Three Rookies, Three Impressions: What Doyle sees in Trapilo, Burden, and Monangai

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 7 hours ago

CHICAGO - Head coach Ben Johnson has a complicated offense, and it is offensive coordinator Declan Doyle’s job to ensure things are running smoothly with installations, execution, and evaluating position competitions.

“We’re still in our installation phase. We have 12 installs. We’re (through) nine and so, three more and then we kind of take a step back. We reevaluate everything,” Doyle said. “The timeline would be by the end of next week, we’re through 12 installs. We kind of get into joint practices and figure out (where) we want to head.”

One of the biggest competitions this training camp is for the left tackle position between veteran Braxton Jones, second-year player Kiran Amegadjie, and rookie Ozzy Trapilo.

While the competition is still ongoing, Doyle said Trapilo has stood out as someone who, despite being a rookie, has the maturity of a veteran.

“We’re rotating those guys and there’s a lot of football left to be played at that position in that battle … We’re still evaluating that spot,” Doyle said. “I think Ozzy, (the) maturity, he feels like a veteran. He’s able to correct his mistakes. He’s very coachable. I know that (offensive line coach) Dan (Roushar) and (assistant offensive line coach) Kyle (Devan) really like him, but we like a lot of those guys at that spot and they’re going to continue to battle.”

At wide receiver, rookie Luther Burden III has been starting to show more and more of what he is capable of since returning from his soft tissue injury.

Having Burden III allows the Bears to have another explosive weapon in their offense, making it more dangerous.

“What we saw in Luther’s tape coming out of college is what you’re seeing right now - the explosive athlete, the player,” Doyle said. “Just like any of our guys, if they’re going to create separation, they’re going to get open and we’re able to get them the ball, we can get feature them. We can (find) ways to really create an explosive offense and the more weapons, the better.”

Yet another draft prospect that is already showing promise is seventh-round pick, running back Kyle Monangai.

So far in training camp, he has displayed physicality, a passion for learning the offense, and the knowledge not to make the same mistakes.

“Kyle does everything that you ask of him. He’s very serious. I know (running backs coach Eric Bieniemy) loves coaching him. EB’s hard on him, and he likes to be coached. But, when you tell him something, it shows up on the tape,” Doyle said. “You don’t have to tell him twice. He gets his pads down. He’s physical. We’ve had some periods that you’ve felt the pads pop, and he’s more than willing to stick his face in there and go after it.”

A critical aspect of evaluating player competitions, like at the left tackle position, as well as how rookies like Burden III and Monangai are coming along, will be in joint practices. This will allow the Bears to have their starting offense compete against another team’s starting defense, which Doyle believes has two central benefits.

“One, I think that it provides a competitive environment for our guys to go out and showcase the growth,” Doyle said. “The other thing is you get to play a different scheme than our guys. We play against our guys all the time. We get pretty used to how they play certain things. It’s a lot better for the quarterbacks, the wide outs, everybody, the o-line, picking up different pressures. The variety of those joint practices is really valuable.”

Chicago’s first preseason game will be against the Miami Dolphins on Sun. Aug. 10 (Noon / FOX) before taking on the Buffalo Bills on Sun. Aug. 17 (7 p.m. / FOX). They will conclude the preseason on Fri. Aug. 22 (7:20 p.m. / FOX) with their only away preseason game when they take on the Kansas City Chiefs.