NEWSLETTER
On the one hand, I try my best to not overreact to athletes’ posts on social media. But on the other hand, seeing this tweet from Chicago Bears safety Eddie Jackson (and this IG story screen shot via Bears Wire’s Brendan Sugrue) pop up last night threw me for a loop
And I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling that way:
OOF! It would, indeed, be the end of an era if Eddie Jackson just teased that his time with the Bears is coming to an end.
Sometimes, a tweet is just a tweet. And an emoji is just an emoji. Oftentimes, it doesn’t need to go deeper than it is. But a cursory glance at Eddie Jackson’s latest posts makes this situation feel different.
Why is Eddie Jackson’s future up in the air?
Jackson, 30, is about to enter the final year of a contract extension he signed in January 2020. Over The Cap estimates the Bears could create $12.56 million in cap space by parting ways with Jackson this offseason. It would come with a $5.58 million dead money hit, but I can see where a team that already has ample cap wiggle room might want some more dough to work with this offseason. Perhaps there is a contract restructuring that could keep Jackson on board and save some cap space. But if Jackson’s social media fodder is any indication, that ship has probably sailed.
For the most part, Jackson has played well throughout the deal. This isn’t to say he was perfect. There were definitely some moments where we saw Jackson’s play slip. And he didn’t reach another level after signing the deal. But we also know that he went through some personal trials and tribulations. By the time the 2022 season rolled around, Jackson expanded on what he went through and declared that he was mentally, physically, and spiritually in a good place. It was the best Jackson said he’d felt since 2018 — and it showed up in his play.
Jackson went from being down on his luck to leveling up his play in 2022. There wasn’t much to cheer about in 2022, but Jackson had a renaissance season in a year where he earned captain’s status and was the leading Pro Bowl vote-getter at free safety at the time of his season-ending foot injury at MetLife Stadium. It is a bummer Jackson never looked like he got back into 2022 form after the injury.
Eddie Jackson is currently the longest-tenured member of Chicago’s defense and the last remaining defensive standout from the team’s 2018 NFC North division-winning year. To put Jackson’s time with the Bears in a different light, he has played under two different head coaches and general managers, five different defensive play callers, and watched nine different quarterbacks start for the team since arriving in 2017. If this is the end of the line for Jackson, what a ride it has been.
