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It turns out Sunday's short, but very sweet appearance in the Bears' 38-0 preseason shutout against the Buffalo Bills will not be the last time the Bears starters will be seen in the preseason.
Head coach Ben Johnson confirmed Tuesday that his first-teamers will play in the final practice game on Friday in Kansas City.
Meanwhile, unsung offensive lineman Theo Benedet is pushing to become a permanent part of the top unit. Despite being a player whom Johnson called overlooked at the start of training camp, Benedet felt confident about competing for the starting left tackle job — where he has gotten more consistent first-team reps.
"You know, I think I've known since the start of amp that I had a shot at it — like I took their word for it when they said that to the group that that job was to be won," said Benedet, "and then we got out to practice, obviously they just kind of go through the groupings, and they told me that I'd be taking snaps both with the ones and the twos that day, so it's kind of happened naturally."
Braxton Jones, rookie Ozzy Trapillo, and Kiran Amegadjie are also trying to win the starting left tackle position. Benedet said there has been nothing but support for one another in a close room.
"We get along great. We help each other. During the game, like we would come off from the sideline. Whoever was in would say, we got this from the rusher — hey, look out for this when you're in," said Benedet. "So it's been all positive."
Benedet said it wasn't the coaches' fault he didn't get more of a look early in camp, because they didn't have a lot of tape on him after he was injured early in preseason last year.
The Bears had a walk-through on Tuesday, and will have a full practice on Wednesday at camp.
Jori Parys
Jori Parys joined the CBS 2 News Chicago sports team in October of 2022. Born and raised in Crystal Lake, she calls it a "dream come true" to be covering her hometown teams.