Chicago Bears fans were anxious to see 3rd round pick Zavion Thomas in action last weekend against the Cleveland Browns. It was the perfect opportunity for the rookie wide receiver to show why excitement had been building around him in training camp. Unfortunately, an injury put paid to that. The wait would continue. Thankfully, his absence wasn’t too long. Thomas returned to practice this week, just in time for the highly anticipated joint session with the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday.

Most of the attention was understandably on the starters. Everyone wanted to see how the Bears offense would measure up against Cincinnati’s restocked defense. At the same time, could the defense hold up against a healthy Joe Burrow and Co.? The answers were a mix of good and bad. Yet hidden amidst the carnage, Thomas put together a strong practice, including two big catches from Caleb Williams. One was for a big first down and the other was for a touchdown. Sean Hammond of the Chicago Tribune had the details.

Zavion Thomas showcased two traits that aren’t talked about.

Rookie wide receiver Zavion Thomas has been back at practice after missing about a week with a knee injury. He made several catches Thursday, including one with Williams and the starters.

During a full-team session, Williams scrambled to his right, pointing for his receivers to find open space. Thomas was about 20 or 25 yards past the line of scrimmage and came back toward the football. Williams saw the rookie and threw a pass near the sideline that Thomas caught for a first down.

Thomas hasn’t gotten a ton of reps with the starters and his injury didn’t help. That was his first catch from Williams in a while, but the third-round draft pick is very much a part of the plan this year.

Later, in the red-zone period, quarterback Case Keenum let a play develop and lofted a pass toward the right side of the end zone. Initially it looked as if no one would be there to catch it, but then Thomas broke free of Ivey’s coverage and made a nice contested catch for a touchdown.

Zavion Thomas is being lost in a wild shuffle.

Based on the results over the past couple of weeks, one thing has become apparent. The Bears are incredibly deep at wide receiver. Rome Odunze and Luther Burden look fantastic. Kalif Raymond has found new life after leaving Detroit. Then you have Jahdae Walker emerging after his promising rookie year. If that weren’t enough, UFL transfer Kaden Davis might be camp MVP and veteran Scotty Miller is looking good as well. For Thomas to still find ways to stand out is more than encouraging.

That joint practice also served as a reminder that the Bears have big plans for him. Getting snaps with the starting offense doesn’t happen unless the coaching staff has ideas in mind. Obviously, they wouldn’t have drafted Zavion Thomas that high unless they felt he could be a big contributor. The only uncertainty is how big that workload will be. Most believe it will be a combination of heavy work in the return game with a handful of snaps on offense, where he’s moved around like a gadget option.

Could it expand beyond that? Only Zavion Thomas can answer that.

Saturday could be important for him.

Thomas hasn’t played in an actual game yet. The fact that he was practicing in Cincinnati offers a good sign that he’ll make his debut two days from now. It will be a golden opportunity for him to pick up some steam. The Bengals aren’t expected to play any of their starters. That means he’ll be facing backups and camp bodies most of the game. If he is as capable as he’s appeared during the past three weeks, then it’s fair to expect some nice plays through the air or in the return game.

Much of the Bears draft class hasn’t disappointed so far. Dillon Thieneman grabbed an interception in that joint practice just a day after getting one on Caleb Williams. Logan Jones looked capable in his preseason debut, as did Sam Roush and Malik Muhammad. Jordan Van Den Berg, the team’s 6th round pick, had three pressures on defense. Thomas must send his own message.

Don’t forget about him.

People wondered for months last year whether Caleb Williams would be a good fit in Ben Johnson’s offense. It’s easy to understand why. The new head coach had primarily worked with pocket-oriented quarterbacks in his career. Jared Goff, Matthew Stafford, and Ryan Tannehill made up most of the list. It makes sense that he would design a system around maximizing what they did best. Williams was not that kind of quarterback. He was an off-script wizard known best for his improvisation. It felt like an awkward combination.

It worked out. The two found common ground as the season went on, molding the offense into something that functioned at a high level. Williams cracked 4,000 total yards and 30 total touchdowns. The Chicago Bears finished top 10 for the first time in 12 years. Yet people still couldn’t quite quantify what made Williams so dangerous in this system. Ben Solak of ESPN finally figured it out. It came down to a specific stat that went largely overlooked: air yards per attempt.

Caleb Williams makes an already explosive offense more explosive.

“Goff averaged 7.0 air yards per attempt on play-action passes through three seasons under Johnson; Williams was at 10.2 last season. This isn’t just shot selection or scramble drill noise. It’s a schematic choice. Goff averaged 9.0 air yards per attempt on in-breaking routes under Johnson. Williams is at 11.7. He had 12 completed in-breakers at least 20 yards downfield last season, whereas Goff had 17 such plays in three combined seasons. Williams is quite literally expanding the scope of the offense.

Of course, there is some shot selection. Goff takes the checkdowns that Williams doesn’t, because Williams was escaping pressure that Goff couldn’t outrun. Williams can take more of those checkdowns, which will help the completion percentage — but that’s not the point. The point is to generate — say it with me — more explosives.”

Williams can help Johnson’s offense go Super Saiyan.

Remember that the Detroit Lions offense with Goff flirted with 600 points in 2024. They carved opponents up almost at will. They did this with a quarterback who manufactured explosive plays mostly through fundamental precision. Williams does that with natural talent alone. The Bears were 12th in the league last year with 39 completions of 20 yards or more. That was with Williams’ dismal 58.1 completion percentage. Imagine what would’ve happened if he’d bumped that up to even average NFL levels at 64%. This is why Johnson’s offense is even more frightening.

There is no longer a limit on the number of ways he can generate big plays. He has a quarterback who can do anything and everything. More arm than Goff. More mobility than Goff. Simply more aggressive thinking than Goff. That allows an offense to do more things than it ever could have before. Remember, Johnson said last season that the Bears were operating at around 20% of the system’s full capacity. Those numbers are all but certain to go up as Williams’ comfort level grows.

The truly terrifying part is Johnson’s mood.

Unlike last year, when the head coach looked visibly frustrated and annoyed at the state of the offense’s progress, he has shown none of that. Johnson stated more than once that he liked where Caleb Williams is and the overall state of the unit. Considering how ludicrously high Johnson’s standards are, it is telling that he is good with their progress ahead of the season opener. Just how much more dangerous will the offense be if he has few complaints? Upcoming opponents should be nervous.

They could barely stop the Bears when the two were out of sync. Now that they are on the same page, the only thing stopping this offense is itself. Johnson has a firm grasp of his players’ strengths. Williams understands the language of the system. The only thing to do is go out and play the games. If everybody can stay healthy, the Bears will pick up where they left off last season.

The Chicago Bears went into last Saturday with several questions to answer regarding their left tackle competition. Braxton Jones wouldn’t play because of a minor knee injury. That gave Jedrick Wills and Kiran Amegadjie a big opportunity to make a case for themselves. A strong performance from either could put them in the driver’s seat for that starting job. Instead, both of them disappointed. Amegadjie gave up three pressures, and Wills allowed the ugliest sack of the game.

At the following practice, head coach Ben Johnson made changes. Wills and Amegadjie would start working at right tackle, while a returning Jones and persistent Theo Benedet would duke it out on the left side. Ozzy Trapilo, who returned from his knee injury, doesn’t seem anywhere close to full speed. That means there is a strong possibility one of Jones or Benedet will be the starter come opening day. Based on what just happened during the Bears’ joint practice with the Cincinnati Bengals, the decision might as well be cemented already.

The Chicago Bears are right back where they started last year.

It is crazy how little has changed. At this time in 2025, the team was in the same spot. Nobody had established themselves as the clear starter at left tackle. So Johnson shook things up, pushing Benedet into the mix to battle with Jones. It didn’t change much. The plucky young blocker couldn’t make enough headway in pass protection to overtake his counterpart. Jones ended up claiming the job for the start of the season. This was a chance for Benedet to show he’d learned important lessons from that experience.

Instead, the lasting image of that practice will be him allowing back-to-back sacks to a guy whose career best is 5.5 in a season. Not a great look. Maybe the Bears will let him try to regain his footing in the preseason rematch on Saturday, but it’s hard not to feel like such a performance was a backbreaker for his hopes. Barring another injury, Jones should be considered the likely choice for next month in Carolina. The only thing that can stop it at this point would be Trapilo somehow being ready in time.

This entire situation underscores an organizational decision.

Let’s not forget the Chicago Bears deserve some blame for being in this spot. Drafting Darnell Wright was a terrific decision. He’s developed into one of the NFL’s best. However, they have repeatedly passed on opportunities to find left-tackle help, opting for bargain options. Jones was a 5th round pick. Benedet was an undrafted free agent. Amegadjie was a 3rd round pick from the Ivy League. Wills was a bust from another team. No big contracts or top draft choices were spent on the position.

How different might things be if they’d taken Olu Fashanu at #9 in 2024 instead of Rome Odunze? While the team is likely happy with their young wide receiver, that doesn’t change the fact that the decision came with consequences. It left arguably the second-most important position on their offense unresolved. Hopes are high that Trapilo is the solution to everything. He was playing really well last season before injuring his knee. If he regains that form, the Bears won’t have to go through this mess again in 2027.

Ozzy Trapilo was not supposed to be in this situation. After tearing his patellar tendon in January against Green Bay, the prognosis was not good. Experts believe his best-case scenario is returning around midseason in 2026. Some, though, felt it was possible he could miss the entire. That is how bad such injuries can be. That left the Chicago Bears in a tough spot. Do they go for a bridge option at the position in hopes he returns sooner, or do they lay down all their chips and find a long-term option?

In the end, they went with the former. Braxton Jones was brought back on a one-year deal, while former 1st round pick Jedrick Wills was added for competition. It was hoped one of them could emerge in training camp to serve as the placeholder whenever Trapilo returned. Nobody could ever have predicted that the former 2nd round pick would return to practice a full month before the season even begins. Yet that is where things stand. Trapilo is practicing, leaving many to wonder if this means he could actually start opening day in Carolina.

Can Ozzy Trapilo defy the odds?

Well, that may not be his decision. The Bears, haunted by their handling of Jones’ health situation last season, may not wish to bring him back quite that soon. Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune revealed that the team may choose a more conservative approach, wishing to ensure the absolute full recovery of a player they see as part of their future core.

Then there’s the possibility the Bears could place Trapilo on injured reserve and aim to have him available after the four-game minimum or something close to that. If that’s the case, they can get him valuable practice time in the next couple of weeks, move him to IR for a chance to keep working out and then hope he’s an option around Week 5. That still would be considerably ahead of the timetable the team loosely discussed in January and even March.

In my opinion, folks in the building are higher on Trapilo now than when he was drafted. They view him as having a good chance to be a bright part of the future. The last thing they want to do is push him along too fast and encounter a detour.

It’s hard to blame the Bears for doing this.

As incredible as Trapilo’s recovery has been, it would be naive to say he is 100%. Nobody recovers from a significant knee injury that fast. Head coach Ben Johnson understands that the key to this situation is getting the left tackle back to a state where his strength and confidence are high. That will require lots of testing of that knee in the coming weeks. Players are usually tentative about going full speed at first, nervous about whether the joint can withstand the required torque.

Maybe Ozzy Trapilo shows something in the next few weeks. If he strings some really good practices together, it might convince the Bears that he doesn’t need the kid-glove treatment. Still, you must remember that Johnson and general manager Ryan Poles are big on looking to the future. Every decision they make must be accompanied by the question of how much it can impact the long term. Given the position he plays, the last thing they want to do is rush him back and risk further aggravating the injury.

The question they must ask is simple.

Can they still win with Jones or Benedet as the starting left tackle for a month until Trapilo is deemed ready? Well, the Bears were 7-3 last season in games where those two started. Jones wasn’t fully healthy at the time, and Benedet had fundamental concerns. Both issues have lessened since then, according to Johnson. While it’s not ideal, the Bears have reasons to feel they can survive a month with one of those two in the lineup. This way, they can be assured they did everything possible to get Trapilo ready.

Expect a decision on this after the third preseason game, just over a week from now. Trapilo will have had enough time to get into the flow of practice and truly test that knee. The final decision will rest with Johnson and offensive line coach Dan Roushar. How Jones and Benedet perform over that same span will also help steer the decision.

The Chicago Bears never needed to think twice about the decision to draft Dillon Thieneman. They were surprised he was there at #25 overall in the 1st round. They expected him to go anywhere between #12 and #18. So for him to slip through the cracks was a major boon in their minds. Thieneman was easily one of the fastest and most athletic defensive backs in the entire class. On top of that, he had a well-earned reputation for being a student of the game. Usually, when those two things are combined, you get really good players.

For most of training camp, Thieneman has been going through the typical growing pains. He has bright moments and learning ones. Many of them have come at the hands of quarterback Caleb Williams, or more specifically, tight end Colston Loveland. However, the rookie hasn’t backed down. He got a measure of revenge last week during practice when he intercepted Williams during drills.

Anybody who knows the Bears’ quarterback understands how much he hates throwing interceptions. Things were going very well for him in Wednesday’s practice, dicing up the defense most of the way. Unfortunately, it ended with a splat when Thieneman got him again, this time during a do-or-die two-point conversion attempt.

Dillon Thieneman is living up to his reputation.

During his college career, the young safety developed a knack for game-changing plays in big moments. Two of them were to seal victories, one for Purdue and another for Oregon. It appears that ability hasn’t left him. The fact that he did it to Williams, even if it’s just in practice, tells you a lot. For all of his inexperience, the kid still knows how to get himself into the right position at the right time. It’d be one thing if Coby Bryant were doing this. He’s a veteran with Pro Bowl-caliber ability coming off a Super Bowl victory.

Dillon Thieneman is a rookie who hasn’t even played a game yet. For him to give Williams problems like this only confirms the team’s original assessment. He is a great talent with a bright career ahead of him. Coaches have been careful with their praise thus far. They know the rookie must learn to stay focused at all times. You can’t get too high or too low in this league. Let him enjoy the big play, but then move on to the next series. Do this over and over again until the game is won.

Everything is progressing as hoped.

Thieneman is in a tough spot. He was supposed to run wingman to Bryant, learning from the veteran along the way. Instead, Bryant is out for two months with a knee injury. That means the rookie must handle several challenges on his own. Maybe Xavier Woods, the team’s recent signing to replace Bryant, can help. Still, it feels like the Bears must lean on Thieneman to grow up quickly. There isn’t much choice. Both he and the team have been dealt a difficult hand.

Don’t expect the safety to complain. Despite the hard work and the shenanigans from teammates, Thieneman has remained steadfast in his approach. Work hard. Study hard. Play hard. If he does that, the results are usually good. Wednesday was only the latest example. Bears fans should be excited. Getting updates like this is very encouraging, especially for this coming season and beyond.

The Chicago Bears were not in a good way. After a brutal 0-2 start to the 2025 season, head coach Ben Johnson watched his team barely scrape their way to two wins before reaching the bye week. Something was seriously wrong with the offense. Quarterback Caleb Williams was still not playing in rhythm. There were too many penalties, and the running game was nonexistent. If the Bears wanted any hope of getting back into the NFC race, those issues had to be addressed. The first objective was to find the problems.

Ben Solak of ESPN discovered in an interview that a big concern through that first month was the sheer size of the play calls. Some of them ran for ten words, and they were scrambling the brains of several players. It was a big reason for so many penalties and miscommunications. Johnson had no intention of dumbing down the calls. That meant he had to find a way to make them easier to digest. His solution came after careful research and a willingness to set aside his ego for the greater good.

Ben Johnson was pointed to a novel solution by Bears rookies.

Johnson and his staff tried to alleviate the pressure by one-wording playcalls — smashing each of them into one load-bearing keyword…

…Every offense uses keywords like this to execute in the no-huddle. But to have up to 10 full playcalls on the one-word sheet for any given week — calls in which the Bears could still motion, shift, kill a play, adjust an alignment, etc. — and then to replace those with 10 new ones the following week was quite the task. Johnson, offensive coordinator Declan Doyle and Taylor all hailed from pretty wordy backgrounds, and it took a lot of brainstorming and outside research to get a workable one-word system.

They also leaned on the players for help. Many of the Bears’ younger players lived in codeword-style offenses in college, where one-word calls for the sake of tempo are far more commonplace. They gave ideas for clever mnemonics and enjoyed bullying Taylor during his Wednesday presentations on the absurd portmanteaus he had concocted.

These one-worders weren’t training wheels, mind you — just better teaching. Just as Johnson had put the full onus of his playbook on his young offense, he also put the onus on himself to meet the players where they were — to give them the offense in a language they could understand.

Johnson’s greatest strength might be his most understated.

That is his pragmatism. This is not a coach who has developed a system and is painstakingly married to it. Sure, he has certain things he wants to do, but there is no specific method he demands to accomplish them. He has the mindset of doing whatever it takes to get it done. If that means going from inside-zone to outside-zone running the ball? Do it. If that means featuring the tight ends more because the receivers aren’t catching the ball consistently? Fine. If that means adjusting the language so your players can digest it more easily? Whatever. Find a way.

Can’t say it didn’t work. The offense found momentum more and more as the season progressed. The running game became a force behind their retooled offensive line and the tandem of D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai. Meanwhile, Williams grew more confident by the week, learning to play the game at a cerebral level. Towards the end of the regular season, they felt they could play against anybody, and often proved correct. The trick was getting them to think less and play faster. Trimming the wording on play calls did the trick.

Most coaches don’t stay on top for one reason.

They’re unwilling to adapt to the times. Football changes. Every decade or so, the game undergoes another evolution. In the 2000s, it was the zone blitz. In the 2010s, it was the run-pass option. The 2020s have seen a resurgence of the running game through creative alignments and motion. Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, and Ben Johnson have been at the forefront of that revolution. The Bears’ head coach has repeatedly said he is always looking for new ways to evolve.

This isn’t something many coaches embrace. They often reach the heights of their profession doing things a certain way and, understandably, decide to keep doing it. Why deviate from what works? The problem is that NFL teams always find ways to adjust. Sooner or later, they’ll catch up. The only way to prevent that is by constantly evolving what you do. Johnson is one of those rare types.

The Chicago Bears have made every effort, at least in the public eye, to be full speed ahead on building a stadium in Hammond, Indiana. That is where their “focus” has been for months after legislation to build in Arlington Heights faltered during the spring session. If you take the words of team president Kevin Warren and owner George McCaskey at face value, Indiana is happening. There is nothing left to discuss with Illinois. However, one NFL insider believes that may not be their decision.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, like others, heard that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell recently met with Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. That was a rather interesting development. If Indiana were as serious as the Bears claim, wouldn’t Goodell have met with Governor Mike Braun instead? Florio seems to think there is a very real possibility the NFL will veto the team’s move to Indiana. There are various reasons, including environmental concerns, an underwhelming landscape, encroaching on Indianapolis Colts territory, and a desire to keep a team in the country’s sixth-most-populous state.

“He could be saying to the Bears, ‘Look, we’ve looked at Hammond. You’re not moving this team to Hammond. You’re not. It’s not happening. You can bluff all you want, but when push comes to shove, at least 23 other owners would have to approve this move. They’re not going to approve a relocation of one of the key historic franchises, which has only ever played its home games in Chicago or in Illinois, to cross the border to Indiana. So, have your fun, try to conjure leverage with this, but we’re not going to let you do it.’ And that’s something they’re never going to declare publicly because it blows up the leverage to the extent that the leverage has any value to it.”

This would certainly explain the lack of any Chicago Bears decision.

Everything comes back to one important point. If Indiana’s offer were as good as their people continue to insist it is, the Bears would’ve accepted it long ago. Instead, they’ve drawn the process out far longer than any other team has. There are NFL franchises that announced new stadium plans after the Bears and have already begun construction. Nothing about this process suggests that Indiana has the upper hand, no matter what the team says. There are some fundamental truths they can’t escape.

For one, they’ve always called Illinois home. It’s been that way since the franchise’s inception. Upending a partnership like that over a century feels wrong. More presently, we must not forget they already own a massive property in Illinois. Arlington Heights has been bulldozed. Negotiations with local governments have been conducted. Everybody is on board. The only thing standing in the way is legislation to give them property tax breaks and infrastructure support. What do the Bears do with that property if they up and move to Indiana?

That’s $200 million down the drain.

How serious is the NFL about blocking an Indiana move?

That is the unknown quantity right now. All we do know is that Goodell met with Illinois politicians. That signals the league would prefer the Bears stay in Illinois. Arlington Heights is a better property. It’s in a far more populous region with better infrastructure. It also doesn’t sit in a polluted industrial region like Hammond does. The choice isn’t a difficult one from that perspective. Goodell is a highly experienced executive who has rubbed shoulders with some of the most powerful men and women in the country. He knows how to speak their language.

Perhaps he can get a gauge on what the holdup is and help the Chicago Bears put together a proposal that finally breaks the deadlock. It certainly couldn’t hurt. Warren and McCaskey have stumbled through the process for long enough. Fans just want a decision at this point. They too prefer the team to stay in Illinois. An intervention from the NFL might be enough to get things moving again.

Few players in Chicago Bears history have watched their reputation circle the drain faster than Kyler Gordon. In the span of one year, he’s gone from a core piece of the defense’s future to squarely in the dog house. All of it centers around the cornerback’s bizarre injury problems. He missed most of last season with multiple soft tissue injuries. Now he’s on course to miss his third week of training camp with no signs that he is nearing a return. Anybody with a modest ability to read moods can tell there is significant tension in the building whenever his name comes up.

Sports Mockery reached out to someone close to the situation. It turns out things are much worse than either side has let on. The Bears are apparently “furious” with Gordon. Not only that, but the same is true for “his entire team” as well. This suggests that the Bears feel the cornerback is either receiving bad advice from those around him or undergoing an ineffective recovery process—or both. One thing was made clear, though. A breaking point might be coming. Next week was described as “pivotal” for the entire situation.

That suggests if Gordon doesn’t return by then, he won’t have a job to come back to.

Kyler Gordon only has himself to blame.

This isn’t one of those cases where he suffered a terrible injury that knocked him out for a long period of time. These are all ailments that indicate poor conditioning and preparation on his part. Soft tissue injuries aren’t supposed to be this problematic for NFL players. The strength and training staff are too good at implementing preventive measures for such things. This leans into the mention of Gordon’s “team.” Are they influencing his training process? It would certainly explain a lot.

The Bears have reached their breaking point. They clearly feel Kyler Gordon should’ve been back long ago. Instead, he’s chosen to stay away until he feels his body is ready. While he may feel that it is in the best interests of his career, the fact is that he is sorely mistaken. Some believe Chicago would’ve already cut him if not for his recent contract extension, which would have saddled them with a severe cap penalty. However, they do have one option on the table.

They could just not play him.

The Bears have been exploring alternatives for weeks.

Veteran Cam Lewis has considerable nickel corner experience from his time in Buffalo. Chicago’s 4th round pick, Malik Muhammad, has been getting an extended look at that spot since training camp began. They also added Beanie Bishop as a free agent last week. He started in the slot as a rookie for Pittsburgh in 2024. None of them might be as good as Gordon was at his best, but they do offer something he hasn’t: availability. The Bears sound willing to settle for that at this point.

Time is not on Gordon’s side. Every team has a point of no return with players. If it gets to that, it won’t matter whether he’s healthy or not. The coaches will feel they can’t trust him. Once you lose trust, it’s almost impossible to get it back. This outcome would virtually guarantee Gordon gets released next offseason, dead money be damned. The Bears will not continue rewarding someone who’s done nothing to earn it. All one can say is that it’s pretty sad it ever got this far.