Jaquan Brisker's return puts Bears secondary closer to full strength

"It’s Monday night, it’s a division opponent, bbeen waiting for this since last year, obviously," Brisker said. "It’s going to be very big. I just want to be back at Soldier Field, playing for the fans.

"It’s our first time playing together in a while, first time with (these) coaches too. It’s going to be very exciting.”

Johnson’s status may involve whether he feels certain he can play without risking another stay on IR by aggravating it.  

“I definitely want to see (number) One (Johnson) back for sure,” Brisker said. “We've been working all summer. ... I know he's itching to get back, I'm itching to see him get back because we left out with a good note during the summer."

The Monday night setting against a division opponent in coach Ben Johnson’s and defensive coordinator Dennis Allen's first Bears games adds to the anticipation.

Once they’re all on the field for the first time together, the secondary will look to turn McCarthy’s Vikings debut into an error-filled affair.

“Yeah, well, we have to create that rookie mistake,” safety Kevin Byard said. “You know what I mean? I think for me as a safety we try to mix and disguise coverages as much as possible. We don't want to give him, I would say, an easy test.

“You don't want to just line up in coverages so the offensive coordinator and head coach can just tell him what to do—'hey, this is what they're playing.' We want to try to confuse him as much as possible, try to get him to take another hitch step, you know, figure something like that. Then the pressure can work. I'm excited about that obviously.  He's a talented guy. He's a first-round pick for a reason. So I'm excited to test our defense against him and really just their offense period because they've got talent from all over the field.”

Brisker seems certain they can coax the big mistake from McCarthy rather than force it out of him.

“Just playing our type of defense,” Brisker said. “Don't do too much, don't be Superman. Just playing our defense and eventually he will force one, whether it's in the air or it's on the ground, I know it's (the ball) gonna come out at some point.”

It will be much simpler to achieve if they all arrive on that playing field for warmups Monday night finally healthy enough to start. And for Brisker, it's the start to his contract season.

“I mean, (expletive), it's a game,” Brisker said. “I missed so many preseason games or whatever and I came back and still dominated. I'm looking to do the same thing and show I'm the best.

“It's not gonna be anything (different). It's football. I've been playing since I was 4 years old, so that (injury stuff) is over with. I'm back.”