Jaylon Johnson lastly emerged with a contract extension from the Chicago Bears in March.
The Bears requested him to return to Halas Corridor to announce the $76 million take care of $47.8 million assured, the second-highest quantity ever given to a defensive again. Johnson was prepared, however provided that the workforce commissioned a personal jet to fly him and his family members from his hometown of Fresno, Calif. The Bears agreed.
On the information convention, 9 of his folks — together with father John Johnson Sr., mom Carmella Warren Johnson, brother, housemate and coach Johnny Johnson, agent Chris Ellison and girlfriend Janessa McFadden — accompanied Johnson. He walked in carrying a long-sleeved Prada shirt with mother-of-pearl buttons and hand-crafted fringes on the shoulders. The red-and-black sample seemed prefer it got here from an unique butterfly.
Johnson had ready a gap assertion. Then he amended it. “My spirit was like, you’ll be able to’t do this with out speaking about what you went by means of,” he says. “It’s a must to put all of it on the market.”
He began the information convention by thanking God, then stated abruptly, “I went to remedy final season for sexual habit.”
No one knew he would say that, not even the folks he introduced with him. And few might perceive why.
This wasn’t a contract signing as a lot as a metamorphosis.
For some time, Johnson was outlined by what he didn’t have — interceptions, a brand new contract and self-control.
In early 2022, the Bears employed a brand new common supervisor and head coach. Johnson, a second-round choose in 2020, didn’t present up for voluntary offseason exercises. When necessary exercises started, he had been demoted to second string. He regained his beginning spot rapidly, however some laborious emotions lingered, particularly whereas Johnson acclimated to teach Matt Eberflus’ push for extra depth.
Since his rookie coaching camp, Johnson has not been shy about questioning or difficult authority, and that has not modified over time.
“Clearly, I used to be one of many high guys on the workforce, so with that ought to have come a way of respect,” Johnson says. “I shouldn’t have needed to show myself in every part. Don’t play with me. We’re grown males. I didn’t really feel valued from the teaching employees.”
Takeaways are precedence No. 1 in Eberflus’ protection, and on condition that Johnson had no interceptions and missed six video games with accidents in 2022, “they had been most likely questioning what I might do,” he says.
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Johnson had only one interception over 39 video games in his first three NFL seasons, however a part of his drawback could have been that he’s so sticky in man-to-man that quarterbacks prevented throwing to the gamers he lined. “He’s bought elite quickness,” Eberflus says. “He has elite skill to remain connected to receivers. And he’s uber-intelligent.”
The Bears’ religion in him remained in query. Johnson hoped for an offseason contract extension. There have been talks, however the two events remained removed from a center floor. They agreed to see how Johnson performed within the early season and revisit it.
Within the spring of 2023, Johnson was baptized. The church has all the time been part of his life. Years in the past, he had “Proverbs 16:3” tattooed on his arm: “Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.”
He didn’t must be baptized, however he wished to be.
“I didn’t wish to maintain being what I say is a lukewarm Christian, studying Bible verses however dwelling your life a distinct manner,” he says. “I wished to make a dedication and an outward expression of my religion to the world.”
He additionally wanted to redirect himself. He had been untrue to Janessa, his girlfriend since 2021. Once more. And he was watching a number of pornography.
Johnson says he misplaced his virginity at 16 after which adopted the mindset that extra is healthier. In highschool, he was a four-star recruit. In school at Utah, he was all-conference. Issues got here simply for the large man on campus.
“Taking part in a manly sport drew ladies to me,” he says. “It wasn’t laborious to go to a celebration, get a quantity and have intercourse. I bought misplaced in a way of who I used to be created to be versus no matter felt good to me.”
Johnson graduated in two and a half years, and the Bears drafted him within the second spherical in 2020. As a professional, he was afforded an unhealthy mixture of time and movie star.
“I might simply have enjoyable, sleep with whomever I wished,” he says. “Anytime there was nothing occurring, it might revert to women. It bought to the purpose the place I wasn’t in a position to shake it.”
He justified it. He wasn’t doing something totally different from lots of people like him.
He downplayed it. No one was getting harm, proper?
By the summer time of 2023, Johnson began to see extra clearly. He wouldn’t need his 4-year-old daughter, Zaveah, to finish up with somebody who behaved like him. McFadden was particular, he believed, and he didn’t wish to lose her. He was ashamed.
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Lastly, he admitted to himself and to McFadden that he had an issue. He spent an hour or two in remedy virtually each week through the season. It was, nonetheless, a wrestle. He needed to tear down partitions, discuss his childhood and settle for blame.
What he was going by means of had nothing to do with soccer.
And every part to do with soccer.
On a sunny fourth quarter at Soldier Subject, Johnson watched the eyes of Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Brian Hoyer. Johnson hung again, ready for extensive receiver Davante Adams to interrupt. As Hoyer cocked his arm, Johnson jumped the route, stepped in entrance of Adams and got here up with the interception — his first in 28 video games. He introduced it again 39 yards for a landing, then intercepted one other go 5 performs later.
Jaylon Johnson’s interception return for a landing in opposition to the Raiders in October 2023 helped ship him on his strategy to the Professional Bowl. (Todd Rosenberg / Getty Photographs)
The Bears reopened negotiations, however their respective opinions of his worth nonetheless differed.
“Their affords had been very disrespectfully low,” Johnson says. “The gamers they in contrast me to, there’s no manner you’ll be able to evaluate me to those gamers. One in all them was (Minnesota’s) Byron Murphy.”
Johnson was pissed off, and never simply due to his contract scenario. The Bears misplaced seven of their first 9 video games after a 3-14 report the 12 months earlier than.
“We stored shedding, shedding, shedding,” he says. “After which they weren’t displaying curiosity in bringing me again. I wasn’t pleased with the tradition and the way we had been shedding, so I requested for a commerce.”
The Bears declined. Then in late October, because the commerce deadline approached, he requested a second time. Chicago gave his agent, Ellison, permission to buy Johnson however stated they’d settle for nothing lower than a first-round choose in return, in line with Johnson. Ellison says seven or eight groups had been . In accordance with Johnson, the Payments, 49ers, Raiders and Steelers had been amongst them. The Payments and 49ers tried laborious to strike a deal however in the end weren’t prepared to fulfill the Bears’ calls for.
So the commerce deadline handed, contract talks had been tabled and Johnson dedicated to creating the Bears notice he was value what he thought he was.
“I didn’t wish to discuss it anymore,” he says. “I didn’t wish to give it some thought anymore. It was, let’s simply go play soccer.”
Johnson completed the season with 4 interceptions — he dropped two extra potential picks — 10 passes defensed and one landing allowed. He was voted second-team All-Professional and a Professional Bowler and was given Professional Soccer Focus’s highest grade amongst cornerbacks.
On March 5, Chicago positioned the non-exclusive franchise tag on Johnson. Two days later, the edges agreed on phrases for his four-year extension.
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They are saying cash like his is life-changing, however it’s not like he purchased a chateau on a cliff or a gold chain heavy sufficient to forestall a scorching air balloon from taking off.
Teammates tease him as a result of he nonetheless drives a Honda Accord.
“Hey, it’s sporty, clear, all black,” he says. “It will get me to and from the place I must go.”
The cash is, nonetheless, affirmation. And so are phrases.
“Jaylon has exhibited every part we wish in a Chicago Bear,” says Eberflus, who plans to make use of Johnson in new methods this season. “It’s how we draw it up by way of him loving soccer, being a really gifted participant and having the need to attempt to grasp his craft. He’s a very good teammate. And he’s one among ours.”
Falcons receiver Darnell Mooney, Johnson’s former teammate in Chicago, calls him the perfect cornerback within the NFL. “He all the time offers me issues,” Mooney says. “Each time I line up in opposition to him, I’ve bought to be centered.”
At solely 25, Johnson has turn into the elder statesman of the Bears’ secondary and a cornerstone of a younger workforce. Johnson says his relationship with the teaching employees has improved over time. He’s happy to be a Bear and invigorated by the problem of dwelling as much as his contract, in addition to incomes the following one, which he can have an opportunity to signal earlier than his thirtieth birthday.
Befitting his new standing, Johnson has a brand new uniform quantity: 1. Johnson switched from 33 again to the quantity he wore in highschool and school when it grew to become accessible after the commerce of quarterback Justin Fields. He says he loves the brand new vibe.
Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson and girlfriend Janessa McFadden predict a baby. (Courtesy of Jaylon Johnson)
Remedy did what he hoped it might, enabling him to regain management and enhancing his perspective. “I realized that giving your self away must be sacred to somebody you’ll spend the remainder of your life with,” he says. Going public together with his habit could profit others with related issues, he believes, so he has no regrets.
His relationship with McFadden is in a superb place, a very good place. Final month, he proposed. She stated sure. He’s satisfied that her honesty and help are making him higher. He loves the best way she cares for his daughter. And in September, they’re anticipating a baby.
He is also anticipating extra interceptions — at the least 5 this season.
So far as Johnson might inform, his earlier interception failures weren’t due to something he did incorrect. It was as if his karma was out of whack.
After which 2023 occurred.
“He had a pleasant glow to him strolling round final 12 months,” says Mooney, who considers Johnson a brother. “He simply had some beautiful power each time you had been round him.”
Johnson says he wasn’t doing something totally different on the sphere. “What modified was God gave me the alternatives,” he says.
He thinks he is aware of why.
“When you have got your thoughts and spirit on a sure degree, the bodily takes over and doorways begin to open up,” he says. “As I used to be attempting to enhance who I’m as a person, abruptly, issues I hoped for occurred.”
(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; photograph: Quinn Harris / Getty Photographs)