For the second-straight offseason, the Chicago Bears have a need to fill at left tackle.
After watching a competition that featured Braxton Jones, Theo Benedet and Ozzy Trapilo a year ago, the Bears finally thought they had their future starter in the rookie. As Trapilo took over mid-season, he was developing into a good left tackle. Then he got hurt.
Trapilo suffered a ruptured patellar tendon during the Bears win over the Green Bay Packers in the Wild Card round. It’s an injury that takes a long time to come back from, almost guaranteeing he will miss the 2026 season. On Tuesday, Ryan Poles met the media the scouting combine where he provided key information on Trapilo and the plan for the Bears moving forward.
Ryan Poles issues update on left tackle job
Ozzy Trapilo will be battling Braxton Jones and Kiran Amegadjie for the left tackle job – Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images
With the injury, Trapilo will miss the offseason and likely most of the 2026 regular season. But it doesn’t appear to be career-ending for the talented prospect the Bears took in the second round last year.
“Yeah, he’ll miss most of the year, but we expect him to come back and heal from that. There’s a plan in place,” Poles said. “I can’t give it a timeline or anything like that. I just don’t know. But yeah, we’re expecting him to be back and be himself. Pretty significant injury that he’s got to get through. But in terms of affecting his overall career or next year (2027), I don’t see that being an issue.”
So what will the Bears do? For the divisional round game, they turned to Joe Thuney who played really well. However, Poles doesn’t want to go down that route and prefers to keep Thuney in his normal spot.
“I would say only in a pinch,” Poles said. “We like him at left guard. That’s where we like him to play next year.”
The Bears will now look at the roster which only includes Benedet as Braxton Jones is a free agent. However, bringing Jones back for a year wouldn’t be a bad idea at all. They also could look at free agency and the draft for another solution.
Chicago Bears free agent doubtful to resign following Ryan Poles’ comments
Read More
For More Great Chicago Sports Content
Get the latest Chicago sports news, analysis, and breaking stories on the Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks, Cubs, White Sox, Sky, and more! Tap the star to add us to your favorites on Google News, so you never miss a story on your favorite Chicago teams.
Follow us on Twitter at @chicitysports23 for more great content. We appreciate you taking time to read our articles. To interact more with our community and keep up to date on the latest in Chicago sports news, JOIN OUR FREE FACEBOOK GROUP by CLICKING HERE