The left tackle competition continued Friday, with Theo Benedet taking most of the first-team reps and Braxton Jones also working with the No. 1 offense at times.
Johnson said that he’s looking for “hopefully some clarity” at the position.
“This thing has gone on now three-and-a-half weeks,” he said. “I said and I’ll say it again, we’ll go as long as we need to go to find the right guy. But we’d like to see someone go ahead and make it clear to us that he is that guy, and we just haven’t seen that yet as a staff. There’s been too much up and down.
“We’d love to go ahead and solidify that spot and move forward from there. And it might be one of those things where when we make that decision, it’s not final for the season. It could be we have to reassess after a couple of weeks of the season, or by the bye week we might have to reassess. It might be something that goes on. Wouldn’t be ideal, but that’s the thing with the league.”
What began as a three-man battle involving Jones, second-year pro Kiran Amegadjie and rookie second-round pick Ozzy Trapilo became a four-man tussle this week with Benedet playing his way into contention.
“[Benedet] is 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 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.”
Loveland enjoyed practicing against a Super Bowl contender in the Bills.
“It’s a blessing to be able to do that,” he said. “That’s a team right there and they’ve got some guys. They came in here and they were competitive, very chirpy, and that’s how we wanted it. It was great for us to have that long practice, get down in the dirt and just kind of fight our way out of that. [There’s] a lot to learn from it.”
Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds now has two red-zone interceptions in two joint practices.
A week after a juggling INT of Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa at Halas Hall, Edmunds made a similar play in the second team period of the day against Buffalo, this time against a familiar face in Bills quarterback Josh Allen.
Allen and Edmunds were both drafted by Buffalo in 2018, Allen as the 7th overall pick and Edmunds as 16th overall. The pair played together for five seasons before Edmunds joined the Bears as a free agent in 2023.
“That’s my guy,” Edmunds said of Allen. “We came in together. It’s a relationship that we built. I was kind of just hollering at him [during practice]. But I didn’t really talk too much about the pick to be honest.”
Edmunds’ interception came on third down with the Bills just yards away from the end zone. Safety Jaquan Brisker was tight in coverage near the goal line and tipped the pass, helping Edmunds ultimately secure the pick.
“Brisk made a big-time play,” Edmunds said. “I said, ‘I appreciate you man.’ He made a big-time play. I kind of was running to the ball and I was able to make a play.”
Having played against Allen for years in Bills training camps and in-season practices, the veteran linebacker understands how valuable it is for the Bears defense to face a talent like the veteran QB.
“I mean it’s good, going up against an MVP quarterback,” Edmunds said. “It’s challenging and just being able to execute our stuff, run through our communications and just going through the things that we’ve been able to do throughout camp. I think we took a step out there. I’m extremely happy with the stuff we put out there. Obviously after every practice there’s always stuff that you’ve got to get better with, but just being able to challenge yourself.
“You play this game to go against the best. He’s playing big-time ball. So being able to see where we are, and obviously there’s a lot of film that we’ve got to go back and look at, so I don’t know every little thing that happened, but it’s always good when you’re going against great competition.”
While Edmunds was locked in on the competition during the workout, he enjoyed meeting with a lot of former teammates and Bill coaches and staff members after practice.
“The league is about relationships whether you’re on a different team or not,” Edmunds said. “The relationships that you build, that’s the stuff that you remember, obviously when you retire, when you walk away from the game. So just keeping on to those relationships that I had and relationships, that’s going to carry with me throughout the rest of my life, just being able to see some of those guys and some of the staff that was there was a good thing. Just being able to sit back and relax a little bit, joke a little bit after practice was good, so definitely wishing them luck with everything else.”
Brisker making noise + more Bears takeaways
Along with being part of Edmunds’ interception, Brisker made a series of his own plays against the Bills.
In the defense’s first 7-on-7 period, Brisker broke up a pass over the middle and a couple plays later, fellow safety Kevin Byard III leapt in front of Bills tight end Dalton Kincaid to intercept Allen.
Source link
