Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson healthy and looking to regain Pro Bowl level

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — Chicago Bears two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Jaylon Johnson knows the stakes are higher for veteran players even when they still have a full two seasons left on their contracts.

It’s especially high when they’re trying to come back from a disappointing season brought on by injury, such as Johnson suffered through last year.

The good news for Johnson is he’s feeling good and practicing well.

“Night and day, night and day,” Johnson said, comparing his health last year to this year. “Like I said, I needed a full offseason to get my legs back under me, to get some scar tissue and things like that out. 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.”

Bears coach Ben Johnson has seen his top cornerback standing out even when quarterback Caleb Williams was dominating the secondary earlier in camp, but the defense has started to assert itself now and that means Jaylon Johnson making plays.

“I think it’s a really good start,” Ben Johnson said. “I’m happy with how he’s approaching his work right now. He’s highly motivated to garner the respect that certainly I had for him when I came into the building because he felt like last year was a disappointment. And so he wants to get back to being on the upper echelon of cover corners in this league. So, you kind of see that approach.”

Johnson’s contract expires after 2027, but because of the way next year’s contract is structured the team could trade or cut him after 2026 for salary cap savings. As a result, this season becomes critical.

“I’m not a dummy,” Johnson said. “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.”

Johnson put it all out on the table.

“This definitely a contract year,” he 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.”

His better health makes it possible. Last year a groin injury in offseason training, then another when he came off the injured list in Week 2 at Detroit nearly ended his season early.

Instead, Johnson fought back after surgery. He said during last season he was nowhere near 100% after coming back in a hurry from surgery for a Black Friday win at Philadelphia, before finishing out the season and playoffs in the lineup.

“I easily could have sat on my (rear) 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.”

For now, Johnson is part of a new-look secondary with new starters Coby Bryant and Dillon Thieneman at safety and with several players sharing slot cornerback while Kyler Gordon recovers from a calf injury. They went through a few issues early trying to stop the offense at practice, a year after they led the NFL in takeaways with 33.

“I mean, for me on defense we’re not different,” Johnson said. “Outside of takeaways we finished, if I’m not mistaken, bottom 10, bottom five in a lot of categories.

“So, for me we ain’t done a damn thing. There’s a lot for us to prove on defense."

They're not planning to lean on Caleb Williams and the offense.

“Of course, the offense is rolling, but that’s not something we can rely on,” Johnson said. "OK, the offense go put up 40 and we’ll hold them to 35.

"To me, that’s unacceptable. We’ve still got a lot to work on. We’ve still got a lot to do and to prove.”

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