Chicago Bears 2024 Exit Interviews: Braxton Jones ...Middle East

Today, we were saddened to learn of the passing of Bears owner and team matriarch Virgina McCaskey. For more details, please read our initial report on the news.

The nightmare that was the 2024 Chicago Bears season is over. Before the transactional period starts and the roster changes begin, we will recap the seasons of most of the 53-man roster. Next up: We’re looking at the 2024 season of offensive lineman Braxton Jones.

Braxton Jones’ 2024 Snapshot

As we near the end of this series, we’ll discuss the season of Braxton Jones, the final offensive lineman whose 2024 season we’ll analyze. I feel like any summary of Jones should be pretty simple: Given the abysmal performance of the interior offensive line this season, Jones caught a lot of strays from fans and pundits alike.

Is Braxton Jones the best tackle in football? No. But he certainly is not bad. And with three interior starting positions that desperately need to be addressed along the offensive line this season, Jones did more than enough in 2024 to keep his job heading into next season.

There were weeks in which he struggled. Week 4 against the Los Angeles Rams was one of those performances. The first few weeks of the season, in general, were very mediocre. But as the season progressed, Jones’ performance leveled out. Believe it or not, he was one of the best pass-blocking tackles in the league down the stretch.

In Weeks 12-16, Pro Football Focus had Jones posting pass-blocking grades of 81.2, 86.8, 83.4, and 85.7, respectively. Jones’ 80.8 pass-blocking grade ranked 17th out of 80 qualified tackles in the season. His 77.4 overall grade ranked 20th out of 75 players who appeared in enough snaps to qualify for the tackles leaderboard.

By the Numbers

Contract Status

Jones is heading into the final season of his rookie contract in 2025 and is scheduled to make $3.64 million, with most of that due in base salary. If the Bears decided to move on from Jones by cutting him before June 1, they would acquire $3.57 million in cap savings and $74,887 in dead cap.

Turning the Page

Bears General Manager Ryan Poles needs to find as many as three new starters on the interior of the offensive line this offseason. Braxton Jones is a perfectly competent and sometimes above-average pass blocker who is under contract at a highly affordable price next season.

To me, Jones’ most significant shortcoming is consistency, and that might never be something he addresses, and he might not be the long-term answer at left tackle. Still, he’s a perfectly adequate short-term answer. If the line play on his right is improved, that’ll help mask some of his warts next season. If it was my call, Jones would be back in 2025, and I would reassess and potentially address that position next year.

(Luis: I don’t think you can fully assess Braxton Jones’ 2024 or look ahead to his 2025 season without mentioning that the projected starting left tackle is recovering from a season-ending ankle injury. A projected four-month recovery period would have Jones back in the fold before training camp begins. Even still … I do not want to overlook relevant injury news for a player who is forecasted to start at the most important position on the offensive line. It will be interesting to see how the Bears go about creating a potential contingency plan behind Jones on the depth chart.)

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