Bear Digest

Solutions for the Greatest Unforeseen Chicago Bears Problem

The offensive line looked like it would be a stable situation heading into the offseason but season-ending injuries late in the season can always run on to the next season.
Gene Chamberlain|
Losing Ozzy Trapilo (75) presents the Bears with a colossal unforeseen issue that can impact 2026.
Losing Ozzy Trapilo (75) presents the Bears with a colossal unforeseen issue that can impact 2026. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Bears offensive linemen loved their mix and continuity during the 2025 season, and as they left Halas Hall they saw bigger things coming with everyone still under contract.

The road ahead looks clear for them.

“Yeah, it's great," center Drew Dalman said. "It's great for friendships and kind of the culture of the room, and also, obviously stability on the line is always helpful. And I feel like—you know we just had exit interviews—like you talk to the coaches and you have a clear view of, here are my deficiencies, here's what needs to get better, and what do we need to do as a group better."

It sounds stable.

"It was awesome," guard Jonah Jackson said. "Those guys, I wouldn't trade them for the world. And I'm glad we're still all under contract together to get back at it."

Except for one thing, and that issue threatens to disrupt Bears offseason plans, if not the start to the season.

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They're not all intact as long as left tackle Ozzy Trapilo is looking at an offseason of rehab after his patellar tendon injury, rather than getting the chance to improve his game in Year 2.

Like Micah Parsons in Green Bay with a December torn ACL, there's no guarantee a knee injury requiring surgery will have a player back at 100% efficiency by the July start to training camp. The possibility exists it might not even be until the start of the regular season or later.

With great needs on the defensive line, possibly at linebacker and safety, the Bears could have looked to ignore offensive line positions going into 2026. It's different now without Trapilo.

Here are potential options.

Play Theo Benedet

It's an option. It's not a case of just getting by because Benedet played the position more downs than any other Bears player this season.

Yet, when he could have simply kept starting after Trapilo's injury, they didn't have the confidence in him they showed earlier in the year. They started Joe Thuney at left tackle instead and risked disrupting the line.

In fact, a case could be made that they didn't really succeed because their running game failed several times in short yardage and Ben Johnson even said the reason he didn't go for two and the win after Caleb Williams' miracle TD pass to Cole Kmet was their failures at the goal line earlier in the game. It was an extremely valid reason for kicking.

Perhaps, with an offseason to improve, Benedet is good enough until they can consider Trapilo 100%.  Yet, Benedet does have very short arms at 32 inches. Those are a guard's arms.

Play Thuney

If it becomes a case where Trapilo would be ready several games into the season, they could always turn to their All-Pro guard at tackle like they did Sunday night.

Thuney had the best Pro Football Focus pass blocking grade among Bears offensive linemen against the Rams and Jared Verse on a sack-free night.

"Joe, that’s astronomical by him to go from left guard to left tackle," Jackson said. "The player he went against, as well, was very good."

However, he had the second-worst grade for run blocking, behind only center Drew Dalman.  

Ben Johnson puts an emphasis on the running game.

At 33 when the season starts, he seems more likely to stay put. However, they have Jordan McFadden back this season as an exclusive rights free agent—meaning they keep him with a minimum tender. So, it's always an option to consider for the start, and Thuney has been so strong at guard that he should be able to slide back over once it's determined Trapilo is full strength.

Kiran Amegadje

Who?

Darnell Wright

There was plenty of thought about this before the 2025 season when the battle for a starting left tackle produced no clear-cut winner and Braxton Jones' injury hadn't healed from is ankle injury. Ultimately, they decided it made no sense to weaken two spots. It still holds true.

Draft a tackle

NFL Mock Draft Data Base compiles the web's mock drafts and the consensus for the Bears at No. 25 is Ohio State's massive interior defensive lineman Kayden McDonald, which makes some sense. In some ways it doesn't, but more than anything they need defensive line help.

The Mock Draft Data Base has four tackles going in Round 1 prior to the Bears pick and only Georgia's Monroe Freeling going after or about the time the Bears pick.

First-year tackles don't normally rate instant successes. Amand Membou was the highest graded rookie tackle in 2025 and PFF had him 32nd. That's not as good as Braxton Jones was as a rookie.

That's multi-year project and the Bears are in need of instant competence until Trapilo can return.

The more realistic option is drafting one later and hoping you can get lightning to strike twice like it did when Jones came in as a fifth rounder and had a decent rookie year. Josh Simmons of the Chiefs was the highest graded 2025 rookie tackle as a pass blocker and he was a fifth-rounder.

Sign a tackle

If you're looking for the best of the best, forget it because they lack the cap space and usually the best offensive tackles don't make it into the open market.

What they can do—and this might be their best option—is look for a competent, low-cost veteran who can hold the spot until Trapilo is 100%.

The Benedet option or Thuney option might be better and more cost efficient.

Maybe the free agent tackle they should sign is Braxton Jones. Free agents coming off injuries often are lower priced, and he knows the offense. Maybe he'd even give them a hometown rate.

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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.