Windy City Gridiron
Reacting so quickly following the NFL Draft can be tricky. Instead, Aaron Leming took some time to gather his thoughts on the Bears’ draft approach, and general manager Ryan Poles’ latest interview with ESPN 1000.
It might be hard to believe for some, but we’re already more than a week removed from the opening night of the draft. The NFL Draft is an event that builds up for months and is over in a matter of days. For most football fans, it goes by in a flash. Frankly, this entire offseason has been a whirlwind, especially for the Chicago Bears and their fans. Hiring new head coach Ben Johnson was just the beginning of a very active offseason for general manager Ryan Poles and his front office.
With the bulk of the acquisition period behind them, all 32 teams will turn their attention to their month-long offseason program, which will ramp up toward the end of this month. Right now, all activities are voluntary. Yet, for teams like the Bears, it’s all but mandatory with a new coaching staff that has been installing their own culture within the building. What might not seem like much to most fans is a considerable period for teams with new coaches and big roster turnovers.
Before we can fully turn the page on the draft and look toward rookie minicamp, let’s take a look back at the results of draft weekend, and some recent thoughts from Poles’ appearance on the Kap and Hood show in another version of Bears Takes.
1. Second-round tackle Ozzy Trapilo is going to get every opportunity to win a starting job.
Poles joined the Kap and Hood show on ESPN 1000 early on Thursday morning for a good Q-and-A about the draft, how he feels about the roster, and more. The 15-minute-plus interview was good, and in typical Poles fashion, he was very open and honest with his answers.
Since the draft concluded last weekend, there’s been plenty of speculation about Darnell Wright making the move from right tackle to left tackle. When asked directly about it, he touted Wright’s ability to play either side of the line, while acknowledging that 2024 starting left tackle Braxton Jones might not be ready until at least training camp. Although he never directly answered the question about Wright moving over to left tackle, he noted that their No. 56 overall pick would start on the left side. Poles specifically mentioned both Trapilo and last year’s third-round selection Kiran Amegadjie as competing at left tackle in OTAs and their mandatory minicamp.
While this doesn’t mean that Jones won’t be able to win his job back during training camp, the Bears have been clear from the beginning that this will indeed be a competition. At this point, I don’t view it as a knock on Jones. Despite some recent injuries, he’s well outperformed his fifth-round status from four drafts ago. The reality is quite simple, though. The Bears don’t want to be forced into...
