Ja'Marr Chase walked off Thursday's joint practice with a simple verdict on Jaylon Johnson: the Bears corner was giving him a real fight. Chase said Johnson stayed on him closely, was "a real good corner" and was "pretty aggressive on a couple of plays" as the Bengals and Bears worked through live reps before Saturday's preseason game.
That kind of praise matters because Johnson spent most of last season out with a series of groin injuries, and the Bears have spent this week looking for signs that he is getting back to the player they expected. Dennis Allen said on Wednesday that he had seen improvement out of Johnson and some flashes that suggested he was looking more like himself, which made Thursday's showing against Chase feel less like a one-off and more like a step forward.
Chase did not sound overly bothered by the way Johnson played him. He said he gets jumped every day, gets jumped for a living, and has turned plenty of those snaps into yards anyway. That is what made the exchange useful for the Bears: one of the league's most polished receivers saw enough resistance from Johnson to call it out, even if the play did not end with the corner winning every rep.
There is still a practical side to the optimism. Ben Johnson said he wanted stickiness in coverage on the back end, which in plain terms means defenders staying attached long enough to squeeze throwing windows and force harder decisions. He also said the Bears' calling card a year ago was takeaways, and that it would be great to get a couple more of them. A corner who can stay close, contest the catch and create mistakes fits that goal better than one merely surviving his assignment.
The challenge is that Johnson's progress comes with some built-in caution. Last season was mostly lost to injury, and the Bears are still managing other bodies as they move toward Saturday's preseason game against the Bengals. Tyson Bagent did not travel after hurting his hamstring, leaving the quarterback picture unsettled, and Ben Johnson had not formally announced whether his starters would play. He did, though, use his starters a lot during the joint practice, a sign that the work in Cincinnati was being treated as more than a routine warmup.
T.J. Edwards put that kind of camp impatience in sharper focus. He said he is not used to missing anything after a pulled hamstring last season cost him seven games and a calf injury kept him out of full practices now. "I'm not used to missing anything," Edwards said. "So I'm not letting that happen here." For a Bears team trying to get healthier and cleaner on defense, Johnson's battle with Chase was the kind of rep that can still carry weight even when the preseason calendar says the game that matters is still ahead.
