Chicago Bears: Johnson Goes From Doubter To Believer

Chicago Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson had his doubts about head coach Matt Eberflus’ HITS principle. He is a convert now, though.

The Chicago Bears are in the midst of another rebuild. New general manager Ryan Poles is the next one trying to change the status quo at Halas Hall. He wants to build not only a winning team but a consistently winning team.

Poles brought in Matt Eberflus to help change the losing attitude. Eberflus was the defensive coordinator of the Indianapolis Colts. He turned the defense into one of the toughest, turnover-causing units in the NFL.

Now Eberflus is tapped with helping Poles change the losing ways. He came to Chicago with his HITS principle — Hustle, Intensity, Takeaways, and Smart play.

You might imagine that having something like HITS might make the players feel a little corny about it. There were probably many players on the Colts defense that felt that. However, they eventually bought into it and that defense became elite.

Now that Eberflus is in Chicago, the thought is that some of the players felt the same way. They might not have been big believers of HITS. That is until they finally see it in action.

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The conversion happens in Chicago

After two preseason games, training camp, and multiple minicamps, we see a different Chicago Bears team. Over the past few seasons, we saw the team commit dumb penalties. We aren’t seeing that now. Additionally, we see the defense play with a new intensity. We see the players swarm all over the football. This is the Chicago Bears defense we are used to seeing but which was missing over the last few seasons.

Cornerback Jaylon Johnson was among the doubters of Eberflus’ philosophy when the coach took over. He admitted as much.

I didn’t buy in right away. It was just something that I wasn’t familiar with, something I wasn’t used to doing, so naturally, there’s going to be some back-and-forth.

Eberflus and defensive coordinator Alan Williams knew there would be some pushback. However, they felt once the players got into what that principle entails, they’ll eventually buy into it. Johnson is a perfect example of that.

We joke around with it, but one of our quotes that we said Shakespeare came up with is, ‘Thou who runneth to the ball, good things shall happen.’ It’s not just, ‘Oh you guys just run to the ball, just because we say you guys run to the ball.’ It’s some rhyme and reason to why we do it. Once we see good things happen from running to the ball, then it gives us more confidence to push ourselves.

As mentioned before, we see a lot of swarming to the ball from the defense. It isn’t just that unit, though. We see the same on offense.

On the first offensive play of the second preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks, the Bears ran a tight end screen. When he got on the ground, there were a host of white jerseys around him. That gives the ball carriers an extra incentive to run hard for extra yards, knowing that their teammates will be around them, helping them get those yards.

Johnson is now a big believer in Eberflus’ philosophy now. He has only one interception in his two seasons. He hopes the more he runs to the ball the more opportunities he’ll have. In a recent practice, he was in the right place at the right time when a receiver muffed a pass. He hopes it happens more in the regular season.

Whether or not this new philosophy results in more wins in 2022 is still a question. The roster still isn’t a very strong one. However, with the implementation of the HITS principle, we’ll see a tougher Chicago Bears team play. That will make the games more fun to watch. As the saying goes “The harder you work, the luckier you get.”