Defensive tackle Justin Jones was ready to pick the Indianapolis Colts in free agency before he received a phone call late Thursday at his South Carolina home.
Chicago Bears coach Matt Eberflus was on the other end.
Eberflus didn’t pressure Jones to make a decision. He instead talked about the opportunity ahead, about the Halas Hall facilities and the staff and coaches there. And importantly, Jones said, Eberflus talked about the family atmosphere he hoped Jones would encounter.
By 9:45 a.m. Friday, Jones was on a flight to Chicago, having settled on the Bears’ two-year offer worth $12 million, according to NFL Network. Less than 24 hours after the Bears’ three-year, $40.5 million deal with defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi fell through because of a failed physical, general manager Ryan Poles and Eberflus had signed another, cheaper option for a three-technique tackle.
“(Eberflus) said, ‘I really think you fit right in with our guys, you fit right in with our scheme, you fit right in with what we’re trying to accomplish. The way you go about your work, the way you go about as a character, as a man, it just fits in with what we have going on with the Bears,’” Jones said Friday in Lake Forest after signing his contract. “And I just fell in love with the conversation we had and I believed in what he was talking about, and here we are today.”
The Ogunjobi deal was to be Poles’ biggest in the first week of free agency and was supposed to add a player Poles said would bring “leadership, toughness, energy and (a) violent style of play” to the Bears defense. Ogunjobi had the best season of his five-year NFL career in 2021 with the Cincinnati Bengals, recording a career-high seven sacks and 16 quarterback hits before suffering a foot injury in the playoffs that required surgeryNew Chicago Bears center Lucas Patrick — already a Justin Fields fan — plans ‘to keep him as clean as possible’.
When Ogunjobi failed his physical, Poles said in a statement that killing the deal “is difficult and it is emotional for everyone involved, but ultimately is what is in the best interest of protecting the Chicago Bears.”
Jones and Ogunjobi have a mutual connection through Bengals defensive lineman B.J. Hill, who went to N.C. State with Jones, and they briefly trained together. So Jones walked the line of feeling empathy for Ogunjobi, whom he called a “great guy,” while also appreciating the opportunity before him.
“Larry is a hell of a player, made a lot of plays last year,” Jones said. “He deserved everything he was about to get. That’s just terrible how that went about. But it’s an opportunity that I can take advantage of and I’m really excited to be here, really excited to get to know these guys, get to work with these guys and just show them, ‘Hey, I’m here to win games with you guys, I’m here to win a championship and I’m here to put on a show with these fans.’”
Jones, 25, hasn’t been as productive rushing the passer as Ogunjobi with just 4½ sacks and 13 quarterback hits in four seasons with the Chargers, compared with Ogunjobi’s five-year totals of 21½ and 53. Jones had the best numbers of his career in 2021 with 37 tackles, five tackles for a loss, three sacks and five quarterback hits in 11 games after dealing with a calf injury early in the season.
But he can be a run stopper. Poles said in a statement Jones is “a big, physical and long interior player that can cause disruption in both the run and the pass.”
The 6-foot-3, 309-pound Jones missed a handful of games in each of the last three seasons with injuries, and he was asked Friday whether he can do anything this offseason to help prevent that.
“Some of the injuries I’ve had I can’t really say the way I was training was different or if I could have done something better,” he said. “Some of that is just luck. You fall the wrong way or you land on somebody the wrong way or somebody lands on you — like, it’s a tough game we play. So every time you take that field, it’s a risk that anything can happen.
“So for me it’s more so just making sure my body is flexible enough, making sure my body is able to withstand some of the beating that we take being in the trenches.”
Jones’ pivot to signing with the Bears was so quick that he hadn’t had much time as of Friday to dive deep into the defense Eberflus is building. He hadn’t yet connected with his new teammates. He had only listened to a voicemail from former Bears defensive line coach Jay Rodgers, now with the Chargers, detailing his positive thoughts on Jones joining the Bears. And he figures he needs to upgrade his winter coat situation.
But he had enough time to buy Eberflus’ message.
“Just the eager group of guys to go out there and win games and just play for each other — that’s one thing Coach Flus talked to me about,” Jones said. “Every guy on this team plays hard and they play for one another because of that family atmosphere that goes through this building.”
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