The Bears took another long look at undrafted second-year tackle Theo Benedet and veteran Braxton Jones with starters Friday at left tackle against the Buffalo Bills in joint practice.
It's hard to say how Jones could be declared a winner in this multiplayer scrum after allowing a sack to close full-team scrimmage, and getting beat several other times.
Coach Ben Johnson was asked prior to practice what he wanted to see to declare a winner in the four-man left tackle battle.
"Hopefully some clarity, that’s what we’re looking for," he said.
Johnson didn't get it.
Caleb Williams was harassed sporadically throughout scrimmage but played reasonably well when given time to throw. Edge rusher Joey Bosa had a rush declared a sack by officials and wasn't completely satisfied without making a real tackle, apparently. He threw a forearm into Williams' chest and shoved him back, something not allowed in these scrimmages but entirely unflagged here by officials.
There was no retaliation from Bears tackles or other linemen as the Bears accepted more punishment legal and otherwise than they gave on this day against an AFC contender.
He’s been weak for 4 years.
— Nate Giovannone (@giovannonen) August 15, 2025
Johnson insists the look they're giving Benedet is anything but perfunctory, but there's no reason to think it would be considering how the other tackles have failed to seize the position.
“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.”
Johnson's other most telling comment was about rookie Ozzy Trapilo, who is playing right tackle now after he split snaps at left tackle for OTAs and the first 2 1/2 weeks of training camp. He says Trapilo obviously looks more comfortable on the right side, where he played his final season of college.
"Yeah, there's no doubt, that's probably where he's accumulated the most reps the last few years," Johnson said. "So there is a comfort level that comes with that.
Braxton Jones doesn’t deserve this level of hate from Bears fans
In 2024, he ranked 21st out of 140 tackles by PFF. Thats top 15%
Don’t discount his mistakes, we should still demand better. But some talk like he’s total trash
And he’s not… by a wide margin pic.twitter.com/hiyogrxiCN
— Chicago Jay (@Chicago_Jay1) August 15, 2025
"So when I talk about the feet and the speed of the feet (for Trapilo), it is faster there on the right side."
Trapilo's feet just haven't always been quick enough on the left side when getting out of his stance to block.
Braxton Jones has been in Caleb’s lap so much this camp, I’m about to start calling Caleb Santa.
— PAT THE DESIGNER (@PatTheDesigner) August 15, 2025
"It’s really play speed," Johnson said. "There are times where the feet have gotten a little bit slow at times, both in the run game and in pass pro. The mental (part) of just speeding up, ball, snap, let’s go ahead and get in a good physical position here to block the man in front of me, it’s been a little bit of up and down."
There will be no rotation of tackles by the Bears in the season, so someone will be delcared a winner at some point.
"We would not like to go that route," Johnson said. "We want to go into a game saying this is our five guys, those (linemen) get the reps over the course of the week and we go out and execute the game plan that way.
Here goes the Eye Test 👀
I’m not just looking at the numbers… Braxton Jones vs. Ozzy Trapilo — every snap vs the Dolphins. 🐻⬇️
Who should win the Bears LT job?
Like I’ve stated before, neither performance made me say he’s our guy but IMO Ozzy did look solid in pass pro… pic.twitter.com/1lMJuXIhRg
— Maurice Commander (@ReeseMC3) August 12, 2025
"But until somebody clearly makes it known that this is their job, we have to let this play out."
Johnson won't rule out starting someone on opening day but then switching if the performance isn't there.
"We are not afraid of it," he said. "It will be next man up. If one guy is not performing up to snuff, then we will find someone else who can."
Overall, you have to feel pretty good about where the #Bears are trending but it might be time to have a heart to heart about LT…
Seems like a two-man race between Braxton Jones & Theo Benedet…
Two recent Day 2 picks on the bench. One of the roster bubble…
— Aaron Leming (@AaronLemingNFL) August 15, 2025
They'll watch the game closely Sunday night. Then, if Bosa does play, he will be live to sack Williams to the ground if he desires and the Bears tackles need to do something about it.
Special teams provided the most chippy play of the practice. Linebacker/edge rusher Daniel Hardy was involved in two-on-one drill with gunners in punt coverage and got into a scrape. A total dog pile ensued with Hardy at the bottom and a handful of Bills on top. Other brief skirmishes broke out during these drills. Buffalo's special teams coordinator is former Bears special teams coordinator Chris Tabor, who had the job right before current Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower.
"I thought they made some plays on special teams," tight end Colston Loveland said. "I thought we also made some plays on special teams.
"I think we probably had a blocked punt or two, which is great. But yeah, I love how the special teams gets competitive as well. That's how it should be."
The biggest scrape in a regular play occurred after a pass when Tyrique Stevenson was hit with a personal foul and pulled from the field with the first-team defense for the rest of that series of plays.
Buffalo defensive back Christian Benford celebrated breaking up a pair of consecutive Bears passes in the last passing drill by taunting fans. He received a good round of boos for his efforts.
Although a pair of touchdown passes by Caleb Williams to Rome Odunze early had the crowd fired up, Odunze's best play was on a two-minute drill that the first-team Bears offense finished with a touchdown. It wasn't to Odunze.
If the Chicago Bears can clean up the false start & pre-snap penalties the Offense will be just fine, the Defense already sounds like they're in mid-season form after the bye week they should be hitting on all cylinders. pic.twitter.com/3iqinfsWxU
— De'Mun Munsta (@1YoSelf) August 15, 2025
Olamide Zaccheaus caught a 10-yard pass on a crossing route from Williams and Odunze threw a devastating downfield block to free up the entire left side of the field, resulting in an easy 43-yard touchdown play.
They might have scored another TD earlier in the red zone but Loveland dropped a rifle shot in close from Williams that was right in his hands.
"That was a great ball, great ball placement," Loveland said. "I just gotta make those. There's nothing else to it."
Either practice was extremely sloppy on both teams' parts or officials just liked throwing flags. It was a veritable flag day with handkerchiefs being picked up repeatedly. Buffalo started it by jumping offsides on the first Bears series but a handful of false starts followed for the Bears.
"We just gotta clean it up, we just can't have that this late in the training camp," Loveland said.
Johnson had said on Wednesday they might be past all the flags but apparently it's not the case. In fact, a two-minute drive the Bears had that ended with a 43-yard TD pass to Zaccheaus started with back-to-back false starts.
The Bears defense held up fairly well against Josh Allen and Buffalo's first team. Tremaine Edmunds picked off his old Bills teammate and Jaquan Brisker also made had an interception.
"Bris has been all over the field," Edmunds said. "He's making plays throughout camp."
The interception gave Edmunds something to talk about when he saw Allen after practice, but he didn't say too much about it.
.@clayharbs82 takes you inside today's Bears-Bills joint practice 👀
Here are his top 3️⃣ takeaways ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/FsxXISyYjV
— Bears on CHSN (@CHSN_Bears) August 15, 2025
"We didn’t talk about the pick though," Edmunds said. "Like I said, that’s my guy. We came in together. We kind of just, you know, it’s a relationship that we built, you know what I mean? I was kind of just hollering at him."
Defensive tackle Gervon Dexter swatted down two Allen passes at the line, one which was picked off but the play was wiped out by a defensive holding penalty.
The biggest problem the Bears defense had was stopping some of the off tackle runs and also an overall lack of pass rush heat on Allen, Mitchell Trubisky and Mike White. Allen did have his day with a pair of TD passes in full-squad red zone work.
Ruben Hyppolite II had the best Bears interception of the day, coming across the field to pick off Mike White. Former Bears QB Mitchell Trubisky did get a measure of revenge for Buffalo backups with a pair of red zone TD throws later but Bears DB Alex Cook returned a fumble for a touchdown against Trubisky's group, as well.
One thing I’m looking for in @BuffaloBills vs @ChicagoBears on Sat is how the Bills rush the passer. Fields was only pressured 2x vs MIA, average time to throw was 3.56s (2.5s is long). Both teams have massive upside, maybe we learn more this game… 🧐 #nfl @NextGenStats pic.twitter.com/V0aQ6qwcR9
— cynthia frelund (@cfrelund) August 18, 2021
X: BearsOnSI