Everybody has a breaking point. Jaylon Johnson has been with the Chicago Bears since 2020. In that time, the cornerback has never experienced a winning season. He, like many, felt this season was the perfect opportunity to get over the hump. The roster was flush with talent. They had a manageable early schedule. If they could finally start finishing games, this was a playoff team. Things started well enough at 4-2 going into the bye week. Then the wheels game off. Chicago suffered six straight losses, capped by the horrific debacle in Detroit, where Matt Eberflus again cost his team a chance to win with bad situational awareness.
It was a catastrophe in every sense of the word. There were 30 seconds left. Chicago was only about five or six yards from reasonable field goal range to force overtime. Eberflus had a timeout after Caleb Williams took a sack on second down. However, he refused to use it, forcing the quarterback to wait for the play call. By the time everything was finally set, there were only 13 seconds left. The Bears ran one play. It fell incomplete. Game over. Eberflus tried to keep things calm in the post-game locker room, but according to Adam Jahns and Dianna Russini of The Athletic, the players weren’t having it.
Another crushing, confounding loss for the Chicago Bears meant another postgame speech about “sticking together” from head coach Matt Eberflus in front of a frustrated, crowded locker room at Ford Field in Detroit.
This time, though, team captain Jaylon Johnson wasn’t having it.
Not after another winnable game slipped away — a 23-20 loss to the Lions on Thanksgiving.
Not after another day of highly questionable coaching decisions.
This postgame message required a different tone, a different vibe, and probably a different voice. Like a lot of Bears players, Johnson had had enough. Sick of finding new ways to give games away, they wanted accountability and answers.
“Jaylon went crazy,” one Bears player said. “He was very emotional and pissed but rightfully so. He’s been here longer than most.”
Said another player: “He was going off more so at (Eberflus).”
Just four days ago, the cornerback said on the radio that he felt this team was more than talented enough to be a winner. They had the right leaders and the right athletes. It was a glaring insinuation that the coaches were the problem, specifically the one at the top. His explosion on Eberflus following the loss in Detroit proves this. Apparently, it got so bad that the head coach was forced to leave the locker room so the guys could cool down. This confrontation was a big part of why management and ownership decided it was time to fire Eberflus.
Keeping the head coach any longer would risk the entire locker room fracturing beyond repair. The McCaskeys had never fired a head coach midseason, but they were convinced it was time. Eberflus had lost the players weeks ago. This was just the final straw. Jaylon Johnson was merely the one who lit the fuse. It is hard to blame the cornerback. He has given his absolute best for five seasons with nothing to show for it. He’s 25 years old. There are only so many chances you get at winning a championship in the NFL. Wasting them on useless head coaches is not something he can tolerate anymore.
