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Bears Left Tackle Battle Takes Really Surprising Twist in Third Practice

A new starter in at left tackle in Friday's practice makes for a real test of Braxton Jones' skillset as a blocker.
Gene Chamberlain|
Braxton Jones was the favorite coming into camp at left tackle and still is, but the Bears are definitely making him work for it.
Braxton Jones was the favorite coming into camp at left tackle and still is, but the Bears are definitely making him work for it. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears

The lesson everyone should know by now but maybe has gone misunderstood is Ben Johnson means what he says.

When the Bears coach, and for that matter GM Ryan Poles, said there was a left tackle competition and Braxton Jones figured prominently in it, they weren't actually paying lip service to the word competition. At the start of camp, Jones was where he had been through almost all of organized team activities and also minicamp. He played left tackle with starters.

Earlier this week, they mixed in a few reps for Jedrick Wills II with the first team but it was largely still Jones taking plays there. On Friday, just a few practices before the start of full-contact work in pads, it all took a totally different turn.

Kiran Amegadjie surfaced. He had most of the snaps at left tackle with the starters. Jones was relegated to practicing against the second team and even third team Friday, while Wills was splitting second or third team reps with Jones.

Amegadjie had been an afterthought after his first two years coming out of Yale as a third-round pick had amounted to almost nothing. However, the Hinsdale native didn't look bad on Friday as he went against edge rushers like Dayo Odeyingbo, Austin Booker and Daniel Hardy. At this point, Amegadjie has had close to the same number of reps at left tackle as Jones, if not more. Wills has had a few.

Braxton Jones' reaction

Jones wasn't shocked by this.

"I assumed that it would be like that," Jones said. "Obviously they left at it is a competition at the end of the day. Regardless of that, wherever we’re put, ones, twos, threes, you’ve got to go perform and do your thing regardless. You see it coming but at the end of the day, like I said, it’s just a competition and you’ve got to go out and do your job regardless."

It's just that in Chicago sometimes in the past the word competition meant something else. In fact, whether it was Matt Nagy, Matt Eberflus, John Fox, Marc Trestman or Lovie Smith as head coach, when the Bears said there was open competition at spots it usually meant there was a first-team player working with first-stringers, and then the second guy worked with second-stringers. If you saw them switching up, it meant things really had become heated or some sort of decision had been made.

With Johnson, and especially also offensive line coach Dan Roushar, a competition means everyone involved gets a crack with first team. They did this last year with left tackle even though Jones emerged the starter. They just didn't have total confidence early in Ozzy Trapilo, their eventual starter who is still coming back from a patellar tendon injury. Nor did they have much confidence in Theo Benedet to play left side, and this year he has been a fixture with backups as right tackle but will no doubt get a chance for left tackle reps.

Jones laughed off the suggestion he is the favorite, although he should be as someone who started 34 games for the Bears at this spot in four years.

"I mean. Like I said, it's a competition," Jone said. "Whoever. Ben said it the other day, jobs are going to come down to the most consistent player. Whoever is the most consistent and that’s what I’m working on, is being the most consistent and doing my job all the time, knowing when and where to be.

"Like I said, too, we’re all a brotherhood. We’re all trying to go after one thing. So whoever is the best to go take us to a Super Bowl is going to be the left tackle. And we’ve just got to protect 1-8 (Caleb Williams)."

Jones bristled at the suggestion he was playing last year at the start of the season on only one leg, although it was essentially true. His 2024 season-ending broken ankle and subsequent surgery left him with one strong leg and one weaker leg that hadn't yet been fully rehabbed to full strength when last training camp started.

"I mean, I was playing on two legs," he said. "It’s real hard. If you’ve really dealt with one of these injuries, it’s really significant like this, it’s really a mental thing. Like, yes, my leg wasn’t strong enough, but the mental part of it was worse than anything.

"It was just something I had to go through, and I’m blessed now to see it from pretty much the outside looking in on what my timing was through God’s timing and trying not to understand it myself in that moment, but it’s all right. You can say that, but I think I still was playing on two legs. I just didn’t have the muscle-to-mind connecting it."

Kiran Amegadjie was usually in this position during practice and games the past two years, standing on the sidelines.
Kiran Amegadjie was usually in this position during practice and games the past two years, standing on the sidelines. | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

What that mean should be clear, but Jones spelled it out.

"I mean, I just wasn’t getting much power in my left leg," he said. "Now it’s rolling, so that’s really just about everything. I feel like a tick of everything’s just gotten better each and every week, each and every month for myself. Just being able to move more consistently day in and day out, being able to come back and still have that level of movement that I did the last day.

"Before, I would do two days and couldn’t do the third, you know what I mean? It just didn’t look very good, couldn’t move as well. Now I’m consistently still feeling the same day-in and day-out. My ankle’s responding, knee’s responding."

It needs to because he has competition. He only had one snap with the first team Friday and then was back with the others. This makes it tough to achieve consistency and also continuity for the line. Jones called it a case of trying to take care of anyone he faces regardless of what string they were.

Need for reps exists for Jones

“I mean, 100 percent, It definitely is," Jones said. "There's definitely a rhythm to it. Every quarterback has a different cadence. Every player you're playing against is a little bit different.

"But what is the season like? Each week you're playing against somebody different. That’s how you become great and consistent. Is being able to go against somebody that you haven't seen in three or four or five days and just picking it up. You might have a bad play here and there, but that's the positive on the backside. Obviously, it's a little bit negative start, trying to get that rhythm back. But that's what I looked at it today, too, is just like I haven't been playing against some of these (backup) guys, but it was just you know a little gut check. ‘OK, here's something else,’ and being able to adjust and hit it right again.’ "

Johnson assessed the line situation in a manner that should make Jones feel a little more comfortable.

"I feel better about Braxton in terms of his health and his outlook," Johnson said. "I feel like he's got another step up in terms of his confidence level than he did a year ago at this time.

"Theo was a guy last year I didn't know a whole lot about. I've got high hopes for Theo as a player in this league as well. I can go on and on and on. So, I know those guys a lot better, and I think another year of mentorship under Dan Roushar and (assistant offensive Line coach) Kyle DeVan is going to do nothing but help all of them play better.”

It's a competition, and with these coaches it means everyone is involved and can prove themselves. It's exactly what they need to be formed to sharp edges in a way that doesn't occur when a coach says they're competing but never gives every player a shot with starters.

What starting out this way does, as numerous players try their hand at the position, is make it easier to come up with a winner earlier in camp. The Bears waited too long last year and then at the last second elevated Benedet to battle with Jones.

At least this time they'll know early on if Jones isn't going to work out, or if someone might be better. They then can fit in the pieces for the full line earlier and go forward with a real first team set of blockers instead of discovering what doesn't work during the regular season.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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