Jaylon Johnson will be excited about new players once Bears make playoffs

Ariana Pensy - Correspondent - 11 hours ago

CHICAGO—Cornerback Jaylon Johnson has been with the Chicago Bears longer than almost any other player currently on the roster. He was drafted during Matt Nagy’s time as head coach, was with the Bears for the duration of the Matt Eberflus era, and is now with Chicago for the start of Ben Johnson’s turn as head coach.

There has been a lot of hype about Chicago’s acquisition of Ben Johnson, its numerous offseason trades, and its free agent signings, in addition to its new offensive and defensive coordinator. However, Johnson is not buying into that.

With all that he has seen in his time with the Chicago Bears, he is not getting his hopes up until he is back in a playoff game.

“I’ll see in camp to start and that’s when the real ball will show up and then really throughout the season. We’ll see (because) things can start off rocky in the beginning (and) we (can) figure it out and things change throughout the back half or the middle of the season or we start off hot and then we (don’t do well). So, it kind of just depends for me. At the end of the day, to me, it’s about winning and I feel like we go out there and we win on Sunday, I feel good about everybody,” Johnson said. “I’m going to be excited when we win in November and December and we change some things and get to the playoffs. That’s when I’ll be excited.”

That does not mean he has not been paying attention to Chicago’s free-agent acquisitions on defense, specifically the signings of defensive lineman Grady Jarrett and defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo.

Jarrett has been in the league since 2015. While he may not put up double-digit sacks every season, he is constantly in the backfield. Last season, Jarrett had 12 quarterback hits and nine tackles for loss. Only two players on the Bears had more quarterback hits than Jarrett last year, while only one player had more tackles for loss than him.

Odeyingbo is a bit different from Jarrett. While Jarrett has ample experience in the NFL, Odeyingbo is more of an up-and-coming player. In 2023, he arguably had his breakout season with eight sacks and two forced fumbles. His sack number was lower in 2024, but he still recorded two forced fumbles and had 17 quarterback hits in addition to seven tackles for loss.

Thus, both Odeyingbo and Jarrett have demonstrated an ability to get in the backfield and cause chaos, something Johnson believes will benefit all areas of the defense, including the secondary.

“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. Grady’s been playing his 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, it’s going to help me out on the back end and I know he’s going to cause some havoc too in the run game,” Johnson said. “Pairing him with (defensive tackle Andrew Billings) will be a heck of a sight to see for sure and then Dayo, I think him, just seeing how aggressive he is off the edge and just how disruptive he is can definitely help us on defense.”