After watching the film of the Bears’ offensive line performance from Week 2 against the Lions, I feel pretty comfortable with the ‘C-‘ grade I gave out right after the loss. It wasn’t always pretty, but I thought in the first half, physically, the Bears’ big fellas up front played fine as a unit. Unfortunately, that represented a step up from Week 1’s effort against the Vikings.
There continued to be problems with penalties, which just have to get cleaned up. I can tolerate a false start early in a loud road environment when you’re using a silent count. But overall, the penalties are occurring entirely too often. The pre-snap ones, especially, come down to discipline, and it’s something this unit needs to figure out fast.
Going down the line…
I didn’t think right tackle Darnell Wright had his best game. But his most glaring struggles seemed to set in when the Bears fell way behind and Detroit pinned their ears back in the pass rush. He was far from perfect, but I’m not worried about him. I thought that center Drew Dalman and right guard Jonah Jackson were better. By no means were they great, but they were definitely better this week than they were in Week 1. Jackson still needs to keep improving. While Dalman wasn’t outstanding, I thought he looked more like the guy the Bears were hoping they’d get when they paid him big money. Left guard Joe Thuney was solid. I have a feeling that’s going to be a recurring theme with these posts this season. Then there is Braxton Jones. I’ve said it a bunch of times writing on BN. I like Braxton Jones. I think at his best and when he’s healthy, he’s a perfectly fine, above-average NFL left tackle. The problem is, during the preseason, we saw signs of that surgically repaired left ankle not being totally right, and through two regular-season games, those concerns haven’t gone away. © Daniel Bartel – Imagn ImagesBraxton Jones Struggling Through Bears’ First Two Games
It’s not hard to imagine how a busted ankle can affect an offensive lineman, or any football player, really. But as a left tackle, that left ankle/leg needs to be mobile, it needs to be an anchor at times, and it needs to be able to plant and push back inside when the defender runs a quick inside rush move. Those are all things that Jones has struggled with quite a bit since coming back from his surgery in training camp.
We saw him get beaten a few times in the preseason on those simple inside moves where he just wasn’t pushing off the left ankle quick enough. In the regular season, we’ve seen his mobility drop off, and we’ve seen him not able to hold his ground on bull rushes all that well. I think that’s been pretty apparent live in-game, and on the film as well. Clay Harbor of CHSN posted a few plays on X that I thought represented some of those struggles from Jones pretty well.
It was a tough day at the office for Braxton Jones. 7 pressures 5 hurries and 2 sacks given up. We might be seeing some of the Canadian Eagles soon. #DaBears #Bears pic.twitter.com/YoGA7qUbg7
— Clay Harbor (@clayharbs82) September 16, 2025On the first play, it appears Jones keeps that left leg stuck in the turf a little too long, and it allows Aidan Hutchinson to turn the corner and maintain momentum. Granted, Jones does a nice job getting out to the wide rusher and meeting him, but the footwork gets a little messed up, and on his initial punch, he dips his head just a bit, which opens a window for Hutchinson to get him off balance.
In the second clip, Hutchinson gets a full head of steam, gets lower than Braxton Jones, and has better inside hand position. Jones gets almost no punch to stop the momentum; instead, he’s just kind of grabbing arms on the outside. He’s got almost no chance in that position to slow down Hutchinson.
On the third play, it’s just a textbook no-no. Again, he leans forward on the punch, which brings his weight forward and takes him off-balance. That allows Hutchinson to easily pull off a quick spin move, knowing that Jones won’t be able to reset his feet in time and stay in front of him.
Now, are all of these mistakes due to the bad ankle? No, not likely. Some of it is poor technique, too, as I mentioned with the head dips on punches. Having said that, some of that poor technique might come from not being fully comfortable on that ankle yet. If he doesn’t trust his base as much, he might feel the need to get extra aggressive on a punch to slow down a rusher. Now, Jones did have issues with this at times last year, but then again, just about every offensive lineman does from time to time.
Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson watches a play against Detroit Lions during the second half at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. | © Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn ImagesI’m not fully ready to say pull the plug on Braxton Jones just yet. But if Ben Johnson doens’t belive he’s part of the future, I wouldn’t blame him if he wanted to see what he had in Theo Benedet or second-round pick Ozzy Trapilo (it’s WILD that it feels more likely we see an undrafted player out of a Canadian college get a chance at starting before a 2025 second round pick, by the way).
Jones’ contract is up at the end of this season, and at this rate, I’d be surprised to see the Bears bring him back. First, because the ankle issue doesn’t seem to be totally right, and second, because Ben Johnson is going to want to start molding this roster the way he wants it to look.
Braxton Jones will likely still get the start against Dallas, which has a significantly weaker pass rush than the Lions do. Aidan Hutchinson is an incredibly tough matchup for anyone, let alone a tackle playing his second game coming off major ankle surgery. But if this Sunday goes poorly for Jones, I wouldn’t be stunned to see a change made.
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