December 27, 2024 • 37 mins
Dan and Kerry filling in for C&R as they discuss the first pro year of Caleb Williams and wonder out loud if he has been let down by his team and if it has been a lost season for him. Kerry lays out what he thinks is the best plan for the Steelers moving forward as it relates to Justin Fields. Dan and Kerry discuss the injury to Mavs' point guard Luka Doncic as the superstar deals with a calf injury.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Speaker 2 (00:04):
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Speaker 4 (00:15):
It's like searching FSR.
Speaker 5 (00:19):
All Right, it's a Friday. It may not feel like it,
but you've made it through the week where you likely
already had days off this week. Carrie, welcome in. It's
a good good to be here. It does not feel
like a Friday.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
A lot of stuff jam packed, a lot of I
guess continuity when it comes to the holidays and being
able to share some time with the family and friends.
But that's about it. Nothing feels I guess normal on
this Friday.
Speaker 5 (00:44):
No, Mike Brown just lost his job in Sacramento. Jalen
Hurts is out as the Eagles quarterback, and you've heard
me say that just a few minutes ago. Has a concussion. Well,
world number one golfer Scottie Scheffler is dealing with broken
glass in his hand and it's going to miss a
month world right there. Yeah, that is absolutely not the
broken glass part, not the boat glass part. Let's get
(01:05):
a go at. Jason Stewart's our executive producer today, Chris
Purfat our technical producer. We are in for Cavino and Riches.
We are broadcasting Lone from the tierreck dot com studios.
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Speaker 4 (01:26):
We know this.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
We've said this a bunch on our show when we
get together on Sundays here on Fox Sports Radio, or
if I'm with Cavino and Rich at the news desk
a filling in. We talked about it yesterday. Monty and
I were sitting in and I'm a Seahawks fan. I
know full and well the Seahawks were not the story
last night. We are going to talk about the story
that happened last night, or actually what didn't happen with
(01:47):
the Chicago Bears and Caleb Williams. A dreadful outing, arguably
the worst of William's young career, but it was on
full display Carrie last night Thursday Night Football and the
loan game. I know not everybody has Amazon Prime, but still,
there was no other game in town last night unless
you were watching college football or watching the Kings lose
(02:07):
to the Pistons. The Seahawks and Bears were It's for
the NFL, and the Bears quite frankly, couldn't have looked
worse on offense.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, they look bad. The offense look bad. They've been
progressing with the offensive coordinator change. They look better. Caleb
Williams start to look like he was settling in. But
I want to give credit to Seattle's defense.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
They play well.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
But with Caleb, it's gonna be the story, right, and
that's why we're talking about him. I just don't want
people to get lost in the sauce of, you know,
looking at his body of work for this year as
a rookie quarterback. If you look at his numbers, obviously
the numbers can be a little bit deceiving, but he
hasn't been as bad as people are making him look
(02:48):
out to be. But when you have a game, look
you had yesterday, which is the lasting impression, it's gonna
be tough to kind of shake that.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
I don't I think that there's some in Chicago and
Kirk kirb Street who are blaming Helo Williams for some
of this. And we'll hear from kirkurb Street in just
a little bit and what he said last night on
the Amazon broadcast. Huck's been in the news on telling
you he had Doug this December. I mean Doug Gottlieb.
I mean it has been. It's if it's if it's
(03:15):
not herb Street one day, it's Doug Gottlieb the next day.
But yeah, absolutely, well hear what Kerbstreet had to say
about Caleb Williams and his preparation or lack thereof on
the on the broadcast last night. I just don't know
how you can go into a season and think it
is going to be successful when you fire your offensive
coordinator and then you fire your head coach, and so
(03:39):
the guy that's not supposed to be taking over as
your offensive coordinator now has to serve as the head coach.
I mean we're talking about, you know, layers and layers
of reproduction. It's like recording a song off the radio
and then recording that song off the boom box. Like
these generations just gets worse and worse and I think
that's what Caleb Williams is dealing with. And none of
(04:01):
that is new, carry none of that is a secret
or a hot take. But I just I was completely
wrong about this situation in Chicago, and it was me
underestimating the ineptitude of the Bears franchise because I thought
there would be a situation, that scenario where Matt Eberfluss
was fired, and I thought then if things didn't go
(04:25):
well for the Bears, that that job would be so appealing. Yeah,
watching last night, I don't know what is appealing about
anything right now because Caleb Williams may be broken beyond
repair considering how bad things were.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Listen, Dan, if I told you coming into this year,
you're going to draft a number one prospect at the
quarterback position and his numbers at the end of the
year was going to be right now, he still has
what two games left to one one thirty three hundred
and ninety three yards, nineteen touchdowns and six interceptions.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
Would you take that from your rookie quarterback cheer NFL? Sure? Right?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
So, like I think we get, I think it gets lost,
and they're going to amplify the stuff that looks bad
and that's the society we live in. This guy obviously
has talent. You see his arm strength, you see some
of the plays he can make. He does a lot
of dumb stuff now, but he's a rookie, so you
have to take that into account. It's it's the story
(05:23):
to me is the franchise and they're coaching and who
they selected to run that team. If you bring in
some competent people to run the organization, I'm telling you
watch out for this kid. And I it's so hard.
We want to douse gasoline on the fire that's already
brewing by everybody, and you don't take a step back
to see what's really happening here.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
It's more than just Caleb Williams. This is This is
what Kirk Kerbstreet had to say on the broadcast. And
I don't necessarily agree with what Kurt Herbstreet said, but
he may have more insight and inside knowledge than I do.
But this is what Herbstreet said about the rookie quarterback
for the Bears.
Speaker 6 (05:57):
I think the thing that remains to be seen and
only time will tell, is if he understands what it
takes to be an NFL quarterback. As far as the
preparation as far as first guy there, last fight to leave.
Speaker 7 (06:09):
And I'm not suggesting he's not doing those things, but
just all.
Speaker 6 (06:12):
Of the little things that didn't really make the great
quarterbacks special.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
I think he was absolutely suggestiful. I think that he
realized that maybe he was telling secrets that he wasn't
supposed to say, and then trying to make his own.
That is an art, by the way of an analyst,
of trying to make the information that someone gives you
try to make it yours, but not make it seem
so obvious that it was given to you by someone
(06:39):
within the organization, but that just didn't That sort of
take would be foolish from Kirk Kerbstreet, who has so
many different irons in the fire, both in college football
and obviously now with these added NFL duties. But that
is something, and honestly, if he is correct, I almost
(07:02):
still blame the Bears for it because there is no
one there. There's not a veteran behind him. You know
they have they have Tyson Bagent. It was just as
young as Caleb Williams, who you know got snaps last year.
There is no veteran quarterback to be there for Caleb
Williams to provide any guidance whatsoever. Again, they fired their
offensive coordinator and then they fired their head coach at
(07:25):
two different points of this season. And now to see
what they did. And you pointed out as numbers, it
is tough to throw interceptions when you're throwing it from
sideline to sideline and not downfield. And last time when
he was throwing downfield, he wasn't good. And the other
times he's running for his life and Dj Moore is
having to make a miraculous catch on a when he's
(07:47):
pressured on a third or fourth down and makes the
grab and the Bears keep a drive alive. And it
was that pass that put Caleb Williams above one hundred yards,
you know, in the fourth quarter like this is the
passing chart was maybe the biggest indictment on Williams because
you just saw what they had him do and he
hasn't progressed throughout this season. Look at what Drake may
(08:09):
has at least been able to do, or how bo
Nix has changed. Is the quarterback if your team stinks
like the Bear stink these last four weeks, or your
opportunity to take go on and up swing and start
next season, and I don't even sure if they've hit
rock bottom yet. For Caleb Williams, it was that bad
last night.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yeah, you brought up an interesting point about being broken
as a starting quarterback, and I've seen that firsthand. You
draft a highly, highly talented freshman that came to the NFL,
and David carr all the arm talent, super smart, could
recognize things on the field. I could see that in
my early days, had a terrible offensive line, got sacked
(08:47):
more than any quarterback in the league, and never bounced
back from that. After that, the next year he tried
to overcompensate by getting the ball out really quickly, throwing
check downs and his completion percentage will be eighty percent
and again, but have on hund thirty yards and no
touchdowns and six points. That's what this looks like for me.
And so if you have no confident in the guys
protecting you, and you have no confident in the guys
(09:09):
getting open on the back end, that plays into it.
Then you made another point of not having a veteran
quarterback there who could actually show him how to be
a pro. I had that coming in. I had guys, Obviously,
I'm not a quarterback and don't have as many responsibilities.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
But I was a leader on defense. I called the plays.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
And we had a guy in Jonathan Billmore, you know,
my good friend that showed me the art of being
a pro and studying. And we in New York City.
I'm like, I want to go out. He's like, all right,
you're talented. Do you want to go out and be
just talented? Or do you want to learn how to
play football? You got to have those guys around, and
they don't. Yeah, it's a tough conversation to have. And
and the guys that are going to be around next
(09:46):
year aren't there right now? Yeah, and now those guys
that come in. I thought that Kila Williams was going
to be the treat the special, the one that everybody
wanted to Why wouldn't you That was going to be
the most coveted job. Now you see all these warts.
Now you hear things that Kirk Herbstreet is saying. Now
(10:07):
you question the Bear's front office and who's actually running what.
You question the Bears ownership, where chance of sell the
team were going crazy last night in the fourth quarter,
and you're wondering, all right, well they even pay top
dollar for whoever they want as a head coach. It's
a complete mess, and the conversation is legit. If he's
it may be too early to have it, considering you
(10:29):
can have him for the next four years to say, like,
has the damage already been done with Caleb Williams. But
I don't know if that answer is there yet. But
I do know that the answer is there has been
some damage done. Yeah that I don't know if that
if it's if it's able to be corrected. And that
makes this year just the ultimate failure for a team
(10:52):
in the NFL, more so than the Giants who wanted
to bet on Daniel Jones and let say Kwon Barkley go,
more so on the Raiders who have the first, you know,
top overall pick, even more so on the than the
Jaguars who gave Trevor Lawrence all that money. This was
this was the opportunity, This was the camp miss prospect,
and they not only have completely wasted his rookie year,
(11:12):
but they've also likely damaged it and damaged his career
for what we've seen over these first sixteen games of
his career.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
And think think about this.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
I think we all came into the season thinking there
would be three NFC North teams that made the playoffs.
I think if you look at it organizationally, if the
Bears were just the Vikings in this situation and had
Kevin O'Connell and had a real game plan with the
quarterback that they got, I think we all thought that
(11:41):
coming into this year, Caleb Williams would have been a
better option than Sam Darnold. So just look at it
from that standpoint, if they had coaching around him and
to that likes we'll be talking to having this conversation.
So I think that's more more important than actually what
Caleb Williams is doing, doing or not doing right now.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
Jason Stewart's are executive producer, Jason welcome in.
Speaker 7 (12:01):
Yeah, guys, it seems like you guys are talking about
the concept of kind of nature versus nurture. Did he
did he bring these kind of limitations in or as
his environment?
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Kind of? Yeah, kind of. I don't know what you
would call it. But the look Carry just gave you
is like, see, Dan, this is what I've talked about
on the Sunday Show, not bad when I was talking
about him coming in.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
So you're saying you talked about this a bit when
he was not doing the press conference and stuff like that.
So having that type of bagg it's coming on with you,
it's easy to say he's.
Speaker 7 (12:33):
That guy, right, And I harkened back to something that
kind of went under the radar. We talked about it
for one new cycle. Like everything in this world. Remember
there was that anonymous executive who came out in some
publication and said that I think Bears fans the Bears
organizations should be concerned that they're drafting prints. And I
remember the takeaway right away was he's obviously referring to
(12:58):
the colored thing your nails and the effeminate ways, and
it kind of went right away into some homophobic thing,
and no one addressed it. This is the way I
took it. If you watch the Weird of the World
documentary I did. Yeah, Prince is hard to wrangle. Prince
marches to the beat of his own drum. Prince is eccentric.
(13:20):
And I took it that way. And you know what,
after sixteen games, I kind of see that plane out.
I don't know what the inner workings are, and the
stats are right there. You're right, Kerry, but I think
it might be playing out that way. Is this kind
of a prince like figure that can be coached?
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Do we know that yet? I think we don't know that.
To answer the question, we don't know that. And that's
where the veteran quarterback that's also you know what you're
talking about, really could have helped this team. Matt Eberflus
knew he was a lane duck, and so did Shane Waldron,
for you know, all intents and purposes. Because of Eberflus
(14:00):
isn't returning, Waldron isn't returning, So everything is for Caleb Williams.
Yeah you can't. You can. They just chose not to
lay the law down for him or provide him an
atmosphere where maybe he needed to be coached. I think
that he was treated as the number one quarterback from
day one, Yes, from day one, and that I know
(14:24):
it sounds like a cop out, but it's not Caleb
Williams's fault. It's the coaching staff, and it's the Bears
and the people who empowered those people to try to
take care of him. It's their fault. And if they
have tried and tried and tried, and Caleb Williams just
failed to accomplish it, then it ultimately is on Caleb Williams.
(14:44):
But I just don't think that the Bears have taken
those steps and this can be the best thing for him.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
If this is the identity that he has going around
the league right now, then this is a beautiful moment.
This is a beautiful life lesson for him. Things have
been easy for this guy. You come into a situation
where this is not easy. I don't care who you are,
what player you are, the NFL is not easy, and
so to get knocked on your butt early it's beautiful.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
I think Chris Purfet or technical producer.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
I think on the conversation of the Bears organization, and
I kind of feel this a little bit for Caleb too.
Is everything about this attempt to rebuild the Bears feels
like it has just been trying to find the one
magic bullet trick to fix the Bears, and I think
that's kind of putting a lot of emphasis on Caleb
to perform that. This was all we heard in the
preseason was this is the best position for a rookie
(15:31):
quarterback to go into for the Chicago Bears, and then
it turns out, actually the O line is like one
of the worst in the NFL, and it doesn't have
any money put in into it, and actually these receivers
Keenan Allen's not who we thought he was, and Moore's
kind of fallen off of a table, and a Doonesay's
clearly at least a couple of years away. And now
I kind of feel like we're doing it again with
(15:52):
the Bears, going into this coaching cycle where it's just
just get Ben Johnson and everything will be fine. You'll
be able to get back to winning and will once
again start slotting the Bears into being either in the
playoffs or winning the NFC North right off of the bat.
And I think this has been going on for a
while in Chicago, and I feel, if anything, everyone watching
(16:12):
the Bears or even ownership with the Bears has been
infatuated with this idea that you just need to do
this one weird trick, this one simple trick, and suddenly
everything's rosy. But building a winning NFL team is not
that easy, and really a lot of it you go
to the offensive line. But I mean the defense after
they got rid of Eberflus, has clearly taken a huge
(16:33):
falling off of a table. How do you fix that
like this is this is a complicated machine to fix.
I just don't think you're going to fix it overnight.
And I think everyone needs to adopt a lot more patients.
With the Bears, I just don't know where that starts.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
I for a team that was seven and ten last
year and with a number one overall pick because of
the trade with the Panthers, you did expect more. It's
why Eberfurs kept his job because of how the defense
played in the second half of the year. They made
that deal for Montes Sweat in twenty twenty three, and
then they give him a new contract. But it was
supposed to be the Bears. As crazy as it sounds
(17:09):
with all the names that Chris just mentioned, this Bears
team was actually supposed to be led by their defense. Yeah,
truly it was. And if you could get Caleb Williams
these many weapons, somebody's going to take a hit, whether
it's an agent Keenan Allen, or if it's DJ Moore,
or if it is you know, the rookie in Rome
with Dunze. Somebody was not going to get their thousand
(17:29):
yards and eighty catches on the season. Now it turns
out it's pretty much everybody that didn't get that. But
to the point of eber flu stepping, you know, having
be fired and is no longer there to lead the defense,
that plays a part in it. But when you fire
the offensive coordinator and then have to fire the head
coach weeks later, that there's a reason why you're on
(17:49):
a ten game slide. Again they were. I saw the
tweet that they were and that Hail Mary against the commanders.
They're on the verge of being what five and two
at that point seeing at four and two and then the.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Rest is history, bad history. Not just history, it's bad history.
You don't want to be on a knee.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
The high point was, you know, mocking the commander's fans
like that was gonna be as you're as the play
is going on, and then you're running late and you
knock a pass into the hands of Noah Brown and
it was talk about just completely downhill. Talk about te
Tate there you go. Oh my goodness, By the way,
do we have any Caleb Williams last he was asked
(18:31):
about the booze and the sell the team. I want
to count how many ums, Caleb Williams said in this
because there's a lot and when you say, um, a lot,
you're trying to come up with the words. But this
was this was overkilled. Take a listen to this one.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah, I've only been here for you know, it's my
first year, so you know, their frustrations, you know, go
way longer back than you know than I've been here.
You know, my job is to uh, you know, go
out there and win games. And you know, uh, we
don't focus on outside noise. You know, the fans are
you know, they're gonna cheer and and and maybe boos
(19:13):
sometimes and you know, you you you you can't react
to that. It's not something that you know, we we
react to. We have a job to do, and you know,
sometimes you know, you don't you don't do so well
in the job some days and some days you you know,
you're you're you're pretty consistent. Some days you you.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Know, you play a great game.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
Come on, man, I counted, I counted us and ums,
how many I have six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve,
thirteen forty.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
He had more, almost had completions. That's that's what you're saying.
Is that what you're trying to get at down so
mean You're so.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
Mean that it stood out a lot, and honestly is
someone who actually it's it's a faults of mine. I
do a lot of my wife's Like the other night,
you're lion. The other night I said to her, I said, yeah,
I'm meaning to tell you, and then I got distracted
(20:13):
and I never finished the story, and She's like, what
were you meaning to tell me? I go, I have
no idea. I have no idea. So I can at
least a little bits commiserate with Caleb Williams, but I
don't know if I would drop What was that forty
five second clip? Chris? How long was that?
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Forty three?
Speaker 5 (20:27):
Okay, one every three seconds? That a good average?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
That is a good average. What is that average? At
least he leads the NFL in that he's carrying around
actually a slash ums that's higher than his QBR one more. Dang,
it's come on, Chris oh Man.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
Amazing.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
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Speaker 5 (21:03):
It's Cavino and Rich here on Fox Sports Radio. He's
carry Rhodes, the All Pro starter from day one. That's
I guess that's my nickname for you, yau starter from
day one. I'm Dan Byer, sitting in for the guys today.
Hit carry up at Carrie twenty five Roads. You can
find me at dan Byer on Fox. I don't know
if Kerrie's about to take a victory lap, but he's
(21:24):
about to start running in his mouth about the Pittsburgh Steelers,
and I'm very curious where this is gonna go. Rapid
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(21:45):
up the sixty percent off and free shipping. There's been
quite the conversation about the Pittsburgh Steelers as of late,
losing on Christmas Day to the Kansas City Chiefs, losing
their grip on the AFC North lead after they've now
hit a three game slide Eagles, Ravens and Chiefs with
two of those games on the road. Tough slate, but
(22:06):
Pittsburgh is unable to come out with a W and
any of them and now you wonder something else. I
don't know if it's a lost season, as Pittsburgh has
clinched a postseason birth, but they're likely likely not gonna
win the AFC North. But Pittsburgh is into the playoffs
on a season where maybe not a lot was expected
(22:30):
of them. But Russell Wilson came in, took over the job,
played well, but as of late hasn't been as good.
Where are you carry right now with Mike Tomlins Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
It's just coming back to reality. This team outperformed, they
play really well. I think they took some people by
surprise throughout the year. But this is just the tame
that isn't really talented enough to sustain the type of
sea and they were having right So I'm not gonna
pile it all on Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson has been adequate.
(23:05):
He's played good football for the most part of the season,
but I think you take away pickings for two of
those games, and obviously that's his main target down the field.
You have fire mouth, obviously, but the same just isn't
talented enough around that position. So my whole take coming
into this year was if that's the case, then you
put the quarterback in and Justin Fields who was there first,
(23:27):
that could possibly make some plays on his own and
change the trajectory of what that talent could be on
the offense and we get to see what he could
be also being in the contract the year. Now you
give it to a situation where Russell Wilson, you give
you hand it off to him when you are already
four and two and now you kind of wins. It's
(23:48):
a story about me for like when now or when now?
And when also possibly bigger later with the being able
to see a rough of Justin Fields could be that guy,
and I think that's kind of where I like, you
want some games as here, but I don't think having
Justin Fields in that position you were going to lose
those games either.
Speaker 5 (24:06):
The well and the drawing of the line is this is,
if Russell Wilson can win you the division, then it's
worth putting Russell Wilson in as the starting quarterback. And
it looked that way. It looked that way for a
decent amount of the season until the last two and
a half weeks and now you're at a spot where
(24:29):
you talk about the absence of George Pickens. Tarall Owens
feels that George Pickens were outrunning needs to get I
saw that earth and that may be the case, but
there's no doubt that Pickens isn't in extreme talent. You're
saying that it would be worth the Pittsburgh Steelers sacrificing
a playoff spot because that's where they are right now
to see if there was more with Justin Fields.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Yeah, I don't think. I think they're still in the
same position that they have Justin Fields. So I'm not
saying there's sacrifice in the playoff spot. I'm saying the
way they play complimentary football, Justin Fields can do the
same thing. And I think there is a bigger upside
of the talent because Justin Field's younger. He can extend plays,
and he can run, and he can do certain things
(25:12):
that you can do to add to that mix. Right,
So it's just a little bit extra I think there.
And if it isn't the case, then you would know
you don't have that guy with Justin Fields, and you
have to get a quarterback anyway. Right now, as we stand,
both of those guys on the quarterback moving forward, you
know what I mean. So that's I think Russ still is.
You think he's the quarterback moving forward? Yes, how many years?
Speaker 5 (25:35):
I think in twenty twenty five he would be their
best option. I think if you if you figured out
a way to get another wide receiver with him, and
maybe it's George Pickens, and I don't consider Mike Williams
said other wide receiver, but if you had another piece,
(25:56):
I think that you would owe it to Russell Wilson
to see what he could do.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I think Justin Fields will have them in the same
position right now if he was the quarterback.
Speaker 5 (26:04):
It's all hypothetically, but I don't I don't I think that.
I do think that Russell Wilson took that offense to
a different place when he was inserted into the starting
lineup coming back from his calf injury. I do think
that they were more of a balanced team, a well
(26:24):
balanced team. Russell Wilson had five games of a passer
rating of over one hundred over one hundred. Yeah, Unfortunately
the last three haven't turned out. I don't think Justin
Fields wins any of these last three games. But I
don't think it's a guarantee that Justin Fields wins, say
a shootout in Cincinnati against the Bengals or a tight
game against the Ravens. Earlier on in the season. Justin
(26:47):
Fields did have his limitations. That is why why Mike
Tomlin said he had the bit. You know he gets
paid the big bucks is to make the decisions to
put Russell Wilson in. I think that they the Steelers
were a better team with Russell Wilson. I just think
it's where you and I differ. I can go along
(27:07):
with Justin Fields being a quarterback if that's what if
you're willing to risk the five seed in the AFC,
in the playoffs or a wild card, because that's where
they would be right now. If you're willing to risk
that to see if Justin Fields would be your guy
of the future, I can get on board with that.
(27:30):
But I don't think that Justin Fields is the same
as Russell Wilson or better than what Russell Wilson performed
for the Steelers this year. So if you wanted to
sacrifice the playoff spot, say you don't make the playoffs,
but Justin Fields was able to progress throughout the year,
then that's the sacrifice you make. But I do think
that they were a better team with Russell Wilson. Yeah,
I don't think. I mean, yeah, that's an objective view
(27:52):
on it. I think a lot of people agree with
what you're saying as well. I think there's some some
people on my side as well. I mean, you talk
about Russell, I mean fields starting this season, they were
foreign too. They have they beat the Broncos, who was
a playoff team, the Chargers, that's a playoff team. They played,
the Colts they're still in They're still in contention, and
the Falcons are still in contention. So these are teams
(28:14):
that they played that are good teams, and they did
enough to win those games. So to say that Russell
Wilson was better than that, I just don't. It doesn't
sit well with me because I rather would see I
would rather see that guy not have this job taken
for playing good football. You wouldn't want a more balanced
offense because that's what Russell Wilson provided.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Yeah, but we don't know that we were limiting justin field.
They were limiting justin fields. We just you could tell
by their play their play calling in those games. So
I don't know if that's the case. They may know
that though, so I mean, I don't know, but just
from the outside looking in, they were telling him to
get the ball out quick and not turn the ball over.
Speaker 5 (28:50):
Jason Stewart are executive producer.
Speaker 7 (28:53):
Guys, I feel like I need to take a step
back here and and and explain the difference of your
mix a go today. Okay, Justin Fields was playing some
pretty good football for the Bears. And how do I
know that? I won my fantasy league with Justin Fields
as my quarterback. I'm not exaggerating.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
There you go.
Speaker 7 (29:10):
He was playing pretty good football. To imagine that a
year later, you guys would spend the first part of
the show talking about a quarterback that the Bears lost,
are a quarterback that that that the Bears do not support,
and then the second part of this hour talking about
Justin Fields on the Steelers deserving more playing time. That's me,
(29:32):
That's not what a difference a year makes though these
two situations.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
Jason also heard it from the Bears fans when you said, like, boy,
wouldn't it be nice to have Justin Fields right now?
Rasing there is the head And he heard it from
thee from the loyal Bear fan base, but maybe to
that point, and Dan, he would taking a step further.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
You were talking about Caleb Williams with the Bears and Steeler,
Now talk about Russell Wilson with the Steelers and the Broncos.
We thought that was the end in Denver, right, and
then he comes here and he is playing good enough
football for them to be where they are. So, I mean,
it's it's just it's the dichotomy of the NFL football
and being in perfect situations matter.
Speaker 5 (30:18):
Why ultimately do you think they chose Russell Wilson over
Justin Fields.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Because they believe they could have made the playoffs and
you want to have a veteran quarterback in that position.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
So yeah, And so then that also lends the question too,
which has been a criticism, fairly or unfairly, a criticism
by some levied against Mike Tomlin that he's more worried
and that the organization is more worried about having a
five hundred record than actually trying to build a championship
(30:46):
team again.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
And I would agree with that. I would agree with that.
I mean, it's it's it's the proof is in the pudding.
He hasn't had one of those.
Speaker 5 (30:54):
I feel I feel a bit bamboozled by the Pittsburgh Steelers,
but we'll get to that later on in the He
is Carrie Rhoads. I'm Dan Byer.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
Have you know what rich here on Fox Sports Radio?
I'm Dan Byer. He's Carry Rhoads sitting in for the guy.
You know. It's funny Wes and Idaho sweets in saying
you show me a consistently bad football team, and I
will show you terrible ownership. That's right. And this is
talking about the Chicago Bears, and he lifts off Bears Jets.
(31:38):
I never considered the Giants is having bad ownership. I
felt that they had a good ownership group. But and
I wouldn't say that the Giants are consistently bad, but
they just I mean, they do have a couple of
Super Bowls to more than a couple of Super Bowls
to their credit. But of this, you know, of late
maybe things haven't gone as well. Raiders, Cowboys, Browns, Jacksonville Carol, Atlanta, Saints,
(32:02):
and Dolphins. That's a lot of teams. It is, it is,
And I don't know if I agree with all of
the teams that Wes is saying, but I have to
admit what Wes is saying is something that I thought
of and I have thought of, is there are organizations
that don't have these problems because of ownership. We just
talked about the Pittsburgh Steelers and whether their goal is
(32:22):
to always be five hundred may may not be the case.
At least they're not as dysfunctional and crazy. Now, sometimes
some of the players can be like Antonio Brown pulling
his antics, but there's usually a solid foundation and yeah,
this is the stuff that happens with the Bears, this
is the stuff that happens with the Jets, this is
(32:44):
the stuff that happens with the Dallas Cowboys, and it
goes all the way to the top.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
It actually warms warms my belly to hear fans actually
being aware that it's not always the players organizationally. If
things aren't you know, solid, and you don't have that foundation,
it doesn't matter who you bring in as players to
come in and play. I think the awareness of that
(33:11):
is a good thing. But also all those teams aren't
bad organization aren't badly run organizations, right, So I think
there is a fine line that comes with it.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
I think there are some coaches as well that are
front offices that do a good enough job to get
it done in spite of their poor ownership. But if
we were to go around the National Football League and
say where do we see good ownership in the league?
Where is good, like really good solid ownership, It's not
(33:44):
fifty percent. No, And I don't know if ten is
the number. I don't know if twelve is the number.
I just know it's not sixteen. And I think that
that's a problem. That's why you see certain teams having
success and other teams maybe not as much.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
I agree. I think there is a level of not
even nepotism, but there's a level of hiring your friends
that happens in most organizations when it comes to any
pro sports. I think that's the I think that's the
trick where I want to hire my friend, I want
to hire people i'd like to be around, but you're
(34:20):
not hiring the right people.
Speaker 5 (34:21):
For that job. He's carried roads. I'm dan Byer. Carry
is the one who's heartbroken. Not to mock the injury
to Luka Doncic, but carry is a huge MAVs fan.
We found out yesterday a month at least a month
for Luka Doncic to return from a calf injury, something
that is not new at all to Luca and his repertoire.
(34:42):
Is this cause for more concern because it's a calf again,
or you in the camp of it's just a calf again.
He'll be back in a month and be fine.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
The calf thing is always scary, so there is concern.
Speaker 5 (34:54):
I don't think it's as much concern. If this was
last year or two years ago, this.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Team would be done. The fact that Nico Harrison the
GM there that's done a great job of acquiring talent,
They can withstand Luca not being there the whole season
compared to prior seasons. Now for him personally, I think
it's gonna do a good job for him because obviously
(35:20):
you don't want to play around the cast. It's scary,
but he plays too much basketball. He puts himself in
a position to where these injuries, these nagging injuries occur.
He goes straight from a long playoff run you play
in the NBA Finals and he go plays for his country,
and you know, it's obviously he wants to win and
do that eventually, but to come back and lose in
(35:41):
a disappointing fashion the way he did to Boston in
the finals. To take a step back and not playing
that and be ready to play for your NBA team
during the season should have been top priority.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
And that's the part where I really look at this.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
It's like he needs to take care of his body
and he hasn't done that yet, so it is concerning.
But this team can with stand him not being there.
He's going to be reevaluated in a month. So let's
just fast forward. That's January twenty seventh. Yep, that would
be a month from say today. You also have an
All Star Game that takes place in mid February. If
(36:15):
I'd take two months, I'd take a month and a
half off and then just after the All Star break
then go. I'd be completely safe with all of this
and what we have seen with NBA teams and how
they have performed down the stretch and entering the last
third of the season. Something you and I have talked
about on the Sunday show. It used to be that
(36:36):
last third of the season was all right, let's slow
it down, let's make sure that we're ready for the
playoff push, and once the playoffs start, let's go. Now
it's all right, this final third of the season, this
final fourth of the season March, in the first half
of April.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
You want to be playing well, you want to be
playing at a high level, and you want that momentum
to carry on into the playoffs. So having Luca, if
he was going to miss a month, what's two or
three more weeks if you can then just get him
back for that stretch, especially at this point.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
The only thing that there there is a concern that
he's that team's in the West, right the West, the
top four you know at Dallas is the fourth spot
right now, but there are probably only one game from
being in the tenth spot. So you do have to
play well in the West. If this is the If
this is the East, it'll be a different story.
Speaker 5 (37:23):
It's not that bad, but it's it's three and a
half games out of the tenth spot right now.
Speaker 7 (37:29):
Here.
Speaker 5 (37:29):
Gallas is nineteen and eleven and three and a half
up on the Warriors, who are sitting in that tenth
spot with the Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns for that matter.
That's fifteen and fourteen. He is carry Rhoads. I'm Dan Beyer.
Bowl Games, NBA. Yeah, we got it all here on
Fox Sports Radio, including what NFL team fooled you this season?
We want to know that's next on Fox
Hey, thanks for listening to the Cadino and Rich Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Be sure to catch us live every weekday from five
to seven Eastern to the four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Find your local station for Comno Rich at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every day on the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
It's like searching FSR.
Speaker 5 (00:19):
All Right, it's a Friday. It may not feel like it,
but you've made it through the week where you likely
already had days off this week. Carrie, welcome in. It's
a good good to be here. It does not feel
like a Friday.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
A lot of stuff jam packed, a lot of I
guess continuity when it comes to the holidays and being
able to share some time with the family and friends.
But that's about it. Nothing feels I guess normal on
this Friday.
Speaker 5 (00:44):
No, Mike Brown just lost his job in Sacramento. Jalen
Hurts is out as the Eagles quarterback, and you've heard
me say that just a few minutes ago. Has a concussion. Well,
world number one golfer Scottie Scheffler is dealing with broken
glass in his hand and it's going to miss a
month world right there. Yeah, that is absolutely not the
broken glass part, not the boat glass part. Let's get
(01:05):
a go at. Jason Stewart's our executive producer today, Chris
Purfat our technical producer. We are in for Cavino and Riches.
We are broadcasting Lone from the tierreck dot com studios.
Tayerreq dot com will help you get there, an unmatched selection,
fast free shipping. Free road has a protection. You know,
over ten thousand recommended installers tireq dot com. The way
tire buying should be to state the obvious.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
We know this.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
We've said this a bunch on our show when we
get together on Sundays here on Fox Sports Radio, or
if I'm with Cavino and Rich at the news desk
a filling in. We talked about it yesterday. Monty and
I were sitting in and I'm a Seahawks fan. I
know full and well the Seahawks were not the story
last night. We are going to talk about the story
that happened last night, or actually what didn't happen with
(01:47):
the Chicago Bears and Caleb Williams. A dreadful outing, arguably
the worst of William's young career, but it was on
full display Carrie last night Thursday Night Football and the
loan game. I know not everybody has Amazon Prime, but still,
there was no other game in town last night unless
you were watching college football or watching the Kings lose
(02:07):
to the Pistons. The Seahawks and Bears were It's for
the NFL, and the Bears quite frankly, couldn't have looked
worse on offense.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, they look bad. The offense look bad. They've been
progressing with the offensive coordinator change. They look better. Caleb
Williams start to look like he was settling in. But
I want to give credit to Seattle's defense.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
They play well.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
But with Caleb, it's gonna be the story, right, and
that's why we're talking about him. I just don't want
people to get lost in the sauce of, you know,
looking at his body of work for this year as
a rookie quarterback. If you look at his numbers, obviously
the numbers can be a little bit deceiving, but he
hasn't been as bad as people are making him look
(02:48):
out to be. But when you have a game, look
you had yesterday, which is the lasting impression, it's gonna
be tough to kind of shake that.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
I don't I think that there's some in Chicago and
Kirk kirb Street who are blaming Helo Williams for some
of this. And we'll hear from kirkurb Street in just
a little bit and what he said last night on
the Amazon broadcast. Huck's been in the news on telling
you he had Doug this December. I mean Doug Gottlieb.
I mean it has been. It's if it's if it's
(03:15):
not herb Street one day, it's Doug Gottlieb the next day.
But yeah, absolutely, well hear what Kerbstreet had to say
about Caleb Williams and his preparation or lack thereof on
the on the broadcast last night. I just don't know
how you can go into a season and think it
is going to be successful when you fire your offensive
coordinator and then you fire your head coach, and so
(03:39):
the guy that's not supposed to be taking over as
your offensive coordinator now has to serve as the head coach.
I mean we're talking about, you know, layers and layers
of reproduction. It's like recording a song off the radio
and then recording that song off the boom box. Like
these generations just gets worse and worse and I think
that's what Caleb Williams is dealing with. And none of
(04:01):
that is new, carry none of that is a secret
or a hot take. But I just I was completely
wrong about this situation in Chicago, and it was me
underestimating the ineptitude of the Bears franchise because I thought
there would be a situation, that scenario where Matt Eberfluss
was fired, and I thought then if things didn't go
(04:25):
well for the Bears, that that job would be so appealing. Yeah,
watching last night, I don't know what is appealing about
anything right now because Caleb Williams may be broken beyond
repair considering how bad things were.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Listen, Dan, if I told you coming into this year,
you're going to draft a number one prospect at the
quarterback position and his numbers at the end of the
year was going to be right now, he still has
what two games left to one one thirty three hundred
and ninety three yards, nineteen touchdowns and six interceptions.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
Would you take that from your rookie quarterback cheer NFL? Sure? Right?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
So, like I think we get, I think it gets lost,
and they're going to amplify the stuff that looks bad
and that's the society we live in. This guy obviously
has talent. You see his arm strength, you see some
of the plays he can make. He does a lot
of dumb stuff now, but he's a rookie, so you
have to take that into account. It's it's the story
(05:23):
to me is the franchise and they're coaching and who
they selected to run that team. If you bring in
some competent people to run the organization, I'm telling you
watch out for this kid. And I it's so hard.
We want to douse gasoline on the fire that's already
brewing by everybody, and you don't take a step back
to see what's really happening here.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
It's more than just Caleb Williams. This is This is
what Kirk Kerbstreet had to say on the broadcast. And
I don't necessarily agree with what Kurt Herbstreet said, but
he may have more insight and inside knowledge than I do.
But this is what Herbstreet said about the rookie quarterback
for the Bears.
Speaker 6 (05:57):
I think the thing that remains to be seen and
only time will tell, is if he understands what it
takes to be an NFL quarterback. As far as the
preparation as far as first guy there, last fight to leave.
Speaker 7 (06:09):
And I'm not suggesting he's not doing those things, but
just all.
Speaker 6 (06:12):
Of the little things that didn't really make the great
quarterbacks special.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
I think he was absolutely suggestiful. I think that he
realized that maybe he was telling secrets that he wasn't
supposed to say, and then trying to make his own.
That is an art, by the way of an analyst,
of trying to make the information that someone gives you
try to make it yours, but not make it seem
so obvious that it was given to you by someone
(06:39):
within the organization, but that just didn't That sort of
take would be foolish from Kirk Kerbstreet, who has so
many different irons in the fire, both in college football
and obviously now with these added NFL duties. But that
is something, and honestly, if he is correct, I almost
(07:02):
still blame the Bears for it because there is no
one there. There's not a veteran behind him. You know
they have they have Tyson Bagent. It was just as
young as Caleb Williams, who you know got snaps last year.
There is no veteran quarterback to be there for Caleb
Williams to provide any guidance whatsoever. Again, they fired their
offensive coordinator and then they fired their head coach at
(07:25):
two different points of this season. And now to see
what they did. And you pointed out as numbers, it
is tough to throw interceptions when you're throwing it from
sideline to sideline and not downfield. And last time when
he was throwing downfield, he wasn't good. And the other
times he's running for his life and Dj Moore is
having to make a miraculous catch on a when he's
(07:47):
pressured on a third or fourth down and makes the
grab and the Bears keep a drive alive. And it
was that pass that put Caleb Williams above one hundred yards,
you know, in the fourth quarter like this is the
passing chart was maybe the biggest indictment on Williams because
you just saw what they had him do and he
hasn't progressed throughout this season. Look at what Drake may
(08:09):
has at least been able to do, or how bo
Nix has changed. Is the quarterback if your team stinks
like the Bear stink these last four weeks, or your
opportunity to take go on and up swing and start
next season, and I don't even sure if they've hit
rock bottom yet. For Caleb Williams, it was that bad
last night.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yeah, you brought up an interesting point about being broken
as a starting quarterback, and I've seen that firsthand. You
draft a highly, highly talented freshman that came to the NFL,
and David carr all the arm talent, super smart, could
recognize things on the field. I could see that in
my early days, had a terrible offensive line, got sacked
(08:47):
more than any quarterback in the league, and never bounced
back from that. After that, the next year he tried
to overcompensate by getting the ball out really quickly, throwing
check downs and his completion percentage will be eighty percent
and again, but have on hund thirty yards and no
touchdowns and six points. That's what this looks like for me.
And so if you have no confident in the guys
protecting you, and you have no confident in the guys
(09:09):
getting open on the back end, that plays into it.
Then you made another point of not having a veteran
quarterback there who could actually show him how to be
a pro. I had that coming in. I had guys, Obviously,
I'm not a quarterback and don't have as many responsibilities.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
But I was a leader on defense. I called the plays.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
And we had a guy in Jonathan Billmore, you know,
my good friend that showed me the art of being
a pro and studying. And we in New York City.
I'm like, I want to go out. He's like, all right,
you're talented. Do you want to go out and be
just talented? Or do you want to learn how to
play football? You got to have those guys around, and
they don't. Yeah, it's a tough conversation to have. And
and the guys that are going to be around next
(09:46):
year aren't there right now? Yeah, and now those guys
that come in. I thought that Kila Williams was going
to be the treat the special, the one that everybody
wanted to Why wouldn't you That was going to be
the most coveted job. Now you see all these warts.
Now you hear things that Kirk Herbstreet is saying. Now
(10:07):
you question the Bear's front office and who's actually running what.
You question the Bears ownership, where chance of sell the
team were going crazy last night in the fourth quarter,
and you're wondering, all right, well they even pay top
dollar for whoever they want as a head coach. It's
a complete mess, and the conversation is legit. If he's
it may be too early to have it, considering you
(10:29):
can have him for the next four years to say, like,
has the damage already been done with Caleb Williams. But
I don't know if that answer is there yet. But
I do know that the answer is there has been
some damage done. Yeah that I don't know if that
if it's if it's able to be corrected. And that
makes this year just the ultimate failure for a team
(10:52):
in the NFL, more so than the Giants who wanted
to bet on Daniel Jones and let say Kwon Barkley go,
more so on the Raiders who have the first, you know,
top overall pick, even more so on the than the
Jaguars who gave Trevor Lawrence all that money. This was
this was the opportunity, This was the camp miss prospect,
and they not only have completely wasted his rookie year,
(11:12):
but they've also likely damaged it and damaged his career
for what we've seen over these first sixteen games of
his career.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
And think think about this.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
I think we all came into the season thinking there
would be three NFC North teams that made the playoffs.
I think if you look at it organizationally, if the
Bears were just the Vikings in this situation and had
Kevin O'Connell and had a real game plan with the
quarterback that they got, I think we all thought that
(11:41):
coming into this year, Caleb Williams would have been a
better option than Sam Darnold. So just look at it
from that standpoint, if they had coaching around him and
to that likes we'll be talking to having this conversation.
So I think that's more more important than actually what
Caleb Williams is doing, doing or not doing right now.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
Jason Stewart's are executive producer, Jason welcome in.
Speaker 7 (12:01):
Yeah, guys, it seems like you guys are talking about
the concept of kind of nature versus nurture. Did he
did he bring these kind of limitations in or as
his environment?
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Kind of? Yeah, kind of. I don't know what you
would call it. But the look Carry just gave you
is like, see, Dan, this is what I've talked about
on the Sunday Show, not bad when I was talking
about him coming in.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
So you're saying you talked about this a bit when
he was not doing the press conference and stuff like that.
So having that type of bagg it's coming on with you,
it's easy to say he's.
Speaker 7 (12:33):
That guy, right, And I harkened back to something that
kind of went under the radar. We talked about it
for one new cycle. Like everything in this world. Remember
there was that anonymous executive who came out in some
publication and said that I think Bears fans the Bears
organizations should be concerned that they're drafting prints. And I
remember the takeaway right away was he's obviously referring to
(12:58):
the colored thing your nails and the effeminate ways, and
it kind of went right away into some homophobic thing,
and no one addressed it. This is the way I
took it. If you watch the Weird of the World
documentary I did. Yeah, Prince is hard to wrangle. Prince
marches to the beat of his own drum. Prince is eccentric.
(13:20):
And I took it that way. And you know what,
after sixteen games, I kind of see that plane out.
I don't know what the inner workings are, and the
stats are right there. You're right, Kerry, but I think
it might be playing out that way. Is this kind
of a prince like figure that can be coached?
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Do we know that yet? I think we don't know that.
To answer the question, we don't know that. And that's
where the veteran quarterback that's also you know what you're
talking about, really could have helped this team. Matt Eberflus
knew he was a lane duck, and so did Shane Waldron,
for you know, all intents and purposes. Because of Eberflus
(14:00):
isn't returning, Waldron isn't returning, So everything is for Caleb Williams.
Yeah you can't. You can. They just chose not to
lay the law down for him or provide him an
atmosphere where maybe he needed to be coached. I think
that he was treated as the number one quarterback from
day one, Yes, from day one, and that I know
(14:24):
it sounds like a cop out, but it's not Caleb
Williams's fault. It's the coaching staff, and it's the Bears
and the people who empowered those people to try to
take care of him. It's their fault. And if they
have tried and tried and tried, and Caleb Williams just
failed to accomplish it, then it ultimately is on Caleb Williams.
(14:44):
But I just don't think that the Bears have taken
those steps and this can be the best thing for him.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
If this is the identity that he has going around
the league right now, then this is a beautiful moment.
This is a beautiful life lesson for him. Things have
been easy for this guy. You come into a situation
where this is not easy. I don't care who you are,
what player you are, the NFL is not easy, and
so to get knocked on your butt early it's beautiful.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
I think Chris Purfet or technical producer.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
I think on the conversation of the Bears organization, and
I kind of feel this a little bit for Caleb too.
Is everything about this attempt to rebuild the Bears feels
like it has just been trying to find the one
magic bullet trick to fix the Bears, and I think
that's kind of putting a lot of emphasis on Caleb
to perform that. This was all we heard in the
preseason was this is the best position for a rookie
(15:31):
quarterback to go into for the Chicago Bears, and then
it turns out, actually the O line is like one
of the worst in the NFL, and it doesn't have
any money put in into it, and actually these receivers
Keenan Allen's not who we thought he was, and Moore's
kind of fallen off of a table, and a Doonesay's
clearly at least a couple of years away. And now
I kind of feel like we're doing it again with
(15:52):
the Bears, going into this coaching cycle where it's just
just get Ben Johnson and everything will be fine. You'll
be able to get back to winning and will once
again start slotting the Bears into being either in the
playoffs or winning the NFC North right off of the bat.
And I think this has been going on for a
while in Chicago, and I feel, if anything, everyone watching
(16:12):
the Bears or even ownership with the Bears has been
infatuated with this idea that you just need to do
this one weird trick, this one simple trick, and suddenly
everything's rosy. But building a winning NFL team is not
that easy, and really a lot of it you go
to the offensive line. But I mean the defense after
they got rid of Eberflus, has clearly taken a huge
(16:33):
falling off of a table. How do you fix that
like this is this is a complicated machine to fix.
I just don't think you're going to fix it overnight.
And I think everyone needs to adopt a lot more patients.
With the Bears, I just don't know where that starts.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
I for a team that was seven and ten last
year and with a number one overall pick because of
the trade with the Panthers, you did expect more. It's
why Eberfurs kept his job because of how the defense
played in the second half of the year. They made
that deal for Montes Sweat in twenty twenty three, and
then they give him a new contract. But it was
supposed to be the Bears. As crazy as it sounds
(17:09):
with all the names that Chris just mentioned, this Bears
team was actually supposed to be led by their defense. Yeah,
truly it was. And if you could get Caleb Williams
these many weapons, somebody's going to take a hit, whether
it's an agent Keenan Allen, or if it's DJ Moore,
or if it is you know, the rookie in Rome
with Dunze. Somebody was not going to get their thousand
(17:29):
yards and eighty catches on the season. Now it turns
out it's pretty much everybody that didn't get that. But
to the point of eber flu stepping, you know, having
be fired and is no longer there to lead the defense,
that plays a part in it. But when you fire
the offensive coordinator and then have to fire the head
coach weeks later, that there's a reason why you're on
(17:49):
a ten game slide. Again they were. I saw the
tweet that they were and that Hail Mary against the commanders.
They're on the verge of being what five and two
at that point seeing at four and two and then the.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Rest is history, bad history. Not just history, it's bad history.
You don't want to be on a knee.
Speaker 5 (18:09):
The high point was, you know, mocking the commander's fans
like that was gonna be as you're as the play
is going on, and then you're running late and you
knock a pass into the hands of Noah Brown and
it was talk about just completely downhill. Talk about te
Tate there you go. Oh my goodness, By the way,
do we have any Caleb Williams last he was asked
(18:31):
about the booze and the sell the team. I want
to count how many ums, Caleb Williams said in this
because there's a lot and when you say, um, a lot,
you're trying to come up with the words. But this
was this was overkilled. Take a listen to this one.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah, I've only been here for you know, it's my
first year, so you know, their frustrations, you know, go
way longer back than you know than I've been here.
You know, my job is to uh, you know, go
out there and win games. And you know, uh, we
don't focus on outside noise. You know, the fans are
you know, they're gonna cheer and and and maybe boos
(19:13):
sometimes and you know, you you you you can't react
to that. It's not something that you know, we we
react to. We have a job to do, and you know,
sometimes you know, you don't you don't do so well
in the job some days and some days you you know,
you're you're you're pretty consistent. Some days you you.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Know, you play a great game.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
Come on, man, I counted, I counted us and ums,
how many I have six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve,
thirteen forty.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
He had more, almost had completions. That's that's what you're saying.
Is that what you're trying to get at down so
mean You're so.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
Mean that it stood out a lot, and honestly is
someone who actually it's it's a faults of mine. I
do a lot of my wife's Like the other night,
you're lion. The other night I said to her, I said, yeah,
I'm meaning to tell you, and then I got distracted
(20:13):
and I never finished the story, and She's like, what
were you meaning to tell me? I go, I have
no idea. I have no idea. So I can at
least a little bits commiserate with Caleb Williams, but I
don't know if I would drop What was that forty
five second clip? Chris? How long was that?
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Forty three?
Speaker 5 (20:27):
Okay, one every three seconds? That a good average?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
That is a good average. What is that average? At
least he leads the NFL in that he's carrying around
actually a slash ums that's higher than his QBR one more. Dang,
it's come on, Chris oh Man.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
Amazing.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
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Speaker 5 (21:03):
It's Cavino and Rich here on Fox Sports Radio. He's
carry Rhodes, the All Pro starter from day one. That's
I guess that's my nickname for you, yau starter from
day one. I'm Dan Byer, sitting in for the guys today.
Hit carry up at Carrie twenty five Roads. You can
find me at dan Byer on Fox. I don't know
if Kerrie's about to take a victory lap, but he's
(21:24):
about to start running in his mouth about the Pittsburgh Steelers,
and I'm very curious where this is gonna go. Rapid
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(21:45):
up the sixty percent off and free shipping. There's been
quite the conversation about the Pittsburgh Steelers as of late,
losing on Christmas Day to the Kansas City Chiefs, losing
their grip on the AFC North lead after they've now
hit a three game slide Eagles, Ravens and Chiefs with
two of those games on the road. Tough slate, but
(22:06):
Pittsburgh is unable to come out with a W and
any of them and now you wonder something else. I
don't know if it's a lost season, as Pittsburgh has
clinched a postseason birth, but they're likely likely not gonna
win the AFC North. But Pittsburgh is into the playoffs
on a season where maybe not a lot was expected
(22:30):
of them. But Russell Wilson came in, took over the job,
played well, but as of late hasn't been as good.
Where are you carry right now with Mike Tomlins Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
It's just coming back to reality. This team outperformed, they
play really well. I think they took some people by
surprise throughout the year. But this is just the tame
that isn't really talented enough to sustain the type of
sea and they were having right So I'm not gonna
pile it all on Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson has been adequate.
(23:05):
He's played good football for the most part of the season,
but I think you take away pickings for two of
those games, and obviously that's his main target down the field.
You have fire mouth, obviously, but the same just isn't
talented enough around that position. So my whole take coming
into this year was if that's the case, then you
put the quarterback in and Justin Fields who was there first,
(23:27):
that could possibly make some plays on his own and
change the trajectory of what that talent could be on
the offense and we get to see what he could
be also being in the contract the year. Now you
give it to a situation where Russell Wilson, you give
you hand it off to him when you are already
four and two and now you kind of wins. It's
(23:48):
a story about me for like when now or when now?
And when also possibly bigger later with the being able
to see a rough of Justin Fields could be that guy,
and I think that's kind of where I like, you
want some games as here, but I don't think having
Justin Fields in that position you were going to lose
those games either.
Speaker 5 (24:06):
The well and the drawing of the line is this is,
if Russell Wilson can win you the division, then it's
worth putting Russell Wilson in as the starting quarterback. And
it looked that way. It looked that way for a
decent amount of the season until the last two and
a half weeks and now you're at a spot where
(24:29):
you talk about the absence of George Pickens. Tarall Owens
feels that George Pickens were outrunning needs to get I
saw that earth and that may be the case, but
there's no doubt that Pickens isn't in extreme talent. You're
saying that it would be worth the Pittsburgh Steelers sacrificing
a playoff spot because that's where they are right now
to see if there was more with Justin Fields.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Yeah, I don't think. I think they're still in the
same position that they have Justin Fields. So I'm not
saying there's sacrifice in the playoff spot. I'm saying the
way they play complimentary football, Justin Fields can do the
same thing. And I think there is a bigger upside
of the talent because Justin Field's younger. He can extend plays,
and he can run, and he can do certain things
(25:12):
that you can do to add to that mix. Right,
So it's just a little bit extra I think there.
And if it isn't the case, then you would know
you don't have that guy with Justin Fields, and you
have to get a quarterback anyway. Right now, as we stand,
both of those guys on the quarterback moving forward, you
know what I mean. So that's I think Russ still is.
You think he's the quarterback moving forward? Yes, how many years?
Speaker 5 (25:35):
I think in twenty twenty five he would be their
best option. I think if you if you figured out
a way to get another wide receiver with him, and
maybe it's George Pickens, and I don't consider Mike Williams
said other wide receiver, but if you had another piece,
(25:56):
I think that you would owe it to Russell Wilson
to see what he could do.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I think Justin Fields will have them in the same
position right now if he was the quarterback.
Speaker 5 (26:04):
It's all hypothetically, but I don't I don't I think that.
I do think that Russell Wilson took that offense to
a different place when he was inserted into the starting
lineup coming back from his calf injury. I do think
that they were more of a balanced team, a well
(26:24):
balanced team. Russell Wilson had five games of a passer
rating of over one hundred over one hundred. Yeah, Unfortunately
the last three haven't turned out. I don't think Justin
Fields wins any of these last three games. But I
don't think it's a guarantee that Justin Fields wins, say
a shootout in Cincinnati against the Bengals or a tight
game against the Ravens. Earlier on in the season. Justin
(26:47):
Fields did have his limitations. That is why why Mike
Tomlin said he had the bit. You know he gets
paid the big bucks is to make the decisions to
put Russell Wilson in. I think that they the Steelers
were a better team with Russell Wilson. I just think
it's where you and I differ. I can go along
(27:07):
with Justin Fields being a quarterback if that's what if
you're willing to risk the five seed in the AFC,
in the playoffs or a wild card, because that's where
they would be right now. If you're willing to risk
that to see if Justin Fields would be your guy
of the future, I can get on board with that.
(27:30):
But I don't think that Justin Fields is the same
as Russell Wilson or better than what Russell Wilson performed
for the Steelers this year. So if you wanted to
sacrifice the playoff spot, say you don't make the playoffs,
but Justin Fields was able to progress throughout the year,
then that's the sacrifice you make. But I do think
that they were a better team with Russell Wilson. Yeah,
I don't think. I mean, yeah, that's an objective view
(27:52):
on it. I think a lot of people agree with
what you're saying as well. I think there's some some
people on my side as well. I mean, you talk
about Russell, I mean fields starting this season, they were
foreign too. They have they beat the Broncos, who was
a playoff team, the Chargers, that's a playoff team. They played,
the Colts they're still in They're still in contention, and
the Falcons are still in contention. So these are teams
(28:14):
that they played that are good teams, and they did
enough to win those games. So to say that Russell
Wilson was better than that, I just don't. It doesn't
sit well with me because I rather would see I
would rather see that guy not have this job taken
for playing good football. You wouldn't want a more balanced
offense because that's what Russell Wilson provided.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Yeah, but we don't know that we were limiting justin field.
They were limiting justin fields. We just you could tell
by their play their play calling in those games. So
I don't know if that's the case. They may know
that though, so I mean, I don't know, but just
from the outside looking in, they were telling him to
get the ball out quick and not turn the ball over.
Speaker 5 (28:50):
Jason Stewart are executive producer.
Speaker 7 (28:53):
Guys, I feel like I need to take a step
back here and and and explain the difference of your
mix a go today. Okay, Justin Fields was playing some
pretty good football for the Bears. And how do I
know that? I won my fantasy league with Justin Fields
as my quarterback. I'm not exaggerating.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
There you go.
Speaker 7 (29:10):
He was playing pretty good football. To imagine that a
year later, you guys would spend the first part of
the show talking about a quarterback that the Bears lost,
are a quarterback that that that the Bears do not support,
and then the second part of this hour talking about
Justin Fields on the Steelers deserving more playing time. That's me,
(29:32):
That's not what a difference a year makes though these
two situations.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
Jason also heard it from the Bears fans when you said, like, boy,
wouldn't it be nice to have Justin Fields right now?
Rasing there is the head And he heard it from
thee from the loyal Bear fan base, but maybe to
that point, and Dan, he would taking a step further.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
You were talking about Caleb Williams with the Bears and Steeler,
Now talk about Russell Wilson with the Steelers and the Broncos.
We thought that was the end in Denver, right, and
then he comes here and he is playing good enough
football for them to be where they are. So, I mean,
it's it's just it's the dichotomy of the NFL football
and being in perfect situations matter.
Speaker 5 (30:18):
Why ultimately do you think they chose Russell Wilson over
Justin Fields.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Because they believe they could have made the playoffs and
you want to have a veteran quarterback in that position.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
So yeah, And so then that also lends the question too,
which has been a criticism, fairly or unfairly, a criticism
by some levied against Mike Tomlin that he's more worried
and that the organization is more worried about having a
five hundred record than actually trying to build a championship
(30:46):
team again.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
And I would agree with that. I would agree with that.
I mean, it's it's it's the proof is in the pudding.
He hasn't had one of those.
Speaker 5 (30:54):
I feel I feel a bit bamboozled by the Pittsburgh Steelers,
but we'll get to that later on in the He
is Carrie Rhoads. I'm Dan Byer.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
Have you know what rich here on Fox Sports Radio?
I'm Dan Byer. He's Carry Rhoads sitting in for the guy.
You know. It's funny Wes and Idaho sweets in saying
you show me a consistently bad football team, and I
will show you terrible ownership. That's right. And this is
talking about the Chicago Bears, and he lifts off Bears Jets.
(31:38):
I never considered the Giants is having bad ownership. I
felt that they had a good ownership group. But and
I wouldn't say that the Giants are consistently bad, but
they just I mean, they do have a couple of
Super Bowls to more than a couple of Super Bowls
to their credit. But of this, you know, of late
maybe things haven't gone as well. Raiders, Cowboys, Browns, Jacksonville Carol, Atlanta, Saints,
(32:02):
and Dolphins. That's a lot of teams. It is, it is,
And I don't know if I agree with all of
the teams that Wes is saying, but I have to
admit what Wes is saying is something that I thought
of and I have thought of, is there are organizations
that don't have these problems because of ownership. We just
talked about the Pittsburgh Steelers and whether their goal is
(32:22):
to always be five hundred may may not be the case.
At least they're not as dysfunctional and crazy. Now, sometimes
some of the players can be like Antonio Brown pulling
his antics, but there's usually a solid foundation and yeah,
this is the stuff that happens with the Bears, this
is the stuff that happens with the Jets, this is
(32:44):
the stuff that happens with the Dallas Cowboys, and it
goes all the way to the top.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
It actually warms warms my belly to hear fans actually
being aware that it's not always the players organizationally. If
things aren't you know, solid, and you don't have that foundation,
it doesn't matter who you bring in as players to
come in and play. I think the awareness of that
(33:11):
is a good thing. But also all those teams aren't
bad organization aren't badly run organizations, right, So I think
there is a fine line that comes with it.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
I think there are some coaches as well that are
front offices that do a good enough job to get
it done in spite of their poor ownership. But if
we were to go around the National Football League and
say where do we see good ownership in the league?
Where is good, like really good solid ownership, It's not
(33:44):
fifty percent. No, And I don't know if ten is
the number. I don't know if twelve is the number.
I just know it's not sixteen. And I think that
that's a problem. That's why you see certain teams having
success and other teams maybe not as much.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
I agree. I think there is a level of not
even nepotism, but there's a level of hiring your friends
that happens in most organizations when it comes to any
pro sports. I think that's the I think that's the
trick where I want to hire my friend, I want
to hire people i'd like to be around, but you're
(34:20):
not hiring the right people.
Speaker 5 (34:21):
For that job. He's carried roads. I'm dan Byer. Carry
is the one who's heartbroken. Not to mock the injury
to Luka Doncic, but carry is a huge MAVs fan.
We found out yesterday a month at least a month
for Luka Doncic to return from a calf injury, something
that is not new at all to Luca and his repertoire.
(34:42):
Is this cause for more concern because it's a calf again,
or you in the camp of it's just a calf again.
He'll be back in a month and be fine.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
The calf thing is always scary, so there is concern.
Speaker 5 (34:54):
I don't think it's as much concern. If this was
last year or two years ago, this.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Team would be done. The fact that Nico Harrison the
GM there that's done a great job of acquiring talent,
They can withstand Luca not being there the whole season
compared to prior seasons. Now for him personally, I think
it's gonna do a good job for him because obviously
(35:20):
you don't want to play around the cast. It's scary,
but he plays too much basketball. He puts himself in
a position to where these injuries, these nagging injuries occur.
He goes straight from a long playoff run you play
in the NBA Finals and he go plays for his country,
and you know, it's obviously he wants to win and
do that eventually, but to come back and lose in
(35:41):
a disappointing fashion the way he did to Boston in
the finals. To take a step back and not playing
that and be ready to play for your NBA team
during the season should have been top priority.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
And that's the part where I really look at this.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
It's like he needs to take care of his body
and he hasn't done that yet, so it is concerning.
But this team can with stand him not being there.
He's going to be reevaluated in a month. So let's
just fast forward. That's January twenty seventh. Yep, that would
be a month from say today. You also have an
All Star Game that takes place in mid February. If
(36:15):
I'd take two months, I'd take a month and a
half off and then just after the All Star break
then go. I'd be completely safe with all of this
and what we have seen with NBA teams and how
they have performed down the stretch and entering the last
third of the season. Something you and I have talked
about on the Sunday show. It used to be that
(36:36):
last third of the season was all right, let's slow
it down, let's make sure that we're ready for the
playoff push, and once the playoffs start, let's go. Now
it's all right, this final third of the season, this
final fourth of the season March, in the first half
of April.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
You want to be playing well, you want to be
playing at a high level, and you want that momentum
to carry on into the playoffs. So having Luca, if
he was going to miss a month, what's two or
three more weeks if you can then just get him
back for that stretch, especially at this point.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
The only thing that there there is a concern that
he's that team's in the West, right the West, the
top four you know at Dallas is the fourth spot
right now, but there are probably only one game from
being in the tenth spot. So you do have to
play well in the West. If this is the If
this is the East, it'll be a different story.
Speaker 5 (37:23):
It's not that bad, but it's it's three and a
half games out of the tenth spot right now.
Speaker 7 (37:29):
Here.
Speaker 5 (37:29):
Gallas is nineteen and eleven and three and a half
up on the Warriors, who are sitting in that tenth
spot with the Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns for that matter.
That's fifteen and fourteen. He is carry Rhoads. I'm Dan Beyer.
Bowl Games, NBA. Yeah, we got it all here on
Fox Sports Radio, including what NFL team fooled you this season?
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