Matt Eberflus isn’t the first Chicago Bears head coach to lose a locker room. Matt Nagy did so towards the end of his tenure. Marc Trestman had arguably the most spectacular one in 2014. However, Eberflus gave him a run for his money. For the fourth time in less than two months, a brutal late-game decision by the head coach cost the Bears a chance at a win. It’s one thing if the team were bad, but the Bears were 4-2 not too long ago. To see a promising season pissed away because the head coach can’t hold his water in crunch time was the final straw for several players. None more so than Jaylon Johnson.
The Pro Bowl cornerback has experienced nothing but losing since his arrival in 2020. This season was supposed to be different. They have talent on both sides of the ball. Quarterback Caleb Williams has kept them in games with his excellent 4th quarter play. They should be better than this, but the head coach has ensured that isn’t the case. Johnson was asked to explain his side of the story of what happened in the locker room after the loss in Detroit on Spiegel & Holmes.
Let’s just say the man was unapologetic.
“I’m used to winning, used to playing the game at a high level, and I haven’t done that since I’ve been in a Bears uniform. For me, just expressing that frustration. It hasn’t been a lack of talent. Especially this year. It’s not a lack of talent. It’s not any of those things where I can just say, ‘Well, we have a bad team, a bad roster.’ It’s just little things, certain situations, a certain way of losing that really hurts, and it just got to a point where I was fed up…
…Guys get fired all the time – players, coach, GM. It happens. I don’t necessarily feel like I was just some major part that played a role in getting [Eberflus] fired. That’s not on me. But at the end of the day, there was frustration. There were words from myself that I expressed just from my frustration of losing. Part of what I said after the game is I’ve been losing for five years. So, I mean, I feel like a high-level player like myself, after a certain point, losing games how we’ve been losing games, someone has to express something. It was one of those situations where it just got to that point where you don’t remember everything that was said.”
Jaylon Johnson, as always, kept it real.
There wasn’t a single lie in those statements. He echoed what many in the locker room feel: This team is talented enough to hang with the best in the NFL. They proved it the past three weeks by taking the Packers, Vikings, and Lions to the wire. The key difference in each of those games was the gulf in the quality of head coaches. Matt Lafleur, Kevin O’Connell, and Dan Campbell are miles ahead of Eberflus. That realization set in more and more for Bears players. Yet they knew they couldn’t say anything for fear of being labeled a malcontent.
Somebody had to say something to snap Bears management out of their stupor. Jaylon Johnson chose to become that guy. Whether he wants to admit it or not, the cornerback’s tirade could be a major turning point in franchise history. It woke ownership up enough to do something it never has, which is fire a head coach midseason. If the Bears can get the next hire right, history will look back on Johnson’s explosion as a moment that set the organization on the right path.
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It is difficult when you have price on your work, and you know whether it is you, or something else.
In the military, and certain organizations, you’re supposed to soldier on. Money isn’t everything. Organizations have a responsibility to their employees. They talk about “family” and “winning” all the time, but don’t feel they have the responsibility to live up to those words. Just the employees.
This sick sorry excuse of a Bear fan. If troll was a group of cuckold fucks. It would be Sally Shitsalad, TWTY Two Tits, TinaGena, Skeeter Peter, Ass Tread and Tclown. Fucking lames. You’re a smart dumbass. You can reword, rephrase, rehash whatever you write, but it’s obvious. You can’t change your thought process. Your hate for Poles and Warren and love for Pace, and your Harbaugh crush having ass. I can smell your funky ass a mile away with your lonely ass. What’s even worse is the motherfucker replies and upvote each of his bots’ bullshit. I can’t make… Read more »
It’s amusing to me how roles have reversed between players and coaches. Long gone are the days of coaches yelling on sidelines or locker rooms because hey, you might “lose” a player. Our pal Nate Davis chafed over a post it on his locker. Always be warm, fuzzy, must not hurt a player’s feelings. Missed assignments, poor positioning and flat out stupid errors are poor coaching, not helping players succeed. Perfectly fine for players to scream in coaches face unapologetically, sideline or locker room though. Hey, players get frustrated, right? I look foreward to JJ and other Bears continuing to… Read more »
@Skee – I get you. But “Poles” doesn’t really exist. He’s just stage theatre created by George to confuse the public about his own ineptitude.
George orders, “Poles” does. It’s just theatre. A sort of puppet play.
Sorry. I blame the whole thing on George. There is no Ryan Poles as a separate entity. He’s a convenient way for George to do whatever he wants from behind the curtain.
The Mouth of George. That’s our GM. Just an expression of George’s ideas on how to run the team.