The No. 2 seed Chicago Bears will look to make some noise in the playoffs, as they begin their postseason run against the No. 7 seed Green Bay Packers this weekend in the wildcard round.
The Bears will look to take down the Packers for the third time this season and hope to be at full strength while doing so. Most Bears fans are monitoring the situation with wide receiver Rome Odunze, who has missed time with a foot injury.
On Tuesday, we received some good news about Odunze and offensive lineman Braxton Jones, who has been on injured reserve for several weeks with a knee injury. According to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune, the Bears opened Jones’ 21-day practice window.
This means that Chicago has three weeks to bring the 26-year-old lineman to the 53-man roster. With the Bears now in a win-or-go-home situation, it's not clear whether they will be playing next week, which complicates matters for Jones.
However, if the Bears advanced to the divisional round, one wonders if they would activate Jones to be the left tackle backup behind Ozzy Trapilo, eliminating Theo Benedet from the mix.
Bears Could Consider Benedet-Jones Switch During Playoffs
Benedet was back in the starting lineup for the first time since Week 11, as he played 55 snaps in Week 18 against the Detroit Lions. The 24-year-old Benedet took over for Ozzy Trapilo, who was inactive with knee and quad injuries.
According to Pro Football Focus, Benedet was pretty good in the run blocking department (79), but left much to be desired in pass blocking (39.8). Coincidentally, pass blocking has been an issue for Benedet, who has a season-long grade of 57.8.
However, it's not like Jones was any better. The last time we saw the former fifth-round pick on the field, he got benched in Week 4 against the Las Vegas Raiders. Before being benched, the 6-foot-5, 303-pound lineman allowed 15 pressures and two sacks through the first four weeks of the season.
With that being said, Bears fans better hope Trapilio will be healthy and ready to play. If not, then that puts the Bears’ offensive line at a slight disadvantage heading into Saturday night's game.
If Benedet is called into action and doesn’t perform well, but the Bears still win, it would not be a shock to see Jones activated for the divisional round to give them some experience.