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Bears CB Jaylon Johnson<\/p>\n
Before Ben Johnson ever called a play for the Chicago Bears<\/a>, he said something that stopped Jaylon Johnson<\/a> cold.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, the biggest takeaway was \u2018we\u2019re not trying to win, we\u2019re trying to blow people out,’\u201d the cornerback told Chris Long on his Green Light podcast<\/a>. \u201cI never heard nobody say that.\u201d<\/p>\n Since 2010, the Bears managed just four winning records in the last 16 seasons. The message for years had been about competing, staying in games, limiting mistakes, \u201cfinding ways to win.\u201d Ben Johnson walked in and torched that mentality from day one.<\/p>\n From accepting failure to expecting dominance GettyBears CB Jaylon Johnson<\/p>\n A lot of the players who thrived in 2025 were the same ones who went 5-12 the year before. QB Caleb Williams<\/a>, RT Darnell Wright<\/a>, DT Gervon Dexter<\/a>\u2026 they didn\u2019t suddenly become different people. They finally played under a coach who refused to let mediocrity feel normal. The difference was the standard.<\/p>\n Add in the rookies who arrived already bought in\u2026 TE Colston Loveland<\/a>, WR Luther Burden<\/a>, LT Ozzy Trapilo<\/a>, RB Kyle Monangai<\/a>\u2026 and you had a roster where nobody was dragging the culture backward. Ryan Poles deserves credit for that too cause building a team is also about matching the right players to the right environment.<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth sitting with the fact that Jaylon Johnson, a two time Pro Bowler who had been in this building for years, had never heard a coach say something like that. Not under Matt Nagy. Not under Matt Eberflus. Nobody. And Jaylon Johnson wasn\u2019t exactly quiet when things were broken.\u00a0<\/p>\n Thanksgiving 2024 in Detroit<\/a>, Jaylon Johnson ripped into Eberflus in the locker room after yet another late game collapse. Fox Sports\u2019 Jay Glazer<\/a> reported that Johnson spoke in \u201cvery colorful language\u201d for 10 to 15 minutes. The coaching staff lost the room completely and Eberflus was fired the next day.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the context here. This is a guy who held coaches accountable when they stopped doing their jobs. So when he says he\u2019s never heard a coach demand blowouts, that tells you everything about the standard the Chicago Bears had before Ben Johnson.<\/p>\n Now he needs to play like it GettyBears CBs Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon<\/p>\n But here\u2019s the other side of this story: Jaylon Johnson has to actually back it up in 2026.<\/p>\n Last season was rough. A groin injury that required surgery wiped out training camp, the preseason, and most of his regular season. In seven games, he gave up a 72.7 percent catch rate and allowed 17.2 yards per reception.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ben Johnson addressed it plainly<\/a> at the NFL<\/a> owners meetings in March. \u201cWe\u2019re a better team, we\u2019re certainly a better defense, when those two guys are out there,\u201d he said, referring to Johnson and nickel back Kyler Gordon<\/a>, who was also limited to just three games last year. \u201cThere\u2019s a reason why they\u2019re paid the way they\u2019re paid. We need them out there.\u201d<\/p>\n The Chicago Bears lost 18 of their 23 interceptions from a year ago in free agency. Someone has to replace that production. Jaylon Johnson is the most logical answer on the roster, but only if he stays healthy.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tGarrett Klaus<\/a> Garrett Klaus is a NFL contributor at Heavy.com, where he covers the Chicago Bears, Indianapolis Colts, Atlanta Falcons, Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Carolina Panthers. More about Garrett Klaus<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Bears\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Bears CB Jaylon Johnson Before Ben Johnson ever called a play for the Chicago Bears, he said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2070],"tags":[374,692,391,2493,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-870126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-bears","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-bears","11":"tag-chicagobears","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116432911236143185","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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