Laurence Holmes

He's a hybrid at linebacker with crazy athletic talent where he could do some work at edge, could be just kind of a playmaker in the system for Dennis.

And I know that they are over the moon in love with his makeup.

And I want to take people through how this got in my mind.

Yesterday, Mark Grody and I were talking about

The draft and mock drafts that are coming out.

And Dane Brugler, who authors The Beast for The Athletic, does all the players.

And he did one specifically for the Bears, like the players they would put.

You know what was not selected?

Tackle.

There was an offensive tackle in his mock draft.

And I started thinking about what they have as their options today.

with the knowledge that Ozzie Trapillo is not going to be ready to play anytime soon.

He definitely won't be ready to go before maybe the back half of the season, if he plays at all in 2026.

And one name keeps coming back and back in my head because of what we know about what he was dealing with last year.

Braxton Jones at left tackle.

He has played there before.

And Ben Johnson certainly did not sound like he was a fan of anybody at left tackle at the start of last season anyway.

It was just like, we're going to go with what we're going to go with.

And we'll figure it out down the road before Trapello, of course, took over before getting hurt at the end of last season.

But Braxton Jones took me back to last July because he had ankle surgery after a really complex break of his ankle.