Hiya, I'm Elena, just your average walk-in-talking, dancing, singing puppet. A puppet that loves an LNER train journey. It beats the CER every time. I'm free to do all the things I love. Get lost in a true crime series. Type away like an office ninja. Or order yummy food and drinks to my seat. Or just have a cheaty power nap. And now, with more services and faster journey times, there's more freedom all the way with LNER. Selected routes only. Visit lner.co.uk slash timetable for details. Dave wants that. Can I call you Mr. Media Coach? Because Big Ten Network. Marquis, CHSN, the score. Take it time for us at CHGO Bears. If somebody had told you, Coach, that you would become this media maven, if you will, in the latter stages of your career, what would you have said? Well, no, I would not have thought about that. And obviously, I wouldn't have really thought that was a reality at one time, to be quite honest with you. I figured I'd coach till I couldn't do it anymore. And I just got to the point where it was kind of winding down. I was up here at Tampa just for a guy that was like six months. Greg Shion, it was in his last year. And he called me up and asked if I could come up and help him. And I said, yeah, I'll come up and try to help you. And obviously, we never got to go in that last year. And that's when my wife said, you know, this is kind of getting crazy. Haven't we had enough 40 years of this thing, 39 years, I think, at that time? And so I actually, in Chicago, Brian Harlan, who's my agent, I called up Brian, we were talking and he said, well, why don't you get on and audition at the Big 10? You know, Mark Halsey, the general manager down there, I've got a rapport with him. So I went on and did the audition thing and they liked it and they offered me a job. And then they, you know, Fox owns the Big 10. And so they called up, somehow the word got out to Fox and LA. And then Jimmy called me and said, hey, you know, the guys at Fox want to fly you out there. They're kind of impressed with you. I said, really? OK, Uncle Ott. So I went out and auditioned with them, I guess you call it. And next thing you know, I'm eight years working in LA every week doing NFL in college football. So and then the thing in Chicago kind of snowballed, you know, that I started picking up a little bit of this. There's some of the stuff on the score and some of these other things. And so it's really, I'm very fortunate. I'm very blessed to be able to do it. My health has been great. I feel good and, you know, there's really good people that I deal with in Chicago. And that's the deal with me. I mean, yeah, we all like making a little buck, but I, it keeps me busy. And if I'm with people that I want to be with, it's kind of how I am on the golf course. But I'm not going to play golf with anybody that I, you know, don't want to be with for four hours and have a cigar and enjoy the day. So that's kind of how I treat the media. Well, yeah. A tear just went down my eye. Go get here. But I just want to say, coach, you, you literally put a smile on everybody's face. At least I think I can speak for everybody when people see you. So it's, we appreciate the time. Go get in there. Yeah, coach, I miss seeing you over when we, you know, we're doing shows at NBC Sports Chicago. I think the last time I was in that green room with you, I walk in and just, of course, North Turnles just sitting there next to you. And then we, and we just start talking football for like 30 minutes. So those, those were the days. But, you know, coach, we're getting into draft season here. I'm curious, you know, what you think about how the Bears have handled. They were all talking pass rush with this team and how do they get after the quarterback more? I'm curious your thoughts on how they handled it or didn't handle it in free agency. And if there are any guys as you, as you look at the draft, that you feel like our answers here for the Chicago Bears to get after the quarterback more. Well, one, I would say that I thought the Max Crosby stuff was a little bit too expensive. I really did. I wasn't a fan of that. I was a fan of Trey Henderson, Henderson, OK, from Cincinnati. I mean, I thought that he might just be perfect for a year or two if they could make that thing work out, being that he was going to be a free agent. But, you know, the thing that I think is a little bit different with the scheme of the Bears, you know, different than what Matt Eberfluth ran, really kind of different than Vic Fangio. If you look close at Vic last year or two years ago, I guess it would be now when they won the Super Bowl with Philadelphia, if you remember, the guy had what eight stacks and he didn't blitz one time the entire game. Four man rush. So, you know, that's a four man rush philosophy. Matt Eberfluth was four man rush where Dennis Allen will like four men, but he likes more pressure. We know that. OK. And when you're bringing guys, when you're just rushing for, you have to have dominant defensive linemen that can get home by themselves and they can win the one on ones and the two on ones and the three on ones to make the defense go. When you are not a dominant rush for team and you're going to bring safeties and you're going to bring linebackers and you're going to bring nickelbacks, now all of a sudden you can get by with an undersized guy, a fast guy, somebody that can be a playmaker. And so I think that's kind of the where the Bears are at right now. And I'll tell you what, my biggest fan, I said this from the first week of training camp when no one knew who he was. I was standing next to Ryan Poles. He was a rookie and his kid, I'm going to tell you his name. And he did a pass rush move and I said, see that? And I said, Ryan, that's the kind of stuff you don't coach. And when we were going back to our University of Miami days before the Dallas Cowboys and on and on, all we used to talk about was Jimmy Johnson, one of his great lines was, let's get players that do things that we don't have to coach. And we all laughed about it. But the reality is Austin Booker was that guy and he came up and the tackle stuck him and he did a spin move and went up underneath him. You know, coaches in clinics, they'll say they work on that stuff and they probably do. But I put that in the clinic talk. OK, that sounds good on a blackboard or on a whiteboard. But it's the reality is guys that do things. And every time you put him in a game, he makes things happen. You keep saying he's undersized. OK, so he's undersized a little bit, but the guy makes plays. So I got I got some faith in that kid. And I think they they got a couple other young guys, you know, hopefully they'll draft somebody. But I don't know. I don't know if it's his dire straight is what people think it is, at least in my mind, at least in my mind. I think that they took a defensive tackle that was a dominant defensive tackle that was a playmaker. And I keep coming back to the playmakers. You know, when I when I recruited and I had Russell Merlin, Chicago kid, we had him at Miami when I was with the Bears. Chris storage was following that category. When I was at Pitt, I recruited Aaron Donald, coached Aaron Donald at Pitt, six foot playmaker. Obviously, Aaron Donald may be the greatest ever played. But at that point, he was a playmaker. It wasn't six, four, six, five. So I kind of like that knows defensive tackles movement guys, guys, he can get off blocks. So, you know, if we got a great defensive tackle that was a playmaker, I think it could make just as much impact and help those edge guys is is anything. So that that's that's kind of how I look at that position. You look you're the perfect person to ask this question to them, because, you know, a lot gets talked about with Dennis Allen's preference for these bigger, longer defensive ends. The downside of that is a lot of times they don't they can't bend the same way. They can't get around the edge the same way. They're not maybe quite as explosive. They're stronger. They, you know, they got length to go up against those tackles, which is a good thing. How much do you care about that? Because in this year's draft, I'm I'm seeing a bunch of guys that might be undersized by Dennis Allen standards. But man, they get off the ball and they can they can get to the quarterback quickly. Yeah, it does. I mean, you know, speed kills. And so, you know, I was that's just a philosophy. Now, this is this is just what what I've kind of come up with everywhere. I've been defensive tackles, whether it was Miami, I said the Hurricanes. I mean, we drafted Jimmy Flanagan. I think he was 6-1 for the Bears. Remember out of Notre Dame? Yeah. Jimmy Flanagan played a long time. Had a great career. I mean, Jimmy was a playmaker type of guy. So I just always lean toward the playmakers as compared to the bigger, oversized guy. That's just a philosophy thing. So I get what Dennis Allen did, built for sales for years back in the day. All he wanted was the giant defensive tackles, you know, and so different coaches, different philosophies, there's a lot of different ways to do it. Hiya, I'm Elena, just your average walking, talking, dancing, singing, puppet. A puppet that loves an LNER train journey. It beats the CER every time. I'm free to do all the things I love. Get lost in a true crime series, type away like an office ninja, order yummy food and drinks to my seat, or just have a cheaty power nap. And now, with more services and faster journey times, there's more freedom all the way with LNER. Selected routes only. Visit lner.co.uk slash timetable for details. Obviously, you know, being closer here in the Midwest to the Big Ten stuff, I don't know if you have any thoughts on, you know, the defensive lineman out of Illinois gave Joccus. I have seen his pronunciation kind of change here, you know, in the beast. It's, I guess, it's Joccus now. But he's certainly grabbing a lot of attention, 6'4", 260. Is that somebody that, you know, maybe wasn't initially a guy that was in the first round, but might creep up there? He could. He could. I think the consensus, and I've been getting ready. I'll be coming up to Chicago doing a bunch of draft shows, by the way, on the score in Big Ten and obviously NBC. And the names that are consistent with people that I'm talking to, you know, it's everybody's got this Peter Woods at Clemson is the number one guy. These guys are probably be gone. Then they got the Banks kid at Florida, Lee Hunter at Texas Tech. Everybody likes the kid in the Big Ten that everyone talks about is McDonald's from Ohio State, K-Tron McDonald, the defensive tackle. So when you're talking defensive tackles, guys like the Miller kid out of Georgia Tech, but they're kind of the five names, not that somebody else couldn't slip in. Everybody has a little preference, but these are the names. And talking to a lot of people that keep surfacing up over and over again, as far as first round type of possibilities, first round type possibilities. So could your guy at Illinois be there? Sure. You know, I haven't studied him. I'm going to have to get on him a little. So all those Big Ten guys, I'll start zero and on before I come up there. But but but I did McDonald, obviously, you know, Ohio State's playing, you know, in the playoff games. And so you get a chance to see those guys a little bit more. So I'm a little bit more familiar with him. What's your when when you're talking about defensive tackle play? Yeah. When you talk about a guy that is more of a run stuffer versus a guy that gets to the quarterback. Where where are you starting with trying to build your interior defensive line when you were coaching? Well, you know, we were, as I said, just a second ago, you know, I was always one that I wanted guys that weren't just going to take up blocks. Nothing would frustrate me more than a guy got a guard comes off and he gets blocked and he he's battling to get off the block. You know, I always wanted guys I use the term. But once you're playing on the edge, I want you playing on the edge. And if they're going to block you, we're going to make them double team you. We're going to make two guys block you. And if one guy thinks he's going to block it and you've got leverage on him, you're going to be in the backfield and you're going to make a play. So I was, you know, the philosophy was always be aggressive, try to make plays aggressive, try to make plays. And I remember when when we drafted Dexter, OK, and I remember being up to practice and talking with Eber Fluss and the defensive coaches. And if you remember, he was having a very difficult time because he came from that, you know, Florida scheme of taking on blocks and squeezing the blocks and big body type of guy. And Fluss and then we're trying to get him to play on the edge and get penetration and make more plays. And the guy has done that. I mean, he has gotten better the last couple of years. He's getting some sacks. You see him making some tackles for losses. So he's he's gotten better. He's gotten better. So, you know, I thought that probably doesn't really define your answer. But I would always look for guys that if they were one on one, they were going to win. They were going to get a sack. They were going to make a tackle in the backfield. He wasn't going to get hung up on a one on one block. They were the guys that I look for. And I'll tell you what, when we drafted somebody and I won't bring up his name because I ended up coaching him. But the first thing that we would do and I was going to go work this kid out because he was getting a lot of play. I was the assistant head coach at the Cowboys at the time. And I said, you know, I think I need to fly up to this school and see this kid. And Jimmy says, OK, if you think, you know, I said, he might be a guy we want. And Jimmy said, how how how were his numbers? How did he play? And I said, you know what? Let's let's take a look. So we would keep in the draft room, a big board and we could flash up on that board. We could put up his tape if we wanted. Jimmy didn't want to waste time with tape at that point. So that we could flash up their statistics and just see how many plays did this guy make? And I remember us both looking and we looked at each other and Jimmy said, we got a guy that makes that many plays and tackles in one in one season. Not his whole career at Miami. We were just come from Miami. And so I never went and visited the guy because he didn't make enough plays. OK, so that's my point. And same thing with linebackers. The Zach Thomas undersized linebackers. Can the guy make a play? You know, I mean, that's the purpose. Defensive guys got to make tackles. You got to win, get off the block, react quick and make a tackle. It's defensive football is not that difficult. And we, yeah, Dave, we really appreciate the time. We just keep it for like two more minutes here and once you get it now. But I'm just curious from your experience, you know, you all the way back to when you're the head coach of the Bears, working with Rod Graves. What do you how should this go in a draft room with Ben and Ryan? Like, who how do you think those conversations when they're deciding on who they want? What what they're going to do? Well, most teams will set up a draft board by just best player to worst. So what is there? Five hundred and some players in the draft, whatever it is. So they'll have a board and it'll start with the best player in the draft. That throw out a name. Who's the number one player in this year's draft? Game end, those are made because he's a quarterback. He might not be the best player, though. You know, it might be one of those kids at Ohio State. It might be Caleb Downs or something. I don't know. But just they would rank him from best player. Regardless of position all the way through. And then we had another board and we had we would rank him by position, you know, a quarterbacks, top quarterback to the worst, not worse, but the bottom top to bottom. OK, and we did that with every position. And then as we're going through the draft, now we got them all graded and the coach in the Scots have seen them for a couple of years and you get the coaches involved with watching some of the key guys. And and now here comes the decision. You know, we're sitting there with the Bears drafting 25th, right? Is that right? Bears are sitting there at 25. And let's say that. I don't know, you know, what's a not major major need? Let's just say that an offensive guard is sitting there. OK. And he's the best player on the board right now. But he might not be the biggest need on the board right now. So you take a lesser player. And these are the discussions that you work out leading up to the draft with the general manager and the head coach. And you start and we used to call everyone calls it massage in the board and you start moving players over. What about if this happens? What about if he's gone? If these are our four guys, who do we like? And I've never been in a draft room, all the ones I've been in where there's been an argument or a big dispute on draft day, you know, particularly with the early guys, when you get down to the bottom guys, sometimes there's there's difference of opinion. But the early first couple rounds, these guys are good. They haven't worked out. They've all seen the same tape. And I'll tell you what, if I remember talking to Ron Wolf when he was the GM up at Green Bay one time, we were sitting at the combine and and Ron said to me, you know, you think I would draft a guy if the first two picks at Mike Holmstrom and his coaches were excited about. He said, because if they're not excited about them, they're not going to put the effort in, they're not going to develop them. And then he's not going to help us and we're going to lose games and we're all going to get fired. So, you know, Ben and I think Ryan, they're on the same philosophy of what the needs are and the type of players. Now, who's the best players? And, you know, then you just pull the plug. So, I mean, that's that that's the way that I've always done it. And I'm sure that Ryan and do the same way. And and they and fortunately, they've been through it once before and the coach has been through. So this should be a lot smoother draft than what it's been in the past just because they've been there. And, you know, we're talking past rushers and D linemen. I mean, I think we could use another offensive linemen. I mean, we were so fortunate last year, guys, we got nobody hurt virtually. Nobody. And we we are between the center and two guards and tackle. I mean, you know, I miss a game or two. I'm talking about a serious injury. And right now our left tackle, you know, Ozzy, maybe beginning of the year. Who knows? And, you know, we're solid. Yes, we're solid. But boy, I mean, if we took a great offensive linemen, I love this kid out of Utah. Fanna is that his name? He's a guard and tackle. Is I think I'm pronouncing his name correctly. I hope I am. Yeah, you're thinking of Spencer Fano. Yes, he's a guard and tackle. And I've watched them some and he he's one of those guys that's going to line up and play for you. And he can play a couple of different positions, you know, as I guess is the point that I'm saying if if something happened. But and, you know, let me just if we got a minute here, let me just hit on this. The left tackle position. OK, back in the day was always, oh, my God, I've got to have a left tackle. Got to have a left tackle. We got to protect the backside of the quarterback. That's when we were running the ball and doing play action pass, which was the NFL, how everybody did it. And then about seven or eight years ago, the NFL started picking up the college spread stuff and getting the ball out quick. So for about five, six years, the left tackle position was not really any different, in my opinion. This is me, then the right tackle or the guards, because the ball was coming out so quick. Everybody was going from the shotgun. Nobody even running the ball. The guys off said, I mean, it's ridiculous. You know, no, you're not going to run the ball effectively that way, in my opinion. So it wasn't as big a deal. Now, all of a sudden in Ben's offense, which I love. Oh, God, I went to first practice last year and I was on Ben called up and because I said, I don't want to come up and see you in shorts. You tell me when you're going to hit somebody, I'll be there. So he says, Coach, this is going to be a great practice. So I went up and I'm standing there in the first play. Caleb goes under center. They get in the eye formation and they hand the ball off. I could have went home. I saw enough. That's all I needed to see. I was happy. I was I was on my way. But the point is now we're doing so much more play action. Right. Think about it. We're lining up, whether it's eye or one back, but he's dotted and it's play action and it's the role passes with Caleb. Left tackle in that style of offense is a lot more valuable. We, you know, we can't let Caleb be getting whipped and getting hit from the blind side where the guy's not coming. Yes, he's athletic and he feels it. But still you get what I'm saying. So I think you can't slight this tackle position because of the philosophy. I don't know if I'm if I'm matching the two left tackle and offensive philosophies of them making sense. Yeah, but my point is that in the Bears offense and this is for Detroit, the teams that run the eye and do play action passes. A left tackle position when your quarterback's right handed is important. Yeah, you're on the same page of this. We've already got side bets tracking. Carmes taking defense. Me and one of our chat guys, Gary, we're taking offense. We think love tackles are going to be the pick. I did not enjoy that. Oh, Dave, you've been a great point. My best feels my bed feels a little more flimsy right now. But now you're more than. Yeah, Dave, you're the best. Appreciate the time. We we what do you got the rest of the day out there? You get in the golf course. What do you got? No, I'm done with the golf today. I went up and worked on a little bit and, you know, not much today. I played yesterday. I'm going to play tomorrow in a cigar tournament here in Naples. But it's a tournament. Wow. Well, well, you know, guys put some money in and we play. Then afterwards have a dinner and have a little bourbon and cigars. I mean, it's no, it's it's guys, 40 guys play. It's just kind of a fun friendly friendly thing, you know, love it. No, so so that's all good. And then, like I say, I'll be up there in a couple of weeks for the draft. So maybe we'll cross past at some point somewhere at that point, you know, yeah, I'll hit the links with you and share a cigar. That sounds like fun. Dave, he's coming down in Naples tomorrow. And he's going to act like he's a part of the group. Just that's that's what we're dealing with over here. We hope to see you when you're up here, David. We always appreciate the time. So thanks so much. OK, guys, any time. You power up and now with more services and faster journey times, there's more freedom all the way with LNER selected routes only visit LNER dot code at UK slash timetable for details.
