During the NFL Scouting Combine, the Los Angeles Rams gave Jonah Jackson permission to seek a trade and it didn’t take a long for a deal to get done. According to ESPN, the Rams are trading the offensive guard to the Chicago Bears in exchange for a 2025 NFL Draft pick.
Jackson will be leaving Los Angeles after just one season with the team. The 28-year-old signed three-year, $51 million contract with the Rams in March 2024, but he didn’t see much time on the field during his lone season in Los Angeles. Jackson was dealing with a shoulder injury early in the season, but he didn’t play much when he got back because the Rams benched him.
He was originally signed to be the Rams left guard, but that job eventually went to Steve Avila. When Jackson came back from injury, the Rams were going to have him play center, but that never panned out. Overall, he only ended up starting four games in 2024.
Before signing with the Rams, Jackson spent the first four seasons of his career in Detroit. The Lions selected Jackson with a third-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, and by his second season with the team, the offensive guard was voted to the Pro Bowl.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the trade details and then hand out some grades.
Trade
- Bears get: OL Jonah Jackson
- Rams get: 2025 sixth-round pick
Grades
Bears: A-
This trade makes a lot of sense for the Bears. For one, Chicago is in desperate need of help on the offensive line after a season where Caleb Williams got sacked 68 times, which was tied for the third-most in NFL history. The Bears especially need help on the interior line with both of their guards (Teven Jenkins and Matt Pryor) and their center (Coleman Shelton) set to hit free agency.
Not only can Jackson potentially play guard or center, but he’ll be reuniting with a coach who knows him well: Ben Johnson. The Bears new coach was Detroit’s offensive coordinator for two of the seasons that Jackson was with the Lions, so Johnson is very well aware of what kind of player he’s bringing in.
This is a very low-risk move for the Bears: Although they’ll owe Jackson $17.5 million in 2025, they only had to give up a sixth-round pick to get him and his base salary isn’t guaranteed for 2026. If he doesn’t play well, the Bears can cheaply get rid of him after 2025; if he does play well, they’ll still have him under contract for another season.
Rams: D
The fact that the Rams were able to get a draft pick for a player who they almost certainly were going to cut is a good thing, but that’s about the only good thing for Los Angeles. The Rams signed Jackson to a three-year deal, but since he’s now gone, that means they ended up paying him $16.5 million for just one season of action. This is simply a move that didn’t pan out for the Rams.