Bear Digest

Bears rookies off to slower starts as they blend with vets at OTAs

Injuries continue to hold back top picks while the others are watching veterans for their cues as they try to learn new roles before challenging for roster spots.
Gene Chamberlain|
Tackle Ozzy Trapilo (75) looks on during Bears rookie minicamp. Trapilo and all the rookies are trying to blend in rather than standing out initially at OTAs.
Tackle Ozzy Trapilo (75) looks on during Bears rookie minicamp. Trapilo and all the rookies are trying to blend in rather than standing out initially at OTAs. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

In this story:

Chicago Bears

As the Bears begin Week 2 of on-field OTAs, it's apparent their rookie class is taking it step by step.

There is no huge immediate impact from anyone reported and there rarely is from players as they try to take it all in during their first exposure to the NFL, but the Bears are definitely seeing new players trying to blend in rather than standing out. It's what you expect when players go from rookie camp, where they are all on even footing, to practicing with professional player who have years of experience.

In a few cases, they're not even blending in yet.

Their first two picks were not even practicing yet last week when the Bears allowed media at practice.

Tight end Colston Loveland continued to watch as he comes back from a 2024 college surgery to repair damage to an AC joint. Second-round pick Luther Burden didn't practice at all after an injury at rookie camp.

"We're working through a little soft-tissue deal with him right now," coach Ben Johnson said. "It remains to be seen when we'll get him back."

When rookies can't work at offseason practices, it's only going to make training camp more difficult at the outset. It's difficult to replace practice reps for learning and the whole process is set back.

Last year the Bears didn't get third-round tackle Kiran Amegadjie involved at all in OTAs and then he had the extra problem of missing all of training camp as he came back from quad muscle surgery. His rookie year amounted to very little as a result.

So, getting both of the first two draft picks back working is important although it's not a dire situation.

Third Bears pick Ozzy Trapilo, the 56th pick overall in Round 2, blended in lining up with second- and third-team offensive lines behind Amegadjie a few weeks after being one of the big stars of the rookie camp.

"He’s a really nice guy, good dude," guard Joe Thuney said of Trapilo. "He works really hard, gets in his playbook.

"It's a big jump coming from college to the pros. He's working really hard, keeping his head down, listening, taking everything like a sponge. It's really cool to see. He's doing really well so far.”

Thuney's description more or less fit what they've seen from fourth-round pick Ruben Hyppolite II, the linebacker from Maryland.

"I can see how much he loves the game," linebacker Tremaine Edmunds said. "He kind of just sits back and, like, not sit back and don't say nothing, but he’s real observant of what's going around. I was kind of like that when I was a rookie."

It's not surprising to Edmunds.

"I like the way that he approaches it," Edmunds said. "He has a business-like mindset. I think obviously I'm speaking outside the field, you know, what he can do on the field, speed and all that stuff sticks out too. But just like, his mindset coming into the building, especially being a rookie, I think is where it needs to be at.”

Sixth-round interior lineman Luke Newman has been trying to focus on learning center while also working as a guard. His comments at rookie camp indicated the team might see him more as a center in the future.

The description veteran defensive tackle Grady Jarrett had of second-round defensive tackle Shemar Turner probably described all of the rookies at this point. Jarrett thinks Turner will be fine once he starts treating the veterans as teammates instead of being a little too reverent.

"He'll be ready to go when it's time to go, but I think me just being able to be in a position of, whether it's leadership or just to inspire somebody else, and to be in the same room with him, after speaking with him, tells me that he watched me when he was in college trying to study NFL, to me, that means a lot," Jarrett said. "I don't take it lightly, but at the same time, it is also giving him the confidence to know that you're on this level for a reason now, you know what I'm saying?

"Go ball and do your thing, and know that it's a brotherhood. I have to be, what, 10 years or so older than him? I want to  be like we're running parallel. When we're working out, don't be afraid to speak to me. Encourage me, too, I always enjoy when the younger guys came in. During my time in Atlanta, some of the younger players would come and look up to me, but then when we get to talking and rapping, it's like, 'Man, we're like brothers.' It makes them more comfortable to go be their best selves."

Finding that comfort what it's all about in their initial days at their new jobs.

More Chicago Bears News

X: BearsOnSI

Published
Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.