Bears get official word on Aaron Rodgers’ status for Sunday’s game while also ruling out one of their own offensive starters
The Bears will be without LT Theo Benedet on Sunday.
The Chicago Bears made a string of roster moves on Saturday leading up to Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers that answered a lot of lingering questions, but two major questions still remained leading up to kickoff.
The first involved the status of Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who suffered a fracture in his left wrist last week but was pushing to play against his former rival. Hours before kickoff, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin announced the final decision on Rodgers’ status.
“He’s not going to play today,” Tomlin told Evan Washburn of NFL on CBS. “He fought his tail off all week but that’s the prudent play as a collective. So he won’t be playing this week. We’ll let Mason (Rudolph) start.”
The other main question for Chicago going into this matchup involved the final status of left tackle Theo Benedet, who was listed as questionable with a quad injury that caused him to be a limited participant during the final two days of practice this week. Saturday’s roster decisions put the writing on the wall for the expected decision, and now it’s official based on the team’s inactives.
Bears rule out LT Theo Benedet, team expected to start rookie Ozzy Trapilo
Along with Benedet, the Bears also listed Jonathan Ford, Jahdae Walker, and Case Keenum as inactive, not including the three players who were ruled out on Friday. That means safety Jaquan Brisker will play after being questionable with a shoulder injury.
With Benedet officially out, the Bears will turn to second-round rookie Ozzy Trapilo at left tackle protecting quarterback Caleb Williams’ blindside. While it’s set to be Trapilo’s first official start, he’s gotten plenty of action this season after coming into the game at right tackle in Week 4 and playing in heavy personnel packages as the sixth offensive lineman.
Throughout the summer, Trapilo was entrenched in a long drawn out battle for the starting left tackle job against Braxton Jones and Kiran Amegadjie. Trapilo ended up hitting a rookie wall, as described by general manager Ryan Poles, and moved over to the right side behind Darnell Wright.
That opened the door for Benedet to start earning more looks and eventually winning over the starting job at left tackle coming out of the bye week. With Jones and Amegadjie currently on the injured reserve, the Bears have no choice but to see what the rookie can do back on the left side.
This will be a huge opportunity for Trapilo to see how his development has progressed and he gets a nice little boost with Steelers edge rusher Alex Highsmith ruled out as well. As for the backup tackle, the Bears elevated Jordan McFadden off the practice squad to help give the team some depth behind both Trapilo and Wright.
Chicago Bears News
Bears announce multiple roster moves ahead of Steelers matchup, the one many might overlook could have the biggest implications
Chicago Bears made several roster decisions on Saturday.
