Coming out of the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s wild-card round win, Chicago Bears left tackle Ozzy Trapilo stepped backward in pass protection against Green Bay Packers edge rusher Rashan Gary. When Gary engaged with Trapilo, the Bears rookie fell in a heap.

Coach Ben Johnson later announced that Trapilo suffered a season-ending patellar tendon injury in his left knee. But in the moment, there was no time to assess anything.

In the seconds immediately after the injury, Trapilo — all 6-foot-8 and 312 pounds of him — pushed himself off the ground and hopped on his good leg to the sideline.

The Prime Video broadcasters noted Trapilo exiting the field, but what Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit didn’t mention was how quickly Trapilo hobbled off at a crucial point. Per NFL rules, if a player goes down with an injury inside the final two minutes of a half, the team is charged a timeout. If it has no timeouts remaining, 10 seconds are run off the clock.

Wild-card playoff game photos: Chicago Bears 31, Green Bay Packers 27

Players can’t help it if they go down on the field, of course, depending on the severity of the injury. The Packers, in fact, were penalized a 10-second run-off for just this reason a short while later when one of their offensive linemen was injured in the final minute.

At the time of Trapilo’s injury, Johnson and the Bears had only one timeout remaining. Trailing by three points with less than two minutes to play, holding on to that timeout was paramount at the time. As Trapilo hopped off on one foot, backup Theo Benedet entered the game in a flash.

“So much credit to Ozzy for getting off the field there,” Benedet said. “From a young player like that to have the awareness of the situation with obviously more than a bump, just so impressed by him for that.”

Benedet had played several snaps Saturday as a sixth offensive lineman. But getting thrown in at left tackle with the season on the line in the final two minutes of a playoff game is a different animal.

“Obviously it’s a bit of a whirlwind,” he said.

The Bears needed him for only two more snaps, the second being DJ Moore’s game-winning touchdown catch. Benedet didn’t even have to touch anybody on the go-ahead pass.

“I just ran out there and did my job,” he said. “I didn’t (do much) — droppers really on both plays. So it wasn’t a ton asked of me, but glad it worked out in the end.”

That might’ve been the case on those two plays, but the Bears need Benedet now. Johnson announced after the game that Trapilo is out for the remainder of the postseason. The Bears also lost linebacker T.J. Edwards to a broken fibula.

Bears left tackle Ozzy Trapilo leaves the field against the Packers during the fourth quarter of an NFC wild-card game Jan. 10, 2026, at Soldier Field. (Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)

Benedet is no stranger to the starting role. He started eight games during the regular season, one at right tackle and seven at left tackle.

During training camp in August, the former undrafted free agent from the University of British Columbia emerged as a surprise contender when the Bears were looking for their starting left tackle. Braxton Jones won the job out of camp, but Benedet wound up replacing him during the Week 4 win in Las Vegas and then started the next six games there.

Trapilo, a second-round draft pick last spring, took over the job after Benedet went down with a quadriceps injury in Week 12. Trapilo started the next six games before sitting out the regular-season finale with knee and quad injuries. After resting up in Week 18, Trapilo returned to the starting lineup against the Packers.

“It’s unbelievably hard to step in as a rookie and play, particularly at left tackle,” center Drew Dalman said when asked about Trapilo. “Him handling that, I feel like it was a really good piece for the O-line and kind of good for the culture.”

In training camp, Johnson said the left tackle job would be fluid. Whoever won the job coming out of camp wasn’t guaranteed to be the starter all season. In the NFL, that’s always true at any position. But for the Bears in 2025, it has been especially true at left tackle.

In some ways, all of that juggling over the months has prepared several players to handle the role. That could prove key as the Bears now must move forward without Trapilo.

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“We’ve got tackles that have played a number of snaps over the course of the season, so your comfort level does go up,” Johnson said. “There’s a reason why Theo was out there, though. We felt really good about the ball that he was playing the second half of the season.

“And so, yeah, it’s another one of those stories where it’ll be next man up for us. We’ve had a number of those over the course of the year. And Theo, if it’s his number that’s called upon, he’ll be ready to go.”

Even after losing the starting job to Trapilo, Benedet remained a part of the game plan. He played on special teams and frequently served as a sixth offensive lineman in a package Johnson likes to use from time to time.

The sixth lineman is an eligible pass catcher, and that gives Johnson a chance to flex his creativity. On Saturday, Benedet even lined up wide and ran a route up the middle of the field.

“We’re football players at the end of the day,” Benedet said. “(On Saturday) I lined up at tight end, receiver, left tackle. At the end of the day that’s what you’re doing, what we’ve been doing since high school.”

His route at wide receiver was probably a way to get a bigger body downfield to block rather than a genuine pass-catching threat, but it showed the type of athleticism the Bears require from their linemen.

“He hit 16 miles an hour, didn’t he?” Johnson said when asked about the play. “Yeah, that’s pretty good.”

Benedet probably won’t be running any routes Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams. The Bears will need him at left tackle.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/12/chicago-bears-theo-benedet-ozzy-trapilo/