Jonah Jackson played only one season with the Rams, and his time in Los Angeles is set to come to an end. A trade agreement is in place which will see the veteran offensive lineman join the Bears. 
Chicago is set to send Los Angeles a 2025 sixth-round pick in exchange for Jackson, ESPN’s Courtney Cronin reports. This deal will allow for a reunion between Jackson and Bears head coach Ben Johnson. The pair previously worked together in Detroit.
Expectations were high upon arrival for Jackson when he inked a three-year, $51MM free agent deal last spring. The former Pro Bowler was a key figure in the team’s efforts to shore up the interior of its offensive line. After seeing time at guard and center (while also dealing with a shoulder injury), though, Jackson was benched midway through the campaign. To no surprise, he was recently granted permission to seek a trade.
Jackson has a 2025 cap hit of $17.5MM for 2025, a figure which hindered his market and helps explain the limited return in the trade (which can become official as early as next week when the new league year begins). The Bears will take on the remainder of his compensation, Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic reports. With no financial adjustments taking place, Jackson will be owed a $9MM base salary next season; he is also due an $8.5MM roster bonus next week.
The Bears’ offensive line has faced question marks at every spot other than right tackle this offseason. The interior of the unit in particular has often been named as the subject of interest from Chicago. Prior to the news of this deal, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler wrote the Bears were expected to make at least one addition along the interior of the O-line during free agency. It will be interesting to see if that will still be the case in the wake of this Jackson addition.
Chicago entered Tuesday with roughly $79MM in cap space, so there will still be resources to make a notable splash on the open market. The Bears could, of course, also look to retain one or more of pending free agents Teven Jenkins, Coleman Shelton and Matt Pryor as part of their plans up front. In any case, Jackson will be tasked with occupying a first-team role on his new team. The 28-year-old has experience at center, but for much of his career he has operated at left guard.
Jackson has started all 57 of his career games, and on two occasions he has surpassed 1,000 snaps in a season. If the Ohio State product can remain available during the year and provide consistent play wherever he winds up playing, he will prove to be an effective addition for the Bears.
Smart trade. Jackson being familiar with the Ben Johnson blocking schemes/concepts is going to be more valuable than any 6th rounder Poles would have taken. Likely a special teams/practice squad guy. Also can serve as depth OL piece. I like the deal considering it didn’t hurt their draft assets.
Dude is making a crap ton of money to just serve as a depth piece. He is here to start. But agree about the lack of compensation they sent to LA to get him.
Smart? More like necessary. Bears aren’t getting a whole OL from the draft They were going to have to get some from FA and the draft. Sounds more like to me that hope is fading to sign some of the best FA lineman.If Dalman doesn’t re sign in Atlanta they probably need to get Kelly or Fries. If they fail they might have to go back to Jenkins.
Just read on the Bears wire site that he only gets 9 million this year and 17 next year. If that’s true I like it a lot better.
Why does that matter? AAV and salary cap implications are the same ($17.5M). That just means McCaskey doesn’t have to stroke an additional $8M this year, but has no implication to cap ramifications.
what the site said is that he only has $ 9 million “guaranteed” this year.
He also has an $8.5 million roster bonus due next week that will up his 2025 yearly payout to $17.5 million. While Bears Wire is technically accurate with the “$9 million guaranee” it would be absurd to think the Bears would cut him prior to the roster bonus being due.
I believe the Bears are not in on Dalman. Yes, he gets lots of connections to the Bears. They need help on the O-Line. There are some Bears insiders who believe Dalman is not a fit. Dalman is a good player. Dalman is not a great player. He also dealt with injuries last season. Fans will cite his PFF grade ranking (Dalman was the 4th-graded center in 2023 and 5th-graded in 2024). But the ultimate goal is to protect Caleb Williams, right? Dalman was the 14th-ranked center for pass blocking (Coleman Shelton was 11th) in 2023 and the 32nd-ranked center (out of 44) in 2023. Again, there’s also the fit into Johnson’s system. Just something to think about.
When I was a regular a PFF several years ago they were getting so much criticism about their player grading system that they just shut the forum down…lol. I think all grading systems have a subjective element to them so I generally don’t put a great deal of stock in them.
On the surface, I don’t mind the deal. Of course I’ll have to wait for Unclemike’s in depth analysis to know if this trade helps the Bears or not.
Lol he hates trading picks. He probably values a sixth round pick the way most people value second round picks.
No matter what Mike will hate it and curse Poles for eternity
I don’t hate it. Seem like Johnson’s influence is all over it. Not fond of paying a guy who under achieved 17.5 million bucks though. Bears had 65 million to spend. Now it’s 48. Still have to spend 15 million on the draft picks. Maybe renegotiate it with some guaranteed money to bring the price down? IDK. He was good once, Now?
Mike, His $17M after next year is non-guaranteed. I think they’ll be fine for the cap.
He had one down year where they moved him to Center and he got injured. Ben had him his entire rookie contract in Detroit if he thought highly enough to bring him to Bears not sure how any of us can question it until he’s actually played.
@16. Yeah his bad year was when he wasn’t playing next to ragnow. Plus the lions have good bookends. Safe to say their could be some concern. The positives is the guard draft class is thin.
So just disregard the position change to center that year? I seriously doubt that Johnson/ Poles makes this deal without 1- talking with Jackson and 2- already knowing the player for years. And they’re not taking any big risks in such a critical year in William’s development.
I’ll trust BJ to find OL more than Poles can
Jonah was always solid in Detroit, but it’s easy to play well sandwiched between Frank Ragnow & Taylor Decker.
@saintchris91. He played on the right with Sewell. I think that’s why he fell off because zeitler is in the top 5 as a rg, and replaced him.
I lied, he was left.
Not completely. Jonah did take 145 snaps at RG in 2020, but that was obviously before Penei arrived.
Makes sense for both teams. You can’t count on him to play 17 games, but he’s a good player Johnson knows what to do with, and he’s coming cheap when Chicago desperately needs interior line help. Meanwhile LA gets to decisively move on from a mistake.
If Poles and BJ like it, I like it. Solid OG who knows BJ’s system, still youngish, not too expensive. And all we had to give up was a sixth rounder. Not bad.
Not too expensive? Trey Smith is an All Pro and he was supposed to get 23 million in FA. Jackson was benched and he’s getting 17.5? Sounds pricey too me.
To clarify – he only makes 9 million but his cap hit is inflated to double.
9 mil this coming year. 17 mil 2026. If he’s garbage after 2025, he’s gone. Not bad.
He’s only 9 million this year and I imagine the Bears will restructure his contract if he’s playing well and they want to keep him.
Not what I expected. I can see the match up and connection with Johnson. There’s some concern about that injury and benching. Safe to say the Rams coaching staff is pretty solid and know what there doing by the benching as explained by continuity. Just hope the Bears know what they are doing.
They do not
No doubt. The Bears have not demonstrated they know what they’re doing for a long time. And I do mean a long damm time.
Hopefully this guy isn’t a Nate Davis recycle.
very good trade, we just got one of our 3 interior starters that we needed, 2 more.
Very good, Teven Jenkins replacement, Jackson obv had a bad year in 24 thats for sure, but his 1st 4 years he both played and started in: 16,16,13,12. He was kept at LG and excelled there nabbing a pro bowl in 21, and having good seasons in 22, 23. This trade doesn’t get done if BJ doesn’t think he can get Jackson back to how he was playing before, he will also be playing with alot on the line, could get cut and lose money if he fails here.
Teven Jenkins should be added to the roster to play at a lower cost to play Right Guard next to WRIGHT IF HEATH HOLDS UP FOR MUST THE SEASON ( gotten better every year ) Jenkins & Wright would make a powerful Run blocking combo
Teven Jenkins is going to get paid in free agency. Now thay Trey is tagged, he’s the best young guard available.
The draft compensation doesn’t bother me, it was likely gonna be a ST/depth player at 204. What bothers me slightly is the cap hit. I believe the Rams would’ve cut him, thus allowing the Bears to sign him at a lower number. Perhaps 2 years/28 mil IF Ben Johnson wanted the reunion with him, which this trade obviously suggests he did.
Overall, I don’t hate it, he is still relatively young and clearly fills a position of need.
Yeah, the money seems high, but I’m betting this was a move that Ben Johnson wanted. And no doubt they spoke and liked what they heard. And the guard market has really gone up in $… If they draft Booker (or Campbell) and sign Dalman they’ll meaningfully improve their IOL. Gonna be fun to watch..
We talked about Johnson a few days ago when his name came up and his connection with Ben Johnson. If he fits what Ben is going to do, I get that part, but it’s a lot of money.
Whoops, Jackson not Johnson. I need another coffee. LOL
Willing offensive and defensive line spots in FA means we can draft Jeanty at 10 and then use the two 2 rounds on remaining line holes
The figures being reported for cap hits all over the place for Bears. From what I see his cap hit just under 14 million for last year and over 11 million in dead money for Rams. Over the cap has 11.833 million for next 2 years which looks reasonable for what it will actually be.
Bring Trevor Jenkins back challenge as a RG play on the side of Wright who is the RT—smart move he finally will be healthy hurt last year but Way better than every other year here.
I don’t have a big problem bringing Jenkins back. He was good as a RG before they acquired that slug Davis and he HAD to play RG. But it depends on how much and if they do that they have to bring in somebody to challenge him and be a replacement if he goes down again. In other words they have to either sign solid FA or draft one. When he plays he’s good. Just not enough.
You just can’t count on his health. And in this guard market, he’s probably gonna get paid more than the Bears will be willing to go. We’ll see…
Restructuring his deal makes sense for both parties.
Dude can’t stay healthy. Good luck with that!!