Bear Digest

Where Ryan Poles sees the Bears starting out their rookie tackle

Veteran Darnell Wright's starting position and that of rookie Ozzy Trapilo were addressed by the Bears GM in a talk with David Kaplan and J. Hood on ESPN AM-1000.
Gene Chamberlain|
How much Darnell Wright is affected in terms of position will be determined by two young tackles and healing powers of Braxton Jones.
How much Darnell Wright is affected in terms of position will be determined by two young tackles and healing powers of Braxton Jones. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

At least for now it appears the Bears have decided on a place to start second-round tackle Ozzy Trapilo on in spring practice.

It's the logical side for him.

Trapilo will start out on the left side, where he'll be competing with 2024 third-round pick Kiran Amegadjie. The Bears won't go through the drastic step of moving their best returning blocker, right tackle Darnell Wright, off of the position he has played in his first two seasons.

During a Thursday appearance on the Bears flagship station, ESPN AM-1000, Bears GM Ryan Poles told Dave Kaplan and J. Hood, the left side is where he'll line up.

Trapilo's place will be on the left side of the line initially when he joins undrafted rookies and some unsigned free agents on tryouts at the Bears rookie camp May 9-11.

"That's a conversation we've been having with our coaching staff," Poles said. "I think we want to see what we have in the young rookie with Ozzy in terms of what that looks like at left (tackle). We still want to see Braxton returning from his injury as well as Kiran.

"So there's a lot of options which to me is a huge benefit and a huge improvement for our O-line that you have these options. That's really valuable."

The goal is having things in place and not players flopping around as has been the case in recent years. It's a move that makes sense because both Wright and Trapilo have played left side in college but Wright has stood out already on the right side in the NFL.

No sense weakening a strength.

"But I think the one thing that we came away from our recent conversation is whatever we settle on, especially when we're going into training camp, it's going to be really important to stick with that and be as consistent as possible," Poles told Kaplan and Hood. "Now things can come up that change that but our mindset is wherever we end up settling going into training camp, we'd like for it to be as stable a possible so we're not putting guys left and right.

"Some of those guys will be swing tackles eventually, so they're going to have to do a little bit of that, but we want to kind of have a solidified O-line as we're going through the beginning parts of training camp."

The idea of keeping a strong blocker in his position makes too much sense, especially when the blocks they're throwing aren't even in pads a this point.

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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.