How Theo Benedet is poised to parlay split duty into total NFL rarity

"As I get ready for Washington, I’ll do that. Watch (film of) both edge rushers on both sides."

Benedet started out at right tackle Sunday with Darnell Wright out due to an elbow injury, then was moved to left tackle when coaches decided to sit starter Braxton Jones, and let Ozzy Trapilo take over at right tackle.

It's possible Wright returns for the next game, or Trapilo could start.

If it's Benedet starting at left tackle, it will be a complete rarity for an undrafted player in the NFL.

Either way, it can't be as difficult for Benedet as facing Maxx Crosby and then moving from right tackle to left tackle in the middle of a game.

"That can be a challenge, for sure," Benedet said. "It’s not maybe as seamless as some people think. We’ve been doing that in practice. I think the coaches have done a good job of throwing me in there, sometimes without warning, so I can be prepared for a moment like that.

"It takes a few plays to get everything flipped (right to left) in your mind. After that, I  felt it went pretty well."

Benedet playing left tackle at Washington would make the Bears one of only two teams with undrafted players starting at that critical position protecting the QB's blind side.

Teams normally use first-rounders for left tackles, but the Bears didn't. There are 19 teams with first-rounders at left tackle, five second-round picks, two third-rounders, a fourth-rounder, a fifth-rounder, a sixth-rounder and two seventh-rounders.

There are only six left tackle starters who were not Day 1 or 2 picks. The only current undrafted left tackle starter is Alaric Jackson of the Rams, who's in his fifth year. Benedet would be the second one.

Even if Jones did stay on as left tackle starter, there are only four teams  with starting left tackles chosen later than he was as a fifth-rounder. That's the Raiders' sixth-round pick (Seattle, 2021) Stone Forsythe, the Eagles' seventh-rounder Jordan Mailat (2018), the Packers' seventh-rounder Rasheed Walker (2022) and undrafted Jackson with the Rams.

With Jones a free agent next year, it makes complete sense for the Bears to devote a first-round  pick to left tackle.

Either way, Benedet thinks he benefited from last week's exposure to Crosby, even though coaches eventually moved him to the other side.

"Yeah, 100%, it definitely exposes some weaknesses that maybe don’t get exposed regularly," Benedet said. "Some of the stuff in the play-action game with him that maybe I got away with with other players, I couldn’t with him. Just honing in on all those things."

He's not going to face players like that every week, this much is certain.

"Very sudden player, very unorthodox, and I think you see on film some of the stuff he was making you do, some of the mistakes that he was making me make that I didn’t even realize that I was doing in the moment," Benedet said.

Trapilo received the lesson later. Perhaps it's one that will pay dividends on both sides of the line in as soon as two weeks.