LAKE FOREST, Ill. (WGN) — Ever since going down with an injury in mid-late July, the return of former All-Pro corner Jaylon Johnson has been shrouded in mystery—a mystery that Ben Johnson and Ryan Poles expect to be solved by Week 1, even if they aren’t 100% certain that will be a reality by the time the Vikings roll into town.
Johnson, who went down with what team staff described as a soft tissue injury on July 19 during the earlier stages of training camp, was taken off the non-football injury (NFI) list on Tuesday.
But as for when Jaylon Johnson will be all the way back, Ben Johnson deferred to his general manager, who told us the Bears are “taking that really day-to-day.”
“When I was going out to practice, he was running and doing agility work. So, I feel like he’s getting better,” Poles said. “When you’re going from not playing and just training, to football, there are all kinds of different things that kind of change timelines. We’re hopeful that he continues to get better, but we also have to be smart to make sure that he’s good long term.
“We’ll just take that day by day and really work through our medical staff to make sure we’re doing right by Jaylon.”
It’s the same holding pattern that’s gone on for weeks.
Two weeks ago, Ben Johnson said Jaylon Johnson was “on the right track” and reiterated what he said at the end of July, “he’ll be ready for Week 1. That’s really the target date.”
“He’s right where he needs to be. Like I said, those types of injuries you don’t know, short term, long term, every guy’s a little bit different,” Ben Johnson said on Aug. 13. “But I think we’re going the right direction right now.”
Jaylon Johnson’s impact on the defense
Johnson’s absence Friday against the Kansas City Chiefs—along with Kyler Gordon and Tremaine Edmunds—was notable against one of the league’s most potent quarterbacks.
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs’ first-team offense were a dropped pass away from scoring three straight touchdowns against Chicago’s first-team defense. And while J.J. McCarthy is no Mahomes, Minnesota head coach Kevin O’Connell has proven himself to be an effective quarterback whisperer capable of devising a game plan where Kirk Cousins or Sam Darnold can shred an opposing secondary.
It’s best that he and the Bears’ allotment of talent in the secondary are healthy and together when that test presents itself in Week 1.
“Yeah, we’re pushing for it,” Poles said of his top corner being ready to go against the Vikings. But, again, it’s that fine line of making sure that we’re smart with him.”
Poles also pointed out there’s real concern that Johnson hasn’t played live football before Week 1, which is something they are taking into consideration when evaluating his injury.
“Before he got here, he had a soft-tissue injury. Obviously, for this long, it is a little bit more significant,” Poles said. “It’s just taken some time to get back and be his regular self. I know there are a lot of questions about it, but it’s really not that complicated. He had a pretty good soft-tissue injury before he got here.”
When he’s fully healthy, Johnson has been one of the best lockdown corners in the league.
The former Utah Ute finished the 2024 season, a down year by Johnson’s standards, with Pro Football Focus‘s (PFF) 18th-best run defense grade and its 29th-best coverage grade among 222 qualified corners. He still qualified for the 2024 Pro Bowl as Chicago’s lone participant.
In 2023, he finished as PFF’s top-rated corner with a 90.1 overall defensive grade and the second-best coverage grade (90.4) among corners who played at least 50% of snaps that season. Johnson also gave up the fewest receiving yards of any corner in the NFL (195) under the same snaps criteria, on the way to earning Associated Press second-team All-Pro honors.
“We all know the type of player Jaylon is. So, it would be naive for me to say that him not being out there is going to impact our defense,” safety Kevin Byard said in late July. “But when he gets back, I have full confidence he’s going to pick up right where he left off last year, being a Pro Bowl-caliber player that he has always been.”