Chicago Bears on Hard Knocks: NFL’s Intriguing Choice

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00:00But we focus now on the National Football League.

00:06The Bears not happy about it, but they will be on Hard Knocks later in the month of August.

00:12There's so many Hard Knocks variations, maybe you are wondering which one this is.

00:17This is the original training camp with the Chicago Bears.

00:20So Caleb Williams first training camp in his National Football League career will be in

00:25front of the cameras on HBO for all to see.

00:30The most intriguing and interesting choice.

00:32And Donnie, the way it works with Hard Knocks, the criteria for a team that has to be selected,

00:39you retain your head coach from the season prior, so not a new head man in charge, and

00:45you did not make the playoffs.

00:47So you have to be just mediocre enough to be in consideration for Hard Knocks.

00:51The three selections potentially this year were the Bears, the Broncos, and the Saints.

00:56The NFL gives us Chicago.

00:58Yeah, and I'm glad they did give us Chicago because there's a lot of fun topics to look

01:02at.

01:03New quarterback, generational kid coming to town, a revamped team with a lot of optimism

01:08heading into 2024.

01:10Those are the teams that we'd like to see here.

01:11Like if they would put the Saints on, I'm not even so sure even register on the rating

01:15scale at that point.

01:16Like who's going to want to watch?

01:17Hey, can Derek Carr come back and be a solid quarterback?

01:20Did you see what Taysom Hill was doing in the offseason?

01:22Like nobody cares about that.

01:23We care about the Chicago Bears.

01:25It was a good choice by the NFL.

01:26And also, just a side point on this, Ben, I always get a kick out of this.

01:30Like the coaches can't stand it at this point.

01:32Like if coaches had their way, Ben, NFL games wouldn't be broadcast on TV because nobody

01:36would want to see what the actual plays would be.

01:39So I usually get a kick out of that.

01:40But from an ownership standpoint, you should love being on Hard Knocks.

01:43It's a chance to put your team in a positive light, which always gets much, much more eyeballs,

01:47particularly in your hometown, and gets everybody interested.

01:51It opens us up to, wow, maybe the Chicago Bears, if I didn't have a favorite team, could

01:55be my favorite team.

01:56But it's a very intriguing story and a very good choice here for Hard Knocks.

02:00Yeah.

02:01Yeah, I think it's going to be fantastic.

02:02Now, Chicago was not all too pleased to go inside and take the exclusive look in the

02:08hallowed halls of Hallis Hall.

02:10It's not something they wanted for their rookie quarterback.

02:13And I get it from a perspective, Donnie.

02:16It feels a little bit intrusive.

02:18Could you consider it a distraction?

02:20I guess.

02:21There's cameras following your every move as you're trying to get ready for a National

02:25Football League season.

02:27But I don't think the notoriety is all that bad if you can shape it from a positive perspective.

02:33And frankly, the Bears should be very positive in their outlook entering 2024.

02:39Not just the generational quarterback prospect that is Caleb Williams, but a Bears team that

02:43won five of their final seven games last year in the regular season, led by a great

02:48defensive effort under Matt Eberflus as he took back the reins of the defense.

02:53It's why he's back for year number three at the helm in the Windy City.

02:57And don't just take the Hard Knocks bump or the approach of it.

03:01The oddsmakers are telling you right here, right now, following a successful offseason

03:05that culminated in a great NFL draft for the Bears, Chicago is expected to have a winning

03:12record, be above 500 this year, eight and a half the win total.

03:15The over has the juice.

03:17They are favored with a minus money price to reach the postseason in the NFC.

03:22And that has always been the incredibly intriguing thing to me about the Bears.

03:27You have a rookie quarterback coming in.

03:29You use the number one overall pick on him, and you are expected to be a playoff team

03:35right away.

03:37Not two, three years down the line, not, hey, Caleb, go out there, show us some effort.

03:41Let's try to get to six or seven wins this year.

03:44You are expected to be above 500, have a winning record and reach the playoffs.

03:49Yes.

03:50And the bar has been reset by CJ Stroud, which means no longer, you know, back in the day,

03:54just going back to my Eagle days, where it was Freddie Mitchell got drafted at UCLA to

03:57the Eagles.

03:58But back then it was like, well, wide receiver is going to take three to four years to learn

04:01the league and how to like it.

04:02No, that's since been changed.

04:04You see the wide receivers now coming in 1500 yards for some of these top guys.

04:08The same thing we can look at for some of those players like Caleb Williams.

04:12CJ Stroud last year was so good.

04:13We're expecting Caleb Williams to be almost equal, if not better, this season.

04:16If he is, they're going to be in the playoffs.

04:19Look at the offensive skill players that they have.

04:22This is atypical from a team that drafted number one overall.

04:24Now, granted, they weren't the worst team in the NFL last year.

04:27They just made a shrewd move in getting a trade.

04:29Caleb Williams, DeAndre Swift, DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Romo Duse, and a very solid tight end

04:34in Cole Kmet.

04:36That's good enough to make the playoffs.

04:37If your offensive line holds up and you have a generational quarterback, even though he's

04:41a rookie here, how bad could it possibly be?

04:44You saw the past two years with Justin Fields as quarterback.

04:47That was an offense that set the NFL back 50 years in the passing game.

04:50Now you're actually going to have a competent passing game?

04:53We should have some good times here in Chicago this year.

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