Braxton
Jones.
Braxton
Jones.
Southern Utah· 6'5"· 310 lb· 4.97s 40
Jones is a 6-foot-5 1/4 left tackle with 35 3/8-inch arms and a 6-foot-11 1/2 wingspan, and the length is what he plays with. He gets depth quickly in pass protection, keeps rushers on the edge of his frame and recovers with a second punch when the first one misses.
In the run game he is a movement blocker rather than a mauler. He is comfortable climbing to linebackers on zone concepts and reaching a defender aligned outside him, which is the skill Southern Utah's offense asked for most. The 26 bench reps show real upper-body strength, but the 27-inch vertical and 9-foot broad jump point to average lower-body explosion, and he can be walked backward by a bull rush when his pad level rises. Technique, not power, is how he holds up.
Wide and outside zone running game paired with a quick-game passing attack, a scheme that rewards his footwork and reach blocking rather than asking him to displace defenders off the ball.
Year 1: swing tackle and developmental starter. Ceiling: long-term starting left tackle in a zone-based offense.
A gap and power run scheme that asks him to down block and drive a 320-pound three-technique off the line on every early down.
Everything he does well starts with the arms and the first two steps.
Braxton Jones Left Tackle Highlights
Southern Utah cut-up focused on his pass sets and reach blocking.
Senior Bowl Clips: Southern Utah OT Braxton Jones
Mobile reps against FBS edge rushers, the sample that raised his draft stock.
Braxton Jones (OT, Southern Utah) Scouting Report
Pre-draft breakdown of his technique, length and anchor questions.
Jones grew up in Murray, Utah, played basketball and football at the local high school and stayed home for Southern Utah. He appeared in one game as a true freshman in 2017 before a thumb injury against Stephen F. Austin ended his season and he redshirted, then played eight games the following year while recording one solo tackle.
He took over as a starter in 2019 and never lost the job. Third-team All-Big Sky as a redshirt sophomore turned into first-team honors in the spring 2021 season, where he started four games at left tackle, and he repeated as a first-team selection in the fall of 2021 while also earning Associated Press FCS All-America recognition.
The Senior Bowl invitation was what turned a Big Sky tackle into a draftable one. He handled FBS edge rushers in Mobile and then measured out with the arm length teams demand at the position. The testing was mixed, with a 4.97 forty and 26 bench reps against a 7.59 three-cone and a 27-inch vertical, and the level of competition kept him on Day 3. Chicago took him 168th overall as a developmental tackle with the frame to stay outside.
- 01
Length
35 3/8-inch arms and a 6-foot-11 1/2 wingspan, the exact measurement profile teams require to keep a tackle on the left side.
- 02
Pass set footwork
gets depth cleanly out of his stance and mirrors speed rushers to the top of the arc without overextending.
- 03
Upper body strength
26 bench reps at 310 pounds, which shows up in a heavy punch that resets a rusher's path.
- 04
Zone movement
comfortable climbing to the second level and reaching defenders aligned outside him, the core ask of an outside zone scheme.
- 05
Production and honors
back-to-back first-team All-Big Sky seasons plus AP FCS All-America recognition and a Senior Bowl invitation.
- 01
Level of competition
five years of Big Sky tape, with the Senior Bowl serving as the only extended sample against NFL-caliber edge rushers.
- 02
Lower body explosion
a 27-inch vertical and nine-foot broad jump are near the bottom of the position range and limit his ability to generate movement.
- 03
Anchor against power
pad level rises under a bull rush and he gets walked back into the pocket when his hands land late.
- 04
Change of direction
a 7.59 three-cone and 4.74 shuttle mean he struggles to redirect against inside counters after committing to the edge.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.97sp50
- Vertical
- 25.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 108inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- 4.84sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Southern Utah | 1 |
| 2018 | Southern Utah | 8 |
| 2019 | Southern Utah | — |
| 2021 | Southern Utah | — |
| 2021 | Southern Utah | — |
| Career | — | 9 |
Offensive linemen do not accumulate statistics, so this table tracks participation only. The 2017 and 2018 games played figures come from the Southern Utah official bio, which lists one game as a true freshman before a thumb injury ended his season and eight games the following year, along with one solo tackle in 2018. Some published accounts credit him with two games in 2017; the official bio figure is used here. The bio describes his 2019 season as appearing in all but one game without giving a number, so it is left blank rather than estimated. Two 2021 rows are listed because the pandemic pushed one Big Sky season into the spring of 2021 and the next into that fall; he started four games at left tackle in the spring campaign and started throughout the fall, though the fall start count is not published. Career participation totals are not published by the school and are left blank.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Long developmental tackle who settles in as a dependable swing option and spot starter.
Late-round tackle with good length who becomes a decade-long starting left tackle on technique and availability.
Small-school tackle whose athletic limitations keep him on practice squads rather than an active roster.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Jones started all seventeen games at left tackle as a rookie, which almost never happens for a fifth-round pick from the Big Sky, and PFF named him to its 2022 All-Rookie Team. He came back as the starter in 2023 before a Week 2 hamstring injury sent him to injured reserve on September 20; he was activated on November 4 and finished the year in the lineup.
The pattern since has been the same: when healthy, he is the left tackle. Through four seasons he has played 46 games and started 44 of them, protecting the blind side through a full rebuild of the offense around him. A knee injury put him on injured reserve on October 25, 2025, and he was activated on January 13, 2026, in time for the divisional round against the Rams. Chicago re-signed him that March on a one-year, $10 million contract, which is starter money for a player taken 168th overall. The availability is the one real question left; the evaluation itself was correct.