Jaylon Johnson Now Fine with the Fine
Jaylon Johnson owned his mistakes, on and off the field.
There weren't too many Sunday when he was covering Green Bay's Davante Adams all over the field, but there were just enough when he probably had to be almost perfect.
It was actually the mistakes he made off the field which gave him the most trouble, and that was being late to a Halas Hall meeting and then compounding it by posting the notification of his fine from the Bears for $2,745 online.
"That was never my intent to make the post," Johnson said. "It was only to select few people. At the end of the day, I messed up. I posted it when I didn't need to.
"At the end of the day it is what it is."
Johnson's post on social media rapidly went viral and earned him a visit with coach Matt Nagy.
"I told ya I was going to have a good talk with him and we did," Nagy said to media Friday at Halas Hall.
Apparently, it wasn't a difficult situation and it all turned into a Jaylon Johnson appreciation proclamation.
"And we talked and you know sometimes you have those talks and it can really, like you talk about both sides, you talk about the why a little bit, what happened, and what do we do here with our standards that we have and everything, and so he understands that," Nagy said. "But at the same point in time, too, I told him this is good that we’re sitting here in front of each other right now talking about this because now we're able to talk about other stuff, too, which is always good, is to just talk through where we're at.
"I mean, he is a great leader for his defense. He's playing his butt off right now. I love he's a guy that stays after practice every single day and gets extra work."
Johnson accepted the need for the fine.
"I gotta own up to it," he said. "I was late at the end of the day. If I didn't want that to happen in the first place, I shouldn't have been late. I understand that.
"I wasn't worried about the discipline. It (the post) was more so a joke to my friends saying how much I got fined for being late. But that's it."
Johnson said he never expected it to become a huge deal on the internet.
"Very surprised," he said. "It went from to me an innocent post just talking to people and now all of a sudden my name is headlining over an Instagram post.
"It is what it is. I gave the media something to talk about and they took it and ran with it."
The lesson learned was one numerous people inside football and every other line of endeavor have had to understand, as well.
"Don't press the wrong button on my end," Johnson said. 'I feel like we have a very good understanding, me and coach Nagy about the situation, about everything going on.
"We had a good talk and kinda just where things are headed and where we're trying to take the organization as a whole. I understand. He understands. I feel like we're on the same page."
If there was criticism of Johnson's on-field contribution it might have revolved around the 41-yard completion Aaron Rodgers made to Davante Adams, before the Packers receiver stepped out of bounds at the 21-yard line. The fourth-quarter catch helped spark Green Bay's march to a clinching TD.
Johnson had been assigned the task of staying with Adams all over the field, whether on the left side or right side of the offense or even in the slot, and Adams not only got behind Johnson for the catch but also it appeared the Bears cornerback wasn't hustling to try and catch up for the tackle.
"Well, I know I didn't have 100 percent max effort and I felt like that's what they ask from us," Johnson said. "But at the end of the day, I thought I had seen him step out, and he ended up stepping out, but there's no reason or no excuse for me not to finish harder."
Johnson allowed Adams only four receptions in five targets after he had been targeted 45 times over the previous three games, and he'll continue to draw difficult assignments like this because he is easily the best Bears defensive back in pass coverage.
"Honestly, I felt really good when I was in my element," Johnson said. "Last week was my first time really playing nickel (slot cornerback) and not just inside man but actually having to have zone drops and things like that. That was pretty tough, especially going up against a high-level quarterback and receiver like that.
"Just being able to get more reps at it, I feel like it would allow me to get more comfortable. When I was in my element on the outside, I felt like I did really really good."
It's a role the Rams entrust Jalen Ramsey with and Johnson aspires to be effective enough to do the same for the Bears.
"100%, just being able to have more value to the defense and I mean the more I can learn, the more ability that I have, I feel I can really help the defense in being able to scheme different ways," Johnson said. "Just being able to be versatile in that aspect to just be able to help out the defense."
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
