Change to the roster always follows the hiring of a new head coach and General Manager, but there’s been little thought about the Bears not having a place for cornerback Jaylon Johnson in the lineup this season.
Johnson was a second-round pick in 2020 and he’s started 28 games over his first two years in the league. There haven’t been any suggestions that Johnson would be at risk of losing that job this year, so it caught the attention of reporters when he was playing with the second team at this week’s OTAs.
Head coach Matt Eberflus said it wasn’t anything to make a big deal about, however. Johnson was absent from some early practices and Eberflus suggested that Johnson was still getting back up to speed.
“He’s just getting back into action right now,” Eberflus said, via Josh Schrock of NBCSportsChicago.com. “So we’re just seeing where he is with his conditioning and those types of things. But 1s and 2s, we’re moving all guys around. We have a bunch of guys with the 1s, with the 2s, we have some 3s in there. But nothing to read into that at this time.”
A temporary stint on the second team doesn’t seem like anything Johnson will have an issue with. He said earlier this month that he felt the team was in a “complete reset” under Eberflus and that he was planning to show the new staff what he can do in person.
