Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson had high praise for his two new offensive linemen. The Bears traded for Rams guard Jonah Jackson and Chiefs guard Joe Thuney earlier this month.
“The beautiful thing about this is we both have connection points with these guys, which makes it really good,” said Poles, who helped sign Thuney when he was with the Kansas City Chiefs. Jackson was drafted by the Detroit Lions and played under Johnson before he signed with the Rams. “We know the type of men that they are ... and we’re really confident they’re going to enhance our entire team and our locker room.”
Poles and Johnson also individually praised each player they had connections with.
“Joe’s seen a lot both from his time in New England,” Poles said of Thuney. “He’s seen a lot of different things, played with a lot of different players, so there’s a level of maturity and leadership that is definitely going to enhance not only just the offensive line room but our entire roster.”
The Kansas City Chiefs traded Thuney to the Bears for a 2026 fourth-round pick. Drafted by the New England Patriots in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft, he won four Super Bowls: two with New England, two with Kansas City; and blocked for two of the NFL’s best quarterbacks Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes. Thuney plays guard but was forced to slide out to left tackle in 2024 due to the Chiefs’ continued struggles at both tackle spots.
“When I was in Detroit with Jonah ... [opposing players would] come out of the game and [be] sore because [they] played against him,” Johnson said of Jackson. “He’s relentless. He’s passionate about what he does. Just talking to him today gave me goosebumps, because this guy loves football, and he’s going to bring that element to the team.”
Jackson was drafted by the Lions in the third round of the 2020 Draft. He played 16 games in both his rookie year and 2021 at left guard, and was named as a Pro Bowl alternate in 2021. Injuries shortened his seasons in 2022 and 2023. He signed with the Los Angeles Rams in 2024 and was moved to center, but he only played 4 games due to injury. He signed a one-year extension with the Bears as part of his trade.
Besides their intangibles and leadership, Johnson said both players bring the toughness and the intelligence required to perform well in his offense.
“We want some tough, some gritty, some dirty individuals, and we feel pretty good about the two guys we got,” he said. “Smart is a word that comes to mind, particularly with the interior players. We love to have some versatility to our scheme, some multiplicity, if you will. And so we’ve got a couple guys in the building now that we feel strongly can handle a variety of different concepts and schemes that we might want to employ.
“The intelligence factor is a major portion of it because they’ve got to be able to handle different fronts for all these variety of schemes that we would like to employ ... We have two extremely well-rounded individuals here. [We] feel really good about [left tackle] Darnell [Wright], [right tackle] Braxton [Jones], the rest of the group that’s in that room right now, and how that thing could look in terms of the combinations, getting movement at the line of scrimmage, playing on the defense’s side of the ball. That’s particular for the run game up front, though in the passing game, we have to be better from a pass protection standpoint, and we really prioritize guys that are going to win one-on-one battles with a 3-technique, and we feel like both these guys are capable of that.”
Thuney, Jackson, and newly-signed center Drew Dalman will lead a revamped interior o-line that looks to fix the Bears’ offensive struggles.
Chicago ranked last in total yards and 28th in points last year; they ranked 25th in rushing yardage and 31st in passing yardage. Quarterback Caleb Williams took 68 sacks last year, the third most in NFL history.
