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Jaylon Johnson Feels Like 'Night and Day' and Ready for Contract Run

The former Pro Bowl Bears cornerback has begun to assert himself in training camp as he begins a comeback season from groin surgery.
Gene Chamberlain|
Jaylon Johnson didn't have many days when he felt close to 100% last year but this one in the playoffs against Green Bay was one.
Jaylon Johnson didn't have many days when he felt close to 100% last year but this one in the playoffs against Green Bay was one. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears

Throughout the first three days training camp, the one defensive back who seemed to escape the damage being inflicted by the Bears' passing attack was the one who most needs to deliver.

It wasJaylon Johnson.

Johnson even came away with an interception, and when the defense had its best day on Saturday Johnson had an even brighter situation to convey than some good training camp play.

"I'm a litle sore, it's like I'm good," be said. "I feel straight. ... Night and day. Night and day."

Johnson, of course, had the groin injury and surgery that kept him from ever showing the skillset that made him a two-time Pro Bowl player. The problems began in last offseason, carried over into the regular season and led to his surgery and then rapid recover.

The quick return last season meant the Bears never got to see the 100% level of play.

The return of the real Jaylon Johnson

"Like I said (last year), I needed a full offseason to get my legs back under me, to get some scar tissue and things like that out," Johnson said. "Really just working and pushing my body. I feel really good. I feel good with my speed. I feel with good with where I'm at laterally, change of direction and all of that.

"I just gotta keep stacking days. Really it's just working on my technique and getting consistent and back to just being dominant."

Johnson had a pair of interceptions in minicamp but it didn't communicate to him a message about his health. He just knows how he feels and there's no "new normal" involved with his description.

"I mean, I still have some time," he said. "I feel really good with where I'm at right now. But for me two interceptions doesn't make me satisfied like, 'OK, I'm good. I'm back.'

"It's just part of the game sometimes. They come your way, you gotta make the play when they come. For me I am just hungry to get back 100% and get my eyes, my feet right and continue to get better. That's all I am focused on. I don't really care too much about the happy plays."

When Johnson came back last year the Bears badly needed help beacuse of injuries in their secondary. The entire defense was hit hard all year with health issues:Johnson, defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo, defensive lineman Shemar Turner, defensive tackle Grady Jarrett, linebacker T.J. Edwards, linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, linebacker Noah Sewell and slot cornerback Kyler Gordon all missed chunks of time or even went out with season-ending injuries. Johnson rushed back to the rescue, even if he seemed at times to have left his superpowers at home.

"I easily could have sat on my ass and not played and just watch it be what it was, but for me I felt like what I had to give was enough to contribute to the team," Johnson said. "Of course, it wasn't nowhere near who I could be. I feel like people know that. For me it was just going out there competing, just wanting to be there."

When Johnson actually felt better

Surprisingly, there was a point when Johnson said he finally began to feel normal.

"I mean put it like this, the only time I wasn't in pain playing was probably the Rams maybe the first Packers, the playoff game," he said. "Other than that, I was taking pain medicine, getting numbing shots, I mean trying to do whatever I can getting extra work outside of the facility.

"I was doing everything I can. At the end of the day I was only two, three months out of groin core surgery. For a corner that's a tough position to be in."

Not only is it good for the Bears but also for Johnson. He's working in Year 3 of his contract extension and that means next season is a year when he could be cut, although the Bears would be eating $9 million in dead-cap space. According to Spotrac.com, they would save $16 million back against the cap though. In other words, a contract year comes early for him.

For a veteran, the contract year is always the year before his deal expires because of cap ramifications.

"This definitely a contract year," Johnson said. "We all know with the cap hit and all that stuff. It's definitely a contract year for me. At the end of the day, whether that's here, somewhere else, I've gotta put it on tape that I'm still a top guy in this league.

"I'm not a dummy. We all know that and I've structured my deal a certain way to put myself back at the table at the age of 27. For me, it was always for this point to get here, and then show how I do what I do and be healthy and be out there doing what I do best and that's covering, that's making plays, being a difference maker. From there, wherever that contract talk goes, it goes."

If he's healthy, the past is evidence where it could go is a long way toward the success of the Bears defense.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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