Larry Mayer

Some football players don't play to their timed speed, but that's not the case with Bears rookie receiver Zavion Thomas.

The blazing 4.28 that the third-round draft pick ran in the 40 at the NFL Combine translated to the field in college and has been evident in offseason practices.

"It's what he showed at LSU and Mississippi State before then," coach Ben Johnson said Wednesday. "He's got a long highlight reel in terms of showcasing that speed in the SEC. He tends to make a play almost every single day right now that says 'OK, if we can harness all of this energy and make sure that we can trust him and he's going to align where he needs to and run the route the way we need him to, that we really could use him and he could be a big weapon for us this year.'"

Thomas displayed his speed and explosiveness in Tuesday's minicamp practice, turning a short pass into a touchdown by outracing multiple defenders to the end zone. The 5-10, 190-pounder continued to excel in Wednesday's workout.

"Coach [Antwaan Randle] El and [offensive quality control coach] Isaiah Ford are doing a phenomenal job with him and the rest of the room," Johnson said, "getting him up to speed and challenging him, and I think he's developing the work ethic we expect not only from a receiver but from anyone on offense or the team."

At LSU last year, Thomas caught 41 passes for 488 yards and four touchdowns, rushed for 99 yards and one TD on 19 carries and averaged 9.0 yards on 17 punt returns. He transferred to LSU in 2024 from Mississippi State, where he averaged 12.6 yards on 29 punt returns with one TD in two seasons and established career highs in 2023 with 40 receptions for 503 yards.

Career year

Johnson told reporters that his appreciation for defensive end Montez Sweat "grew even more" while watching tape of him from last year.

In his seventh NFL season, Sweat recorded 10.0 sacks and 53 tacklesthe second most of his career in both categoriesas well as 13 tackles-for-loss, three forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and five pass breakups.

"I loved him during the season, but when you watch the self-scout after the year, I think this was a guy that played at a very high level," Johnson said. "I talked to him yesterday about, 'Hey, I would argue it was the best year of his career.' Whether that showed up statistically or not, that's debatable, but his ability to play the run, play the pass, I thought he did a really nice job, and hopefully it's something we can piggyback on and carry that momentum into this year."

Health and happiness

For the first time in several years, left tackle Braxton Jones is not spending the spring rehabbing an injury he sustained the previous season.

"This was the first one since I think my second or rookie year where [I] truly got that full offseason, not dealing with anything after," Jones said. "It means everything to me to be able to get the reps during the OTAs, know what we want as a team, from Ben to my [position] coach, knowing what we all want.

"It's just huge for me. And being able to go out there and just rep it over and over again and have such a great coach like Dan [Roushar] on me about the small details, it's unbelievable. I'm blessed to be out there and be able to do OTAs."

Jones is competing to regain the starting left tackle position he held for most of the previous four seasons. Selected by the Bears in the fifth round of the 2022 draft out of Southern Utah, he started all 17 games as a rookie. He remained the No. 1 left tackle, though injuries limited him to 11 contests in 2023 and 12 in 2024.

Despite still rebounding from a broken fibula that ended his 2024 campaign, Jones won a competition last summer with Ozzy Trapilo, Theo Benedet and Kiran Amegadjie for the starting position. Jones opened the first four games before being replaced by Trapilo in the second quarter of a road win over the Raiders. A few weeks after being replaced against the Raiders, Jones sustained a knee injury in practice that sidelined him for the rest of the season.

Iron sharpens iron

Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen has challenged the offense in offseason practices by employing a variety of different blitzes and exotic looks.

"It's great because it's back and forth," Johnson said. "There's been a lot of that here this springtime. He put in some cover zero [Tuesday] too. Some we responded well to, and other times we didn't. It's good for the quarterbacks. It's good for everybody on the offensive line, for sure. Good communication throughout. Maybe we have to make a check to protect ourselves. And then there's a lot of back and forth schematically when we go up in the bunker upstairs that as coaches we can say 'hey, if we get this again, what's a better answer?' Or 'do we need to tweak some things?' So there's a healthy back and forth going on."