Super Bowl Talk Helped Raise Jaylon Johnson's Leadership Level

If Ben Johnson didn't have cornerback Jaylon Johnson at hello, he did when he mentioned something else.

Jaylon Johnson had a talk with his coach and when he did something he was told put everything in a different perspective for the two-time Pro Bowl cornerback. As a result, he's been practicing lights out and showing a renewed or even elevated sense of leadership.

“Honestly, I would say we had a talk and I would say of my years being here I’ve never had a talk of a coach saying we got a chance to win the Super Bowl,” Johnson said. “So I think when he said that it put some things in perspective for me. And I have, we have, the opportunity to do something special.

"So I think for me it just sparked a different level of my competitive nature that I haven’t had since I’ve been here. So we’re just going out there and competing, and then wanting the guys to be better, wanting myself to be better and then just holding us to a different standard, a higher standard, and then we’ll just go from there.”

It's been a long time since anyone said the Bears and Super Bowl seriously in the same breath. Ben Johnson meant it and Jaylon believes it. Although T.J. Edwards and Grady Jarrett received the defensive captain honors, it hasn't kept Jaylon Johnson from being every bit of a leader for the group. He showed this earlier, near the end of training camp, when he gathered the full team around during scrimmage and hollered at them to give even greater effort. A few of his teammates had been showing signs of fatigue.

"I think, for me, I have enough blood and sweat in the game to where guys respect what I’m saying,” Johnson said. “And for me, it’s just really utilizing my voice, and then also leading by example.

"I think you can’t speak out until you do things right. So I think the combination of both helped me do each of those things better. When I’m on my game, I can speak up. And then from there, when I am, people listen.”

A change in Jaylon Johnson has been noticed by defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, as well.

"He's smart in the building, in the meeting rooms as well," Allen said, "Very deliberate in what he does, has a lot of intent with what he does. And yet, I can feel a fire lit under him.

"I don't know what it was, but you could feel it really ignite there back half of the training camp."

Some of may have come from elsewhere besides directly from his coach.

Johnson also gained some extra bit of guidance on leadership from one of the speakers Ben Johnson brought in to talk to the team. It was Green Beret amputee Nick Lavery, who was among several speakers who came in and talked to players. Another was former Yankees great Derek Jeter. Johnson called what Lavery a real hero. Lavery stepped in front of fire from a machine gun in Afghanistan to save a fellow soldier, had his femoral artery severed and femur shattered but survived. He then went on to be the first above-the-knee amputee to return to active combat duty.

In 2013, U.S. Army Green Beret Nick Lavery stepped in front of machine gun fire during an insider attack in Afghanistan, saving a teammate but losing his own leg.

The burst shattered his leg and severed his femoral artery, forcing an above-the-knee amputation to save his life.… pic.twitter.com/Y0dOpgfeOb
— Chief Njoku (@NemeremNjoku) April 24, 2026

"When he came and he spoke to the team, it was like, 'Damn, that's the guy that literally dug into his leg, stopped the bleeding and it's just like when you have somebody of that, I would say caliber, of toughness, of mental just strength, toughness, I think for me it's just that's inspiring," Johnson said. "I mean, he looks up to us but there's nobody that does what he does.

"When you go out there and you put your life on the line for your brother and you put your life on the line for something bigger than you, to me that's inspiring. So when he talks to us about leadership, talked to us about holding guys accountable and what that looks like for me it was easy to speak on the team when we're not playing to the level that we're supposed to play at."

Recalling the day he called the full team around for a talking to, Johnson saw it as a natural act following what he heard from Johnson and especially Lavery.

“Of my years being here I’ve never had a talk with a coach saying we got a chance to win a Super Bowl.”

Jaylon Johnson says Ben Johnson pulled him aside to have a talk that was a “spark” to newfound motivation: pic.twitter.com/36jAPDO176
— Devan Kaney (@Devan_Kaney) September 9, 2026

"I think for us, we all seen it, we felt it on the sideline, we felt like we got to pick it up," Johnson said. "But to me it’s not enough to talk to the person next to you. Let’s address it with the team, let's address it with everybody and get on the same page, and then we raise the bar.”

Johnson might not have received the captain title for this year, like Jarrett, Edwards, Cairo Santos, Caleb Williams and Joe Thuney have, but he already understands what leadership looks like. After losing veteran players like Kevin Byard, Jaquan Brisker, Tremaine Edmunds and Drew Dalman in the offseason, the Bears can use as much of that type of leadership as they can find.

Ben Johnson seems really high on Jaylon Johnson entering this season after the All-Pro missed most of last year recovering from a major groin injury.

"From my perspective, I think we got a player that has a chance to be playing his best football this year."#Bears pic.twitter.com/OsHtiXVagI
— Josh Frydman (@Josh_Frydman) September 8, 2026

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