Who Has More to Prove on a National Stage: Panthers or Bears?

e result of Bryce Young heading to the Panthers. We will talk that matchup and plenty more as we unpack that game. But first, Tom Pelissero. Good morning to you, friend. What do we need to know ahead of this game? Well, Jamie, let’s start with Bears quarterback Justin Fields, who officially is listed as doubtful for this game, which means undrafted rookie Tyson Bagent once again is in line to get the start for the Bears against the Panthers. Now, my understanding is Fields is getting close with that right thumb injury that he suffered several weeks ago. Still

having pain when he takes a snap under center, he’s close. But at this point in a short week, there’s not a lot of chance to even get full speed reps and kind of get comfortable again. So they’re going to hold off. Now, looking at a potential return in week 11 at Detroit for Justin Fields. Same thing with running back Khalil Herbert. Now he’s still on injured reserve was listed as a full participant in practice throughout the week. But those are estimations not time to get full speed reps really get comfortable on that ankle that has

sidelined him for about a month now. He’s eligible to be activated. Does not sound like that’s going to happen before this game. On the Carolina side

of things, wide receiver DJ Chark listed as doubtful He is not expected to play after he tweaked that elbow injury that he’s been dealing with. Also know Brian Burns. He is out with a concussion. Carolina does get one reinforcement back safety Vonn Bell listed as questionable I am told that after a month away Bell is expected to play tonight. Jamie okay that’s fantastic. Nick a couple of good pieces of

news and interesting to see how the bears handle this with Justin Fields moving forward. I know the weather is supposed to be great in Chicago either, which would be tough for someone trying to come back with grip strength issues. Pelissero thank you so much. We’ll talk to you a little bit. So it’s the one win Panthers against the two win bears under the lights in prime time. Let me tell you why it matters, though, is because these two teams tethered by the first round pick and no matter how Chicago fares or Carolina fares, this will

impact next year’s draft as well. The season has not gone. The way that either team, of course, expected. And so which team then do you think has more to prove tonight on a national stage? Never let our critics speak out and say, you guys only talk about the Cowboys. You guys only we’re starting with Bears Panthers baby, because there’s football tonight and it actually does matter. You mentioned the draft right now. If the draft was today, the Arizona Cardinals would have the number one overall pick. Now, I don’t know if Arizona is going to win

a ton of games with Kyler Murray back in the lineup, but I assume they’re going to win a few to the number two pick right now is the Chicago Bears. But it’s because they own the Carolina Panthers. Pick The number three pick right now is the Chicago Bears because they own their own pick very interesting how this game will play out as we head toward the end of season. And yet there are oh, I don’t know, 22 guys lining up on offense and defense for the Chicago Bears this afternoon and there’s 22 guys for the

there’s actual players playing. So for me what I’m watching for how about the guys in those final years of the contract for the Bears who are trying to make their money and they’re trying to show their thing? I look at guys like Jalen Johnson and Emmanuel Mooney. I look at Tyson Bagent. You might never start another game. This is a prime time game. The Bears are interesting to me because they just added Montez Sweat, right? So Bagent is their quarterback until Fields gets back. But like you add Montezuma, they’re not they’re not punting on the

next few years they added talent at the trade deadline. Everyone thought they were going to be shipping off Jalen Johnson or shipping off Mooney or shipping off all these different skill position players. They actually added Montez Sweat. And I think I look at these players like Mooney is a good wide receiver. He wants to get paid, go have a day to day. Jalen Johnson is a good defensive back. We’ve seen him on Jason Mccourty’s big time. The belt final year of a contract wants money like go have a night tonight. I think he’s probably been

their best player. He’s really good and he’s a homegrown player. So to me it’s what are we doing it for? The Bears? Yeah, it’s a joke. And we’re all laughing. And Al Michaels will have some comments, I’m sure. And that’s okay. Like they haven’t been good. They haven’t lived up to expectations. But if you’re the Chicago Bears and you see that they’re trading for Montez Sweat at the trade deadline, like they’re not punting on the future, They might they’re not punting on this season. They could have traded those guys for $0.60 on the dollar. Mooney

is still a Bear Johnson, still a bear. And now we got Bagent for one more game. I think we thought Fields was going to be ready to go. Hey, Bagent, you might never get the opportunity to start another game if this thing goes awry. Like go show that you’re a career player in this league and maybe even a guy who can start for a team down the road. You talked about what we allocate our time to talking about on this show, the name Tyson Beijing has been said on this program a thousand times more than

the name Bryce Young this season. And why? Because they have one more win and he started a few games. Bryce Young, please have a night. You are the number one overall pick. And before we get wrapped up into this suffering and the things that he’s done wrong, can we just show the drive? Show show me the Bryce Young drive, which was way back week one, week to week eight, about 20 minutes ago, against the Texans, which we’ll get to in a second. Bryce Young had a drive, a game winning drive in which he was almost

perfect. He was five of six for 50 yards. The chips were down. He didn’t have any wins. He’s at home. He is out playing. C.J. Stroud in this game. Look it up. He played significantly better than C.J. Stroud, and they got the win. And it was a beautiful thing. And it’s a forgotten about thing because Panthers Texans doesn’t jump off the marquee. And it was a team that was struggling and probably to Stroud the next game played maybe the best game ever, played by a quarterback and Bryce Young threw two pick sixes. And so that’s

been the story. That’s the story. Look at Josh McCown with the Arms up and Bryce Young Please have that game You’re the number one pick we can Ooh and ah about Levis and we can talk Stroud and we can talk Richardson who’s been out for weeks and we can talk. Anybody who’s starting it seems every single team is starting an undrafted rookie quarterback this year. It’s fun. You’re the number one overall pick. It is your time tonight. Go into Chicago and show them. This is why they took me set up shop and just do some

business. Okay. Come on here with Kyle. Who What do you want? The season for? The season You’re very high on the Bears. I think it was obvious you went to the Bears training camp. You got. You got the bug. If they have the two and three pick or, say, the one or 2 or 3 pick, what’s the temperature right now on quarterback and a quarterback? Rich TBD. Okay well, TBD with fields TBD with everything, which is why we have to see if he’s even going to be out there tomorrow, tonight, which I guess he’s not.

But it is. I think it is completely up in the air. Whether Fields will be back next year as the starter or not, it could be in or they could trade them all down. We don’t know yet. We got to play if you have to. Even if you have two of the top five picks, you’re still going to be depends on how Fields goes the rest of the season. I think it’s undetermined. I really don’t think they know what they’re going to do. Yeah you guys both spoke about sincerely what I want to talk about

is the quarterbacks do it better. Gerald You know, I don’t know if I’ll do it better. You will. I’ll just add on to it. What I’m most excited to watch tonight is which rookie quarterback on two totally different ends of the spectrum will bounce back from a three interception game. Listen, this is not in college where you get, you know, a whole week to think about it and shake back and you got, you know, classes, you got to go to and study hall and all that. This is the NFL. You got a couple days, you

don’t have time to soak and sit and think about it. Hey, you got to get back to it. I want to see who’s going to shake back when I say two totally different ends of the spectrum. Um, you have the number one overall pick. Who was the Heisman Trophy winner? He was Mr. I won everything in college and the D1 level. And then you got Tyson Bagent who won D2, Heisman Trophy and he was Mr. Everything at Shepherd and won all the awards. Arlen Trophy. Well, now we’re in the NFL and we both had three

interceptions last week. It’s a national TV stage. Nobody else would rather see anything else than to see what these two young guys do after three interception game. I’m excited to see it and I can’t wait to see. Like you said, Bryce Young get the number one overall pick. Come on up. Go show him why you’re the number one overall pick. Tyson Bacon. They’re counting you out. They don’t know if we’ll ever see you again. Man. Go show everybody. Why We need to see you again. I’m excited to see you. I want to tap into that,

though. I think what people have enjoyed about the Tyson Bacon experience and story is that you see physically through his story and his placement with the Bears. He’s got fight. He has moxie. He’s kind of got a tude. He’s got this hair, the tattoos, he’s up on the chair, he gets the game ball. We don’t see next to anything thing emotionally from Bryce Young like ever. And I think that bothers people. He’s not that guy. He’s just not. He’s just not he was not that at Alabama. I didn’t know him in high school, but he

I can assume he has been like that his entire life. For some reason. His chemical makeup is to do this to you. And it’s. Let me talk about how great you are. Let me talk about your Heisman season, whatever. Yes, I’m very blessed. He will always be that way. You’re short, you’re small. You’re not going to get picked up. Yes I’m very blessed Like this is he is robotic and that’s okay. And I think that’s okay. But people are frustrated because they want him to be the Cam Newton Electric personality. They want him to be

this throwing his helmet because he threw three picks. He’s not going to give that to you. So I think people are having a hard time saying his name a thousand times the way we do. Tyson Beijing, because maybe the story is too easy, for example. But no matter what happens to him tonight or for the rest of the season, I think we are not going to see the Bryce Young personality, the fire, because that’s just not what he exudes and whether that’s frustrating as a fan or even as a teammate, I just don’t think you’re

ever going to get it. You get it. You get over it. Listen, there’s a guy in the NBA named Kawhi Leonard. He has come on two finals, MVP’s and two championships, and he is stone faced the whole time doing it. It’s okay. It’s fine. It’s great. It’s okay. Can a person