LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Chicago Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson stepped up to the lectern in Halas Hall smiling and said, “Surprised to see me here?”
The Pro Bowl cornerback hasn’t always attended voluntary activities, but for the first day of Phase I under new head coach Ben Johnson, he made it a point to attend. He said it was to show respect.
“I think it’s big for me to just come in and be able to shake guys’ hands, see them in person,” Johnson said Tuesday. “I just talked to them on the phone. To come in and really just be with the guys, show the guys that I’m here. Really just show my face. For me, that was important to do on Day 1.”
Teams with new coaches got to begin their offseason training program this week. It’s the strength and conditioning part of the program, and nobody has lost yet. Vibes are strong with the Bears since Ben Johnson entered, and five starters were acquired last month, but Jaylon Johnson has been around too long to get ahead of himself.
“I’m going to get excited when we win in November. And December. And when we change some things and get into the playoffs,” he said. “That’s when I’m going to get excited.”
Hype, Johnson said, “Don’t win you no games.”
But he appreciated Ben Johnson’s opening message and is hopeful the Bears can pick up on what the Lions did so well — dominate.
The opening message
Ben Johnson told players that his speech would be one of his longer ones for the year. He set the tone, offering some “dos and don’ts,” quarterback Caleb Williams said.
“He said that you never forget your first day as a head coach,” Williams said. “(He) set a precedent for what we’re going to be like as a team, finding our identity and all of that. We’re excited. Obviously we have to put in the work. … Definitely excited for what’s to come and the future.”
Right tackle Darnell Wright, now in Year 3, said he could tell Johnson had “the right stuff.”
“Just little glimpses,” he said. “Obviously, we’re not in full training camp or nothing like that. But when he’s talking, you can see he gets fired up. A lot of passion. And I think that’s contagious.”
Jaylon Johnson was keen on the head coach’s message about having a sense of urgency right now, “and not just waiting and going through the process of figuring out what we want to do but establishing who we are right now and then working towards that goal.”
That mentality resonated with the competitive cornerback.
“It’s really just the mindset of winning and winning right now and winning a certain type of way, too,” he said. “Just having that dominating mentality is something I took away from that team meeting.”
That apparently was a theme as linebacker Tremaine Edmunds echoed it, too. The Bears haven’t done much in the area of dominating opponents. The Lions did it a lot over the past two seasons.
“When you ask people about, let’s just say Detroit and what he was able to do and just the mentality and what the offense wanted to do to opponents, it was, put up a lot of points,” Edmunds said. “I think you can feel that. He doesn’t just want to win, but we want to win by a lot. We want to dominate.
“That’s important. That just talks about his mentality, talks about his mindset. it’s like, nah, we’re gonna be the best we’re gonna be. We want to dominate and we want our opponent to feel that for sure.”
The beginning of the QB-coach relationship
Outside a brief meeting when Ben Johnson got hired, this week truly marks the beginning of the work he can do with the players.
Johnson “flung open the door” to the quarterbacks room and “made a grand entrance” Tuesday, testing Williams, Case Keenum, Tyson Bagent and Austin Reid on what they learned Monday.
“Today we had our first quiz in the QB room,” Williams said. “Already first day in and (he’s) challenging us. Everybody loves a challenge in this sport. It’s one of the great things about this sport. Every day is a challenge and today we got our first one.”
What’s allowed on the field is limited, but the quarterback and head coach tandem — a hallmark of the best teams in the NFL that the Bears haven’t been able to get right — can begin to jell.
“I think us growing together is key, starting now,” Williams said. “Him pushing me is key. I know that and he knows that. … I can’t wait and to be able to help me learn more about ball because he’s super smart, super sharp, and grow and progress in those ways so that Year 4 I’m out there and Ben’s obviously still doing his thing and it’s a Jared (Goff) thing, where Jared’s out there now and he’s calling the whole game in a sense when he’s out there on the field.”
New-look defense
Since the day the Bears drafted Jaylon Johnson out of Utah, he’s always been open about being comfortable on an island against another team’s best receiver.
Defensive coordinators haven’t asked him to do that week in and week out. In Dennis Allen’s scheme, he said he expects to travel with the opponent’s top wideout.
“You lock up the No. 1 guy. No. 1 on No. 1. For me, that’s what I am looking forward to doing,” he said. “That’s what I am looking forward to the most. That’s what I train for. That’s what I work hard for. So I mean, for me, it’s going to be about that. Being ready to go out there and lock up, challenge guys, make things harder for the offense, mess up timing.”
Johnson also knows that having an improved defensive line, with the additions of Grady Jarrett and Dayo Odeyingbo (so far), will help him on the back end.
“Havoc. From what I’ve seen. All I can see is the highlights on YouTube, but for the most part, I feel like they cause havoc,” he said. “Grady been playing this game at a high level for a long time. I’ve always been a big fan of his game when he was in Atlanta. So definitely getting a dog like that up front is going to help me out on the back end, and I know he’s going to cause some havoc, too, in the run game. Pairing him with A-Bill (Andrew Billings) I think will be a sight to see, for sure. And then Dayo, I think him seeing how aggressive he is off the edge and how disruptive he is, he can definitely help us on defense.”
(Photo of Caleb Williams: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)