Chicago Bears coach warns Braxton Jones to make a serious change before 2025 draft

During his meeting with reporters at the annual league meeting, new head coach Ben Johnson said Jones needs to make a serious change to his physique. Johnson implored Jones to gain weight.

“The number one thing in my opinion that tackles need to do is pass protect,” Johnson said via Courtney Cronin of ESPN. “I think he’s got the feet to get that done. We’re going to challenge him to maybe gain a little bit more weight so that he can anchor a little bit better in pass pro.

“But everything I’ve seen so far has shown a phenomenal athlete out there on the edge that we feel like we can work with.”

Johnson added that Jones is “on the right track” in his recovery from an ankle injury that caused him to miss the final two games of the regular season.

Per the Bears website, Jones is listed at six-foot-five, 310 pounds.

The Chicago Bears are taking a new approach from Ryan Poles’ plan

Johnson’s plan for the offensive line sounds much different than what Poles envisioned when he first took over and had his guys shed weight.

“You know we’re going to change it up a little bit in terms of the style,” Poles said of the OL in 2022. “So a lot of those guys and the message has been clear, we’ve gotta change body types a little bit. We’ve gotta get lighter, we’ve gotta get quicker. Through that, I think there’s some young talent that just needs to be pressed.

“That’s part of our job is to create competition and bring the best out of them. We’ll do that and we’ll see if the cream rises to the top.”

The problem with those offensive lines is that the cream never rose to the top. Chicago just started whatever product they could find, curdled or not.