I nearly went back to back with a position instead of a player here at number nine (much like center yesterday), but the more I thought about it, the more I realized Braxton Jones is the best case scenario at left tackle for the 2026 Chicago Bears.
He was the best case last year, too, but he could never fully recover from his ankle injury to grasp the starting job, and it ended up a training camp battle between him, Ozzy Trapilo, Kiran Amegadjie, and Theo Benedet. Jones won by default when no one outperformed him, but he clearly wasn’t 100%, and he was eventually benched before another injury landed him on injured reserve.
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This year, it’s Trapilo recovering from an injury, but he won’t be back for a while as he rehabs his ruptured patellar tendon. The Bears did add Jedrick Wills Jr. to compete along with the returning Amegadjie and Benedet, but while the Bears aren’t awarding starting jobs in OTAs, Braxton was with the number ones all offseason.
With no rehab to be concerned with, Jones trained with five-time Pro Bowler Terron Armstead this offseason, and Armstead is “excited” for what his pupil will do in 2026.
Here’s what Armstead said about Jones recently, from an interview with Cassie Carslon by way of the BearsWire.
“What I’ve seen from Braxton, and what I know of Braxton moving forward, is this is a person that is sure of himself now that he knows he has the ability to go out and execute at a high level. He’s done the work, and he really wants to prove his work to himself. Not the masses, not the fans or the media, to prove to himself that he can play this game at the highest level. Because he’s starting to really, really believe that. And that’s where it has to start. If you have that doubt, that self-doubt, it’s going to reflect on the field. He’s removing that through work, through technique, through perfecting his craft.”
Jones may not have been physically all the way back last offseason, but mentally, he wasn’t ready either. He didn’t trust his surgically repaired fibula, and his play suffered.
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“The procedures I’ve had is fine, and everything’s good, everything’s strong, and that’s really what it is,” Jones said a few weeks ago via FOX 32.
“Even last year, I was still in a good place, but I just didn’t trust it,” Jones continued. “I didn’t trust the positions I was putting myself in. And when you don’t trust that you’re never going to put a good outcome out there.”
The 27-year-old had some other options in free agency this offseason, but he and the Bears agreed on a one-year deal that could be worth up to $10 million.
If he can stay healthy, he’s setting himself up for a nice payday in the offseason. But that’s a big if, as the only year he went unscathed as a pro was as a rookie in 2022.
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He started all 17 games that year, had a good offseason, and came into 2023 playing better, but a neck issue caused him to miss 6 games. In 2024, a knee injury and concussion kept him out of 5 games.
And then, last year, the slow recovery could have led to the knee injury that landed him on IR, with only 6 games played. He was activated off IR in the postseason, but wasn’t active on game day, so head coach Ben Johnson never really saw what Jones could do.
“I’m excited about where he’s at right now,” Johnson said about a month before the offseason workouts started. “He came in when he signed the contract, and he looked like a brand-new man as far as I’m concerned. This guy was beefed up. He was probably 310 pounds, and he looked yoked up. He’s very determined to get his career trajectory back to where it was before.”
Jones’ experience and health likely earned him the nod with the ones on the first day of OTAs, but the fact that he kept it all offseason is a good sign that his trajectory is looking up.
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