Bear Digest

Building the case for Bears starting Braxton Jones over Theo Benedet

There are reasons why the Bears could turn back to their former starter as he is ready to come off IR but good ones why they wouldn't.
Gene Chamberlain|
Ozzy Trapilo and Cole Kmet celebrate after a play earlier this season. Trapilo's absence opens the starting door for someone, but who?
Ozzy Trapilo and Cole Kmet celebrate after a play earlier this season. Trapilo's absence opens the starting door for someone, but who? | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

There's no downplaying the loss the Bears' offense suffered during their win Saturday over Green Bay with tackle Ozzy Trapilo's season-ending patellar tendon injury.

Apparently, it's not set in stone what they'll do to replace him even with one obvious choice.

"We were really bummed to see Ozzy get hurt," center Drew Dalman said. "A great  guy, great teammate and player that showed up every day, is ready to go. It’s unbelievably hard to step in as a rookie and play, particularly at left tackle.

"Him handling that, I feel like it was a really good piece for the O-line and kind of good for the culture. We’ll obviously expect the same from whoever steps in and all that. Just bummed for him."

Whoever steps in seemed a strange reference considering it was Theo Benedet who had played there before Trapilo became starter, and then did it again Saturday night after the injury.

However, they have Braxton Jones available to come off injured reserve after he had a knee injury early this season. Apparently it must be a consideration because coach Ben Johnson wasn't jumping right on the Benedet train as next man up. Whoever it is will have to block Jared Verse.

"Yeah, we've got tackles that have played a number of snaps over the course of the season, so your comfort level does go up," Johnson said. "There's a reason why Theo was out there, though.

"We felt really good about the ball that he was playing there the second half of the  season. And so, yeah, it's another one of those stories where it’ll  be next man up for us. We've had a number of those over the course of the year. And Theo, if it's his number that's called upon, he'll be ready to go."

Again, while it seems as though Benedet should be the next player up, Johnson didn't necessarily shoot down the notion it could be someone else, namely Jones.  In fact, he referred to tackles as a plural without being asked about Jones. So, apparently they're at least thinking about their former starter. Either way it would seem they have no choice but to activate Jones just for depth's sake if he doesn't start.

The Bears started Jones at left tackle from 2022-2024 and then in the first four games this season before his benching and also his knee injury. He was coming off of a bad ankle injury and surgery when the season started, and obviously not 100%

It's possible his ankle and knee have improved greatly since then during his IR stint. Jones is an unrestricted free agent after this season.

Benedet was graded 73rd among 89 NFL tackles this year by Pro Football Focus, 75th blocking for passes and 45th blocking on running plays. In 2024, Jones had been graded 21st out of all tackles, 17th as a pass blocker and 32nd as a run blocker. In 2023 he had been 33rd overall and 20th overall in 2022. His grades then were far better than both Trapilo's and Benedet's were this year.

However, coming off the injury, Jones' grades were worse than Trapilo's were this year and only better than Benedet's at blocking for passes.

Benedet, meanwhile, got a look Saturday prior to Trapilo's injury as an extra lineman, which was done sporadically by Johnson. However, what was unusual was he split out wide and was eligible for a pass. Even more rare: He ran a post pattern far downfield like a wide receiver.

Johnson liked what he saw from his 300-pounder racing downfield on the play.

"You tell me. What’d you think?" he joked. "I think he hit 16 miles an hour, didn’t he? Yeah, that's pretty good. It's pretty good."

Maybe there will be a trick play coming for Dalman, that is, unless he's playing left tackle like he's expected to be doing against the Rams.

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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.