The growth of quarterback Caleb Williams has obviously been a huge thing for the Chicago Bears this season, with plenty of reasons for it. However, one of the core reasons is easy to see.
After he took a league-high 68 sacks as a rookie, due in equal part to him and the poor play of the offensive line, Williams has taken just 25 sacks this season, counting the one playoff game thus far. Over the course of the season, the refurbished interior has been joined by stellar play from the offensive tackles.
Rookie Ozzy Trapilo was the third man to start at left tackle for the Bears this season, but he was clearly the best of the bunch. In the big picture, he has asserted himself as the guy who could protect Williams' blindside for years to come.
But near the end of the fourth quarter, during the fourth-quarter comeback to beat the Green Bay Packers in the Wild Card Round, Trapilo suffered a knee injury that was quickly revealed to be a ruptured patellar tendon. He will obviously miss whatever is left of the Bears' season, and his rehab progress moving toward next season will be closely monitored.
The Bears now have a sneaky, or maybe not so sneaky, void to fill along their offensive line. This week''s activation from IR of former starting left tackle Braxton Jones helps things, but he's probably not going to step right in to replace Trapilo against the Los Angeles Rams in the Divisional Round.
One Rams player is lined up to wreak havoc on Bears' NFC title game hopes
In Trapilo's place at left tackle on Sunday night against the Rams will most likely be Theo Benedet. The second-year man stepped in when Jones was benched and then landed on IR, making seven starts at left tackle before an injury of his own gave Trapilo the opportunity.
Out of 87 qualifying offensive tackles this season, Benedet's 55.2 PFF pass blocking grade comes in 71st. On the other hand, Trapilo's 70.3 pass blocking grade is 38th.
Narrowing to his seven starts at left tackle, Benedet allowed 22 pressures and two sacks over that stretch with a pass blocking grade below 65.0 five times.
Name a pass rush metric this season, and the Rams are in the upper tier of the league in it. So any weak link on the Bears' offensive line is not ideal. Assuming Benedet is the starter at left tackle, he is clearly going to be that weak link, and ESPN's Matt Bowen put a bullseye on Benedet when he pointed to the "matchup X-factor" for Sunday night's game.
"Rams edge rusher Jared Verse. L.A. must keep Williams in the pocket and limit his ability to create outside of structure. Verse, who had 7.5 sacks and 49 pressures this season, will be tasked at containing the second-year QB, and he gets a positive matchup opposite Bears LT Theo Benedet."
Verse's 7.5 sacks during the regular season don't jump off the page, but according to PFF, he had the fifth-most pressures among edge rushers (87) and a top-15 pass rush win rate (16.8 percent) among edge rushers with at least 120 pass rush snaps.
Benedet will surely have plenty of assistance against Verse, via blocking help and schematic adjustments to minimize the impact of an unfavorable matchup.
Read more: Pro Football Focus highlights Bears rookie who stepped up when it mattered most
But if someone on the Rams is going to single-handedly wreck the Bears' hopes of advancing to the NFC Championship Game, the 2024 Defensive Rookie of the Year is the No. 1 candidate this side of wide receiver Puka Nacua.