Bear Digest

Theo Benedet's Signing Underscores Bleak Bears Tackle Landscape

The minimum contract the Bears signed their backup tackle to can't be the only answer at left tackle because of Ozzy Trapilo's injury, and other options appear slim.
Gene Chamberlain|
Tackle Drew Shelton from Penn State might be an example of a best Bears option in the coming draft after Day 2.
Tackle Drew Shelton from Penn State might be an example of a best Bears option in the coming draft after Day 2. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Amid the furor over Matt Ryan again explaining how he's a Cabana boy for Ian Cunningham, as well as the tremendous awards taken Thursday by Joe Thuney and the entire Bears team, the signing by Theo Benedet to his one-year deal was easy to overlook.

It should have been, because it had already been assumed just like with all exclusive-rights "free agents." The only way Benedet wasn't returning at the one million bucks he received was if the Bears told him they no longer wanted him. Fat chance of that from a team starving for tackles.

Instead of exclusive rights, when they named it they should have called it "going nowhere," because the only option ERFAs have is unemployment.

What the Bears need to do now with Benedet is obvious and necessary for his long-term development. They need to get him snaps at both guard and tackle.

He plays with the tenacity of a pulling guard all the time, anyway, but he has the arm length of a T-rex. At 32-1/8 inches, according to his measurement from relative athletic scores, Benedet shouldn't be able to play left tackle but he did for more snaps than any Bears player in 2025. And he did it due to his athleticism and ferocity moreso than technique.

Benedet's shortcoming

That can take you a long way in the NFL even with short arms, but there are limits. The Bears had a perfect example of what technique can do right next to Benedet on the line of scrimmage in their NFL Protector of the Year, Joe Thuney.

Thuney has arms only 32 1/2 inches, yet his flawless technique allowed him to step out to left tackle and stymie Rams edge Jared Verse in the divisional playoffs.

The Bears can't count on this, though. They saw enough disasters and near disasters in the season-ending loss to Detroit when Benedet had to start in Week 18 at left tackle while Ozzy Trapilo tried to heal from knee and quad injuries. Trapilo then suffered the season-ending patellar tendon injury against the Packers that will keep him out, possibly late into the 2026 season according to GM Ryan Poles.

Relying on Benedet for an entire season at left tackle might not be advisable because his technique isn't close to Thuney's. And they can't be certain about anything from little used reserve Kiran Amegadjie.

An option might be bringing back free agent Braxton Jones, especially if Spotrac.com projections of his market value are correct. He has a market value of $4.8 million. This seems unrealistic.

The Bears are going to need to produce a good amount of cap space through restructuring just to get in position to operate this year and also acquire defensive help.

Expensive mediocrity

The Jones projections looks way too low and he'd be much higher than the Bears can afford.

Giants tackle Jermaine Eluemunor is the 40th-ranked Pro Football Focus free agent and is graded 16 spot higher overall than Jones. Eluemunor is the next highest-graded tackle above Jones, and is projected at $12 million a year for three years, not anything close to $4.8 million. Even with cash reduced for uncertainty surrounding Jones' 2024 ankle surgery and knee injury that landed him on IR in 2025, $4.8 million seems way too low of a projection.

Jones, at $4.8 million, would cost the Bears less than the average they paid for guard/center Ryan Bates to sit and watch during the last two years.

PFF is projecting tackle Rasheed Walker to get $21 million a year as the 33rd overall free agent and top free agent tackle.

Walker didn't play as a rookie, and during his last three seasons never achieved an overall PFF blocking grade higher than Jones' first three PFF grades from before his injury. Jones' worst then was 68.8 and Walker's highest 68.4. Walker's run blocking has been sub-par throughout his career, and in his best pass-blocking season wasn't as good as Jones' two pass-blocking years.

In other words, it's a terrible free agent tackle crop and when Jones gets out and shows he is over his injury issues—as should be the case now—he is going to come in very much higher than what the Bears can pay for another tackle.

Considering the importance of the position and severity of Trapilo's injury, the Bears need to think seriously about devoting a first- or second-round draft pick to a tackle.

In his first-round mock draft, ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. has Utah tackle Caleb Lomu available to the Bears but going two spots after they pick at 25. It would be a case of negligence for the Bears to take Lomu over the player Kiper projects for them, defensive tackle Kayden McDonald from Ohio State. McDonald is pure quality at his position and Lomu merely the next-best offensive tackle.

It's almost as bad of a year in the draft for tackles as it is in free agency.

Kiper has two going in the top 26 picks but none between six and 27. That almost never occurs. Other projections show limited second- or third-round value at the position.

Draft tackle possibilities

Although Kiper has no second-round projections yet, ESPN sidekick Matt Miller released a two-round mock. After he had the Bears take Missouri edge Zion Young at a need position, he took LSU safety A.J. Haulcy 57th in Round 2. It's another drastic need.

Miller has only two tackles going in all of Round 2, Alabama's Kadyn Proctor and Arizona State's Max Iheanachor, both well before the Bears' second-round pick.

The Bears need defensive help at tackle, end, safety and linebacker. If they truly address their drastic defensive needs in the draft, they can't afford to pursue a tackle until Day 3.

Potentials then based on the NFL Mock Draft Data Base:

Round 4

Austin Barber, Florida; Kage Casey, Boise State; Drew Shelton, Penn State; Dametrious Crownover, Texas A&M; J.C. Davis, Illinois

Rounds 5-6

Trey Zuhn III, Texas A&M; Amil Wagner, Notre Dame; Markel Bell, Miami, Fa'alili Fa'amoe, Wake Forest.

The obvious picture painted is the Bears need another Day 3 miracle like Poles produced with Jones in 2022 during Round 5. Either that, or they’re going to need maximum contract restructures for salary cap space and then to pay through the nose for their own free agent, injury-riddled Braxton Jones.

If not, Kiran Amegadjie and Benedet are going to need to show an awful lot of improvement in a very short amount of time.

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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.