but I did kind of the back of my head go I wonder this is the first time where it's like, yeah, he's a captain 100% there's no question about it. And you're and he's probably probably where

7:18I'm really going with this john's that it's more obvious that he's exuding the captain leadership, the actual leadership and being comfortable in that role that comes with it. It's not just the sea on the jersey. It's he really is the captain of the offense. Right. Maybe even more so than that. Like that, I think that leadership is starting to dispred to other rooms beyond the QB room. When it when it applies to Caleb Williams, read about that and I'll see you. That com, but like to your point, hold like Jake Cutler is always voted a captain, but did you ever really feel like he was was leading that team with all due respect? No, especially like when we first started covering it was Brian Erlocker's own cruises, Lance Priggs's team, but you needed an offensive representative. Usually that's the quarterback. Usually that's how it operates around the league, but but but seriously, like guys, a serious question, like how many of these quarterbacks around the league are actually the leaders of their teams? Like Caller Murray's a captain in Minnesota.

8:21He just got there. He's been there for like two or three months. That's a bad sign. Well, so let's rewind back to your your comment. I won't go there. Caleb being a captain his first year, that to me was more so like, well, you're the quarterback borderline like charity case. You have to be a captain. I would say the same thing almost the last year when Caleb was talking about the Fred Jule part of it. It was like, wow, it to me was like they had to make him a captain. This year completely different story. You've seen the amount of leadership on the field, all training camp long, you've heard everybody talk about the fact that we don't let celebrate touchdowns, touchdowns are hard to do. So he's actually, he is well respected in the locker room. He does, you see it like today, even in the locker room. He's having, he's, you know, he's hanging out with Jade and their evidence of fun. He's talking to you know, they're he's doing all sorts of leadership things. So it's a completely different and completely different him being a captain to me now than what he was before. That was just like the gave it to him. This time he's earned it. And I also really

9:24enjoyed in his cut that he seems to really appreciate it, which is awesome. So I think he feels like he's actually owned the spot, which is huge. So other so that's it. That was probably the biggest news the day. Not necessarily surprised on who was named the captains, but certainly liked here and what Caleb had to say about it. He could tell it definitely meant something to him. Meanwhile, we did get a little bit of a Rome update, a little bit of a Rome, a little bit of a Rome. He is the one guy that seems to be in serious question. Not serious, but it seems like the bear is actually pretty healthy. Now that we're actually here in week one. Sorry Greg. We'll hear from him. I'm sure he just will accuse me of jinxing everything again. But Rome is the one guy in question right now. And he is day to day did not practice today. Bear is wearing pads today. But Ben did sound hopeful that he would play Sunday. And this was the first day we got back in the locker room. We're not allowed in the locker room during training camp. A lot of times I will, to me,

10:26I definitely always factor this in, John's. If we don't see a guy in the locker room all week, that's usually a bad sign. Rome not only was in the locker room, he was like in there the whole time. And he was wearing shoes and seemed completely fine. I actually talked to him a little bit, just not on the record because I don't think we're technically allowed to talk to an injured player. But we were just kind of chatting about the panthers cornerbacks, just sort of talking ball for Sunday. So anytime that's the situation, that usually makes me pretty optimistic about a guy's health. It's better than leaking news that you're working apart from the team, right? Like that was a good thing. We'll get to that. Yeah. I mean, just look how different those situations are, they look right now. Yes, it's like one of the unwritten rules of this. If you see the player in the locker room and he's interacting with his teammates, interacting with us, like I think at one point he was eating some type of yogurt, he was talking to you, watching some film up on the screen

11:29there, talking to a few different reporters that came and went to me. That's always a good sign that a player is closer to returning than that. Can you identify the yogurt? Was it a plane, a blue berry? We go on old school, yo, play or a new school fashay? The only thing I could add to that is he was eating it. And I think one of the bare staff members stopped them and he gave a very cordial hello, like he's in a good mood. So I would think that things are trending in the right with him. Yeah, I don't want to break any rules of locker room access. I don't think I am here, but I did see Rome putting one foot in front of the other. As Hogue mentioned, he was wearing shoes and to me, he looked like a guy who was going to play on Sunday. That's just my own personal thought of the way he was walking around the locker room. And the fact that Ben Jonathan is calling it day today, not great that he's not on the field, not great. This is going on period, but it doesn't seem super serious at all. Yeah. And certainly you could play gamesmanship. One of the things he did not

12:30play gamesmanship with John's is the left tackle situation because Ben just flat out came out and announced what we have seen with our own eyes here recently. So no surprise. But Baxon Jones will officially be the starter. I think the only question there was like, is there any surprise Aussie Trapilo showing up? And it's clear there that he still got some more steps here. And they, but he does for the 100th time I understand people are struggling with is why didn't they put him on IR because he needs to practice. The most important thing for Aussie Trapilo right now is practice. And so the only way he can practice the first two weeks of the season is if he's on the 53 man roster. So he's on the 53 man roster. He's practicing bear form pads today. Another opportunity for Aussie to get better and healthier. But in the meantime, it is Baxon Jones starting and we're going to hear from Baxon a little bit later on in the show. And I think you're going to want to hear what he had say about, you know, even the little mid training camp injury had that he had to overcome

13:32to ultimately win the job. Yeah, I don't know if this was a maybe we needed some like official confirmation from Ben Johnson, which he gave us today. But the past few weeks this story was training in this direction as much as everybody loves seeing Aussie Trapilo up there, especially the bears. I understand the excitement of seeing your second round pick back in action. This was Baxon Jones is job to lose from the start. I really felt that way. And he didn't really play himself out of this position. If anyone else did it was Kramam, I'm a godgy and Jadjik Willis. Theo Bennett had his opportunity, but we know he's best suited for that swing tackle spot in the jumbo tight end role. That's where Ben Johnson likes him. So it's a feel good story for Baxon Jones because at this point last year, he was your starting left tackle, but he is what's the best way to put it? He feels just drastically different physically. It's a positive story as opposed to like,

14:32all I hope he survives the early part of the season. He feels good. He feels better. He feels strong. He feels ready for the start of the season. He did tell us the one reason he left practice where he swung his helmet, remember he threw his helmet and all that. He's dealing with little tenonitis to his right knee. Well, a couple things here. One, I'm happy for Baxon. Two, the Aussie Trapilo stuff when Ben talks about him. It doesn't sound like it's going to be that long. I don't think this is middle of the year. I think this is closer to week three, week four that you might see him out there. I mean, he's used very, very positive about the ways moving around. And they're super impressed with him. So I mean, Baxon, he's got to play well immediately or else they, you know, he's going to be back in some level of swing tackle or whatever we'll be. Maybe we'll just be the back of left tackle. I don't know. But so this is an opportunity. This guy, you know, didn't expect to have this opportunity. But now it's right there for him. So we'll see how he does. All right. A couple things we got to talk about in the secondary, John's one before we get to the Kyler stuff that happened today. The

15:36secondary, I think is interesting because is Xavier Woods starting at safety? And if not, Kam Lewis is he starting at nickel over Malik, Muhammad. Now I don't tend to put too much stock in the official depth charts. The teams put out. But technically, Kam Lewis's list is starting nickel. Now with Xavier Woods is the safety. And honestly, would not completely shock me if that's how they roll in this game. You know, I will get into more of the matchups this week goes along. But one of the areas I'm concerned about is, you know, everyone's focused on Teterola, McMillan. I think Jalen Coker is a pretty good football player and he primarily lines up in the slot. And I do think that that is an area on offense for the Panthers, right? They might have an advantage this week. So do you want to would you rather go with the veteran over the young guy or do you want to bet on, Hey, man, this guy's going to have to play eventually with Soror Man in the fire and see how he does and try to help him out around there. I don't necessarily know the answer

16:40to this right now. I kind of hope personally that go with Malik, Muhammad, because I do like the upside. And Kam Lewis has had opportunities in his career to start. He's sort of supposed to be more of this hybrid backup. But that's technically the situation there. And they don't have their starting nickel. So that's where you would play Kam Lewis. What do you think about how the secondary could shuffle out once we get to Sunday? I try not to make too much out of the unofficial depth chart. It is what it is. The depth chart on the drier raceboards, those magnetic boards behind the scenes at Hallisall. That's where the real depth chart is. I try to gauge this off what my eyes are telling me, like what my notes are telling me. And I have seen Malik, Muhammad play with the starters for a long time now. Now there is time for the Bears to pivot off that plant. They can make a change today. They can make a change on Thursday. They can feel that Kam Lewis is just more ready because of his experience as opposed to Malik, Muhammad. But at the same time, I think it was Kam Lewis who

17:40was telling us just a couple of weeks ago that he's been told to focus more on safety. Malik, Muhammad has been their starting cornerback and minute nickelback. Sorry for the past few weeks. And it includes the joint practice against the Titans. So I'd actually be surprised if Kam Lewis starts. Now that may lead to eventual rotation with Muhammad coming in and out. That could be an employee comes on against the Panthers. But to me, what my eyes are telling me, what my notes have told me for the past few weeks, Muhammad is your starting nickelback. If Malik, Muhammad comes in and immediately starts shutting guys down, it'll be one of the greatest fourth round draft picks in the history of the Bears and Ryan polls. Like you're just asking a whole lot. That being said, I know they're super optimistic about him. I've seen the same thing that you're talking about. John's he's been out there. I expect him to play. I expect him to get beat. I expect him to struggle. I expect him to get better as the season goes along. And all of that is fine. Like the Bears are going to have to score points to win football games this year. But I also, I think Malik,

18:41Muhammad, from what I, you know, everything that I've read and watched and what I do think this guy has a very good chance to be a very solid player in the league. So I'm willing to go to, and the Bears seem to be clearly willing to go through the growing pants that's going to happen with any rookie. You know, one thing I don't know why I'm thinking of this is just in terms of like making a surprise pivot behind the scenes. Let's go back to the days of Bryce Calhane. Why I thought is on draft player turn out to be pretty darn good nickelback for the Bears and John Fox and those Ryan paste days. But that was something earned behind the scenes. That was something changed at practice that none of us saw and that was purposeful run by the team. So maybe there is some deception and listing Cam Lewis is your nickelback. There's there's film on that. I'm sure the panthers could find it if they want. But you know what? If Malik, Muhammad, complain Bryce Calhane did, especially early on before the injury started to add up for Bryce Calhane, I think that would be a pretty good fine for the Bears and nickelback. Well, the guy we know

19:42is not out there as Kyler Gordon. And it thought strategically put out after Ben Johnson talk today. This tweet from Ian Rappaport, Bear stand out, stand out cornerback, Kyler Gordon, who is on IR with a calf injury is away from the team working with his own trainer to accelerate recovery sources say the plan is for Gordon to return a few weeks into the season and begin practicing shortly thereafter some optimism here. I hate everything about this tweet. But like how would you? Yeah, I mean, look, I don't, I don't want to make this turn to sing into like a at Ian Rappaport, type deal. But so I'll just react to the actual tweet. I'm trying to figure out how anything about that is optimistic. The season is starting this week. It is week one. I have never heard of a player being away from the team being optimism, especially in a situation where the team's clearly not happy with the player. So maybe it's optimistic that he will

20:47be healthy enough to play by week five or whatever when he's eligible. But I don't find anything optimistic about the fact that Kyler who was around during training camp and around during the preseason is now not around. How is that optimistic? No, no, I completely agree with you. I think there was a collective eye role in the media room when this came out to by the way. And there's been a few of our colleagues have fired off sub tweets, including that guy right there who's fresh off the US open. I couldn't handle it. Stand out. Stand out. Yeah. I like it. I know this is the business of the NFL. But like this is one of the questions I have for Ryan Poles when he met the media last week. Like is he working out here? Mainly with the team as opposed to working with trainers because I think we all had the idea that he wasn't here enough. Right. And now this tweet comes out. No, the bears absolutely want their nickel back who they gave a contract to just last year to be in the building.

21:51If you need another sign of the disconnect, I think this story, as shared by Rapp Sheet, is another example of the disconnect between the player and his side of things in the team. Yeah. I mean, and maybe I shouldn't get caught up in this and I understand how the business works and agents get fed stuff. But like and sometimes agents carry water for players, but calling Collar Gordon a standout to me, I get that he got a contract extension. But he hasn't been a standout. He's been okay. He's had moments. And even the back end of that tweet, like when he gets back, then he may start to practice or over exactly it was worded. Like if I'm the bears reading that, like I would want to hear like, okay, you're doing this tweet. Who's ever giving you the information? He'll come back and he should be ready to go versus like, well, you know, eventually maybe he'll start practicing and then he'll play. I just, to me, this is where I, you know, this in the middle of my trip, the Collar Gordon stuff came down. Like to me, it's like, all right, you are not worth

22:56the headache at this point. It's just too much negative energy going on around here and too weird. I mean, I just think it's in general over for him in Chicago, but who knows? Maybe we'll get back on the field, but whatever, whatever today's situation is or what's going on right now is clearly not the way the bears that scripted it up. In my history, carbon, the NFL, every executive GM coach that I've ever gotten to know would tell you when it comes to injured players, they like them in their own building. They like to get their updates from their own guys. They like to have their communication. They like them to be around to be seen, to be participating in the things behind the scenes. Like, so he's like, again, he's so he's missing meetings. He's missing all these other walkthroughs he could go through. Like this, this is important stuff that matters to coaches matters to front offices. You can bet your ass. It matters to pinch on to it. Yeah. Yeah. It's not here. I it's well said. And I just this almost felt like a

23:56it started to me go into any optimism about him coming back and being healthy. Are we talking about on a different team, right? With the trade. And then again, kind of bringing this full circle would be one of the reasons why I'd like to see what Malik Muhammad can do. Like if you're the bears, that's why I would be tempted to throw him out there. It's week one. Your season's not over if you lose or if he gives up a 70 yard touchdown at some point because he's a rookie. I would like to if I'm the bears and I'm dealing with this kind of Gordon situation, I want to know Malik Muhammad can play the position because if he can play the position and he can be your answer as soon as right now, then I think that I would only accelerate a potential trade, which is not going to be easy based on the money that Kyler Gordon is owed. And I'm not even sure you get a lot back. You might even need to eat some of the money, but you know, I'm talking about. Yeah, so it's we were really late for a break though. Let me just I know that Bracks and Jones has been major injury worked his way back through through the bears. Diode Dangle,

24:59same deal worked his way back through the great Eger at same thing. It's just it's just it's just pillow. Exactly. Yeah, like you have a long list of guys who had very serious injuries. This dude's got a calf straight. I know a swollen locker. Yeah, like it doesn't it's bizarre. And player. Sorry. I know we got to go. He's not the first player to get outside help. Like all players get outside help for different reasons. They do they have their own private cubie coaches. They have their own private chefs. They have this stuff. But usually when the season starts, the team is like in full control of everything. So it's not a good sign that he's not here. Yeah, seeing a player leave the team week one. Or if this happened last week, who knows? I mean, I don't remember seeing Kyler at any point last week, but it's still not a good thing. Like you don't go from a rounding camp to away when the season starts. And that being spawned as a positive. They're all they also might be thrilled that he's gone. Have a great time. Yeah. All right, Josie. Appreciate all the information. We will see you tomorrow in studio at CHGO.

26:04Let's do it, boys. All right. Let me know if you need directions again. I know it's been a while. I might need to code Adam Johnson. All right. We got a lot to get to right here from Ben Johnson. Next up, we're going to take you inside the locker room. And then we got some die hard stuff planned on the back end of the show with Greg Bragg joining us as well. Please hit the like button. Hopefully you're enjoying all the coverage here. We try to bring closer inside house hall on these Wednesdays. It's just a Tuesday today on CHGO. Hey, Mike's hard lemonade is made with real character, real character that shows up when you show up to support your team. Like at our tailgates coming up here. Guys, we are less than two weeks away from our first one. That's crazy. Going down and we got three straight week two week three week four all in a row. And Mike's is going to be there as one of our tailgate sponsors. And I can't think anything that goes down better before football game and the hot sun early in the season than a Mike's hard lemonade. Greg Bragg is probably going to have seven Mike's hard lemonade before eight o'clock come

27:07two weeks from last Sunday. Well, and Mike's is also your ally for fantasy football this season. And they're giving you a chance to win big prizes. Register to compete in a fantasy football challenge for chance of winning the $25,000 grand prize or sign up for a chance to win weekly prizes, including $10,000. You can visit Mike's hard dot com slash sweepstakeside slash fancy life to learn more and enter the sweeps 21 plus only premium all beverage Mike's hard lemonade company Chicago Illinois. No purchase necessary to enter sweepstakes. See official rules at Mike's hard dot com slash sweepstakes slash fantasy life. And let's shout out our friends at old national bank whether it's on the field or in your financial life. The best teams win by delivering excellence at every level when I was traveling. And I needed some financing. I'm thinking to myself, this is an excellent excellent time here and beautiful at the US Open. But it's even better when I hit my friends at old national bank every play matters. That's right. Every day checking long term planning commercial banking, all the good stuff here. Team at old nationals here to you that

28:10momentum that you're building moving forward in your financial life. A plant tailored to you by professionals, you trust a partnership that makes you feel supported not just today, but well into the future old national bank member FDIC where relationships and results matter. It's a great switch to make if you're not banking there. Go on over to our friends at old national bank. If you're wondering what carbs looking at on his phone, he is watching tennis. Yeah, exactly. This is a big match going on right now. We got Tiafo and Michelson. I saw him fill and not feel it would be Alex. I saw Michelson play early in the turn. I'm like, this guy's incredible. Now to put 10 bucks on a 1300 to one. He's in the quarters right now to win the whole thing. To win the whole thing. If that happens, that's actually really good scouting. I mean, it's good scouting already. The fact that he's in it. Three, three and the fifth don't turn that on right now. Watch the show and live the dream. But and I'm sure nobody will. But nobody will except for me

29:15in the break. I'm a little on my my my my back to you. Well, Jeff Jony Aguil was trying to get calm to start a tennis podcast today mainly just so he could get him away from House Hall. But Joe Jony Aguil run the day today. We actually was you. We were going to go talk to Jony Walker. You did talk to him. Well, yeah, but he was in I think he was in a better mood when I was going to talk to him by the time we talked and then he was annoyed because we we prioritized Luther Burton over him. He's like, and he and Winston get a green. Oh, they it was it was Jony Exfault. It was Jony Exfault. Jeff Jony. Terrible human being. Boy, said the Bears. Not a terrible human being. And it will be calling the Bears Panthers game obviously on Sunday. It is a game week. We do let's I just like I'm not going to lie. It was like it was like how annoyed Braggs gets with stadium conversation when the season's going on. That's how annoyed I was with the Kyler Gordon thing today. I was like, you're not here. The Bears have a game on Sunday that you're not playing it. Shannel and your Ben Johnson. I I I I was you want stories told and this is bad.

30:19My mind's on Carolina. This is where Ben's mind is too. Here's what Ben had to say about the Carolina Panthers. In terms of Carolina, you know, really looking forward to to getting this thing going. It's a really good team. Obviously made the playoffs last year coach canalist is done a heck of a job there. Dan Morgan, their GM is really built up that roster from where they were a few years ago. Quality opponent defensively just looking at their numbers. The way they ended the the back half of last season. They were one of the top 10 defenses in football and they did nothing but got better through free agency in the draft. So we'll have our hands full there. They've got really star power all across the field. It seems like on that side of the ball, starting with Derek Brown, the corners are really good players. Safety's are really good players. I mean, I can go on and on and on but you know, it'll be a significant challenge right out of the gate and then looking at them as their offense. They've got skill players. They're

31:20really sound up front with their offense aligned. I know they took some hits with the with the tackle position and yet the two guys that they have projected starting form right now are two really good players. I think it's about as good of a guard duo that you'll see in football. They do a great job in the run game and in the past game there and then the quarterbacks in ascending players as far as I'm concerned. So really good test on the road away game. We talked about it but with our crew, we're just focused on trying to be sound and playing fast. There'll be a lot of unscouted looks here early in the season that that happens every year in September football and just want these guys to be able to cut loose and play. So I'll have a more detailed breakdown of the Panthers as we get into Carms favorite part of the week X's and hoax. What's that day viewing? I think we might actually do it tomorrow in studio just to do it a day or everybody's so excited. Have you already recorded it? No, we're going to do it live this year. We're going live. X's in hope. We got new things. Yeah, we got new things planned. Steven and I are working on it. I would like to

32:23Steven, if you live you're out there, I would like to be consulted on these things going forward. You know, that's a big decision for the show. I'm producing the show. Of course, I'm out there. He's here and you were in New York. I was going to say you were consulted, but you weren't here. Oh, okay. Steven, by the way, mid cheeseburger is one of the better looks that we've had in a while. That was fantastic. Is that a? Well, you put them on the spot. No, it's like cheese on my dad gets through from the store. I love it. Okay, there you go. It was cheese though. Good call. I believe we have a $100 super chat that just came in too. So we should probably give us $100. That goes up on the Joe favorite. I think we have a first time big time, first time long time look at Joe favorite. How about our guy Joe favorite now our new favorite? I'm a transplant who has lived in the Pacific Northwest. You like how I put that together? That was pretty good. For the last six years, thanks for being my daily go to for quality bears content. Cubs, hawks, bowls at CHO to traveling for work. And I'm excited. We all do attend the event tomorrow.

33:24Oh, well, bear it out. That's awesome. You know, we had a couple people show up to the Hogan Johns event in Nashville like that. They just happen to be in Nashville either on vacate. I think one guy was there for work. One guy was there. A couple was there for vacation and they bears fans haven't been the right place at the right time. And they were there. So we're looking forward to that going on tomorrow night at Utopian Utopian. Yeah. Let's start that up on the screen real quick. Good time to plug that because this is going down tomorrow night. It is our 2026 kick off party six to 10 o'clock at Utopian tailgate. It's a rooftop bar. Hopefully the weather cooperated. We're gonna have a great time. You know, live Q&A with the CHG. Podcast Hogan Johns doing a live taping, watching football, living dreams, talking about how many wins the bears are going to have. If anybody wants to talk tennis, that's on the table too. I mean, literally any topic we could talk relationships. Whatever you want to do tomorrow night, Utopian tell you let's get real. Yeah. Car will actually be doing a tennis kind of a side bar chat.

34:29We're going to call that. It's happening in the stall of the men's room. 730 to 8 o'clock in the men's room. Great idea. I will do it. Tennis side talk for anybody. What's talked about? Michelson, Tiafo, Savillank, uh, or we on the go old school, bring on macaron conners for any old hats out there. We'll talk about it in new rack. It's old rack. It's everything. As for what Ben said about the Panthers, I think the only thing I didn't necessarily agree with in there is that Bryce Youngston is sending player, but the tackles are interesting because Rashida Walker, who the bears are very familiar with from the Packers, that he wasn't, he kind of completely overlooked the free agency, which I thought was telling. And now he's going to be there starting left tackle because the injuries they've been dealing with. And Roe, Friedling, who I, if you remember, our draft coverage, I was really high on. And he'll be starting at right tackle. Big moment for the rookie. He'll be seeing a lot of Montess swept, but they do have Robert Hunt there at right guard to help him out. So little, little early week preview on the Carolina Panthers. The other thing I want to get to here

35:33in this segment before we break again, Ben fairly asked about maybe the pressure, the defensive, if the defense isn't great, right? What does that mean for your offense? How are, are, are they going to be tasked for making up for any defense defensive deficiencies? I could say that, uh, that you might have. And I love this answer from Ben Johnson. Well, it's a responsibility of the offensive score every time we hit the grass. So, that's, that's how we view it. Of course, there's complimentary football. We'd love to get a lead and protect a lead. If we don't happen to, to play the game that way and we're behind, you know, we got to find a way to, to come back from behind. So, you know, we'll find out a lot about this team. We won't know week one who we are yet. And so, that, that's where this, this first month, all of September is going to be a lot of trying to figure out who this 2020-16 is and, and where we need to compliment each other. But I'm really proud of how these guys ended camp. I

36:35thought, you know, the last two or three weeks, I thought we got some really high quality work in, some really intense training sessions. And I think, I think we put ourselves in a position to play well early in the season. So, I love that. Yeah, I, I, I, I, I, I, I'm going to have to score more points because your defense might not be good was, and for translating what the question was, that's what it was. Ben's answer, well, it's our job to score every time we get the ball. Do doesn't shy away from being great. Now, putting his team in the best position to possibly score. I can't wait for the first view to the sidelines when he's irritated and then just goes right back to the play card and throws something else out there. Let's go Ben. Oh, I bet made a cameo in the, the manning video that came out today. I didn't haven't seen that yet. Congratulations. 15 minutes long. So in terms of commercial, that was quite the show. And pretty much everybody was in it. I was surprised you weren't in it. Because you were in New York. I thought you wouldn't miss it. It's an opportunity that I just didn't get unfortunately. I got to do better. I got to look at the mirror on that one. Good job

37:37for Ben though. All right. When we come back, we'll take you inside the locker room at a house hall. We got a lot on Jalen Johnson. I think we'll attack that next. So please hit the like button. We'll be right back. Hey, football is back and with draft kings at casino queen sportsbook September. It's coming with a boost all September long. You're going to opt in and get a 50% profit boost every game day with the drafting draft Kings game day boost pass. Mm-mm. So the biggest matchups kick off. You get even more out of the action. That's right. A 50% profit boost every game day all September long. New draft King sportsbook customers. You sign up with the code CHGO and you get a 50% profit boost every game day. That's code CHGO in partnership with draft kings. The crown is yours. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 100 gambler 21 and over Illinois only pass through a per-wager tax may apply

38:38eligibility and restrictions apply one football boost per customer maximum bet limits and wagering restrictions apply tokens or single use and expire at the end of the final select game each day when offered terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com slash promos. Carb you know that feeling the second you walk out the door. Did you lock the door? Did you leave your keys sitting on a desk? I did. Caleb Williams press conference. I did. Is the dog eating the couch again? Are the kids doing their homework? Nope. Or six videos deep into something they shouldn't be watching. Mm-hmm. It's probably probably that one. That's where Xfinity Shield comes in. Think of it as a force field for your home built right into your Wi-Fi. Giving you peace of mind for your home, your family, your life online with Wi-Fi motion detection, your Xfinity gateway, consents movement in your home. No cameras needed so you can rest easy wherever you are. Switch to Xfinity today for a reliable Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi motion detection and cybersecure included what if your

39:39Wi-Fi had peace of mind built in a minute. Xfinity imagine that restrictions apply. Select plans only Xfinity internet and compatible equipment required. All right. What do the guys I don't know we talked enough about in training camp was Jalen Johnson. And for the most part, I thought he looked good and I thought he looked good and I know TAs. I maybe got off to a little bit of a slow start in camp, but really finished strong Ben Johnson seemed to agree. That's how he described his camp. And even suggested this might be the best year for Jalen Johnson. He's got a chance to post his best season. That was one of the many topics we talked about with Jalen. This was more of a smaller little group setting inside the locker room, which is where we want to take you right now as we discuss things with the bears stand out corner back. Thank you.

40:41Did you feel like it was the best camp in quite a while though? No, I wouldn't say that. I mean, I didn't have one last year so I can't compare it to the most recent camp, but I wouldn't say that. What was the answer to this? What were you trying to get the other guys to feel from you as the season of coming? I think I have to feel for me. I just know when I'm on top of my game it makes everybody better. So I mean, from a communication standpoint, the more I can communicate, the more I can talk, the more I can lead it helps bring those along around me. So I mean, honestly for me, I just want to win. So I mean, whatever it takes, whatever it is, I mean, they've been pushing me to be more vocal to be a better leader. So just really taking that and then of course it helps me push myself to perform at a higher level too. We have a high standard for ourselves and practice wasn't up to that standard. So I mean, don't wait for the end of practice to say something to me. You say when you see it and that's something we've been emphasizing. Just camp from a leadership perspective and when you see something

41:43that's not right, you speak on it. Would you say that in the past you maybe wouldn't have done that there, but now is a bad youth, maybe if I'm more comfortable stepping into what you were seeing? Yeah, I mean, I would say so. I think that you get older and mature and then I would say as you have more skin in the game, I think guys listen and respect you a lot more. And I think for myself, I've had the power and I would say the respect to do it. I just never, I would say, got out my own comfort zone and spoke like that as well. So it's just growth for me as a man and as a leader in the locker room. Incineated this morning we talked on that. This season, you might be poised to be the best version of yourself so far in your career. Is that how you feel right now? Yeah, for sure. I would say for myself, it's outdoing my best season and my best season, I'll say it was in 23. So for me, I'm just focused on being better than my best self and I feel pretty confident about where I'm at right now. To them what last year was physically, what it's been like this summer just to be great. Telling me it's been great being able to run, being able to

42:49be at full speed. I mean, such a 20-mile miles per hour was big for me. So just being able to be myself, be comfortable, change the direction, being really good, top-end speed, been really good. So for me, it's just playing confident and bringing those along with me. Did you hit those marks like midway through camp or was it right? No, I touched one at the beginning. So yeah, I was just trying to test it out a little bit and see. So for me, honestly, what I've learned is I got to run fast to be fast and that's what I've been training for all off-season and just in teaming that during season, make sure I'm running and sprinting and keep my top-end speed there. Obviously with the amount of takeaways these guys got last year. But a lot of those guys are now gone. How has Al Harris, what's that messaging been like to you to the rest of you guys to to fill that void that was so important for this team last year? I'm going to say it's been a message. I mean, at the end of the day for myself, too, that means more opportunities for me. So I'm looking forward to getting my fair share of opportunities and keep that an exception. I'm brought there. But I mean, for us, it's the same message this year.

43:51Last year, everything I were doing was for the ball. We're not going to break the ball up but having that more conscious thought and effort to go intercept the ball. So for us, we're just trying to find ways to do that, whether it's schematically, whether it's individually. We're just trying to find ways to make plays on the ball. John, how deep have you gotten into McMillan just starting out? Yeah, pretty deep. What do you see? I don't know. I don't know what I see. I would just say a playmaker. I'm not going to put too much out there. But I definitely think he's made his fair share of playing in somebody you got respect. What's the conversation with you and Tyreeb been like the one in this year as far as that partnership? Pretend to be one. Tyreeb just I feel like it's a huge year for him. Yeah. I mean, maybe look at it. I don't know. Any words of wisdom along the way here going into it. I mean, ball's a lot of money on the table. So do we just see Chris and Zal get paid today? So I mean, when you do what you're supposed to do, you give a word for us. I mean, there's not too much motivation to speak on. I mean, the ESPN Tigger will give you all the motivation you need. But honestly, we just go out there and we compete. We have fun.

44:55I'm not question about that. Yeah. With his own philosophy of playing the system instead of a man, he seems to think that there's a jump the second time, the second time through it. You feel like you're too of understanding what he's teaching. He's going to put position you for. Yeah, for sure. Repetition, breathe, revelation. So I mean, the first time you hear something, you're not going to understand it fully. But you keep practicing, you keep repinting it. It's roughly myself getting more turns, getting more reps, getting comfortable. And then really just trusting it. It's not always going to be perfect. It's not always going to go your way. And I think a lot of time that gives guys off of it. But you just got to go out there and be confident and trust what you see. I'm going to make plays. So I just love everything about that with Jalen. Say number one, I think he just looks great. Like physically, this dude was not healthy last year. He looks comfortable. He looks confident. He sounds confident. And then the evidence of it that he just told you about. I hit early in camp. I was running 20 plus miles an hour, 21, whatever the number was early just to see that the speed was there. So and the leadership part of thing is just huge. Guys been around. So at Jalen's just a

46:00winter, man, I'm rooting for that dude. I've always been rooting for him. I've loved his, just the intensity that is him. And it seems like he's back. I hope he is. Yeah, I love the Jalen vibes. You heard it there. He thinks his best season was 2023. And he wants to top it. And his head coach thinks he could do it. So that's that's huge going into this first week against the Panthers. We got to take our last time out here. Please hit the like button. We got a lot more coming from inside the locker room next. Oh, get us loud as you can for monster jam. See it. Hear it. Feel it. Experience it live in Chicago. This September 18 through the 20th. This is not just any event. It's unexpected, unscripted, unforgettable, where 12,000 pound trucks stand on two wheels and fly through the air and competitions of speed and skill. It's all happening at monster jam where your outside voice

47:00is allowed. And every big moment comes with an even bigger smile field of thrill, a full throttle fun and get ready for big time entertainment as Rosemond roars to live with gravity to find stunts, but grave digger, El Toro, loco, Megalodon. You know them all all at all state arenas. September 18th at 20 tickets on sale through ticketmaster.com Chicago land. We'll see you in your family at monster jam. Jam and shout out to our friends at Shady raise. You know the moment I actually had this moment where I believe it. Yeah, the the sunglasses fell off my head about 10 times at the US open at one time. You know, they did they finally after like a hundred times doing it. It finally broke. Did the tennis ball just smack you right? Because I would have loved to video that. That would have been good. But the, you know, the next thing, you know, I, you know, Shady raised, you know what they want to do. They want to send me a brand new pair, even though it's 1,000 percent of my fault. I didn't even deserve a brand new pair. But they sent me a brand new pair after I wrecked my Shady raise. Shady raise, Shady raise, I where they

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49:03business. Let one unified system run your entire business from the first opportunity to the final payment everything works together in one place, whether you're a small business or managing a large operation, Odo gives you one flexible platform built to grow with you. Learn more at odo.com. That's od o o.com. All right, keep it things rolling here as we with these later shows we want to take you and get you more interviews from inside the locker room and I had a chance to talk to Jonah Jackson today, key member of the offensive line and just wear his headzat going into another exciting bears season. Here's my conversation with Jonah Jackson. All right, just give me an idea of what week one feels like after once if you go through a grueling camp, you know all about that under Ben Johnson at this point, but just to finally get to a game week. You know, it's exciting. You finally get to see all the stuff you put together during camp on display and you get to do it against

50:07another team. You know, we had a couple of joint practices, but this one matters. And they right away Derek Brown on the other side. Yeah, give me an idea of what type of test that's going to be for you. I mean every every week everybody has their what we call my warhead, you know, they're just a monster. I can wreck a game, but he's he's he's he's special, you know, he's a specimen. They got a bunch of other guys there too, Jason, Jaylin Phillips, Bobby Brown, you know, they got a they got a good stout front and they play good with each other guys on the back end are flying around too. So it'll be a good challenge for us. I know there's a lot of unknown in week one every year no matter what, but since they do have some new guys out there that can mouse game, you guys are probably trying to figure that out right now in in the middle of the week. Like how much unknown is there going into this game and how much do you guys have to adjust early on in the game? Yeah, you never you never know. You know, people people can play, you know, certain offenses differently. I think we had like a slide today. There's going to be about 35% of the game is going to be unscripted. Look, so it's something you haven't seen yet. And you know, we're ready for what it is. We'll make we'll make a point.

51:09We'll follow it. And you know, as long as we're on the same page, we'll see what happens. And I got a new center next to you. It seems like things have gone pretty well in camps, the terms of communication and all that, but how eager are you to see what it all looks like once you guys get out there on the field? Yeah, I mean, I feel like we've already we've already felt his presence. You know, he's a great vocal leader. He's he's got some skin in the game now. This is year eight. So I'm very confident in his ability. And you know, I'm excited to get it rolling. Well, just one more. Darn, all right. Obviously got that big extension, which he deserved. Everyone's been saying that there's been no changes. Just the same guy. Did he bring it up even at level after that? Um, you know, like he said, there's been no change. He was already rich before that. He's at the overall peak. So, um, yeah, he's still the same guy. And I feel like, you know, as he's as he's developed and in grown order, he has taken up a notch. You know, he's matured and he's becoming a pro pro and I'm very excited for his future. Thanks, Y'all. The dinner. Sorry. He did, but I wasn't able to attend set. But it's okay. We'll get another one out. I was going to say,

52:13so nice though. Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, we'll see, you know, he's still always me at least. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Of course. Thank you. That was carmasky if, uh, if he took about the dinner. I mean, 28 million a year, you would think they'd get a nice dinner. Well, he did it. But he wasn't there. So yeah, it's his own dinner. Yeah, behind the scenes, by the way, just let you everybody know, Joan is a great dude. Yeah, I mean, all all calm team made it today. Super fun to talk to. Super good dude. Easy guy to root for. I like those guys. The bears have a lot of them. Yeah, very insightful throughout the season, too, to just sort of sort of pick his brain. Also behind the scenes, a great black chromatic hit there from Levin Thal. Just, oh, I got a little one I want to hear. We're just gonna walk right over that Levin Thal. Nobody does Levin Thal. The way Levin Thal does Levin Thal. And so now everybody, whenever I mentioned Levin Thal, now you all know you've seen Levin Thal. And, um, you know, Steve's unique and, and we love him. Especially his questions. Always my guy. This is the part where I don't know how to let you keep talking and getting more in trouble.

53:16Or he's writing the less grab steam book. I'm in it. Levin Thal. That's right. He's writing the he's writing the grab and you're in the book. I'm in the book. When is book going out? I have no idea. I want to read it. The grabber book. Apparently he's got like, it's it's it's lengthy. Levin Thal's love. Everybody wants to talk about the grabber. All right. One more thing for the locker room that we're going to bring in our guy Greg Bragg. He's got some die hard questions, which we're going to make a feature in this these Wednesday shows as well. I know I keep saying it's Wednesday, but it is in my head. But here is Braxton Jones. Braxton Jones talking about just getting a left tackle job and and the injury he dealt with during camp. Some of the details there. And this is an important conversation going to the week one because he is your starting left tackle. Braxton Jones. Yeah, you know, I'm I'm incredibly proud of myself. I came off of that Tennessee joint practice, which was crazy. And I just said the same thing. Like I'm just proud of myself for,

54:16you know, fighting back. But yeah, that's a it's a great accomplishment. Not a lot of fifth rounders get you get an opportunity to do that. And I think I'm just going to continue to try seize that moment and just do the work that nobody's watching me do. And I think everything will take care of itself. But yeah, I am proud of myself. Braxton, spend a lot of time around. Tony, you're like, what do you say to me? Yeah, yeah. What impresses you about who he is? I think the biggest thing is weekend and week out like he hasn't changed. He's been the same exact guy all the time. And, you know, I think something for myself that I'm always learning and trying to get better at is just his knowledge of the game. When we go into these weeks, he's very like, he just asks all the right questions. And it's like, it's like, you know, if the backer blitzes on this look, then, you know, what do we have coach? And I think that's something that, you know, as I go into year five in my later years, I need to do a lot better job of is seeing it from, you know, a fixer mentality instead of, you know, when things change and you just go, hey, why are in your

55:16brain? Being able to fix things on the move. And I've noticed that with Joe, he's really good at that and just asking the right questions for that. That's steadiness, I imagine. It's pretty mind-blowing at times. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I want to ask him all the time, but, you know, I think it's just some guys are different too. So, this might have been cover, but it looked like when you got dinged during training in campus here that you maybe thought that it was more serious than actually. It was where you were that it was over at that point, sort of speak for at least for a little while. Not that it was over. I was just more frustrated because I know it's on the line and I just, you know, I'm on the same goal as everybody else in this locker room. I'm trying to do the best I can. So, this football team can have the best opportunity to go win a Super Bowl. And I know if I'm, you know, I'm not taking the reps I need to be taken and getting the stretch that I need to be put in for this team to go in. I knew in that moment it did scare me a little bit. And I was frustrated and the frustration I showed is something I got to work on and not be so high sprung in emotions in those times, but I'll be honest, it was one of those moments where I was just a little frustrated.

56:19You know, I want to be out there with my guys and taking every rep and these practices, you know, camp practices have been tough. Like, they're needed for us, you know. So, you're a human being. You're allowed to have a little bit of a house. Yeah, 100%. But I think there, you know, there's some, when I'm trying to take my career from, you know, average can do the job to, to great, you know, pro baller, whatever that is. And I'm trying to take that, you know, to another level. I think having emotional intelligence and, you know, being able to be calm and, and, um, no one to be, you know, on that emotional level, having that gauge is very important to taking my game to the next level. So, you're, that's interesting. You're not talking about surviving. You're talking about thriving. It's not allowed just making this team right here. You're, you're talking about going big time. Well, yeah, I mean, if, you know, obviously I don't, I'm not playing just for personal goals, but, you know, I just, I always have played to be the best version of myself. And I think, um, I've always had, have that realm and, you know, injuries or whatever, but I still have a great opportunity in front of me. And so you always want to thrive in those moments. But, you know, like you said,

57:20we are human emotions do happen. It's just what you do with them and, you know, being better the next time is all. And remember what John said when he was on with us earlier to the Braxton. I guess it was earlier on in that conversation because we came a little bit late because we were working on Carms award winning interview, Jade Walker, right before that. We'll play tomorrow. Um, that he's dealing with some knee tendonitis. And that was, that was the issue that sidelined him for a little bit. And probably, you know, we'll see how that, that brings me just a little bit of concern about how that might hold up during the course of a whole game. So keep your eye on Braxton, Jones, um, you know, how it does he wear down as this game goes along. It's going to be hot in Carolina. Um, but I like how he's talking there. Big picture, big expectation still for himself. We're close to getting over time here. But let's bring in our guy Greg Braggs, who is, uh, did a great show last night. Just crushing the number. Did you see the numbers? The numbers are outstanding. 17 K when I last checked it and everybody loved it. It was a phenomenal show and look at them.

58:24Well, it probably would only been 12,000, but Carm checked it 5,000 times and that bumped it up to 17. So I thought, well, Carms, Carms, how great the numbers were last week. And I was like, yeah, I can't figure out the common denominator. Well, you know what the best number was. And that was one hour shows at him, Hogue all week long. I mean, it was, it was remarkable how that happened. And then we were just so good at that. And today that's not going to happen. And I'm not going to say that there's anything different from last week to this week. It's just an observation that I'm making. I mean, listen, I did think the show would completely fall apart without me. And you guys proved me wrong. So congratulations that, you know, I as the self pro claim self pro claim leader of the show that doesn't really lead the show. I'm proud of you guys. Good job. Thank you. Well, come up the sports comp with that. The leader who doesn't really lead will come up. I'm LeBron James. There it is. All right. Let's, uh, real quick before we get into these diary questions, let's tell you about becoming a die hard. And this is where you can get in the discord and in on days like this contribute and, and uh, this, you know, have some

59:29conversations with us behind the scenes. We have new levels now, new tears. You can join for as lowest three dollars a month. That will get you in the discord. Uh, but if you want fran delfys outstanding draft guy, which I was using over the weekend, trying to watch all the college football or the tailgate tier, you can go to that tier as well as we had to overtime. All right, Greg, you lead the way here. Tell us where we're going as we have a little bit of a conversation here with the die hards and beyond. Yeah. I will have a few observations of head for throughout the show, but uh, Carm, I feel for you with Jeff Joniak. I know he can be very hard on you at times, but I did see recently, uh, across the timeline. He was in a hot tub with Sylvie. I don't know if you've seen that video yet, but you can hold that against him tomorrow, or when you see him later in the weekend house hall, because that is certainly a frightening video, for any of us to witness. Uh, I also, you know, is that true? Yeah, it's a true story.

1:00:30Dorset thing. And I actually did know about this video when he was harassing you in the locker room, and I chose not to bring it up, even though it would have been good. That will be brought up when I am back there, I wish we'll be Friday. That's amazing. That's thank you for bringing that to the table. Of course. And Sylvie's taking a lot of heat because he's wearing a shirt in the hot tub, which, you know, if you ask the 108 guys, that's that's a big no no. So anyway, but that's that's that's a story for Sylvie and Joniak, but good luck to that fight for you, Carm. Uh, the other thing I wanted to say with Jalen Johnson with that video is really, really interesting to see that locker room video with Jalen, because you don't hear too much from him. And I know a few weeks ago, oh, I did kind of red flag. The first few weeks of camp, it just I wasn't seeing, you know, hoping to see a Jalen Johnson. Obviously that you want to see mid season form. You're not going to see that early in the camp, but certainly something that was on my radar was the question of can Jalen Johnson return to form. And I don't know if I saw that in the first couple of weeks, and then we got to the second half

1:01:32training camp and there was a rain outs, and then the bears were on the road for joint practices, which sound like Jalen played much better. And for me, didn't get to witness where what Ben said that fire lit under him halfway through camp. And I love hearing that. And I'm excited to see what Jalen Johnson looks like here on Sunday. Like that. I didn't want to give any competitive secrets away going up against TET here coming up on Sunday. And then finally, Carm, you're 100% right when it comes to this, this season just feel it's unbelievable that it is week one on Sunday. It does not feel like we had an off season at all. I had, I mean, we all had a lot of fun here this off season. I'm not going to say I didn't take advantage of it, but it feels like yesterday was the bears Rams game. It feels like we have literally just been catapulted from the playoffs to week one. So as much as there has been this reset and Ben just keeps saying stop asking me about last year so much of today's press conference was about last year and how it's so much different.

1:02:33It does feel like this is somewhat of an extension of unfinished business. It doesn't feel as much of a reset as I thought. So I don't really know what that means from a season implication standpoint. But those were some of the vibes I felt today. I would just like to underline for you, Greg, you've done more this off season than you've ever done. I don't know how much weight you've dropped. It's a significant amount. You went from, you know, whatever golfer you were to now, you're jack Nicholas. You've really accomplished a lot since the, since the Rams to phenomenal ending that almost was until now. So congratulations. Thank you. Well, yeah. I mean, I think from a bears perspective though, it just feels like I don't know if that's what it is, Hoagweer. When when you have a good team, the stress of an off season doesn't feel as daunting. Yeah, I agree with the premise that I went by quickly. Last week went by incredibly slowly for me. I made that very clear how much I despised week zero and by the time I was on the boat

1:03:36yesterday in a beautiful day. My mind was on when can we get to Hell's Hall to go start talking about the Panthers? And that's not usual for me. If I'm on a boat, usually my mind, I have a beer in my hand and I'm able to separate that. But that is how excited I am to get to this first game. So, but yeah, it's, it was a different off season for us because they were good. And there wasn't all this drama necessarily. And I also appreciated that. But yeah, good stuff there. Should we get to the questions? Yeah, let's get to the diehards. Got a few different things to roll through here. Steven, if you look in notion, I did kind of have them itemized in order. We did have a picture from a fan in Singapore. He was in our chat last night in After Dark. And then today in Discord, he shared this picture. And he said, uh, birds here saying probably the only bears had in Singapore as he's at the National Museum of Singapore here earlier this morning for him. It was probably the afternoon. But I just thought that was pretty cool, uh, you know,

1:04:40for any fans that are in our Discord chat, you know, that want to share, you know, those things of fans around the world. I thought that was pretty cool. And how I wanted to kind of start off this diehard segment, use that QR code on your screen. And you can join in on these segments here weekly on Wednesdays. So let's get things started here, uh, where the first question comes in about the offense helping defense. I know we have a clip from Ben Johnson that maybe we can tee up here. I don't think we played it, but Miller asks everyone understands the defense will struggle this year. But if the offense can get to that elite top five offense range, how much do you feel that can benefit the bears defense since most teams will be forced to go one dimensional more often? So we did play this earlier in the show. Um, in, yeah, the, for just refresher, everybody's mind, he was basically any question about, hey, is the offense is going to pick it up because the defense might not be great. And his response was, well, every time we get the ball, every time we're on the grass, the offense is jobs to score regardless how good the defense is. But I do think that there is,

1:05:41that there is the flip side to all this where we look at last season and the bears were not necessarily known for starting fast. And it felt like they're always coming from behind instead of playing with the lead. If they can get off to better starts and play with the leads and the offense is scoring and being more consistent, then that should take a lot of pressure off the defense. So even if they are slightly worse, and by the way, I don't necessarily think they are slightly worse. But I think they might be similar. And, but you added a healthy jail in Johnson to that equation and you had an offense that's humming on all cylinders a little bit more. Then I, I think the overall picture to that question, the thought behind that question is it should, you know, the team part of it should be better. Yeah. And look, there's been a real optimism from the coaching staff about what the defensive line is going to be. So yes, I think it's like the offense probably feeling like they need to score every time they hit the grass as a goal is a

1:06:44great thing. But, but it could work out that this defense, at least it's on the table of the defense is a lot better than people think, which obviously the bears are going to do what we all want them to do that will have to be the case. Certainly willing to keep an open mind looking forward to seeing what this all looks like here coming up on Sunday that being said Gary who's always thinking four steps ahead are King of the die hards Gary Ross asks about, you know, trade that a lot of people have brought up here. And that is there's some trade ideas that came out over the weekend. And one was the bears trading a conditional fourth for Josh Sweat that could even become a three or even a two based on conditions would you do that trade and what conditions are you agreeing to for a third or even a second rounder. Look, I get why fans of mines are always on trades and and they're fun to think about, but the bears are not going to bail on Austin Booker right now. Like and I don't think it would be smart to do so. He finished last season very very strong. He

1:07:50was having good camp before he got banged up in Cincinnati. And I also think they're pretty happy with what Dio Dengbo's been giving them so far in camp and I understand a fans roller eyes at that. But there's only so many snaps to go along. And one of the things that I still think you're going to see it, but I don't think you're going to see it nearly as much as we talked about in the off season, this idea of Dio kicking inside. There's so much stronger at the offensive tackled and they probably thought they were going to be going back to like March because they ended up with Jordan Vanneberg and Jaden Loving and these young guys they like along with these veterans who they signed who have performed, you know, pretty much up to the low levels that they paid these guys. That there's my point is really so many snaps to go along. So I think their approach and I actually agree with this part right now is to see what they have over the first at least the first quarter of the season before we start, you know, if you told me the Packers right now were trading for sweat right now, I'd be like, okay, I'm not going to outbid Green Bay just because he's going to

1:08:51Green Bay. I need to see what they have here before I make a trade like that. That's going to cost money. That's going to cost draft picks. I was just going to say I agree with that just based off the premise of it. If I was going to do that, it wasn't going to be three days before week one. It would have been a month ago because I'm targeting those first four games as a priority from the success of the season. Doing it two days before week one isn't going to really give the the return on investment that I need in this first four, you know, package that I'm really looking at pretty close here. I hear that on some of them, but it's also a very long season and really to me, it would come down to behind the scenes, Ben Johnson, Ryan Poles, how good do you think this offense is going to be this year? Because yeah, I mean, Dio, hopefully you'll have a much more productive year and be healthy and it's impressive that he's at where he's at. And yeah, Austin Booker, I'm banking on him, having a breakout season, but I don't think anybody would argue that

1:09:53the Bears don't need more getting to the quarterback. So if you really were super confident that your offense is going to hum, I could understand the Bears being super aggressive, Gary, to your point. I don't think that's happening though, but it was, you know, I mean, I think what's interesting about this question to me is that when they did all the restructuring, what exactly were they doing that for you guys are a little bit maybe further down the road on that conversation last week, but that like what exactly opened up the money for what's what were they targeting? I explain that Friday, they just need they needed to get they needed to free up 12 million just to get cap compliant. And then the other five is for the rest of the season. Right. So my final question I did have two and it was going to be kind of a little mini segment on embracing long question culture because there are, you know, there's certain people here on this show that are famously known for long questions. So I like to embrace the long questioners out there. We did have a couple from the die hard, but we're getting up against it. We got to end this show here in a few minutes, but Mr. Fairyer has a question for calm and calm only,

1:10:54and it reads like this. This is for you, calm. So sit down, get your pencil out and get ready to, you know, answer this test. And that is the biggest hole of the still very young Ben Johnson era is our consistent under performance when it comes to identifying and developing talent on the defensive side of the ball. Let's go at DB more so at D line. First, can you please outline the performance numbers you need to see from each player on our D line and line backing corpse that would indicate to your mind that we're sufficiently developing the players we have. Second, can you suggest a few names for a coach executive scout who has proven a history of identifying defensive line talent who we should consider adding to the staff. Mark Carmen, the floor is yours. Yeah, well, listen, Mr. Fairyer is one of the greatest of all time. I look, I am a little bit surprised that Jeremy Garrett has been able to hang through all of this and the guy that I've been targeting for a while has been Jason Taylor, who could be our D line coach to answer that

1:12:00part of the question. Also, when you get into numbers, look, we don't need numbers, Mr. Fairyer, we will do strict eye tests on that. What are we seeing? Are we seeing an impactful Austin booker out there? I think Devon Bush is going to, you know, if you want to throw an on bride, I think I'll have a hundred tackles this year. And maybe Booker can get to what I don't know, 10 sacks or whatever it is. But you're asking fair questions as per always. These are, you know, well thought out and that's why you are one of my favorite diehards and that's why. Yeah, look, he's always trying to, he's always trying to get us to do research projects and I just think Mr. Fairyer doesn't think we work hard enough. He does. He thinks we have all this free time. He hears about how much brags golf that I think he's just like, you know what, Hogue, I need you as an offseason project to rank every single assistant coach in each position. I need a ranking of all the tight end coaches in the entirely one, the 32. Yeah, well, so Mr. Fairyer, what he's missing here is that as much as he's interested in what he's interested in, he is found this niche corner of

1:13:03fairyer that is that is kind of like tennis. Yeah, that that's not really that digestible for for the entire pot. Now, I do think these are great assignments and opportunities for us to lean into, but also do think that we need to have a production meeting with Mr. Fairyer to understand plain of exact what we're doing here. I guess, like I said, embrace long question culture. We had another one we can't get to it. It's going to take too long, but I just wanted to say, I'm on team long question culture side and shows your passion. Love you, Mr. Fairyer. I would like to say to you're right, Hogue, he sees us having too much fun because we saw the fun you were having at Lambo Field. I see that. Oh, yeah, this is where I'm going to say one word about Notre Dame for nine. Help it in the background. Shit. Look at that. Look at that. You know what? See, I that doesn't faze me, you know, like Chris Emma deserved to come to House Hall today and talk some smack if you wanted to. Instead, he just hosted me at his tailgate. We were the only Badger

1:14:05fans there. He offered us beer like a nice person that he is. He didn't text all he said after the game was love you, Hogue. That was his only text wasn't any type of smack. I haven't heard this guy say one word about the fighting Irish in nine months. And now he's shoving it in my face when we're 20 point five 20 20 and a half point favorites in the game. Yeah, I mean, you said I didn't know they were even playing until two weeks ago when you said you were looking at it. So like, yeah, I mean, I get it. But my process with college football is just so much different than the NFL. Like we know the entire team and like what they're eating for breakfast before they take the field week one for the Bears with college. Like you don't know anything. Like it takes four games into the season to learn the team. So, you know, give me a second. All right, gosh. Am I am I blind? I thought you were a camp Randall. You were at Lambo Field. Oh, it was at Lambo for the Notre Dame game and you got to which was but oddly enough, a home game for Notre Dame in a road game for Wisconsin, which is very confusing.

1:15:11But it really wasn't fifth. It was an impressive 50 50 split in there. So how did you get a video you guys dancing up and now like you won? Because I literally thought you won the game. Well, that's a tradition that Wisconsin does at the end of the third quarter calm and it's they play house of pain jump around. I've been there. So you're telling me you're telling me that Hogue, hold on a second here. Let me just make sure I have this straight. Adam Hogue is jumping around when they're down by 40. This is why I keep a library of books here. Let's just help Carmok. Because he's apparently never heard of jump around. I have. Here's a book called What It Means to Be a Badger by Barry Elvarez. Well, it's actually Justin Dordey wrote it. You were down 27 to 13 and you did the jump around going to the fourth. That's actually for Wisconsin to still be in the game at that point. That's an offer he's in a jump around. I mean, that's a good job by you. I'm proud of you. Yeah, you you would have the end of every third quarter. It's just a no matter what. I got to get to my daughter soccer practice. But since we're on the topic, like

1:16:15the 2012 Roseball was a very important moment in my life that you'll respect Carm and maybe Greg will someday learn. But that game taught me that when you go to these bigger especially college football games, but the experience matters more than the result. Carb, who are you? Me? What is happening right now? Yeah. This is very impressive. No, but I'm being serious. This was the Roseball we played Oregon. Both teams scored it in the 40s. Russell Wilson was the cornerback. The Badgers had the ball basically ran out of time right outside the red zone at the end of the game. It was a phenomenal football game and it was an outstanding whole trip. My wife says, like, the best trip she's ever been on. So it's sometimes it's about the experience, not the game. So if you're losing to a team that you're supposed to be losing to in the third quarter and jump around comes on in your Lambo field, you jump around, especially when you're there with your 12 year old, getting to do it for the first time ever. Here's Game Day. Pat Richter has

1:17:16we got Why Not Wisconsin by Matt LaPay. And this is one you'll appreciate. It's from Red ink to roses. See who wrote that book? That's a good old Rick Talon or Wow. Talon to wrote that book. So you take these books home and you learn a little bit about the Badgers. Well, I didn't go to the Roseball one Northwestern lost to USC and Keisha and Johnson 41 to 32 and they and Brian Musso fun bowl and everything and everything else happened that shouldn't have happened in that game in Northwestern was at least could have won the game. Let me tell you something. I wouldn't I none of that felt good because they lost so good on you. I couldn't get over it. Gregory great job. Good to see you. Hogue has left the building. I actually know he's back. Good to see. Bradley. Good stuff with the diehards. You got anything else on the way out? Nope. That's it. We'll see everybody tomorrow at Utopian tailgate on the rooftop from six to 10 p.m. Excited to see everybody and get this season kicked off. It's going to be a really fun one. So see you tomorrow at Utopian. See you at the tailgate

1:18:18here, you know, and just over a week. Excited for all that. So bear down. It's more on ice. Give me a lot of fun. I know we got. Oh, we just have one super on the way out. Bradley Hasse. $2. Just to say his name correctly. Go. It's kind of more fun when we said it wrong though. Bradley, I got a new song for you coming back in and it goes like this. Bradley Bradley Hasse. You make us feel so good. $2. Hasse. $2. Hasse. Every day you know your Bradley Bradley Hasse. You make us feel so good. See you tomorrow, Hasse. See you tomorrow.