Bears Must PROVE It On MNF – Bears Talk #126

Bears Must PROVE It On MNF – Bears Talk #126

So that’s the thing Sammy is the person that I am rooting for the most. I think more than anything I think uh the last month not that I want to live this way where I’m like win or lose as long as Caleb wins good. You want to I mean it yes you want to see the quarter quarterback developing. You want to see the quarterback playing well that is a very important thing that to this season you sort of that’s probably the most important thing like if you’re if you’re in a You want your quarterback to be developing. I’ll say that. But I mean, for this week though, this is what I’m talking about this week. Um, talking about mental health, mind space, and everything. I want Tyreek Stevenson to be in a good spot. I just want him to be healthy because I know and it and it started already that and not that he not not that people were afraid of of showing the replay of the fail Mary but it’s just going to be such a big thing and everybody’s going to talk about it and you’re going to have all those people um who don’t normally cover the Bears uh hey Rich Eisen’s coming to town let’s talk about the fail Mary you know like that kind of stuff I want his mental health to be on the up and up and as a matter of fact I want him to make some great plays He doesn’t have to make a pick six or anything like that. He doesn’t have to have something where uh he leads off Sports Center, but I want to be able to sit down at the end of Sunday be like, “Hey, Tyreek Stevenson played a great game because I think he’s he’s not owed that, but he deserves it.” Not that deserved, but he’s worked hard for it is what I’m trying to say. He’s worked hard to put himself into a position where he is one of the most valuable players on the defense, and I would like to see him continue to get rewarded with that. And it’s uh it’s a big week. It’s a big week and I can’t wait to get started to talk about it. So Sammy, let’s start the show. Turn up your volume because you’re about to listen to the sick podcast with Adam Ray. It’s Hester trying to work it back to the middle. Gets past the first wave and here he goes. It’s Hester inside the 30. Ptor’s going to take it all the way for a touchdown and no flag 92 yds. The sickest Chicago Bears and fantasy football podcast. Sports entertainment like no other. It’s going to be sick. What is up everybody? Welcome to the sick podcast with Adam Rank. Time for some Bears talk. we do a collaboration with just another year Chicago and Nick Rod is going to be joining us here in just a matter of minutes. I just want to get everybody up to date on everything that will be happening this week here at the sick podcast with Adam Rake. Monday night we already did fantasy isle if you want to go out and uh listen to some of the some of the key things you’re going to need to know for this fantasy football week that is week six. We talked about Jakori Kroski merit in that show what a great fantasy play he is going to be. you want to check that out, you can go to the YouTube page. You can download the app. Download the app. Download the podcast, excuse me. Go out there and take that on. Uh Wednesday night, uh we’ll have uh take it to the rank. Greg Braggs, I think, is back from Chicago. I don’t know. Or from Las Vegas, I should say. I don’t know what the Cubs playoff schedule is. So, maybe maybe Greg will be here with us. We’ll have a preview on Friday over the weekend. And of course after the game on Sunday or excuse me after the game on Monday, uh we’ll be breaking it down. I don’t know what we’re going to do Monday before the show. Usually we have Kendall Valenuela. Uh we’ll figure that out. But right now joining the show from just another year Chicago, one of the great Bears creators out there and we’re so happy to have him on our air of waves. Please welcome back our co-host for the afternoon, Nick Roie. Nick, listen brother. Um, I don’t I now am too invested in baseball when I don’t want to be. I’ve been checked out of baseball since July. Uh, but you guys have brought me back in. How are you doing, though? You dropped two at home in Milwaukee. How are you doing? I’m doing great. Why? Because I am undefeated at Wrigley all season long this year. So, I am 8 and0 and I am going again tomorrow. Uh, so Wednesday, October 8th. So, real October baseball at Wrigley. It’s gonna be 60 degrees. It’s gonna be awesome. Hoodies ready to go. The Brewers have everything to lose here because let’s just say they lose three in a row to the Cubs and the Cubs go to the next round. That’s on the Brewers. So, I think that Craig Consil’s definitely got a little bit of a uh something up his sleeve, but the guys last night, they just looked so good in the first inning. Michael Bush let off game one with a leadoff home run and then say I hit a three-run homer and I’m like oh my gosh like we’re going to do it again like we’re good like no worries and then we obviously did not do well at the end. So I’m excited for tomorrow. I hope that it goes well. Obviously the bank account’s hurting but it’s worth it for the Cubs. Maybe the Cubs will send me for free. Who knows? Hopefully they should do that. Uh they they should take care of you and look out for you. I was shocked, as a matter of fact, listening to the crowd in Milwaukee just because I’m not used to hearing that many Brewer fans in one spot. It’s usually it’s it’s one of the biggest bandwagon towns as far as baseball goes. For as much as like they crow about, oh, we the Packers have sold out season tickets till 2097 or whatever it is. You’re like that the Brewer games are always taken over by the Cubs fans or the Cardinals fans or just about anybody. Uh so it is it is odd. You’re like, “Where?” Like, “Oh god, I didn’t know there was that many Brewer fans, but now it’s just starting to sound like sour grapes.” I say that as somebody who’s not really I’m not a Cubs fan. I am uh but I’m rooting for my Chicago brethren to go out there and get a dub. But more importantly, you go out there. I know you got baseball to distract yourself with, but this this is the game probably more so than any other game outside of our division. Well, for sure our divisional opponents. I will even say maybe even more than our divisional opponents. Washington, the Commanders. This feels like such a big one. What are your thoughts? How are you feeling coming into this game? Because Washington’s coming off a huge victory in Sofi Stadium, beating the Chargers pretty convincingly. Uh how are you feeling going into this one? Uh, you know, there’s so much redemption here. Like Ben Johnson, he said himself he, you know, he doesn’t want to change the past. He wants to, you know, obviously set us into the right direction in the future. And if it wasn’t for the Hail Mary, we wouldn’t even be talking about this Commander game. Be the other way around that the Commanders are trying to obviously come back. They’re trying to, you know, make up for last season. And the Bears after their by-week playing in Washington again in prime time football. I kind of love it. I mean, Tyreek Stevenson has been, you were kind of talking about it earlier in the show, but how Tyreek Stevenson is the big person to talk about and he’s been on fire the last two weeks entering the buy. Um, this is his game for redemption. You’re going to see some him go absolutely as hard as possible. Kyler Gordon saying he’s coming back and playing not even a couple hours ago. So, we’re going to get him back. But the Bears secondary, I still think Stephvenson’s going to go wide receiver one. And if Scary Terry is playing this upcoming week and with Jaden Daniels doing what he did against the Chargers, this is going to be a really exciting game. And this is also for Caleb to be like, “Listen, I’m here. It’s my league. I’m the number one pick and here’s why.” And make a statement on Monday Night Football. So, I I am amped up for Monday night in Washington. No, I am as well. I am. You know, I I get nervous sometimes, but that’s okay. I think it just means because you want to go out there and you want to win these games. We did see over on Sunday night, Sunday Night Football, Drake May looked absolutely fantastic. I think it’s inevitable because last season it was always like, well, you guys should have picked Jaden Daniels and now it’s like, oh, you guys should have put picked Drake May. Like, is it possible, and I know this is going to be an outlandish statement, and I’ll bring in uh I’ll bring in Bo Nicks into this conversation as well. Is it possible that four teams, maybe even the Falcons, maybe even the Vikings, but at least four teams can just be happy with the quarterback that they drafted and be like, “Yeah, we’re good.” Like, I think our guy’s pretty good as well. Yeah. I I don’t get it. Like, why are we making this such a large comparison? And I’ve never seen so much hate for a number one pick like Caleb. You know what I mean? Like, everyone is everyone’s doing great. I’m happy for Bo Knicks. I I really like Bo Knicks. If we didn’t end up getting Caleb Williams, I would have been like, “Yeah, give me Bo Knicks.” I’m really happy for Drake May, obviously seeing that he went to North Carolina, kind of gave me flashbacks to Trabiscy. But I’m happy the kid is progressing. I am not wishing any failure amongst any of these guys because as a Bears fan, we know what it’s like to have that and to have someone that didn’t have the support system and then on top of it, not meet expectations. So seeing Drake May rip apart the Bills, loved it. that shows that because when the Patriots are good, I feel like the NFL is more fun. I don’t know why. That’s maybe what I grew up on. Uh but also, you know, JJ McCarthy, we don’t know much about him. Michael Pennix, you know, Kurt Cousins practically is making what 2530 $30 million on the bench because of him. And you know, it’s cool to see these guys progress. And Jaden Daniels we knew was going to be a good quarterback. It’s just that if you take Caleb out of this draft class, who who’s the next one to get hate on? That’s That’s just my first thought. Bo Knicks. Bo Knicks. Bon Knicks probably. Yeah, they go I think quarterback. They for whatever. I don’t know how it’s worked out this way. And especially it’s it’s interesting considering the fact that Drake May plays for the Patriots, a team that a lot of people hated for so long that Drake May and Jaden just like they can do nothing wrong. They’ll you cannot question them. You cannot be like, “Hey, I’ve noticed.” Oh, you you can’t point any of that stuff out with either one of those quarterbacks. And I will bring Bon Knicks into this, but like B Knicks, Bo Knicks and Caleb will never do will never do anything good enough to to satisfy the haters. Bicks, Boon Knicks and Caleb Williams could go out and win the next eight Super Bowls and people would still be like, “Yeah, but you could have had Drake May. Yeah, you could have had Jaden D.” They they will not. Bo Nicks and uh Caleb Williams are never going to get the benefit of the doubt forever. Forever. And I it’s but Jaylen Her Jaylen Herz is a second round pick obviously. He’s also in that category too, I believe. Like here you’re nothing there’s nothing you could do. Sorry Jaylen, you’re never getting credit ever for being a good quarterback. There’s just some guys and it’s not like there’s not a there’s not a common thread like you would normally think or anything like that, but like these are the guys that everybody’s decided to hate on. How do you feel about I think one of the biggest things that I’m most interested to see is how Ben Johnson responds coming out of the by-week because I I saw a statistic today somebody had somebody had posted you know the Bears forgive me if I have this wrong but it’s something to the effect of like there they’ve won one out of their last 14 games after the buy something terrible like they’re they have not done well out of the VI over at least the last decade which is fine But uh you have it. No, no, it was Brendan. It was Brendan uh Shagru. He he tweeted that out this morning and I was like, man, not a good look, obviously. Yeah, but you’re like Shagru. Okay. I didn’t realize it was Shagru because I would have I would have called him and given him the what for it and been like, bro, Ben Johnson didn’t coach any one of those teams. That’s the best part of all of this is like none of that matters. None of this historical stuff. None of this like, hey, the Bears are this record in Washington over the It doesn’t matter because the team same tra change so drastically yearover-year, decade over decade. It doesn’t matter what Matt Naggie and John Fox and uh Matt Eberlu did out of the B. This is Ben Johnson. I think this is the biggest thing. This to me, and forgive me, I’m I’m curious as how you feel about this. This to me is one of the biggest litmus tests for Ben Johnson. This is really one of the things like if and I’m not saying like if if the Bears play poorly, uh his career is over, but I want to say I’m really curious to see how Ben how Ben Johnson responds to his first ever byee. I I think that, you know, if you look back at Detroit in the last two seasons, they won their back-to-back by week. So, he kind of h he has that experience of what it’s like to win if we’re if we’re really bringing it down to an analytical level. That being said, I he’s look how he prepared them after arguably one of the worst losses in the last decade for the Bears after that Lions game. He was able to listen, I’m missing three, four starters right now. I still don’t know who my left tackle is. I have a quarterback that struggled and could have made better throws. He comes out and he rips up the Cowboys, which Cowboys have been putting up what they do 40 points against Green Bay and then they again Yeah, they’ve been that offense has looked great in the fact that the Bears he was able to talk to Dennis Allen and adjust to make sure that the Cowboys didn’t score more than 14 points. That was the lowest scoring game against for the Bears defense this year and against one of the best offenses in the NFL. So Ben Johnson being able to communicate with his coach is make these adjustments also get these players back that he’s getting. The guys are rested up. They have more film. They’ve been able to study the last couple of weeks. And that’s a big thing for Chicago. I think that the Bears are going to come out swinging out of this by week. And Ben Johnson, we’ve mentioned on the show a few times said, “We’re still behind the eightball. I’m not satisfied till we’re uh ahead of it.” And this is his opportunity to finally go above 500 for the first time in his NFL career. He’s going to bring out all the tricks. He’s going to make sure that defense is ready to go. And also getting Austin Booker back and Kyler Gordon and TJ Edwards is going to be big for this upcoming Monday. Yeah, it’s one of the things that I believe gets overlooked with this Bears defense. Now, what happened with Detroit is inexcusable. I’m not even going to try to rationalize that. However, JJ McCarthy had one good quarter against uh the Bears. Uh the Raiders weren’t able to do anything. and Dak Prescott, who right now is the quarterback five in fantasy football, scored 14 points against this Bears defense, which I think is significant because obviously the the Lions game did happen. But outside of that, they have played pretty well against some of these opponents this season. So to me, I think that’s a positive sign for the Chicago Bears. And I know I don’t mean to bring fantasy to our reality conversation, but I also want to point out why win your fantasy league when you can go out there and rule it. Too often your fantasy league is ended with a cheap plastic trophy. A couple of GGs in a good in a in a group chat. That ain’t it. We’re talking about crown champs, baby. Crown Champs just dropped the hottest thing that fantasy football has ever seen. A real handcrafted premium championship crown. It’s just $2.99 per month per person and you can go out there and show the world that you do not win your fantasy league, you rule it. Go to crownchampsc.com. That’s crownchampsco company.com. Don’t just win your fantasy league, go out there and rule it. And by the way, I also wanted to give a big apology to uh Greg Gabriel who uh reached out to me today. He’s like, “Can you can you come on to the show?” And I’m like, “Uh, Greg, I cannot. Tuesdays are so hard for me. The only thing that gets me through Tuesdays, our friends at Hule. This protein powder gets me through these long days. I did NFL fantasy live this morning. I came back. We’re hanging out with Nick. Going to be doing the uh the after hour with Jim Rome here in about 40 minutes. Got soccer training. It’s Taco Tuesday. The only thing that’s been keeping me going so far though is Hule protein powder. You can go out, you can make it in a shake. You can go out there. You can have the bottles. I actually made the shake today uh because I wasn’t super lazy. Uh and it’s great. You can go to uh heel.com/sickbears for 15% off your first order. Don’t go to Costco. Don’t go to I thought I think GNC is out of business now. I think all the I think Ryaid bought them. I think Ryaid bought them and they’re whatever. Uh no, go to hule.com/sickbears. Go take the protein powder or use the protein powder that I feel is the best that I’ve ever had. I’ve I’ve done them all. I’ve done them all, Nick. Uh it’s an amazing product and it’s keeping me going. That’s how I’m so chipper. They’re like, “Where do you find the energy?” I’m like, “Hule hule is my fuel.” I don’t know if they they named it that way on purpose, but uh it’s the way that I feel. I will tell you though, we talk about Jaden Daniels and Jaden Daniels did he was he was fine against the Chargers. The big thing for me, and this is something we need to be worried about, and I talked about this in the cold open for for a moment or in the opening in the intro, h Jaka Kroski Merritt looked like a stud. He averaged uh 6.6 yards per carry against the Chargers. A pretty decent run defense. The Bears are coming off a game where they allowed Ashton Genty to score three rushing touchdowns. You mentioned some of the guys coming back with TJ Edwards and Kyler Gordon and Austin Booker. Is that going to be enough to slow down this Commander rushing attack? I will say that after what Las Vegas did to us, what Dallas did to us, averaging over six and a half yards per carry, and then seeing Washington just did that against the Chargers, I’m a little nervous. Full transparency. I, you know, Grady Jarrett is still not practicing dealing with that knee injury according to the media today. Shout out to Zack Pearson for that one. I hope to see Javon Dexter, Andrew Billings kind of step up. Shamar Turner step up. That being said, that doesn’t mean I’m not nervous for this upcoming uh Monday night against that rushing attack because that’s where everyone knows that the Bears weakness is. The Bears rush defense has been is the second worst in the NFL right now. And I just haven’t seen that pop from Andrew Billings that we saw before his pectoral injury. And it’s funny because he said he put on 25 pounds of muscle this off season. So, Bears need to find a way to stop that run. That being said, getting TJ Edwards back in Kyler Gordon, which Edwards is great against the run, but also Kyler Gordon is one of the best defensive backs against the run. I’m feeling a little bit more confident. And that’s what I was kind of saying earlier, those adjustments that Dennis Allen and Ben Johnson were able to make for Dallas, the communication they’ve had. Now, they’ve going to have a full two weeks in order to heal up, but also have a game plan put in place. They have to stop that Washington run, though, because if they establish the run, then they’re gonna establish the pass and then we’re going to be in really big trouble. Even though the defensive backs have been playing great, we have to find a way to keep the guys under four yards per carry. No, it’s true. And it’s one of those things that when you watch Jaden Daniels in that game against the Chargers, obviously playing with an EBR, something he didn’t like, but said he was going to do as long as it allows him to go out there and get on the field. One of the things that I noticed in that game was that Jake Daniels still ran the ball. like he ran, but the designed runs were tapered down a little bit. I don’t know if that’s something that we’ll see this week against Chicago if perhaps they will allow him a little bit more flexibility to go out there and run, but it was something being able to corral that running attack and trying to make Jaden Daniels make throws. And this isn’t to say I know that they used to always diminish Justin Fields in this way, but when you force when you keep Jaden Daniels in the pocket, that is the best way to slow him down. Now, I’m not saying he’s not a good quarterback, but I’m that’s got to be the best way to slow him down. Yeah, 100%. I mean, you’re able to and remember, he is playing injured. Like, he does he has had an injury this year. So, if you’re able to give him a nice pop, if you’re able to make him uncomfortable in the pocket where he’s not able to rush, and also he’s definitely not going to want to get hit by Tummaine Edmonds. He’s not going to want to get hit by uh TJ Edwards. And I don’t know if you remember the pop from last week that Jonathan Owens put on. Uh who was it? It was on Las Vegas. I forgot who on Las Vegas they put the pop on, but those pads popped hard. and you know that people are going to be watching that film and in the quarterback room with the wide receivers, they’re definitely going, I might not run against this guy unless I know my sliding ability is good. So, I think if they’re able to stop Jaden Daniels from rushing outside the pocket, constantly leave a spy on him, play man-to-man coverage, that’s what’s going to help make him less effective because the second Jaden Daniels uses his legs, it opens up the rest of the ball game for the opposing for Washington as a whole. Yeah, I was looking at even this year with him missing uh some time and I was looking at a split of how much of their rushing. I know it’s it’s a fantasy metric, but how much of their their production comes from running versus passing with Caleb. And this is based on fantasy points. 80% of Caleb Williams fantasy points have come on passing the football, which as much as you think he’s a good runner, it is a pretty good split for him for somebody who’s using his running ability just to set up the pass a little bit. So, that’s one of the things we need to slow down against Jaden Daniels. Again, he can sit in a quarterback, he can sit in a pocket and carve teams up, but he’s a much more effective player when he’s able to get out of the pocket and make some plays. Extend some drives with his legs, too. too often you get in a third down. Even if it’s third and long, Jaden Daniels still has the ability to go out there. And we saw that last week that even though he was playing in a knee brace, there were times he picked up a first down or two at least where he went out there and was able to do it with his legs. On the Bears side of the field of the offensive side, who is do we know who’s playing left tackle? Has that been finalized yet or are we still speculating? So, the speculation is because during Ben Johnson’s press conference today, he looked over and he was asked who’s going to be starting left tackle. He’s like, I think we have a pretty good idea who that’s going to be. And you don’t bench someone and be like, yeah, we’re going to give him another shot next week. Sounds like it’s going to be Theo Benedict from reports. That being said, nothing has been confirmed, but hey, listen, Ben Johnson makes that call, I’m all for it. I think Theo Benedict has done a really good job. Uh he only allowed two pressures last week which I thought was really impressive and both of those were against Max Crosby. So no pressures when he was moved to the left side. I think that he could be the left tackle for the foreseeable future. That being said, he might shock some people with that smirk and put Azie Trapillo out there. So we might see that rotation that we saw during the preseason. I’m excited though. It’s change needed to happen. Braxton Jones is a fine player, but he’s not an elite left tackle. He’s not a great left tackle. He’s not a good He’s fine. He’s a good serviceable left tackle. And we can’t be fine with serviceable at the blind side spot. So, I like what the Bears are doing. I like that Ben Johnson is taking this forward, making this a good idea. Um, and we’ll see what he does against Washington, which who has a pretty tough defensive line. No, they they obviously a lot of the for for the longest time they had so many first rounders on the defensive line, including Montes Sweat, Chase Young, players like that. Even without them, they’ve still gone out there and done a a really nice job defensively, especially with Dan Quinn being the head coach of that team. Obviously, their defense is going to come to play. What is a challenge for Caleb Williams? Who is going to step up at the running of in the running attack as well? I floated this out last week as a idea. I don’t know if this will ever happen. I don’t know if this will ever come to fruition. I feel like, and this is my this is my personal feeling. I’m not getting anything from the coaches. Nobody in the organization has mentioned this to me at all, but having Kyle Manungi, what I’ve seen out of Kyle Manungai, he seems like an early down back to me with DeAndre Swift coming in as a third down guy, as a passing down guy. I don’t know. I don’t know where you come out on this. What What is your feel on the Bears running back situation? We need to use him. Like, why are we not using Kyle Manungai? Like, he has I don’t know what is it, 10 carries so far this year. He’s averaging three yards a carry. Like DeAndre Swift, we’re paying him a lot of money, but also you got you drafted this kid out of Ruckers who apparently was a steal of the draft and we’re not even using him. He doesn’t. That being said, people are like, “Oh, he has better vision than DeAndre Swift.” DeAndre Swift is 5’8. Kungai is also 5’8. So, we have very short running backs and if you’re are 5’8, if anyone watching is 5’8, that listen, that’s average. But in the NFL, that is small. That is that’s small. Yeah. So, I think that we should be using Manungai because he is younger. He is faster. He can bulldoze over guys. He can block really well, too. I want to see more of him just like you. And we started to see him, excuse me, against uh the Raiders, but we didn’t see enough of him to get a rhythm going. We also did get Travis Homer back this week. We haven’t been using Rashawn Johnson, which that whole situation’s weird. This is like the Khil Herbert thing all over again where we have a guy and we don’t even use him that has shown he can be effective. So the running back room is weird to me. But I’m with you. I want to see Kyle Manungai get a ton of touches this week. And if Ben decides to start him this week, I would not be upset about that either. Yeah, let’s get weird. Let’s uh let’s see what’s going on. Actually, I think that I think Juice ended up I think Juice is working out with a team right now, too. Or he signed with somebody. I gotta remember I remember his name coming up in the uh transaction report practice squad somebody with last week uh which is really interesting but I’m I’m a huge fan of Kyle Manungai. I know that during the offseason leading up to the uh to the training camp I was going out there and buying a bunch of Kyle Manungi trading cards. And speaking of trading cards, if you are a fan of Chicago sports, you got to be getting your trading cards at Windy City Sports Cards. at Wendy City Sports Guards. They specialize in everything Chicago sports. Whether you’re a fan of the Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Socks, Blackhawks, Sky or Fire, Windy City Sports Cards have got you covered with an extensive collection of sports memorabilia and collectibles. I have our card. I left it over there again. I am so stupid. Uh, tomorrow’s show. There it is. Ah, by the way, Greg Brags, that’s the nicest photo I’ve ever seen of Greg Braggs. That really is. I don’t mean that in a weird I don’t mean to be weird or anything like that. That’s a really good photo. That was of Greg Braggs on vacation until he started posting topless photos of himself at Circa. Uh but until that time, but still Wendy City Sports Guard is the place to be. And even if you’re not even if you uh like sports outside of Chicago, if you wanted to go out and get a Kobe card or if you wanted to go get a show Otani card, Witty City Sports Cards is the place to be. So much great great stuff. And I thank uh Big Mike for uh for hooking me up uh with all that great stuff. Caleb Williams this week, what are we hoping what do we hope to see out of Caleb Williams? Uh is it I don’t want to be back in the days. Uh it reminds me of the Justin Fields days where we’re like, ah, win or lose, I just want our quarterback to play well. I think we’ve moved past that. What do we What do we want to see out of Caleb Williams this week? So, I was just looking up when when did Calebs have his Caleb Williams have his first 300 yard passing game. He did that before the buy and he did that in week two last year. So, same time period after that. He did not have a 300 yard passing game for the next five weeks. Oh boy. I was like, okay, when are we going to have that soon? I think he hasn’t had one yet this year. He’s hungry to hit that 300 mark. He also knows that he is behind now for pacing for 4,000 yards in 17 games. Eric Kramer said, “If he breaks it in 16, then I’ll be happy for him. But if he does it in 17, that’s my record still stands.” And I was like, “Okay, fine, Eric. That’s very fair.” All right, Eric. That’s very fair. That’s very fair. That being said, I think Caleb’s going to come out and sling it. I think that he is going to have a 300 plus passing yard game. I think he’s going to throw for three touchdowns. He probably will have an interception because, you know, it’s after the bye-week, but we’re going to know mistakes. I think Caleb’s gonna have his biggest game of the year this year. And I think that he’s going to be more aggressive with his legs. We’ve seen that more over the last couple of weeks. We’ve seen him make smarter decisions throwing it out of bounds, but also if he sees something open that he can take in himself versus just trying to force a pass, he’s going to. And I think he’s going to do that against the Commanders. He knows that every play is going to count against this team, especially what they just did against the Chargers. So, I’m expecting a big week out of Caleb. Also having knowing that the defense is healthy and uh how well Roma Dunay has been doing, which I’m sure we can talk about in a little bit, but Roma’s just been on fire. I love that guy. He’s great. Talk about it right now. How I mean, obviously, we saw Marvin Marvin Harrison Jr. is now starting to get better. uh starting to get into the mix a little bit more, but like Malik Neighbors is out. Brian Thomas Jr. seems lost. Lad Maki has been overshadowed by the other guys in the Chargers receiving room, although he did play well on Sunday against the Commanders and might eventually get back over on Quinton Johnson. But I think for sure, and I don’t even think this is a hot take, but Roma Dunay is the best wide receiver of last year’s class by far. I mean, Brian Thomas Jr. looked really good last year and I was very high on him. I was like, man, I wish we would have had that guy. But teams are going to figure him out. Rome, I love how things worked out for Rome. Everything happens for a reason. Rome had a respectful season, three receiving touchdowns, but over 700 yards. He was the Bears number one yard per catch wide receiver in 2024 and 2025, 2025, 2026. He is killing it right now. first Bears player to have four touchdowns in the first four games of the season since Walter Payton in 1984. And the best part about him is that he’s just touching the surface. In Ben Johnson’s offense, teams only had four games of film on him. So, they don’t know still what he could have in his back pocket. And honestly, Roma hasn’t done anything crazy. He’s run basic slant routes. He’s just gotten open and used his speed. He hasn’t made those crazy catches yet. He hasn’t made, you know, a juke move that breaks ankles. He’s just touching the service. And I think for me personally, Adam, I think Rome is going to have another big game. I think he’s going to keep the receiving streak up. Caleb’s number one target and that’s why you drafted him backtoback uh one and nine in the first round 24. So, I think Rome’s been doing a fantastic job so far. How do you feel about DJ Moore? Because I know a lot of people have been trying to nitpick it, trying to act like DJ Moore doesn’t care, doesn’t want to be here. I think DJ I I loved I’ve loved this attitude. I thought that him going up to Caleb after the win against the Raiders like that when that kick was blocked, the first person to grab Caleb was DJ Moore. Uh we saw him goofing around at photo day yesterday. I I have no concerns whatsoever about DJ Moore. How about you? No concerns. Like he’s just a chill, you know, the meme chill guy like hands in the pocket, kind of just stands in the corner. Yeah, that’s who DJ Moore is on this Bears team. He’s just a chill guy. He goes out there. He knows what It’s not like he’s having a bad season either. Like he’s averaging over 10 yards per catch. And this is a good problem for Bears fans to have. They think that Rome and DJ should both have 150 plus yards per game. No. Yeah. Like they’re going to be balanced, but both of them are on pace to have really good seasons, and that’s all you want out of this offense. And this is the first year with this offensive playbook. J uh Ben Johnson has DJ Moore for five more years with that contract extension. He hasn’t even touched the extension money yet. That starts next year. He has Rome for this year and two more years after on a rookie contract. Same with Caleb. These three are going to be a three-headed monster. They’re just figuring out balance. And also, they’re two different styles of wide receiver. DJ Moore gets you the first downs. He bulldozes over bigger defenders because he’s just built like a tank. Roma Dun is taller, lankier, goes up for jump balls. So having both of those guys together is great. And then Luther Burden thrown in the mix is fine. Like I think that’s huge for this Bears. Good to have weapons like that. But DJ Moore is totally fine. He’s not upset. He’s not getting traded. You see these reports, you talk about the We talk about these reports, but he’s not going anywhere. We didn’t sign him for that much money to just trade him a year later. No. It’s one of the reasons why I I truly believe this is one of the reasons why they signed him was because wanted to erase all that doubt in case anything in case Roman started playing really well, in case they were going to bring in other weapons. You don’t have to worry about him. Like a lot of times when these receivers get upset and they’re losing out on targets, you’re like, “Well, you’re taking money out of you’re you’re taking money out of my pocket because otherwise I’d get paid somewhere.” He’s already getting paid by the Bears, so he’s fine. It’s a non-story for me. Uh, and I love what we’ve seen out of out of DJ Moore and all of his attitude and everything like that. I think it’s been a I think it’s been a positive spark. Not everybody has to be the same the exact same personality. Let DJ Moore be his be himself. For anybody who’s a wrestling fan, he’s kind of like the Orange Cassidy of the NFL, and I’m super fine with that. All right, before we get out of here, prediction for for Monday. Uh, how do you see this one working out? It’s going to be a shootout. I mean, I think that both teams are going to come in like Washington’s super confident coming off that big win, but Chicago twoame winning streak. They don’t want to obviously repeat what happened last time. Defense is going to be super locked in. They get back some key pieces. I got this one going in the Bears favor obviously and I’m going to go 2821. I think that what’s going to happen is both teams are going to come out swinging in the first. Second and third are going to be defensive matchups and then the fourth is going to be another nailbiter because why not? Monday Night Football. Everyone’s watching this game because of what happened last time. They want to see Bears fans get their hearts broken again, but it’s not going to happen this time. You have a new coach, you have a new staff, you have a new line. Caleb’s looking a lot better and this defense is going to be almost fully back and locked in. So, I got a Bears 2821 win on Monday Night Football. Love to hear it. By the way, for those of you who are uh obviously not going to Washington, if you are looking for some place to watch the game on Monday night, might I recommend Twisted Shamrock, the place to be for Chicago sports, again, if you’re a fan of the Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Socks, Blackhawks, Sky or Fire, you should be watching the games at Twisted Shamrock. They have got monster televisions in the private party room, over the main bar, and of course out on their awesome patio. Today, a little bit rainy in Chicago. Maybe the patio wasn’t as hype as it normally is, but as long as there is good weather, the patio is the place to be. And not only do they have the monster screen TVs, they’ve got a great staff, they’ve got a great menu, they’ve got drink specials, bucket specials, all sorts of stuff, the best bartenders going, the best management all the way around, a great experience at Twisted Shamrock. And might I also say, the greatest old-fashioned in the entirety of the Midwest. So, if you’re looking for a place to be to watch the game, not only on Monday night, but on Sunday, you want to go out there and watch some games, make sure you go to Twisted Shamrock there in the heart of Chicago. So, Nick, want to thank you so much uh for joining us. We enjoy our Tuesdays. It’s always a lot of fun. What do you got for the rest of the week? We know you’re going to the Cubs game on Wednesday and Thursday. What do you got going on the rest of the week? Um, this week I think I’m just gonna be preparing for Monday night because I’ve missed Bears football so much. So, yeah. Uh, all focus right now is on the Cubs and then after that maybe I’ll be over at uh the Twisted Shamrock having an old fashion on Friday to celebrate the weekend. You should be doing that. All right, Nick. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks to all of you for being here. We’ll see you Wednesday night for Take It to the Rank for Nick. I’m Adam. Bear down and Sammy, go ahead and play us out. And that’s a wrap. Hope you don’t miss us too much. Until next time, follow the Sick Podcast with Adam Rank on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Google Play, and Apple Podcasts.

On this episode of The Sick Podcast, Nic from Just Another Year Chicago joins Adam Rank to discuss the Chicago Bears upcoming matchup versus the Washington Commanders, how the Bears must prove it on primetime, if DJ Moore will stay with the Bears and more!

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