3 areas Chicago Bears must see Jaylon Johnson improve

1. Chicago Bears have to see Jaylon Johnson improve in man coverage

If you had to use one term to describe Jaylon Johnson, it would be a zone cornerback. He is best when he stays on one side of the field, and he defends the sideline better than the middle area of the field. He is also at his best when he can put his eyes on the quarterback and read the play, as we know he is not best at reading the ball.

So, this is no surprise that he has some noticable splits in zone and man coverag. He allows 1.37 yards per coverage snap in man coverage and he allows 1.08 in zone coverage. That essentially takes him from an average cornerback to a great one. He is below average in man, and he is well above average in zone.

Even more stunning is his stats in the slot. He has just 27 snaps in the slot, and allowed 186 yards. That is 6.89 yards per snap. If you just took out the snaps that Johnson was asked to play in the slot his career yards per snap would drop from 1.12 down to just 1. That is significant.

This is how the Chicago Bears, and the rest of the league will view him. He is good, and in his role he is great. However, he will never be a top end cornerback if the team can not have him follow certain receivers, or play certain coverages. What he does is valuable and rare, but also depends on the scheme that he is in.

Luckily for him, he has 781 snaps in zone to just 391 in man coverage, so the team does play to his strengths. Last season, he had 83 snaps in zone, and 224 in man, and he allowed 1.89 yards per snap in zone, and 0.92 in man. So, his splits were even more defined with Eberflus.

The Chicago Bears should want to keep him because he fits the scheme well, but they have to know what they are paying for, and Johnson has to know that the lack of interceptions, and higher number of TDs allowed, plus being a zone-heavy cornerback will hurt his value leauge-wide.