Ben Johnson: ‘I’ll go with Braxton’ at left tackle

CHICAGO (WGN) — After a topsy-turvy training camp that featured a back-and-forth battle over who would earn the Chicago Bears’ top spot at left tackle, the man most assumed would win the job will indeed be their starter come Week 1 against the Minnesota Vikings.

“Yeah, I’ll go with Braxton [Jones],” head coach Ben Johnson said when asked if he was ready to name a starter at the position Tuesday.

Ahead of Johnson’s availability, Jones said he’s “been ready” to start at left tackle, despite recovering from a pretty serious broken ankle he suffered at the end of the 2024 season against the Detroit Lions.

The decision by Johnson puts the Bears’ biggest offensive question mark from training camp to bed by taking the sensible route—go with the lineman who has the most experience at the position.

Jones has played in 40 career games and made 40 career starts, all of which have come at left tackle. According to Pro Football Focus, he had his best season as a pro in 2024. Jones registered a career-best overall blocking grade (77.4) and pass blocking grade (80.8) last year.

He beat out rookie second-round pick Ozzy Trapilo, who will likely be the team’s swing tackle off the bench, and second-year offensive tackle Theo Benedet, who will now back up Jones at LT.

“[Jones] knows what he’s doing. Is it perfect every play? No, it’s not. But we did see the execution go up over the course of the last few weeks,” Johnson said of Jones’ performance during training camp. “There is a trust level in him knowing what to do. We think that he’s going to continue to ascend the more reps that he gets.”

After an offseason overhaul aimed at solving Chicago’s problems on the offensive line, the team made significant upgrades along the interior, while standing pat with their bookends at tackle.

It’s a decision that raised some eyebrows, especially at left tackle, given Caleb Williams was sacked an NFL-high 68 times last season.

While former first-round pick Darnell Wright anchors the right side of the offensive line, Jones—a fifth-round pick in 2022—has come under fire at times for his past struggles when it comes to edge rushers who favor power over finesse.

Jones told media at Halas Hall Tuesday that he’s aware of the noise surrounding the Bears’ left tackle position this year, and he understands why. Going into his fourth year, Jones said he’s trying to “stay consistent” and tune out the noise, while focusing on what his body and Chicago’s coaching staff are telling him so he can help the Bears win on Sundays.

How will Jones do that?

In his words, it’s about “reps” and “just being critical of the small things.”

“Just getting back to the simple things of setting correctly and [getting] that confidence back of knowing what I do,” Jones said. “It’s just been a while since [I’ve] worked some of those things. It’s just taking repetitions of doing it over and over again. That’s the biggest thing, is just being critical of the small things, certain things that you didn’t see before or that might creep in now because of the injury.

“You’re trying to knock those out and clean them up with reps and repetition.”

In the eyes of Johnson, Jones has earned enough of his trust to get the nod—for now—but he may not have the longest leash if he struggles at the position early on.

As training camp progressed, Johnson and offensive line coach Dan Roushar were adamant that they wanted someone to take the bull by the horns and separate themselves at left tackle, but with the clock continuing to tick before Week 1’s kickoff and no one creating separation from the pack, trust supplanted waiting for the right candidate to appear.

“I’ve said, and I’ll say it again, we’ll go as long as we need to go to find the right guy. But, we’d like to see someone go ahead and make it clear to us that he is that guy, and we just haven’t seen that yet, as a staff. There’s been too much up and down,” Johnson said on Aug. 15. “We’d love to go ahead and solidify that spot and move forward from there.

“It might be one of those things where when we make that decision, and it’s not final for the season. It could be that we have to reassess after a couple of weeks of the season, or by the bye week, we might have to reassess. That might be something that goes on. [It] wouldn’t be ideal, but that’s the name of the league.”

Chicago will face the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football at Soldier Field. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. CT on Sept. 8.