Rookie OT Ozzy Trapilo Turns Heads in Bounce to Left Tackle — “Super Smart, Athlete for Day One”

Rookie Ozzy Trapilo's indoctrination to NFL line play at Bears OTAs has ended and his description of what he found most surprising probably wasn't an encouraging thing for anyone who thought he might beat out veteran Braxton Jones for the starting job in Ben Johnson's offense.

Trapilo knew this might be the case, too, but what he found out was what others often say is different than in college.

“I mean the pads aren't on yet so there's still a lot to be found out, but I'd say the speed of the game," Trapilo said. "You kind of understand that coming in, it's faster, just overall everything about it.

"So yeah, getting to experience that throughout these last few weeks I think has been really beneficial.”

The alarming part—this was merely practice without pads when he was switching off every other practice with second-year tackle Kiran Amegadjie, and with a minimal amount of contact. The real speed will be coming later in the preseason and regular season.

Trapilo has plenty of time to learn, though. He thinks he did learn a good deal already, some of it the technique he needed to play on the left side after he played right tackle at Boston College.

"In a way it's a little easier, I'd say because I don't go flow state like I do if I were to go on the right side," Trapilo said.

In other words, he couldn't get too comfortable on the left side like he might have been on the right, where he started in his last year of college.

It sounds as if he realized what coach Ben Johnson meant when he said his players needed to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

"I kind of just get in those habits, whatever I've been taught for so long," Trapilo said. "So, on that sort of foreign (left) side–a little foreign–you're able to really hone in on the minor differences that these coaches want to see. I think there's definitely benefits in that.”

Trapilo simply felt fortunate to be able to play with starters, alongside Joe Thuney, while Jones continued to rehab from ankle surgery.

“It's a really great opportunity," Trapilo said. "This is the perfect time for the coaches to do it, rotate guys in.

"Like I said, there's no pads on or anything yet, so they're really just doing their best to get guys looks, get a feeling for it all. I am going out there every opportunity I get, trying to make the most of it. I think it's really beneficial to be able to work next to guys that have played in this league.”

Coach Ben Johnson saw all the rookies making progress, although making the game slow down a little bit for them probably isn't something that will happen for a while.

"I hope that they also understand our coaching staff a little bit better, as well," Johnson said. "We haven't fully come together as a unit, a full team yet, just offense, defense, and special teams, but I think we've made some headway there, just getting to know each other because, really, training camp is going to be a lot about building trust, and I think we got a head start there.

"When we come back, it'll be the fundamentals, techniques. They'll know what that's about; how we want to practice, what's allowed, what's not allowed. I think, really, they're going to take that and run with it, our vets will."

The young guys still need to get caught up to speed on some things.