Super Bowl Talk Helped Raise Jaylon Johnson's Leadership Level

"When he came and he spoke to the team, it was like, 'Damn, that's the guy that literally dug into his leg, stopped the bleeding and it's just like when you have somebody of that, I would say caliber, of toughness, of mental just strength, toughness, I think for me it's just that's inspiring," Johnson said. "I mean, he looks up to us but there's nobody that does what he does.

"When you go out there and you put your life on the line for your brother and you put your life on the line for something bigger than you, to me that's inspiring. So when he talks to us about leadership, talked to us about holding guys accountable and what that looks like for me it was easy to speak on the team when we're not playing to the level that we're supposed to play at."

Recalling the day he called the full team around for a talking to, Johnson saw it as a natural act following what he heard from Johnson and especially Lavery.

"I think for us, we all seen it, we felt it on the sideline, we felt like we got to pick it up," Johnson said. "But to me it’s not enough to talk to the person next to you. Let’s address it with the team, let's address it with everybody and get on the same page, and then we raise the bar.”

Johnson might not have received the captain title for this year, like Jarrett, Edwards, Cairo Santos, Caleb Williams and Joe Thuney have, but he already understands what leadership looks like. After losing veteran players like Kevin Byard, Jaquan Brisker, Tremaine Edmunds and Drew Dalman in the offseason, the Bears can use as much of that type of leadership as they can find.

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