Experience vs. ceiling — Should Ozzy Trapilo start for the Bears at LT?

Training camp position battles usually are overrated. If you had a difference-maker in the mix, you should know it by now. The winner generally isn't going to be that much better than the loser. That's why there was a "battle" in the first place.

It might be different with a rookie like Ozzy Trapilo, who is battling incumbent Braxton Jones and second-year lineman Kiran Amegadjie for the starting left tackle position in Bears training camp. By definition, Trapilo has the highest ceiling — he's a second-round draft pick, Jones is a 2022 fifth-round draft pick and Amegadjie a 2024 third-round draft pick.

Then again, upside isn't always a deciding factor, or a factor at all. In fact, in two of the more memorable position battles in Bears training camp, the future Hall of Famer lost the battle as a rookie.

• In 1998, second-round rookie center Olin Kreutz was beaten out by unheralded Casey Wiegmann — a 1997 undrafted free agent the Bears signed after he had been cut by the Jets. It might have looked like a red flag for a touted rookie to lose out to a player who had never started an NFL game, but it wasn't.

  
  

  Wiegmann, who started 15 games in 1998 before giving way to Kreutz in Week 17, ended up starting for 11 consecutive seasons with the Chiefs and Broncos — and made the Pro Bowl as an alternate in 2008. (Fun Fact: Wiegmann and Kreutz each centered for Cade McNown, Jay Cutler and Kyle Orton.)

• In 2000, Brian Urlacher, the Bears' first-round draft pick, was beaten out by Rosevelt Colvin for the starting strongside linebacker position. Urlacher played off the bench in his first two NFL games, before middle linebacker Barry Minter suffered an injury that opened the door for Urlacher — and the rest, as they say, is history.

With Jones missing much of the offseason program while he recovered from ankle surgery, it appeared (to me, anyway) that the job would be Trapilo's to lose. And while it's been more of an even battle rep-wise, that's still a reasonable scenario (to me, anyway).

Not only does Trapilo have the highest draft pedigree, but he's Ben Johnson's hand-picked player to fill that role eventually if not immediately. And with the Lions, players acquired specifically for Johnsonn's offense have done well — running backs David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs, tight end Sam La Porta and wide receiver Jameson Williams.

And let the record show, these success stories were not by default. Jamaal Williams rushed for 1,066 yards and 17 touchdowns in Johnson's offense in 2022; Swift averaged 5.5 yards per carry with five touchdowns in a more limited role that season. Yet both were replaced, by Montgomery and Gibbs.

T.J. Hockenson averaged a career-high 56.4 receiving yards in seven games in Johnson's offense. But it still wasn't worth what Hockenson was seeking in a contract extension and he was traded at the deadline to the Vikings. LaPorta has been more cost-efficient, if not just better, as a hand-picked player for Johnson's offense.

Bears rookie offensive linemen Ozzy Trapilo (75) has been getting the intial first-team snaps at left tackle in training camp, but still is sharing the starting spot with veteran Braxton Jones and second-year lineman Kiran Amegadjie.

The winner of the left tackle battle will have the wind at his back — playing next to All-Pro left guard Joe Thuney, who plays at or above Teven Jenkins' best level more consistently and — presumably at 32 — with better dependability. That also figures to play in Trapilo's factor — theoretically a little bigger margin-for-error to live through some rookie mistakes.

The question for Ben Johnson is an old one — if the more experienced Jones is a hair ahead of Trapilo after the preseason, but Trapilo starting 17 NFL games as a rookie could take him to a level Jones cannot reach heading into 2026, would it make sense to give Trapilo the job?

Perhaps that doesn't matter. It didn't for Olin Kreutz.

For what it's worth, Trapilo took the first first-team reps when camp opened. And he took the first first-team reps in 11-on-11 drills Sunday at Family Fest. He appears to be first in line. And while the battle might be too close to call, the key is that the winner is actually productive.

Last year, the Chiefs were in a very similar scenario — looking for a starting left tackle to play next to Thuney. Kingsley Suamataia, a rookie second-round pick, beat out Wanya Morris, a second-year third-round pick, for the starting job. But it didn't work out. Suamataia was benched in Week 3. Morris replaced him and was benched in the second half of a Week 13 victory over the Raiders.

Veteran D.J. Humphries, who was signed the previous week as an emergency option, started at left tackle in Week 14, but suffered a hamstring injury and not good enough to start when he returned. Thuney started at left tackle in the playoffs. But that all fell apart in the Super Bowl, when Patrick Mahomes' played poorly under duress as the offensive line — Thuney included — struggled to fend off the Eagles' defensive front. It all started with the hole at left tackle the Chiefs were unable to fill.

That's hardly a trend or even a harbinger. Just a reminder that the best-laid plans don't always work out. And it literally can happen to the best of them.