Mock trade sends Bears' Braxton Jones to NFC rival for secondary help

When Braxton Jones, the Chicago Bears' starting left tackle since 2022, suffered a season-ending leg injury last December, it guaranteed that the left tackle battle would be one of training camp's biggest storylines. It's been a messy battle with no clear winner, unfortunately. Jones started at the pole position as the incumbent, but he may have lost his grip on the job during the preseason, especially with the undrafted Canadian Theo Benedet making a surprising run at the starting job.

Meanwhile, the Bears' vaunted cornerback room has been plagued by injuries. Two-time Pro Bowler Jaylon Johnson suffered an injury in private workouts last month and may not be ready by Week 1, and now the promising young Terrell Smith has been moved to season-ending IR after getting hurt in Chicago's Week 2 preseason game.

These two issues provide the basis for an intriguing mock trade proposal from ESPN. Bill Barnwell, a senior NFL writer for ESPN, proposed a trade between the Bears and the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams would receive Braxton Jones while sending cornerback Derrion Kendrick and a 2026 sixth-round pick to Chicago.

"If Jones isn't in the long-term plans for the Bears, they might want to move him now," Barnwell writes. "Landing a cornerback in Kendrick, who started 18 games over his first two years in Los Angeles before missing all of 2024 with a knee injury, would give a Chicago defense without much depth at the position a potentially useful contributor as it shifts toward more aggressive coverage looks under coordinator Dennis Allen."

Mock trades can get pretty wild at times, but this one makes a good deal of sense for the Bears. While Braxton Jones has been a steady starter for the past three years, even earning a career-high 77.4 PFF grade last season, he has always struggled with a strong bullrush in the NFL, a weakness only exacerbated by his leg injury. If an undrafted free agent from the 2024 NFL draft is giving Jones a run for his money, it might be time to move on, especially if the return would be added depth to a depleted cornerback room.

Would the Bears be comfortable rolling into the 2025 season with an exciting but untested young player like Benedet starting at left tackle? Perhaps not, but one thing they are surely not comfortable with is the current depth at cornerback. If such a trade is feasible, it would behoove general manager Ryan Poles to look into it.

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