Braxton Jones got his first real taste of NFL life on Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers. As expected, it didn’t go smoothly. He was credited with giving up three pressures on the afternoon, including two sacks. The first was to Samson Ebukaum. In fairness, a big part of that sack came from Teven Jenkins giving up interior pressure so Justin Fields couldn’t step up in the pocket. The second sack was entirely on Jones, though, as he was soundly beaten by 49ers star defensive end Nick Bosa.
Both of those sacks took place in the 1st quarter. It would’ve been so easy for a rookie to get flustered and continue making mistakes. To his credit, Jones didn’t do that. He hung in there and allowed only one pressure for the rest of the game. His protection was critical in Fields’ explosive second half to get the Bears the comeback victory. If people weren’t sure whether Jones has the mental fortitude to handle the NFL, check out his post-game comments about Bosa’s sack via Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune.
The rookie didn’t sound in awe.
“It was a very normal rush for Nick Bosa, I would say,” Jones said. “It was a very bad rep on my part. I felt like I was a little bit late, whereas he was right on time. It was a bad set. I let him get in my chest and it was kind of over from there. The biggest thing on that, the thing I took to heart, was don’t let one turn into two or three. Just come back and keep on grinding.”
“It was just bad technique,” he said. “That’s not me. Coach told me to just go out there and trust your training. That’s what I started to do. Still a lot to clean up, but I was getting a good feel for it.”
The Nick Bosa DPOY campaign has begun pic.twitter.com/ISDqf43eX1
— Coach Yac 🗣 (@Coach_Yac) September 11, 2022
Braxton Jones wasn’t downplaying it, either.
A review of the actual play speaks the truth. Jones’ feet were utterly out of whack on the rep. That lack of balance made it easy for Bosa to get into his body and then push the rookie out of the way for a sack. It was a mental mistake common for young players, and the veteran took advantage of it. Under normal circumstances, a loss like that would’ve caused a snowball effect where the rookie kept messing up. Instead, he buckled down and surrendered almost nothing for the remaining three quarters.
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Yes, he needs to play better. He knows that. The crazy thing is Braxton Jones isn’t going to face anybody better than Bosa for the rest of 2022. If he can hold his own against somebody like that, then the Bears may genuinely have something here. It is crazy to think their 5th round produced both him and Dominique Robinson, who had 1.5 sacks in the same game. GM Ryan Poles may have to take a bow for that one.
