Jaylon Johnson talked about the culture shift that’s taking place in the Bears’ meeting rooms under new coach Matt Eberflus.
The difference between Matt Nagy and Matt Eberflus is already evident to Chicago Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson through the easiest part of the off-season. Last season’s coaching staff was characterized as aloof, and not holding players accountable. That’s changed a lot under Eberflus according to the veteran starting CB.
Here is the interesting comment Jaylon Johnson stated via Adam Hoge during today’s press conference with the media:
#Bears CB Jaylon Johnson on the new coaching staff: "The way they hold us accountable is crazy, compared to what we're used to."
He adds that every player has already been called out in meetings for not going hard and if they say they haven't, they're lying.
— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) July 26, 2022
This will be key to developing a new culture in Chicago that didn’t exist under Nagy. Nagy seemed to always say after a Bears loss that these men are professionals and that they know what it takes to win and that they have a plan to fix it.
Yet Nagy never seemed to have a culture or a plan to get things fixed. Nagy seemed to want to be everyone’s best friend rather than their leader or more obviously their head coach.
Eberflus isn’t even into his first training camp practice and has consistently emphasized the culture he wants to build in Chicago. There’s a level of coaching that he wants to instill in his players that in turn develops his players instincts.
What kind of instincts will Eberflus install? Hopefully something similar to the instincts Lovie Smith had coached into Lance Briggs and Alex Brown, that still exist today even after they’ve been years retired and have been away from the field. Lawrence Holmes on 670 the score described the instincts coached into former Smith players as still a part of their every day life. Holmes essentially stated during a recent broadcast on his show;
“I love watching games with Briggs and Brown because when a football is on the ground, they both instinctively move towards the TV, to this day.” Holmes said.
Given that Eberflus counts Rod Marinelli as one of his mentors and Marinelli comes from the Smith tree and culture of head coaches, one can assume that there will be a return to accountability and coaching that hasn’t been seen in Chicago in quite some time.
Obviously the game is won between the lines on Sunday, but there are subtle ways to coach up and develop a team and instill a healthy amount of competition and discipline in your team that can help you compete more and win the game of inches. It seems according to Jaylon Johnson that Eberflus is doing just that.
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