As the left tackle competition heats up, I find myself thinking about Braxton Jones’ path to a fourth season as the Chicago Bears’ Week 1 starter at left tackle.
Jones was a fifth-round pick in 2022 who can make a case to be the best player from General Manager Ryan Poles’ first-ever NFL Draft class. The Southern Utah University product has been the primary starter at a premium position for each of his first three seasons. Jones has played well enough to have gone from being good for where he was drafted to just plain good. Had he entered the summer with a clean bill of health, there likely would have been discussions about extending his contract. But Jones suffered a season-ending injury in December 2024, and the team has since brought in competition to push the incumbent starter.
2024 CHICAGO BEARS EXIT INTERVIEWS — LEFT TACKLE BRAXTON JONES
The desire to create competition throughout the roster has been a common thread for first-year Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson since his arrival in January. One position in particular, the left tackle spot, has been spotlighted as a camp competition to watch since early in the offseason. And when Chicago’s front office used a second-round pick on Ozzy Trapilo and moved the Boston College product to the left side during rookie minicamp, it turned up the heat on Braxton Jones and Kiran Amegadjie as it essentially announced the beginning of a summertime position battle without an official declaration.
With that being said, it sounds like Braxton Jones is up for the challenge:
“I’ve always had a burning passion to just be better each and every day. When I was younger, my mom taught me if you’re going to do something try to be the best at it. So I have always stuck to that. It is days like that, when you’re sitting there with an injury like that and in bed all day or whatever it is, you don’t want to get up and do much. But it was just that mentality when I had to start going.”
Now, that is the type of attitude I want to hear from a player who is fighting for a starting job.
Braxton Jones sounds motivated by the Bears’ left tackle competition
“This injury has definitely been very tough on me. I’ve learned a lot about myself. I feel good, just to be out there with the guys, running and feeling myself again. … It makes you look in the mirror and be, like ‘What are you going to do to get back?’ ‘What are the things you’re going to do, and how hard are you going to work to get back?’ There were some days where I woke up and I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t feel like doing much today.’ But I continued to get up.”
Braxton Jones’ words above are a blend of motivation and perspective. And they make me want to continue my obsessive focus on the left tackle position moving forward.
The battle for the starting left tackle position was always going to be fun to follow. And to this point, it has lived up to my expectations. A competition that features an incumbent (Braxton Jones) looking to prove himself while coming off an injury, a rookie (Ozzy Trapilo) with the ideal body type and oodles of potential, and a second-year player (Kiran Amegadjie) who is just one season removed from being a developmental diamond-in-the-rough type of prospect gives us so many storylines to track throughout the summer. This is the type of stuff that makes training camp worth watching.
We are two weeks into Bears training camp, and it is far too early to make a call on the left tackle competition. The players just started practicing with pads earlier in the week. And even if someone was standing out above the others, I wouldn’t want to start making evaluations until after the first preseason game — at the earliest. The next 21 days will feature three preseason games and eight open practices. This period will be crucial for Braxton Jones and the other combatants angling for the starting left tackle gig.
I look forward to seeing who practices and plays their way into the starting lineup. May the best man win.
For more from the three-year starter at left tackle, you can watch his portion of Thursday’s press conference below:
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