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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.