Bears insider’s LT prediction comes with Ozzy Trapilo ‘hunch’

The Chicago Bears continue preparations for the upcoming 2026 NFL season, which will be their second under head coach Ben Johnson. They’re out to prove that last season, which resulted in winning the NFC North Division along with an appearance in the NFL playoffs, wasn’t an anomaly and will be the new norm moving forward.

During their playoff game against the Green Bay Packers, tackle Ozzy Trapilo suffered a ruptured patellar tendon and was feared to potentially miss most of the upcoming season. However, he was recently removed from the PUP list and has returned to practice in recent days.

According to Bears Insider Brad Biggs, his hunch is that Chicago will place Trapilo on injured reserve when they finalize their 53-man roster, or shortly afterward, rather than having him play immediately.

“Trapilo did a little work with coaches before the game but nothing close to game action,” he wrote via The Chicago Tribune. “To this point, we’ve really seen him participate only in individual drills. But this is still heading in a promising direction for the Bears, who likely feel he’s going to be available for a good chunk of the season at some point.”

He continued:

“My hunch is the Bears will move Trapilo to injured reserve either simultaneously with forming the 53-man roster or right after. There just isn’t enough time for him to be game-ready.”

Meanwhile, Johnson recently said that the club is pleased with Trapilo’s progress and that they want him to start building up his confidence.

“Physically, we feel really good about where he’s at,” Johnson said via Bears Wire. “Now it’s a race to see how quickly we can rebuild that confidence… we felt like this is a good opportunity over the course of training camp, with the padded practices we’re gonna have, to start building up that confidence again.”

The Bears have one preseason game remaining on Aug. 29 against the Tennessee Titans.