Braxton Jones’ knee injury leaves him week to week to return and as a result this doesn’t look like a week they can count on him to start at left tackle.
The Bears could really use Ozzy Trapilo more than ever and he continues his ramping up to return from last year’s knee injury, but Ben Johnson didn’t exactly sound like he’s expecting to see their 2025 starter back this week.
“We’ve got a lot of decisions to be made,” Johnson told reporters on Wednesday. “Some guys we’ve got to evaluate over the course of practice and track their health as we go through.”
Of course, when he said this, the quarterback position was front and center but Trapilo is another one, and Jones’ injury makes it a critical position. It’s also trickier than others because he hasn’t been playing and is now coming back from rehab from a patellar tendon injury.
Trapilo would have gone through a full practice Wednesday if they held a practice instead of a walk-through. He also was removed entirely from the injury report.
When do you authorize the return from such an injury? The Packers brought back Zach Bako-Bewele — the tackle formerly known as Zach Tom — after he had a patellar tendon injury and he’ll now miss the rest of this season.
Can Trapilo make this quick return from such a dangerous injury?
“He’s getting closer,” Johnson said. “I don’t know if this will be the week or not.
“Like I said, he’s part of that mix where we’re talking about guys that we got to evaluate over the course of the week,” Johnson said. “But if not him I think we’ve got other options at tackle there. I think a guy like Jordan McFadden has played out wide. Obviously we put Joe there in the past as well, and so we’ve got a lot of options there.”
Thuney and McFadden, of course, are guards. Thuney hasn’t had a great start to his season, at least according to the analytics people at ESPN and Pro Football Focus. He’s still Joe Thuney, the NFL’s top protector last year. Moving him out in the open to tackle like they did last year in the playoffs seems such like a risk for a 33-year-old guard. Doing this with McFadden looks like an even bigger risk.
The obvious answer here is Theo Benedet playing left tackle this week. Pro Football Focus has Benedet as a viable option, although he’s far more of an answer blocking in the running game than at pass pro. His grade is only 60th of 70 tackles as a pass blocker this year but 27th of 70 as a blocker. He’s been on the field for 77 plays this season, so those grades are supported by plenty of action considering he’s a backup.
It’s not like they’re asking Benedet to block Maxx Crosby, like they did last year.
This is what makes it so curious that Johnson would essentially bring up both the names of Thuney or even McFadden virtually unprompted.
One reason might be the pass-blocking game Benedet is coming off of, although this is based on PFF grades. He was the worst pass-blocking player the Bears had in the game regardless of position, at a 23.9 grade. Getting 100 is the top score so you get the idea how poor they considered his effort.
The Bears really need the pass blocking with either backup playing quarterback. Tyson Bagent has some mobility, Case Keenum very little, but neither are Caleb Williams, who can make defensive linemen look silly with his ability to sense the rush and dart away from it. It seems like Benedet picked the worst possible time to have a poor pass-blocking game. He was protecting the blind side of a 38-year-old QB.
It is rather early to resort to something as drastic as Thuney at tackle again but if Trapilo isn’t quite ready then it moves up the list of options, and looks awfully inviting since it’s going to be only a short -term fix until Tapilo is ready.
In the end, expect them to turn to Benedet based on his past production.
But the Bears seem to have trouble keeping left tackles healthy. Thuney could be their next option for now.
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