Everybody has something on the line at this position.
The first half of our series, Ten Chicago Bears with the most to prove, is in the books. If you haven’t seen the list so far, it’s been as follows:
10. Roschon Johnson
9. Jaquan Brisker
8. Geron Dexter
7. Cole Kmet
6. Tremaine Edmunds
As we reach number five on the list, I will admit, for the first time, we cheated. We didn’t pick a player or a coach with the most to prove; we chose a position, and by doing so, we’ve lumped three players together.
Is it cheating? Probably. But we cheat for the sake of content. Nobody wants to see a top 10 list with 3 of the 10 players being left tackle, but that’s just how open this position is.
Let’s start with the newcomer, Ozzy Trapilo. Of the three left tackles, he has the least to prove amongst the group simply because he’s a rookie. But Trapilo also has a chance to do something impressive: start at left tackle as a rookie.
Trapilo will have plenty of competition at this position, but he will have an opportunity to emerge from the training camp carnage as the team’s starting left tackle. What will play to his benefit is that Braxton Jones will most likely be missing from the beginning of camp.
Jones is still recovering from an ankle injury suffered in late December against the Detroit Lions that required surgery. With Jones absent, someone is going to have to run with the 1s, and there’s a good chance that Trapilo will be that person. He will probably be rotated with Kiran Amegadjie early in camp, but the smart money is that Trapilo will place himself firmly in front of Amegadjie in a short time.
That brings us to the second-year tackle out of Yale. When Amegadjie was selected, a lot of hype surrounded him, but that was largely because Amegadjie was a local product who grew up cheering for the Bears.
Those who had looked at his tape saw a toolsy player, but one that didn’t show well on tape, played against weaker competition in the Ivy League, and was coming off an injury. All signs pointed to a player who was going to be a project and probably needed a full year of practice and development before he saw the field.
But Amegadjie saw the field in December, and the results were disastrous. Now, Amegadjie enters year two with his future a bit uncertain.
Don’t get me wrong, Amedgadjie’s training camp and preseason would have to be disastrous on epic proportions for him to be released from the team in September, but it’s also not out of the realm of possibility.
You can’t take much away from OTAs and minicamp for offensive linemen, but it’s also not positive that no reporters who saw Amegadjie on the field thought he looked particularly good against the Bears’ defenders.
Amegadjie has a long way to go, and he’s going to have to make tremendous strides this training camp to even get to a point where he can be relied on as a backup for 2025.
Based on the play we saw in December, would you be comfortable right now committing to Amegadjie as the team’s swing tackle? I don’t think many would.
If Amegadjie struggles throughout July and August, the team is going to have to keep him as the team’s fourth tackle and keep their fingers crossed that he doesn’t see the field any time soon.
At the same time, if Amedgadjie does develop and show significant strides during training camp and Ben Johnson is comfortable with him as the team’s swing tackle, that certainly opens up the door for some options on the veteran of the group, Braxton Jones.
For a guy who just plugs along and does his job, Braxton Jones doesn’t get a lot of love. Jones feels like today’s version of Charles Leno. He doesn’t do anything spectacularly well, he doesn’t do anything terribly, but he’s just a middle-of-the-road, average tackle.
For a fifth-round pick from Southern Utah, that’s an incredible accomplishment. Jones has proven he’s a legitimate NFL left tackle, and he should have a 10-year career in this league if his health holds up.
But that’s where you start to run into issues with Jones. The first is health. Jones started all 17 games as a rookie, but ended up missing six games during his second season and another five during his third. One of those injuries was significant and late into the season, which is now it’s going to impact Jones’ ability to get ready for the 2025 season.
When you have an average left tackle who is starting to show signs that he may not be able to reliably stay on the field, that’s when you have to wonder if he’s the type of player a front office can risk giving a significant second contract to.
Three questions surround Jones’ future. One, will he be on the field enough to extend? Two, is his talent at a high enough level to pay him near $20 million a year? Three, do the Bears have enough money under the cap to have all five of their offensive linemen on veteran contracts?
The Bears must have a firm answer on all those to consider extending him. Jones must prove he can stay on the field; he must improve on his ability to show the Bears can’t live without him at left tackle. If he stays on the field and looks replaceable by Trapilo or Amegadjie, that’s exactly what the Bears will do.
If Jones makes himself irreplaceable this year, the Bears will have to figure out how to pay all five offensive linemen at once, something you don’t usually see teams do. If the Bears see a more affordable option to replace Jones after this season, that’s exactly what they’ll do.
That’s where Jones not being ready for the start of training camp puts his future behind the 8-ball. Jones needs to make sure he keeps the starting job from Trapilo and Amedgadjie, but he won’t be on the field at the start of camp to separate himself from the two young tackles.
If Jones can’t do that and he loses his starting job to Trapilo, you can all but guarantee this will be Jones’ last season in Chicago. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that, if Amedgadjie also shows improvement, Jones could be on the trading block. There are plenty of teams that would consider Jones a pretty decent upgrade at left tackle compared to what they are currently trotting out there.
So that’s where we are with the most interesting position in training camp. Can Trapilo prove that he is ready to start at the NFL level? Can Amedgadjie prove that he belongs on an NFL field and show promise for the future? Can Jones show that this is still his position and prove that he needs to be the man protecting Caleb Williams’ blindside?
This is going to be the position to watch in July and August, and it will be fascinating to see how it unfolds.