Bears News: Ben Johnson discusses the latest with rookie mini-camp

Ariana Pensy - Correspondent - 5 hours ago

CHICAGO - When he was the offensive coordinator for Detroit, Ben Johnson’s offense was built around having a strong offensive line.

As the head coach for the Bears, Johnson quickly got to work turning Chicago’s offensive line around and added to this effort by drafting offensive lineman Ozzy Trapilo.

“(Trapilo)’s exactly what we thought he was going to be. He’s super smart. Had a meeting (Thursday) night with him, a meeting (Friday) morning with him and he’s able to apply those concepts right to the field immediately,” Johnson said. “So, he’s very advanced in that regard. Technique, fundamentals (and) he takes those seriously … It’s really impressive for a young guy.”

Defensively, the Bears are also preparing for some competition at the linebacker position.

While Johnson said he is confident in Chicago’s top two linebackers, T.J. Edwards and Tremaine Edmunds, there is an open spot at the Sam linebacker spot.

“We’ll find out. We certainly have an open competition. We feel really good obviously about T.J. and Tremaine and what they’ve done over the course not just last year, but the last few years in this league. Really comfortable there, but that third spot, it’s up for grabs. So, we do have a prototype. (Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen’s) got a prototype for what that Sam would look like,” Johnson said. “We’re more concerned, let’s find our third best linebacker and we’ll figure it out from there. We got a lot of scenarios going on in our heads right now of what that could be, but we won’t know for sure until we get the pads on. Obviously, Noah Sewell’s been in the building and he’s shown a lot of good things over the last few weeks and we’ve got a good mix of other guys in that room as well.”

Chicago drafted a total of eight players in the 2025 NFL Draft. In addition, the Bears signed 10 undrafted free agents including running back Deion Hankins and wide receivers Jahdae Walker and JP Richardson.

Players such as Hankins, Walker, and Richardson get the opportunity to learn from an offensive guru in Johnson and will get as much of a chance to prove themselves as the players the Bears drafted.

“Anytime you get the opportunity to be in a building, just like now, you’re always being evaluated. So, it doesn’t matter if you were a draft pick, if you were (an) undrafted signee, if you’re a tryout guy this weekend, we’re taking everything into account … You earn one opportunity, (now) you got to earn your next opportunity. So, the door’s wide open for that,” Johnson said. “We’re not earning jobs here this springtime. What I would like to see offensively, (we’re) just trying to comprehend this system. There’s a lot. We’ve taught a big picture view really over the last few weeks. We haven’t even formally installed a specific play in a formation all at once yet. We’ll do that once we get to OTAs. So, there’s a lot that’s going on in everyone’s head right now. We’ve been focused, particularly in (the offensive line) room about our fundamentals … You can’t climb the depth chart in the springtime, particularly on o-line and d-line if we don’t have the pads on.”

The Bears’ seven other undrafted free agent signees are safeties Major Burns and Tysheem Johnson, defensive ends Xavier Carlton and Jereme Robinson, linebacker Power Echols, long snapper Luke Elkin, and kicker Jonathan Kim.