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What Jaylon Johnson Sees as Real Challenge for New Bears Secondary

The veteran Bears cornerback doesn't see a problem where many teams have faced it during times of change.
Gene Chamberlain|
Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson runs onto the field during player introductions against Green Bay at Soldier Field.
Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson runs onto the field during player introductions against Green Bay at Soldier Field. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

One of the key questions facing the Bears defense heading into the season is how quickly the secondary comes together following so much change.

It looks like a real danger point because both safeties will be different, and backup defensive back Cam Lewis will even be new.  

During a podcast appearance on Green Light with Chris Long, Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson addressed this potential issue for a defense that led the league in takeaways last year. Although Long failed to bring up even the most important question about Johnson's play—his health after groin surgery last year cost him 10 games—Kyle Long's brother did coax out of Johnson what he sees as a real danger to the defense.

It's not what most people would think.

A failure to communicate?

Communication between new players looks like obvious trouble with so many new faces but Johnson thought back over his time with different safeties in the secondary, like Eddie Jackson, Jaquan Brisker, and Tashaun Gipson, and said this has never been the case.

"It's not too much," Johnson told Long. "To me, communication has never been hard."

Instead, he pointed to understanding how coaches want certain techniques played in the scheme.

"I would say as far as trust goes, it's not that hard," Johnson added. "It's harder during season, I would say, because you have the coaches coming in and putting in their game plan and how they want to do it and how they see certain things.

"And I would say us as a collective in the DB room, we may see how we want to play these concepts or these releases or these splits, whatever, a certain way.  And it's more so that battle. I would say that's just between us and the coaches."

Understanding the coaches

If they get so they understand what coordinator Dennis Allen and DB coach Al Harris want from them, then there should be no issues, provided the communication between players on the field is no problem.

This is easy to say at this point in the offseason, though. When passes start flying for real is when the communication must be exact.

"I think, really, the hardest thing is understanding how you can play certain things under the structure of the defense," Johnson said. "I think that's the hardest part, but not the players meshing and trusting each other."

The other interesting aspect of Johnson's discussion is what he thinks about playing for defensive coordinator Dennis Allen. His review of Ben Johnson was entirely positive, which is understandable after the impression Johnson left on anyone who watched the team last year. Allen is more complicated.

"I think what I like and have come to respect about him is he is who he is," Johnson told Long.  "And I think, at times, he can almost be overwhelming, like man, why's he always doing this. But at least he's consistent.

"He's not a coach that will waver with what's going on, depending on who we play—'Oh we're not going to do what we normally do. We're going to change it up.' He's not that guy.

"He's somebody who's consistent."

Long apparently picked the right person to ask about this because it was Johnson who had the key role in the firing of former coach Matt Eberflus with postgame shouting in Detroit on Thanksgiving of 2024. Consistency of coaching was a real issue with that team's staff.

In fact, all the coaching seemed especially in question when they couldn't even call a timeout properly.

The challenges before their defense likely will be greater than Johnson says because those Bears fans who have seen this type of change countless times over the years realize that lack of communication really is a thing to overcome for new groups of players.

Doing it for a coaching staff that is on top of what's going on like Johnson's was last season can give them all a leg up as they work to get through tough times at training camp and early in the regular season.

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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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