Thomas Brown stands by decision to start rookie third-round pick at a key position despite struggling during his first career start

After the game, interim head coach Thomas Brown stood by the decision to play the rookie and shot down any ideas that he wasn't ready for the moment on Monday.

"I have confidence in his ability," Brown said about Amegadjie. "I think being able to have the opportunity to work him in that spot, he's kind of been rotating [at left tackle] the last few days and weeks behind Braxton. So, it's more about the spot playing on the left side."

Playing at left tackle, the Bears forced the rookie to play largely on an island, one-on-one against the Vikings edge defenders. Jonathan Greenard generated a team-high seven pressures against the Bears, five of which including a strip sack came against Amegadjie, according to Next Gen Stats.

That's a tough position to be in for any player on short notice, much less a rookie making his first NFL start. And the play-calling didn't offer any favors in terms of sliding extra help in the protection his way.

"Obviously being on the road, the noise, and having an effect when it comes to guys getting off on the snap versus us not. But, we just have to be better in that situation," Brown added. "Also I can do a better job of calling better plays where the ball can come out faster versus holding on to it, that'll help."

When the Bears drafted Amegadjie in the third round out of Yale, he was considered to be a developmental prospect coming off a major injury. Not someone the Bears expected to rely on as a starter at any point during his rookie season. Situations obviously changed things but the team isn't discouraged by the rookie's performance.

"I think he's been prepping the entire time. I think as far as being in meetings and he's been rotating, like I said before," Brown explained. "Just going about if we needed to make some adjustments in the game, just me myself from the call sheet making some notes about max protect and those type of things. But he's a tough dude. He's going to be a really good player, still a good player for us right now. So he'll get better, we'll all get better, and I'll get better."