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Ben Johnson Sorting Through Ways to Get Bears Offense Churning

Whether it's the blocking or not having running back Kyle Monangai, the Bears' ground game and pass blocking have struggled and they're looking for answers.
Gene Chamberlain|
Theo Benedet (left) blocks during the Bears' Week 3 win over Philadelphia.
Theo Benedet (left) blocks during the Bears' Week 3 win over Philadelphia. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Following four Bears games in October of 2025, Bears coach Ben Johnson looked at what his offense had been doing and made changes during the bye week to his plays and even the offensive lineup. It worked.

To be sure, the Bears had to make an offensive line change at that point because left tackle Braxton Jones suffered a knee injury and it meant either Ozzy Trapilo or Theo Benedet needed to take over his position, but the blocking overall seemed to take off from that point.

Now the Bears have gone through their worst offensive performance in Caleb Williams' six starts and the focus might again be on the offensive line. It's not just the pressure Williams was under during Sunday night's 27-24 win over Tampa Bay, but the running game as well.

They've dropped from first in rushing in the league to third over the past few weeks. They're tied for 15th with New England in sacks allowed per game. After a 2025 season when they gave up only 24 sacks of Williams, they've allowed 20 of the quarterbacks already this year and the blitzes just keep coming. They will, too, until defenses get burned more often.

Keeping Caleb Williams clean is key

"It all comes back to us protecting him up front, keeping him comfortable," guard Jonah Jackson said. "Not letting guys get through and have to make him go on the run and not be able to be as decisive as we’d like him to be. We’ll clean that up."

They know it's going to continue coming at them after opponents see how the Vikings and Buccaneers hurt their rhythm with blitzes.

"They see some things that happened," Jackson said. "We clean up things on our end and pick up protections better for our guy, I don’t think any of those things happen. It’s all about everybody doing their one-eleventh."

The running game needs to be better than the last four games, when they haven't averaged over 3.5 yards a carry once.

When the Bears made changes after four games last year the circumstances were different. Would they look to swap out center Garrett Bradbury for rookie second-rounder Logan Jones or get Ozzy Trapilo in more at left tackle in the future? Trapilo didn't get in for a single play the last two games after getting a few reps for two games to test out his rehabbed knee injury.

"Schematically I think we’re a little bit different in terms of where we were this year compared to last year," Johnson said of his offensive line on Monday. "You know, there was some things coming out of last year’s bye week that we were able to lean into, and I’m hoping we’re going to be able to find some nuggets like that of just areas that we really can make it more consistent, like you said.

"I think over the course of nine games, there’s only been three of those nine where we’re averaging over 4 yards a carry. Which, simply in our terms, it’s just not good enough right now. And those guys know that, particularly as the weather continues to turn into Bear weather, we’re going to need to lean on that run game more and it’s gonna need to come through for us. I gotta look at is it the fact that we’re not getting as many explosives in the run game right now. Is that why the average is low? Or is it, we’re just not moving the line of scrimmage? What are those factors? And so being able to have nine games of sample size at this point is going to be really good for us to look into."

The haven't had tight end Cole Kmet blocking the last two games, and he was a big part of their running game success.

The really big and obvious part of it all is how running back Kyle Monangai hasn't been on the field. The chances are good he'll be back following the bye after he went out for their Week 5 game at Green Bay with toe and finger injuries.

"Yeah, I mean, Kyle’s a big part of that running game and I think he’s proven his worth over the last year and a half," Johnson said. "So like I said last week, whenever we’re able to get him back on the field, it’s going to make us a better team and certainly a better running game."

Is Ozzy Trapilo really ready?

As for the left tackle situation, Benedet played Sunday with a shoulder injury as Trapilo tries to come back. It's easy to wonder if Trapilo really isn't back from the knee injury to where they're comfortable using him after he missed two straight games.

They may simply need to keep using Benedet barring a tackle trade or signing, but no one was complaining about his blocking on Monday.

"He’s tough as nails," Jackson said. "Guys all over the board are dealing with stuff, some things you guys just might not know about. Credit to him doing his job and doing it at a high level."

They've got two weeks to sort through the possibilities and the answers need to be found because a tight NFC North battle, possibly the tightest ever, could mean four teams from the division make the playoffs or even three with one being left out.

No one wants to be the team left out and the Bears still have six division games to go.

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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.

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