After signing center Drew Dalman and trading for guards Jonah Jackson and Joe Thuney, the Chicago Bears have the most improved interior offensive line in the league. Right tackle Darnell Wright, the tenth overall pick in 2023, has improved each season, and he seems primed for another good year. However, the fifth starting spot has some questions surrounding it.
Braxton Jones, who has started all 40 games he’s played in the last three years at left tackle, suffered a fractured ankle in December, which required surgery. In March, he was out of his walking boot, but the rehab continues.
In April, head coach Ben Johnson said Jones was “right on track,” while saying it’s likely he won’t be ready to go when training camp opens in a few weeks. He also said he liked Jones’ feet in pass protection, but wanted him to bulk up this offseason.
“We’re going to challenge him to maybe gain a little more weight so that he can anchor a little bit better in pass pro,” Johnson said. “But everything I’ve seen so far has shown a phenomenal athlete out there on the edge that we feel like we can work with.”
Like Wright, Jones has also improved each season, but besides the ankle, there was a knee sprain and a concussion in 2024, and in 2023, he missed six games with a neck injury. He’s also entering the final year of his contract, and if the Bears aren’t committed to him beyond 2025, it may make sense to go in another direction.
During the offseason, that direction was second-year pro Kiran Amegadjie and rookie Ozzy Trapilo, who split time at left tackle.
Amegadjie played in six games as a rookie, with his lone start coming in the sixth. The lasting impression of that game was a negative one, as he was consistently beaten and flagged four times. After watching the All-22, the refs did him a favor by not throwing more.
Most believed Amegadjie, who missed last year’s offseason program with a quad injury and played a lower competition at Yale, would get the inactive treatment all season, but injuries forced him into action.
Offensive line coach Dan Roushar said it’s not fair to judge Amegadjie off a rookie year when he wasn’t even full speed til about week three.
“I’m excited about where he can go,” Roushar said. “I think the guy’s got some lower power traits that you can get encouraged about, you see the length, you see the athleticism. We’ve got to bring his confidence up. The building blocks of any good fundamental play, it starts in his lower and it’ll move forward.”
Second-round pick Trapilo was mostly a right tackle at Boston College, but he has the athleticism, frame, and football IQ to change sides. He made a quick impression on head coach Ben Johnson.
“He is exactly what we thought he was going to be,” Johnson said during rookie minicamp via Bleacher Nation. “He’s super smart. Had a meeting last night with him, a meeting this morning with him, and he is able to apply those concepts right to the field immediately, so he is very advanced in that regard. Technique, fundamentals — he takes those seriously. Something we talked about this morning as a team is just transferring the little things Coach Roushar and Coach DeVan are talking about in that meeting room, and being able to apply them immediately, it’s really impressive for a young guy.”
Once healthy, Jones is probably the better football player of the three, but we could be a month away from him even being completely cleared to practice.
If one of the young Bears — my money is on Trapilo — impresses in training camp, I could see them being extra cautious with Jones, at which point they might just stick with the player who is signed beyond this season.