The Chicago Bears feel they did some really good work in the 2nd round of the NFL draft this year. In tight end Cole Kmet, they probably got the best player at that position. A big, athletic kid with solid hands and a dog mentality. Now that he’s able to focus on football (he played baseball in college too), expectations are he can only get a lot better. Then there is Jaylon Johnson.
Many experts called the Utah cornerback the best pick GM Ryan Pace made in the entire draft. A great athlete with good size and length, he was considered one of the best technicians at his position. A student of the game who could man up on almost any receiver he faced and rarely got beat. Even when he did Johnson showed the ability to recover quickly and make plays.
Belief is if not for some shoulder injuries he dealt with (and played through), he probably would’ve gone in the 1st round. A fact the man himself continues to hold onto as he explained in Meet The Rookies profile on the Bears’ YouTube.
“From what I was able to do in college and the level I was able to do it at? I didn’t think there were six cornerbacks that should’ve been taken ahead of me. At the end of the day, that’s just more fuel to my fire. Even if I was the first one taken, I still would’ve found something to motivate me in some way shape or form to keep me going. Just being, like you said, the 7th corner taken is…it just makes me want to go to work even more.”
Jaylon Johnson seems to have a Michael Jordan mentality
Anybody who watched the great ESPN documentary “The Last Dance” saw the segment about how Michael Jordan motivated himself. Any little slight he got from opponents would be used to fuel his killer instinct on the court. Even when there was no slight at all, he’d actually invent them out of thin air. Whatever it took to keep himself sharp and motivated.
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It sounds like Johnson is the same way. Getting drafted in the 1st round would’ve been great, but would it have truly satisfied his thirst to be great? Probably not. He’d have found something else. The fact that he was the seventh cornerback taken merely made it easier to find something to focus on. Now he can go about making the other 31 teams pay for disrespecting him like that.
Don’t expect the Bears to discourage him.
