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The Far-Reaching Impact Jaylon Johnson's Team Message Could Have

The Bears cornerback called the full team around to give a talk after he saw teammates tiring or even dragging on the field, something that can mold a season..
Gene Chamberlain|
Jaylon Johnson's team speech could be the type of act that binds the team like last year's physical practice war did.
Jaylon Johnson's team speech could be the type of act that binds the team like last year's physical practice war did. | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears

In the middle of a long and physical practice Tuesday after their disappointing experience in Cincinnati, the Bears seemed to be getting sloppy and even tired on the field.

Tackle Darnell Wright had to leave with an apparent arm or elbow issue and plays were a little less crisp. The fact training camp is winding down may have been a mental factor, with people looking ahead.

Much like in the 2024 season when Jaylon Johnson saw things with the coaching a particular way and stood up to make his feelings known in the locker room, he stood up to let teammates know what they needed to do to get through a tough day's work. He gathered the full team around and gave them a talk. Afterward, practice resumed at a bit crisper level.

"I thought that was good by Jaylon to kind of step up and get us going there," tight end Cole Kmet said. "And I thought it ... ended up being one of our better practices of the camp so far."

It got spicy. Xavier Woods and Salvon Ahmed engaged in a shoving match near the sidelines that had to be broken up. The execution was sharper on offense and defenders were not yielding.

What Johnson said

The message to players from Johnson was simple, but this meeting wasn't confined to those on his side of the ball. The entire team surrounded Johnson and listened.

"Felt like it wasn't good enough," safety Cam Lewis said of Johnson. "I agree, it wasn't to our standard.

"You want to win the division back-to-back years, you're the hunted now. What we did in the first half of the practice wasn't to our standards, so we brought it up. Told the guys that, and we moved on."

Lewis comes to the Bears after experiencing this kind of leadership with a perennial playoff team in Buffalo and calls it no surprise players themselves would take change in this manner at practice.

"Yeah, you want to be player-driven," Lewis said. "You don't want the coaches to keep going, you know, yelling down your neck."

He said he saw players in Buffalo do this type of thing.,

It's common

"You want the guys, you want the leaders even if you're not necessarily (or) don't have a 'C' on your chest," Lewis said. "You still need to speak up. Especially if you feel like your brother's not preparing or playing to his level of play. So that's always a good thing. You never will not respect that."

Heading into this year the Bears were wondering where leadership would develop after they lost DJ Moore, Kevin Byard, Drew Dalman and Jaquan Brisker. Johnson has done it before and apparently realized what was needed, so he stepped up. This could have been a totally significant situation in the development of this year's team.

A year ago in training camp Ben Johnson held a practice when he let everyone go full speed like in a game from virtually the start until the end. The physical war was judged by players as a sort of turning point or molding moment for that team.

This year they don't have the ability to have a knock-down, drag-out type of practice because they've already beaten each other up enough that half the team seems to have some sort of injury.

This type of positive situation with players taking ownership, after the disappointing effort in Cincinnati, could have that same binding effect as last year's cage match behind Halas Hall.

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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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