One of the Bears’ top training camp battles has come at the left tackle spot. The competition is ongoing, and a fourth contender appears to have emerged.
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Theo Benedet has seen time with the starting offense during three practices this week, as detailed by ESPN’s Courtney Cronin. The 2024 undrafted free agent spent last season on Chicago’s practice squad, but with the left tackle competition being labeled wide open by new head coach Ben Johnson, opportunities have presented themselves recently. Benedet worked at left and right tackle during the Bears’ preseason opener.
“He’s right in the middle of it,” Johnson said. “I’ve been very, very excited about Theo and what he’s done both on the right and the left side. He was probably overlooked to start this competition, but the longer this thing’s gone on, there’s a strong argument for what he’s put on tape.”
Benedet entered the NFL after playing collegiately in Canada. The University of British Columbia product has yet to play a regular season snap, so it would certainly come as a surprise if he were to land the Week 1 job. Still, the fact that Benedet, 23, has inserted himself into the conversation is noteworthy. Incumbent Braxton Jones recently received full medical clearance and he has also seen time with the starters up front during camp.
Second-round rookie Ozzy Trapilo has worked at both tackle spots this summer. The Boston College alum primarily operated as a right tackle in college, but he could find himself on the blindside depending on how the coming weeks play out. 2024 third-rounder Kiran Amegadjie has been in the mix, although he found himself with the third-team offense on Wednesday (h/t Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune). The Yale product has missed considerable time this summer with a leg injury, hindering his chances of winning the starting gig. Johnson aims to have a clear-cut winner in place soon, and the upcoming preseason game could prove to be telling.
“We’ll go as long as we need to go to find the right guy,” Johnson said (via Cronen). “But we’d like to see someone go ahead and make it clear to us that he is that guy and we just haven’t seen that yet as a staff. There’s been too much up and down.”
Each of the candidates for the left tackle gig could see action on Sunday against the Bills. It will be interesting to see how Benedet in particular fares as the Bears seek out clarity regarding the overall depth chart up front.
No he hasn’t. Not really. That isn’t happening.
It sounds like Caleb Williams might be running for his life.
There must have been a HC famous for the quote: “If you have 4 LTs you have none” 🙂
Hopefully, Jones is still working back into shape because he got pushed around pretty good against the Bills in intrasquad practice yesterday (Friday). So did Benedet.
Benedet is working at LT because Amegadjie is hurt again and they’ve been teaching Trapilo RT. If something happens to Wright Trapilo would mot likely play RT and Jones would be the LT. Going to be interesting to see Sun. Night because Williams is supposed to play and the 1’s will start out. I’m betting Trapilo is LT1 and Jones is swing tackle when the season starts. Bears just swapped out a walking injury(Jenkins) for another( Amegadjie). I want to see what Newman can do and I hope he’s over his Concussion. The problem is they have had too many guys in the competition so no 1 guy has been getting the reps. I expect that to change soon hopefully.
Trapillo played RT for three years at BC. He knows that position. It’s gonna take awhile for him to learn LT at the pro level. My concern is Jones who is way behind.
Not really a Question of him LEARNING to play RT. It’s a matter of him playing RT with the other guys on the line to be cohesive. He needs to play with the other guys on the line. The middle 3 are set. So it’s a matter of them playing together as 1 and being versatile.
Five offensive linemen looking at each other and saying “I thought you had him” is the Bears being “cohesive” 🙂