The Bears agreed to send a sixth-round draft pick to the Rams for guard/center Jonah Jackson on Tuesday, a source confirmed, with the trade set to be processed after the start of the league year next week.
The sixth-round pick is the compensation the Bears received from the Steelers in the Justin Fields trade. The Bears traded their own 2025 sixth-round pick to the Seahawks for defensive end Darrell Taylor last year.
Jackson spent the first four years of his career with the Lions and new Bears head coach Ben Johnson, who was a position coach and then offensive coordinator in Detroit. The former third-round pick made the Pro Bowl in 2021, his second season in the NFL.
He signed a three-year, $51 million deal with the Rams a year ago but played only four games because of a training-camp shoulder injury and an eventual benching. With an $8.5 million roster guarantee due March 14, the Rams gave Jackson and his agent permission to seek a trade last week.
Jackson spent four seasons at Rutgers before transferring to play his final year at Ohio State, where he was named a third-team Associated Press All-American.
He primarily played left guard in his four seasons in Detroit, logging occasional snaps at center and right guard. He played all three spots in his limited work with the Rams last year.
The Bears were expected to remake their offensive line this offseason, replacing as many as four starters. Outgoing center Coleman Shelton and guards Teven Jenkins and Matt Pryor are all free agents. Left tackle Braxton Jones is rehabbing after ankle surgery.
The Bears were intrigued by the possibility of signing Chiefs guard Trey Smith — GM Ryan Poles was a member of the Kansas City front office that drafted him — before he was given the franchise tag last week.
Jackson comes at a cost, though not necessarily via the draft pick the Bears are sending out. The Bears will pay him a $9 million base salary and $8.5 million roster bonus next week. They have plenty of money to spend, though — entering Tuesday, they had the third-most salary cap space in the NFL, per Over the Cap.
