Chicago Bears: 5 X-factor players for Week 6 vs. Panthers

4. Jaylon Johnson, Cornerback

The Chicago Bears felt fortunate to pick up cornerback Jaylon Johnson in the second round (50th overall) in this year’s draft. He has first-round talent but a shoulder injury scared off teams. Their loss was the Bears’ gain.

Johnson is now showing those teams with a need at cornerback that passed him made a mistake. Originally, the Bears wanted to ease him in since there weren’t any preseason games for him to plant his feet on the professional level.

Artie Burns, the veteran who was supposed to start until Johnson was ready to take over, tore his ACL in camp. Johnson made a big enough impression on the coaching staff that instead of having someone else take Burns’ place, they decided to give the rookie a shot as the starter.

Johnson took that shot and ran with it. He knew as a rookie that opposing quarterbacks would target him and they have. In just five games, he has seven passes defended. He’s on pace to get 22.

Stephon Gilmore, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, had 20 last season. Additionally, opposing quarterbacks completed just 44.7 percent of the passes against him. Keep in mind that he’s had to deal with Matthew Stafford, Matt Ryan, Philip Rivers and Tom Brady, some of the top quarterbacks in the game.

He doesn’t have any interceptions yet, but those will come with more experience. For now, though, he needs to keep playing opposing receivers tough. Who knows, he could get his first interception this week.