Bears coaching staff takes ‘full account’ for Kiran Amegadjie’s struggles Monday night

LAKE FOREST – The Chicago Bears already had finished their entire week of preparation and practice. There was nothing left to do except board the flight to Minneapolis and go play Monday night’s game against the Minnesota Vikings.

Except their was one problem. Starting left tackle Braxton Jones showed up Sunday with concussion-like symptoms. The training staff evaluated Jones on Sunday and decided to send him home.

Jones, who has started 39 games in his NFL career, would not be traveling with the team to Minnesota.

The Bears were left with two options at left tackle. They could start Larry Borom, a veteran backup who has appeared in 44 career games with 25 starts. Or they could go with rookie tackle Kiran Amegadjie, a third-round draft pick out of Yale. It would be Amegadjie’s first NFL start. Bears interim head coach Thomas Brown elected to go with Amegadjie.

It did not go well.

Amegadjie was flagged four times in the game and allowed a strip sack. The rookie, who went to Hinsdale Central and who the Bears drafted 75th overall in April, looked overmatched at times.

“I was prepared,” Amegadjie said after the game. “I was locked in on the game plan. There was nothing that confused me or no looks that I didn’t know what I was doing. Just got to play better.”

While his play could’ve been better, Amegadjie could hardly be blamed. He was trying his best in an adverse situation.

In retrospect, throwing a rookie into the starting lineup against the heaviest blitzing defense in the NFL with zero practice reps with the starters was a fools errand.

The Bears don’t really need to see anything more out of Borom, who is in the final year of his contract and probably won’t be with the team next season. Seeing what a young guy like Amegadjie can do is totally worthwhile.

A youth movement in a lost season makes some sense. A youth movement with no proper preparation makes everybody look bad. It would’ve been different if Amegadjie had the full week to work with the starting offensive line, but he didn’t.

“We need to be able to adjust better to help whoever’s out there, whether it be Larry or Kiran or Braxton or whoever ends up out there,” offensive coordinator Chris Beatty said Thursday at Halas Hall. “We’ve got to put them in position to be more successful.”

After the game, Amegadjie said what every NFL player says in these situations. He prepares like he’s the starter every single week. Sure, and more power to him. But he had literally never done it before and he had about 24 hours to wrap his mind around the idea.

His last start in any football game had been Oct. 7, 2023, against Dartmouth. Amegadjie missed the Bears’ entire offseason program and much of training camp due to an injury he sustained at Yale. He wasn’t cleared until the last week or so of camp in August. He played in zero preseason games.

We take full account for it and we need to do a better job of putting those guys in the positions to do what they do well."

—  Chris Beatty, Bears offensive coordinator

“We take full account for it, and we need to do a better job of putting those guys in the positions to do what they do well,” Beatty said.

The good news is that Jones is trending in the right direction. He was a full participant in practice Thursday ahead of this week’s game against the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field.

Amegadjie believes he will be better in the future. One bad performance doesn’t define a player. The Bears already found one serviceable tackle from an FCS school in Jones, who played at Southern Utah.

Amegajie might be just fine. But his coaching staff put him in a tough situation Monday.

“I’m here for a reason, just got to play better,” Amegadjie said.