Carmen Vitali
NFL reporter
“Hype you don’t win games.”
The striking explanation was made by Chicago Bears Cornerback Jaylon Johnson in the midst of a room full of reporters last week in the team’s training facility.
Unfortunately, the sixth year bear knows how real sentiment is firsthand.
“I have experienced it too often,” said Johnson. “I get excited when we win in November and December and we change something and go to the play -offs, that’s when I’m excited.”
De Beren are in place for several years called “Champs” out of season. Each offson brings its part of hope and optimism, making it irresistible for Bears fans to buy every time.
Last year everything rode on the shoulders of a Rookie Quarterback. Caleb Williams was generally selected number 1. Recipient Rome Odunze was set up about an hour late. The bears signed to run back d’O and quickly above the market value. They have traced for experienced Passcatcher Keenan Allen. They already had DJ Moore in Arsenal. They had a talented grid on paper.
For all the hype of last year different, from so many in recent years, Chicago has nothing to show.
In the past decade, the bears have had exactly one winning season. They have been to the play -offs twice. They have not won anything in the late season since 2011.
The franchise has spun its wheels in the cycle of mediocrity, neat how good things look on paper outside the season after the season. Fans are misled by thinking that this year is different Each Year
That is why it is funny that the year players such as the notorious statement Johnson are now preaching a prospect in realism, things can be ultimate Are Different.
Good things
Chicago has received a completely different approach this season than in recent years.
It started with the acceptance of Ben Johnson. Johnson was the most coveted candidate in this year’s recruitment cycle, never before Lieving Head Coach. The first head coach thing is not new for the bears, but the loosening of the wallet and needing the monetary investment to get a candidate as Johnson is. Contract conditions have not been officially announced, but reports have estimated that his annual income is in the range of eight figures. Moreover, Johnson came up with a Rolodex of experience for his staff, including former coach and old defense coordinator Dennis Allen. Those salaries are not coming cheaply, Eithher.
They were and things there started to feel different.
Johnson and general manager Ryan Poles got up at Johnson’s recruitment. They had no earlier working relationship, but share a lot of “career -dna”, even in the same cupboard as Grad assistants at Boston College apart for a year when they got their start.
Will the bears go this season or under their 8.5 victory in total?
There were familyiners, where the couple brought their wives and children together. Poland told me that his children are now drawing photos to send to Johnson’s children.
Chicago didn’t even wait for a free desk to build the schedule in Johnson’s image. The bears exchanged the week before the free desk for two guards. They acquire Jonah Jackson, who so far had the best years of his career under Johnson in Detroit. They have benefited from the needs of Kansas City’s chiefs to salute Joe Thuney’s contract by acting for the four-time Super Bowl champion.
One of their first movements in the current free agency was that the best center on the Drew Dalman market means, for veteran who was a long -term attacking line coach.
Oher Free Agency Splashhes Built Middenive Lanelme Garrett and Day OdeyyingBO.
All these signing sessions were a direct contrast with the prioritis of this same organization as the last outside of the season, where they investigated considerable capital in the skill positions and tried to make ends meet with similar significations in the turtles.
As it looks now, they have gained their young quarterback with experience.
After he has been taken to almost record 68 bags as Rookie, Williams now has boys directly for him who know how defenses will try to prevent them. He must be in the middle of a high football IQ and the possibility to process multiple pre-NSNAP decisions, such as identifying the “Mike” Linebacker and setting the protection accordingly, to understand, or set Williams on blitzes or pressure. The three veterans in the middle of the attacking line must also be Uble to help the tackles in Braxton Jones and Darnell Wright and to elevate their play.
A solid offensive line also paves the way for a reinforced run game, which in turn can take the sub of the pressure of Williams to make each game yourself. It makes the attack better routed and therefore more difficult to defend.
A solid defensive line on the other side of the ball, in combination with an experienced coordinator in all, can also alleviate the pressure by continuing to score to a minimum and extra posting sessions. The priority was to build from the inside.
The grid construction is different.
Chicago Connection
It is April in Lake Forest, Illinois. The voluntary part of the Offseason program started, and most starters from the Bears reported that they would get their first impressions from Ben Johnson and his staff.
Players such as Williams, Jeylon Johnson, Veteran Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds and Right Tackle Darnell Wright were present to speak with the media and to pass on the first reports of their new head coach.
The overwhelming sentiment that came from every player’s press conference was that of realism. That there will be no payment without work. That, for the exciting when the selection sees on paper, there is a lot to do holistic to build a really successful team.
It started on day 2, with Ben Johnson who made a large entrance to the room of the Quarterbacks and (metaphorical) Williams and the rest of the Quarterback room Esir first to cover EvenTings he had spoken about the day before.
“So already, first day in and challenged us,” said Williams. “Everyone likes a challenge in this sport. It is one of the great things of the sport, every day is a challenge. Today we have our first.”
It’s not just the quarterbacks, Eithher. Johnson plans to follow an individual approach for each player to help them not only achieve their potential, but also to increase their floor.
“What fascinates me a coach, and what I am going to challenge our coaching staff is to define weaknesses in their game that we can work to develop and emphasize,” Johnson told FOX Sports. “Submitting that I have made part of in the past and that I will implement here is that every man will have an individual action of what he has put on tape, how we can get crazy elements better from him.”
This individualized approach is one that runs props Johnson through the walk, plans are indeed being implemented. For many such as coaches say that their system is tailored to their staff, so! Johnson said that his attack in Chicago does not resemble his schedule in Detroit. South, elements, concepts, priorities, they can all be consistent. But Williams is not Jared Goff. Swift is not Jahmyr Gibbs. Even Dalman, as good in meaning as he was, is not Frank Ragnow.
It’s all about what Johnson can get from the players he currently has. How he can fit all the pieces into a successful, coherent puzzle. It is easier said than done, but having a clearly communicated plan for that goal is a good start.
“He jumped there and went on a bunch of two, set on Bunch of Don ~, imposed on precedant of how we will be like a team, finding ORT identity and all that,” said Williams. “We are enthusiastic. Of course we have to do the work. Can’t be too excited. The work is not done, but also enthusiastic about what to eat and the future.”
Do the Berenton Jeanty have to prepare?
For a team that was missing direction, identity and faith before his arrival, Johnson apparently said and did the right things to start building a culture that all includes it.
“We have to do it,” said Williams. “It is subject where the time, energy, effort, sacrifice – that not only means that we put time on the board, be here, train, lift, become stronger, faster. They are also hanging around in the low season in the low season, thereby building up, and we will continue as a team.
Of course Williams was present to celebrate Odunze’s birthday in a restaurant with teammates at the weekend. He set up a story on Instagram in honor of Moore’s birthday on Monday from the dressing room of the Bears.
The messages from Johnson so far has been loud and clear: he believes in this schedule, but success does not come without much work both on and outside the field.
Those crystalline expectations are a direct deviation from what bear players said they had had last year. When it went wrong last season, it spotted in a disaster without a clear path. There was contradictory messages from player to player, coach to coach and fans were left for answers after it all.
And although this is the first week of Johnson at the helm with players in the building, at least the messages is all consistent.
The messages is different.
Proof is in the product
So where does that leave the fans who want to believe in this team? To the city range for athletic re -arrival? One of the founding franchise that the mountain teop does not have behind the mountain slope in exactly four decades?
There are still question marks. Games are not played for five months. We still don’t know much about Johnson as a head coach. When mistakes inevitably happen, when injuries threaten the depth card, when the bears are in the middle of their schedule and the damn Green Bay Packers have played Again … How does the team answer? What happens then?
What is the saying? To get you that you have never had, you have to do things that you have never done before.
In other words, you have to do things differently.
That is what the bears have done this season.
This team is already Different.
Carmen Vitali Is an NFL reporter for FOX Sports. Carmen had earlier stops with the concept network and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She spent six seasons with the BUCs, including 2020, which added the title of Super Bowl champion (and Bootparade participant) to her CV. You can follow Carmen on Twitter on Twitter @Carmiev.
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