Kevin Fishbain: Bears Will Draft Caleb Williams

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Message and data rates may apply. Void where prohibited. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Thank you guys for really getting me back into sports. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. I'm considering walking away. I'm considering heading up to the mall here in Erie, Pennsylvania and buying myself a Josh Allen jersey. I'm hopping on the Bill's Mafia bandwagon because I'm tired of the Cowboys. Earlier on the show, Apple TV MLS analyst Taylor Twelman. Coming up, Bears beat writer for the athletic Kevin Fishbank.

Host of Pro Football Talk, Mike Florio. And now it's Rich Eisen. All right. Oh, God, we opened your eyes. You sure did. Well, it's back. That's it. So I do love it now.

Every every morning you're like on tech power. Top five of blah, blah, blah. Yeah, yeah.

I'm like, you know what? I'm in. You're in.

One of my favorites was at the Super Bowl. Top five Vegas icons. That was a good low green number one spoiler.

Spoiler alert. This one will give me top 10 most important quarterbacks on the carousel this year. I like it because, you know, there's always a carousel. And the question is, is do the Bears start spinning it?

Because they've got the choice to spin it. And and as we all know, they did not spin it last year, spun off the draft pick, and then the Panthers spun bankrupt in twenty twenty three. And the Bears are now first overall on the clock again. And to discuss that subject matter, and our number two to kick things off from the athletic covers, the Bears, Kevin Fishbane joining us here in the Rich Eisen. How you doing, Kevin? I'm good, Rich. How are you? I'm doing very, very well.

And I appreciate you joining us here. Because as you and I are conversing, the St. Brown Brothers podcast is coming out right now. It's just dropped when Justin Fields is, I guess, going to explain whether he unfollowed the Bears on social media and whether this is a bellwether or any sort of canary in a coma. And what are your two cents on the Justin Fields-Bears relationship as you and I are talking right now? Kevin?

Rich, I'm trying to remember which journalism class we learned. Follow who players follow on Twitter and Instagram, and then go watch the podcast on YouTube of the teammate to figure it out. So you might find out before me what Justin Fields has to say about it. Right. Just the relationship in general. I mean, the Bears love Justin Fields.

They do. He's been a leader. He's had a great work ethic. His teammates love him.

The city adores him. They happen to have the number one pick in a historically great quarterback draft for what they, you know, the people a lot smarter than me who evaluate this stuff think so. So it's a weird position for it to be in. I do believe that if they're going to trade him, if they're going to move on, Ryan Polce is going to do so with a lot of respect, a lot of deference to Justin Fields and make this as clean as possible. But look, if you're Justin Fields, you're probably sitting there being like, hey, I've given my all to this team for a couple of years. The record hasn't been great. The results haven't been great.

And a lot of that wasn't my fault. But I don't sense any animosity between player and organization at this point. Well, I mean, they handled it last year very upfront with Justin Fields and does appear that they told him very early on in the process. You're good.

We're good. And I'm wondering, what have they told him already about the process this year? Because clearly the quarterback class this year requires more due diligence than last year's, even though last year's wound up producing one of the greatest unicorns we've seen at quarterback in C.J. Stroud. We just didn't know that at the time last year.

I'm sure he must have. But what are you what's your reporting on what the Bears have communicated to Fields at this point in time? Kind of knowing what we know about Ryan Polls, I'm guessing it's been really transparent, maybe more transparent than you would expect in a situation. They probably said, Justin, hey, we love what you've done. We are in this rare, unique situation and we need to research everything.

And when we decide on a direction to go, we'll let you know. You know, it's interesting, Rich, too, because teams do this all the time at other positions, right? Like we see a team move on from veteran. Look, the Bears just cut Eddie Jackson last week. Obviously, that's a cap situation. And with his age and all that, everything's different in quarterback.

But this happens a lot. Obviously, when it's quarterback, when it's someone like Justin Fields, when it's the number one pick, when it could be Caleb Williams, everything is exponential. So knowing Ryan Polls and the relationship he has with Justin Fields, throw Matty Rufus into that conversation as well. I expect that it's been probably very upfront. And once they decide what they're going to do, they're probably going to tell him and keep him in the loop. As he said, that's what they did last year. So I expect it to have been the same.

Kevin Fishbane here on The Rich Eisen Show. Walk me through your statement. You said moments ago that fans in Chicago love Justin Fields and how you think that might be part of the equation here. Yeah, well, for one thing, Polls can't let it be part of the equation and he can't let DJ Moore's adoration for Justin Fields be part of it either.

And he said that. But I do think it has created this polarization in town. You have these Caleb Williams versus Justin Fields debates on the radio.

Rich, they've been going on since October. Every day we've been talking about it here. And this is the situation the Panthers put the Bears in, put the city in. When the Bears moved up to draft him, I had not seen anything like that in Chicago in terms of excitement about something the Bears did on or off the field, really, since they traded for Jay Cutler. And look, when they traded for Jay Cutler, everyone was like, oh, my God, the Bears finally have a quarterback. They moved up for Justin Fields. They said, we did it.

This is it. This is our guy, finally homegrown, incredible player at Ohio State. And that was the big difference in Justin Fields, I think, and Mitch Trubisky was Justin Fields was an incredible college football player.

And there were a lot of questions about Mitch coming out about what he did in college. Chicago fans had watched Fields play at Ohio State. They thought that this was the steal of the draft.

He comes in his first preseason game and lit it up at Soldier Field. I mean, that place, I think it was the first time fans had been there in over a year or two because of the pandemic. So you just had this palpable sense.

So all that has built up. And then we've all seen the flashes of brilliance that he's shown. So I think so many fans here, and you know this so well, Rich, Chicago is just so desperate to find that guy. And fans here so badly wanted it to be Justin Fields. And there's still some who believe he can be that guy, given the proper team, proper coordinator.

So they love him. I think a lot of people have kind of come to terms with what is probably coming. But yeah, as far as the organization, they have to try to block that out and just figure out what is best for the team moving forward. The Athletics, Kevin Fishbane covers the Bears right here on the Rich Eisen Show. And Kevin, we started this conversation with you saying, what journalism school did we learn to check on who a player follows on his social media or her social media, and then check on the podcast of his teammates as a comment.

And then I would probably learn before you would, because we're having a conversation. I have an earpiece in and my crew, my producers are telling me that you are correct. I now know what Justin Fields told Equinemious, St. Brown, and Amon Ron St. Brown on the St. Brown's podcast.

He did, in fact, say he unfollowed the Bears on his social media, on his IG, but he also unfollowed the NFL as well because he wanted no NFL on his timeline while he was going on vacation because his timeline is filled with the conversation about what the Bears should do with the first overall selection. What's your thoughts upon me now informing you during this conversation, Kevin? I love the breaking news. You've been doing this for a bit, Rich. You handled that smoothly. Thank you, sir. Somewhat.

Yeah, that does it. Justin Fields, I mean, like horse blinders, right? I mean, he's just got to be just, you know, just in it and not paying any attention. It's really interesting because last year he did the whole Super Bowl radio row carwash. He was there. He was very talkative. He did our show. He did our show and he was wide open about it. I can understand that, you know, he just wouldn't want to go through it a second year or this one's more real.

You know what I mean? Like last year it was, he was in year two going into year three. And, you know, the conversation was honestly, despite the way CJ Stroud played, let's, let's, let's recall. It was, it was essentially at the Super Bowl last year, a conversation about Fields or Bryce Young. That was, that was the conversation. Now it's Fields or Caleb Williams. And he's also three years in, 39 starts in, and there's a 50 year option conversation that's going to have to come up and that's expensive.

And that's maybe a little bit more real with Justin Fields right now, you know? Yeah. Yeah, it's a hundred percent it, you know, I think he understands it. He gets it. He doesn't want to go through that having to talk about it all the time.

And I understand that if he wants to go on vacation, unplug, he doesn't want to have to see any of it. And look, I can barely put my phone away. I could barely stay off social media.

So I can't imagine somebody, you know, certainly in his generation, be able to just stay off it. So why not, might as well just unfollow the Bears, unfollow the NFL. You know, I remember, look, a couple of years ago, Dave Montgomery one day, like my, my phone's blowing up. Did you see Dave Montgomery unfollowed the Bears? You know, we had a whole, we had to have a whole conversation with Dave Montgomery about that, you know, the next day at Alice Hall. This is the world we live in.

But yeah, I think for Justin Fields, it's real. He gets it. He's understood this situation, understood it's out of his hands. He was very open and showed a lot of great perspective at the end of the season. And as I said, a lot of things have not gone his way. Some of it has been out of his control. Some of it's been in his control, Rich. I mean, the fact of the matter is Justin Fields had a lot of opportunities late in games in the last two years to do what the CJ Strouds do, to do what Padma Holmes has done over and over again.

And maybe it's a high bar and maybe he didn't have the perfect team around him, but so rarely was he able to come through in those clutch situations. And I think that is a big reason we're having these conversations that we are, and that the Bears are very open to moving on and picking a different quarterback, number one. We both went to Medill then, huh?

Is that basically what you're saying? Are you a Medill guy, Kevin? I am. All right. Oh, I see your Northwestern hat on right now. I couldn't see it before. Okay. I see you. Okay. Very good. So what's your reporting on why the Bears stuck with Matt Iberfluss with one of the most decorated coaching carousels spinning?

What's your reporting there? I think there's two things in play here, Rich. You know, one, Ryan Polz, Matt Iberfluss, a very good relationship and new president Kevin Warren. There was this, we were all wondering here in Chicago, was Kevin Warren going to kind of make a power play? Was he going to say, look, I love Matt and I see that you guys have a good rapport and I see the defense has been growing, but this is a new era. I'm in charge now. We've got these guys available.

Let's, let's, let's move on. Um, but I, you know, it seems like he certainly empowered Ryan Polz and Ryan Polz has a lot of trust in Matt Iberfluss and that is a mutual trust. I think he really appreciated the way Iberfluss, the way Polz said it was captained to the ship. Uh, so I think there's a bond there that's really strong. I think that they do really appreciate the way the defense played and the way that the culture has been built in the building.

Now, I always think culture is a kind of a funny buzzword, Rich. And we talk about this stuff because when you make the playoffs, you've got a great culture, you know? So like if the, that the Bears need to win, that's what they have to figure out.

So you can say all you want about how great the culture is. You just got to win games. And I do think Matt Iberfluss did enough down the stretch with his defense, with how he handled all the drama, uh, to prove to Ryan Polz that he was the guy. And the thing is, look, I mean, we also can't ignore the fact that this is a Bears organization that historically does not like change. Uh, you know, we saw with Mark Trestman, they were not thrilled that they had to do that and move on after two years, but that was a mess. And then the John Fox and then Matt Nagy and now Matt Iberfluss, this is an ownership group that wants to make it work. And I think that, you know, I don't know if there was a fear of taking that big swing and sticking with the guy that you know and you feel comfortable with, but if that was involved, it wouldn't be the first time the Bears have done that.

Yeah. I mean, the, the Montez sweat acquisition was a home run. I mean, he really helped solidify what was ascending essentially before his acquisition and right around his acquisition is when the Bears, the Bears defense, one of the best in the league, top five, I think in the last two months.

And I guess, I guess you didn't want to upset that with Iberfluss. And now you bring in Shane Waldron and, and it looks like he's going to get handed the golden ticket here, you know, um, because I'm assuming they do go ahead and take Caleb Williams. What's your best guess with what the Bears are going to do with that first overall pick as we're sitting here on the penultimate Wednesday of February, Kevin?

Yeah. I mean, my, my, my best guess is it's going to be Caleb Williams and everything. Everybody says, I mean, just look at what Daniel Jeremiah has said about him in the past couple of weeks. I mean, this guy just seems like from a talent standpoint and the physical gifts, a no doubter, you know, when I was down in the senior bowl, Rich and I was talking to, you know, scouts and, and, and folks around the league, the phrase that they kept saying was you cannot pass on a talent like this.

Like he's just too good. Now I'm keeping the door open. The combines next week, the Bears are going to an opportunity to sit down with Caleb Williams, and then we're going to have, they're going to certainly bring him into house hall. They're going to go see him.

They're going to do their due diligence here. And I'm going to keep opening the door that maybe they think that a different quarterback is better suited for what they want to be. But right now, if they're picking number one, Caleb Williams seems to be the no doubt, number one prospect, number one quarterback, not only in this class, but probably in recent classes.

And it's hard to see the bears. And you mentioned CJ Stroud earlier and Bryce young, the idea of the bears passing on those guys and then passing on kid Williams is a wild thing to think about for a franchise that is so well known for its futility at the position. I mean, this is a golden opportunity for them to take this guy who is so gifted and, you know, pairing with DJ Moore, pairing with an offensive line that really hit its stride late in the season, that defense and hope that they have the right pieces. They got a lot of cap space. They got the number nine pick and they can find a way to make it work.

Yeah. That number nine pick in the aforementioned Daniel Jeremiah's mock draft Roma Dunze. And I mean, like what a, what a home run if we get out of the top nine and the bears have Caleb Williams and Roma Dunze and then potentially another draft choice later on on that Friday night because of the Justin Fields trade that would no doubt have to happen. So you mentioned earlier, Kevin, that you think that Ryan polls, the GM would want to accommodate Justin Fields. Where do you think Justin Fields wants to go? He has to be as he's unfollowing the bears thinking about this sort of thing right now, you know?

Yeah, I'm sure he is, you know, I guess when I said that I do have to, it is a business too. So I think polls would want to accommodate him as much as he can, but it has to be for a team that wants Justin Fields too. I don't know how many teams it's going to be rich. I mean, yes, there are a lot of teams that need a starting quarterback, but this is a very deep quarterback class. You've got the Kirk Cousins and Baker Mayfield situations as well to keep an eye on. I mean, Pittsburgh makes a lot of sense. I know it's a very unstealers thing to do to make a move like that, but you think about the Arthur Smith offense and what that could look like with someone like Justin Fields. And that is a team that's built to win.

And it's got a really strong infrastructure there around it. I know the Atlanta Falcons, everybody connects the dots there. Hometown needs a quarterback, great skill players. I just always wonder there, like Terry Fondo had his chance a couple of years ago and didn't take him. So what has Field shown in the past three years to now get new head coach, different situation, desperate situation. I'm sure that that owner might want them to take that Justin Fields is a great story in Atlanta, but that's a team, but outside those two, Rich, it's hard to really find a great fit. But I think if you're Justin Fields, you want to go somewhere where you can start and you'd love to be with an offense pointer who you believe is going to fit that offense to you better than it was here in Chicago. And you look at Arthur Smith, you look at Zach Robinson, those guys make a lot of sense in that category. Yeah, I guess the Raiders are out there as a possibility. The Patriots, if they want to indicate, hey, we're a new look organization. What way to basically say we're going to go get Justin Fields and throw Marvin Harrison on the mix third overall with him because they already have Fields in the fold. But part of the dot connecting for Fields to Atlanta isn't just the fact that he's from Georgia and he played for a year at Georgia before transferring to the Ohio State, but also for somebody who doesn't want NFL on his timeline, he certainly follows the three most important weapons that he might be playing with in Atlanta, still follows Pitts, Drake London, and Bijan Robinson. And that's part of the dot connecting, sir, right there. I'm building my syllabus right now for my social media class I'll teach and, you know, maybe Medill is watching this right now, Rich.

I'm available. I'm building this class out. The other thing about Atlanta, the GM who chose Justin Fields a few years ago, Ryan Pace, is in that Falcons front office.

So again, another thing to consider when you think about Atlanta as a pretty interesting destination spot for Justin Fields. Kevin, thanks for the time, sir. Enjoy the rest of your February.

Let's connect as the draft season progresses. Appreciate it. All right. Thanks, Rich. Take care.

You bet. That's Kevin Fishbane and his maiden voyage here in the Rich Eisen Show from the Athletic. What did we glean? Well, I checked out the, I think Chris did too, the St. Brown's Brothers podcast.

And? Just like, I think you had mentioned this to Kevin because as the time I was listening to it, I think you said it. He said he's going on vacation. He just didn't want to have all the NFL noise on his phone. Like he goes, every post is, this field's getting traded. The Bears keep the fields. He goes, I just want to go on vacation.

Kind of get my mind off of football. The Sun God didn't ask him about Drake London. He's like, you're following my teammate though.

You know, they put USC together. He's like, I don't know Drake. I've been following him though. So. We're going to, I guess, get that soundbite for later in the program.

I have thoughts on it, but again. I mean, what he said seemed reasonable and like, yeah, you want to enjoy yourself and not, and not worry about work. When you go on vacation, you don't want to think about work all the time. I get it. You go on vacation sometimes maybe like delete Instagram or delete Twitter. Yeah.

You don't have to just unfollow certain accounts. We're going to unpack this. We're going to unpack it. We got to take a break.

Ask him about it. All right. Yeah. All right. Let's take a break. Let's take a break. We'll take a break. Guess what we're going to do. We're taking a break.

And then we'll be back from break. I think Florio's probably got some thoughts too. Hour three. I'm sure he does. On the BiggerPockets real estate podcast co-host David Green and Rob Abasolo interview real estate investors and entrepreneurs about successes, failures, and hard earned lessons. Joined by author Dave Meyer. Who wrote a book. I did write a book. It seems like you're coming out with a book every four minutes. You're one to talk. You've released two books this year.

I've done half as many as you. It is more about strategy than it is about just finding whatever the new buzzword happens to be. BiggerPockets real estate podcast on YouTube or wherever you listen. America starts the day with America in the morning. Hi, I'm John Trout, your host for the latest news, politics, entertainment, business, and weather. Our staff of correspondence provide a fast paced look at the world with specialized reports from where news happens in New York. I'm Sue Allard. I'm Charles. I'm Kevin Carr. I'm Archie Zaraleta. Concise, accurate, and fresh each day.

America in the morning, the podcast available wherever you listen. We're now at the top five of my power rankings of NFL quarterback birthday parties I'd prefer to attend. Number five is Josh Allen. Let's go hang out with Josh Allen. I don't know what this is. Photographs from.

Is it from a murder mystery party or something like that? I don't know, but let's go hang out with Josh Allen. All right. Number four in the list. Who wouldn't want to go to Tom Brady's birthday party? No, no, no, no.

Tom Brady on a boat. Yeah. And the one and it's on his cheat day.

We're no one day where he's drinking too. We're okay. All right.

Okay. Number three on this list. Who wouldn't want to go say happy birthday to Joe borrow. Look at Joe.

Come on now. Joe Burris owner birthday party. I'm going and everybody on the RSVP list is going to number two quarterback birthday party. I would want to attend is Jimmy Garoppolo's birthday. Tom's going to be there and you just, I mean, I will just, I'll stand in the corner and look and it'll be creepy.

Not going to lie. It'll be creepy. There'll be some birds. It'll be creepy, but Jimmy, I wouldn't be able to go to Jimmy Garoppolo's birthday party. Cause Susie would say, I'm going you're home.

Okay. The pitches will be clucking top my power rankings, quarterback birthday parties. I would like to attend them an NFL quarterback birthday party hands down. Number one, Gardner Minshew.

It's not just starting quarterbacks. I said NFL quarterback number one, Gardner Minshew fun stuff on our YouTube page. If I may say so myself, man, good stuff about to do my power rankings right now. As a matter of fact, the rich eyes and show radio network just rejoined our Roku channel feed. I'm sitting at the rich eyes and show desk furnished by Granger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Granger has the right product for you. Call click granger.com or just stop by our edit bays are red hot to the touch right now, trying to churn out what Justin Fields told the St. Brown brothers on their podcast. Nice guest for a right. I'm on Ron Equinimius right here. It's well timed.

No doubt. You know, I wonder, did they book him before he, uh, he hit the unfollow button? I don't know. Good question. I don't know. I don't know. Do the bears still follow Justin Fields? Is anybody checked that out? That's a good question.

You know what? Um, it's kind of like the, the reverse phone book. Remember that reverse look over the phone. You remember the reverse phone book? Of course I do. You know, let's see where you put in the, uh, they only follow 259 people.

It's the opposite of looking for the name. It's a number, but you get the, do they follow Justin? Oh yeah, they follow Justin Fields. Yep. Okay.

Do they follow Caleb Williams? Let's see. Oh, stop it.

No, they don't. Okay. Not yet. Not yet.

Keep it and refresh. They don't follow that many people. Only 259. Who? The bears? Yeah. Oh my God. What's going on over there? Somebody, I heard my voice.

What are you doing? As I was looking through the bears thing, the first video that popped up was the sneaker video. Oh, is that right?

It's literally everywhere on social media. It's so good. I love it. The Sebastian Maniscalco. What other quarterback? Does Justin Fields follow me? Oh, oh, good question.

Because I just want to make sure he wants to see pictures of, uh, Rich Eisen show reels and pictures of my dogs, occasionally children. That's what I got. No, he does not follow you. He follows 777.

Gave it a try. Yeah. 777, Mike. That's jackpot.

Yep. So, uh, you know, let's, let's do the, uh, the, uh, the power rankings after this. We're about to get the sound bites in of Justin Fields.

So, so let me, let's just review this. Honestly, let's say you're Justin Fields. Oh, that would be awesome.

That'd be great. Let's say you're Justin Fields. And, you know, you fight your way to get to the transfer portal out of Georgia. And you wind up at the Ohio State University where you have a stupendous career. Okay.

You have a stupendous career. And, um, you know, you, you throw the, the entire route tree in a college football playoff victory. He was dynamite.

Right. And then wound up playing Clemson, had a really good game, didn't win, but he was, he was great. I mean, honestly, how successful was he at the Ohio State? He's the last Ohio State quarterback to beat Michigan. I know you're going to say that. Oh boy.

I'm sorry. I got, I lost the plot. He had a terrific career. And then, you know, he watches, he watches Zach Wilson and Trey Lance get drafted before.

He had to be sitting there going, what the hell is going on? And, and then the Bears, the Bears trade up to get him. Yeah.

All right. And then you remember Matt Nagy didn't just like dive all in on him to start. Remember that?

They have Nick Foles. Didn't he say his first, he came on this show, Matt Nagy and said he wanted to Mahomes him. His plan was to sit on the whole sit on the whole first year as if doing what he did in college, like didn't come close to mimicking the NFL.

Especially at that college. Exactly. It was weird. I remember I even told him like, good luck with that. When he said that on the show, do you remember that?

Where I basically said to him, like, I don't think you're going to be able to do that, Matt. And Andy Dalton and Nick Foles. Dude! With Fields. And he had to be just like, now with, with, I guess all due respect to Matt Nagy, then, you know, Fields did look like he needed some, some more marinating to the point where even just this past year, he said Luke Getze's, you know, scheme made him feel robotic. Do you remember that was a huge to do? Right.

Yeah. Because it was just like, wait a minute. Does that mean he like saying that your reads here and your reads here, like he, he needed, he felt too contained by, by a system that would make him go through reads.

And it's obviously never that simple. He tries to do too much, gets hurt. Remember that he held onto the ball too long and then blew out his thumb.

Bajan came in, Bajan looked good. Then he comes back in and started playing like the Justin Fields we were all hoping to see. And in between that, he spends an entire January last year. And he didn't, we went through all his Super Bowl interviews, including ours, or just like, what do you think the Bears are going to do?

Do you think your first two years are not enough and they're just going to flip you and start from scratch with Bryce Young or the guy who succeeded you at Ohio State? And he had to be sitting there going, I can't believe I'm dealing with this stuff. And now he's dealing with it again.

This time around though, it's more, it's more real. And, and I, I do not say this with in any way, shape or form. Don't do not read this in any way, shape or form is disrespecting CJ Stroud. But at this point last year, nobody thought Stroud would play the way that he did this year. I mean, and by the way, the way that Stroud played this year was as Kurt Warner will tell you, it's not just good for a rookie. He was at the top of his game compared to all the veterans in the league. So I guess if that's the way Stroud was coming into the draft, in other words, like Caleb Williams, it might've been even that much more awkward for him last year.

Cause it's just like, okay, we're going to take the guy that succeeded you. But instead it was a conversation last year when he showed up at Super Bowl. It was, it was like Fields and Young.

And I thought that was a no brainer. You got to stick with Justin Fields there. Certainly when the Panthers call up and say, we're going to give you a lot and DJ Moore, we're going to give you a, a young stud receiver who can now have a chemistry with the guy you're keeping.

Ryan Polis, stroke of genius. And nobody thought that Young would struggle so significantly along with the Panthers that they would fire their coach in the middle of the season. Although I guess we should have seen that one coming with, with the owner being the way that he has been so far with his coaches and good luck to Dave Canales with that.

But they would be so bad that we'd be back in the position of the Bears having the first overall pick thanks to the Panthers. Right? And so now though, it's real. This one's more real because Fields is a year further along. Now he could say, I put more out there for you to see. And he is a year further along with the fan base there in love with him.

Mostly, I think. And he's also, however, a year closer to you really having to make a financial decision that is considerable to keep him. So it's more real now because Caleb Williams is a guy who looks like he's the next Mahomes. That's a burden he's going to have to deal with as he's first played in his pro career. Certainly if it's in Chicago and he looks just like Justin Fields in his first year.

But that's for down the road. For the moment now, that's the way I'm setting up Justin Fields having a conversation on the St. Brown Brothers podcast, courtesy of the 33rd team site. I did not know, to be honest with you, Aman Ra and Equanimius had a podcast together. Great guests though.

Just in time, they sat down with Justin Fields when yesterday the conversation was that Fields has unfollowed the Chicago Bears on his Instagram account. So what gives on all of that? Hit it. That's true. That's true. That's facts. That's facts. But you follow Luciano, right? But listen, that's my girlfriend though.

That's different. But I'm saying when you're single, it's you really messing with the girls you don't follow more than the girls you follow. You feel me? Oh, so you're saying you mess with the Bears more now that you don't follow them? Man, it's something that I don't want to see in my timeline. I'm about to go on vacation.

I don't want to see no football. And guess what? It's the other way.

Get away from it. Every Bears post. I don't see who you follow. Nah, I don't see who you follow. You want Fields to be Dr. Caleb. So it's like, bro, man, I'm tired of hearing the talk. We want Fields.

We want it. It's just, bro, it's time to just... You tell me you don't follow no football. Bro, you follow... I follow Ohio State football. I don't follow the NFL. I don't follow the Bears. Bleacher Report. Bleacher Report. It's basketball season.

They're not posting nothing about football, dog. Okay. Let's take it one step at a time.

I have to turn to the single men in the room on Instagram. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay.

Yep. You want to interpret that for me then? What does that mean?

You unfollow, but you're still messing with them? What does that mean? Well, because... Okay. Do your best.

Do your best. Sometimes you follow somebody and you want to like their pictures and stuff, but if you hit like, as we all know, your name shows up that you like them. So sometimes you might say, I don't know, put them in a bookmark folder or something.

That way you can discretely check someone's Instagram that you like without really it showing up that you've been on their page. TJ. But that's... How does that have any... What's the analogy between unfollowing the Bears and he could still... What, he's still checking them out? Is that the analogy? Well, I think he gave you the answer. He doesn't want to see a bunch of... Should he be traded? But he does want to see some things on this timeline. Richard's different. You're a single male. He's going on vacation.

We'll see some things. But he don't want to have to listen and read about work. Okay. Am I wrong?

No, I guess he's saying what? Because on your timeline, if you follow the Bears, I mean, I... I don't think the Bears per se... I follow NFL Network. Is that the reason why I'm getting other NFL stuff on the... Right.

So you're either going to be like suggested like, you probably like this. And it's like, he doesn't want to see... So Justin Fields is getting fed a whole bunch of Instagram. He's getting inundated with, should the Bears take Caleb? Should they trade him here?

Like, what are the odds of Fields' next team? I think that's understandable. But I follow the Rich Eisen show. I'm not getting fed other shows like ours. You know what I mean? You're solid in your job.

No one's coming in here to take your job. No, I just gave this whole long setup where I understand why he would be particularly sensitive to this. But it's like Bleacher Report isn't going to put out like even a post on this very conversation he had on the St. Brown brothers pod. Let's see if they had. Come on. But you know what I'm saying?

It's like, it's not like the most foolproof system. So now, so then let's dig deeper here, whatever. No, honestly, let's just dig a little bit deeper here where he's saying, the question is, does he want to stay in Chicago?

That question was put to him as well. Do you want to stay in Chicago or what's up? Yeah, of course. Of course I want to stay. To be honest, bro, I'll be trying to like, you know, with all the talk, it's hard to, you know, I guess kind of just boom be in one place, but I can't see myself playing in another place.

But I know how that league is like EQ, you was probably the same way before you left Green Bay. But I mean, if it was up to me, I would want to stay in Chicago. I love the city, the city's lit, the fans are, you know, they're great. And the people, but it's a business. I ain't got no control over it. So whatever happens happens.

But I feel like the biggest thing with all this going on right now, I just wanted to be over. Like, just let me know if I'm getting traded. Let me know if I'm staying this and that because I like watching film in the off season. I like watching the offense, you feel me?

Seeing what they're gonna do a lot and stuff like that. So but right now I'm kind of... You're from Georgia, right? Yeah, I'm from Georgia. What do you think about Atlanta? Like you like Atlanta? Atlanta would be tough.

The only con of going back home is just people hitting my phone crazy, you know, wanting tickets to the game. But I mean, I think they got a lot of playmakers on the team. And of course, Bijan, they got my boy Kyle and then of course Drake too.

They probably need one more receiver, but they definitely got some guys over there. First of all, here's my first blush about that. I'm on Ross St. Brown, asked all the right questions. Well done, sir. I knew I loved him for a reason. Absolutely.

I'm on Ross St. Brown, top 10 receiver in the NFL and doing a better job than some people might in our industry. Now you worry. Dude. Two, he's kept the blue hair, which is I'm all for that. Two and three, this one I can relate to more than, you know, unfollowing somebody or can still mess with.

I'm just trying to get in the mind of a 23, 24-year-old male. By the way, I love how Del Tufo immediately gave it the check mark. You're all about the unfollowing, but still messing with. Okay, good to know. Hey, Rich, for the record, I just checked Bleacher Report, their last 120 posts.

No football. Okay. So, hey, listen, he was right. Okay. Impressive that you could add up the 120 so quickly like that, just by scrolling. A bunch of threes and I could do that. Okay, good.

One, two, three, four, five, six. I can relate to Justin Fields saying what he said there. That one I totally get because I remember it like 20, geez, one years ago, right around now is when my contract was coming out with ESPN. Didn't want to go somewhere else. Couldn't have envisioned being anywhere else. Couldn't imagine. And what I definitely wanted, though, was for it to be over fast. And it went all the way up to the very end.

That sucked. So I totally get that. Love it here. Can't imagine being anywhere else. A lot of people say, well, that's a perfect answer. Good answer. That stands, Pat. Totally can relate to that.

One million percent. Never thought I would be anywhere else my entire career. It was my lone identity. They drafted me, if you will, out of college. So, essentially, I get it.

Wanting to be over fast. I just don't know if it's going to be because they're going to go through the combine. They're going to meet Caleb and the other kids, too. And they're going to let this thing marinate. And they're going to have them in for visits. I don't know. Unless somebody blows him away with an offer like Mike Tannenbaum on ESPN said the Giants are going to offer their next two ones and their next two twos and cave on Thibodeau.

I'm like, wow. OK, that's right. So, I mean, I think that would keep Justin Fields in Chicago. You know, that would keep Justin Fields in Chicago. But I get it. I get it with Justin Fields feeling that way.

But I mean, the foolproof thing would be just to remove Instagram from your phone. Right. You know, well, he's on vacation.

He's going to want to post himself. And he's a young man. He's, you know, I see stuff. I get it. Yeah.

Shoe videos from the Rich Eisen Show. You know, he's no, no, no. I get it.

But it's just it's part of a business. But again, like I said, just to go all the way back, the guy's just been killing it ever since he's put, you know, a cleat on for the Ohio State. And it just hasn't been good enough for some. And he made it through last year's crucible of what are the Bears going to do this time around? I don't know if he's going to. And I think he senses it right now. And I think he wants it over and he wants to go somewhere else. And where he goes, he's just going to have to apologize to the third and fourth wide receiver in the wide receiver room in Atlanta. Where he says, I think they need another.

And great job. I'm on Ross St. Brown. Just asking straight up. You want to be there?

What do you think of Atlanta? Apparently even called him out for not following him. Good job. St. Brown Brothers podcast, courtesy of the 33rd team. We'll take a break. I've got my power rankings of the top quarterback, most important quarterbacks available in the quarterback carousel this year. And also Mike Florio, our three.

Hi there. Sorry for the interruption, but are you enjoying this show on Google podcasts? You should know that the Google podcast app is going away this spring.

That's right. Going away, gone as in no longer available. You can still enjoy this show elsewhere though. Try out Spotify or Amazon music, or maybe tune in is more your style. Whatever app you switched to, be sure to follow.

So you never miss the next episode and thanks for listening wherever you listen. As you know, one of our favorite things to do when space ball season hit last year was follow anything done by Ellie Dela Cruz all the way down to the last morsel, right? Yes. And as spring training has begun, we're already on the Ellie Dela Cruz beat. Foul ball yesterday found Hunter Green's car window. What? Oh yeah. In the player's parking lot, Hunter yelled at Ellie after finding out you're paying for that.

Thank you, Jeremy Rauch. Yeah, that's pretty funny. Yep. And the reds are all over it too. Yep.

Ellie's like my bad. Oh, so it was live BP where Hunter threw the pitch. Now that's news to me. Is that what that means?

Live BP match up between Ellie and Hunter, he threw the pitch, and then he fell. By the way, that also looks like a Maybach SUV. It does look like a very nice... Looks like a Maybach SUV....car. One would assume Hunter Green has a nice car. Yeah.

I only know that because I'm watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith when they drove one. The baseball looks like a morsel in Ellie Dela Cruz's hand. Look at that. Right? That's how he can throw it 100 miles an hour from third base.

Oh my God. Look at the ball. Looks so small in his hand.

I love that, dude. Looks like a pearl. Seriously, like it just opened a clam. Right? Not quite as small as... With his own hands, his own bare hands. Not quite as small as it looked in Wimby's hands, but still.

There's no doubt in my mind when we're drafting fantasy, Cooper's gonna want him like first. Oh, there he is. There you go. That's Wemba-Yama.

Well done, Hoskins. Now that's insane. That's like us holding a jawbreaker. I get to keep Ellie in the last round in my league because I picked him up last year. So you get to keep him? In the last round. And you won the title last year?

Oh, so that means you're... Value. You're going back to back, Brooklyn. You're going back to back.

And I won last year. Two salud, sir. Two salud on that. Back on The Rich Eisen Show.

844-204-rich. Back with our radio partners. I mean, I'm seeing how Rick Pitino called out his St. John team.

Did you see that? That they're non-athletic or something like that. Why is he still a threat?

They're 14 and 12. Like, what is he doing? Felipe Lopez isn't walking through that door. Walter Berry's not walking through that door.

Chris Mullen and Bill Wennington. Mark Jackson. Not walking through that door. What'd you make of J.J. Reddick's comments on Doc Rivers? That he doesn't take responsibility. Wondering what the beef is there.

Don't know. But he was on two of Doc's teams, right? Clippers and Sixers?

Yeah. He had very good seasons under him. And then Pat Beverley started... Yes, and he saved his career. And then J.J. was like, I had a four-year offer from someone else. Yeah, he said F.O.H. And then Austin went on ESPN today to defend.

Yeah, I saw that. Again, it's the Wednesday, right? It's the Wednesday and there's no games. There's nothing going on. There's no games. Just college hoops.

Bucks have struggled. Three and seven with Doc. So, I don't know.

Imagine they're going to be fine. Don't you think if everything was kosher and copacetic, then they wouldn't have made a coaching change anyway, right? So, when people get on Doc like, well, your first 10 games are three and seven. Well, obviously something wasn't right or else they wouldn't have made a coaching switch.

So, I don't know. Normally, I thought you'd have an opinion on Doc Rivers. You're so opinionated when it comes to him. You're turning this down? You're turning this one down? Yeah, I'm turning it down. You want me to come out flame throwing on Doc Rivers?

No, I want you to be honest. That's all. That's all. I think we're seeing who Doc is as a head coach.

Which is? He's got these superstars. They're struggling. Like, he's great.

Like I said, he's great at managing personalities. You got to get more than 10 games, right, to put a referendum on them with the Bucks, right? I mean... Two of the 20 best players in the league. Like, come on. Okay. I mean... We will see. I don't know. It just matters. Rubbers meet in the road once we're in the playoffs anyway, right?

Yeah, we're just kind of skating till May here. One thing the Knicks have already done is put themselves back on the map for someone like Kevin Durant to start paying attention to him. You see this one? Our friend of the show. Can we call Rich Clammen friend of the show? Yeah, he's been on a couple of times. Multiple times. We saw him... Actually, did you not come on talking about the birth of the boardroom?

Yeah. Once upon a time? We saw him after the Emmys on the streets of New York last year. That's right, we did.

So Rich just put it right to him because, you know, Rich is... I feel like I went to summer camp with him. Camp Wakanda.

Or Trails End. One of the two. Honestly, I just, you know, just a bunch of guys. I might have actually forgotten. I might have been to his bar mitzvah once. I don't know.

Out there on Long Island. At any rate, he put it right to KD because KD had a shot to go to the Knicks. He went to the Nets instead, right?

That's the word, yep. Kind of didn't blame him at the time either, right? Maybe LeBron went to the Heat instead of the Knicks. Like, everyone's passed on the Knicks.

But, so he put it right to him on the boardroom pod. Do me a favor. Clear up something you said for me five years ago. It meant the Knicks are cool.

Come on, bro. At that time, they weren't. I mean, the Knicks weren't cool, but they are a cool brand. Like, when the Knicks are like on, like right now, when they popping right now.

They're popping. Well, last few years, they were playing well. But before that, they wasn't playing well. But you knew the brand was cool. The brand was cool. But at the time, you know, I'm not looking at the cool brand outside of the game. I was looking about looking at the team and the team was not cool to play for. The team was not cool to watch.

It wasn't a good team to watch. I might have embellished a little bit or a lot of them a little bit about like the brand. I might have liked through the brand.

There we go. You know, it's cool, bro. But yeah, of course, the next brand like the New York is New York living in New York made me truly realize that it's the greatest city in the world. It really is, brother.

It really is. And there's nothing I don't think there's no other city that can compete. I mean, not compete. There's going to top it. It's people that can cities that can compete. Sorry. But to top New York and just be like, I rather know. No, there you go.

New York, greatest city in the world. It's a great Hamilton lyric right there. Back. I don't blame it.

I mean, at the time it wasn't. But you know who put him on the you know, you know why they're popping? Jalen Brunson. That's why they are popping. And when the Knicks paid him what they paid him to come from Dallas to New York, nobody thought. Here comes the guy who's going to get the Knicks popping again. Yeah, it was why the Knicks pay him this much money. Exactly.

That's what it was. They overpaid. Of course, the Mavericks are going to let that guy go.

Jalen Brunson has him popping. So note to all the. Greats now suddenly it's like that meme, right? Where they've got their team to their left and then they turn their craning their neck at the Knicks right now. Just understand that part of that meme.

It's number eleven that you're craning your neck at. It's his team. It's his team. And anybody that's coming, it's his team.

That includes LeBron. You want him? Of course.

Are you out of your mind? Does he make you better? Yeah.

Yes, he makes the Knicks better. All right. Come on now.

Just ask him. Get out of here. Yeah.

What's the matter with you? You got good team chemistry right now. Oh yeah. And LeBron will just blow that right up.

Yeah. We're coming to ruin it. Well, he's not walking through the door right now to use the Pitino phrase. That's not right now. That'll be for next year. Anybody who's coming. It's Brunson's team. Oh, baby. Hour three coming up.

I didn't stutter. What do you think? The Brunson will just take a backseat to LeBron, right? LeBron will just come and he'll be, he'll be just LeBron. That's all he's got to do is just be LeBron.

That's it. He's just doesn't. Brown just wants to disseminate anyway, right? Doesn't he want to do it? He makes people better.

What do you make the Knicks better? Are you out of your mind? Did he really just say that?

I believe he did. And my reaction is appropriate, is it not? Highly.

Thank you. I don't know. It's LeBron James.

I don't know. I wouldn't trade anyone on the Celtics for LeBron right now. Really? You wouldn't trade Derek White for LeBron? Sam Houser straight up? No chance. Sam Houser straight up?

Nope. What's homeboy that shoots the threes? Get out of here. What's homeboy that shoots the threes? Come on. Sam Houser. Pritchett. Pritchett.

No, Pritchett. No. You wait, Scott. No, stop. Stop. Stop.

Stop. Handle this, please. I will help. Thank you, please.

Please. I don't mean to, but I'll just do it. I'm just grabbing my tea. It's okay.

So you sip it. I'll spill it. Get out of here. 43.

43 and 12. I'm sorry. Didn't he spit take at the Super Bowl? He had to leave the set. He spit vodka all over my computer. That wasn't my fault, though. It was your fault. It came out of your mouth.

That was Burke Chrysler's fault. You're out of my computer. Sam Houser for LeBron James. LeBron James.

43 and 12. Let's roll your break, LeBron James. The Rolling Stone Music Now podcast gets inside the biggest stories with Rolling Stone's senior writer, Brian Hyatt. And here's Lil Yachty with Tierra Whack. I've never been to a fashion show.

I never did any pairs fashion week, New York fashion week, and I'll tell you why. Because I would always go to events and people would say to me, Oh, man, Yachty, man, I love your music, bro. And I should be like, what song? I didn't even at the time, I didn't love my music. I would feel like I'm in a room with all these artists and they all respect each other. I feel like no one respects me. Rolling Stone Music Now, wherever you listen.