Olin Kreutz talks Bears’ left tackle situation & Tyrique Stevenson’s development | Spiegel & Holmes

Olin Kreutz talks Bears’ left tackle situation & Tyrique Stevenson’s development | Spiegel & Holmes

Thank you for having me, man. It’s goodbye week. Bears on a twoame win streak. Cubs are winning. Illinois won and Northwestern won. We’re winning all over the place. It seriously. Oh, this is like a really good sports moment. And and we haven’t had a lot of them. We’ve railed on the Bears for years now with consistency. And the White Socks were the worst team in baseball. Then they got 20 games better and they were the second worst team in baseball. I mean, like, this is They still got better, though. Yes, they did. This is a This is a rare good moment. Um, what can that mean for a football team on a buy to be sitting in a good spot with an opportunity to still get better? Well, it’s good to change your culture, right, that we talked about, and we heard Ben Johnson talk about, and a lot of players talk about this week, the fact that they have to learn how to win in that building. And when when Coach Johnson came in here, he talked about how he talked to people and they said, “Just let the Bears bears, right? they they’ll find a way to lose games. So to win a couple games and we know it took eight takeaways to win those two games and a lot of things had to happen but they still won and they won while not looking too good and finding a way to win games that we kind of got used to them losing. So, as far as culture goes, as far as selling the fact that look guys, focus details, right, they’re now 2 and 0 since coach Johnson challenged them to focus more walkthroughs through the media and obviously a lot of them were didn’t take that well, but looks like they did take it well, right? So, uh, finding ways to win and there wasn’t a lot of details out there verse the Las Vegas Raiders, but they walk away with a onepoint win and a win is a win in the NFL. It’s hard to win. So, uh, they can take that away from it. And guys are a little more coachable after losses. And just guys, as you guys know, very important to get that buy in from your locker room when you’re a brand new coach. The motivation aspect in the NFL is always fascinating to me because it’s a league filled with guys that are selfarters, but then you have to take that like next step to develop as a pro. With Tyreek Stevenson, it seems like their choice is we’re not going to give him praise. We’re not going to go over the top. We’re going to stay on him to and maybe even doubt him a little bit to try to get the most out of him for the last two weeks. It’s worked. Why is Tyreek Stevenson having success on the tape? It it looks like Al Harris has got through to him on how to play cornerbacks, how to focus on every down and probably how to improve his practice habits, Lawrence. And that’s what shows through on tape is that he you can tell the way he’s playing that position now. The way he’s recognizing down and distance routes, alignments, guys that he’s on, expecting what routes to run. That was a great uh, you know, interception he had against Gino to open the third quarter, right? We got to give Chip Kelly a game ball since he was averaging eight yards a carry and decided to run a naked boot with Gino Smith. Whatever. But listen, uh you still got to make the play, Lawrence, right? You have to make that play. And I just see that on film and maybe guys having a guy like Al Harris as his coach who he knows has done it right. Maybe kind of a similar body type, similar personality, a guy who played the position like he plays it. And guys, that’s invaluable, man. When you have a guy who’s actually done it as your coach on the highest level, the respect is automatic, right? We always talk about learning from the older guys, having veteran presence in Hall to teach the young guys how to prepare, how to become pros. What we saw for two weeks, and I don’t want to go overboard, but what we saw for two weeks was a guy who’s becoming a pro, who’s becoming a professional. As you guys know, it takes more than two weeks, but for two weeks, we have saw that on film. It’s it’s it’s pretty easy to describe when you see a guy all said, “Oh, look, he kind of knew what route they were going to run down.” He was expecting that his footwork was good. His hand fighting was good. He aligned in the right place. He didn’t give the guy a free catch. You’re watching all those things on film, man, for two weeks. And hopefully at at some point that kind of success becomes what he wants more of, right? That’s his incentive, man. I enjoy playing good football. I enjoy making a big interception and I enjoy what a lot of guys enjoy in the NFL, the huge contract coming my way. Let’s stay on that for a second and and talk about veteran leadership. I got hyped. Oh, like you’ve watched games with me. I I I’m I’m fairly low-key when it comes. But I got hype on the buyer interceptions because I saw a guy who clearly watched film and the way that he baited Gino Smith into those throws. I loved seeing him because that’s a guy that, you know, takes his job very seriously. Yeah. And let’s start with Dennis Allen’s simulated pressure for two weeks in a row against veteran quarterbacks who played a lot of football, right? Walking seven guys up, showing them a look and then boom, uh, dropping back into a looked like it was cover three or maybe cover two invert. I don’t know what Byron was doing. He was he was just doing what, like you’re saying, what his film study told him to do and he baited Gino. made him look like he was going deep to the deep middle of the field and do and drove on two balls in a row, man. And they were great plays, right? But, uh, it all worked together with the simulated pressure, which seems to be spooking these quarterbacks, right? And I’m very interested to watch. I’m sure you guys had Bowen on and he could do a lot better job explaining it than I can about the secondary. I’m like that guy, you know, you drive on the freeway and it those big signs when there’s construction says stay in your lane. That’s what I do, right? to explain to you about the the coverage and what they were in, but just from the film from the sideline angle when I was watching and I’ve been studying uh Dennis Allen’s third down package just because I I’m I’m curious and how it it like Dak Prescott and Gino Smith seemed confused by it. Didn’t know where to go with the ball. You seen Dak checking the ball down to the tight end. He broke the world record for throwing to the tight end in one game and then the next Gino Smith is throwing the ball to Byer twice on third down. So, uh, uh, Byron, of course, man, two big plays. Somebody’s got to make those plays, but also the defensive coordinator when not getting much pass rush, not stopping the run, but on third down, getting off the field. So, you can speak to what it feels like to be a center and an offensive line when that pressure comes. Because I think a lot of Bears fans are are seeing it and maybe learning about it and realizing cuz we have a guy who’s doing it. Like they’ll put on the defensive line, they’ll show seven or eight or nine up on the D line on some downs and then people drop off and it’s five coming or it’s four coming. Sometimes it’s seven coming and they’re from different spots. Like what does that do to an offensive line’s anxiety level at that point? You have to prepare, right? And you have to just trust the fact that sometimes you’re not going to be right. And and that’s what I that’s why I was curious if I didn’t bring that up cuz that’s why I was curious to watch it thinking thinking through protections to myself. Okay, who do we point here? What would our game plan be? Uh is is there anything that is there anything any repeatables? Right. Always look for repeatables. Are they bringing the same guy? Are they bringing Brisker all the time? Tummaine Edmonds. Are they bringing these other guys? No, they’re not. So, you just have to pick and then go and then the quarterback has to win, right? If the guys are coming free, the quarterback has to win. But it makes him think for just that extra second who is coming, who’s not coming. But guys, the guys on the back end, they have to be able to cover when you’re when you’re disguising that much, right? When you’re disguising, there will be one or two guys that maybe could run free. And that’s what Lawrence is talking about with buyers plays on the back end and the guys in coverage and the job that they’re doing right now because as you guys have seen, man, on first and second down, the run game is atrocious, right? in there. Oh, they they get guys to third down and they make huge plays there. I didn’t know. I didn’t know that when Ben Johnson was coming in. I didn’t know that he was just going to steal Lovey Smith’s template and force takeaways and that’s how we were going to win. Well, but it makes sense though when you’re saying like the offensive line has to just you have to expect your quarterback to win and it’s a difficult position. Um, let’s stay on the offensive line. Azie Trapillos saw time at right tackle. When and if Darnell Wright is back, would they dare consider moving Darnell Wright to left tackle in the middle of a season? Would you do that or does Theo Benedict stay there and and and Trapillo is back to a backup? I you know, could you move Darnell in the middle of a year? I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t. Especially coming off of injury and the fact that he didn’t work any of it in camp, right? He had no no reps at left half. Now, if you get to a position where you have to do it, right, where you have to, you know, say Theo gets injured or gets banged up or you got to move somebody over there, it’s probably going to be Darnell right if Braxton can’t go again. But I would think right now it’s going to be Theo at left tackle, Darnell Wright, if he is healthy at right tackle and then it’ll be interesting because Azie will be your swing tackle then, right? And then I guess he’ll come in for Darnell, right? And if the problem would be like you’re talking about is if Theo gets banged up, who goes to left tackle? Right. So that that’s the decisions they have to make up there at Hisaw. Now, it’s hard for me to say. I’m I’m not at practice. I don’t I’m not, you know, I’d have to go back and watch Dell right play left tackle at Tennessee and see what a set looks like and ask him like when’s the last time you took a left tackle set, right? Maybe coach Roshar is having him work some of that. Maybe they’ve been planning for this this I don’t know, right? Especially now with that UCL injury. I think that he I hear he has in his elbow. It’ll be interesting to see what they do with him. But, you know, we we knew guys coming into the year that this tackle spot was going to be a problem, right? And I told you guys from the beginning if if they start panicking and going after that left tackle spot, I’m going to get a little worried, right? Because that’s not the problem, right? The problem isn’t the fact that, okay, all of a sudden, uh, you know, our our lowest paid guy isn’t making plays. The problem is, like we talk about like the first pressure in the game, right? the center gets beat. The one sack they give up, they get beat by inside pressure on their inside three, right? That’s where all the money is. So, I just get a little worried when I start hearing everyone. The last thing I want to talk about all bye is the problem I knew they would have there. Look, you want to go to Theo, go ahead, right? I don’t think it’s going to fix that much, but go ahead and go with it. Right? Uh Braxton deserves to go to the bench for a little while. I think he had three mental mistakes on run plays in the game. You can’t have that in the NFL. So, you got to go with somebody else. I’m sure that’s where frustration came from and that’s why they made the change. What do you if it is Theo that goes out there and plays left tackle, how do you expect that defenses will try and attack him? I think that, you know, like the Raiders went after him the same way. He does duck his head sometimes, right, in pass pro. He does get out a little better than Braxton does with the silent count. So, and he will battle you. Uh, the run blocking was a little more efficient than Braxton. They didn’t get to the mic about five times on outside zone to the left the whole game. It really fascinated me, right? I mean, they didn’t get there with Braxton and and Tuni. They didn’t get there with Theo and and Tun. The only difference was one and Manungai ran through the mic and the other one Swift outran the mic in the second half. That was the difference in the run game in the second half. I think that they’ll definitely get their best rusher on a young left for Lawrence like you would do. They’re going to go after him. They’re going to bull rush him because he does duck his head and then when they when he bulls and ducks, they’re going they’re going to cut the corner on him. Uh I think the one time that uh um Caleb hit uh uh Rome on the out on third and five I think it was Clones ran right by Theo Benedict. So again, the guys the guys who are a lot of expected from the guys the first round picks the guys with all the money they’re going to have to raise the level of the guys that they put on the field with them. Olen Kroos is here with us on Spiegel and Holmes. Um, some of the guys went to the Cubs game on during during the by-week here. Coach went to the Cubs game. Uh, we saw him yesterday. We were out there and he went right he walked through the metal detector after one of our producers did and he was like, “Oh, he’s right there.” Man, he’s probably yelling at one of the announcers. [Music] Adi wasn’t doing that game. Um, Olan, did you ever did you ever go to a Cubs game uh while you were an active player or a White Sox game because the White Sox were winning a World Series when O was going to Pro Bowls? I I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Lawrence. I didn’t mean to offend your I’m just saying that delicate socks fans. I’m just I’m just matching up the times. When Olen was playing, the White Socks were really good. I’m so sorry. Jeez. No love for the Southside on this show. Guy’s a cultural white socks fan. He still gets feisty. Olen, do you ever go to a ball game during a football season? The one time I do remember it is Roberto Garza and Cinco de Mayo sang the 17th inning stretch, got a limo bus for us. We went down there. Uh ended up in Mo’s Cantina after that. And the next day, Harry Hean asked us because he could smell, you know, the the drinks in the room. He said, “Gosh, where were you guys?” I said, “Harry, I don’t know who Mo is, but he runs one hell of a canteen.” But I’ve been to both White Socks and Cubs games and enjoyed myself. Went this year when they had the Illinois had coach Beum and they took the captain down there uh to to a game and I watched them play. I think it was the Brewers and they won that game. So I’ve been to a few games down there. It’s a great place to watch a game obviously. Can Can that be good for a team? Was that good for you and Garza and the guys to go hang out together? Oh yeah, man. You know what they say, a team that drinks together wins together. You know, it’s like I I’ve done it with radio shows where we’re like we have a good time and the next day everybody’s got a little, you know, a little hangover, but like some walls are broken down. That happens sometimes. Plenty of time to do work, man. Do your work. Make sure you just get your work done and then go out there, have fun, get to know your teammates, uh build that camaraderie, and then like you’re saying speaks a lot of times that’s how you build your team. Uh that’s how you become one unit, one family, and you go out there and you win a lot of games together. And that was it.

On the Spiegel & Holmes Show, Score football analyst Olin Kreutz discussed the biggest Bears storylines during their bye week, including their messy situation at left tackle. Also, how does he feel about the Bears’ defense lately?

#ChicagoBears #OlinKreutz #nfl #bears

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