Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - What's the latest on the Bears' left tackle competition? | Take The North

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

Dan Wiederer and Mark Grote discuss the latest developments when it comes to the Bears' left tackle competition. Is Braxton Jones still the frontrunner? Will Ozzy Trapilo factor in at all?

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Audio books included. The question that Press Taylor just kind of took a little exception to was, I think it was posed on paraphrasing, something to the effect of, you know, does Caleb Williams have this thing down enough that he doesn't really have to play? And Press Taylor gave a quick, uh, no. Well, and that's like, listen, like, I think we talked about it here on one of our episodes. There was a question a few weeks ago from someone talking about just how great Caleb is and just how, you know, how do you manage the greatness that is Caleb Williams and how you, you know, right, exactly. And Ben was like, we tell the truth in meetings, you know, just blunt to the point.

Appreciate the flowery comments, but we put it on the big screen every day on where the flaws and the blemishes are. And there's a long way to go for Caleb, for this entire offense, to be playing the brand of football that they're capable of. And so it's just important to understand that this work in progress nature of things is real. You know, and it's going to continue to be real. And today, again, this practice today was a little bit sloppy. I think we can probably shift our lens a little bit out toward the left side of the offensive line and realize that, oh boy, this thing that we've been talking about for months

is a major concern for the bear's offense is still a major concern three weeks away from week one. You know, and so like you feel this uneasiness of the bears hoping that Braxton Jones's knee issue is behind him and that he can play well enough during the starting job. But then this little competition that at once was Braxton Jones versus Karana Mugaji versus Jedrick Wills, now has Theo Bennett taking reps with the ones that left tackle. Now has Ozzie Tripillo, perhaps at some point up the road here introducing himself to the job that he held last year for a half dozen starts in the regular season. So it's just a real murky view of the left tackle position.

And I think Ben today seemed almost a little, I don't know if aggravated is the right word, one level below aggravated on like, we got to get this answered. And after Joe Tooney on Sunday was like, I didn't really notice all the guys coming in and out beside me. I just keep my head down and try to handle my responsibilities. Ben was essentially like Joe Tuny would like clarity on who's going to be playing next to him so he can develop some chemistry and continuity. and we can get this offense to gel and not need the first month of the regular season to be figuring

things out because it took us too long to identify who the starter is. Yeah, I mean, we talked about it the other day too with Press Taylor just basically saying, you know, we've got a lot of guys. But as you just indicated, the frustration is that they have not narrowed it down. The Theo Benedet thing is interesting because we had been told at the beginning of training camp that, yes, Theo Bennett would be part, Theo Benedet would be part of the left tackle competition. We've barely seen him on the left side. He's mostly played on the right side,

going back to the off-season program and then in training camp so far. So it's interesting that they're finally getting him up to speed. And not to mention that Karan Amagaji, who did leave practice, we're not sure why or what the injury is or what the update is on him. And Jedrick Wilkes, we're both playing right tackle on this Tuesday. So I don't know, like, if that's progress, or if they've given up on them at left tackle relative to the Cleveland game? I don't know what's going on here.

To me, it feels like an indicator that what they saw in the review of the Browns game from Saturday left them a little bit displeased. And it was like, all right, well, let's try Theo over there, you know, and let's see if Braxton's back. And, you know, now that we're trying to figure out what the depth of the offensive line is going to be, if you're not going to be a starter, then you have to try to carve out a role somewhere. So can you play right tackle and be an option at swing tackle?

You know, and that's what that felt like. Amagagagagia, as you mentioned, it was during a round, red zone period, a running play, went down, came up. It looked like a right league injury. By the way, he was coming off the field, threw his helmet to the grass, seemed pretty frustrated. Left practice did not return. There's another little twist. You know, another day, another twist out here. That's a real thing. And so you look like, you know, I think Dan Rochard said it well the other day where he said, like, every one of these guys has made improvement. And there are flashes there that lead us to believe that there are players here that we can work with.

But at the end of the day, there's a lot of not good enough in the performance as well. And so, like, this is what they are constantly harping on as they try to put together a team that can contend for championships now. Right? Like, we're not looking out three, four years. Oh, we can take our time. And, like, we need somebody that can play at a level right now that allows you to take the north that you took and never give it back. Right. And so that's the goal.

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It does feel like we're headed there. And I was very encouraged by Braxton Jones early in camp, but this injury thing, the reason that Braxton Jones was sort of me last year or Ben Johnson was sort of me about Braction Jones last year is because he wasn't 100% healthy. Or at least he didn't have the trust, I suppose, you could say, is a good way to put it, which they're talking about with Ozzie Tripillo. Tripillo's got to get the trust in, can I, I'm healthy, but can I go full force? I don't know.

Braxton Jones had that last year early in the season. It affected his playing, and it affected the tone of Ben Johnson when he named Braxton Jones the starter last year. Well, and Braxton has been on injured reserve in each of the past three seasons. It was a neck injury. And then obviously it was a very significant broken ankle in that Lions game. And then last year there was a knee issue that flared up after he had been benched and came back in and played in some special team situations and had the knee issue that sent him to injured reserve for the back half of last year. And so like the durability concerns are there until they're not.

He's got to finish this training camp with momentum with with signs that, you know, whatever happened that kept them out of those four practices a week ago. is just a small thing that was just a blip in this situation, and that need that he's currently dealing with isn't going to be a problem beyond that. So this is where the fatigue sets in, I think, where you're like, man, like, you know, between the left tackle situation and Kyler Gordon and the push to try to figure out where the pass rush is coming from, it just feels like we're no closer to answers on any of those three topics. And that's where you start to say, like, yeah, it's been all rainbows and flowers up to this

point, but this is a building that understands the tightrope that is the NFL. And if you make one misstep, you go from, you know, a team that can win the division to a team that's on the outside of the playoffs looking in. And so it's just a reminder of how the bears are still there. I think, like, you could see the season going either one of those directions at this point here on August 18th. And they're going to have to find answers to make you feel more confident that it's going to be, oh, we're going to be in the playoffs year after year after year. after year, right? Maybe Joe Tooney will be playing left tackle for the Bears on opening day. Maybe it will be the nuclear option that they went with against the Rams last year. And I'm

mostly kidding, but it just feels like they, how could they want to go into another season this year feeling meh about the left tackle spot? But I guess, I guess we wait and we see as Press Taylor said, and I loved what Press Taylor said about how they're really. really going to test these tackles in the joint practice where they're going to get they're going to put them on the island they're going to put them one on one with the defensive ends of the bangles are not going to give them help necessarily which they would do in a regular season game obviously if needed with the tight end help with the extra offensive linemen like they did with trepillo last year but this is going to be big and i don't know what to tell you if like this you start to see

these guys getting dominated in those one-on-ones little program note, Kevin Fishbane, my colleague from the athletic, will be in Cincinnati. He'll be the boots on the ground this week at the joint practice in Cincinnati. Well, he's going to join us after that joint practice later this week and give us the first-hand account of what happened there, which will be great. And then the following week, I'll go to Tennessee for the athletic and do the same from there. So we will have a full comprehensive report on all that goes down in Cincinnati. And I will make sure Kevin knows to watch those offensive linemen blocking and the one-on-one drills

against the Bengals Passengers. I have a lot of faith in fishy business that he will give us a great report, and we will get all the action and the details for him. So we will put a pause on actually, wait. I do need to, Ozzie Tripillo, was he part of the practice and not part of the practice on this Tuesday? I know they've got to go easy with. Yeah, he's a ways away from getting back into team drills. And listening to Ben Johnson on Tuesday morning saying that Ozzy's got his own timetable

and that there's still some recovery hurdles to clear is just no. for us to kind of, you know, try to figure out a realistic timeline for when he'll be ready, again, for full speed, full contact, full competition, football. I think when you see he's activated off the PUP list, the first instincts is like, he's going to be in uniform for week one. I don't think we're near that point at this point. And so I think as the weeks go on here, again, we've talked about the rhythm of this. He's obviously not going to participate in a joint practice. He's been back for two days. And so there's two weeks of joint practices and limited stuff at House Hall and then preseason games.

And so whatever work he does get, we're going to have to check back in on how he's doing after it, how he's doing in it and how he's doing after it, right? Those are two big things for Ozzy as he continues to make his way back from a pretty serious knee injury. And to his credit, he's done a wonderful job and putting himself in this position. I think after practice on Wednesday, we're going to get to talk to him for the first time since injury occurred. So that would be a notable little piece of, piece of dialogue, I'm sure. Yeah.