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Ben Johnson's Unique Description of Coby Bryant Can Fuel Bears' Success

Chicago's coach saw some things on game film to make it apparent they can be better in the secondary, even if it meant losing veteran leader Kevin Byard.
Gene Chamberlain|
Safety Coby Bryant has impressed coach Ben Johnson as a real defensive force from game film.
Safety Coby Bryant has impressed coach Ben Johnson as a real defensive force from game film. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

To hear Bears coach Ben Johnson tell it, the team seems to have made a tradeoff of sorts in the secondary.

They're going to need safety Coby Bryant to show some of what he displayed in the secondary with Seattle in terms of talent, but also leadership as a result of the loss of free agent safety Kevin Byard.

"KB's really one of the best leaders I've been around, certainly, on the defensive side of the ball," Johnson told reporters at the NFL owners meetings. "I had multiple players talk to me in our exit meetings just about the impact he had on that locker room throughout the year. I think that's well known about him.

"And then obviously the production on the field, he doesn't miss games, he's available. And then his teammates respect him, and then he was a turnover ... a takeaway machine a year ago. I know coach (Mike) Vrabel is getting a good one. He knows KB as well as anybody. And we're going to miss him."

Not too much, they hope. After all, they signed Bryant and he is the playmaker with speed, is in his prime and is a player with a Super Bowl ring. That can count for a lot of leadership.

Meanwhile, Byard will be 33 this year and they didn't choose to pay him more than $9 million for 2026 to bring him back.

GM Ryan Poles had explained what was lost and gained a few days after the signing of Bryant.

"You have certain plans with the guys you’d like to have back," Poles had said. "And you’re kind of seeing how the landscape is going to set up.

"And as you do your research, when we watched Coby’s tape, he was a guy who got us excited because we felt like he played our style of ball. He played fast. He played physical. Those are the things that DA (Dennis Allen, defensive coordinator) is looking for, that we’re looking for. We thought there was leadership there. He’s young. And we had to kind of adapt to that."

Johnson hadn't commented on the free agent signings after they were made, but his description of Bryant makes it clear the Bears feel the defense is better.

"The best defenses usually have two or three trained killers," Johnson said at the owners meetings. "You usually don't have 11 of them, but you have two or three that are tone-setters that can really elevate the play for everyone around them.

"The best defenses usually have two or three trained killers."
Ben Johnson on safety Coby Bryant

"When we watched the tape we felt that jumped off when Coby was on the field. He's a guy that comes out whether he's playing quarters, playing the post, playing down in the box, he's coming down and if he see somebody he's looking to light them up."

Johnson sees the mix being what they wanted with a "trained killer" added.

"There's certainly some things to his game that we're going to look to improve," Johnson said. "That's like that with every player, and yet we feel like he's got a real solid foundation. With his play style, that's going to naturally percolate with the rest of the guys."

This description can't hurt their defense, but it's also more what they had been looking for from Jaquan Brisker than Byard, really.

Perhaps in this draft they'll be looking more for the deep center fielder type at safety, Byard's replacement, moreso than Brisker's.

In that case, Dillon Thieneman and his 4.35-second speed would be ideal if he somehow fell into their laps,

Toledo's Emmanuel McNeil-Warren could be someone they'd consider, or even Penn State's Zakee Wheatley or TCU's Bud Clark. They need the perfect tag team partner for a player Ben Johnson describes as one of their "trained killers."

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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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