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Braxton Jones' Stuggles Leave Bears with Few Options and Time Nearly Up

The Bears have committed so much time and effort to Braxton Jones at left tackle and are now on the verge of ending preseason without other viable options.
Gene Chamberlain|
Braxton Jones' effort in the first preseason game has to cause coaches to quickly commit to playing offensive starters to close presason.
Braxton Jones' effort in the first preseason game has to cause coaches to quickly commit to playing offensive starters to close presason. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears



Bears coaches and personnel need to make good use of their Monday off-day meetings described by Ben Johnson after Saturday's loss for one very good reason.

It has nothing to do with a sense of urgency after a meaningless preseason drubbing. Rather, the process has changed this year and the Bears need to be certain where they are headed with cuts approaching quickly.

Last year when Johnson went through his first roster cutdown, the Bears finished preseason and then had four days until the final roster cuts had to be completed. They started trimming the roster the next day and eventually, gradually got to the mandated 53 men.

Because they finish on Saturday, the last possible day for preseason games, they will have less than 24 hours after the game ends in Nashville until the cutdown deadline at 5 p.m. on Sunday.

So, they'd better have their ducks in a row well before they start making those phone calls and telling players to come see coach and bring their playbook.

The good thing for the Bears is they'll have two full weeks after cutdown day until their game. The roster is hardly a set feature then on cutdown day. In the few days, after forming a practice squad, they can shop for players who have been waived and waive more players from their own roster.

It's a fluid sort of roster formation, but in football you're not signing a player and bringing him in to play in a couple of days unless it's the kicker, punter, long snapper or possibly a running back.

Time has run out on the Bears at tackle

This is all part of the reason why the left tackle situation in the wake of Saturday's preseason game has to be so disheartening for coaches and personnel. They've fully invested in Braxton Jones handling the left tackle spot until Ozzy Trapilo could return, and they've got other options in Jedrick Wills Jr., Kiran Amegadjie and even Theo Benedet. Yet, not a single one of these players stepped up with what anyone could interpret to be a good game against Cincinnati.

It's even more disappointing for Jones to struggle as much as he did with a holding penalty on a run inside the 10-yard line for a first down by Roschon Johnson, and a horrendous Pro Football Focus pass blocking grade of 29.6 for the

For this reason, and because of the mediocre performance of their passing attack in the first team's only full and complete series, Johnson needs to announce early in the week the starters will be playing on Saturday.

They need the work. They need to see real evidence Jones can hold his own without holding at left tackle for at least four games, because if they deem Trapilo in need of more work
-- and they should -- then he'll need to stay on IR for four weeks before being activated.

They've already come too far into this and invested to much time and effort into Jones to abandon the ship now just because of 15 plays against the Bengals backups.

In the meantime, the other tackles didn't exactly excel enough to push into a starting role. Kiran Amegadjie was facing mostly practice squad types and players who will be out of football and did get a 70.4 run-blocking grade but only a mediocre 57.0 at pass blocking from PFF as he allowed three pressures.

Jedrick Wills Jr. got it half right with the best pass blocking of anyone on the roster at 80.0 for 20 pass blocks. He gave up one pressure and nothing more. Then again, he had an poor 47.5 run-blocking grade for 15 running plays blocked.

Then again, both Wills and Amegadjie were playing right tackle and not left after both saw action on the left side against Cleveland.

Theo Benedet wasn' terrible ... against subs

Benedet came closest to an acceptable performance as Jones' replacement at left tackle. Against backups, he came in at 66.6 for 13 run-blocking plays but only 50.4 as a pass blocker on 13 plays.

Bears offensive line coach Dan Roushar better get Jones' buddy and blocking mentor, former Saint Terron Armstead, back to Halas Hall and try to figure out what happened to the Jones who started training camp with so much hope.

The Bears have come too far with him as their answer to this position to back off of it now, and any answer they can come up with who is not on the team already would probably not be an opening day answer at this point

Simply, the Bears have run out of time and Jones must step up because Trapilo hasn't even begun practicing with the team in scrimmage yet. He's only doing stretching and running and a few individual drills at practice.

Trapilo isn't there yet and won't be for a while. Jones has to be the answer or the team is facing huge problems straight out of the gate and can do nothing but struggle until Trapilo finally is back.

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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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