Bears Free Agent Profile: Braxton Jones reunion is looking more and more likely but only if he’s interested in coming back
The Chicago Bears need left tackle help and Braxton Jones could use the opportunity to boost his stock.
The NFL free agency window is getting closer and closer and the Chicago Bears are set to be an exciting team to watch when the madness begins. Before it gets to that point, the Bears have to first weigh the pros and cons of re-signing the 22 players set to become unrestricted free agents.
Not every player will be able to return and some are expected to be out of the Bears’ price range entirely. There’s one player who’s market isn’t expected to be as robust as many projected this time last year, and the Bears could use that to their advantage to address an important offensive need.
Braxton Jones
Position: Left tackle
Age for 2026 season: 27
Incoming NFL year: 5
Previous AAV: $989,887
2026 Snap %: 18.2%
Braxton Jones easily was the best value player the Bears have drafted since Ryan Poles took over as the team’s general manager in 2022. Originally a fifth-round pick (No. 168 overall), Jones went on to start 44 games for the Bears at left tackle protecting the blindside of Justin Fields and Caleb Williams.
Jones allowed seven sacks and 40 pressures as a rookie but cleaned things up in Year 2 allowing just two sacks and 32 pressures. In his third season, the sack total rose back to five but he cut down the pressure total to just 26. However, in Week 16, Jones suffered a fractured fibula that forced him to miss the rest of the season and the majority of the offseason going into 2025.
He recovered just in time to enter into a back-and-forth competition under a new staff led by head coach Ben Johnson and offensive line coach Dan Roushar. The two valued his starting experience enough to give Jones the Week 1 nod as the starting left tackle. However, by Week 4, he was pulled from the lineup and never appeared again while also suffering a knee injury later in the season. That demotion and eventual injury killed any market Jones could have had in free agency.
Contract History and Projection
Without the two injuries suffered over the last two seasons, Jones could have been looking at a strong market for himself in free agency based on the amount young offensive tackles have received over the last few years. Just look at some of the left tackle deals that were signed last offseason, with many of those players having way less experience compared to Jones.
- Jaylon Moore: two-year, $30 million (12 career starts before signing)
- Matt Peart: two-year, $7 million (6 career starts before signing)
- James Hudson: two-year, $12 million (12 career starts before signing)
- Josh Jones: one-year, $4 million (24 career starts before signing)
That sets a range of basically $5-15 million for a player of Jones’ experience and he could have gotten even more than that if not for his injury history. The likely scenario is that Jones will just have to test the waters and see what kind of interest he actually has, for context Spotrac is projecting just under $5 million. This guy can play at a starting level when healthy at a position teams are always in need of.
Prediction
My prediction is that Jones hits the market and doesn’t see the same level of interest teams were showing last season when it came to throwing a lot of money at the offensive tackle position, and the upcoming draft class plays a role in that as well. Ideally, a team throws the bag at Jones and he can land himself in a starting role for next season.
If the market turns out to be bare, Jones could turn back and see what Chicago could offer. It’s unknown if Johnson and Roushar would want him back, but the team certainly could use another player to compete with Theo Benedet and Kiran Amegadjie for the starting job until Ozzy Trapilo returns. If the number is $5 million or less, I can see Chicago offering that to bring Jones back and see how he looks going into a fully healthy offseason.
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