Following a devastating postseason injury, Albert Breer suggests a vital Bears player could beat his recovery timeline, providing a massive boost to the team.
Chicago Bears fans are going to remember that Wild Card win over the Green Bay Packers for a while.
It was the first playoff win for the franchise since 2010, and the atmosphere of Soldier Field at night was absolutely electric. The Bears were down 21-6 entering the fourth quarter and came all the way back for a 31-27 win.
While it was a massive win for the Bears as a whole, the team lost a couple of players to injury. Linebacker T.J. Edwards and left tackle Ozzy Trapilo sustained season-ending injuries and exited the contest.
Edwards fractured his fibula but has been making good progress this offseason. He started the season on the NFI list but has since been activated and joined the team at training camp.
Trapilo's timeline is in a much worse spot.
He's expected to miss most of the 2026 season as he recovers from a patellar injury. At least that was the case before Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer published his most recent article.
Breer was at Bears training camp recently and hinted that Trapilo's recovery process may take shorter than we initially thought.
"There’s a lot less certainty opposite Wright, where Braxton Jones, Jedrick Wills and Kiran Amegadjie are duking it out to start at left tackle," Breer said. "Both Jones and Wills have been healthy, which is a plus. But with Jones out Sunday, Amegadjie took the reps with the starters. And it looks like Ozzy Trapilo, who started six regular-season games at left tackle, then tore his patellar tendon in the wild-card round, might be back sooner than expected."
Until Tuesday, there wasn't really any evidence behind Breer's claim. General Manager Ryan Poles revealed on an episode of the "Hoge and Jahns" podcast that the team has prepared for Trapilo's early return.
Poles is hopeful that Trapilo will be back in time for padded practices so he can return to game shape more quickly.
"Yeah, we've talked about the different scenarios," Poles said. "Whether he comes back and has a little bit of training camp. If he comes back in September. I think the big thing for us is padded practicing. If you get too far down the line, it's hard to get that physical practice that you need to prepare for games. So, we've kinda looked at that on the calendar, and wanna map that out for him so he feels confident coming back. So, yeah, we've kinda mapped that out and hopefully he's able to capture some of those padded practices."
Braxton Jones started the year at left tackle in 2025 before going on the injured reserve with a knee injury. Then, Theo Benedet filled in for a few games before going down with an injury himself.
Trapilo came in during that Pittsburgh Steelers game, and it finally looked like the Bears had found their left tackle of the future. He started the final six regular-season games and the Wild Card win before leaving with the injury.
Jones and Benedet are good Band-Aid solutions until Trapilo gets back. There's also Jedrick Wills Jr. and Kiran Amegadjie, who can fill in at left tackle as well.
However, they aren't the kind of players you want to hold down the position for the future.
The sooner that this Bears team can have Trapilo back in the offensive line rotation, the better. There will definitely be a period of getting back into game shape and readjusting to the speed of the NFL, but if Trapilo is back earlier than expected, it would be great for the Bears.
What Breer said gave Bears fans hope. Now that Poles has cleared the air, Trapilo's early return sounds even more like a reality.
