LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Eddie Jackson doesn't know what's on the horizon after the Bears' season finale on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers. The veteran safety doesn't flinch at the thought that it could be his final game in a Bears uniform.
But he prays it isn't. After everything he and the franchise have been through together, all he wants is to finish what he believes he has been integral in starting in this latest rebuild.
“I just, man, I hope I’m here [to see it through]," Jackson told NBC Sports Chicago during multiple sit-downs this week at Halas Hall. "What we building, it’s just special. I feel like I play a key part in it as well. Just to be through the ups and downs that I have been through here and to see, like, ‘Yo, we’re really on the rise.’ If I have to leave it then, in this key moment, man, it sucks. I mean, it would suck. I can’t picture myself nowhere else, man. I’ve been here seven years. This is home. I got my house here. My kids are here. It’s just home for me. It’s hard for me to see me somewhere else. I would understand it. If I’m somewhere else, I’ll be alright, but I just can’t see myself somewhere else. I don’t want to see it. It's got to be here."
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Jackson, 30, is the veteran leader of a young Bears' defense that has been suffocating opponents during the final month of the season. He also only has one year left on his contract, and the Bears could save between $12-$14 million in cap space if they move on from him this offseason, depending on when the transaction is made.
Jackson's experience in Chicago has run the gamut.
Drafted out of Alabama in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL Draft, Jackson made the Pro Bowl in both 2018 and 2019. He was an All-Pro selection in 2018 after a six-interception, two-touchdown campaign as part of the NFL's best-scoring defense.
A big contract followed, but his production dipped in 2020 and 2021. The turnovers went down, and the missed tackles went up, leading some to believe that Jackson would be jettisoned when general manager Ryan Poles came in to start his rebuild.
But while Poles traded Khalil Mack, Robert Quinn, and Roquan Smith and let Akiem Hicks leave, Poles wanted Jackson to stay to be one of the few veteran leaders on a young team starting from the ground up.
Jackson poured himself into the H.I.T.S principle and resurrected his career in 2022, notching four interceptions before suffering a lisfranc injury in Week 13. Jackson re-injured his foot in Week 2 this season but has been healthy since Week 9. He can see the Bears' defense evolving into a Super Bowl-caliber unit before his eyes.
He helped shepherd young defensive backs Jaquan Brisker, Kyler Gordon, and Tyrique Stevenson through early-career growing pains. He believes he and Brisker can go down as one of the best safety tandems in NFL history. He just asks that Poles allow him to witness the fruits of his labor.
“It would mean everything," Jackson said of the Bears bringing him back in 2024. "Just being through the ups and the downs, and for you just to see like, ‘Yo, it’s here now. Now.’ We right there on the edge. Just to see where it is headed, man. It will be so special for me to [still] be here. Being part of a Super Bowl here, in Chicago, is like a freaking dream for me. I might retire after that. Like, I don’t know. It doesn’t get better than that. To do it here, in Chicago, the team that drafted me, after everything we’ve been through over the years, it would be special.
"It means so much to me to be a Bear," Jackson said. "My kids were born here. It means so much to me. Everything. Them taking a chance on me after the broken leg. Coming in and trusting me and giving the opportunity to come in and show what I can do. Then, to trust me to be here with the young guys now. I can't thank them enough. I got more left to give."
Everyone inside Halas Hall praises Jackson's role in helping get this rebuild off the ground. A rebuild can't be successful with only young players. Some veterans are needed, and Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus believed Jackson would be vital in the locker room and that his All-Pro-level play could return.
"Both have been great," Eberflus said of Jackson and cornerback Jaylon Johnson's value to the rebuild. "True pros. Have done everything we asked them to. Have helped the young guys. Have both risen. Eddie had a really great year last year. He’s having a solid, consistent year this year. He had a really good year last year before he got hurt. Jaylon has really come on as of late. I’m excited for both of those guys. Where their future is going to be, we don’t know all that right now. We’d certainly love to have them here."
If it ends Sunday in Green Bay, don't cry for Jackson. He understands it's a business. He won't take it personally if Poles elects to move on and go a different direction at safety next to Brisker.
Heading toward the other side of 30, many veterans would look at it as an opportunity to go to a sure-fire contender in the back end of their prime. There is no shortage of Super Bowl contenders in need of a savvy veteran safety with good range and instincts. Playing at a high level on a top-tier team might even get Jackson one more solid contract.
None of that registers with him as the thought of the end in Chicago approaches.
"I want to win. Here," Jackson said. "I done made some money. I want to win. When you get to this point in your career, the money thing is really not a factor in it no more. It’s about winning. If you can be part of a winning organization, go out there and compete for a playoff spot, championship. That’s what means something. I done been there. I’ve been paid and losing. That s—t sucks. The money didn’t make me feel no better.
"They know what I am to the team in their eyes. I don’t have to tell them," Jackson said of Poles and Eberflus. "Go ask the guys how much I mean.”
CHICAGO BEARS
If Sunday is the end for Eddie Jackson and the Bears, he wants to be remembered as someone who put everything on the line for an organization he loves. A guy who never stopped thanking the organization that took a chance on him out of Alabama and a guy who still believes he has something to pay back after they trusted him to be part of this rebuild.
But he has bigger visions for what his Bears legacy will be. He's manifesting, envisioning, what the real end will look like -- if they'll give him the chance to stay.
“Hall of Fame, man. I want to be on the [Halas Hall] wall," Jackson said. "It’s crazy, man. Like, what?! I want to be on that wall so bad. It’s so crazy because these years, man, the longer they are, the shorter they get. ... It’s about not trying to live in regret. It’s about moving forward and stacking them.
"Hall of Fame. I want to be [remembered] as one of the greatest safeties to play this game and for the Bears.”
This week, as the Bears prepared for the chance to knock the rival Packers out of the playoffs with a win at Lambeau Field, Jackson sat at his locker in the corner for the entirety of the open sessions. Normally, players will wander in and out of treatment or strength training, but Jackson was there, appearing to soak in what might be his final week at Halas Hall.
Jackson remembers two offseasons ago, watching Mack get traded and Hicks leave. He knows the impact that losing Smith and Quinn had on the 2022 locker room.
He remains.
It's not hyperbole to say that Eddie Jackson helped bring the Bears out of the darkness, and, in doing so, he brought himself back.
Now, he hopes that the Bears will put their faith in him one more time. Believe that he's far from done and is a necessary piece of what's to come.
"It would be fuel to the fire," Jackson said of the Bears trusting him again. "I can’t let them down. Even when they kept me here last year, I was like, I got to let them know who I am. I got to let them know the type of player I am. That’s going to be the same thing."
The future might be unclear for Jackson. The NFL is a business, and your value is only tied to what's left in the tank. While Jackson can't say where he'll be playing in 2024, he sees a clear picture of what comes next for the team and organization he helped revitalize.
“The sky is the limit," Jackson said. "For real, for real. There are no limitations to what we can do."
Jackson and the Bears have been intertwined for seven years. Whether or not Sunday's game in Green Bay is the end, the Bears will always be part of Jackson's DNA. A player and team that rose and fell and rose again together. An organization that put its chips behind a player who feels he still has some giving back to do.
“This is where it started," Jackson said. "I was a part of this when it was up. I was a part of it when it was down. Now, I’m a part of it when it’s going back up, so, shoot, I’ve earned the right to be a part of it when it’s on the way up.
"Next year, man, it’s got to be. Here or somewhere else. Pray to god it’s hear, man. Got to be here. I've still got more left to give."
Sunday in Green Bay could be the end for Eddie Jackson and the Bears. Or, it could be yet another beginning — one whose ending has yet to be written.