After the Chicago Bears’ brutal Week 16 loss to the Buffalo Bills, head coach Matt Eberflus fielded a question from the media regarding standout cornerback Jaylon Johnson’s placement on his team’s injured reserve list. Though neither the team nor Johnson himself wanted his season to end due to injury, Eberflus explained to reporters that it was the best decision for both parties moving forward.
“Yeah, it was an interesting week with that because we wanted him to go. He wanted to go,” Eberflus said. “We worked him through the early part of the week, and then, again, working with the doctors, with Ryan and I and also the player, at the end of the day, he didn’t feel comfortable. We didn’t feel comfortable putting him out there in a situation to be able to execute the right way to play his position with his ring finger. And it was broke. I didn’t see it the other day because it was before the game, but it was a broken ring finger, so we thought it was in the best interest of our organization to put him on to IR.”
A broken finger may have ended Johnson’s season, but his trajectory for 2023 will remain unchanged. He has settled into a key role in the Bears’ defense, and with his third season as a professional player officially under his belt, Johnson is sure to be hungry to show that he and the rest of Chicago’s roster can put together something special after years of mediocrity that have plagued the team for the better part of the last decade.
For now, both Johnson and the rest of the Bears’ roster and front office will focus their efforts on securing better outcomes for the team moving forward, and with some luck, they should bring a much-improved squad into the 2023 season.
