Why Chicago Bears’ Braxton Jones remains undeterred in starting left tackle competition

At the start of training camp, Braxton Jones wanted to prove to new Bears head coach Ben Johnson and his coaching staff that he should be the starting left tackle this season after starting there the past three years. A little under four weeks later, Jones is still making his case.

The competition hasn’t gone as many wanted. Players have been added and subtracted from the competition. Johnson told reporters Friday that he’s still looking for clarity in the battle after no one’s taken a clear lead nearly a month into camp.

But Jones remains undeterred by the ups and downs of camp and Johnson’s comments. He’s more worried about regaining his full potential and proving that the job should be his.

“At the end of the day when [Johnson] says things like that, it’s totally fine,” Jones said after Sunday’s 38-0 win over the Buffalo Bills. “Obviously, if you are a competitor, it fires a little bit in you and that’s completely fine. I love it. I think it just brings a better competitive nature.”

Jones is in a competition for a starting spot that he’d held on to relatively well since general manager Ryan Poles drafted him in the fifth round out of Southern Utah in 2022. He’s started all 40 games over three season and Pro Football Focus rated him the 21st best tackle last season.

But Jones is also in a competition to prove to himself that he can still play at his peak.

Jones missed the final two games of last season after he severely broke his ankle against the Detroit Lions in Week 16. He missed all of the spring practices over the offseason and didn’t fully return to practice until the beginning of training camp.

It took a while for Jones to get there. There’s still plenty of work left to do. But Jones feels comfortable with where he’s is at this point of training camp compared to where he was back in January.

“I’m way ahead of the progression of how it went for me personally and just the mental battle was, I don’t want to be too down on or anything like that, but the mental battle was huge for me,” Jones said. “To be where I’m at back on the field, putting good reps out there, good film out there. [I’m] still being critical of myself too, clean up some things, but just still working on that and getting back is for myself and what I’ve done, it’s unbelievable.”

Jones started camp in a three-man competition with rookie Ozzy Trapilo and second-year player Kiran Amegadjie. Over the past week, the Bears moved Trapilo to right tackle and inserted Theo Benedet into the left tackle mix. Benedet earned a majority of the first team snaps at left tackle during practices this past week, including Friday’s joint practice against the Bills.

Jones started both preseason games against the Miami Dolphins and the Bills, but Jones didn’t read too much into that.

Bears coaches said over the past week that they’re looking for Jones to be consistent. Johnson and his staff have seen glimpses of the old Jones from the past three seasons. They just need to see more of that.

“He’s shown flashes of his old self, and yet there’s been some moments where I know we’re going to get beat in this league,” Johnson said after Sunday’s game. “When you’re playing tackle against some of these pass rushers in this league, you’re going to lose a rep or two. There’s two things. One is how do you bounce back when that happens? The other one, how do we slowdown from losing too fast? If we’re going to lose, we want to lose slow. We’ll see what we look like here tonight, but I certainly didn’t — I felt like we had good protection throughout. There were times when we were running the ball — you could feel that as you’re calling the game to stay on schedule there so we’ll see what that looks like.”

Jones said he knows where he needs to improve in order to get that consistency. Bears coaches have told Jones he needs to get his pad level lower in order to keep up in battles against some of the better pass rushers. Jones also wants to clean up other parts of his game like quickening his first step and using his hands better.

“At the end of the day when [Johnson] says things like that, it’s totally fine. Obviously, if you are a competitor, it fires a little little bit in you and that’s completely fine. I love it. I think it just brings a better competitive nature.”

—  Braxton Jones, Chicago Bears left tackle

As for the competition and the different changes to it during camp, Jones believes it’s the nature of the sport. Jones understands that the coaches are doing their due diligence looking for the best person for the job. He’s also tried to be a good teammate by helping others over the past month.

In the end, Jones hopes to prove that he’s the right person for the job, no matter how long it takes.

“This is football and we all want the best,” Jones told Shaw Local News Network. “Them competing is making me better. Coaches make me better. Everybody’s making me better. So I honestly love it and I think it’s just going to continue to get the best out of me.”