Chicago Bears: Shoulder injury to Jaylon Johnson should be concerning

Jaylon Johnson will once again not suit up for the Chicago Bears on Sunday

The Chicago Bears will be playing in a must-win game without Jaylon Johnson tomorrow. The Bears face off against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jaguars are in a must-lose game if they want to stay on pace for Trevor Lawrence. The problem is, players and coaches do not believe in tanking. Their jobs are going to be on the line and their performances could lead to future jobs.

If we are looking at this game objectively, the Chicago Bears should have no issues winning. In fact, it should look similar to the Houston Texans game when the Bears won 36-7. The problem is, this Chicago Bears defense is not looking healthy as it was for the Texans’ game. Instead, we will likely see the same defense we saw versus the Minnesota Vikings. One that was without rookie cornerback sensation Jaylon Johnson and slot corner Buster Skrine.

Skrine has been a liability most of this year after having a solid 2019 season. Johnson has had his ups and downs as any rookie might, but he has also been locked down for the most part and looks to be blossoming into an elite cover corner in the NFL. He has 15 pass breakups to lead all rookie cornerbacks and is fourth overall in the NFL. He does not have any interceptions on the year, but he is allowing only a 56.4 completion percentage when being targeted. That’s quite impressive.

As I said, it has not all been fantastic for the rookie. He has given up five touchdowns on the year, although a few were nearly perfectly covered such as this one on Mike Evans (flag should never have been thrown).

Could Jaylon Johnson’s career be shortened due to multiple shoulder injuries?

The bigger issue now is Jaylon Johnson’s future. He has a history of shoulder injuries throughout his high school and collegiate career. This is one reason why he dropped from the first round into the second. Some thought that the shoulder injury history was overblown, but now that he’s dealing with another one, it seems we should be more concerned about Johnson’s future in the NFL.

Jaylon Johnson has had operations on both shoulders now. His most recent one was before the 2020 season. Now, the Chicago Bears have been very vague in their communication about what is going on with him. Matt Nagy has called him day-to-day, and he has already been ruled out for tomorrow’s game. Could this be the Chicago Bears taking a precautionary approach to the situation similarly to how they handled Khalil Mack and Allen Robinson in 2018? Maybe.

I am sure the coaching staff knows the team is better than the Jaguars. The Jaguars who recently benched Gardner Minshew again and Mike Glennon will now play versus his former team. James Robinson, their stud rookie running back, is also questionable for tomorrow’s game. This game should easily be winnable, but we know the Chicago Bears like to ruin our days often by losing games they should never lose.

No matter the outcome, I am very skeptical of Jaylon Johnson’s shoulder. I fear that things may be worse and he won’t be returning for the Packers game in Week 17 — a game that could be a make-or-break for the Chicago Bears making the playoffs. We have seen too many players’ NFL careers cut short here due to injury — Mike Brown and Johnny Knox to name just a couple. There is so much hope and promise for Jaylon Johnson, let us hope this injury does not ruin his career too.