Ozzy Trapilo may be ahead of schedule. Albert Breer said Sunday that Trapilo, who tore his patellar tendon in January, might be back sooner than expected after the injury that had been widely viewed as one that would cost him most, if not all, of this season.
That is why his name is suddenly back in the conversation at Bears training camp. The Chicago Bears are still trying to settle their left tackle spot, and Breer said Braxton Jones, Jedrick Wills and Kiran Amegadjie were competing for the job when he visited on Sunday. With Jones out, Amegadjie took the reps with the starters, underscoring how unsettled the position remains.
Trapilo’s progress matters because this was not supposed to be a quick recovery. He started six regular-season games at left tackle before the wild-card round injury, then disappeared into the long rehab that follows a torn patellar tendon. A return in time to matter would give the Bears another option in a spot they have not yet locked down, and it would do so much earlier than the original outlook suggested.
There is still a gap between encouragement and certainty. Trapilo had been working out in the weight room, which suggests movement, but not a firm timetable. That is the friction in his case: the early signs are better than expected, yet the question that matters most has not been answered. Whether Ozzy Trapilo can turn that progress into an actual return will decide whether this is a hopeful update or a real change in the Bears’ plans.
